Final Senior Project Review...

To all rhizomatic readers of my blog, it is known that an old promised event, by time, it becomes of no value. Nevertheless, my promise to you to reveal my senior project is now under execution.
Alas, after many weeks of research, communication, installation and adaptation to latest 3D simulation softwares, and few pre-reviews, i came to finally present my Diploma senior project last wednesday on the 20th of December 2006. As for the review itself, I just want to say that it turned out to becoming a rather intellectual debate lecture about post-systemic and post-platonic conceptions of forms and from-generation. I believe this sums it up. The jury members were dubious at some issues, but this only occurred due to some obscured drawings presented (but i tell you it was part of my subliminal aim to conveying such an atmosphere of uncertainty). The final evaluation was a success in the conceptual proposal, the formal and spatial aesthetic portrayal, but of course, as many of you guys out there (interested in reading such stuff), the structural analysis came to a momentum hindrance due to the lack of tools (especially CNC milling machines, the lack of digital technologies in the middle eastern culture in general, and the lack of profound research in the development of custom-made structural solutions); nevertheless, in these cases, referring to lately developed prototypes as similar to Anish Capoor millennium park, Frank Ghery's innovative solutions...all provided persuasive response to hindered issues.
I know now you are being deterritorialized by the above sentences and you are more than eager to peak at some of the presented work. So here it is in its partiality.Enjoy the so-called "an Architectural Masturbation"

Flash Slideshow

is it gender-neutral or can we determine its sex and gender

Is it gender-neutral or can we determine its sex and gender?
Can a building be a he or a she, and are we able to determine a building's sex gender; or are buildings gender-neutral?
First, can we determine a building's sex and gender/ sex refers to the male and female duality of biology and reproduction. Gender has more to do with identity than biology. It determines the state of being male or female or neither. Wikipedia Encyclopedia

If sex has relation to biology, then in architecture, does it refer to the elements used?And if gender has to do with the identity than biology, then in architecture, does it refer to the functionality of certain architecture?An answer to the above dilemma will periodically be posted synchronous to my final senior project thesis and the implementation, possibly, in an architectural endeavour epitomizing the questions:

Why don’t we tell if a building is a female or a male and When can we tell if a building is a he or a she. Should we look at certain elements to determine a building’s sex and gender, should we look at the buildings’ functions. Is it a visual identity, or is it related to its structural complexity, the use of many elements, or is it its name, is it the functional integrity inside the building itself that determines its sex and gender. Are we able to determine it by vision? Are we able to determine the building’s sex and gender through our senses?

And when are we able to generate a building that is either a he or a she or a gender-neutral?

Answers to questions Ditto will be tackeld more profoundly in the twin post-systemic blogspot:
www.rhizometect.blogspot.com

inconsiderable apology :)

Hmm...utter bitterness? I think not; though others might consider it as such.
Final Review was supposed to be on September (as I previously informed you nomadic members of the swarm), but now Senior Project’s Final Review is decidedly agreed to be held “soon” enough (willingly sometime b/w October 5 and 30)
Having uttered this, I am wrapping up my conceptions into a Final Senior Project in an attempt to present. This entails some swiftness in work and a “shiftness’” from daily to weekly posts. Nevertheless, I render the feasibility of posting few images of yet to come Final Senior Project, even though posting them before the final review.

Here is just a slight idea of what i am dealing with in my senior project:

Seen before...but not in a Rhizomatic context !

Rhizometect thinks you've seen this before, but curious enough to shed light upon in this post-systemic blog.

Who we really are: From the (N-1) to the Nth

"We are already in space, in a space-time of (n-1) dimensions; but we are on the verge of achieving the Nth dimension, whereby we not only add locomotives and exploit our organs, but we manipulate the basic generative genes that would ultimately lead to both a survival and a destruction of the "feeble". "

By Rhizometect

Hawking Says Space Colonies Needed...I think he's right

The great man's answer to the question of human survival: Er, I don't know

· Hawking's conundrum draws 25,000 responses
· Best bet, he says, may be to go into outer space

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Thursday August 3, 2006
The Guardian

It was an unusual move for one of the world's most eminent scientists. Having built a career shedding light on the darkest secrets of the universe, from the essence of space-time to the complexity of black holes, Professor Stephen Hawking turned to the internet for answers to the latest conundrum occupying his planet-sized brain.

Introducing himself to the online community as a theoretical physicist and Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, the 64-year-old scientist posed an open question: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?"

