Graffiti Wars-The notorious Banksy vs. veteran King Robbo

War in the trenches of the UK street art scene: the notorious Banksy vs. veteran King Robbo. And the conflict continues ...

Written by Nikki Romano, Translated by Michael Βalaroutsos Architect.

In the neighborhoods of Bristol and London the fury between the two famous British Graffitist does not say to calmed down after viewing the documentary «Graffiti Wars 2011» by the British Channel 4.

bombsmacked

Awaiting the next steps by the two camps because this game has no end.

In the unwritten rules among the graffitist's, the highest dishonor from being

"Tapped" of each other's work, does not exist.

Just imagine, then, to happen between the two leading British street artists.

The reason for the old school graffitist culminated in '80s King Robbo and the famous master
of the stencil, Banksy.

There were the savages to expel domesticated, says his faithful team of King Robbo, while Banksy, participating in various festivals, winning awards and his reputation spread all around of the earth.

On the one hand we have the legend of King Robbo and on the other the famous Banksy.

The one handle the spray as if it were an extension of his hand and the other distinguishes for his talents in the technique of stencil.

The one is a veteran of graffitist's and the other "gurus" of street art. As a matter of ideology, like saying, I am with Liverpool and you are with Everton.

What is unites them, however, as all the underground art scene of the wall, is the chase by the police and the handkerchiefs in face.

Thus, no public statements and appearances, created a myth around this lock which endeavor to preserve the faithful followers.

To take it from the beginning, it all started in 2009 when Banksy «stepped" with a symbolic of his famous stencil graffiti of King Robbo canal area Regent of London dating from 1985.

Nobody until then did not dared to tamper the work of the veteran British graffitist and so this move of Banksy it was considered sacrilege.

Immediately, fans of the King Robbo built the team «Team Robbo» and went on the offensive, destroying his creations in the birthplace of Banksy, Bristol.

The unaltered state continued in the neighborhoods of London underground until the lock got rough dimensions to to be beaten King Robbo too wild outside his home last summer, and 
hopefully to exceed finally the coma.

Both sides have complied of course silent until the documentary «Graffiti Wars 2011» which was broadcast by the British Channel 4 a few weeks ago.So the conflict began again.

This cinematic record of the Contras of two famous graffiti starts by aligning Picasso versus Matisse and takes a clear position with the balance leaning in favor of King Robbo.

And if they both move the boundaries of illegality, participants in the documentary leaves clear suspicion that the authorities turn a blind eye only when is projects of Banksy.

The definitive "hit" for Banksy comes when talking about a serious attack with beatings on the head of King Robbo.

This did not pass so, and the phantom of stencil sent a protest letter to the channel, accusing the leaders of documentary about inaccuracies and arbitrariness. That's all for now. The sequel ....... on the walls.

As Green As... Algae?

Written by Murrye Bernard  . Image courtesy of HOK/Vanderweil

The eight-story, 1960s-era building is among the 362 million sq. ft. of office space the GSA must retrofit to reduce greenhouse gases by 30% before the 2020 deadline.

HOK / Vanderweil's retrofit of a government building takes the notion of incorporating nature into

 design to a whole new level. The facade uses algae-housing tubes to serve multiple functions,

 including using algae as a fuel source.When building green, it’s easiest to start from scratch,

 but the blank slate is an ideal rather than a reality: our stock of existing buildings necessitates

 energy-efficiency retrofits.Metropolis magazine’s annual Next Generation® Design Competition

 prompts emerging designers—those in practice for 10 years or less—to tackle this pressing issue. 

The 2011 teams were tasked with designing a net-zero building retrofit for a 1960s-era

 U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) office building located in downtown Los Angeles.

 This typology is timely, given that federal agencies have been mandated to lower greenhouse

 gas emissions by 30% before the year 2020. This particular building, 300 North Los Angeles

 Street, was designed by Welton Becket, Albert C. Martin, and Paul R. Williams. The eight-story

 steel-frame structure is clad in single-pane glass and concrete panels; its interior hallways are

 devoid of natural light. Read: it's not very eco-friendly or such a pleasant place in which to work.

Photovoltaic panels cover 30,000 sq. ft. of the roof, while three atria cut into the building are angled to maximize daylighting.

The winning entry, titled “Process Zero: Retrofit Resolution,” was designed by a 15-member team comprised of architects and engineers from HOK and Vanderweil, who managed to reduce the building’s overall energy demand by a whopping 84% while generating the remaining 16% on site. The design thus achieves net-zero status and also meets the exacting standards of the socially conscious Living Building Challenge 2.0.

Algae housed in glass tubes covering the building’s exterior filters wastewater, consumes carbon dioxide from the nearby highway, and uses photosynthesis to produce energy.

The building retrofit is literally green on the outside, thanks to a 25,000 sq. ft. grid of tubes that serve as a photobioreactor and breeding ground for microalgae—an "architectural first" according to the team. Looking to nature for inspiration is not a new approach for HOK, who have been collaborating with The Biomimicry Group, a bio-inspired innovation company, for several years. So, naturally, the algae isn’t just for looks: the biomimetic design actually produces energy to power the building. The algae draws nutrients from the building’s wastewater and, with the help of the sun’s energy, produces lipids that can be turned into fuel on site. The algae also absorbs CO2 emissions from the nearby Santa Ana Freeway and, through the process of photosynthesis, produces fresh oxygen. A bonus? The grid of tubes provides shading for interior offices.

With three large atria and eight light wells cut into the windowless interior, the design brings daylight to 100% of the office. Artificial lighting currently consumes one-fourth of the building’s energy load.

While the microalgae bioreactor system is no doubt innovative, it generates only 9% of the building’s power needs. The team has devised a variety of other solutions to pick up the energy slack: new atria and light wells mitigate the lack of natural light in workspaces, louvers provide natural ventilation, 35,000 sq. ft. of photovoltaic film coat the new facade, 30,000 sq. ft. of solar collectors line the roof, “phase-changing materials” provide ceiling insulation, and a cloud computing system replaces heat-generating computer equipment.

Is algae the retrofit solution of the future? Only time will tell. The HOK / Vanderweil team will reinvest its $10,000 prize into further research and development, and they hope that someday the system could be applied to retrofits for federal structures and other building types.
source http://buildipedia.com