Archinect - News

Three guiding principles for a fine fake metropolis

2013-03-27T11:56:00-04:00

The wizards at Electronic Arts seem to understand cities as market-driven algorithms. Input people, rules, and resources, and the results are stability, growth, and wealth...SimCity’s engineers have repeated the same mistake made by countless potentates, forgetting that cities are forged both by master builders and the people who hack their grand plans.

When Electronic Arts released the newest version of SimCity Justin Davidson decided to take the plunge and explore what the game could teach about urban planning and running a city. The effort helped him to identify three guiding principles for creating a successful SimCity ; 1) Money Equals Happiness, 2) Zoning Is Destiny, 3) Transit, Schmansit.

130 years later, modern software helps complete Gaudi's architectural masterpiece

2013-03-11T15:26:00-04:00

Using advanced aeronautical design software, Mark Burry and other architects have been able to reverse engineer Gaudi's models from leftover shards. Today, Burry is among a group of architects leading construction on the church's central tower, which, when completed, will stand 566 feet above the ground, making it the tallest church on Earth. But the fact that they had to use 21st century software to realize a 19th century vision stands as testament to Gaudi's avant garde design language.

Autodesk Partners With MakerBot, But Really Wants to Make Its Own Hardware

2013-03-08T19:02:00-05:00

Carl Bass, who’s helmed the $2 billion corporation since 2006, admits that the delineation between building virtual and physical products is eroding, and that has created opportunities for companies who have traditionally focused on developing and selling software. “It used to be that it was this unwritten rule that software companies don’t do hardware, and vice versa,” he says, “but I think the rules are changing…. It totally would be fun. I personally would love it.”

Inside Adobe's New Silicon Slope Headquarters

2013-01-16T14:41:00-05:00

The location in the south suburbs of Salt Lake City is an up-and-coming region for tech business sometimes called "Silicon Slope." Adobe's new campus will operate as the company's digital marketing division. The company has hired designers from Rapt Studio to make sure the building design is integrated into the space at the deepest level, ensuring that, despite being an office building at its core, this isn't just one more massive tech campus.

Are Architects Failing to See the BIM Potential?

2012-11-13T12:08:00-05:00

While these digital tools have been primarily used in the construction sector, 3D modeling software is often cited as transforming everything from architecture to engineering, interior design and most recently, green building efforts. In the design sector, however, and in architecture in particular, the use of BIM as a design tool is often cause for some debate. The conversation centres on creative intent and the possibility of this being lost in the technological transfer.

Frank Gehry, Tech Entrepreneur: The Starchitect's R&D Firm Debuts Cloud-Based Design Software GTeam

2012-07-24T20:45:00-04:00

Gehry Technologies (GT), a company founded in 2002 by Gehry Partners’s research and development team, has announced a free preview period for their latest off-the-shelf product GTeam. The new cloud-based software described by Gehry as “Google Docs for 3D models” automatically translates files from AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, Google SketchUp, and other professional modeling software into a common format, which can then be easily accessed and shared online.

Autodesk Acquires Socialcam for $60 million

2012-07-18T19:54:00-04:00

Autodesk is known for architectural and design software, but in recent years has started offering products aimed at ordinary consumers. Besides $60m for Socialcam, which makes video authoring and publishing software, Autodesk paid $32 million for Instructables... And it purchased a company called Pixlr, which is an online photo editor, for an undisclosed sum. Autodesk also developed consumer software for drawing and painting online, which it calls SketchBook.

Sefaira Concept - collaborative sofware for sustainable design

2012-07-17T17:57:00-04:00

Sefaira Concept enables architects and project teams to create better performing buildings with a powerful web-based sustainability analysis platform. It performs whole-building analysis of energy, water, carbon, and renewable energy potential, while an intuitive interface allows for fast, iterative exploration of design options. Concept allows you to combine creativity and analytic insight to design buildings that are both elegant and highly sustainable.

SketchUp acquired by positioning and engineering firm Trimble

2012-04-26T18:18:00-04:00

On April 26, 2012, Trimble announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SketchUp® from Google. SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world. As part of the SketchUp platform, Trimble will also partner with Google on running and developing SketchUp's 3D Warehouse, an online repository where users can find, share, store and collaborate on 3D models.

As pointed out elsewhere around the web, the development of SketchUp's core has not progressed very much since being acquired several years ago by Google. This move, which includes the entire SketchUp team, puts product development in the hands of a company that is already embedded in the planning/engineering fields while maintaining collaboration with Google. At the moment it appears that there will be no changes to the current pricing model (free/pro).

Trimble's statement | Press release | FAQ about the acquisition and transition

10 Questions for Gehry Technologies CTO Dennis Shelden

2012-03-09T14:48:00-05:00

Gehry Technologies serves architects, engineers, builders and others with their design software and services, including 3D modeling and building information management. IDG News Service quizzed Chief Technology Officer Dennis Shelden on his priorities, challenges and insights.

Openarch, smart home prototype

2012-02-20T20:46:00-05:00

Openarch is a real prototype of a smart home. The first home designed from scratch to incorporate a digital layer connecting the house and its elements to the Internet. Its inhabitants lead a new digital and connected life. It is flexible and thanks to its ability to transform, it can adapt to any condition that the user requires.

ScanLAB: Architects embracing scanning

2011-05-03T16:44:48-04:00

A couple years out of the Bartlett School of Architecture, at University College London, the pair are still in what you might call a research and development phase; the experimentation and exploration they’re doing on the possibilities of 3D laser scanning might lead them to a business model that hasn’t quite been invented yet.