Mudding it

Observer this Sunday had it all going for commited organic archi afficionads. So the archi section featured Mud, mud, glorious mud by Deyan Sudjic. Home in focus: Nicholas Worsley's Worcester home designed by John Christophers of Associated Architects. Worsley's home looks much like the adobe abodes of the drier tropics and almost awkward with what just could pass for the corrugated asbestos sheet slap popular in Bangalore's tenements. (Sorry, the sheets on quite a few or not too bad). But this is a fashionably withdrawn and aware comission so it's really a good right corrugated iron lid. Within, all water-fed appliances use rainwater collected from the roof. And naturally it observes all caution to forestall mud run-off which danger reads: ruboff; so theres the plinth and the roof doing their job.
The most wonderful thing about mud homes, is all the fun you have working on it. Hear it from Worsley (can tell you a bit for my part too):
'...was like making mud pies, glorious fun and satisfyingly low-tech. You just pitch-fork it on in piles, leave it 10 days and then finish it off with a sharp spade.'
The Worsley man as you may have guessed from the whole fanciful restraint, is NOT cash strapped. And Sudjic will have his opinions too, rightly tripping the display of high-minded concern with the fuel progligacy in trips from the suburbs. Worlsey confesses he bypasses the territorial trudge altogether with 'low-cost' flights to his OTHER house in France. There's also the token regret of not weaving in windpower or photvoltaics into his superhouse.

Grass on the Roof
Then there was Chris Patridges' Grass is greener on the roof. We've seen it around in the city a lot, overhanging branches and gritty roofs have just happened this pleasant arrangement. But to really see it work in a nice commercially sensible way, it's nice to play planner (everything by design) and watch it pan out. Grass roofs been hot in Germany for some time now. So it's this skin of earth (in-situ soil) on the roof sown with sedums (not really grass); helps trap rain which would otherwise run off. The roof structure would generally feature a ridge beam 2ft. in diameter and closely-set joists. They say Rolls Royce has a factory featuring this; the homes i think are nicer things to hold up. Give me a moment I'm putting up the pic.

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Someone advised me something on finding the magic lantern inside. Wonder if he knew it's defined this way in Film Studies: 'a projection system comprised of a light source and a lens and used to project an image. Ususally oil-lamp fired, though many were later converted to electricity. Earliest known use was by Athanasius Kircher, recorded in a work published in 1646.' Apart all the potentially smart ripostes, if the contraption I carried around were so elab heavy-duty, shouldn't I know it? cwoooah, I tell ya.
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Swathes of city bangalore with piling rubble and epic pavements resemble what we see from photos of NYC in the first decade of the 20th century. And mr.mayor and mr.absent planner: that's an insult.
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Heard of the 'anal phase'?
aÆnal phaseÅ,
Psychoanal. the second stage of psychosexual development during which the child, usually at two years of age, becomes preoccupied with defecation.
Make sense. Whats with doing something and passing on like nothing ever happenend? How long can you ignore it? Tell me.