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- The ReturnNovember 30
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[Image: Heathrow Terminal 5, via Wikipedia].
Back in San Francisco, after a 12-hour delay at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London. We sat on the first plane – there were three planes – for five hours before they realized that they couldn't start one of the engines; so we all filed back into the terminal while our luggage was loaded onto a second plane – which was, unfortunately, then hit by a truck (!). A third airplane was thus conjured up out of the drizzling darkness of an otherwise abandoned international airport at midnight – I was reminded almost constantly of Iain Sinclair's description of Heathrow as "a Vatican of the western suburbs," a system of piazzas dedicated to geometric worship of the sky – and it rolled over to the gate to collect our bags, the lights in the cockpit still off. It was nearing 1am by then, we'd been given bags of sea-salted potato chips, and bad pop songs were playing on continuous loops through steel security gri - Waiting RoomNovember 27
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[Image: The Waiting Room, Rome, by Jeffrey Inaba/Inaba Projects].
Jeffrey Inaba of Inaba Projects has a new pavilion on display now in Rome, sponsored by Enel, Italy's largest utilities provider. Because of that sponsorship, Inaba "wanted to use numerous forms of alternative energy applications," but decided, in the end, to apply "just one that was highly productive and cost effective." The pavilion is thus solar-powered – Inaba describes it as an "Alice in Wonderland mushroom meets solar-ray chomping Pac-Man."
[Images: The Waiting Room, Rome, by Jeffrey Inaba/Inaba Projects].
So what is the project? Solar-powered and lit from within, with a DVD player and monitors, it tries to rethink the hospital waiting room; in fact - Science Fiction and ArchitectureNovember 25
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A quick heads up that I'll be participating in a roundtable discussion tomorrow afternoon about "science fiction and architecture" at the Bartlett School of Architecture here in London. The participants are:The Gray's Anatomy
— Nic Clear, of Unit 15
— Ted Kreuger, of Pamphlet Architecture 14 fame
— Geoff Manaugh, author of the website you are currently reading
— Neil Spiller, Vice Dean of the Bartlett School of Architecture and Director of AVATARIt should make for an interesting conversation, with a great mix of perspectives on the intertwined topics of science fiction, built space, and the imagined environment, so do come out if you're in the neighborhood.
The event lasts from 4-6pm, and it is free and open to the public. We'll be awaiting your arrival in Room G02, Wates House, 22 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0QB. Here is - The City DehumidifiedNovember 23
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I'm in London, watching snowflakes fall amidst early morning rain flurries, reading David Grann's new book The Lost City of Z, and getting ready for the Barbican event tomorrow night.
But there's an article in the Guardian today about the WaterMill, which "uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water." The company, Element Four, imagines a future for their product involving everything from irrigation and personal thirst to peacekeeping and disaster relief. Perhaps it might even require an update to the atlas of hidden water – where the water supply is "hidden" in the sky itself.
[Image: A diagram of the WaterMill at work].
As the company descri - Barbican UpdateNovember 21
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[Image: From Code 46, courtesy of United Artists (via)].
Next week's event at the Barbican just got even better, with the addition of Mark Tildesley, production designer for Code 46, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, The Constant Gardener, 24 Hour Party People, Millions, and many others, including Richard Curtis's forthcoming film The Boat That Rocked.
I'll be interviewing director Michael Winterbottom and Mark Tildesley both after a screening of their film Code 46. The event has already sold-out, but if you've got your ticket I hope you're in for a great conversat