Alaska again!

Three artists who reside in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Erika Bronson, Sherri Sather and Ann Wilson, express themselves exclusively in organic forms.

Link to article

Alaskan Capitol Design Finalists

The four finalists for the new capitol building in Juneau, Alaska have been unveiled. You can see mockup images and read further information here.

All four designs have organic elements, though NBBJ and Yazdani's proposals seem to have used the least organic of Gehry's imagery, and look like computer-designed architectural freak shows. Safdie's building reminds me of a crouching fly (hey - flies are organic too - it's just that everyone hates them), while Morphosis' proposal looks like an alien sphere has set down in a dreary, ugly city, surrounded by spectacular mountains.

Could do better. Hopefully Safdie will be selected and, after it's built, no-one will crush it with a giant swatter.

MYO = tech nouveau

The article linked to below describes the MYO concept, as it is being articulated by designers in 2005:

"Today, the very design that is being enabled by the computer may also be, in part, a reaction against modern technology and its potential threat of imposed uniformity and conformity," RoxAnna Sway wrote last year in the magazine Display & Design Ideas. "Curved structures and interiors relate to the curves of the human form and of nature -- they are logical, comforting and non-threatening to human beings -- and are in some ways a form of escape from an impersonal world dominated by technology.

Link

Well, I haven't posted for a while due to the holidays and a flood which destroyed three-quarters of my house on Boxing Day. Yes, the same day as the tsunami. The following post concerns an article in today's Globe and Mail (Canada) which seems to cover the exact topic of MYO. In fact, someone else has coined a term for it: tech nouveau. Glad I'm not alone...