Favorite Buildings - Copenhagen Harbor Bath...

A few photos of the Copenhagen Harbor Bath by BIG, visited this chilly April (thus there are no people enjoying the pool as of yet)...

Hotel Room Views Nos. 1-5 (+3)...

Outside view of the ski-slope at Emirates Mall in Dubai...

This is the first submission of a future series showing various hotel room views, taken during some of my recent trips... Often quite bland, other times memorably exciting, the view from one's hotel window is often an important, but somewhat underestimated, element in hotel (room) design. It's usually the second thing I check out after first gaining an initial overall impression of a room... Granted there's often not much a designer can do to improve the view itself, however, how it is framed, directed (angled), shaped, tinted, shaded, etc. does allow one to manipulate and direct the gaze, the quantity and quality of the light that enters, and which features of the view the room's user should be intuitively drawn to...

For earlier impressions taken from hotel rooms click here for Turkey, here for Australia, and here for a different view of Dubai...

Night view over Tokyo's Shinjuku district...

A Copenhagen view, with the Finnish Embassy opposite...

A view across the Salmiya shoreline in Kuwait...

Above and below: My view in Venice, with the Grand Canal to the right, and one of the city's multitude of smaller canals to the left. The hotel was located opposite a school...

Industrial Crane & Truss Structure, Copenhagen...

Exquisite Corpse Laser-Cut Totem Workshop...

A somewhat delayed submission about my workshop held at the last Tasmeem Conference this March. A summarized brief for the workshop is included below:

The workshop performs as an updated adaptation of the Surrealist game, ‘Exquisite Corpse’ - where a set of participants each contribute a segment in a consecutive sequence of either words or images into an collated assemblage. In this instance the string of images or words are replaced by a set of laser-cut cardboard profiles, each about half a meter tall and roughly 70 cm wide, which, when stacked, in unison would result in an over 3 meter tall, totem-pole…

The workshop will involve maximum 15 participants divided into groups of two (and one individual or a group of three). Each of these small groups (pairs) will fabricate an stretch of a totem. The design of each segment of the totem is up to the group, the only constraints are determined by the basic structural concerns and the need for a uniform ‘link’ (connection point) between the totem’s segments. The actual sequence for where each groups segment is positioned along the stretch of a totem will only be decided during the concluding assembly stage, thus the form, function or look of each section of the totem is up to its designer and each totem will be a reflection of all the groups, all the workshop participants’, collective efforts...

Examples of the process and end result can be viewed below. The final piece is currently standing in the hallway outside the ground floor workshops at VCUQ...

The initial conceptual phase...

Assembly of the individual laser-cut units...

A few examples of some of the individual units...

The Totem assembly process (click on the image to see its larger version)...

The completed Exquisite Corpse Laser-Cut Totem...

Some details of the assembled totem...

A big thank you also has to go to Ben Jurgensen without whom's invaluable help the workshop would not have run as smoothly as it did...

First Year at VCUQ Concluded...

Cover of the MFA.DESIGN. brochure showing the current MFA Faculty. From left to right (with names and fields of know-how): Diane Derr (Time Based Media), Saied Farisi (Graphic Design/ Typography), Constantin Boym (Department Head; Product/ Furniture/ Concept Design), Richard Lombard (Materials Library Curator), myself. Mike Wirtz (MFA Research Librarian) is missing from this photo...

Photo by Markus Elblaus.

The Spring Term, and my first academic year at VCUQ, has now concluded. Well, more or less, as I've still going to be teaching during the upcoming Summer Term from mid-May until the end of June... All together it's been a very interesting period, and I'm truly excited about both ongoing and upcoming research and other design projects, the preparation of new courses, preparation of updated renditions for existing courses, and numerous other events... We're also expecting a new faculty member, as well as a fresh batch of six new graduate students to join us this coming Fall...

Fun, fun fun, below a dusty sun, sun, sun...