Architects Without Borders?

Why isn't there more international movement among architects.  There's such a lot of building going on in places like Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai.  But much of the design is crap.  At the same time, places like New York seem to be overflowing with talented designers struggling to get work.  Why not go abroad and do projects here?  

Of course, the Rem Koolhaas' and Zaha Hadids of the world have figured this out.  Their biggest projects these days are coming in places like Beijing and the UAE.  But there must be room at the next level down -- the not-quite-starchitects and just-out-of-school designers... Go east young designers.

What sparked this?  Interesting article in the times about a Chinese developer who's brought in 100 up-and-coming young architects to each design a house in his residential development in inner mongolia.  Sounds like a complete clusterfuck. 

Jean Nouvel

Nice article in the Times about Jean Nouvel, who just won the Pritzker Prize (sort of the Nobel for Architecture). I like a lot of his buildings. And of course, everyone should be able to have their museum designed by someone who looks like a Bond villian.

Some of his other works:

So you want to live forever...

This article in Wired talks about Ray Kurzweil's quest to prolong his life until technology takes over to the point that no one has to die. I read his book, "The Age of Spiritual Machines," and loved it. He's got a very cool take on technological progress and artificial intelligence. Basically he says that the rate at which technology is advancing isn't linear; it's exponential, so it keeps accelerating (as in the graph here). That means all kind of cool things, like artificial intelligence, are pretty much bound to happen.

"But the crucial thing that Kurzweil did was to make the end of the human era seem actionable: He argues that while artificial intelligence will render biological humans obsolete, it will not make human consciousness irrelevant. The first AIs will be created, he says, as add-ons to human intelligence, modeled on our actual brains and used to extend our human reach. AIs will help us see and hear better. They will give us better memories and help us fight disease. Eventually, AIs will allow us to conquer death itself. The singularity won't destroy us, Kurzweil says. Instead, it will immortalize us."

If you're interested in technology and where things like AI are going, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Age of Spiritual Machines. Very easy read. The only issue I've got with him is that I think a lot of the immortality business he talks about is motivated by a serious fear of death. Impending immortality or not, everybody's got to come to terms with the possibility of death. Preferably in a graceful way... Other than that, Kurzweil's a great thinker.He lives a couple blocks away from where I grew up. I also used to carpool with his son, Ethan.

The Difference Between Paris and Mumbai

A couple of weeks ago, the Times ran this article from their Paris Bureau Chief giving 8 Pieces of Advice about living in Paris.  It ran with the picture above, and included the choice tidbit "Make friends with a good butcher," along with a charming description of Monsieur Yvon.  

My butcher in Mumbai is named Tyrone.  He has eight fingers, a cleaver that looks like it was forged over a campfire, and a shirt that says "For Good Luck, Rub My Belly."  I snapped this as he was mauling a contraband tenderloin for me.   Other than that, it's just like Paris. 

There's got to be a way to prosecute this...

"Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients Via Computer," from Wired.  I mean, crashing someone's hard drive is a huge pain in the ass, but if you're actually physically hurting people... I mean, that's got to demand assault charges, right?

Andreessen on Obama

Mark Andreessen is one of the founders of Netscape and a prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneur.  Last year, before the election moved into full-steam and back when Barack Obama was still just a long shot freshman senator from Illinois, Andreessen had the chance to sit down with a couple friends and meet Barack Obama for an hour and a half.  You can read his full description in his blog.  

I've excerpted his conclusion here because it encapsulates much of my own impression of Obama, including a lot of what I think gets passed over in the mainstream focus of popular campaigning:

What's the picture that emerges from these four impressions?

Smart, normal, curious, not radical, and post-Boomer.

If you were asking me to write a capsule description of what I would look for in the next President of the United States, that would be it.

Having met him and then having watched him for the last 12 months run one of the best-executed and cleanest major presidential campaigns in recent memory, I have no doubt that Senator Obama has the judgment, bearing, intellect, and high ethical standards to be an outstanding president -- completely aside from the movement that has formed around him, and in complete contradition to the silly assertions by both the Clinton and McCain campaigns that he's somehow not ready.

Before I close, let me share two specific things he said at the time -- early 2007 -- on the topic of whether he's ready.

We asked him directly, how concerned should we be that you haven't had meaningful experience as an executive -- as a manager and leader of people?

He said, watch how I run my campaign -- you'll see my leadership skills in action.

At the time, I wasn't sure what to make of his answer -- political campaigns are often very messy and chaotic, with a lot of turnover and flux; what conclusions could we possibly draw from one of those?

Well, as any political expert will tell you, it turns out that the Obama campaign has been one of the best organized and executed presidential campaigns in memory. Even Obama's opponents concede that his campaign has been disciplined, methodical, and effective across the full spectrum of activities required to win -- and with a minimum of the negative campaigning and attack ads that normally characterize a race like this, and with almost no staff turnover. By almost any measure, the Obama campaign has simply out-executed both the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

This speaks well to the Senator's ability to run a campaign, but speaks even more to his ability to recruit and manage a top-notch group of campaign professionals and volunteers -- another key leadership characteristic. When you compare this to the awe-inspiring discord, infighting, and staff turnover within both the Clinton and McCain campaigns up to this point -- well, let's just say it's a very interesting data point.

We then asked, well, what about foreign policy -- should we be concerned that you just don't have much experience there?

He said, directly, two things.

First, he said, I'm on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I serve with a number of Senators who are widely regarded as leading experts on foreign policy -- and I can tell you that I know as much about foreign policy at this point as most of them.

Being a fan of blunt answers, I liked that one.

But then he made what I think is the really good point.

He said -- and I'm going to paraphrase a little here: think about who I am -- my father was Kenyan; I have close relatives in a small rural village in Kenya to this day; and I spent several years of my childhood living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Think about what it's going to mean in many parts of the world -- parts of the world that we really care about -- when I show up as the President of the United States. I'll be fundamentally changing the world's perception of what the United States is all about.

He's got my vote.

Thanks to Cardiff for the link to this post. 

Why Cities Are Our Future...

This article on CNN.com discusses the growth of cities and urban populations around the world.  

The Numbers:

- "UN-Habitat says that a staggering 95 percent of the expected global population growth we will see over the next 2 decades will be absorbed by cities in the developing world... What that means is by 2030 another 2 billion people from the developing world will be living in cities (only 100 million from the developed world meanwhile will be doing the same). Currently 75 percent of world's poorest people -- 1 billion -- live in cities."

- "Already, 75 percent of the world's 21 mega-cities are based in the developing world, and by some estimates, 27 of the 33 mega-cities expected to exist by 2015 will be in developing countries."

- "Cities have always traditionally been the centers of the world's wealth, and the World Bank says that as much as 80 percent of the future economic growth of the developing world will come from its cities."

- "In the next 30 years, China alone will have around 752 million urbanites, all needing to get around town. Currently, less than 1 percent of Chinese own a car... If each of those 752 million city dwellers copied the transportation habits of your average resident of San Francisco in 1990, the actions of that one country would result in 1 billion additional tons of carbon emissions a year -- the same amount that was released worldwide by all road transport in 1998."