BREAKFAST, a design and engineering studio out of Brooklyn, recently unveiled something that they call Brixels. 

A Brixel is a variable-sized brick that is controlled by software and can act as a pixel in artwork, building facades, and other kinds of installations. 

Below is a video of their first installation, called Brixel Mirror. It is a 19 foot wide by 6 foot tall installation compromised of 540 Brixels. If you can’t see it below, click here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-5cVpWhp30&w=560&h=315]

While extremely cool, you may be wondering how applicable this might be to real world uses. But kinetic architecture isn’t a foreign concept and I am sure we’ll be seeing more of it.

We went for dim sum (breakfast) yesterday morning. We wanted an authentic experience and found a place in Monocle’s Hong Kong travel guide called Lin Heung Lau. It’s an “institution” in Central that has been around since 1926. Locals would later tell us that the place is good but they probably would have sent us elsewhere.

It was of course packed when we arrived and we quickly learned that you need to be aggressive in this place if you hope to get any food. There’s no line at the front and nobody is going to seat you. Instead, you circulate around the room and find your own spots. If nothing is available, you simply hover over a communal table until something opens up.

This also means not waiting for the dim sum carts to come around to your table. If you do that, none of the good stuff will be left. Pull out your sharp elbows and go to work as soon as you see one come out of the kitchen. This is how most of Hong Kong seems to work. There’s too many people in too little of a space to be a polite Canadian.

I thought the whole experience was great. Although, I could have probably done without the laundry (underwear included) hanging up in the bathroom.

Yesterday morning I attended a CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) breakfast event called The Story of Marketing Tall Buildings.

It consisted of a talk by William Murray, who is Group Director of the UK-based creative agency Wordsearch, and then a panel discussion with some of Toronto’s leading developers. (David Wex of Urban Capital was one of the panelists. Many of you will probably remember him from this BARED post.)

Shown above is one of William’s slides. The title is: The roots of the tree. And I thought it was a great metaphor for what tall buildings, well really all buildings, should aspire to do.

The tendency is to think of buildings as objects. Here, look at how beautiful this thing is. That’s obviously important, but what about its roots? What about the way in which it interfaces with its context and hopefully gives back? Is it a catalyst for positive change?

I thought it was a good slide.