# Sympathy with the obstacle / Parkour in Gaza

“Thus, hostile urbanists or militias always conduct the battle towards the inside, or the domain of obstacles, the urban canyon. When it comes to urbanized war, every combatant must think like an obstacle –‘See everything from the perspective of an obstacle’. West then uses Parkour as the exemplary discipline in which the practitioner becomes as one with the obstacle during movement. Every soldier should be a traceur, a swerving projectile which has a deep sympathy with its physical obstacle.”

Negarestani Reza. CYCLONOPEDIA. Complicity with anonymous materials. Melbourne: Re-Press 2008

We already wrote a bit about Parkour on boiteaoutils (link 1 and 2) and our fascination for this practice of architecture which attempts to consider every surfaces as a potential ground for the body.
In his great Cyclonopedia (already evoked in a previous article), the Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani evokes urban combat as the new paradigm of war in the Middle East. He establishes a materialist interpretation of the city as a set of obstacles and the militarized choreography of bodies as a set of trajectories that develop a "sympathy" for these same obstacles.
I recently discovered this following video showing three young men practicing Parkour in the Gaza Strip. My romanticism did not need so much to see a poetical resistance by the bodies to the various obstacles the Israeli Army impose to the Palestinian population...

# Hiding in Triangles by Philip Modest Schambelan and Anton Fromm

Hiding in Triangle is a Diploma project by Philip Modest Schambelan and Anton Fromm for their last year in the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany). It introduces a mountain bike hotel hanging on a cliff over the Lake Garda (Italy). Its structure and its bike paths compose a very interesting three dimensional maze between the earth and the rooms.

Here is Philip and Anton's introduction text:

The new mountain bike hotel on the edge of Pregasina in Italy offers sports enthusiasts a unique place to stay, an unforgettable view and a fast connection to an impressive variety of routes, trails and single tracks.
Pregasina is located on a plateau 500 meters above the northern tip of Lake Garda. A hill is a line-of-sight obstruction to an extensive view of the Alps. To totally exploit the panoramic view the new hotel is situated on a steep mountain ridge on the southeastern edge of the small town. This on the one hand dissociates the new building of the traditional architecture, on the other hand the unconventional construction can be guessed by a small protrusion.
The following principles determine the draft: complete access by mountain bike at all levels, maximum use of the panoramic view of Lake Garda and the mountain slopes of the Alps, no impairment of the view from Pregasina and a full and individual accommodation of riders and sports equipment in each residential unit.
To ensure the trafficability each access element has a tilt angle of 12 °. The angle of the access routes to each other changes both by the natural curve of the mountain, as well as by the decreasing distance between the building and the mountain in the vertical direction. These two factors generate the fixed points in the front supporting framework, as well as spaces in the metal braiding. In these spaces, the residential units will be established. The structure is stabilized by three cores, which provide access to the rooms. Thus, way and construction form a unit that defines the form.
The access routes form two different paths, which are connected on the top and bottom floor. This system of a contiguous band provides an optimal pathways in terms of trafficability and the access to each residential unit.
The main facade is oriented towards the north-east, which guarantees each unit a view of the northern tip of the lake. At the same time it allows shading of the living areas by the hill. The communal areas such as coffee shops, snack bar, the sun deck and a media room are located on the top floor, Level 0, which looks out over the mountain easily. Here, the sunlight is desired and used.
The mountain bike hotel is an attractive residential experience, which captivates guests with its impressive design, access system and aesthetics, and will become the newest magnet for extreme sports enthusiasts in the Alps.

Project Name: Hiding in Triangles / Diploma
Architect: Philip Modest Schambelan (www.scham.be) + Anton Fromm
(www.copypasters.com)
Location: Pregasina, Lago di Garda, Italy
Use: Mountain Bike Hotel
Structure: steel / polycarbonate (residential units)
Constructed Area: 1500 m2
Design Period: 15.10.2009 - 30.1.2010
Construction Period: hopefully the future
Hiding in Triangles

More on Designboom

# Snowtunnel

The Snowtunnel allows people to use their snowboard all year long... This project is still at an prototyping state and waiting for investments but can be probably imagined as a generic object findable within cities...

# Urban surf

Do you remember this scene in John Carpenter's self parody, Escape from L.A. where Kurt Russel aka Snake Blitzken's self parody is surfing an earthquake wave in an urban canyon ? Well, those pictures below (related to an article in The Cool Hunter) shows guys surfing in a Munich urban park (outside Die Haus der Kunst Museum) where a little canal provides interesting waves.
And it obviously make me think of this amazing video (the whole debate is about whether it's fake or not which I don't care at all) that you can watch below...
The incongruity of this activity in an urban environment makes it being difficult to control which is one of the interesting aspect here...

# Diving in Strépy-Thieu boat lift

Here is a impressive video of Alain Kohl and Orlando Duque diving from the top level of Strépy-Thieu boat lift into a pool 25m lower (being a lift it can be adjusted). The appropriation of a background which has nothing to do with the activity proposed here makes the whole beauty of the scene.

