Bouncy sheds?

Bouncy Buildings is an annual project which invites architects to design a ‘bouncy castle’. This year's results - which have been on tour to London, Stockholm and Tokyo - came from three UK practises, Sergison Bates Architects, Peter Cook + CRAB Studio and The AOC (whose work is pictured above). Shedworking loves the work, but wonders when we'll be seeing inflatable sheds? Here's what the organisers say about the project:

"Bouncy castles are associated with children, play and leisure time, their aesthetics most often borrowed from the world of fairytales. But can bouncy castles be used to investigate issues of contemporary architecture? By testing new possibilities for architecture through the large scale and temporary qualities of bouncy buildings, a large public audience will have the opportunity to interact with full scale architectural models. The mobility of the structures allows us to show them in very different contexts and cultures."

The nearest we've seen so far is the superb Inflate range including the marvellous Office in a Bucket, pictured below.

Shedworking museum

This is an art museum inside a museum by Mediumism, designed for children but to be enjoyed by everybody. Via Treehugger.

Planet Germany

Shedworking reader Cathy Dobson from Red Door consulting in Germany is not only a shedworker, she's written a book about her experiences (not just of shedworking, but also of living and working in Germany). Planet Germany was written from her own shedlike atmosphere, a former pig-sty near Düsseldorf, now a lovely home office. Here's the Amazon blurb:

"After a decade of living in Germany, a chaotic British family makes a New Year's resolution to throw themselves wholeheartedly into the local culture. The process is complicated as the mother is founding a business with a German partner who is convinced that all Brits are both dysfunctional and poorly nourished. The year sees them bumbling through local festivals, getting into scrapes with authorities, and falling foul of the law, all aided and abetted by their eccentric neighbours and posse of cats. This book exposes the crazier side of both British and German culture, examines profound mysteries such as German fortune telling and sauna etiquette, and explains why dachshund owners are the most dangerous people on the planet."

And here's an exclusive extract:

"While we adults eat and the children pick at the stuffing sullenly, the conversation turns to the new business Birgit and I are setting up. We are launching a management consultancy, based in the disused pigsty behind our house which we’ve converted into an office.

We’ve spent the last month preparing everything. The pigsty has had its leaking roof mended, a smart wooden floor has been laid, we’ve re-wired, re-plastered, painted and I’ve even attached a shiny brass door knocker to the gleaming red door. In the run-up to Christmas, we’ve set up our website, installed desks, a server, lap-tops, fax machine, printer. We’re ready to launch.

“It’ll be great fun working from home,” I hazard. “I never used to see much of the children when we were in an office in central Düsseldorf and I always got home so late.”

Birgit looks at me quizzically. I can tell that seeing lots of someone else’s offspring isn’t her idea of a great working environment.

“When we’re at work, you kids will have to avoid playing directly outside the office,” Birgit tells them. “We can’t have our phone calls interrupted by the noise of a dysfunctional English family in the background.”

“Dysfunctional? What do you mean, dysfunctional?” My jaw has dropped open.

“I don’t mean there’s something wrong with your family,” Birgit reassures me. “The English nation per se is dysfunctional. Don’t take it so personally.”

You can buy it here.

Fluid Habitation - Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard's rather nice Tattoo House extension is doing a virtual lap of honour around the interweb at the moment (I particularly like the garden-type window UV stickers - scroll down to the end of the post for a photo). But he also has some interesting thoughts about homeworking and I like the look of the shedlike Fluid Habitation pictured above."There is a contemporary shift in architecture toward the fluid, toward the impermanent, toward the adaptable," says Maynard. "These impermanent spaces are empowering by their very nature. Impermanency is proactive, subversive and empowering to the individual." He continues:

"The modern home does not reflect our modern life style in many ways. Our life consists of dynamic systems of media, information, technology and transport. These elements continually shape our epoch and define it as an era of loose foundations and shifting meaning. Our homes do not reflect this. They contain a variety of products that enhance our lifestyle through their flexibility, fluidity and malleability. Yet our direct living environment remains a static one. Fixed and rigid, it conforms us to a static ideology and does not allow us to easily adapt and evolve our behaviour, relationships, circumstances and lifestyle."

And so his suggestions is fluid habitation, which allows people to reinvent their living space and turn it into a truly bespoke home. So as well as wellknown devices such as intelligent glass, Maynard has come up with the idea of not only a mobile bedroom, but also a mobile office. Here's how he describes it:

"The mobile office is a flexible office space providing the family with a simple and adaptable environment to work and study. The mobile office is a hybrid structure, incorporating an adaptable, tectonic solution with contemporary screen technology. The office is a digitised 'jack' to the world, providing the family with a contemporary means and expression of their connection to the world and their freedom to information. One could imagine that as the make up of the family changes over time that simple, free standing elements such as the mobile office could be added to suit the shifting needs of the family."

Well worth a browse.

RSI Awareness day

A date for your 2008 diaries - RSI Action is holding its RSI Conference on March 1 2008 at the Friends Large Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ (opposite Euston Station). Here's the info:

"The conference will include presentations from the Director of the Australian RSI Association, and Suparna Damany (USA). Suparna has written probably the most informative and helpful RSI book available (It’s Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome), and is considered to be one of the world’s leading Physical Therapists treating RSI. There will be a wide range of other leading presentations on medical, legal, case studies, and health & safety projects from industry. Exhibitions will provide a wide range of RSI information, support technologies and advice."

Attendance at the conference is free.

Pyjamas as daywear

Shedworking's staff tend not to spend much time on the fashion pages, so apologies for being a mere six months behind the news that Prada have this year been pushing pyjamas/pajamas as genuine daywear, which will come as interesting news to homeworkers and shedworkers around the world. An example from their summer collection is pictured above. More on this from Trendhunter who are more in the know. Personally, it doesn't work for me but I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Choosing a shed (US) - Personal Outdoor Dwelling System

Although it seems to have slightly bemused Dwell Blog, Corey W. Crawford's Personal Outdoor Dwelling System looks like a marvellous shedworking atmosphere (see the final picture below for an example of an office). Pictured above is a bespoke design to cope with the toasty Texan sun, and the back and one side has no openings nor windows for added privacy. It has a bamboo floor and mahogany walls with a compact air conditioner. It also has a deck which Corey points out "is a place for plants, a sitting area on a cool night, and is a pleasing welcoming space." There are other interesting designs on the site so it's well worth a browse.Thanks to Justin via PrairieMod