Obsessively Learning everything there is to know about designing the right kind of EDUCATION, sharing (& Implementing) the best of what I learn along the way.
This is what it looks like when an architect refuses to apologize for where they are.
Beth Eden in Wayanad, Kerala sits on a linear plot surrounded by rubber trees and palms, and every material used to build it is left exactly as it arrived: exposed red brick, raw concrete ceilings, solid teak wood crafted by local carpenters into doors, shutters, wall panelling and furniture. The gabled roof projections mark the entrance and living zones without ornamentation. The generous overhangs handle the monsoon without asking anything extra from the structure.
The veranda has a bench and a plant. That’s the whole design decision. Brick wall behind it, concrete above it, teak in front of it. Nothing performing. Nothing pretending.
Inside, the vaulted ceiling follows the gable profile exactly as it was built. The living room teak was custom made. The windows were made by local carpenters. The house cost what it cost because the labor and materials were already there.
Africa has laterite in the ground, hardwood in the forest and craftsmen who know exactly what to do with all of it, and what we need is not another glass tower in a capital city but more brick kilns producing standard fired brick at scale so that our architects stop reaching for cement blocks every time they need a wall.
Design: Forge and Furnish | Ar. Liz Tomy | Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad
More images in the comments.
In an effort to enhance the prestige of vocational training, the Danish government is building 3 new Håndværkskollegiet (craft colleges).
This one, in Herning, opened last year. It hosts up to 85 people at once, & specialises in masonry, carpentry, plumbing & metal.
Stunning!
Buy your children a book every month and have a date to talk about the book and what they’ve read. Talk about the characters like they’re real. Bond over literature. Debate the lessons and decision making. Over food and drinks. Cultivate readers and build their collection
You’re bored because you’re not doing side quests, man.
Life is more than just working and then throwing yourself into bed doing nothing.
Here are 50 side quests to complete:
Women are bloodhounds for masculine success.
They detect it from subtle, ethereal realms.
Once you begin succeeding, women materialise around you. Not linearly. First a few here and there, then suddenly all at once.
You could be secretly locked in your room for years, posting nothing online, and a woman you haven't spoken to in 10 years will randomly message to "catch up."
She gets a whiff of positive motion in your bank account.
She feels a tingle as she senses you've improved your physique.
Women gravitate to the life affirming energy they detect in those planes.
You can never hide. They always know.
Then they test how serious you are about keeping your upward spiral going.
“there is a deep human need for beauty, and if you ignore that need in architecture, your buildings will not last, since people will never feel at home in them.”
— roger scruton in the modern cult of ugliness
African countries with any hopes of development and sovereignty need to pick a side. "Nonalignment" has always been a comfortable lie told by countries too afraid to own their real geopolitical situations.
You have enemies. Real enemies. There's no point pussyfooting around it.
Choose allies. Pick a side. It's a matter of survival. Alignment or its lack thereof will mean literal life or death.
There's no time left.