emily conrad

Maybe it’s because this is the summer that isn’t in NYC, but I’ve had vacationing in serenity on my mind since April. And I finally found what the perfect vacation looks like- Floating Camping. Could it get any better? Off Almere Beach (near Amsterdam), this floating island is from the University of Amsterdam, apparently built by students participating in the course ‘Social Engineering in the Amsterdam Metropolis’. And it’s brilliant. Another project is the ‘floating market‘, an outdoor market built on foam blocks covered in sod where organic and local produce is sold. These structures have proven to be very stable and word is the creators want to take it commercial. To this idea Pop-Up City says it best-’I wonder if they will succeed, as it doesn’t look to be their style.’

Whatever the case, I wish them all the luck and hope they bring this whimsical but practical idea to the island of Manhattan.

Floating Camping

Floating Market

The other day on the NYTimes website I noticed an interesting article about the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. What struck me about this was the gap between theory and practice being embodied in a building. The theory was to allow for modularity among the capsules, they could be added or removed based on need. Thing is, perhaps that need came about, but how would that really happen? A tenant would call the landlord who would hire a crew to add on a second floor to his capsule? What protocol was in place for the capsules to be added or removed? Theories without methodologies to carry them out prove to often be fruitless. Unfortunately, the tower is likely to be demolished despite earlier pleas by architect Kisho Kurokawa. The tenants hope to rebuild a more modern tower.

nano-cabin.com says:
The Nakagin Capsule Tower was the first capsule architecture design with the capsule as a room inserted into a mega-structure. This realized the ideas of metabolism, exchangeability, and recycleablity as a prototype of sustainable architecture. Located in the Ginza area of Tokyo, the Nagakin Capsule Tower, was originally designed as a Capsule Hotel to provide economical housing for businessmen working late in central Tokyo during the week.

The 14-story high Tower has 140 capsules stacked at angles around a central core. Kurokawa developed the technology to install the capsule units into the concrete core with only 4 high-tension bolts, as well as making the units detachable and replaceable. The one-man-room capsule, a modified (4 x 2.5 meter) shipping container, has a circular window, a built-in bed and bathroom unit, and is complete with TV, radio and alarm clock. The capsule interior was pre-assembled in a factory then hoisted by crane and fastened to the concrete core shaft.

Today, like most days on the New York Times website, the controversial issue of childcare and nannies came up. Usually I read Motherlode each day, but have stopped reading the comments in this section because they prove to be downright nasty. Parents are self-righteous when it comes to who, how, when and where their children are raised, and everyone thinks they’re making the right decision. Usually my response is, “Great. You’re better.” and leave it at that hoping the more obnoxious ones will be ignored or pushed to the bottom of the recommendation pile. But truthfully that rarely happens so I’ve been speaking up and offering my own impressions.

Alas, today the angle was a bit different, and thankfully it was in a different section (Big City, which I hope leads to a broader audience). Tasha Blaine was touting her nonfiction narrative about the lives of three nannies and taking questions. Before I headed out to work I jotted down a few thoughts I’ve had about the issue of Domestic Workers Rights, something that is more important than the bickering about whether having a nanny is a sin.

Three months ago in the middle of February my friend Elspeth called me up to help canvas the Lower East Side (my neck of the woods) to inform locals and gather signatures about a law that could be passed in Albany, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights . That day, I learned that there are hundreds of domestic workers on my block, very few spoke English, and even fewer had any idea what this Bill of Rights was all about. But they all had stories to tell; some pleasant, some awful, but mostly they felt no one listened to or cared about them. So I’ve gotten involved in this cause and helping to give domestic workers a stronger voice.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out during lunch that my comment is taking top honors (FTM). But more importantly, I’m hoping to hear reader’s thoughts.
___________________________
Tasha-
I’m curious about something. We had a nanny before my child entered into daycare and treated her well. She’s still a big part of our lives. Having a nanny really opened my eyes to the rights (or lack thereof) of domestic workers. When I was letting our nanny go we gave her a severance, secured a job for her and made sure she was well taken care of. It was at this time I began researching some of the legislature currently going through Albany (a good resource for this is Domestic Workers United, http://www.domesticworkersunited.org/ ) to find out what is a typical severance, vacation, insurance package for a nanny. I was surprised that when I asked around, very few employers gave severance or vacation days (!)

