Francis Kere - Serpentine Pavillion

Being both an African and an aspiring architect people such as David Adjaye, Kunle Adeyemi, and the man featured here Francis Kere have always served as inspirations and also idols that I've looked up to. Seeing Kere being chosen for such an amazing honor which designing a pavilion for the Serpentine Pavillion is, is truly captivating.

Coming off a year that saw David Adjaye and associates unveil not only the African American museum in D.C. but also begin work on a newly revitalized shipyard in San Francisco, it's an exciting time to be an African architecture student.

In typical fashion, Kere not only mimics and nods to nature but actually incorporates it in his design as well. His tree inspired design features a rainwater collector waterfall which reminded me of a cool water collector design by Italian architect Arturo Vittori I saw late last year on Dezeen's YouTube channel. The architecture features an open courtyard and the ceiling lets in natural light through slits in the wooden roofing. All in all, another great work from my idol Kere...I'd expect nothing less.

Virgil Abloah: Columbia Spring 2017 GSAPP Lecture

As usual Virgil Abloh drops some gems as he goes through an imaginative, though somewhat unorganized, lecture for the Columbia GSAPP. Anyone who appreciates fashion, architecture, or engineering and doesn't know who Virgil Abloh is is doing themselves a disservice! Ranging from buildings he's designed, working with Kanye, shoe game, the recent FW17 Off White fashion show, and his ideas on art, culture, and design, Abloh brings us along on a tour de force on art and culture that is both exhilarating and enthralling.

Hayao Miyazaki: The GOAT

Amazing Video by JD Thomas on How Miyazaki & Imagination

This January I went on a bit of a Studio Ghibli binge. (If you don't know about Studio Ghibli, first of all I'm sorry...but here's a good place to start. You won't be disappointed!) After watching a ton of his old films, I realized I didn't know much about Miyazaki the guy behind so much of Studio Ghibli's success who is also its founder and primary animator. After researching him and watching The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness on Netflix, which is a short documentary on his filmmaking process, I realized that the man behind the productions was just as interesting as the art he creates as well. The above YouTube video by JD Thomas talks about Miyazaki's unique approach to creating and how he isn't bounded by the rules and laws that govern our actual world. He is able to create beauty by creating worlds not constrained to the same rules ours are and it is wonderful.

Another Jewel by Channel Criswell This Time on Miyazaki's Views of Humanity

One thing I love about Miyazaki is his love of humanity, his commitment to feminism, passion for flight, and how he manages to marry all this together in his movies to create beautiful works of art. Criswell in this video was able to put my feeling into words and any Miyazaki fan or humanist in general will appreciate Criswell's words.

Miyazaki on AI

This was the last video I watched after my long Miyazaki binge and I think that the bluntness as well as the views Miyazaki expressing in the short two and a half short minute clip shows best how he views the modern world. In The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness he stated that he was a 20th century man and not a man of the 21st century. While that may be true, I truly believe their are things to be learned from those who grew up in times long past, and while progress is inevitable, we should move forward intentionally and not without aim, purpose, or most importantly humanity.

Wooden Skyscrapers in Our Future?

The Construction Specifier talking about the process and current planning going into the development of a predominantly wooden skyscraper going up in Seattle. Needless to say this is super interesting. All photos are via the original article and I do not claim ownership, just trying to promote amazing engineering.