CELEBRATING THE SOLSTICE

All of us at ArchitectureWeek extend our best wishes to everyone enjoying the northern hemisphere's summer solstice, the southern hemisphere's winter solstice, and/or Independence Day in the United States. In observance of these dates, we give you ArchitectureWeek No. 104 as a two-week issue. Our next issue will be ArchitectureWeek No. 105, including the articles previewed here, scheduled for release on July 10.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF ARCHITECTURAL CAD

While most architects are still automating an archaic drafting process, some researchers are seeking ways to make computers a tool that genuinely extends our design capabilities. This vision is similar to the digital paradigm in industrial and mechanical design, where the aesthetic, technical, and economic implications of proposed modifications can be evaluated at any point during design, and the geometry of all components updated automatically. Researchers at Bentley Systems are developing prototype software that has been tested on projects as diverse as the Waterloo International Rail Terminal of Nicholas Grimshaw and the Sagrada Familia of Antonio Gaudi. Next week researcher Kevin Rotheroe will show how parametric design tools will enable us to work in entirely new ways.

READING THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOUIS KAHN

The Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut was the first large commission of architect Louis Kahn. His design was influenced by his Beaux-Arts education, by then-current trends in the European avant-garde, and by U.S. modernism. His scheme was further influenced by the geodesic structures of Buckminster Fuller and the concrete ribbed structures of Piero Luigi Nervi. To this day, visitors are fascinated by the building's forms, including the triangular stair embedded in a round, light-filled silo. Next week architect Jeffrey Kieffer offers a spatial analysis of the 50-year-old architectural icon.