What We're Reading Archive
Why Horst W.J. Rittel Matters
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Carlo Ratti: Architecture that senses and responds | Video on TED.com
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Living Climate Change | Fresh Thinking About Our Future
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UMN in HAITI
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Is the next generation of architects really ready to build? | Capital New York
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MIT Media Lab gets a multiplicitous new logo (video)
Logos can be surprisingly divisive things, so the MIT Media Lab has decided to cheat a little bit with its new identity: it won't have just one logo, it'll have 40,000. You heard / read / imagined that right, the new Media Lab logo will simply be the concept of three intersecting "spotlights," composed of three colors, straight lines, three black squares, and a few blending gradients. There's an algorithm behind it all, which is used to generate a unique logo for every new member of staff, meani... Read more
29 Things that All Young Designers Need to Know
To help you make the shift from design student to design professional easier Doug Bartow, principal of id29, and his colleagues put together this article listing 29 things they think all new designers need to know. Read the 29 things all designers need to know. (via idsgn)... Read more
modeLab
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The Last Architect? « Architects 2Zebras
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Architecture Is Tough! Will Architect Barbie Help More Women Become Designers? - Design - GOOD
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The American Institute of Architects - IPD: Case Studies 2011 Info Page, Programs & Initiatives
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http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab087497.pdf
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i.materialise: Get your RP on, in titanium
Exciting news from the rapid prototyping world: For those of you put off by the plastic-like consistency of most RP'd parts, the i.materialise shop has just announced the ability to crank out custom titanium parts. Their process uses Direct Metal Laser Sintering, which... ...has hereto only really been used by high end research organizations and multinationals making tooling, aerospace components, medical tools, surgical implants or for pure research. We're skipping the "trickle down" affect... Read more
Why Can’t We Walk Straight?
Beautifully animated by Benjamin Arthur. (via Luc Latulippe)... Read more
Pressed Chair by Harry Thaler
Cologne 2011: London designer Harry Thaler‘s Pressed Chair is one of two joint winning projects in this year’s [D3] Contest, an international competition for young designers organised by imm cologne. The chair is made from a 2.5mm-thick aluminium sheet with a relief pressed into the surface, which provides structural strength once the legs are bent into place. A stool using the same technique is made in a similar way from three pieces bolted together. Thaler developed the project while s... Read more
Landscape Futures Super-Workshop
[Image: ”Retreating Village” by Smout Allen, a mobile settlement for a collapsing landscape].For the past few months, I have been working behind the scenes here on something that I am finally able to announce: starting tonight, and lasting for the next seven days, I will be helping to lead a Los Angeles-based design "super-workshop" with a spectacular line-up of participants. Mark Smout and Laura Allen of Smout Allen & the Bartlett School of Architecture, along with 14 students; David Be... Read more
Reserve Power: Paper 2010, The Inkgadget Review
Over the past two weeks we've been incorporating a lightweight flexible technology into our workflow. Usually, of course, just about everything we write is routed through a processor, operating system and application and immediately reflected on an LCD using some multitasking user interface. However, we have been seeking a way to organize to-do lists on a separate display so that they are not lost in the course of a day's work or taking up undue screen real estate. As it happens, we were invited... Read more
Researchers Developing Coral-Like Living Skin for Buildings
Researchers at the University of Greenwich in the UK are developing a carbon negative building material that would not only help fight climate change but protect the structures it is built upon. The material is made from protocells — super simple cells that have only the basic elements of life, yet are able to grow and multiply — that will capture carbon in their membranes and grow over time to create a hard, coral-like armor around or under buildings. Read the rest of Researchers Deve... Read more
Plastic Film Bends in Sun to Passively Ventilate Homes
Inhabitat recently posted a story about a new photosensitive material that bends in sunlight. An alternative film, called c))motion, is already in production but has a slightly different application. In short, the film is a plastic laminate that acts like a bimetallic strip, bending when heated or placed in the sun. The innovative film is inexpensive, similar to the material used in potato chip bags, and can be used to passively ventilate attics or operate a window shade inside a double pane w... Read more
