yona friedman



The Spatial City (Ville spatiale) is an unrealized theoretical construct inspired by the housing shortage in France during the late 1950's and by Yona Friedman's deep belief that housing plans and structures should allow for the free will of the individual inhabitants. Not wanting to displace the city below, Friedman raised a second city fifteen to twenty meters above the existing one. The framework was to be erected first, and the residences, conceived and built by the inhabitants, inserted into the voids of the structure. The layout of each level would occupy no more than fifty percent of the overall structure in order to provide air and light to each residence as well as to the city below. The project was designed for construction anywhere (top drawing proposed for Africa) and meant to be adapted to any climate.

Cross Out Slums


Lester Beall

Ladislav Sutnar




Prototype for 'Build the Town' Building Blocks

Sutnar began his career in his native Czechoslovakia as a toy designer and educator. Between 1922 and 1926 he created "Factory Town," a set of children's blocks designed as an educational toy in the spirit of Froebel's blocks. After emigrating to the states, he tried in earnest to find a manufacturer for the set which he re-named less grimly "Build the Town." This is one of only a few prototypes created, entirely at Sutnar's expense, with the hope that the company Cobos/Builders would produce the set, but it was not to be realized. Another major impediment came from lumber companies that could not stop wartime orders to produce the wooden blocks. Despite his best efforts, Sutnar was forced to abandon the project. The archive of drawings and documents for the project was sold in 2001. The Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum own sets.

Martinique, Bequia






Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It is an overseas department of France. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is also one of the twenty-six regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic.

The north of the island is mountainous and lushly forested. an ensemble of 5 rainforest-covered extinct volcanoes dominate the Bay of Fort de France at 1,196 meters. The most dominating of the island's many mountains, with 1397 meters, is the infamous volcano Mount Pelée. The volcanic ash has created grey and black sand beaches in the north, contrasting markedly from the white sands of Les Salines in the south.

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How Pelée Killed St. Pierre

An eruption as sudden and destructive as the one that snuffed out Pompeii overwhelmed the port of St. Pierre on the West Indian island of Martinique in 1902. St. Pierre lay at the foot of Mount Pelée, a volcano which had shown sign of activity only twice in a hundred years, Then, unexpectedly, it began spewing ash and black smoke. Sulphur fumes became so thick that people were forced to go around with kerchiefs over their faces, and horses were suffocated in the streets. Soon earthquakes shook the island daily and ominous thunder rolled deep underground. As these danger signs increased, many people thought of evacuating, but they were reassured by the actions of the island's governor. Convinced that all was well, he made the dramatic gesture of moving his family from the capital of Fort-de-France in residence in St. Pierre.
A few days later, on the morning of May 8, a huge crack burst open in Pelée's flank. Out of it roared an incandescent cloud of steam, other gases and dust, which in less than a minute engulfed St. Pierre, reducing it to ruin. Rescuers came immediately from Fort-de-France but, because the ground was too hot to walk on, were unable to go ashore for hours. When they did they found only three people alive. The first, a woman in her kitchen, died within minutes of when she was found. The second, a man, had managed to run as far as the suburbs of St. Pierre, but he also died soon afterwards.
Three days later, a third survivor was heard crying for help deep in the smoking rubble. The voice came from a dungeon in the city jail. There, terribly burned but still living, was a young African named Ludger Sylbaris. He had survived the holocaust because his cell was fitted only a tiny grate-window which had kept out the full force of pelée's cloud. Sylbaris said that he had heard no sound and seen no fire and that the excruciating heat had lasted only a moment. The terrible moment, however, had been sufficient to kill 30,000 people - every one of the citizens of St. Pierre except Luger Sylbaris.

Ice Slice

Glacial Stripes are moraines of rock and gravel built up along the edges of a moving glacier. When glaciers flow together, their edge moraines join to become a central moraine in the main glacier.

Desert Storm

The heavy jaw of a 'Gila Monster' has its own way of poisoning. Aroused, the usually sluggish reptile clamps down on its victims limb and chews, slowly sluicing poison saliva from glands in its lower jaw into the wound, along venom-conducting grooves in its teeth.

The 'Jack Rabbit', actually a type of hare, is able to cover 15 feet in one leap and outrun all of its predators. Coyotes and other hunters know that the hare runs in circles, fearing to leave its territory, and can be caught with cunning if it is waited for in ambush.

A 'Lean Kit Fox', its nose painted with the blood of a recent victim, crouches in wait for prey. Well equipped for hunting at night in the desert, it listens with huge ears for the scampering of desert rodents. Extremely swift, though short-winded, the kit runs down its quarry in brief, furious dashes, returning afterwards to its burrow to eat its kill.


The 'Hunters' return to camp with fresh meat. By custom the part of the animal where the spear entered is eaten on the spot. The rest is shared with the others of the band.

Earth



Lace of Base



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sugar