Urbanity

Urban space is a collection of attitudes and actions

Urban life is the experience of negotiation, exchange, and perceived managed evolution

Urban forms revolve around degrees of freedom, movement, and various notions of ownership.

European-based cultures stress predictability, planning, insurance for the future; a single truth , in the absence of which is fear of the unknown.

Statistically, we can only arrive at answers with rounded errors. E an unknown, unpredictable, messy estimate characterized by a gravitational force which

encodes the constant act of becoming something else. Urbanity is E - evolving

BLINK!s results are a process examining boundaries of conventional thinking and practice. Today's global economic network and cultural over-rides demand this.

Digital technology is adopted as a tool for establishing language. Experimentation and writings on methods, processes and techniques, as well as advanced use

of digital media are adopted for small and large projects. The work addresses the “city” fabric especially as it is evolves towards the 22nd century.

AUDIENCE

BLINK! is attracted to projects with a public component - the urban environment and public mind.

TYPICAL URBAN-SCALE SOLUTIONS

STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING + URBAN ANALYSIS . URBAN IN-FILL DEVELOPMENT . RETAIL + RESTAURANT DESIGN . HOUSING .

EDUCATIONAL + SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENTS . FURNITURE + EXHIBIT DESIGN . LAND ART + GRAPHIC DESIGN .

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OAKLAND - Infill /Office/Tasting Room

Often businesses lease predetermined spaces which have no relation to their unique genetic code of operation. As such, this results in excess asset capacity with high overhead

leading to low profits and, for some, eventual closure. The lab became interested in the 2-for-1 deal, the open-an-account-get-a-toaster sale gimmick as an urban renewal strategy.

What happens to an ignored community when two distinctly different tenants occupy the same host.

A thorough programmatic investigation of both the existing architect's office and its new office-mate, the coffee tasting room revealed a need for extensive storage needs by both

tenants. The more fertile ground, was investigating visitor behavior and restricting the design to only their area of movement. Space limitations and movement patterns resulted in

a duo-structure which allows extensive storage capacity, and dynamic spatial vocabulary which creates street interest.

The structure is the design. Typical wood-framing sliding by planar plywood sheathing results in a space of playful opacity/transparency.

Status - under construction

CLEVELAND - Irish Town Bend / Urban Study

Among several challenges presented by the site, a few are:

- Identify design solutions or methods to address a rapidly shifting hillside at the edge of a navigable freight channel.

The current instability of the soils suggests invasive solutions as well as adaptive responses.

- Connect historic Ohio City and neighboring communities to the river’s edge. Consider modes and means to connect

individuals to and through the site as well as important visual associations from several different perspectives.

- Explore the memory of the site’s vantage that witnessed Cleveland’s growth and decline, and offer an informed

perspective to observe the next chapter of Cleveland’s urban story.

- Consider the natural regeneration of abandoned urban landscapes and what role it might play in defining the

Cuyahoga Valley’s future.

Status - in progress

SURFSHOP / light guage steel building nilusdesigns

This low-budget new construction office/warehouse is now underway. The challenge to build a 7,000 sq. ft. building for very little required research into

building structures and materials. We knew that this was a project where the structure and the 'architecture' had to be one in the same. The final design

is a pre-engineered steel building fabricated off-site and assembled in-place. The frame is then skinned with translucent panels. When complete the

translucent panels will permit diffused light into the work space. Due to its suface, the panels will reflect cloud patterns during the day. At night the

building will glow like a lantern.

A building that exceeds rationality to the magical. It will be a building with its own life.

model under-construction under-construction final concept concept 1

SANTE FE MUSEO - Facade Upgrade / 'With Our Own Hands' Sketch Proposal

For this low-budget facade upgrade, the approach was to replace the thin skin thinly. Yes, rather than stuff the facade

with physicality, why not occupy that sliver called a 'facade' with nothingness, light, experience. A facade of nothing/something.

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WALLAWALLA - City Parking Lot Architecture as a Continuation of the City Proposal

Many cities are littered with grade level parking - at first approach, these are harsh windswept urbanscape. In actuality, some of these locations are successful

operative structures. WallaWalla's is currently a well-used open-air civic nexus - car park, bus transit station, farmers' market, music venue - at the steps of City Hall.

This proposal understands the site as the location at which occurs a co-mingling of forces in a porous petri dish type environment. Occupants exhibit constant

moving dynamic activities. Accommodating existing activities is a literal lift and bulge of the surface to arrive at new sheltered spaces and retained urbanized context.

existing summer weekend aerial site/roof plan site axon 0 - cars, buses, waiting, storage 1 - indoor cafe, great lawn sketch model photo wire mesh of great lawn primary structural walls great lawn apertures composite diagram sketch model

SAN FRANCISCO - Cacao Anasa Product Packaging and Retail Store design

Status - ongoing campaign.

SAN FRANCISCO - AKQA Advertising Agency nilus designs/huntsman

Concept Design - AKQA is an international interactive media agency, with offices in London and San Francisco. The SF offices are located in a historic

un-reinforced red brick building. For contemporary office use, the concept rests on the notion of 'presenting branded space' interjected within an existing world.

The result is an extremely contracted space where contemporary media meets handed-craft. High-gloss walls and a poured floors. The result is a welding

of the electronic space within a mechanical world of the past. Size: 28, 000 sq. ft.

Fritz, a UPS company / Tsao Design Group

A low-budget Tenant Improvement, 15,000 sq. ft.

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WESTFIELD SHOPPING CENTER, San Francisco / Tsao Design Group

One of the most successfully launched new-concept "Lifestyle" shopping centers

Construction Design and Project Coordination for all Glass and Ceramic

Tile Flooring, Stairs, Escalators and Stainless Steel and Glass Handrail designs.