# Virtual race

Following you will see a commercial that have been done for a well know soda company, (it's not coca-cola!). This short 3D animation shows the ride of a race car on the Singapore Grand Prix street circuit.
It's a really interesting vision of the city , turning around the pilote and the car along the lap.

enjoy!

see also this past article

# Pruned / Ski in Chicago

Here is an amazing article published by Pruned about 1954's Chicago stadium's ski jumping ramp installation...

# Saint Denis N°3 /// Stade de France

Stade de France was built in 1998 (for the World Cup) in Saint Denis, and designed by Michel Macary, Aymeric Zubléna, Michel Regembal & Claude Constantini. Football (yesterday France-Tunisia 3-1) & rugby matches are the most current events but atlethics and concerts are also happening there.

# Singapore's urban night time Formula 1 Grand Prix

Today's Singapore first Grand Prix organised in night time and within the city like in Monaco. I'm just a bit disapointed cause I thought Formula 1 would have lights like in Le Mans but apparently not...

# WOODEN TRICKS

Is it sustainable to ride a bike to go to work? for sure, but maybe you can go over that and ride a wooden bike to go to work, there's no limit for a tree hugging hippie !

I heard about wooden bicycles, then I made a small research... and the result is way better than what I was imaginating! check this out!!





gota bikes (brazil)








woodbike.com




DIY bike (maybe the best one!)




some more...





more stuff about this subject: wheel fanatik
designboom



RIDE OR DIE !

# Urban stilts

New evolution towards cyborg !

# Cesta Punta = Cyborgs' sport

I take advantage of spending my holidays in Saint Jean de Luz to assume something in commun between last post about Oscar Pistorius and Cesta Punta players and their Xistera which seem to be their new low-tech arm !

# Oscar Pistorius

Short post as long as I have an internet access. Yesterday, I watched a documentary on Arte about South African Oscar Pistorius that you might know. If you don't I must give you the advice of watching this video of Roman Golden League in 2007.
This meeting was before the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) forbid Pistorius to participate to any competition for able runners because of his legs beeing a supposedly advantage for him. However, after some more tests, he was allow to participate to Beijing Olympics qualifications that he unfortunetly failed...
London 2012 maybe...

# Un petit peu de détente et d'utopie... la famille Paskowitz

L'histoire d'une famille pas comme les autres qui a décidé de vivre autrement: la nature et le surf à la place de la ville et de l'école...SurfWise...




On respire... et on se demande "qu'est ce que je fais là?"

SURF OR DIE

# Cycling in USA ou comment le vélo devient un outil de contestation .

New york encore mais pas seulement (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo ) ... Tout a commencé avec les messager a vélos dans les rue des villes américaines et à New York spécialement qui ont adopté une conduite trés "sportive" en roulant sur des vélos de piste "fixed gear" ou "track bike" sans frein (ce qui est interdit au USA) et sans roue libre, trés dynamique et nécessitant que très peu d'entretien! En effet leur vélo ne leur permettent pas de faire d'arrêt d'urgence donc ils adaptent leur allure au flux générale de la ville ou sinon quand ils ne peuvent pas s'arréter accélerent, prennent les rues en contre sens (beaucoup de rues à sens unique dans les "downtown" américains), ou dérapent (skid) sur leur pneu arrière très lisse. Ce type de vélo c'est trés vite popularisé chez les messager américains et sont devenue le symbole d'une nouvelle tendance venant remplacer aisément skateboard, roller, graffity et autre "sport" urbain plus assez underground pour la jeunesse en soif de branchitude! Néocyberpunk et fixed-gear (ou encore fixy) font bon ménage ! Cette amalgame de style est aussi défendus par les associations militant pour les parcours pietons et autre pistes cyclables dans des villes dédiées uniquement à la voiture et au camion. En marge de ce mouvement ce développe des groupe de "nerd" qui revivent le tour de france 74 avec des casquette "vintage" ricard ou perrier sur la tete et connaissent par coeur les champion des vélodrome d'antan , des groupe plus anarcho-punk comme les black label qui se revendique comme les hells angels du vélo, ou encore les jeunes "over fashion" qui mettent des sommes astronomiques dans des roues en carbones et des selles en cuir importer d'angletterre , les vélos peuvent attendre facilement 1500 euros(pour un vélo sans frein ni dérailleur)! le plus important etant d'avoir le roue assortie au cadre, a la selle et à la guidoline...(faut dire que ça claque!) Enfin tout ce petit monde se retrouve pour des grandes randos vélo nocturne ou le week end et essaye de récupérer un peu d'espace sur le domaine routier jusque là limiter à la seule automobile! C'est pas encore gagné mais ça se développe très très vite! extrait de la vidéo MASH une marque qui à déja accaparer le secteur (ainsi que de nombreux amateur ayant sauter sur l'occaz pour développer leur propre matériel en montant des marques wear/ customs bikes...):

# Destruction derby

Il ya 7ou 8 ans,un viel architecte m'avait dit: "le skateboard c'est la destruction de l'architecture"!
(marches brisées, murs ruinés par les wallrides, coppings tordus...).

à vous de juger!

Une production de la marque de shoes Lakai.

Merci Florian pour cette tuerie!