Vanishing Point

Kind of high rise...

http://fuckyeahmountainbiking.tumblr.com/post/24965086029/feeling-for-you-by-wfj-on-flickr

Tracing Frenzy

I don't often put real work up on here, for a number of reasons. However, I thought it might be nice to post a few sketches that I contributed to this weekend's Aedas 'Design Summit', where we did a project a day for 3 days with a mix of students and staff from my company. This felt a bit like a year of University compressed into a long weekend...

Anyone who follows the Dezeen / ArchDaily feeding frenzy that is the comments section at the base of any 'mega brief' China project will know that it is much easier to criticize than to create. Especially when the brief calls for many hundred thousands of square meters and the design period is as compressed as the areas are expanded. One of the professors who came to visit joked how there is a quote on how 'Architecture is impossible above 11 stories'- this could also apply to plot ratios... Still, these challenges also present opportunities, and whilst it's unlikely any of the above will ever get built, it's always fun to throw some ideas down on the table as a group and see what comes out the other end. 

Lake

A very Un-Hong Kong tower sat out in a lake- Eastern Euro style.

http://www.artofbuilding.org/

Roubaix Roubaix Roubaix

I very much enjoyed this account of riding the amateur Paris- Roubaix, by Glasgow Wheelers's own Mr. Smith. I hope you do also:

http://cyclesguff.blogspot.hk/2012/06/trench-warfare-paris-roubaix.html

SZ Skyline

No clue what all the text says, but this is quite a cool shot from the Shenzhen crit the other weekend.

http://www.qqride.com/bbs/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=122405

HD

Today was a sad day, as it turned into an impromptu Adios MTB ride to my good friend & fantastic cycling buddy- Hillary Daniels. I could go on about Hillary rides things on her V-braked equipped hardtail that plenty of guys with all the gear (I include myself on this list) do not. And how she campaigns tirelessly for the San Francisco separatist movement, but we lose her to Spain. However, I shall leave it just to say 'you will be missed- mañana, mañana'.  

Don

A little off piste from the usual topics, but doesn't Don look sharp as a knife in this Jaguar presentation? More bikes/buildings should look like E-Types, and more cyclists/architects should look like Don. Nice blue stripe.

http://www.gq.com/style/blogs/the-gq-eye/2012/05/mad-props.html

Brass Badge

More La Reine Du Norde loving...

http://www.velominati.com/nostalgia/the-seduction-of-symbols/

Whitehead Thunder

Shades of Meadowbank evenings last night- our Colossi Tuesday night track session rained off halfway through. Still, fun while it lasted...

In the future

In the future not only will we ALL want to look like Lance (by then retro, surely), but we will also switch our drivetrains from being on the right side of our bikes to our left. Because.

http://www.thecoolist.com/the-future-of-sports-by-tadder-and-campau/

Haptic

There's mountain lodges, and there's mountain lodges. This is a mountain lodge.

http://www.hapticarchitects.co.uk/2012/06/mountain-lodge-sognefjorden.html

NYC c1901

 “All that is needed is a barbarian with sufficient money and lunacy.”There's a few of them around here 111 years later...


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/realestate/thieves-of-light-built-by-barbarians.html?_r=1&ref=design

MAD100

A nice 'Big Round' this morning, despite the rain. I always like looking at the map of this ride afterward, as it always makes you think 'sh*t- we just rode around pretty much the whole of the New Territories in just over 3 hours. They don't call it the MAD100 for nothing. Luckily for me today I took the honours in the Bride's Pool sprint- it's been about 4 years since I last managed that!

Feather

HBTV: Modern Day Artisans - Ricky Feather

Probably not feather weight, but beautiful bikes & a nice interview.

www.feathercycles.com

Bob Cave

Not what you expect to see in Egypt! Bob demonstrates how to rack up some shipping costs at xxx's expense with how to do a workbench... more concerning is the slicks on an MTB and that weird whale tail sticking out the back, not to mention the saddle bag attached to road bike. Refer rule 29 Bob. Race number canvas art only gets you so far!!!

Rapha Java

Tonight saw the Rapha 'premiere' of  Rapha Continental Asia: Java at the Limehouse, right here in HK. I have to say, for all my mis-givings of the BS factor in the Rapha brand, I was impressed by their reps friendliness, the film and their attitude towards brand development in Asia. Not to mention the free snacks & wine...

http://www.rapha.cc/the-rapha-continental-asia-java

Campo Baeza

It doesn't get much nicer than this- a beautiful glass box on top of a cave surrounded by green.

http://www.campobaeza.com/wp-content/pdfs/2008_Olnick_Spanu.pdf

Drawings: Double Desk

Something a little bit different from the usual sketches, here is a CAD drawing of the first bit of furniture I've made since moving to Hong Kong. The brief (set by Mrs bikesandbuildings) was to create a full room width robust desk surface (3.4m) with as few a 'legs' as possible, at the same height and depth as our dining table. To this, I added 'not to many $$$', 'buildable by me', and some decent in built storage.

