scheme 2: farm walls - ants vs. birds

we're contemplating scheme 2: farm walls, as a proposal that mixes existing park programs [birds, insects, nature] with new programmatic ideas that can be related to urban farming... maybe this is a stretch, but we'll get there.

as to antfarm:
we've already discussed the image of the antfarm as architectural partition and i think we can all appreciate it's potential.
we could probably knock this one out in photoshoppe pretty quickly once we find some good antfarm images. not these:

nice pattern on this one

this one's a bit gross. are those piles of food or dead babies?

this gel colony is kinda fun... wonder if it tastes like lime jello?

as to the bird farm:
i suppose it would be more of a bird feeder than a farm, but the trope is still there.

here are some generic DIY bird feeder dwgs.


can we produce a wall pattern out of these receptacles that doesn't look retarded?

depending on whether the feeders themselves can be repeated to produce an attractive facade treatment, the seeds themselves may offer an interesting textural component to the final image.


the u.s. fish and wildlife service website is also a good reference for seed images and different feeder types.

maybe the tubular plastic feeders could produce something interesting too...





but there's something kitschy about the traditional wood bird feeder w/ pitched roof that i like; maybe coz it'll look like a little iconic house structure, made up of hundreds of littler wooden houses?

representational reference: sanaa in almere

our intention in general for the magnolia proposals, which holds true for scheme 1: greenwalls, is not to play with form but purely surface.
as follows, we will setup a hidden line template that all subsequent schemes can be overlaid onto.
we've been thinking of treating the presentation like a colouring book...

... but of course not literally.

kazuyo sejima's presentation for the almerebouwttheater competition comes to mind.

project reference - MVRDV

porter's lodges in the hoge veluwe national park in oterloo, nertherlands

it appears that mvrdv is primarily interested in materiality and it's consequences on geometry and detailing when responding to climate... but it all starts with materiality as a catalyst....

scheme 1: green walls

elevated landscape technologies based in vancouver has been experimenting with greenwall cavity systems like this one: the "easy green living wall panel".

magnolia in bryant park : as-built & project references

our client was obsessed with everything "parisian" at the time. this was our 2nd project with her, after having just finished her loft in tribeca. she was happy to give the board whatever they wanted so that we could build on the lot.

the bryant park board pres. was most concerned with it sounding like a cool idea but looking like everything else in the park. he decides to throw down a word picture of "an alpine hut"..."enshrouded in vines". i dunno which fuckin' mountain range in the world he had in mind where this would ever actually occur naturally, but i love how it's proposed as a familiar thing...

the times didn't know what to make of it, opting to just describe a few of it's banal architectural features: "...crisp awning, oversize windows, and a flared cornice" meets print.

a few of the drawings submitted to BPC in april '05

from the outset, the bryant park corp. made their demands for aesthetic contextualism through the mouth piece of their parchitect, hugh hardy of hardy holtzman pfifer. these watered down renderings were the last attempts to reference architectures outside of hardy's park structures.



the facade treatments of gunnar asplund and the market storefront used in "amelie" were the only remaining points of reference for us by the time we reached an approvable design...

editor's RFP