Design

The context and the traditions associated with contemporary forms and ideas developed by WOHA is in Singapore. Its School of the Arts of Singapore (completed October 2010) is a special school for visual and performing arts. The design strategy creates two horizontal layers visually connected, a public communications space below (which contains several rooms) and a controlled interaction space above (which contains naturally ventilated classrooms and studios). This approach solves the twin objectives of porosity and communication and a safe learning environment. The Met, Bangkok (completed December 2009) examines the possibilities of high-rise living in the tropics. Instead of adopting the models developed in temperate countries, with a strong separation between inside and outside, this project explores how aspects of housing tropical low may be used to create outdoor spaces to inside in the sky.

Urban & O Innovative work has tested the limits of the material and shape of the new geometry of space, located in New York City, United States of America was designed by Urban & O. Water Planet Aquarium is a nuclear power, which will examine the diversity of life on Earth and creates a different habitat. The exhibition focuses on water and how life adapts to many different water conditions and the states - the extreme abundance and scarcity, stillness and movement, and salinity of freshness, warmth and cold. The solid construction of the water planet of new visual cues, conceptual and creative in the design of aquarium. It offers visitors the opportunity to touch the water in many countries - such as fog, steam, liquid and jelly - and the patterns of exposure and tactile surfaces incarnation and sensuality of water. The exhibition includes livestock and powerful media to make complex natural phenomena within the reach of young visitors and families.

Enjoying the view from the cabin deck at low tide... Oh the peace and quiet and solace of nature... the poetry of Earth. Good tidings! I am still on mini-vacation (tis so hard to tear myself away from this sanctuary splendour) Will be back soon... I promise!!

The University's Fall break (timed with the November election) gave us a bit more time to enjoy some balmy November weather. Along the dikes, separating Lake Hartwell from campus, we didn't see anyone else until late in our walk. But we admired a cormorant diving, several great blue herons, a green heron, and gulls recently arrived from the coast. The camera caught a striking reflection of fall color surrounding the sand spit, which we hadn't noticed, being focused on the herons, but was a nice surprise. I've been wishing I had a chipmunk photo -- this one gave me a perfect opportunity, foraging for seeds along the dike's rip-rip banks.

I've been enjoying reading other people's posts on their nature and gardening blogs. We share a community that wouldn't have been possible in immediate time in a pre-internet age. I'm mindful, however, of the correspondence that keen naturalists and gardeners had via (very slow) posts that traveled by horseback, carriage, ship, and courier. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, William and John Bartram, Asa Gray, Andre Michaux, Mark Catesby, John Jame Audubon, Lewis and Clark, among many others on this continent (North America), corresponded widely with fellow observers throughout the world, not to mention the VERY many others in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America. And they all depended on much slower transmission of observations and thoughts. But I''m grateful for the ability of the internet to connect us (in a much humbler way) in real time, with our observations of nature and experiences in our gardens.

It was absolutely lovely in the garden this morning; the fall color is still bright, as the leaves come down and sprinkle the landscape with color. But it's unusually warm, the kind of "Indian summer" day we used to have in September and October, not in mid-November. On the front steps, there was a sudden emergence of hundreds of winged insects -- they looked like ants and I'll have to figure out what they were. In any case, it's not the time of the year to be hatching! I did my favorite program this morning for a garden club in a nearby city (this permutation was Gardening for Nature ). Actually the location was in a semirural area west of town. In what used to be rolling farm fields, subdivisions and shopping areas have popped up and lakeside houses now dot the nearby shore of Lake Hartwell. They were a great group, amazingly energetic with their outreach and volunteer activities. It was not only gardening and planting activities that they were involved wi...

We're fortunate to have a welcoming and peaceful garden, with lots of space. It suits us well. We've tried to re-create the sense of nature -- of 'being in the woods' -- from our part of the world, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The yard definitely wasn't lovely when we started, being nothing much more than a vast expanse of lawn punctuated by a few large trees, so we have the satisfaction of having nurtured it ourselves. The journey of becoming gardeners as well as botanists (there is a distinct difference between botanists, horticulturists, and gardeners, for sure) and taking pleasure in the rapid growth of many plants is continuing, as we worry about this year's drought and drag the hoses around. Our garden is largely a native one, but still is suffering from the lack of rain, especially some species. The Joe-Pye that I love because of its attractiveness to butterflies is more than sadly droopy in the afternoon heat, in spite of all the extra...