Prayer wheels & Energy
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 09/28/2009
- In: Complexity| Energy| art| design| engineering
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People in Bhutan and Tibet or any other avid buddhist would love love this fantastic design of kinetic prayer wheels transforming prayers into energy! Prayer wheels in Bhutan and Tibet are used to accumulate wisdom and merit or good karma and to purify negative energy, and now they may generate electricity as well with the ingenuity of this very design.
“The Prayer Wheel Energy Generator, designed by Taikkun Yang Li does just this by transforming all of those good vibes into electricity that could be used to provide reliable energy for daily needs such as evening lighting.”
Native species: Art/illustration
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 09/28/2009
- In: Environmental| New Zealand| art| ecology| landscape
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A beautiful illustration of some of the NZ natives from the Wellington Regional Council website.
These natives include the Kowhai, Northern Rata, Clematis, Bush Lilly, Tree daisy, Mistletoe, Tui, Kingfisher, Wood pegion, Whitehead, Bellbird and Skink.
Annual Conference
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 09/26/2009
Queenstown, NZ is a fabulously gorgeous town if it isn’t for the rows of non-descript, cookie-cutter motels puncturing the landscape. Nevertheless, the town pulls it off with its astonishingly beautiful-clear lake Wakatipu stretching the valley till the commanding and visually dynamic “Remarkables” that are snow-capped during the winter months. All year round water/land/air activities abound making it truly a tourist-heaven!
The NZILA 2009’s, The Big Picture Workshop April 2-4, 2009, was held in this very town. Shay and I teamed up for the adventure; both being students amongst all the professionals we felt thoroughly educated not just in learning, but networking as well by the end of the conference. I think we were the only two students… The field tours were fun and of great learning experiences. We drank biodynamically produced red wine on a Viticulture tour at 9AM, visited an architect/landscape architect’s home that had the most breathtaking views from his self-designed home in the Central Otago valley. Mingling, learning, discussing, and brainstorming with all the professional landscape architects, and finally to top it off, lovely farewell dinner in the awe-inspiring Jack’s Point was wonderful.
The tours were: (via NZILA):
Landscapes of recreation: This tour is to touch on issues such as the economic forces that make this sort of development viable, how these forces are changing/might change, energy consumption, the design of these landscapes – deliberately beautiful, the fact that these developments enable a great many people to appreciate these landscapes that would otherwise be the case, how do these developments display New Zealand/Otago particularity.
Landscapes of rural living: This tour touches on issues such as the economic sustainability of farming, the changing of economic conditions that sometimes mean it is no longer desirable, what people want when they choose to live in a rural landscape, tenure review of pastoral leases, how large stations can be sustainably managed into the future with existing/future economic conditions, etc
Landscapes of production: Issues touched on for this tour include the changing market forces through recent history that have led to changing productive use of the land and the resultant changing aesthetics, the part of nostalgia in landscape appreciation – should a landscape pattern be preserved because we grew up with it? The tour will illustrate how market forces determine productive land use and ultimately landscape appearance.
Landscapes of energy: Issues brought into this tour is the seemingly endless increase in energy demand and how this affects the appearance of landscapes, the consequences of flooding for hydro production – has produced amenities that were previously not there in some cases, do people perceive these lakes as natural? – often they seem to, does it matter whether they are natural or not?
Below are some “pictorial essay” where I was pictured more than once. Thank you NZILA!
world’s first sustainable city
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/29/2009
- In: "urban fabric"| Biofuel| City| Complexity| Energy| Environmental| Interesting| Urban design| Urban planning| architecture| art| biomimicry| communication| design| ecology| economic| engineering| global| green| landscape| photography| recycling| space| sustainable| travel| visualization
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The winning design by the international practice Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) for the city centre for Masdar in the UAE – will be amazingly, the world’s first “zero carbon”, “zero waste” city powered entirely by renewable energy sources!
Masdar is a planned city located 17 kilometres from Abu Dhabi. a government initiative, and the city is being constructed over seven phases due to be completed by 2016, not that far ahead aye… I would love to visit!
So, yes, this city center will ofcourse include a Plaza, a Five-Star hotel, a long stay hotel, a Convention Centre and an Entertainment Complex as well as retail facilities! Ok, now I am really convinced to visit maybe by 2017…
all image courtesy of LAVA
frames, boundaries, fences, walls,
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/25/2009
To be aware of ourselves, our identity, to elevate ourselves, self-importance, ownership, national pride, all these human behaviours are such that we build walls and fences around us. From the very earlierst of times, frames around the landscape whether it is our current invisible borders between countries, or a simple wooden frames around our favorite picture, it tells of how we as humans, have had the need to distinguish us from them, self from others in the name of nationality, identity, nativity, indigenousness, etc.