In any case, I’m wondering what you, other nannies and other employers think of the proposed Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (which I took the liberty to cut and paste from the “Campaigns” section on the site aforementioned).

Pay
Overtime pay
o Overtime pay of time-and-a-half of the worker’s regular rate of pay for every hour over 40 hours worked in a week.

Annual cost of living adjustment
o Domestic worker’s salary must be annually adjusted by the amount of the increase in the
Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation (averages about 3 to 4% a year).

Time Off
o One day of rest per week
o Paid time off for sick days, vacation, and holidays
o 5 sick days per year, 5 personal days per year.
o Vacation ranges from 2 to 5 weeks, depending on the number of years working for the family.
o Holidays, including New Year’s Day, MLK Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day,
Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day, Christmas Day, and one additional holiday of
the worker’s choosing.
o If the worker chooses to work on a holiday, she earns time-and-a-half (or double if it puts her
over 40 hours worked in the week).

Termination Standards
Advance notice of termination
o 21 days’ notice requirement.

Severance pay
o One week’s pay for each year she has worked for the employer.
Protection from Discrimination
Domestic workers will be included in New York’s employment discrimination law.

Health Care
Employers must provide domestic worker employees with either: (1) health benefits substantially equivalent to those provided by the Healthy New York plan, OR (2) an amount no less than the lowest cost of a Healthy New York plan.

Enforcement
Workers whose rights have been violated may sue their employers in court in order to collect the
money they are owed, and in some cases, extra money as punishment against the employer (punitive damages). The Commissioner of Labor and the Attorney General may also bring lawsuits on behalf of domestic workers.

Application
The domestic workers bill of rights only applies to the MTA region, which includes New York City and Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties.

I believe in protecting domestic workers rights, but fear nannies who do stand up for themselves will get overlooked by potential employers.

— antimony, NYC

Yesterday during breakfast the mailman dropped off the Duplo Legos I had ordered from Amazon for my soon-to-be 2 year old daughter. We could both hardly stand finishing our eggs and peanut butter toast, because what we really wanted to do was open the box. Once I cleared the table and coaxed the box from Blue’s hands without her crying, we tore it open and dug into the candy colored pieces. This was the first time Blue had played with Legos, and I was surprised that she knew exactly what to do (one of the highest marks of good design).

She started putting a few pieces together, but got really excited when it clicked, that she could stack the pieces up as tall as she wanted. I sat by and just watched her build and build the four-nubbed Legos into a tower made from all the same pieces. It sparked a thought. This is what it’s like to discover building and architecture, and the primal impulse is to make it taller. “More, more more!” she wanted. I couldn’t help but think so many of us feel this way, and it takes rational thought the overcome it. The push for innovation shouldn’t just about building upward but about creating an experience for your audience, or consistency within a physical context, or for conceptual integrity, or simply for beauty.

I was reminded of Rem Koolhaas’s reasoning behind the Central Chinese Television (CCTV) building in Shanghai- instead of taller and more slender, he opted for a continuous loop to represent modernization. The locals call it “big underpants,” but he envisioned “a shared conceptual space in which all parts are housed permanently, aware of one another’s presence – a collective. Communication increases; paranoia decreases.” From what I hear, it was, at least temporarily, a hub of social activity and facilitated connectivity among the workers. I like that Koolhaas looked beyond the obvious next phase of skyscrapers (taller, skinnier), and strove for an experiential design.

I attached the manifesto in case you’re interested.
Koolhaas: Beijing manifesto

Blue with Legos

A quick Flash mockup of little project I’ve been working about the loop of belief; going from religious, atheist, to spiritual and back. Glass bulbs and lights will replace the 2D feel, just testing out the timing and animation of the lights.

why worry?why_worry