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INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR LIFE
After a long history of many uses, an industrial site in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, has been regenerated into an architectural celebration of life itself. The new £70 million International Centre for Life is seen as the flagship millennium project exploring genetic science in the UK. — Published 2000.1213
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COMPUTER-ENABLED PRACTICE FOR DISABLED ARCHITECTS
When Joseph Del Vecchio graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-1980s, he was blocked from pursuing a routine architectural internship.
Even if he'd found a local office permitting entry to his wheelchair, he would have been unable to reach over the large drafting boards that were routinely assigned to apprentices in those days. In addition, seemingly simple tasks, like getting in a car and driving to a meeting, were tiring and time-consuming. — Published 2000.1206
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ACADIA REPORTS PROGRESS IN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
Every October, a small but intrepid group meets at a North American university and peeks into the future of computer-aided design. They can see this future because some of them are inventing it. — Published 2000.1108
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STAR TEAM EXPERIMENTS WITH BRICSNET
As we enter the 21st century, a unique consortium of architecture, engineering, and construction firms has formed to explore attitudes and practices in the building industry, with specific attention to implementing the efficient use of new computer technologies.
The STAR (Strategic Alliance Roundtable) Team mission is "improving the project delivery process by leveraging teamwork and technology." They aim to create a design-and-construction industry brain trust that shares insights and experience. — Published 2000.1108
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NEW MEDIA, CONTINUING DEBATE
From its beginnings, the Bauhaus was the site of a debate over the relative influence of art and technology in design. This summer, 80 years after its founding, the school witnessed a new twist on the debate. Only this time the technology in question was digital. — Published 2000.1018
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HIGH-TECH WINDOWS COULD SAVE ENERGY
A window is one of the most complex components in a building. It gives us light, views, fresh air, and the sun's warmth. Yet at times trying to balance these benefits works against the goals of comfort and energy savings. Having too few windows deprives workers of psychologically important vistas and increases the need for electric lighting. But too much direct sunlight can cause glare and increase the cooling load. And the delicate balance among all these factors changes throughout the day and year. — Published 2000.1004
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NORMAN FOSTER : ANALOG AND DIGITAL ECOLOGY
Norman Foster's keynote address at this year's Bentley International User Conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday reminded me again why he is considered one of the most intelligent architects practicing today.
In a wide-ranging talk that tied together themes found in his work for over 30 years, Foster stressed the importance of melding the technological with human experience, or the "digital with the analog," as he called it. — Published 2000.0920
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TWO BAUHAUS BUILDINGS: A PARADIGM SHIFT
The Bauhaus School buildings at Weimar and Dessau in Germany capture the dichotomy of an early 20th century debate about the impact of technology on architecture. The underlying issue was whether creativity or technology should be the stronger design determinant. It is interesting to revisit these two famous buildings, by Henry Van de Velde and Walter Gropius respectively, in light of this debate. — Published 2000.0830
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FUN WITH COMPUTER-AIDED MODELING CLAY
One hundred years ago, Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi was astonishing the world with sculpturally creative, irregular, organic forms. While others in the profession worked with straight edges, Gaudi invented his own methods for modeling parabolic arches from the catenary curve created by suspending a length of chain between two points. — Published 2000.0816
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SCALE MODELS FROM THIN AIR
Some day in the next millennium, architects may be able to put design information into a machine that will automatically construct a complete building. Hints of this distant future are visible in the experiments of Japanese construction companies, in which robots assemble building components in the field. Already the idea is being implemented, albeit at a much smaller scale, with a new family of technologies called rapid prototyping. This enables designers to build physical models directly and automatically from 3D computer models. — Published 2000.0802
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