The New Year always causes one to reflect on the recent past, but especially so today, the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. I have been fortunate to work with a dedicated group of volunteers at HOK to design a children’s center and orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Earlier this week, we presented our latest design to the client, Fondation Enfant Jesus, as well as to the U.S. Green Building Council. The results were very positive.
Our collective goal to create a nurturing and restorative place is taking shape. In many ways, though, this project is more difficult than the large, …
The Smarter Planet blog took time out of their busy agenda to catch up with our very own Chip Crawford yesterday as part of their innovation/pure genius blog. The Q+A covers everything from his early interests in the field of Landscape Architecture to the latest thinking around the HOK effect and FIT. I know that we all think the world is smarter with Chip in it…cool to see other big thinkers do too! Check it out here.
I have always thought of HOK as a passport to opportunities and I have certainly been one of the most fortunate to somehow find my way into some really incredible places. My trip last week to the Meeting of the Minds conference in Boulder amazed me with the best of them.
YES….the conference was awesome. Each speaker more inspiring than the last…sharing their views with everything there is to know about transportation/technology/smart cities/sustainability/and then some. Here’s a link to a post covering the conference on the Sustainable Cities Collective blog and link to videos of the presentations.
But one of the best parts of the whole adventure was the work in preparation for the conference…and a …
The Metropolis Next Generation entry has garnered another award: 2011 AIA-DC Unbuilt Award. The 2011 Washington UNBUILT Awards Program recognizes excellence in projects that to date remain unbuilt – theoretical and unbuilt commissioned projects. Congratulations again to the HOK / Vanderweil Design Team!
Integral to the development of this project was a balance between energy conservation measures and design aesthetics. While this goal may seem evident, available technologies create a unique challenge for designers to marry these two principles. It took great strides to move from research into development, and formalize gestures into 3D Vizualizations that were recently featured at Design DC, where the AIA-DC Unbuilt Awards were announced.
Timelines on anything not directly work related are a little fluid these days and clearly I’m a little behind on my blogging as the dates on the piece below which has been gently gathering dust in folder on my hard drive can attest to…
I had been back barely a week from my fun-filled water safari in Jeddah when conferences and meetings called once again and I packed my barely dried clothes, hopped on the Eurostar train and made it across to Paris where I was to chair the ULI European Sustainable Development council.
This time though I was happily not on my own. Our very own Chip Crawford was kindly with me as a speaker for the ULI Paris …
Einstein wrote that his faith in humanity is restored, whenever he sees a grown man riding a bike.
I’ve always liked that statement. There is a certain poetry to it.
There is also a certain poetry to a bike itself. It is a model of integrated design and thinking. Elegance of design, simplicity, refinement. Resopnsive and adaptable. Functional yet exhilerating. Sustainable, recyclable, efficient and practical. An engagement of all the senses – movement, sound, tactile sensation. Moreover, on the opertational side, are a series of individual parts, all performing at their optimum, to ensure success. And at the centre of it all – often overlooked by many architects and designers – is the person. Clearly, the bike is indeed a model we may choose to look to, when …
Following our First Annual FIT Gathering last November in Chicago, a number of us have been thinking a lot about what is next and how we might apply some of the amazing Fully Integrated Thinking [FIT] that surfaced at the event. One of the really interesting potentials that we witnessed was the ability to apply FIT to an organization. Imagine a FIT HOK!!!
To get there, we are taking a look at how our Planning Group is organized and how we can ‘optimize’ the connectivity of our network of 16 locations…and what organizational influences we should look at to ‘adapt and evolve’ to the next level of performance. There are many factors to consider, including the critical issues of financial performance …
This was a big week and it ended with a harmonious treat. I got to go to Chicago to participate in a day-long pre-Greenbuild conference of our own making to review, learn from and evolve our latest thinking to come out of our collaboration with the Biomimicry Guild. To unwind, I sat down and watched Super Nanny and What Would You Do? and just when I had had enough ‘reality’…Nate (my thrisis-savior soulmate/husband) flips the channel and we were sucked into some beautiful imagery of the world with Prince Charles talking about living more sustainably, returning to organic farming, building cities to be more life-friendly.
I am so excited to share this video fresh from our latest and greatest PechaKucha Night in STL a few weeks ago. HOK’s very own Tim Gaidis was one of the biggest highlights of the night with his 20 x 20 presentation revealing the big paradigm shift in his life as a designer. As you might imagine from the title, this had a lot to do with our alliance with the Biomimicry Guild.
We had 12 other wonderful presentations at PK Night, some of which you can find here. In addition to some great photography here, we also had the wonderful surprise of a sketch artist in our midst who captured another lively presentation and posted on his blog, here. …
You think I have flipped with my new addiction to the ‘open space’ of biomimicry. But below, a FastCompany article/series called ”Case Studies in Sustainability: The Designer’s Accord“ is yet another cool dose, this time with IDEO, an incredible thinking-powerhouse in their effort to redesign the internal structure of the USGBC. My dream is that HOK can muster the courage to look at how we are organized…and how we might become more resilient and organic…more nimble…inclusive…able to adapt and evolve with the speed of this new world economy.
