Friday, October 31, 2008

Micro-Compact Home


The micro-compact house is a lightweight dwelling for one or two people for short-stay living; hence, it is ideal for business travelers' rooms, holiday lodges, or other short-term residential or academic uses.

The micro-compact cubes have been taken into use for many projects. One of the projects is a student village, with sponsorship from telecommunications company O2 Germany, is currently inhabited by the students of Technical University Munich in Germany.


The layout of the cubes is inspired by the traditional Japanese tea houses. What's so special about this compact house is its flexibility. For instance, the upper level sleeping bunk (for two) can be folded out of the way, while below, the sunken dinning area can also double as a second sleeping space (also for two) after putting away the table.


































Friday, October 24, 2008

Casa Los Andes

With bright colors, the house is like a piece of toy representing both childlike innocence and a high degree of sophistication. The most playful and dramatic part of the house is its piano-shaped and pink entrance hall, pierced with randomly placed tiny square windows as well as a round window and an oval skylight.


the colored volumes are like pieces of glamorous jewelry on an already stunning outfit: red fireplaces and a yellow spiral staircase connecting the library to the master bedroom.

For the interior space, the living room is also pleasurable in shape. Its curved wall, made of frameless glass, allows the partition between inside and garden almost to dissolve visually. In all, the house is highly accomplished version of fantasy and sophistication.






Friday, October 17, 2008

Seadrift Lagoon House

The house on Seadrift Lagoon in California takes on a pair of related metaphors: It is a boat, adrift on an ocean; it is also a shell, protecting inhabitants from the cold-beach climate. The use of redwood siding has been elaborated like a ship-the deck prow and the sail-shaped window in the living room reinforce the sense of connection to a sea voyage.
The Seadrift Lagoon house is a single-story house with a kitchen, baths, paired bedrooms, living, and dining space. The house exercises minimalism. That is, the house creates the image of extreme simplicity by combining the visual and functional purposes together. For instance, the windows imitate cabin windows and also offer glimpses of nearby mountains and water. (both visually and functionally)
Personalities: rustic, simple, metaphorical, adventurous


left to right The roof lifts at the corner to let light in.
The deck is shaped like the prow of a ship.











Friday, October 3, 2008

Food Pollution

Food Pollution

Generally speaking, pollutions are conceived as contaminations, which threaten the environment: pollutions of air, soil, noise, water, and other sources, engaged in breaking the equilibrium of nature. However, what if there is a pollution excluded from those stereotypes? The contemporary event of tainted milk powders in mainland China has brought about the attention to food contamination worldwide. As we know, the environmental pollutions might not affect people directly; by contrast, food poisoning can harm human beings while eating and drinking. For instance, people who have been drinking the tainted milk are at the risk of getting kidney stones. According to the New York Times, more than 54,000 Chinese babies are sick at toxic milk and have received the hospital treatment. Thus, we should express our concerns to the safety of food products.

There are mainly three factors, which may affect levels of contamination of the food products: environmental conditions, manufacturing processes, and transport conditions. The environment for food-making is important. The environmental factors, such as water and land quality, determine whether food is contaminated or not. Let's say, a fish farm cannot keep its fish in the place with polluted water. Moreover, the sophisticated manufacturing process relies on production techniques. For example, a dairy factory needs to "pasteurize" its raw material, milk, to destroy the bacteria by heating the liquid. Last, transport creates the potential hazard of food pollution since the products make contact to outside world during the delivering. That is, the food products might get tainted from the contaminated transportation or places.

Food contaminations happen every day all over the world: The United Nations agency receives about 200 reports of tainted food products each month in its 193 member states. Hence, Government officials must give the high priority to the regulation of food handling for the food industry. Many developed countries have high level of political commitment on food safety.
For example, in Britain, the Food Standard Agency, responsible for food safety, announces its news about polluted food and decisions on food policy in open meetings accessible to the public. In other words, consumers or businessmen can react to this process in action by questioning the board directly. Unlike developed countries, developing countries need to strengthen their regulatory frameworks, for their food safety systems might be outdated. Like mainland China, the case of the tainted baby formula, made by Sanlu Group, has been reported to the local government from December, 2007. But the central government is informed about this report eight month later after the local government has "taken over" it. Therefore, government should treat food regulation seriously and should take it as a public interest, not political benefits.

"You are what you eat", a slogan for dietary habits, is no more singled out just for the nutrition of food we take but also for the safety in relation to food.