Comments for U*Reka

Comment on A Few Good Architects: Can You Handle the Truth? by Alexia M

Alexia M — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:17:36 +0000

You definitely put one the best dialogues in the film on your blog, which immediately alerts my sense of theatrics to begin reciting both of the scripts you have posted. Absolutely fantastic and fun which would really make my Dad laugh since he was in the military and worked with Engineers doing things I don’t have clearance to know about for the rest of his life. My job at Dish has been one that has allowed me to help my dear old Dad who loves his war films get as many as he wants. The only way I could assure him that he could get movies by mail and live streaming movies to his TV filled with ammo and tanks was with Blockbuster @Home. My Dad and I are close and watched A Few Good Men this weekend together and it really was great to spend time with him. Thank you again for the treat I will be sharing your site with my Dad as soon as I see him next weekend.

Comment on Celebrating Emptiness: Life and Ideas to fill the Void by Pauline Ang

Pauline Ang — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:19:00 +0000

On groupthink: The value of privacy and solitude has increasingly given way to an open, collaborative environment at the workplace. “The Rise of the New Groupthink” (New York Times, January 13, 2012) by Susan Cain makes a compelling argument to the contrary – that talented and motivated people produce their best work when they work alone. Here’s an excerpt of the article:

“Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.”

Susan Cain is the author of the forthcoming book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.”

Comment on Celebrating Emptiness: Life and Ideas to fill the Void by Kuan Chee Yung

Kuan Chee Yung — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:40:29 +0000

Soft Spaces: The New Glue for Science Education
Study Provides Hard Data from Multiple Sites (Tradeline: March 7, 2012)

The value of informal learning spaces or “soft spaces” has now been proven through research:

http://www.tradelineinc.com/reports/B42E449D-C29C-DD41-A7027E052C9DBC3B?goback=%2Egde_4196546_member_99624605

Comment on Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Design for Energy Conservation by Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:16:45 +0000

Some comments/info on the project can be found on skyscraper city:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=196127&page=68

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1470146

Comment on Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Design for Energy Conservation by Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Design for Energy Conservation

Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Design for Energy Conservation — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:45:12 +0000

[...] PAPER ON DESIGN FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION http://blog.cpgcorp.com.sg/wp-conten…ical-Paper.pdf Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Design for Energy Conservation | U*Reka Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread « First Coal [...]

Comment on Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Design for Energy Conservation by noman malik

noman malik — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:42:43 +0000

Thanks, great report. Please send me any more info u have on this airport, thanks.

Comment on Celebrating Emptiness: Life and Ideas to fill the Void by Choo Meng Foo

Choo Meng Foo — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:03:56 +0000

Interesting Read. Recent ‘star’ architects have provided plenty of theatrical architecture especially in China and Singapore. Architecture is seen as a flamboyant pursuit. Perhaps we should return to Leon Battista Alberti, Ten Books of Architecture,1452, take stock and design that which matters. Pursuing the ‘end game’ of Architecture is for the frivolous. We see the history of architecture in this region, traversing from Internationalism to regionalism, searching for our identity, and suddenly stirred into chaos by deconstructionism. Then reinventing the brutalism of Le Corbusier’s work with new coat and material. In the process we celebrated the individual and became less pragmatic and socialistic. We too measured architecture with prestige and monetary value. The term history and context became alien notion, relegated into oblivion. Perhaps we should reclaim history and context as they serve as beacon in the life as Singaporean.

Comment on BOOKS: The Holy Place: Architecture, Ideology, and History in Russia by Pauline Ang

Pauline Ang — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:18:20 +0000

A critical account of the history of the Palace of the Soviets can be found in Rem Koolhaas’ S, M, L, XL: Virtual Architecture: A Bedtime Story (1994). The following is an excerpt of the text:

This is a Babel story, but without a Bible; a dissonant fairy tale; no lesson, no allegory, just a grasping.

In the thirties, the Soviets organized a competition for a monument to the Third International; it was won by a grotesque project, partly American skyscraper, partly hollow Babel. It looked like an insane enlargement of a classical wedding cake on top, bride and groom morphed to form a huge Lenin, pointing – as always – forward.

Ostensibly a Stalinist abberation, a cynical pile of meeting rooms for a nonexistent collective contained in a pastiche of the American skyscraper, this monstrosity was in fact a political decoy, a savage tactical ploy by Moscow’s architects. The realization of the building would consume seven years of the complete concrete production of the USSR: i.e., the thirties would be fat years.

…

Then the war was over; Stalin still reigned; the country was exhausted. The palace was a strange “navel” in the heart of the city, an extinguished ideological volcano. The thought of resuming the work was beyond even the most Stalinist imagination. Another solution was found. Instead of a solid, the building would become a void: an absence. The foundation, inundated anyway by persistent leaks, was declared pool. It was big enough for Moscow’s entire population.

…

The scale is disconcerting: while most pools impose a regime – specific movement – this one is like a prairie – wide open. Where to go? Why? With whom?

…

The pool becomes positively Roman: arena, absorber, social condenser, great emancipator, connector – undeniably fabricator of a community…The evaporation of the actual building infinitely enlarged its possible programs.

…