The Society for the Opposition to Public Carbunckles

Over on the redesigned Idealog site you can read my reviews of Wikinomics and The Cult of the Amateur.

I won't preempt your reading but I'd be interested in your feedback.

Also on the site is a discussion about a German Building that Vincent Heeringa was impressed by on his recent visit to Europe. I found it looked horrible - bland modernism without the character of Norman Foster's 'Gherkin' in London or the Guggenheim at Bilbao.

Another commenter has remarked that there will never be agreement on what kinds of buildings on the water in the city. Vince stepped back into the conversation with a remark that suggests that Auckland lacks vision. I disagree with that perspective.

The interesting thing about 'vision' is that it must originate from an individual. Then the vision must be disseminated to a broad supporter base (one way or another).

The design selected for Te Papa (the undisputed worst major public building built on an iconic waterfront location ever built in New Zealand…oh, that's right - it's the only one. The second worst - though not on the water - is Auckland's Aotea Center).

Let's at least make sure the petty bureaucrats and politicians in Wellington (including the Prime Minister) can never be allowed to inflict the kind of ugly, dull jetsam that was mooted for the rugby stadium. We should also be vigilant about computer designed modernist rubbish like the BMW Welt

A very public competition should be initiated to develop the waterfront - including the Tank Farm.

Comments

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse...

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St...

Why billboards must go.

The problem with billboards and advertising in public places is they are an invasion of privacy. Unlike magazine, tv, radio (etc) advertising you cannot choose to turn it off or avoid it. Nor does it offer anything in return. It is a medium that offers no benefit or advantage to the person it is inflicted on. At least television ads subsidise the programming. Without doubt some billboards are entertaining - I thought the anti GE poster for short lived MADGE activist group was particularly good. But most are rubbish. Literally. Badly executed. Nothing important to say. The debate has led to a great deal of hysteria - mostly from people with a vested interest in perpetuating the deployment of hoardings. Perhaps the idea that the issue at stake is 'property rights' is the creepiest. If you own a building you have every right to plaster anything you like on its external surfaces. Is that an antisocial point of view? I think so. In the UK you could have an ASBO slapped on you for si...

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