Monday, June 14, 2010

Food Service Robots!

I'm currently designing a line of Robots for the Food service industry.


Models in Developement:

'MoCo!' Robotic Barista
'MoCo! latte' Espresso Model
'MoCo! robusto' Commercial Model
'MoCo! skinny' Lite Model

Here's the first draft design for the MoCo! Robotic Barista








Friday, May 28, 2010

Designing Homes

I've always wanted to live in a house that I built myself... And lately I've come to realize that it may be an inexpensive way to live. The idea is that I design, draft and build the house myself, cutting a third of the cost instantly (No need to pay designers, architects, engineers except maybe to give it a look over and no need to pay contractors to build it) And on top of that, because I'm designing the house, I have the option to build cheap, use inexpensive materials and methods.




Anyway, because I have this ambition, I decided to make a few sketches, which turned into a few renderings, which turned into a portfolio of four house designs with details:






The First is an Industrial Loft which I nicknamed "BrutHaus," in honor of it's strong Brutalist Flavor.













The Second began as a microhome and expanded to a rather large, semi-two story, loft house. I nicknamed it "Shadow Catcher" Because of the large, reinforced concrete walls at either end. (Concrete walls became canvases for the silhouettes of Atom Bomb victims in Hiroshima)











This one is the smallest, a Sub-Terranean Efficiency.





Here is the house I think I've settled on. Poured Concrete Foundation, Hybrid Block/Stick-built construction, Lots of glass but not too much, modern, concrete, simple.






Here it is in different Phases of Construction:




And Some finished Detail







It's a start anyway.


Be Well.

-NP

Thursday, April 15, 2010

HolyCoooooow

I KNEW There was something I was forgetting to do ;)

So, No pics from the Rock and Shop because I didn't make it out there, the night before I was supposed to leave it snowed a record 18" in Roanoke... Ugh. So even in my little 4WD Wrangler, I wasn't gonna be able to battle the interstate snow. With any luck, however, I'll be at the next event down there. Meanwhile I'll try to be present at the Roanoke Market downtown, when I can.

Things have slowed down a lot for me, artistically. I wrote a lot of music, which I'll probably post here when I get the time, but other than that I've been heavily business-minded. A friend and I have been offered the oportunity to buy a succesfull CoffeeHouse and we're deep in the schemeing process of writing a business plan, proposal and meeting with anyone who might know where two college students can get a small business loan (or other financing).

What else... Nothing else really to report just now, but soon I'll post with a little more content :)

Thanks to anyone who's bothered checking the blog for not forgetting about me!

Yours,
-NP