Specimens of Un Natural History: the Bioluminescent Billboard, the Roving Forests and an Augmented Ferret

Liam Young, 08 12 08

Darting to the safety of the shadows a biotech ferret munches on its prey…

The fourth installment of an ongoing project.  Chapter 4: the Bioluminescent Billboard, the Roving Forests and an Augmented Ferret.

Carefully we watch our step as annoying bioluminescent billboards scamper about the pavement looking to catch someones attention…

The liquid twitter of nesting birds rings, parched leaves crackle and young trees trudge achingly feeling for the right weather. The warming sun trickles through the canopy of this migrating forest as it chases climate change across the globe in the morning light of a day yet to come.

See ‘The Electric Aurora’ in the previous Post for a further description of the concepts behind the project.

Specimens of Un Natural History: the Silk Factory

Liam Young, 08 12 08

The third installment of an ongoing project.  Chapter 3: the Silk Factory.

Pulled by moths an automated nomadic silk factory is spinning its glistening web under a lonely streetlamp.

See ‘The Electric Aurora’ in the previous Post for a further description of the concepts behind the project.

Specimens of Un Natural History: the CO2 Scrubber

Liam Young, 02 11 08

The second installment of an ongoing project.  Chapter 2: the CO2 Scrubber

Scurrying across the barren landscapes caused by deforestation are herds of ravenous CO2 Scrubbers. Top heavy with their filtration foilage they convert Carbon Dioxide to oxygen much more efficently than the trees that once stood above them. They migrate through areas of cleared forest, chasing logging trucks, always in search of dirty air.

See ‘The Electric Aurora’ in the previous Post for a further description of the project.

Specimens of Un Natural History: the electric sky

Liam Young, 24 09 08

The first installment of an ongoing project.  Chapter 1: the electric aurora.

In the preface to his 1957 bestiary ‘The Book of Imaginary Beings’ Jorge Luis Borges describes a child’s first visit to the zoo. With wonder and joy the child marvels at the strangeness and mysteries of the unfamiliar creatures that they have never before seen. This encounter with a zoo of the real sits within the catalogue of a zoo of mythology, inhabited by ‘necessary monsters’ which are imbued with the dreams and fears of those who conjured them.

Today our idealistic views of the natural world are becoming outmoded. We are beginning to encounter a new form of nature that seems born of the scientists of myth and allegory. The augmented body, genetic modification and neo biological invention is now confronting us with the
utterly novel reality of engineered ‘monsters’. This project engages with this call to redefine the very nature of nature by exploring the potential of monstrous myths and fictions as critical tools with which to engage with emerging environmental conditions and the evolving perception of nature in contemporary culture.

These questions are developed through “Specimens of Unnatural History”, a contemporary recasting of the bestiaries of the past As a zoological voyeur it explores the savannas of body modification, anime, taxidermy and biotechnology to gaze out across the near future population of this augmented wilderness.

This first instalment is an electric aurora. Thousands of these creatures swarm like locusts through the night sky, glowing within illuminated clouds. 

These monsters form critical instruments through which to view the potential of a transformed nature, perverted by the hybridization of culture and technology.

Barbicanism and its Errant Child

Darryl Chen, 27 07 08

Barbicanism and its Errant Child refers to the critical process of urbanism as the city makes and remakes itself, and more specifically to the Barbican as a potent reference point. This project is for the Bishopsgate Goodsyard, a long vacant site in London’s inner city. The Barbican’s own ideals, aspirations and current state of post-pubescent maturity indicate how one might go about developing a large brownfield site on the fringe of the highest concentration of financial capability in the world. (more…)

City Zoo

Liam Young, 21 07 08

Contemporary cities are no longer just accidental homes for animals that have been displaced from their natural habitat. They can now be seen as hotbeds of evolutionary change, shaping the adaptations of their resident fauna and providing an ideal theatre in which to see behaviour evolving at a pace rarely seen in the wild.

As we begin to view our cities as worthwhile ecosystems this project investigates the possibilities of a symbiotic relationship between two different systems of organization- technology and nature. (more…)

Barcelona and the satellite city

Liam Young, 21 07 08

Barcelona and the satellite city. Rethinking growth: Hyper-density and relational equilibrium

The project has recieved an honorable mention in the AA Prize for Unbuilt Work 2008

 you can view the reults and other entries here

This international architecture competition entry responds to a call for the rethinking of growth given a projected migration into the Barcelona region of 400,000 people over twenty years. Outcomes of the speculation are demonstrated into specific sites in Barcelona and the satellite city of Amposta, 2 hours from Barcelona by very fast train.

(more…)

Dublin Docklands Mixed Use Tower and U2 Studio

Liam Young, 21 07 08

view from river

Design competition for a residential / commercial tower, podium and U2’s new studio. The project was imagined as the centre piece of the Dublin docklands regeneration. With Jennifer Chen and Andy Chen.

view the project online at IrishArchitecture.com

It was proposed to fold the city streets, the public spaces and parklands of the docklands campshires, from an active engagement with the river, up through the height of the tower. The trajectory between the river and the stacked program of the tower is facilitated by a continuous ramping. The network of precast ramps provides circulation between the floor plates and is utilized to transfer loads to the structural skin. The spiralling public route, which facilitates programmatic exchange, forms the silhouette and image of the buildings as a new marker on the skyline. The vitality of the tower is seen through and across the buildings own ’songlines’ and provides a fitting notation for the collision of future aspirations and industrial working heritage within the docklands regeneration. (more…)