DataAppeal’s newest release allows our 3D data-maps to be imported into other 3D modeling and vector-based software programs including AutoCAD, Sketch Up and 3ds Max. — DataAppeal
A vast improvement from histograms and scatter plots, data analytics and visualization company DataAppeal now enables its users to export their data into other modeling softwares. DataAppeal's Nadia Amoroso (featured in Archinect's Working out of the Box back in April) told... View full entry
In this post I’d like to take you through the reasoning for why I chose to publish my thesis online, and what this might tell us about the future direction of architectural discourse. — Daniel Davis
Important thoughts regarding the future of architectural discourse. Mr. Davis compares the old concept of "publish or perish" to the new methods of digital publishing and discourse. h/t eatingbark View full entry
the nastier the comments, the more polarized readers became about the contents of the article, a phenomenon they dubbed the “nasty effect.” But the nasty effect isn’t new, or unique to the Internet. Psychologists have long worried about the difference between face-to-face communication and more removed ways of talking—the letter, the telegraph, the phone. Without the traditional trappings of personal communication, like non-verbal cues, context, and tone, comments can become overly impersonal... — newyorker.com
[Genie is] a platform with online-based planning applications to help architects and engineers in the design process, especially for skyscrapers and large buildings. The platform includes planning tools of expert architects and engineers and advance analytics and simulation tools. Genie standardizes and automates the design and construction processes with unlimited design options, enabling an architect to preserve the building's uniqueness in the urban environment. — Globes
This sponsored post is brought to you by OpenAsset: OpenAsset has enabled Foster + Partners to create a world class, easy to use architectural image library. Image resources used in projects and for reference are now available to all staff at the click of a mouse, no matter where in world they... View full entry
"Homes of Tomorrow", a new radio program from London's "radical alternative" radio station, Resonance 104.4 fm, will explore the atmosphere and legacy of modernist architect Ernö Goldfinger’s utopian visions. Broadcasting Wednesdays at 10pm (BST) through September, the program features... View full entry
Rod Serling, creator of the 1950s television series "The Twilight Zone", defined science fiction as "the improbable made possible." The same might be said for the practice of architecture. After all, architects by trade conceive of spaces, places, and worlds that do not (yet) exist. Furthermore, the ability to make the improbable possible is held in especially high regard today and is oftentimes what defines an architectural practice as “innovative” in the first place. — CLOG
Contemporary architecture publication CLOG has released its seventh issue, SCI-FI. In the digital glow of the internet age, architectural discourse has become both bountiful and ephemeral, oftentimes muddling the lay of the land. In response, “CLOG slows things down. Each issue explores... View full entry
The ecosystem will consist of several different microbes, each of which plays a role in nutrient recycling and population control. The result is a closed ecosystem that will sustain itself with the addition of just light [...]
The result will be a stable, closed, microbial ecosystem that glows in the dark.
— RocketHub
Undergraduate researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, are developing a sustainable bacterial ecosystem that will be able to produce light. The "Biobulb" will use a lab-neutered version of the E. Coli bacteria (totally harmless) that has been encoded with the gene for... View full entry
[My Ideal City] is an instrument where all people in Bogota help to create their city by interacting in proposals made for their Downtown in crowd sourcing, thus impacting design through real time interaction and direct feedback. Once the different initiatives are defined, the process is completed by the population crowd funding its own initiatives. — Aedes
Winka Dubbeldam (Archi-Tectonics) and Rodrigo Nino (Prodigy Network) have developed Downtown Bogotá // My Ideal City, an online platform for the citizens of Bogotá to influence their local city-planning proposals. Recognizing that middle-class population growth across Latin America... View full entry
As a society slowly urbanizes over time, its psychology and culture change, too... If American culture and psychology grew more individualistic as the country urbanized, wouldn't that transformation be clear in the words from American books (and the concepts that lie behind them)? — The Atlantic Cities
Urban and rural environments impact personal psychology differently, according to research published by UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield in Psychological Science. While observational evidence may draw a clear line between current city- and country-mindsets, Greenfield's source material... View full entry
Hyperloop is a new mode of transport that seeks to change this [transit] paradigm by being both fast and inexpensive for people and goods. Hyperloop is also unique in that it is an open design concept, similar to Linux. Feedback is desired from the community that can help advance the Hyperloop design and bring it from concept to reality. — Tesla Motors
CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, posted on the Tesla blog his proposal for an alternative to the California High-Speed Rail plan, the Hyperloop. The solar-powered transportation system is proposed to function somewhat like a pneumatic tube, where capsules of up to 28 passengers on air-bearings are... View full entry
Hey Archinectors! We're having another exciting giveaway, this time from Michael Blackwood Productions, who is also giving a summer discount of 20% + free shipping for both institutional and individual clients until September 30. To enter, simply fill out this survey by 11:59 PM Friday, August... View full entry
The [Marina Abramovic Institute] was launched last year, and designed by none other than OMA, under the direction of partners Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas. The architects are poised to explore programming for the center and produce mock-ups--depending on Kickstarter results. The funding Abramovic is after is to cover this "first phase" work on the project. — Co.Design
Performance artist Marina Abramovic is the latest established artist seeking funding for large-scale projects using Kickstarter, the democratic fundraising platform. The Marina Abramovic Institute, to be located in Hudson, New York, will use the funds from Kickstarter backers... View full entry
“Louvers won’t work, they reflect light too,” he wrote in June in a blog comment on dallasnews, “and retrofitting on a 42 story building has never been tried and the makers say they would rip off in high winds prevalent in Dallas.”
An honest opinion, except that there is no such Barry Schwarz.
This post and others proved to be the work of Mike Snyder, long a fixture in the city and now a public relations executive who had been hired by the tower’s outside law firm.
— nytimes.com
Previously: The Nasher and The Ant BullyRenzo Piano's Nasher Sculpture Center controversy continues View full entry
According to data released by New York City last fall, the Bank of America Tower produces more greenhouse gases and uses more energy per square foot than any comparably sized office building in Manhattan. It uses more than twice as much energy per square foot as the 80-year-old Empire State Building. - Sam Roudman — Co.Design
The Bank of America tower in NYC, winner of Platinum LEED certification and (according to Bank of America) "one of the world's most environmentally responsible high-rise office buildings", is under scrutiny for its environmental claims, in a debate hosted by the Fast Company blog, Co.Design. A... View full entry