On the issue of sustainability...

Indestructible Soccer Balls

clipping system

 I found this reusable clipping system that could be inspiration for the connectors on the hexagons or the wall of circles or for something like that.

modular clipping system

Roof Systems

Recycled Bottle Roof

Frame Bracket

http://www.swingworks.com/Free-Standing-A-Frame-Brackets-p/11-5009.htm

Ideas...Materials..

Retractable tensile structure

Cool idea for Charles's structure...

Ancient Southwest Exhibit

Check here for info on the new exhibit at the Museum of Natural History:

A new exhibition featuring 100 rarely exhibited ceramics from the extensive collection at CU-Boulder’s Museum of Natural History will take visitors through more than 1,000 years of Southwest history (A.D. 500-1600).

The “Ancient Southwest: Peoples, Pottery and Place” exhibit at the Museum of Natural History will open on Thursday, Feb. 21. The opening reception will be held Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 6:30 p.m., followed by a curator’s lecture at 7 p.m. The exhibit will run until Feb. 14, 2014.

PVC AND FABRIC..

PVC building...

Blue PVC makes cool design and shapes...

Could this work? let's explore..
This would be cool to do with blue Pvc to show water movement maybe for Charles's project:

Resource Materials

Here are some materials I came across today I found and some that I found online for our ideas for the skeleton ideas and 

connections of the elbow area..

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Movement of the Materials

Hey Everyone, I found some awesome ideas and wanted to share these pictures with you. They are similar ideas and what we are trying to accomplish for both of the Kiosk, as far as the movement for Ellen's roof- feel of water ... take a look:

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/76579/a-finalist-spotlight-architecture-branding/#.USwsJVdTPhK

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/77244/a-finalist-spotlight-materials/?utm_source=Architizer+Newsletter&utm_campaign=4ef4fd1fd8-Daily_Newsletter_872_23_2013&utm_medium=email#.USwtGVdTPhJ

The Power of Color

As we move in to the final details of the design, focus can be shifted in to the signage as well as the your last part of most construction construction; COLOR! It is important to understand colors, how they work together, and what emotions they dictate individually as well as together. The following website gives some examples of the importance of color and its versatility.

The Power of Color

Living water film

You Tube:  Messages from Water Water Crystals in Motion Dr. Masaru Emoto  42 minutes

Offers some other perspectives on our connection with water.  If you wish a shorter version, enter Dr. Masaru Emoto's name and explore.

water lessons for children in Mexico

I just returned from a visit to Lake Chapala in Mexico, Mexico's largest lake.  I photographed the side of a school which was used as a display for water lessons for the village youth.  I'll bring the paste up to class on Wednesday.  One of you students with techy talent can suggest how to post the view on the blog.

ReSource

This is kind of has a tent structural quality to it, maybe we could take it apart and use pieces of it for connections.

Detail of the image above, it's interesting how many pieces all come together at one joint

Aluminum tubes for frame 

PVC elbow pipes for possible corner connections 

Water Channel SketchUp Model

here is kind of a complex sketchup model of the water channel and tables in a 10x10 grid.

i was playing with the different ways to have slope so the balls or whatever roll

let me know if you want me to send you the file to mess around with

A Few Resource Materials

this was just cool

 corrugated plastic (2 sheets about 6 ft x 2 ft)

enormous roll of strong blue bubble wrap. possible roof for ellen's design. greyson brought back a sample for us to take a look at

this beauty was buried under the snow and greyson and I both slipped on it at the same time. very light weight/translucent/blue. one of the guys working there called it cellular plastic

side view

1/2 scale model "Retractable Poles"

hopefully the real thing won't be held together with tape

pvc structure

I know a few of us were looking at some different ways to use pvc and i came across this and thought it was cool

 

http://www.magicalurbanism.com/archives/3567

Kengo Kuma and Associates

Not sure why I didn't post this earlier... But my favorite firm [Kengo Kuma and Associates] specializes in architecture and pavilions in Japan.  I have had the pleasure of meeting Kuma-san and touring the firm's studio space.  Feel free to browse his website, but I included a link to one of his modular and lightweight outdoor pavilions.  Much of his other architecture and some installation work deal with water, flow, and simplicity as well.  Enjoy!

http://kkaa.co.jp/works/casa-umbrella/

Analogue photography

Lomography is an awesome website to check out if you are interested in analogue film and photography, if you click on the link, it will take you to a storage bank of uploaded pictures with water tagged for the image. Its a good place to find out how other people capture their ideas about water all over the world.

National Gallery of Greenland

Im sure most of you are familiar with the National Gallery of Greenland (BIG Architects) but I thought I'd share as it relates to our project in regards to its display of information and art. I personally find it one of if not the best synthesis of program, architectural form, and blending of the natural environment. The circle is simple, but forcing it in the the natural environment allows the topography to act as a break from the ambiguity of the endless circle. It is also some of the best display boards I've come across; simple but very informative.

National Gallery of Greenland

Paper Furniture

I'm sure these are quite light weight.

