Tiger

2010 is the year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar, of course it starts a little later than the traditional Gregorian calendar. This is my year, the year I was born was Tiger, so every 12 years my life goes on an uptick! As the economy comes around and people are looking for an architect, I think that the seeds will have been spread by then, next; reap the rewards.

Mentality

The tightening of our belts is going to create a recession mentality much like my grandparents mentality during the Great Depression. Like my in-laws, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, surviving famines and minimal food distribution, our immediate future will be scaled back to ensure we retain some wealth and wait for a real catalyst to propel us forward. It might be a environmental, further economic, or man-made event, but I think that something like that will make us more efficient and leaner as a nation. I don't want to see a world war to get us out of this like after the great depression, or the Cold War escalation of spending in the 80's, but more like a huge green revolution to create jobs and export our technology to the world, not us importing everything, only exporting our money.

Conatus

Conatus is a term used in early philosophies or psychology and metaphysics to refer to an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself. This is a term that should be used on a daily basis about what we do to improve our lives.

Recession

The definition of a recession is to recede or use or have less. We have to learn this lesson so that it is not repeated again. What are we doing as a country to embed this message in our lifestyle?

New(old) Cars

What can be said about the new(old) car movement in comparison to architecture? These are both equatable to how we look to the past for inspiration, remaking cars, movies, fashions, etc. from a time we look at at being historically pure. What is same with the new(old) car movement and architecture is that we should be keeping with purer, simpler forms in building and revising the interiors to how we live now. The same has been done in the auto industry with re-imagining old styles of cars, stripping out the old interiors and replacing them with the contemporary interior finishes and modern electronics. This is a portion of what drives me to simplify the design of houses and look to the great houses of the farm era.

Logo Design

I have retained a graphic designer to re-brand me and get the whole website and cards, etc. tied together. I look forward to the design process and seeing what an outsider thinks how I should portray myself.

Small Houses

http://traditional-building.com/clem_labine/?m=200906

This is a great article about the disparity of architects and what clients want in terms of style and size. This type of article only reinforces that there is a need for smaller houses, unfortunately progressive architects don't want to look to our history for examples.