Quote Of The Day

I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.

- Michael Jordan

Urban problem solution for the day

I love how today even in the car-and-motorcycle-loving place like my hometown there is this growing consciousness of not relying too much on them. There's in fact a whole community dedicated of going to the workplace by bike.
Whether the reason is ecological, economical, or people simply just want to stay in shape is irrelevant. What matters is riding a bike is now hip again and I hope this trend stays strong and not merely a fad.


Image via http://imgfave.com

Tentang Kearifan Lokal

Kearifan lokal adalah kata kunci yang mulai santer terdengar di masyarakat awam. Ada semacam 'kesadaran' untuk menggali kembali sesuatu dari masa lalu. Melihat artefak masa lampau dengan sudut pandang yang berbeda, bukan sekedar nostalgia atau eksotisme belaka

Awesomely detailed Sketch Up work

Even though Sketch Up is fairly easy to use, I'm still awed at the draftsmanship and insane detail of this image. The long hours sacrificed alone is pretty scary to imagine. Whew!

How to Build 15 Stories Hotel in 2 Days

I found something, well, rather unique in YouTube today.
The video is actually quite old, dated about one year ago (in this Information Age, that's ancient, right?)
This is actually a time-lapse video of the construction of a hotel in China, which took only two days to build. And it’s said to be level 9 earthquake resistant.
To me, this sounds too good to be true, especially when it is from China unless they have an army of speedsters like The Flash to do the all the construction. So what do you think?

"

Bahasa Indonesia? Gampang!

Kadang-kadang kita demikian meremehkan kemampuan berbahasa Indonesia, apalagi dengan baik dan benar. Padahal yang kita pakai setiap hari belum tentu benar. Apalagin kini kita orang Indonesia punya kebiasaan 'asyik' menyerap kata asing begitu saja tanpa mencari padanannya terlebih dahulu pada bahasa Indonesia atau bahkan mencari terlebih dahulu arti kata tersebut di kamus. Ah, kalau yang ini, memang karena kita malas membaca ya?
Contohnya pada foto di atas (klik pada gambar kalau kurang jelas), maksud hati menulis 'sintetis' yang ditulis alih-alih adalah 'sintesis'. Dua kata yang maknanya jauh berbeda.
Ketidaktahuan atau ketidakpedulian? Entahlah. Yang jelas, ini objek yang asyik buat fotografer/blogger iseng dan nyinyir seperti saya .^_^

Sebuah Pertemuan

Ada satu masa, pertemuan kolom dan atap dirayakan dengan begitu meriah. Penuh detil dan ornamen,tapi tetap tertib struktur.
Lokasi : Stasiun KA Bandung

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The Awesome Architecture-Inspired Typography

 I have to confess I am a bit of a font nerd. I have a folder in my hard drive that contains around 1000 fonts (of which I only fool around with about 1/3 of them). Okay, maybe 'font nerd' is not right, 'font hoarder' is more like it.
Anyway, there are several fonts that I love to use on daily basis. For my architecture/CAD works I love to use Damned Architect because it's free, representing my hand written drafting font close enough and can be found here.

Interesting Interior Planter

When you think of how to define different areas in your place, you usually go with walls. However, you can always use plants as space definers (in this case between dining room and bedroom). The result? More spacious area in your place than the usual wall.
I love the brilliant execution of such a simple premise.

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Cool Stuff From My Hometown part 5-Reaching For The Sky

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One of the two towers of the Great Mosque of West Java.

A reminder...

Islamic Thinking posted this following reminder today. It speaks loudly for me as I have just been through a personal tragedy that still shocks me profoundly. It's nice to find something to hold on to in this times of turbulence, both for me personally and hopefully for all the people in this disaster-ravaged world :

The stronger the faith you have the more difficult the tests/trials you will face, but if you see the hidden blessings of the difficult trials then you have the potential to increase your wisdom, increase your faith and develop your personal character, so be happy when Allah SWT tests you with difficulties as he has given you an opportunity to get closer to him through the trials. Allah is the Most Wise.

Architect today...according to people 100 years ago

It's retro-futurism and it's awesome!
What is retro-futurism? According to this copy/pasted Wikipedia entry :

The Transcendent City / Richard Hardy

As everyone who's a regular visitor to this blog knows, my love for everything comic books/sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction/geeky stuffs has no bounds. That is why with glee I share this post. A prove that architecture can also be a interesting sci-fi subject, particularly from the utopian/dystopian future angle.


The Transcendent City / Richard Hardy:
A recent graduate from London’s Bartlett School of Architecture, Richard Hardy has produced a fascinating animation for Nic Clear’s Unit 15 that pushes futuristic architecture to a new level. Using David Foster Wallace’s ‘Infinite Jest’, a novel that questions certain aspects of Americans’ obsessive behavior – in terms of the intense fascination with entertainment, materialism, technology etc – the studio challenged students to analyze the implications of society’s “obsessive/addictive behavior…to develop tactics to cope with the difficulties of creating an architecture in uncertain times.”
More about the project after the break.

View toward Wind Generators © Richard Hardy

Cool stuff from My Hometown part 4, Bandung Hilton / WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design

I often drive past this building. While it's awesome,one question remains : what happened to local architects?

Can't we be trusted to build something of this quality or magnitude?

I believe we can.

How to gain trust (or the feeling of 'prestige' from the clients upon hiring foreign architects), however is another issue to discuss.

Bandung Hilton / WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design: "

© Patrick Bingham Hall

Batman Married Wonder Woman

Now I know what my wedding day would be like.
Us who read Blackest Night or watched the Justice League cartoon know that Diana have feelings for Bruce. Who knew they'll get serious?

Batman Married Wonder Woman: "



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Modern Wing Chicago Art Institute, Chicago Illinois

I admire Renzo Piano  and I like the way he thinks through a sketch. Just look at the sketch above. There's a "story" there, even if it;s just one piece of sketch. Taht, my friends, is the true art of architecture is here. The uniqueness of an architect's dynamic visual thoughts is shown in this. All the best minds did it before: Palladio, Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Jørn Utzon, you name it.
More about Renzo and his Building Workshop here rpbw.r.ui-pro.com/ 

And now, for one of his works that I love so much, continue reading after the break.

Cool Stuff From My Hometown, part 3

As I posted earlier, Bandung my hometown is a city full of beautiful, old buildings from the Dutch colonial era. One of such building is the Driekleur building.

My First Robotic Rendering

During my first days of SketchUp learning curve, the Google 3d Warehouse was (and still) my best friend. For those of you not familiar with the site (or just new to SketchUp), Google 3d Warehouse is basically-as its name suggests-a repository of 3d models made with SketchUp, Google's ridiculously user friendly 3d modelling software. And my God, it really is a huuuuge repository.

Teach Your Children The Alphabets...With Uncle Logan And Friends!

Sean Murphy is my newest favorite comic book artist. He's currently doing a project with superstar writer Grant Morrison entitled "Joe The Barbarian", published by DC's mature publishing line, Vertigo. Beside the awesomely dark yet poetic story that Morrison writes, the book's selling point for me is Sean Murphy's ability to render beautiful and moody interior shots.

Cool Stuff From My Hometown, part 2

Dubbed 'minimalistic design', this approach to post-modernity is currently a trend at least in my hometown; especially among young, newlywed couple.
Never mind the fact that the maintenance cost is gonna be enormous since Indonesia is a tropical country so those sealed-shut windows will bleed the electric bills a lot from air conditioning alone.