Hasta La Ideas

With an architectural proposal for governing Lebanon, recent graduate from Harvard GSD Sevak Karabachian approached his final thesis with a purist’s approach to design: problem & solution.

In this project, the future of Lebanon is explored through two phenomena that have recently occurred. First are the repetitive gatherings in Martyr’s square of over a million people, marking the space’s emotional significance with the population. Second is the recent call for a government that is free of religious affiliation. The call to secularize the government was demonstrated also at martyr’s square, by large crowds from all religions and sects.

While imagining the future of Lebanon, one critical component is the variable for rapid development throughout Beirut. In an attempt to reconstruct post-war Beirut, master plans have failed to provide a public space large enough to allow the current phenomenon of large democratic gatherings to live on.

The architectural and urbanistic proposal is to generate operations that begin to pave the way for a new building for a bicameral parliament. The secular House of Representatives is the driver for a civic space that is comprised of characteristics that resemble a democratic Lebanon.

The public space is anchored by the new Parliament building that transforms the open area into a civic space, with symbolic implications. Additionally, the civic space is anchored by the newspaper agency to the east emphasizing the open dialogue created between the government, the public, and the press.

The introverted civic space is relieved by opening pedestrian walkways in the east west axis. Additional voids are subtracted from the building to open up views beyond the immediate site.

The scale of the civic space has the ability to accommodate large gatherings, while the smaller scale operations allow for everyday use.



For more projects by Sevak, visit his site.

Some interesting things to share:

• I’m recording an interview about uncluttering for Renew You that should be available this Friday through next Tuesday. Renew You 2010 was a conference that occurred earlier this summer, and every few weeks the organizer of the conference sends out links to new interviews to conference attendees and people who register for the mailing list. The interviews are targeted toward women, but the information I’ll be giving is applicable for anyone. The e-mail list is free, but there are pay-to-listen areas of the site that have some cost associated with them. You shouldn’t have to pay anything to hear my piece on uncluttering. The interview should be about an hour long, so sign up if you’re interested in hearing my talk.
• “TV business kisses HDMI goodbye” on the THINQ site leaves me with mixed feelings. I’m glad multiple manufacturers are coming together and establishing a standard cable, but it means we will all have to buy new cables. Not sure it’s simplifying anything.
• Author Harlan Ellison decided to purge and auction off the majority of his book collection, including a signed birthday present from Neil Gaiman. The following link includes a profane word or two, but is still an interesting read about uncluttering your bookshelves: “The Great Ellison Book Purge” on the AV Club.
• Have many errands to run at once? Lorie Marrero recommends the “optimal route planner” Route4me to determine the shortest route to take.
• The website FreelanceSwitch offers terrific project management advice in its post “The Swiss Cheese Method of Project Scheduling.” The article is geared toward freelance programmers, but is applicable to anyone budgeting her time.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Retour sur ce court-métrage d’animation : un récit de l’exploration interplanétaire de l’homme, par Joe Bichard et Jack Cunningham. Un univers graphique intéressant et une vision de l’exploration sur Mars. A découvrir en images et vidéo dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Stuff and Things
• The Social Network
• Nike Bowery Stadium NYC

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pa href=”http://www.studioklass.com/”Studio Klass/a sent us images of their newly completed emSleepy Lamp/em for a href=”http://www.busso.biz/”Busso’s 2010 collection/a. /p

pThe light takes its form from a gesture of sleepiness, propping itself up against the wall:/p

blockquote”Sleepy lamp” originates from the attention to those gestures that we often do unintentionally without giving them too much care. These gestures often delineate the human behaviour, particularly when they are related with the objects that surround us,to alter the function and using that in different ways from they have been thought from the beginning. This is the reason why we are fascinated with observing a stair, in its moment of “non-usage,” when leaning onto the wall to clear the space in which we work. In “Sleepy Lamp” this particular moment is conceptually reread in a lazy and sleepy lamp that can’t help resting, creating a quiet and relaxing atmosphere around it./blockquote

pIts relaxed pose offers a couple advantages for the alert humans around it: offering a slanted rack to hang books and clothes over and a nice reflection of diffuse light off the wall. /p

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