Critical Condition
[Image: "The New Establishment" by Peter Kelly, courtesy of Blueprint].There’s an interesting and provocative article in the most recent issue of Blueprint called “The New Establishment,” by Peter Kelly. In it, Kelly takes issue with the lack of formal criticism in architecture blogging today, writing that “one tends not to find rigorous criticism of significant new buildings” on sites such as Strange Harvest, things magazine, and BLDGBLOG. Instead, he suggests, a “like-minded” com... Read more
IDEO's Future of the Book
Today IDEO released a five-minute video exploring the future of digital books. Their illustrated concepts highlight some interesting opportunity areas in the publishing industry through three distinct reading experiences: Nelson reinforces books as critical thinking tools, providing multiple perspectives, references, and current conversations on a single subject. The layers of information beyond the book itself provide greater context and encourages a deeper dive into the book throughout histor... Read more
‘The Process Is Really Just Iterate, Iterate, Iterate’
Speaking of UI designers, Lukas Mathis has a nice interview with Chris Clark. ★ ... Read more
New Air Conditioning System Yields "90 Percent" Energy Savings
Air conditioning accounts for 14 percent of America's home electricity use, and most of that electricity comes from coal. Can we keep our home climates comfortable without screwing up the global climate? We're making progress. A team of engineers at NREL recently developed a potentially revolutionary new air conditioning system. Unlike standard air conditioners, which compress a circulating liquid refrigerant such as Freon, this new system draws warm air through a cooling unit that conta... Read more
3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution
New technology is giving rise to never-before-possible businesses that are selling products like iPhone cases, doorknobs, perfume bottles and architectural models. Read more
St Laurentius / C18 Architekten
© Brigida GonzalezArchitects: C18 Architekten Location: Rottenburg‐Hailfingen, Germany Client: Kath. Kirchengemeinde St. Laurentius Project Area: 340 sqm Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Brigida Gonzalez The town centre of Hailfingen is characterised by simple, rural building structures. The situation “behind the church” features attractive open spaces.Our thoughts to shaping the structure are defined by analogies to the townscape of Hailfingen.© Brigida GonzalezsectionBy architectonic... Read more
Beginning an Architecture Library
© Leo ShiehAs the long days of summer are sadly coming to an end, architecture students across the world will be heading back to their universities and preparing for their next studio projects. While the upcoming semester will allow students to master the latest digital modeling programs and perfect their physical modeling skills, the value of reading architectural books (whether they be reference, theory, etc.) should not be overlooked. We found a few lists of books that are categorized... Read more
amid.cero9 at venice architecture biennale 2010
'cherry tree blossom' by amid.cero9 in jerte valley, spain all images courtesy amid.cero9 exhibiting at this year's venice architecture biennale, 'cherry tree blossom' by madrid-based architectural office amid.cero9 (cristina díaz moreno and efrén garcía grinda) is a structure set in the middle of the jerte valley in spain. the site is unique for its single-species cherry orchards that transform the landscape every year. the lightweight roof of 'cherry tree blossom' is compose... Read more
MIT SENSEable City Lab's "Copenhagen Wheel" takes top US prize in Dyson Awards
At press time their website had not yet been updated with this news, but the 2010 James Dyson Award has announced their US National Winner, along with the US Shortlist. Top prize goes to MIT's SENSEable City Lab for their Copenhagen Wheel design, a sort of smart wheel that attaches to existing bicycles and transforms them into "hybrid electric-bikes with regeneration and real-time sensing capabilities." Its sleek red hub not only contains a motor, batteries and an internal gear system - helpi... Read more
Arthur Bodolec's "living" furniture
Paris-based Arthur Bodolec's Jack chairs are "furniture that comes alive." It's a bit difficult to convey the coolness with still photos, so check out the vid below (which starts slow, action starts around 1:00): The Astonishing Jack by Arthur Bodolec ! from Arthur Bodolec on Vimeo. You can see Bodolec's full book on Coroflot. (more...)... Read more
Dolni Dobrouc Sport Hall / Alexandr Skalický Architekt
© Ester Havlova Architect: Alexandr Skalický Architekt Location: Dolni Dobrouc, Czech Republic Client: Municipality Dolni Dobrouc Engineering: AS2000, ASSPRO Buget: EUR 1,250,000 Project Year: 2007-2008 Construction Year: 2008-2009 Photographs: Ester Havlova plan 01 As the construction of the sports hall was financed by a small village with a limited budget, the structure of the hall is very simple and undemanding. Its architectural design uses simple expressional means. Besides the posi... Read more