Here are some evidences manifested in a town plannings of “walled cities” ::
Cassonne, France.
Below: Noerdlingen, Germany
Below – Heusden and Naarden, Netherlands::
Below – Utrecht, in the Netherlands::
(all images via – dark roasted blend)
Below – Villandry Gardens::
Below – Mona Lisa::
Amazing world of plants
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/11/2009
A carnivorous; meat-eating plant?!?!
“A new species of giant carnivorous plant has been discovered in the highlands of the central Philippines!
The pitcher plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap.During the same expedition, botanists also came across strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms they could not identify. The botanists have named the pitcher plant after British natural history broadcaster David Attenborough…”
“….Pitcher plants are carnivorous. Carnivorous plants come in many forms, and are known to have independently evolved at least six separate times. While some have sticky surfaces that act like flypaper, others like the Venus fly trap are snap traps, closing their leaves around their prey. Pitchers create tube-like leaf structures into which insects and other small animals tumble and become trapped…”
Via BBC, Earth News. read more…
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This following plant has developed a mechanism to appear ill to its onlookers! This clever thing has been found growing in the rainforests of Ecuador. Oh, the wonderful world of plants!
“….The plants feigns sickness to stop it being attacked by insect pests known as mining moths, which would otherwise eat its healthy leaves. It is the first known example of a plant that mimics being ill, and could also explain a common pattern seen on plant leaves known as variegation…”
“…Variegation is familiar to gardeners and affects many species of plant. Variegated plants have different coloured patterns on the leaf surface, produced by a variety of causes. One of the most common is when cells in the leaf lose chlorophyll and their ability to photosynthesise, appearing white. In theory, plants with variegated leaves should be at a disadvantage, because of this restricted ability to photosynthesise…”
Wicked Design concepts
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/09/2009
Conix Archtects (architect), Jan Hoet Jr. (scenographer) , JNC International (landscape architect), 3E (energy consultant), and CJI (Chinese contractor), all in collaboration with JV Realys (Asos Group) have won the competition to design the Belgian Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010.
It is interesting that the “structure of the “Brain Cell” was the chosen dominant conceptual image for the building, evoking the artistic richness of Belgium and Europe, as well as all its scientific achievements. The brain cell also refers to the role of Belgium as one of Europe’s main gathering centers and cross points. In contrast to the playful, organic and intriguing form of the brain cell, the exterior of the building refers to the pragmatism and the discretion typical of Belgium.“
via Conix Architects
Biomimicry is the new design technique…
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/06/2009
“Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you’ll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Here she reveals dozens of new products that take their cue from nature with spectacular results.”
How do you feel?
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/04/2009
Orlagh O’Brien wanted to investigate how people feel emotions. His research project asks how people feel anger, sadness, love and such? A survey was developed. The results of which compared and combined to reveal visual patterns of feelings.
Can people describe their visceral feelings of emotion visually, and if so, would any patterns arise? In order to answer this, I had to develop some way of asking people to reflect on and describe their private feelings in a simple, repeatable manner, the results of which could be correlated visually and demographically.
By gathering concepts of feeling by word, colour and line and creating visual languages for anger, joy, fear, sadness and love – a kind of democratic visual language is created – a backwards-brand.
Visit his site to learn more about his process, methods, gathering and processing. Very interesting. But the visualization created here holds the most interest for me… It seems to involve complexity theory; the emerging patterns and colors that can be visualized in a art-like form.
LOVE::
ANGER::
FEAR::
“The Cove”
Posted by: Tandin Wangmo on: 08/03/2009
This is the most tragic documentary I have seen this year.
The Cove follows a team of activists and filmmakers as they infiltrate a heavily-guarded cove in Taiji, Japan. In this remote village they witness and document activities deliberately being hidden from the public: More than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises are being slaughtered each year and their meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is being sold as food in Japan, often times labeled as whale meat. The majority of the world is not aware this is happening. The Taiji cove is blocked off from the public. Cameras are not allowed inside and the media does not cover the story.
If you get a chance to watch it… it will illuminate the injustices taking place in the world of dolpins… by us humans. More info here at TakePart. It is not that sushi is inherently bad…in moderation…but killing whales and dolphins to mispackage them as meat, when the toxicity level is just too high is just unbearable. The food industries that pay those whalers in Japan should be shut down! The Japanese government needs to do something. And we need to whiplash that government into doing the right thing. It is a lose-lose situation for both dolphins/whales and humans who ingest them. Please sign the petition, if you want to do something. It is on TakePart website.
Plus :: I just found this related article this morning! – A Whale of Controversy.
