2010-06-30

Future of Construction Process: Concrete Printing



Mass produced custom is the future! I hope I can live long enough to have one of my buildings build by robots.

2009-10-15

Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales


Danish architect Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature -- they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy -- and creating stunning views.

2009-05-20

Atkins Proposes New Prayer Halls For Mecca



Well Atkins scares the hell out of me! When you hit the profile tab on their web site a massage pops up saying "A license is required for all but personal use of this code. See Terms of Use at dyn-web.com". Easy buddy! I'm just looking at who you are as an architecture firm..

They probably jacked a code and forgot to disable the pop up :)
(You know it's not "personal use" anymore when you put it on your company web page, right?)

Anyways they as they declare are:

"We are a multinational community of 650 architects sharing a passion for excellence. Unlike many design firms, we believe that design solutions must be fitting to the time, place and culture in which they are located. We have no single “house style” – preferring instead to offer excellent, inspirational architecture and urban design that reflects our diversity and collaborative working style. In this site, you can sample our unlimited creativity."

Their unlimited creativity didn't at least help them here..
How stupid is this. What's this we have no single "house style" shit. Which architect has a single "house style"?
And why do they employ 650 architects? Why not 649 or 651? Does it sound better that way?
Design solutions must be fitting to the time, place and culture in which they are located?
Oh god I'm enlightened! This shakes the foundations of architecture as we know it today.
And the Muslimic / Religious Documentary style voice over the video puts the icing on the cake!

This is the worst "Sell Global, Pretend Local" nonsense I've ever seen!

I guess just like the code, they jacked this "who we are" from a global denim or soda company.
It could be just like this fine:

"We are a multinational community of 650 tailors sharing a passion for excellence. Unlike many denim firms, we believe that denim solutions must be fitting to the time, place and culture in which they are worn. We have no single “Jean Style” – preferring instead to offer excellent, inspirational denims that reflect our diversity and collaborative working style. In this site, you can sample our unlimited creativity."

Why do I care?
Because if no one does this kind of global blueprint sellers especially the ones that have influence over the Arab world, become so bold as to approach KAABA with a shopping mall / stadium / fancy hotel attitude!

Remove The Ottoman Arcade, bring The British
Grandstand! What a nerve!!!
And when it's extended there are 48? Prayer Halls and they remove the Gateways/Minarets as well!
It's not the pointed arch that makes a building Islamic Architecture but respect, love, and praise..

atkinsdesign

2008-11-16

Create Photorealistic 3d Models by Taking Pictures



I've first seen it at Ted Conference. They were just demonstrating it at that time. Now it's open to public for free. You can both create your own Photosynths and play around with the ones created by others.

Photosynth was born of a collaboration between Microsoft Research and the University of Washington, based on the research of Steve Seitz (UW), Noah Snavely (UW) and Richard Szeliski (MR)

Photosynth is an entirely new Visual Medium. The system analyzes each photograph for similarities in textures, and builds a model based on where the photos were taken. The program then models the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

This modeling behavior is what makes it superior to photo stitching which is widely used in the architecture practice.

First of all you don't have to be as precise while taking photos as you do for photo stitching.
Only this property by itself opens up a lot of new opportunities.
For example you can model places by collecting photos from the internet even without laying a foot on the site. A group/class of people can share their photos to build a model of the site..

After all raster modeling based on the point of shoot is a smart new idea and we'll be seeing a lot of smart ways to use this new medium.

Try it at Photosynth.net

2008-11-13

Associative Design


There will be no input values but parameters in the near future.
Watch the video. It features the very interesting work of Architect Mazlin Ghazali from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The way the video has been put together is also amazing. It's like an AI computer giving you a full report on a process in another planet.

Here's Mr. Ghazali's blog.