the last of the concrete

Last weekend the last of the concrete for the Learning Center was poured, as described here.

The construction of the EPFL Learning Center is going into high gear this weekend, with the completion of the undulating concrete floor of the structure. The floor surface is being constructed in two extended continuous pours: the first happened some time ago, and the second is taking place now (July 11-13). According to the construction blog, some 4,300 m3 of concrete will be poured between today and Sunday, with the work continuing through the night.

And, it’s possible to follow the progress on two webcams: here and here.

Neirivue - le Moleson

I should have known, heading on the train from Lausanne to Sunday’s race in Neirivue, that it wasn’t going to be a beautiful clear sunny day like Saturday had been. I was actually glad for the clouds - from what I’d heard this race can be really hard on a hot, clear day. I wasn’t mentally prepared though for the sudden heavy rain, thunderclaps and powerful winds that met us near the treeline, leaving visibility at something less than 100m and turning the mountainside into a mudslide.

Still, it was a fun (and memorable) race! I’ll especially remember the many people who stood on the side of the course, offering some words of encouragement and an orange slice as we trudged by. These were the heroes of the day - whole families out for a walk in the mountains, who didn’t even seem to be bothered by the change in weather. Seeing them it seemed shameful to even think about stopping, and that kept me going in the last two kilometers.

Montreux - les Rochers de Naye

The day of the Rochers de Naye race was hot, with only a slight breeze, but it was comfortably cool in the shade. The race was a memorable experience - and the best part was seeing Kamni and Noah waiting at the top! (They took the train up from Montreux).

My time was 2′12″ - I was hoping for 2′07″ but lost momentum and resolve around kilometer 15, with the most difficult 4k to go. It’s good to have room for improvement next year!

Next race is Neirivue - le Moleson, next weekend.

These two simple LED displays are the first prototype for a project I’m working on that involves the visualization of indoor air quality.
The idea of the project is to visualize something that’s usually invisible (indoor air quality) through the introduction of some simple display devices in the room. These first prototypes give a rough approximation of how this kind of information could be visualized; later prototypes will be more carefully integrated in the architecture. Ultimately, the project will explore information display as a kind of dynamic ornament, drawing on the tradition of architectural ornament to design the displays themselves and their mode of communicating information.
The technical details: I’ve been working with Christian Abegg, an undergrad student at EPFL, in setting up a sensor network for monitoring indoor air quality along a few parameters: temperature, humidity, CO, CO2, dust, and VOC’s (volatile organic compounds). These sensors are connected to AVR ethernet boards, which are polled each minute by a central server. The LED displays are also connected to AVR ethernet boards, and can be associated with any sensor or combination of sensors using PHP scripts on the central server. I’m working today on connecting two of the sensors to these displays.

Happy Bloomsday!

JamesJoyce1904.jpg

If I could be anywhere today, I would choose to be either here or here.

Switzerland should be a good place to celebrate the life and work of a man who spent a good part of his life in Zurich, and is buried there, but I don’t know of any public Ulysses readings in Lausanne or Zurich either … I guess I’ll have to be content with reading a few passages at home tonight … or listen to Ulysses on tape …or  even to a recording of Joyce reading Joyce.

A recent episode of On the Media (one of my favorite shows on National Public Radio) focused on ‘Space and Media’: topics about the way people inhabit their environment. This is a show that I’ve long appreciated for its thoughtful interpretations of the media, and it was  a pleasant surprise to hear them taking on a topic that’s close to my own research interests.

There’s a description of the show’s several segments on this page (and a download link).

The most interesting parts to me were:

  • A discussion with Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times Magazine about Japan’s ‘immersion pods‘ and digital media as a driver of change in the design of the contemporary home.
  • A discussion of the urban impact of a decision to ban outdoor advertising in Sao Paulo.
  • An interview with Ben Rubin about the ‘Moveable Type‘ installation in the new New York Times building.

Overall, a great hour’s listening!

practice run to Rocher de Naye

Yesterday morning I did a run of the Montreux - Rocher de Naye course - it’s an 18.8k race from Montreux on the shores of Lac Leman to a nearby summit, with an elevation gain of 1600m. About a third of the race is on rocky but well-used trails, and the rest is on paved roads. There are two extended flat sections in the middle, and the rest is a constant climb, with the steepest part in the last few kilometers.
Overall the course was about as I’d expected, with the exception of the last few kilometers which were really steep and much harder than the hills I’ve been training on. Yesterday I walked a good part of this last climb - on the day of the race I’ll hopefully save more energy for this section. It was also harder than I’d expected to run on the rocky trail sections - in terms of balance, and simply hard on the feet in lightweight trainers.
It’s a beautiful course, especially the section from Caux to the summit, which passes through some lovely and vertiginously steep high meadows on the way to the mountaintop. It was a chilly, wet day. I snapped this photo of the first glimpse of the Rocher de Naye summit.

The Textile Architecture studio described in this post continued this semester, and I went to see the results at ECAL yesterday (upstairs from the DD+P Pavilion).
It’s exciting to see how some of the projects from last semester have advanced, and also to see some exciting new ideas.

Digital Design + Production is a course that was taught this past semester by Russell Loveridge of EPFL’s LAPA. The course culminated in a 8-day design charette, and I went to ECAL yesterday to see the result - a pavilion based on Hani Buri’s research in origami structures. The material for the pavilion was aluminum composite sheets with a polyethylene core, a material that’s easily bent and deformed in sheet form but that becomes quite rigid when folded. The pavilion was constructed in a number of sections, each of which was cut on a CNC milling machine; the folds were ‘pre-creased’ by milling the fold lines through one of the aluminum cover sheets and part-way through the polyethylene.
The panels were joined using bolts on the interior, and the exterior appears to be a continuous folded surface.
The interior of the pavilion is finished with a milled plywood that forms a bench with concealed lighting.
Apparently the panels were not too hard to fold by hand - although it was a time-consuming process.
The final product was really impressive - especially as the result of an 8-day charette!

The signature forms of the EPFL Learning Center are quickly emerging from the construction site at the center of campus - it looks like most of the formwork is complete, and about a third of the concrete for the curving floor surface has been poured already. SANAA won the competition for this building in 2004, and since then everyone has been wondering how they would realize their concept - a building whose interior spaces are defined in part by the topography of a continuously undulating floor. I still have many questions about how this building will function (as a student center, as a central library), but I’m also enchanted by the building as it begins to become a visible element of our campus.
This photo was taken from a terrace on the top floor of the Mathematics Dept. building - I’ll try to take photos often from here to document the construction process. I’m also hoping to join a tour of the construction site one day.
There’s a construction blog for the Learning Center here, and an album of construction photos.

Ornament?

I’m not sure whether this billboard on the Basel SBB is a permanent feature or a special addition for Euro2008. I’m also not sure whether it should be considered as ornament.

It’s interesting to ask what elements of the facade are ornamental, as opposed to decorative. The bas-reliefs, statuary, column capitals, and keystones? What about the rusticated stonework and the patina of the copper roof (the Re-Sampling Ornament exhibit cites weathering as one type of ornament, although presumably the type of weathering that is anticipated in some way by the architect)? And what about the various types of signage, and the brand messages? The flags, clocks, and SBB signage? Can a billboard become ornament by acknowledging the architectural context, like this cut-to-fit canvas? I think Venturi would approve of this complex superimposition of signs. But is it ornament?