Author: harold

Life in a heat dome: The American West is figuring out how to keep cool (bbc.com)

Journalists always on their doomy, clicky BS.

More than $1.4m (£1m) has been approved to plant up to 1,800 trees across the city to provide cool corridors.

Bro we need $100.4M to relocate old ass trees which can immediately change local climate (they plant young trees that will be effective in 50 years, so so smart). They do it in Japan, it’s very costly and an engineering nightmare, which is exactly what dudes love. Get on that challenge, bored men. Plant big ass trees, mfs.

In 2017, San Francisco mandated that at least 15% surface area of roofs on new buildings bigger than 2,000 sq ft (1,858 metres) must be covered by either solar panels or vegetation.

Porque no los todos? Green roofs drop temperature by a good 5 degrees, just sitting there. 5 degrees is the difference between being hot and dying, or being fine and being hot. They also absorb heavy rain, limiting flooding and of course, chilling like a villain in the grass with the sky above never gets old. 100% of all goddamn roofs should be green roofs, what are y’all on? 15% is some weak shit and of course that doesn’t do a great job. It can’t.

Paint it white

LMAO every gentrifier has been building black buildings for the past decade lol. Those need by default 30% more energy to cool down. Developers and real estate managers are fucking irresponsible.

Planning for the future

That’s easy: thick ass walls. It’s called thermal inertia, it’s old as fuck. The walls absorb heat during the day, leaving inside cool, and they redistribute the heat at night, when it’s a lot cooler outside. Done deal. Stop building with those weak ass SIPs. No more energy-hungry A/C units. Stop the thin partitions. Build heavy to sustain heat while it gives you privacy so that you can moan as loud as you want in your crib.

Y’all are slow at understanding. Give me the keys.

As I end my conversation with my parents online, the page refreshes:

We talked about the elections and all my dad said was that the green parties would probably lose hard. I already knew what he wasn’t talking about.

Bro those numbers are frightening.

Now that I’m sleeping well, I can finally skate from time to time. I wanted to do that back in 2021, but due to brutal sleep deprivation, it wasn’t going to happen. That’s how you hurt yourself.

After six months of regular skating, I land tricks I never landed in my 20s. It feels so fucking good. I’m so hungry. My legs are obsessed and want to cruise and jump all the time.

I feel like nollie heel and 360 flip are doable this year. LETS GOOO.

Ten years ago, I had just moved into that room in that building off of West Adams Blvd. Starting over. I was pressed and so stressed out.

Today, still in South L.A. All the lights are green. Smiling and laughing on a constant basis.

I feel that, Snoop. I feel that.

Got bit by a dog and a side of my bed frame broke so, all is well.

India seems to be pivoting into an authoritarian regime.

Europe’s far right is stronger than ever and supporting Israel, a not so chill democratic state.

Russia. Enough said.

America and its right-wing nuts reverting things that should never be reverted ever, like women’s rights to abortion.

I struggle to find a way out of this absurdity because at the same time, we’re more connected than ever. We’re not stranded by a lack of communication, we’re drowning in it.

So, it’s not a matter of knowledge. It’s a matter of framing. Phones and algorithms have supercharged the most unhinged behaviors and takes. It’s wild to witness but mostly, it’s impossible to modify due to the fact that those two things that didn’t exist 15 years ago, are private and/or personal. Everyone is on some self-reinforcing shit, basically.

How do we go back to calm and sanity? I’ll say it again: Universal Income. Sustainable Housing.

Nothing else can improve democracy. Nothing.

I basically never drink in California. But I hop on a plane to France and of course, I start drinking in it. Half celebration, half micro-dosing.

And so the haze starts.

I realized that from that mini bottle of wine in the plane to me being back in L.A., I never stop drinking. Alcohol is everywhere in France, except for breakfast, unless you’re taking it at 11am and that hey fuck it, let’s have a little drink, it’s about to be lunch anyway.

Everyone there is basically constantly on an alcoholic haze, wondering why everything is slow or mean (keywords: constant alcoholic haze). One classic move is someone pouring themselves another glass and going on a even more racist diatribe lmaooo. You know it’s coming the second they grab that bottle, it never fails. And because I’m inebriated as well, I like to pour some oil on the fire sometimes.

That’s what alcohol does and it’s fun until it kills someone, which is how women succumb to their partners at an alarming rate. But France keeps saying how alcohol is culture.

It’s a VPN to one’s worst to me.

Testing Harold’s Halftogon House print in the sun, orientation as close as possible to the real deal (full south here).

I added some herbs in the planters and I can’t stop thinking how amazing it’s going to be. Look at this! Imagine your ass sitting in the tiered-seating area, near the plant, taking the sun and typing on your laptop. Or at the top, watching a movie in a super cozy, sunken couch.

Here I was testing the kitchen skylight (1500mmx500mm), simulating a noon sun. It looks like the light would hit the kitchen island perfectly, then. Natural light when cooking is a must, and coming from above is the best.

I am so building this. It’s 1/100th now and it will be 1:1.

I’ve had so many compliments for those kicks in the past ten days that I have to post them. They feel great, they look cool and I’ll be sad to tear them apart kickflipping them on a bank but, that’s their destination! I have two old pairs of shoes to destroy first though.

I forgot to talk about size in architecture.

Even with 3D and a 3D model, it’s super difficult to get a feel of space. I look at my prototype’s LDK area, thinking it’s fine. And then I doubt it: it feels way too large or far too small, somehow.

So I go back to numbers and they look good: 150cm/5 feet between a couch and a chair, sounds just normal. But in 3D it looks crazy sometimes.

I look at houses for inspiration and so many have outrageous sizes. Anything beyond 150m²/1600 sq. foot for living is wild to me. I look at those villas and I’m like:

• 320m²/3444 sq. foot for a family of four? How many miles a day you walk in there? Why would you have such massive, empty spaces to go from a bedroom to a bathroom or kitchen? Why do you have a separate “family” room in your giant family home?
• How many folks actually visit, knowing that you live away from the city in that giant house? How many people actually use your guest rooms? How often that insane 10-seat dining table is used for? You heat and cool all of that for no reason but a possibility? In this economy?

The best parties I’ve ever been to in L.A. have been in small bungalow houses. You can have a small house and 30 folks having a great time in it. You just need to open the windows because the heat goes up so fast with that many human bodies crammed in.

Small is amazing in architecture, despite what architects and clients think. Small spaces connect with the human psyche better, I believe.

Now small spaces, sure. Partitioned spaces, no. Wide open spaces are preferable. More enjoyable.

Like this (Paraty House in Brazil), but way smaller (this one is 840m²/9044 sq. foot).