The question appeared on the website Yahoo Answers a month ago, immediately stirring up an internet storm that saw more than 25,000 people log on to give their deeply-considered views: some said we should just learn to get along, others predicted technology would see us through, and more still invoked the powers of God, love and peace.

But what the world wanted most of all was to hear the great scientist answer his own question, an intervention, most were convinced, that would amount to nothing less than a definitive treatise for human survival. Yesterday, the professor's response finally arrived. In a videoclip submission, the familiar electronic voice pronounced: "I don't know the answer. That is why I asked the question."

Signs of disappointment were muted yesterday, with one respondent choosing to applaud the scientist's honesty. "It is humbling to know that this question was asked by one of the most intelligent humans on the planet ... without already knowing a clear answer," wrote Inetap.

Others took a more encompassing view of life, concluding that humans had had a good innings and it was time to hand over the planet, albeit in a shabby state, to a new caretaker species to see if they could do better. "Maybe the human race shouldn't survive. Let other life forms flourish. We suck," said Video_stooge.

But Prof Hawking's frank admission that even he was stumped by the question merely opened a lengthy response. In a four-minute recorded reply, he laid out a beginner's guide to the changing face of threats to mankind, from devastating asteroid impact and nuclear war to climate change and rampaging genetically modified viruses.

In the long term, Prof Hawking says, humans will only survive if they can leave the rock they call home and spread out into space, to transform and occupy planets around our own sun and then around other suns. Failing that, he adds, perhaps our best bet is to use genetic engineering to tinker with the human species and make us less prone to fighting war.

The reply has now joined the multitude of responses from others who tried to answer the original question, among them succinct advice for us all to eat more fruit and veg, fledgling plans to live underwater, and functional advice to keep eating, breathing and having sex.

But Prof Hawking's message cut the online community into broad camps, populated by optimists, religious groups, climate change deniers and fellow doom-mongers. Rabbit, one poster, believed that despite war, climate change and a breathtaking acceleration of new technology, humankind was not about to annihilate itself. "It will work out ... There will undoubtedly be problems and disasters, but nothing so devastating to match your pessimism. Lighten up!"

The scientist's personal favourite answer came from the fittingly monikered Semi-Mad Scientist. "Without the belief that we will continue to grow and overcome the pains of social chaos as we mature as a species, we might as well not have any faith at all. I'm not talking religion ... but simply the same belief that we will survive just as much as the sun will rise the next day," he said.

Hawking Says Space Colonies Needed
By SYLVIA HUI
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; 1:42 PM

HONG KONG -- The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.
Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years, the British scientist told a news conference.

"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who arrived in Hong Kong to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture planned for Wednesday were sold out.

He added that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."

The 64-year-old scientist _ author of the global best seller "A Brief History of Time" _ is wheelchair-bound and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Hawking said he's teaming up with his daughter to write a children's book about the universe, aimed at the same age group as the Harry Potter books.

"It is a story for children, which explains the wonders of the universe," said his daughter, Lucy, a journalist and novelist. They didn't provide other details.

Quotations from Hawking...

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
- Stephen Hawking

In response to his question on the survival of the human race, Dr. Stephen Hawking provided this audio clip.

P.S.2: On Said Akl Creativity Award

Flash Slideshow

Self-Replicating Repairing Robots-check this awsome movie

P.S.1: On Said Akl Creativity Award

Flash Slideshow

Said Akl Creativity Award...

Yep...it has been a long time since i last updated you with "rhizometectural" work. I beleive now is the time. I did won the Said Akl Award on Creativity. So for those who beleived I was procrastinating, this is what I was accomplishing. I won't add much but I will leave you with some slides on the presentation along with the project presented.

 Any comment would be highly appreciated.


Well, for the time being, I will only afford such a humble supply of information. But i promise you that in the coming weeks you would be experiencing a thorough representation of above conceptions embodied in the senior project.

Ultimately...a Vacuum_formed machine

Yep...below are some embryonic morphologies on an A4 vacuum-formed machine. Sorry for being late in updating my blog, due dates were obtruding from everywhere (although I had only one due date). Never mind. Below are some pictures of a vacuum-form morphologies. enjoy!

My First A4 size Vacuum-Form Machine

As a course of action that is required of any Rhizometect by the rhizometectural position, social custom or law, I thereby declare the intentions (really I am into it) of building my first A4 size Vacuum-Forming machine. Of course i will, later on, be upgrading this post with new images revealing the corporeal vacuum-formed machine that is intensifying the tools of a Rhizometect.

PostScript !

