genius loci

Solar-sintering

arcoffeen — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:10:20 +0000

Markus Kayser – Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

“Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and trigger dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the worldâ€™s most efficient energy resource – the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.

This project was developed at the Royal College of Art during my MA studies in Design Products on Platform 13.”

markuskayser.com

USGBC-NM Green Build Home Tour

arcoffeen — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:50:56 +0000

2011 GreenBuilt Tour

June 11 & 12, 2011 10am-4pm

It’s never too early to think about volunteering for the tour! If you are interested, please complete this form and send it in…

The 2011 GreenBuilt Tour Guidebook is available by clicking on the image below. We suggest you pick up a copy (rather than print it) at the following locations (coming soon). Or, you can pick a home to start your tour and pick up a guidebook at that home.

2011 GreenBuilt Tour Kick-Off

Reception

June 10, 6 – 9 PM

Come join the fun at the annual Kick-Off Reception and greenAwards presentation on Friday, June 10, 6 – 9 PM, at a 2008 GreenBuilt Tour home in Corrales. Live music, beer & wine and plentiful appetizers will round out the evening. Directions will be sent to those who have made their online reservations. Click here for more information.

Cost: $30 USGBC-NM member/$35 non-members. Click here to make reservations.

Model Architect: Bart Prince

arcoffeen — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:19:26 +0000

One of Albuquerque’s finest, most unique architects, Bart Prince explains his design process and creative approach for Dwell. Bart’s structures are controversial but you can’t argue that they are immediately identifiable.

From Dwell “In our newest video series, The Model Architect, we explore the design process through the art of model-making. We begin in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the studio and residence of Bart Prince, a world-renowned architect known for enthusiastically unconventional structures. He spoke of his rebellion against the adobes of New Mexico, his affinity for structures with no discernible entrances, and his everlasting appreciation for a handmade chip-board model.”

This months animal obituaries

arcoffeen — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:39:44 +0000

Recent animal die offs have been making the news. Ecologists claim that this is a normal occurrence,

Famed Harvard biologist EO Wilson says, that, thanks to technology, we’re better able to share news of such events … and try to connect the dots. “This instant and global communication is just a human instinct to read mystery and portents of dangers and wondrous things in events that are unusual,” he says.

However massive deaths of any species raise my eye brow. Specific reasons/theories are not implied; rather, this is in hopes of supporting personal awareness and research.

The following is a one-month TIMELINE of recent bird & fish deaths (mid-Dec 2010 —> mid-Jan 2011) (sent to me by fellow master naturalist Carissa Nichols)

A timeline of (reported) recent bird & fish deaths:

12.13.10 – Thousands of dead barramundi fish wash up in Australia, unknown causes

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2010/12/13/barramundi-found-dead-after-flood/

12.15.10 – Thousands of dead fish wash ashore on Florida beach, blamed on cold weather

http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2010/december/183768/Dead-fish-turn-up-in-Cocoa

12.17.10 – Dead fish wash ashore at lake beach in Indiana, blamed on winter storms

http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/Dead_fish_wash_up_on_Washington_Park_beach_112105654.html

12.18.10 – Thousands of dead fish turn up in bay in Philippines, unknown causes

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20101218-309667/Residents-gather-eat-dead-fish-floating-in-barangay-Ibo

12.22.10 – More than a hundred dead pelicans turn up in North Carolina, unknown causes

http://www.carteretnewstimes.com/articles/2010/12/28/topsail_voice/news/doc4d120c21c2083603738750.txt

12.23.10 – Hundreds of dead sea creatures wash ashore in South Carolina, blamed on cold water

http://www.abcnews4.com/Global/story.asp?S=13735801

12.23.10 – Ten tons of mostly dead fish found in fishing net in New Zealand, unknown causes

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/4477740/Enlisted-to-help-with-deadly-haul

