GOOGLE'S GLOBE

In the fall of 2004, Google acquired Keyhole, a global satellite imaging program that offers users anything from an astronaut's view of the earth down to a bird's eye view of a taxi double-parked in a city street. But unlike some computer software that stagnates after being acquired, this product, now dubbed "Google Earth," has only become better.

DIGITAL PHYSICAL MASHUP

In my third-year architectural design studio at the California Polytechnic State University, assignments are crafted to encourage students to refine skills in both digital and analog media — physical modeling and traditional drawings — to allow them to see the advantages and disadvantages of both, to develop a critical attitude toward media, and to develop a design project using these tools. Early design exercises are exploratory, and students are encouraged to use form-Z for its iterative ability and its facility in generating rich graphic vocabularies that suggest spatial character and experience. This is balanced with physical-model building and traditional drawings to sort out issues of scale and siting. Later exercises require students to translate early vocabularies into functional building elements. — Associate Professor Thomas Fowler, IV

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