Tag: contemporary…

The Elements of Modern Architecture: Understanding Contemporary Buildings

Foamboards

Fifty of the world’s greatest modern buildings, from 1950 to the present, dissected and analyzed through specially commissioned freehand drawings

After a period in which computation-derived architecture—driven by digital design tools, data analysis, and new formal expression—has thrived, students and their teachers have returned to age-old techniques before employing the digital tools that are a part of every architect’s studio. Tired of the perfectly rendered screen image, architects are making presentations that are clearly the work of the hand and the mind, not the computer.

This ambitious publication, organized chronologically, is aimed at a new generation of architects who take technology for granted, but seek to further understand the principles of what makes a building meaningful and enduring. Each of the fifty works of architecture is presented through detailed consideration of its site, topology, and surroundings; natural light, volumes, and massing; program and circulation; details, fenestration, and ornamentation. Over 2,500 painstakingly hand-drawn images of the buildings of the past seven decades help readers return to the core values of understanding site and creating buildings: looking with the eyes, engaging through direct physical experience, and constructing by hand.

50+ photographs in black and white and 2,500 line drawings

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On View> My Florence: Photographs by Art Shay at the Museum of Contemporary Photography

Foamboards

My Florence: Photographs by Art Shay Museum of Contemporary Photography 624 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL Through May 24 My Florence is a photographic project by renowned Chicago Photojournalist Art Shay. For over six decades, Art Shay’s photographs have appeared in such periodicals as Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated. In Shay’s words, My Florence […]

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Santa Claus's Workshop And The Contemporary Workspace

Foamboards

Is anyone more productive than Santa Claus and his elves? Mythically located at the North Pole, surrounded by fields of ice, the team magically fills handwritten orders, always hitting their deadline of Christmas Day. No one has actually seen inside this mysterious, miraculously industrious factory, but through secondhand accounts it is possible to piece together an idea of the ethos driving this workspace. Remarkably, Santa’s workshop reflects the concerns of contemporary industry: creating fun, open work environments that foster employee satisfaction and productivity all through collaboration. “Santa’s Workshop,” by Wilfred Jackson, 1932. Remarkably, many of Santa’s concerns mirror those of contemporary industry. It seems Google, Facebook, and every other company is racing to create the most fun, most open working environments. The hope of the businesses is that this typology will foster employee satisfaction, increase productivity, and create chances for collaboration leading to innovation. Facebook HQ by Studio O+A, Palo Alto, California When Facebook created their headquarters in Palo Alto, California, the management asked employees what they wanted to see. They came up with a design brief that incorporated three main things: sustainable and ecological design, a program …

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Contemporary Processes in Architecture

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Yesterday’s working methods are no longer adequate for architectural practice. The neo-avant-garde architects are now arguing for contemporary processes that are as dynamic and fluid as the way we live and think, with the same intensity as such intangible forces as the global market and the Internet. For any process to be truly creative in the generative sense, we must condition an environment where new rules engage and inspire us. Models of design need to be created that are capable of consistently transforming and evolving, keeping pace with today’s rate of change.

This issue of Architectural Design explores how contemporary processes, in the pursuit of creativity and fluidity, have become more abstract and experimental, attempting to overcome the pragmatic determinism attributed to more conventional working methods. It explores the work of architects who design with generative potentials, force fields and conceptual diagrams developed with the aid of high-end computer software packages. Through elucidating texts and the potent imagery of process – many of the projects are illustrated stage by stage – it effectively promises that a revolution is about to happen in the production of architectural design.

? Ben van Berkel of UN Studio.

? James Corner,

? Ed Keller

? Kolatan/MacDonald Studio

? Nox

? Oliver Lang

? Greg Lynn

? Enrique Norten

? OCEAN

? Reiser + Umemoto

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Contemporary Digital Architecture: Design and Techniques

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This book presents the latest developments in the field of architecture as it has been reshaped by the use of digital technologies. The last few years, technological developments in both hardware and software have enabled the realization of ideas that until now were only presented as theories, and have also opened new and unexpected areas of experimentation. The new digital technologies are influencing every stage of the creative process from the initial exploration of ideas to the construction of the final work and its interaction with the user. These developments are presented in four chapters, each one including detailed presentation of the most important relevant projects and general theoretical-technical information.

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Contemporary Techniques in Architecture (Architectural Design)

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Contemporary Techniques in Architecture addresses the translation of techniques in design methodology to their architectural realisation, at the scale of space, material programme and construction. It challenges technique-driven experimental architects at the next intellectually rigorous level – that of exploring concepts and translating them into their material counterparts. How do you think through the building of avant-garde forms? The title includes the work of high-profile philosophers, architects and engineers, such as Manuel Delanda who wrote 1000 Years of Non-Linear History; Greg Lynn and Foreign Office Architects; and Cecil Balmond of Ove Arup, who worked with Daniel Libeskind on his proposal for the Spiral Building for the V&A Museum in London, as well as with Philip Johnson and Studio Baad on the Chavasse Park Project featured here.
Intellectually stimulating and visually engaging, with its inclusion of spectacular writing, designs, manufactured prototypes and full-scale buildings, Contemporary Techniques in Architecture takes architectural publishing’s treatment of the digital to a new level, looking at its potential in a realised form as well as a creative medium.
Johan Bettum
Scott Cohen
Foreign Office Architects
Kolatan MacDonald Studio
Greg Lynn
Objectile
OCEAN North
Ali Rahim
Servo

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