"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Monday, June 16, 2008

Compact, pre-fabricated factory built housing - design that should be easy, but isn't

There is a fascinating exhibition at MoMA "Home Delivery - Fabricating the Modern Dwelling" , which few can visit, but a brilliant and absorbing website that everyone can.

Prefabricating modern dwellings should be easy. It isn't . Few people try to attempt it on any large scale although small, easily transported housing is in massive demand in the wake of environmental disasters.

There are six projects underway at MoMA - Cellophane House - Burst 008 - Micro Compact Home - Housing for New Orleans.

This A340 crew rest cabin fascinated -
Simply go to the website and explore - there is a great deal more.

Also see this article today in the Baltimore Sun which takes up the theme of the MoMA exhibition "No need for nails - Home based on sustainable design tosses out conventional building practices"

4 comments:

Stef said...

Prefabricating modern dwellings should be easy. It isn't . Few people try to attempt it on any large scale although small, easily transported housing is in massive demand in the wake of environmental disasters.

After the 1976 earthquake in Friuli, Northern Italy something like 80,000 were left homeless. I remember visiting relative shortly afterwards and amongst other things, the Italian government pressed old railway carriages into service as temporary housing. Later on something like 20,000 prefab wooden cabin-style houses were erected

I only mention this because I was in Friuli last month and passed one of those of those prefabs, still in very good order, with an old dear living in it

In comparison with those deathtrap FEMA trailers used in NOLA they compare pretty well

I suppose the difference is that the Italian government gave a f**k about the victims

Anonymous said...

you wont find this spoiled little fucker living in one.

Euan Blair, the son of the former prime minister, is thought to be the new owner of a £550,000 two-bedroom flat in Islington, north London – despite not starting his graduate traineeship at the bank Morgan Stanley until the end of this month.

Mr Blair, 24, has been seen coming and going from the flat, and Debbie Valentine, a conveyancing solicitor for the firm Russell, Jones and Walker, confirmed "I am acting for Euan Blair on this matter. I am unable to comment further."

Anonymous said...

Barclays Turns Weird, what's all this about then, M'Ludd?

ziz said...

Barclays - Hmmm... Ever since last year when they hit BS with a writ for a measly US$800 Mill their capital structure has defied all reason (and knowledge).

Now faced with the RBS/HBOS/B&B problems of raising dosh selling shares etc., they are grubbing round the Chinks who have lost half their prevous investment as does the smart (but perhaps no quite so smart) lady at Temasek.

Sovereign funds may well be awsh with dosh buit they are run by some very shrewd characters, which is why the Scadninavian sovereign funds never appear in news stroies about saviours.

There are very many observers of whom LP is the only one who feel that the situation is irrecoverable, after all these bonus driven adrenalin junkies wre not oplaying in 06/07/eary 08 with THEIR dosh. The big boys atop the middens were creaming in bonuses, share options. EXACTLY as they were before Barings went belly up.

As Stef said elsewher it is not the ON BS iotems that worry it is the OFF sheet iotems that should.... and do.

Increasingly LP feels that financial armageddon is on the cards and is just about to realise the hidden value in his collection of Lonnie Donegan record collection.

1st May CEO Paul Idzik announced he was leaving Barclays. " seeking new challenges" ....

Nothing heard of him since. CEO of one of the biggest banks in the world wants "new challenges" - flying to the moon / Mars maybe ?

So he had spats with John Varley and Bob Diamond .. he was CEO for fucks sake.

Not being a betting man LP will bbet that barclays by Christmas will be in component parts. Barcap sold off to anyone will habve it. Ditto Investment Banking and the rump of traditional banking left trading as barclays patched up hobbling with dosh from Mervyn the Moron.

The truth probably that the total scaleof their losses will be written off slowly over the next decade by the BOE.

Plse note the Treasury website slipped out that the £14 Bn at Northern Wreck will after this and that and the other end up as a capital payment of £19 BN.

A billion here and Billion there and soon you are talking real money.

This was hidden in
18 June 2008

Summer Supplementary Estimates

"At the Budget the Treasury announced that the Bank of England loan facilities to Northern Rock would be replaced with direct Treasury funding during 2008-09 in line with restrictions on central bank financing of government undertakings set out in the Treaty Establishing the European Community. The Main Supply Estimates published in April included a sum of £14 billion, the amount of the outstanding loan facilities projected at the end of the 2008-09 financial year.

Since then, the date of transfer has been agreed by the parties involved and the Treasury will transfer the loan facilities over the summer, at which point the outstanding balance is projected to be £19.3 billion. This Supplementary Estimate updates the provision made in the Main Estimate and will enable the transfer of the Northern Rock loan from the Bank of England to the Treasury at the agreed time. "

Monbiots calculus at work. Think of a number ...make it much bigger.

Link
http://tinyurl.com/6zz2ze

Thanks for link to Mish ...must follow it up....as Fermat said...I could solve this but I have a train to catch.

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish