Archinect - Product Architecture Lab

Solar Decathlon 2013

2012-02-05T11:22:00-05:00

Stevens and the Product Architecture Lab were selected for the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition. This is very exciting. We participated in the last competition in a collaboration with Parsons and successfully built the most affordable and market ready building in the competition. We look to build on that experience and be not only the most affordable, but also the most energy efficient in 2013.

The project will be a collaboration between the Stevens Institute of Technology undergraduate engineers and the graduate students in the Product Architecture Lab. For anyone interested, this would be an awesome time to get started at the Product Architecture Lab and see the design from its infancy through design, analysis and fabrication.

Check out a little evening news segment on Stevens and PAE being selected for the Solar Decathlon. http://watch.njtvonline.org/video/2192267791

Gerilla: Grasshopper to EnergyPlus

2012-01-27T09:31:00-05:00

I have never been much a fan of programming. Even though I have always enjoyed math and logic courses, programming never clicked for me. Part of it might have been the ‘grammar’ of a programming language that I did not care to learn (I hated English grammar courses, why would I enjoy a Java grammar course). However, I think I know understand that the biggest factor was motivation. Objected oriented programming is a powerful tool, but if I have no direct use for the tool I typically have no motivation to try and pick it up. Even in my first year at PAE, when I heard about the Interoperability/OOP course that the second year students were taking I had no interest in taking the course; I didn’t see the purpose. I was happy playing in grasshopper and learning about sustainable design, why confuse my mind with computer science?

Well, thanks to a well-designed and taught course by Jonatan Schumacher and Ben Howes, both PAE alumni and members of the advanced computational modeling t...

Interoperabilities: Grasshopper to EnergyPlus

2011-11-12T10:34:07-05:00

I've previously mentioned the interoperability course at PAE in brief, but it deserves a lot more attention. Its a pretty awesome course taught by Jonatan Schumacher and Ben Howes (both PAE alum) that introduces object oriented programming and interoperability via VB.NET.

When I mention VB.NET to actual computer scientists, they sort of make a bitter beer face. Apparently, in the wider world of computer science, its looked down on a bit, but for our purposes of programming in windows based programs, its been working perfectly.

We began the term scripting macros in Catia, using its visual basic editor. This was a great way to start. I've never enjoyed or excelled at programming, but I was immediately able to understand the power of programming in regards to geometry generation. We then transferred our CATvba scripts to VB.NET in SharpDevelop, a free script editor (a great substitute for Microsoft Visual Studio). This was fascinating to me. I could write out instructions in Sha...

Infiltration on My Mind

2011-10-30T13:45:47-04:00

Air infiltration is a fairly new concept to me. We never discussed the consequences of a building enclosure's air tightness in my undergraduate architecture studios. When I worked as a facade consultant, each facade came with a thick set of specifications that dictated the maximum allowable air infiltration per lineal foot of curtainwall joints and operable window joints. At the time, I thought these requirements were merely to cut down on breeze or were just an indicator of the building's water tightness. It wasn't until our studio collaboration last spring with Columbia as part of their CBIP program that I got a glimpse of the power of an air tight building.

At PAE our first task in the CBIP studio was to analyze one of the existing NYC building's selected for study in the studio. We modeled the building as-is in IES to get the current Energy Use Intensity (EUI), or energy use per unit of area, and then performed incremental modifications to the enclosure to gauge their effec...

PAE Design/Build!

2011-10-28T17:51:10-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. PAE is getting involved in a very exciting Design/Build project at an educational camp in the Northeast and its been a busy couple of weeks. Last weekend we had a PAE retreat to the site to better get to know the camp and do some good ol' bonding. In addition to a healthy camp fire, we had a PAE architects vs. engineers basketball game. Thanks to a certain naval engineer, the architects never had a chance (never bet against a guy who spends his time thinking about buoyancy and center of gravity against a bunch of uncoordinated 4-eyed architects in any athletic endeavor). We architects are hoping to gain some ground in the PAE olympics once we get to the diagramming, communications, and coffee drinking events. More importantly, the build site is a 50 acre educational summer camp in the northeast located in an absolutely beautiful setting, with wooded, wetland, lake and coastal ecosystems all within its bounds. It was a great weekend, with some very p...

My New Best Friend

2011-10-10T18:54:31-04:00

I've never been much of a reader of manuals. I prefer to tear open packaging, toss the manual to the side to never be seen again, and learn by doing (aka flailing hopelessly till my new toy works, breaks or I become bored). Typically an IKEA instruction booklet (the picture book of manuals) is the only manual that can keep my attention from beginning to near end. However the CATIA Automation Help is quickly becoming my new best friend.

In PAE 810: Interoperability we are writing VB.NET programs to send data back and forth between various software packages. In class we are learning the principles of object oriented programming and the VB.NET framework to create the programs using Learning Visual Basic .Net by Jesse Liberty as a textbook (with little programming experience this book has been really helpful and has made programming a lot less intimidating for someone who nearly failed Java freshman year of college). In order to contact other software programs from VB.NET we referen...

Hey There World

2011-10-07T19:51:00-04:00

My name is Ben
Born and raised in Brooklyn ''actually I was born in Evanston, Illinois but made my way to brooklyn by my first birthday, don't tell anyone that
Entered the University of Pennsylvania on a Mechanical Engineering track in 2004
Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts of Architecture in 2008 ''to my parents dismay, my father studied at GSD and was not interested in having a starving architect as a son
Worked for two years as a facade consultant for Axis Facades ''awesome job
Economy yada yada yada
Entered the Product Architecture Engineering program at Stevens Institute of Technology in September 2010 to hibernate from the cold economy and develop mad skills

Here I am in my second and final year it Product Architecture Engineering (PAE). What is Product Architecture Engineering? I get this question every time I mention it and I still haven't figured out the quickest most direct way to describe PAE, which is a l...