12.27.10 – Scores of dead fish wash ashore in a lake in Haiti, unknown causes

http://www.france24.com/en/20101227-authorities-probe-dead-fish-haitian-lake

12.28.10 – 70 bats found dead in Tucson, Ariz., unknown causes

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/12/28/20101228tucson-70-dead-bats-found.html

12.29.10 – Dozens of fish found dead in San Antonio, Texas, unknown causes

http://www.ksat.com/news/26316464/detail.html

12.31.10 – 5,000+ birds found dead in Arkansas, suffering from massive trauma and blood clots

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/03/arkansas.falling.birds/index.html?hpt=T2

01.03.11 – 100,000+ dead drum fish found in Arkansas river, unknown causes

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136401&catid=2

01.03.11 – Dozens of dead birds show up in a woman’s backyard in Kentucky, unknown causes

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Woman-reports-dozens-of-dead-birds-in-her-yard-112830524.html

01.03.11 – Tens of thousands of dead fish wash ashore in Chesapeake Bay, Md., blamed on cold water

http://www.wbaltv.com/r/26357581/detail.html

01.03.11 – 100 tons of dead fish wash ashore in Brazil, unknown causes

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/100-tons-of-fish-die-near-brazil.html#

01.04.11 – Several dead manatees found on Florida coast, unknown causes

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-treasure-coast-manatees-20110104,0,7714948.story

01.04.11 – Thousands of dead fish wash up on creek in Florida, unknown causes

http://www.wftv.com/news/26367953/detail.html

01.04.11 – Hundreds of dead fish was ashore on St. Clair River in Ontario, Can., unknown causes

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2011/01/04/16757321.html

01.04.11 – Hundreds of dead black birds found on highway in Louisiana, suffering from internal injuries and blood clots

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/112843019.html

01.05.11 – Hundreds of dead birds found on highway in Texas, unknown causes

http://www.ktre.com/global/story.asp?s=13787277

01.05.11 – Large amount of dead fish wash up on New Zealand beaches, unknown causes

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10697906

01.05.11 – Up to 100 jackdaw birds found dead on road in Sweden, unknown causes

http://www.thelocal.se/31262/20110105/

01.06.11 – 40,000+ dead Devil crabs washed ashore in the U.K., unknown causes

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20027655-503543.html

01.07.11 – More than 1,000 dead turtle doves found in Italy, unknown causes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8246678/More-than-1000-turtle-doves-fall-from-the-sky-in-Italy-in-latest-mass-bird-death-case.html

01.10.11 – Countless fish found dead in U.K. brook, unknown causes

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/environment/concern_as_fish_die_in_beauty_spot_brook_1_2224957

01.11.11 – Thousands of gizzard shad fish float to the top of Lake Michigan

and wash up on the shores near Chicago, blamed on cold weather

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/has-oido/details/bizarre-animal-deaths-reach-chicago-fish-population/4236/

A Procura De Pancho

arcoffeen — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 03:12:08 +0000

“I claim for architects the rights and liberties that painters and poets have held for so long” ~Amancio “Pancho” Guedes

A Procura De Pancho from Nicolaas van Reenen on Vimeo.

Lost People of Mt. Village

arcoffeen — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 03:05:07 +0000

“This film is not funny.” – Steven Peabody, Colorado Board of Real Estate Professionals. Anthropologist Wade Davis calls it “no less than the most spectacular archaeological and anthropological discovery of our lifetimes.” Dr. Jerrold Sapphire, Author of “VANISHED: Why Bad Things Happen to Bad Civilizations,” calls it… well, you’ll find out what he calls it. But when a lost backcountry skier high in the Rocky Mountains stumbles on a monumental complex of structures – apparently completely uninhabited – the only thing that experts agree on is that we may never know what really happened to “The Lost People of Mountain Village”

If you like this please buy the DVD, I did!
http://www.lostpeopleofmountainvillage.com/

Drought Warmest in 1,000 Years

arcoffeen — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:21:58 +0000

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Drought Warmest in 1,000 Years