A regenerative HOK would be our greatest contribution to sustainability.
Our clients clearly need this and I know if we listen carefully …
Here at HOK we work very closely with the Biomimicry Guild - heck, I sit right next to our resident “Biologist at the Design Table”, Taryn Mead. We’ve done many projects together, and they’re great collaborators – They’re always on board with whatever we’re planning.
It is only fitting, then, that we get on board with what they’re now planning – The Great TV Rebellion of 2010. Sponsored by the Biomimicry Institute, they are encouraging children (young and old) to get off of the couch and into the natural world for Earth Week. So – TAKE THE PLEDGE and turn off your electronic devices and go interact with …
In celebration of ‘the Fifth of November’, aka ‘BIM Day’ I thought I’d post some ideas of what BIM (Building Information Modeling/Management) might look like in the future. This could be 20 years or 30 years, or never, but we should never stop thinking ‘what if’. In fact, recently I’ve been thinking about the possibilities so much that I’m getting scared that I don’t really know nearly as much as I should.
At any rate, I’m going to post possible future-casting ideas for the way in which we could be using BIM in the future to harness the power of the ‘building in vitro’. Some of these ideas are simply and process software related, but a majority of the focus is …
A big thanks to Harvard Magazine for featuring our work with the Biomimicry Guild (check out previous posts we’ve done about those amazing folks here, here, and here). We’re so proud to have our very own Thomas Knittel, in our New York office, featured in the article and even to have received a little holla over at Planetizen.
Stay tuned for more on the HOK projects they featured in the future here on HOKLife… pretty great things are happening!
The Zero Emissions Building design team is using use life’s principles as one filter for potential solutions. During the July 31 charrette, HOK Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus described sustainable design ideas from nature generated in a session that included her and Tim Gaidis from HOK and Dr. Dayna Baumeister and Tim McGee from the Biomimicry Guild.
Their suggestions for the larger design team included:
Consider solutions that are locally attuned and responsive — derived from the local climate and place in St. Louis.
Use cyclical processes and closed loops (waste = food, for example).
Optimize rather than maximize. Get the most benefits possible out
Future alien technolgies travel back in time to bring us… Gaudi Stool.
It’s been a while but this was such a shocking discovery for me that it has forced me back into active blogging. Thanks, inspiration – I’ve missed you!
What does it take to design a net zero emissions office building? Because few of our clients are currently considering carbon neutrality in their projects, an HOK team — with help from some wonderful friends — is designing one through a series of virtual charrettes.
In response to Architecture 2030′s challenge to the global architecture and building community, HOK has committed to designing all buildings to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030.
The idea for the charrette is the brainchild of HOK Chairman Bill Valentine, who wants the firm’s people to gain the knowledge and experience required to design zero emissions buildings. This vision is being turned into reality …
Two trains of thought. The city planned by the people, and the city planned for the people.
What do you think? Is one more democratic? Is one more successful and to whom? Is there a difference in the individual good and the collective good and do we view them differently? (think hard about that last one)
Maybe it’s both, I don’t know. But I have my assumptions. Maybe there’s just the ‘public’ and ‘planned’ framework that’s the most important part. Like New York City in the 1811?
One more thought. In the scheme of things, ‘What would nature do?’ Develop a framework or organize a system that builds its own framework? Instead of the ‘overlay’ for the greater good, it could …
I can’t believe it has already been a week since our incredible visit to Helena, Montana, with our friends at the Biomimicry Guild. Never…ever…ever…ever did I think I could be more moved by the potential for the Alliance. I wish all our HOKers and everyone else reading this could have been there to plug in. Maybe we need a good virus!
One of the best discussions we had was about how nature extracts elements from water and reuses everything. We brainstormed new green industry opportunities for river cities — and talked specifically about how to extract critical elements from the Missouri River.
