The White House: Home of the First Family

White House as a home appears more like a five star hotel: the conditions are made as comfortable as possible.

• It is spacious: Second Floor is reserved for the private use.
• Four private bedrooms and a dressing room are reserved for the president.
• For recreation: tennis court, jogging track, swimming pool, movie theater and bowling lane.
• In the basement: a war time shelter for the president and first family.
• White House Chief Usher: the head of household staff and operations. He develops and administers the budget for the operation, maintenance, and utilities and supervises the staff. He serves at the pleasure of the president
• A third floor contains a solarium and guest rooms, and staff bedrooms.

In this case home is a place of representation and a status symbol. The monumental status of the building reduces the homelike feeling of it. As a home the White House lacks the qualities of privacy and intimacy.

The White House: Security

Before I leave town, heres the some basic info on the secret service and some other security stuff. I'll be sure to keep researching...

White House Security and Other Topics

A Conversation with Ken Payne, Moving to the White House

On October 16 the Studio met with the former Director of the Rhode Island State Senate Policy Office to discuss the relationsip between design and policy making. Both disciplines are concerned with problem solving – that is identifying a desirable future condition and then plotting out how to get there.

Following the conversation the students determined to use the occasion of this election cycle, and the symbol of the white house in order to develop a more public platform for the discussion of these issues.

In the News: "Space Based Solar Power Fuels Vision of Global Energy Security"

September 19th, 2007

"BRECKENRIDGE, Colorado – The deployment of space platforms that capture sunlight for beaming down electrical power to Earth is under review by the Pentagon, as a way to offer global energy and security benefits – including the prospect of short-circuiting future resource wars between increasingly energy-starved nations."

Full article here:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/070919_sps_airforce.html

In the News: "We're literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up"

-James Howard Kunstler, 2003

For free, here is "The End of Suburbia," an excellent documentary on peak oil and how we'll have to change and/or cope.

http://tv-links.co.uk/video/9/9453/16385/97747/137985

ALSO
I've just started a new 'sketchblog'. Check it out:

http://sketchmelia.blogspot.com/

Studio-Wide Approaches Brainstorming Session

On October 9 the Studio worked with guests (experts, designers, etc) to explore a number of approaches to take:

1. Adoption of the Wedge Strategy and Stabilization of carbon emissions to 2005 levels.
2. Another approach to controlling carbon.
3. Adaptation to Sea Level Rise and Climate Change (Settlement and Agriculture)
4. Global Health Issues (which may be exacerbated by climate change)
5. Peak Oil as a more immediate concern (and a possible solution)
6. The Wild Card

Thanks to Kurt Teichert, Brown University, Peter Gil Case, Truthbox Inc, Heather McGowan, RISD, Laurencia Strauss, Artist & Designer, Wil Yoder, the RISD Solar Decathalon, and Students from Brown, Matt Grigsby, Design Awareness.

In the News: Solar Energy

For those interested in solar:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14031247