By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer
The drought of the last decade in the Southwestern United States is likely the warmest in more than a thousand years, new research suggests.
The warm, dry weather is consistent with predictions of the effect of rising greenhouse gases, but scientists cannot rule out natural variability as the cause, according to work by a team of scientists published Monday in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
But while there remains some uncertainty about whether human-caused climate change is responsible for the current drought, greenhouse warming caused by fossil fuel emissions appears likely to create problems in the future, the scientists said.
“We are on the path toward abnormal warming,” said Park Williams of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Even without warming, we are using our water unsustainably, said University of California Los Angeles scientist Glen MacDonald, who led the team of scientists.
“We have a supply and demand issue no matter what,” MacDonald said in a telephone interview.
The drought has hit New Mexico’s two major river basins hard.
Flows on the Rio Grande from 2000 to 2009 averaged just 77 percent of normal. The Colorado River, which New Mexico shares with six other Western states, has experienced the driest decade since record-keeping began a century ago.
Using tree rings, the scientists tried to find a period in the past that was similar to the current drought, said Connie Woodhouse of the University of Arizona. Looking back across the last 1,200 years, they were able to find longer dry spells, Woodhouse said, but none is as warm as conditions today, she said.
“We probably have not had as hot a drought,” said MacDonald.
The West’s forests have already suffered, according to Williams. Some 18 percent of the forests experienced either wildfires or bark beetle infestations.
Projected warming and drying is likely to make that worse, Williams said in a phone interview.
Growing population and rising food demand will place increasing stress on the region’s water supplies, MacDonald said.
With little chance to develop additional supplies, life in the West going forward will require new approaches to how we use water in our cities, especially for outdoor landscaping, MacDonald said.
We also will need to rethink our approach to agriculture, which uses 80 percent of the region’s supply, according to MacDonald.

Design in the Desert poster competition 2010

arcoffeen — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:34:40 +0000

New Mexico ASLA poster design competition 2010. Theme “Design in the Desert”. This is my revised entry.

“Each age sees the world in its own manner and has its own notions of beauty; each of them rediscovers the landscape” – J.B. Jackson

ASLA Advocacy Network

arcoffeen — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:36:41 +0000

Ask Your Senator to Push For LWCF In December!	Take Action!
Lame Duck Opportunity to Support Preservation and Recreation

Dear Advocates, Please take a moment to urge your Senators to support full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) program that provides vital recreational opportunities for our communities and is important to landscape architects across the country. This summer the House of Representatives passed legislation that would fully fund LWCF and a bipartisan group of 26 Senators have introduced Senate legislation (S 2747) that would do the same. Senate leadership is considering moving LWCF legislation during this lame duck session, which presents a unique opportunity to push for strong LWCF legislation important to landscape architects before the Congress adjourns. Simply use the provided template to urge your Senators to support LWCF. Share your expertise by telling your Senators how important LWCF funded projects are to your community. Take a moment to personalize your letter with examples of LWCF projects that you or your colleagues have worked on. LWCF projects range from preserving and protecting many federal lands, parks and forests to developing new recreational facilities including parks and trails, which benefits communities in every state and every Congressional district. Thank you for your advocacy! For more on ASLA Advocacy asla.org/advocacy

COWBOYUP!

arcoffeen — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:46:03 +0000

The Code of the West has a multitude of meanings, for example it’s a book by famous western writer, Zane Grey, it implies carrying a gun in the old west, it’s the cowboy ten commandments, it’s a way of life integrated into the law of Larimer County Colorado, but most importantly, it’s a moral compass by which we should all live our lives.

The Code of the West

Live each day with courage.

Take pride in your work.

Always finish what you start.

Do what has to be done.

Be tough but fair.

When you make promise keep it.

Ride for the brand.

Talk less, and say more.

Remember that some things aren’t for sale.

Know where to draw the line.

Seen here