It didn't take long to come up with the idea of 2x1.7m long desks, the top surface of which could be cut from a standard sheet of ply wood, and with an unsupported length that was long (1.2m), but workable. From this I worked out a 'notch' system for slim ply uprights, in which a 2"x2" frame could support the top surface and the 0.5m wide shelving. So, simple to build, slim in profile and solid as a rock was the goal.

The first mission was to get the wood cut and delivered back to my flat. On a regular day this is just a few hours in Wan Chai, but when there is an Amber rainstorm that adds to the complications. Still, a good excuse to add a few tools to the collection (coping saw and chisel) whilst I'm waiting for the wood to be cut.

Once home, it was time to put the new man cave (forthcoming post) to use and get building. It all went quite well on desk number 1 (right hand side), until it came to putting the top on, when I discovered that each bit of 2"x2" I'd bought actually varied in dimension by +/-1mm. This resulted in the detail you see in 4th picture below, where there is a 1mm gap between top and side surface. So, on the second desk (left hand side) you can see I achieved much higher precision by measuring each notch out to each specific bit of 2"x2". Of note is that these desks are so freaking big that they had to be assembled in the room, rather than in the 'Man Cave'. Meaning they are now not coming out without being dismantled. But big is good when it comes to desk real estate.

I'm not going to pretend the result is show room worthy (especially the egg shell finish), but as a DIY project built in a flat over the course of around 2 full days, by someone who hasn't done any DIY for about 5 years, I was happy enough with the result. Roll on more man cave action!

Zigzagikap

A shot from Bangkok- this pre-cast concrete facade is a nice retro take on the still very contemporary topic of sun shading. The Thai capital contains quite a few nice buildings along these lines, but I doubt they are appreciated too much by the residents!

Porcelainia

Quite a few of my recent posts have been about fairly high brow 'Art'. Time to bring it down a peg or 2, with these very, 'artistic' porcelain water bottles. Such are the delights of racing the Tour of Friendship in Thailand, where the trophies are custom made for each year's event, with a bike part as the theme. Previous years have seen porcelain cranksets and, another one in my kitsch cabinet of fame- a candy blue Selle Italia SLR complete with gold swirly '09 Thai trim. It certainly beats generic golden plastic cups, though the frightening thing is that these are probably hand made...

I rode the 30s this year, and while the race wasn't super successful for me, I did manage one podium with a 5th place on one of the sprint stages behind 'Vincent' Tam (ex Thai champion), earning me one Thai porcelain water bottle. The full race report is up on colossi.cc, but one thing to expand on a little, is the fact that in earning this trophy I reached a new max heart rate of 196bpm. This is 3 beats above my previous maximum- reached about 5/6 years ago. And it's not like I haven't been trying hard inbetween... Evidently conditions played a bit part in reaching this- sprinting in 40 degrees heat certainly makes you work pretty hard, but it really makes a mockery of the 220 minus your age nonsense you read in the gym. Maybe I'll hit 200 when I get to 40???

Vinyl on Aluminium

Nice.

http://ianmonroe.net/

Corner

A nice shot of my good friend Paulo, who manages to be quite fast- despite being vegan. Luckily for him, his compact crank is hidden from view and he looks quite the professional. I'm a few wheels back, behind the guy in leg warmers- an essential accessory in 30 degree swealtering humidity. Race report up on:

http://www.colossi.cc/reports-2012

Wheel

We're 99 years on from Marcel Duchamp peddling bike wheels as Art, but that doesn't seem to stop 'em. I've had one or two wheels that looked like this after a crash, but sadly I never managed to sell them at any Art fairs.

Worst ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Thai Time

One blog post this past month can only be explained by one thing- Thai time. Actually, it's a bit more complex than that, in that I've been pretty busy with various things like moving flats, going on holiday (and racing) in Thailand, no internet, no motivation, shelves to put up etc. But it all comes back to one thing- it's ready when it's ready, i.e. it's late- Thai style.

Some things are worth their wait, like this fantastic latte art at the rather excellent Hotel De La Paix in Cha Am, a couple of hours south of Bangkok. I can't aspire to such profound beauty with this post, but I can assure you that after staying in Thai bike race hotels for 5 nights, I felt like a methadone addled smack head when this sweet brown stuff hit my veins!

Of course, a fantastic pool, some quirky angled (sometimes gabion) walls and a luxurious landscape made this a place to relax, recharge, and forget about life for a while. But, in trying not to think too much, I couldn't help but appreciate how much thought had gone into this place by Thai Architect Duangrit Bunnag. Unsung hero might be pushing it a bit far, but it is interesting how guys like this get completely ignored by the Western press, but they're actually building a lot of stuff that is often aspired to, but rarely executed. Somehow, this was humble luxury, if that makes sense? Affordable, friendly, quite raw, but equally comfortable when it matters, and with service just the right side of 'attentive'

So, enough of my holiday pics masqueraded as building review, and a note to say I will be a bit more back on the tinternet rader. Just as soon as I've tried out my new cordless screwdriver!

Dillenburger

The future is weird.

http://benjamin-dillenburger.com/