Posts by Phoebe Lau
The Future
The traffic congestion in New York has always annoyed me so I have always wished to own an affordable flying car that will allow people to choose between ground or air travel depending on traffic. The wings of the car would eject from the sides. I attempted to draw a more circular and round shape to the car so passengers can actually all face each other when they talk during the travel. I situated the driver’s seat in the center of the car. I thought it would be cool to have a holographic GPS system at that pops out from the driver’s seat, making it easier to follow directions to locations.
A Call for Futurism
In the “Manifesto of Futurist Architecture,” Sant’Elias discusses the problem of architecture being unoriginal and unchanging. His main complaint is that architecture has just become a mesh of classic designs from the Greeks, Byzantine, Japanese, etc. He boldly mocks the architecture during the 1900s as just a “moronic mixture of the most various stylistic elements.” As a futurist himself, he states that modern architecture should keep progressing and new forms and styles should be discovered and utilized. How do you feel about architecture in the post modernism era? Do you share similar sentiments as Sant’Elias?
In a similar sense, “The Futurist Manifest” by Marinetti passionately calls for the launch of futuristic art and the rejuvenation of Italy. He strikes up a comparison between old and new times. He compares admiring the old forms to “pour[ing] our sensibility into a funeral urn.” He focuses in on an interesting point that humans have the need for change and struggle as “beauty exists only in struggle.” He names this also as a reason for our glorification of war. To what extent is his statement true? Is struggle necessary for happiness?
Comments by Phoebe Lau
"I believe it is more important to focus on building new "greener" infrastructures rather than correcting the old ones. Construction on older establishments may take too much time and resources. PlaNYC proposes offering GreeNYC campaigns to educate New Yorkers on energy efficiency. However, I believe just raising awareness will not be enough incentive for businesses to reduce energy consumption. Tax abatement on solar energy is a better idea since businesses run on policy of maximizing profits and minimizing costs. Increasing taxation on GHG emissions would also encourage businesses to rethink their energy usages."
--( posted on Feb 24, 2014, commenting on the post
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"I believe once the sense of urgency is great enough, there will be a greater call for action to build wind and solar powered energy sources. In a sense, we are currently working diligently towards renewable energy for the planet."PlaNYC" states that we have reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 26% since 2005. While that is promising data, there is still room for improvement. As more people realize the benefits of shifting to renewable energy (as stated in "A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030" only 17 to 20 percent of energy in gasoline moves a vehicle while 75 to 86 percent of electricity in an electric vehicle is used for motion), the greater the demand will be for it and we will not be the society who procrastinates."
--( posted on Feb 24, 2014, commenting on the post
Energy Race or Pure Optimism? )