I don’t know if it’s an eerie coincidence or divine …
I’ve mentioned HOK’s commitment to Design Resilience in the past, and it is with this in mind that I’d like to recommend a quick view of the commencement address given by a landscape architecture student to the Graduate School of Design at Harvard this spring. He gives a spirited talk entitled “The Harvard Elm Crisis” in which the loss of the school’s historic elms is woven into a parable about why we must strive for biodiversity and design resilience into our beloved places. Seems …
I have the incredible fortune to be in Montana right now with a unique ensemble of biomimicrists, a planner, an architect and an engineer, all of which despite their diverse backgrounds, are birds of a feather. As part of HOK’s alliance with the Biomimicry Guild, we’re here cooking up some big ideas for our clients today and tomorrow. It is so exciting to be a part of this convergence that is forging a new path, based on some very old principles, for a more sustainable future. One thought for the day which came from Gerry Faubert “…designing uni-functional buildings is like designing a city with only one-way …
It’s a very exciting time around the Planning Group, we’re always on the go! As such, we recently took some time to mentally escape from the day-to-day and explore the “Art of the Long View.” Inspired by Peter Schwartz’ book of the same name, we partnered with our friends at Magellan Consulting to research what we felt were the top 10 forces shaping our world between now and 2050. We’re calling this the futurity series. As we re-imagine the role of the design community in our global economy, this material has served as food-for-thought for some amazing conversations across HOK.
So what did we learn? Though we’re still chatting, the idea of resiliency has undeniably emerged as …
It is an exciting time to do what we do. In a couple weeks I will be back in India with our Lavasa team seeing first hand this series of communities taking shape. Each time we go, the collaboration with our clients and partners at the Biomimicry Guild and Buro Happold is enriched with new ideas for a more sustainable future and new breakthroughs for how we can incorporate nature’s genius into solutions for the built environment. There is an energy now in the design community that you can’t help but be excited about. Just check out the …
So being a big fan of fractals and digital fabrication, I think this little project is most interesting. It’s unfortunate there isn’t a better view of the smaller twigs forming the surface of the table but what a shibby concept. This is sweet design of the 8-bit caliber but I definitely approve and wish that projects like this would get more notoriety because with better skills at fabrication I believe we could incorporate many of these concepts into buildings themselves to yield less waste and better material efficiency.
They may be tiny and seemingly irrelevant, but Tardigrades just might have a few things to teach the “more evolved creatures” reading these words. Commonly called water bears or moss piglets, these segmented animals are so fascinating because they can survive the most extreme conditions: freezing, boiling, drought, radiation, etc., etc.
Confronted by the extreme conditions of a global recession, we all might benefit from studying the wisdom of these 1 mm organisms, as well as other geniuses of nature and design.
We’ve read about it. We’ve implemented it into our projects. We even have an exclusive alliance in relation to it. On Thursday morning, with Janine Benyus (co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild) in town for a lecture series at Washington University, biomimicry took over the HOK St. Louis office.
Time magazine named her a “Hero of the Environment,” TED invited her to speak at its influential conference…and HOK St. Louis welcomed Janine Benyus to our home to share her wisdom on biomimicry (the science she pioneered).
HOK is working with Janine and her Biomimicry Guild team to integrate nature’s genius into the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities worldwide.
Keep your eyes peeled for our overzealous photographer, who peppers Janine’s comments with FLASHES and makes his official cameo appearance at about :55.
After enriching all of us with her genius, Janine visited Washington University to inspire the next generation of architects, planners and urban designers.
In 2003 I traveled to Aspen on an adventure to attend the International Design Conference in Aspen to listen to some of the most intelligent individuals I’ve ever had the privilege of hearing. Some of the names there were Gregg Lynn, Natalie Jeremijenko, John Maeda, GRAFT, UN Studio’s Ben Van Berkel, and Imaginary Forces. There was a lot that went on that weekend, but I wanted to focus on two of those names for this post; Gregg Lynn and Imaginary Forces.
Please welcome Jason Zah,” he hesitated.
“Zah-bah,” this was getting ridiculous.
“Zah-ru” I just shook my head, “cha.” Completely wrong
I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Someone suggested this as a way to get over my fear of interacting with people. I honestly thought it was just a way for other people to laugh at my insecurities. The only thing funny about me is the way I look, and I was supposed to go up there to try to sell this idea.
“Jason couldn’t make it, so they asked me to fill in. I’m Justin.” They were like vultures, waiting for fresh meat.
“I really didn’t prepare anything. They just found me out in the hall…ha…ha?” My sense of humour wasn’t going to cut …
I’m not even going to try and lie. I hate foie gras. I don’t like the smell, the taste, the texture, or the idea. All around I just think it’s a pretty disgusting food. (I’ve even tasted it at the most coveted of restaurants in Atlanta)
Having said that, I watched this lecture anyway from Dan Barber about his experience with a farmer of Geese in Spain. I don’t want to give too graphic of a summary about how foie gras is typically produced (it involves force feeding) but this video was rather interesting in that this farmer of geese allows them to gorge themselves (instead of force-feeding) by pampering them with a huge farm …
Here in DC, a few of us really love Biomimicry. In light of our partnership with the Biomimicry Guild, we wanted to share this love with our office. Earlier this week, we did :)
My day began with a LEED team meeting for a project in DC. It went well; this team is really on it. Half an hour before the 12PM presentation on Biomimicry was supposed to begin, we’re sitting in the same conference room we needed for the presentation. After everyone finished a good run
