pushme - pullme

A précis of Mike's recent presentation at the Pecha Kucha styled final event of the NZIA's conference 'in: situ'.  

After coming across one of these (Venetian Campanello) while travelling last year I became even more interested in buildings User Interfaces.

 Where we touch a building and how it might touch and respond to us.

Door handles

This one is from Ben's archives - an Arrowtown special.

Handrails

A Carlo Scarpa special on the entry bridge to Fondazione Querini Stampalia.

Another handrail. West Plaza by Neville Price.

I like to think the architect heads to the base of these stairs during their lunch break and gives a high five to everyone coming down.

Window stays.

Spotted in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

Flush buttons...

An original 'Crapper' from London

Light switches and dimmers.

This lovely wee beastie is available from Thom Electrical Accessories

There is a definite spectrum when it comes to the selection or design of a Building's User Interface.  

At one end we have aspects that are designed by others but specified by the architect. 

At the other end, we have interfaces that are designed by the architect; bespoke and specific to the building or environment we are creating.

Usually this is just fine... it's probably best we don't design flush buttons, however there is one area that we can lift our game in...

Door handles – specifically commercial space front door handles.

Some are designed – most are specified.

I like to call these types of handles, where they are the same on both inside and outside of the door – pushme-pullme’s

These are fine – if your door swings both ways…

However a 'pushme-pullme' handle on a single swing door, put simply; is the devil incarnate.

If a door handle is the handshake of a building as Juhani Pallasmaa suggests in his book 'The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses' then these are the equivalent of a certain Rugby World Cup handshake schmozzle...

Allow me to illustrate this, using this very beautiful door handle.

This is a beautiful door handle – don’t get me wrong I am 100% behind it’s aesthetics.

Cerebrally it is a wonder.  

It’s materiality is luscious.

However as you approach this door something interesting happens.

You see this door, you read the sign -  'push'.

You might see the flange of the door frame around the door, again a sign saying: 'push'.

Brain says ‘I've got this body, do as I say.’

Hand grabs hold of the handle … ohhh lovely.

Proprioception takes over.

Body says ‘F**k off brain, I know what to do with this!’ 

So what happens?

You PULL!

bathroom

a recently completed bathroom

ensuite

a recently completed ensuite

what we're reading...and what we've read

'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage'

by Haruki Murakami

a short review:

I liked Murakami but this is more of the same. Similar characters, style, rhetoric, tricks and interludes of unfathomable magic. And the same melancholy feeling when the book finishes.
I really enjoyed the Wind-up Bird Chronicle and most of 1Q84 but Murakami is starting to come across as a bit of a dirty old man telling one story again and again.

2.25 stars. 

ben 2014.10.03

currently reading (and very excited about) -
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

 

It's been a while and many books read but here's the latest one:

'Tigerman'

by Nick Harkaway

a short review:
Fun. I'd been looking forward to another Nick Harkaway book since reading The Gone Away World and this was worth the wait.

A novel about a reluctant super-hero on an island that's about to explode who just wants to be a dad. Some beautiful prose and a really enjoyable ride - one hunnerten pro cent full of win! (read it and you'll understand).

4.00 stars. 

ben 2014.09.11

currently reading -
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

'The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of The Window and Disappeared' 

by Jonas Jonasson

a short review:

This book started off a little bit silly. Then it got sillier and the only real redeeming feature of it was that it continued to get even more ridiculous.
An unbelievable Forrest-Gumpesque yarn for those with short attention spans following an old man, various sidekicks and an elephant through the Swedish countryside.

Running concurrently is his life-story involving Mao Tse-tung, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, Nuclear Bombs, Stalin, Kim Il Sung, and Albert Einstein’s illegitimate brother.
The literary version of any Paul Rudd film where you have no idea why you’re watching it but can’t help having a little giggle along the way.

2.50 stars. 

ben 2013.12.26

currently reading -
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  

'The Comfort of Strangers'

by Ian McEwan

a short review:

Not a good book to read before going to Venice. Or any other foreign city for that matter.
A typically dark and well written novella of menace and mystery that strolls leisurely along at holiday pace into the underbelly of this particular place only to come to a dead halt.
Beautifully written it recalls all the sensory details of exploring a city and the vulnerability of being a foreigner.

3.75 stars. 

ben 2013.12.10

currently reading -
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson                           

'Black Dogs'

by Ian McEwan

a short review:

I was put onto Ian McEwan a few years back and have recently purchased some of his back-catalogue. Concise and provocative, Black Dogs spans WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond. The narrator is attempting to document the lives of his estranged parents-in-law and their intellectual struggle between temporal politics and ultimate meaning.

A good, quietly disturbing and thought-provoking novella of well-drawn characters and family.

3.25 stars. 

ben 2013.11.30

currently reading - The Eyes of the Skin by Juhani Pallasmaa and 
                              The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan

'The Gone Away World' 

by Nick Harkaway

a short review:

It seems that people either love this book or hate it. I'll start by saying that I LOVED IT.
A rollicking, post-apocalyptic sci-fi tale of ninjas, mimes, and disaffected mercenaries that somehow continually teeters on the edge of ridiculousness without falling off.
Likewise, the text often borders on the self-indulgent but continually weaves layers of comedy and tragedy into a story that for all it's artistic license, isn't all that unbelievable....no spoilers as it's well worth reading for yourself!

4.25 stars. 

ben 2013.08.17

currently reading - Black Dogs by Ian McEwan

'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'  

by Michael Chabon

a short review:

Two Jewish cousins come together in New York after one escapes pre-WWII Prague in a Golem's coffin. They then set about to fight their various battles within America's burgeoning comic-book industry.
It is a well conceived combination of Historical Fiction and Imagination, but the book seems to lose its continuity through the last third and come to a rather abrupt and obvious halt.
Despite that, in typical comic-book style, it manages to endear you to the 'heroes' and their quests complete with powers, side-kicks and kryptonite(s).

4.0 stars. 

ben 2013.04.28

next (possibly) - The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

'The Orphan Master's Son'  

by Adam Johnson

a short review:

Best read in a long time!

An audaciously crafted plot set in Kim Jong Il’s North Korea.

Equal parts hilarity and sadism, it’s a novel of beautifully fashioned individuals within an oppressive and unknown land.

A stunning tale of free-will and propoganda.

And pretty good praise when David Mitchell calls it “an addictive novel of daring ingenuity”.

5.0 stars. 

ben 2013.02.17

currently reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

'1Q84'

by Haruki Murakami

a short review:

A typically beautiful and fanciful wander from Murakami.
Not for those who like closure, but an alluring story of parallel worlds, split consciousness, and religious cults.
A few too many 'simple meals' (minus the spaghetti) but a far from simple tale that makes you look at your world just that little bit differently.

4.5 stars. 
ben 2013.02.08

'The Ultimate City'

A novella by JG Ballard.

Image from Michelle Lord's Future Ruins series.