am wrote:
mobile doesn’t mean pre-fab,
and vice versa

jt wrote:
they are both useless

am wrote:
obviously you’ve never been to burning man

jt wrote:
http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=TC3PVt1_Jyc&feature=related

am wrote:
do i need to watch that?
i don’t know who that is?

jt wrote:
you might like it, he talks about prefab

am wrote:
since when do i like prefab!
i think those hold-punched trailers like that stan guy promotes are the
biggest scam since ‘naked lunch’

jt wrote:
who is stan?

am wrote:
stan allen?
maybe i am thinking of someone else.
i know it was one of those denari or lotek type of guys.

jt wrote:
xxxx xxxxxx

am wrote:
probably him.

why doesn’t coa have their new house on their site?
that blog only has construction pix;
surely they have some dwgs or renderings?

jt wrote:
architects websites are useless, at least coa isnt flash based…

Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Through various manufacturing processes the coffee is dehydrated into the form of powder or granules. These can be rehydrated with hot water to provide a drink similar but generally regarded as inferior to conventional coffee. At least one brand of instant coffee is also available in concentrated liquid form.

…

Drying

This step is a very important one and two different methods are used in plants all over the world, freeze and spray drying, each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Freeze Drying

The basic principle of freeze drying in the process for producing instant coffee is the removal of water by sublimation.

Since the mass production of instant coffee began in post-WWII America, freeze drying has grown in popularity to become a very common method. This is often because, although it is frequently more expensive than other methods of drying, it generally results in a higher quality product.

The Freeze Drying Process

1. Agglomerated wet coffee granules are frozen. For instant coffee this is a very important stage. Freezing too fast leads to large ice crystals and a very porous product and can also affect the colour of the coffee granules.
2. Frozen coffee is placed in the drying chamber, often on metal trays.
3. A vacuum is created within the chamber. The strength of the vacuum is critical in the speed of the drying and therefore the quality of the product. Care must be taken to produce a vacuum of suitable strength.
4. The drying chamber is warmed, most commonly by radiation but conduction is used in some plants and convection has been proposed in some small pilot plants. A possible problem with convection is uneven drying rates within the chamber, which would give an inferior product.
5. Condensation - the previously frozen water in the coffee granules expands to 10⁷ its volume, the removal of this water vapour from the chamber is vitally important, making the condenser the most critical and expensive components in a freeze drying plant.
6. The freeze dried granules are removed from the chamber and packaged.

Spray Drying

This method of drying is preferred to freeze drying in some cases because of its cost effectiveness, short drying time, usefulness when dealing with such a heat-sensitive product, and the fine, rounded particles it produces.

Spray drying produces spherical particles of size roughly equal to 300 µm with a density of 0.22 g/cm³ (ref 2). To achieve this, nozzle atomisation is used. Various ways of nozzle atomization can be used each having its own advantages and disadvantages. High speed rotating wheels operating at speeds of about 20,000 rpm are able to process up to 60,000 pounds (27 t) of solution per hour (ref 3). The use of spray wheels requires that the drying towers have a wide radius to avoid the atomised droplets collecting onto the drying chamber walls.

Typical Spray Drying Characteristics

* Completed in 5-30 seconds (dependent on factors such as heat, size of particle, and diameter of chamber).
* Moisture content change, IN = 75-85% OUT = 3-3.5%
* Air Temperatures, IN = 270 °C OUT = 110 °C

One drawback with spray drying is that the particles it produces are too fine to be used effectively by the consumer; they must first be either steam-fused in towers similar to spray dryers or by belt agglomeration to produce particles of suitable size.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

spatial arrangement

look up ehopper’s ‘automat’ to see full image (girl’s legs)

i see this building as a pile of rocks that has voids within it shaped by the surrounding lay of boulders and stones… it is as much the space left over amongst the aggregated program as it is the character, physiognomy, and origin of the rocks that coalesces to describe the building.

bringing to the table some of the most necro materials ever presented to th.wrk.grp, i would like to illustrate some points i have mused this evening. these are some thoughts culled from the earlier design rapid fires. on the notion of archetypal wayfinding i posit a hierarchical volumetric approach. volumes are complex and built up, not subtracted, so that their surfaces are rough with program. (see sketch) a component within a volume that helps define it would have the ability to, outside of the wayfinding or volumetric statement, speak of its use and individuality within that cavernous space. volumes should be considered as sequences with the ability to see from one to another or recall one from another being a design focus.

frames of reference come in scales and help to supplement and serve as beacons or communicative devices to navigate the building. the large scale would be the reference to external elements to orient and direct from within the building. i would also posit the use of buouys or totems to ground external references that may be ephemeral (buildings, bridges, axes). this scale gives the building position in a broader context and also identifies interior spaces by the external reference. the middle scale would be the hierarchical volumetrics of above. the smallest scale frame of reference would be related to use and might be the context of a sculpture studio next to a broad open space or the cafe next to an apartment, it is not about where the use is but how to use it.

sensory suites also are communicative toward wayfinding and use but also enrich the experience at a base level. suites should be composed programmatically as bodies yet bleed onto aprons that drape and run through the crevasses of the heap. a poetic or automatic association drives these cultivations, pure aesthetics and film setpiece references.

low physical effort is acheived at one level by the diverse distribution and elemental incrementalization of the complex. it can also be accommodated by the fluidity of surface that flows over the aggregate. (see sketch)

the skeletons of the past sometimes allow more solid futures before they disintegrate.

locus solus
raymond roussell

in defence of the transience of process in the production of work.

after attempting to model clowns in breadcrumb, he seemed to see a burst of illumination suffusing his whole life. statuary, which he had always preferred to drawing, made the mysterious abilities given him by his favourite subject blossom even further. the sculpting of clowns, he felt, would bring him fame and fortune.

but how was he to progress with only breadcrumb for clay and his fingers for tools-and without even a penny to get himself anything better.

each week he used to attend a botany lesson given by brothelande, a parsimonious bachelor settled in the suburbs and extremely devoted to his science, who put all the superfluous proceeds from his salary and lessons towards the cultivation of unusual plants under glass. finding that even the best engravings were not clear enough for his demonstrations, he would often, regardless of the inconvenience, personally transport from his home to school, some rare specimen that was to be the object of his lesson.

read more…

construction specs: specifications writing portable handbook
fred stitt

written specifications are where the true fluidity of the construction process lies. it is imaginable that these documents could be written in such a way as to completely eliminate the archaic pictorial mode of representation that we as architects cling to. break yourself off this book and help return the industry to the pre-architect medieval system.

acquire this text: powells.com

architectural graphic standards
charles ramsey

merrill elam once called me out to sweat over a seating arrangement i had proposed for a graduation ceremony. my flustered navigation through this book’s arcane indexing supplemented by some numerical doublespeak vindicated my plan. afterword by Philip Johnson.

acquire this text: powells.com
stolen copies are available on 6th ave in soho for $500