Category: creativity
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Notre Dame Reimagined
An art historian has a digital map of Notre Dame, but will it be rebuilt exactly as it was? The roof of Notre Dame needs 50 acres of oak trees to rebuild and no trees in France are big enough to use. So an exact replica is out of the running. What about modern materials?…
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Autoprogettazione? / Self Design
If someone actually tried to build something, they would probably learn – Enzo Mari Enzo Mari’s 1974 book was written to help regular people better understand the objects around them. Since there’s no better way to learn than by doing, the book was a free DIY instructional on how to build 19 different pieces of…
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Observations from Wandering Cities
In 2015, I attended the Growing in Place conference in Raleigh, NC to address how children can learn and play in urban environments: “How can urban design expose and restore urban nature so children and youth engage with compelling, equitable places for creative play and learning? How can nonformal education in nature enrich playful learning…
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Philly Monuments
I added my voice to Philadelphia’s monument conversation in PlanPhilly’s “Eyes on the Street” segment, which is discussing “What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?” My essay here: Mural Arts’ Monument Lab wants to know, “What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?” It’s a great question, but I want…
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PARK(ing) Day in Philadelphia, Roots in San Diego
I love PARK(ing) Day because it showcases how quick, cheap, and mobile solutions can vastly improve our quality of life. By reducing vehicle speeds and reclaiming streets as people spaces, these temporary parklets build community and prove that a tiny respites from city life is welcome. Philadelphia’s PARK(ing) Day includes 52 businesses, designers, and organizations co-opting…
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Using Design to Address Homelessness through Transitional Housing
Last spring Activate14–an outreach initiative I co-founded–jumped on the tiny home craze in an effort to address Raleigh’s underserved homelessness community. We wanted to prove our belief that good design is accessible to everyone and can radically change a community. The transition out of homelessness is more successful when services like job training, medical attention, and other support are provided through…
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Ten Principles for Good Design from Dieter Rams
Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer whose design approach is “Less, but better”. He believes good design: Is innovative – The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an…
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Quick Ugly Housing = Future Affordable Housing?
Is Raleigh getting ugly, or is it just me? Raleigh is quickly looking like a second-tier replica city dictated by developer’s profit margins. All of our new housing developments are plywood wrapped in terrible materials; they’re poorly designed, unfriendly to the street, and, frankly, an eyesore. Elan City Center could be one of those at Clark+Oberlin, on N Boylan, S…
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Food Truck Proposal for Raleigh’s Moore Square
The City of Raleigh is spending $12 million to revamp Moore Square, one of two downtown green spaces. While the space needs an upfit to reflect the world-class status Raleigh is working towards, I believe there are smaller steps the city could take to attract crowds and increase revenue. Restaurants, shops, and a children’s museum…
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Activate14: Architecture + Design Event Series
What started as intra-office conversation on hosting architecture and design events quickly turned to reality when Frank Harmon Architect decided to sponsor the inaugural summer event series at the AIANC Center for Architecture and Design (CfAD) in Raleigh, NC. Planning quickly commenced with the AIANC Program Committee. We decided to bridge the events by focusing on…
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My NYE Wishes for Raleigh: A List
I think about Raleigh all the time. I want to make it better, I want to contribute, I want to provide services to encourage a thriving urban center. Here are some of my wishes for the New Year. I wish for increased ridership on public transportation; dedicated bike lanes; attainable rents for startup businesses or…
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Who Wore It Better–Art Edition
While looking for some type of link for the Who Wore It Better reference in Tuesday’s Post, I found WhoWoreItBetter.info– an art edition on tumblr comparing very similar concepts and executions. In some instances, it is an homage or reference, or in others genders or cultures have been swapped. It’s an interesting perspective. There’s some…
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Custom Textiles: Print All Over Me + Spoonflower (Durham!)
While doing some research today I ran across another custom fabric company called Print All Over Me that lets me pick an object to digitally print whatever pattern I want or pick from another’s uploaded design (that user receives 20% of the sale). I can’t speak to the cut or fabric but the print is as…
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Why I wanted to be a RDU Baton holder
I am the RDU Baton holder on instagram today (@rdubaton) and I plan to use it as a soapbox for multimodal transportation, sustainability, utilizing urban space better, the need for public art, and so on. The mission of the RDU Baton is to showcase Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and the surrounding communities. We’re supposed to “show off…
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Cai Guo-Qiang: Explosive Art
Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist best known for his fireworks and explosions, notably the 2008 Beijing Olympics but I like the animals best. It reminds me how safe we think we are in our built environment. These would look AWESOME suspended outside in a metro area. Now that I’m working with Raleigh Public Art,…
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Thoughts on Books and Bookstores
I’m researching book mobiles and book bikes and such to figure out ways to increase literacy and the love of reading. I’m tired of blogs foretelling the death of books as a physical entity. At some point they will meet their end but we are not there yet. At the very least, rich book collectors will…
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A Model for Sustainable & Affordable Housing
Architectural and design magazines and blogs feature more sustainable and green buildings daily and many of these projects come from other countries, in rural areas, for good cause, and very inexpensively. I came across this Training Center in Sumatra designed by TYIN Tegnestue to bring cinnamon farmers together for more education, to battle unfair business practices,…
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L’art Brut: Carlo Zinelli
Carlo Zinelli–schizophrenic Italian, war veteran, and artist. After stints the Spanish Civil War and WWII, Carlo’s aggression increased and ability to verbally communicate deteriorated. He called mental institutions home until his death. After 10 years in insolation, 2 sculptors and a psychiatrist added him to the art program where he created over 3,000 pieces with…
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Wilders Grove in the Newspaper
A public art project I’ve been working on for McConnell Studios made it into the newspaper Sunday and you can barely see me in one of the photos…it’s a start! ha! The project is “Wilders Grove,” a 40 foot long undulating wall composed of recyclable materials to be installed at the first LEED Platinum waste…
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Notes of Civility
A letter on civility from Anton Chekhov to his older brother, a drunk painter and writer, from Letters of Note. To my mind, civilized people ought to satisfy the following conditions: 1. They respect the individual and are therefore always indulgent, gentle, polite and compliant. They do not throw a tantrum over a hammer or a lost…
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Carved Pencil Sculptures
Lionel Bawden creates fluid sculptures from hexagonal Staedtler pencils and epoxy. They look like polished desert stones or a reptilian skin. Transforming everyday materials into landscapes and ambiguous forms brings to mind Guy Laramée’s book carvings. Original Article: STAEDTLER PENCIL SCULPTURES BY LIONEL BAWDEN in Juxatpoz Magazine
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Vintage Cannes Film Festival Posters
The festival wrapped up last Saturday but I didn’t follow it this year. Instead, I gathered some vintage posters = great fonts, great colors, great sketches. Also, here is a quote from Kevin Levine about film festivals, specifically Sundance, but it might apply to Cannes, and I agree. If Will Ferrell or Brad Pitt – just…
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be an enthusiast
“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no…
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Coolest Outdoor Bathroom – Austin, TX
Forty-nine 3/4″ thick steel plates curl in on themselves to form a public day-lit bathroom in the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike trail, Austin, TX. Its design eliminated the need for artificial lights or ventilation. The steel was left untreated, rust has already formed on the plates. Miro RIvera proves that functional, necessary outbuildings can also be beautiful…
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I have (had) a Tumblr
I started this a long time ago to save images, music, and text that was hard to track on my laptop and invariably slowed it down. I refer to it as my inspiration board, or, The Board. As a warning, it is ~2% NSFW. Here is the link: http://cathxrine.tumblr.com/
Catherine R. Hofmann 