Paperpulp Cabinets

word map / brainstorming from 2.20.13

WATER CHANNEL - SHOWING WATER FLOW – HYDRODYNAMICS, FLUVIAL EXPLORATION – CURRENTS – CURRENCY

WATER COLUMN - HEXAGON IDEA, GAME IDEA?  OPENNESS / TRANSPARENCY

WATERSHED  - FLOODING / FLOOD PLAIN / FLOOD WAY, TIME SPAN / HISTORY / SHIFT OF CHANNELS

SEASONALITY – MAP OVERLAY / TIME LAPSE VIDEO / SECTIONS / PHOTOGRAPHS

PHYSICAL ELEMENTS - GLACIERS, CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, ELEVATION CHANGE, RIDGE AND VALLEY, VEGETATION, SOIL COMPOSITION, SOIL DISTRIBUTION

ECOSYSTEM: ANIMAL LIFE (HYDRIC TO XERIC), LIFE ZONES (ELEVATION AND TEMPERATURE),

SALINE CONTENT, SPECIALIZATION OF SPECIES, FUNDAMENTAL LIMITING FACTOR

STATE CHANGE: GAS, LIQUID, SOLID – SHIFTS BETWEEN FREEZING, MELTING, SUBLIMATION

WATER CYCLE - EVAPOTRANSPIRATION, INFLITRATION, GROUND WATER FLOW

WATER LAW - DISCHARGE AND AVAILABILITY, FRACKING (POLLUTION, CONTROVERTIAL, RESOURCE) RIGHT VS. PRIVILEDGE, UNLIMITED, “TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS” COMMODITY

DYNAMIC PROCESS - AVALANCHE, RAINBOWS, FLOODS, REFLECTIONS, MIRAGE, RIPPLES, WAVES, CURRENT, STORMS, RIP TIDE, GLACIERS, ICICLES, CRYSTALS, FROST, HURRICANES, DROUGHT, TSUNAMI

PROPERTIES: SENSORY / PHENOMENOLOGICAL / MOLECULAR / RESPONSE:  AWES, CALMS, SOOTHES, CLEANS, DILUTES, HYDRATES, REFRESHES, ERODES, DESTROY, NOURISHES

POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS - ETHICAL DILEMMAS, STRATEGIES TO MOVE WATER, ALLOCATION, POLICY

Abandoned Mines Information

Thanks to Joe Ryan for his lecture last night! Here is a link to more information on the Center of the American West and abandoned mines, specifically:
http://centerwest.org/projects/mining/abandoned-mines-remediation/

Colorado River Map

Here is a pretty interesting map of the Colorado River on the National Geographic website. It shows high and low river flow, diversions, and other things too.

3D Printing Pen

Soon we won't just be creating the illusion of 3D in hand drawings, we will actually be drawing in 3D!
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/19/4007178/3doodler-3d-printing-pen-launches-on-kickstarter

The Future of Snow

This series follows a yearlong, global project to document disappearing snow in the Northern Hemisphere. Check out the Snow Cover Map about half way down. Pretty interesting.

FreelandBuck

http://www.freelandbuck.com/

Life Straw

LifeStraw is similar to to the Ted video we watched earlier in the semester about filtering dirty water in a compact and portable way. LifeStraw® and LifeStraw® Family are both point-of-use water interventions – truly unique offerings from Vestergaard Frandsen that address the concern for affordably obtaining safe drinking water at home and outside. These complementary safe water tools have the potential to accelerate progress towards the MDG target of providing access to safe drinking water, which would yield health and economic benefits; thus contributing to the achievement of other MDGs like poverty reduction, childhood survival, school attendance, gender equality and environment sustainability. 

The flaw I see in this design is that I am assuming that the filter must need to be replaced frequently.

Sails and some unavailable materials to draw from

The design firm KieranTimberlake has a new building envelope called SmartWrap. It is essentially a polyester film that is extremely versatile. It can be printed on, collect solar energy, change colors, and so on.

While it is certainly beyond our budgetary limitations and looks to be available only through commissioning the firm that developed it, it may serve as some inspiration for a sturdy and translucent building material. Charles' design could definitely take this idea to make it solid yet open.

Firm's page

designboom

democratic underground

As far as the water collecting material inspired by the desert beetle, it looks like it is still under development.

Here is the link to the lab that is making is and some possible product concepts.

article

mesh

dew bank bottle

THinking about how ropes might work in Ellen's design, I looked at some sailboats to think about how to hoist up a covering or surface.

Celestial Seasonings Headquarters

Tea. The elixir of life. We, living in Boulder, are lucky enough to have the world headquarters of one of the largest life elixir companies in the world. Where is this going and what does it have to do with our studio? Well, my dear friend and I went on the Celestial Seasonings factory tour yesterday and it was just lovely. Visually, auditorially, educationally, smellingly - if we want to make that a new word. BUT - what caught my eye was the exhibit that they have set up in the main tour center building right as you walk in. It displays historical information about the company in such a great way. It's large, easy to read, easy to understand, and there was just a great variety of material, from written history to tactile objects concerning tea and "tea culture." I highly suggest going on the tour if you haven't already. It's free and they run everyday from 10:00 - 4:00 on the hour every hour, I believe. Check their WEBSITE for more info. It will give you a good sense of scale and what and how to display information in a simple and effective way. O - and there's free tea... and the Peppermint Room is out of this world. Below is a terrible picture of one portion of the exhibit area, I didn't want to spend a good deal of time composing the shot, as there was fresh tea behind me waiting to be consumed.

Tea things.