Build a Green Bakery. Slowly and Painfully.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01.22.06
A few days ago Kyeann wrote about the City Bakery Coincidentally we wrote this post the same day, but as we discuss the medium rather than the message, we post it today.
David Roberts of Grist makes a point about over-use of flash with Earthengine.net. Those of us from the cut'npaste school of online journalism hate flash- we cannot easily quote sites or steal pictures promote images. We recently wanted to write about architects doing prefab (Atelier One) and just gave up after trying to navigate the site. Here is another example of a good green idea lost in the world of flash: An East Village Bakery called "birdbath"
As a showcase for his organic baking, Mark Rubin of the City Bakery has built a bakery with a recycled denim-supported counter (how did that pass health inspection- you have to launder your furniture?) cork floors, wheatboard walls, and plyboo countertops. Milk paint gets its pigment from beets. Even the staff is clad in hemp and linen jackets. “I want to encourage people to make the link between organic ingredients in their food and organic, environmentally sound materials where they eat the food,” says Rubin.
A recent study found that "Fifty milliseconds - The equivalent of one-20th of a second - is how much time a website has to make a good first impression on surfers". Imagine how many more people would get the message delivered by this site if they could survive waiting for it to unfold. ::Build A Green Bakery via ::Coolhunting
Dear God that website takes WAY too long to unfold. Given that you said it took a while, I waited a bit longer than I normally would to see what they were going to subject me to. I clicked the back button when it got to unveiling "Build a Green Bakery" and have no regrets as to not seeing what sorts of information they have on there (even if it is useful and insightful). Is that intro how the REST of the site works? It's maddening to say the least.
*applause* The excessive use of Flash drives me nuts. My computer isn't fast enough to deal with it, so whatever message the site would like to convey is lost.
excessive use of flash and other ram-suckers cements the 'digital divide' and unwittingly sends the message that only wealthy areas can afford environmentally conscious design and planning.
You make an interesting point about flash; that you "cannot easily quote sites or steal pictures promote images." One way around that is to use hit the print screen button (prt scr) when the image you want is in view, then paste what has been caputred into any photo editing software. Paint is problably the simplest way to do this. Then just crop the image down to what you want, save as a JPEG, and post to your site.
I'm an architecture student, and I have to say most websites by young architects infuriate me. Its like talking to a person who insists on saying everything backwards - ya, you're clever, but who cares?
After you've had to wade through their Flash sites for useful information more than once, you start to question their competence as designers.
not to mention these sites are:
- Not search engine friendly
- Not handicap/accessible friendly
i agree that birbath is really cool, but am surprised that our posters haven't picked up on the fact that its owner intends to redo the entire interior of the place every few months (see new york magazine). a strange choice for someone who says he is so interested in creating a "green" environment for his customers. strange--all the waste that would create would appear to be the opposite of green.