As I promised you earlier at the begining of the Holy Month of Most Holy Mother Mary(1st. of May), I hereby indicate the removal of all religious indications to moralize my blog only for architectural commemoration of Rhizometectural becomings. However, this act should not tackle anyone's belief in his/her way of worshiping. I, as a Rhizometect, can not mention religious issues or even bring religious issues into polemic debates. We are only Rhizometects and we should only Rhizomefy.

Should I say: No more "Procrastination"?

Should I say: No more Procrastination, or should I not.

Is "Procrastination" a sub-conscious reflex to acquire optimal solutions, especially if the aim was or is of an "Absolute" realm?
For the coming few weeks i will be indulged in some atronomically cosmical opus. However, i will and shall not claim the " NO MORE PROCRASTINATION" thing, because, being on the verge of becoming a rhizometect, I would dare myself to Procrastinate.



And do you consider this procrastination?

Aren't they members of the rhizomatic community?

Browsing the internet, I came by these photos, which might be considered as pure but hybrid members of the flock of creatures whom we might ever resemble to BLOBS.

Well, although defined by some as the ugliest creatures below the surface of the earth, I can see no uncommonality why we can't appropriate these creatures to architecture. I mean we hover arround "drawing" plans, sections, elevations, and sometimes we "build" 3d physical models and then with some money in the budget, we go into the 3d virtual simulation tools. But, let's face it, what we come out with "are" architectures that would never ever resemble any human need ( and i used here the term "are" instead of is to render the issue of eclecticism. You (of course I won't say me because by writing this blog I am confessing of the power of unti-ecclectisicm). You are manipulating pre-existing traits of architecture that once was considered unrecognizable in its times, and now you copy these traits and say "WE DEFINED BEAUTY". I say to you, you the architectural puppeteers, ENOUGH. Now it is time to stop thinking architecture, architecture of the traits, and start thinking Rhizometecture. Now it is time to evolve...





......Be proud to Deviate.....it's time to Instigate......Dictate your own Fate......You're about to Detonate......

PLEA_Passive and Low Energy Building in Beirut Central District

"We can’t breathe under water...but we can generate an Amphibian".

This was the title I choose for a passive and Low Energy Building in Beirut Central District. As an Architecture undergraduate student, I found it relevant now to participate in an international competition although knowing in advance that I might not get a chance having competitors from all over the world( Italy, London, US...to name some). The sole aim was to break the wall of Platonism and Cartesian Euclideanism in Forms and Form generation process even if this means designing a passive and sustainable and low energy building and even within strict building rules and regulations emposed on the competitors by Solidere( the constrcution company behind reconstructing beirut).

So being an architecture maniac, my proposal was to build an amphibian, a building that lives both inside and outside water( outside water as is the case of all buildings, and inside water due to the fact that beirut is a costal city always suceptible to heavy rains).

Now consider an amphibian, a smooth-skinned vertebrate, such as a frog or salamander, that characteristically hatches as an aquatic larva with gills. The larva then transforms into an adult having air-breathing lungs. We could, implementing high-end computer aided design and animation software, to not only design but also generate a Residential Amphibian; a building capable of literally breathing in summer and warming itself in winter adapting to the Lebanese ecological and environmental surrounding; hence maintaining a bottom-up approach in energy responsive architectural design.

contending the extensive use of technology in preserving our internal and external ecology hence environment, there is a potentiality of using technology, especially high end animation software as simulation and manipulation tools to help generate a building that might be once considered an Amphibian, adapting and abiding by the rules of the environment.

Anti_Positivistic Rhizometecture...

I thought I can't mention systemism without initiating you about the hidden confines of its assets. Positivism, a word/world depletedly used in the architectural field specifically, and in a cosmological scale applied to all precepts of life. We curently think, rationalizing reasonably, presuming of a born ability to perceive everything. Yet we encounter "X" things which we can't perceive, or do we? How could we admit that there are things that exist yet we can't be able to perceive in their enitrely. Then "X" things are not to exist in our world, but do they exist?
Here where I want to initiate my speculations about anti-positivism and the anti-positivistic architect/human being. We(positivistic adherances) highly accept the existence of the "X"-thing yet on the same hand we negate its feasablility. Then how could we perceive it?

To know speculations for unanswered iterations, Interact and converse to this post, to groove in an interface of anti-positivism.

On the verge of a shift...

On the verge of a new yet old paradigm, I hereby speculate of a post-systemism, a systemic paradigm that is subject not to philosophical humanitarian paranoia, but a systemic paradigm that renders constructivism as not only a theoretical tool but a practical implementation on the human being to satisfy his only being.