I gave a presentation at Green Monday’s yesterday. Thanks to Rob Oudendijk for the pictures.

A recent study of 7,000 London civil servants *yawn* has found out that one *yawn* can die of boredom. You can’t actually die of boredom, but boredom leads to less motivation which can lead to depression, leading to heart problems leading to death…

“Someone who is bored may not be motivated to eat well, exercise, and have a heart-healthy lifestyle. That may make them more likely to have a cardiovascular event,” said Dr. Christopher Cannon, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University and spokesman for the American College of Cardiology.

He also said if people’s boredom was ultimately linked to depression, it wouldn’t be surprising if they were more susceptible to heart attacks; depression has long been recognized as a risk factor for heart disease. Cannon also said it was possible that when people are bored, dangerous hormones are released in the body that stress the heart.”

Yes, I’m a chair whore.

A film of headvertising’s offices

By sidekickstudios

Timetable from Ico Design on Vimeo.

I thought this was already old news, it weren’t slaves who built the pyramids in Egypt. I wonder if in the future archeologists come to the same conclusion when they unearth today’s offices…

I’m lost for words having seen this:

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Really cool pod

I wrote a short piece on Tokyo for the UIA World Congress of Architecture which will be held here in Tokyo in 2011.

A visiting architect-friend of mine described Tokyo colorfully as “an urban disaster with shit-piled-upon-shit”. Seeing my slightly annoyed face, he thoughtfully added “but it is fascinating shit”. This is a stereotypical reaction I have heard many times over, and not only from visitors. The Japanese themselves, architects as well as non-architects mutter an apologetic reference to European cities when we talk about Tokyo. Kenzo Tange once said that Tokyo has had many times over the chance to rebuild itself: after the Great Earthquake of 1923 or after the World War Ⅱ bombings, but according to Tange the rebuilding from an urban design’s point of view always failed. Did Tokyo, the world’s largest urban entity, really fail?

Read the rest here