Integrated Design Process - Moger Mehrhof Architects
A description of the strategy which integrates all design professionals early and honestly into the building design process. Architecture by Matthew Moger of...
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Integrated Design Process - Moger Mehrhof Architects - Video
For the first time in 70 years, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal will recognize the work of a female architect. Julia Morgan, a prolific architect who died in 1957, will receive the 2014 Gold Medal in honor of her work's lasting influence on the field.
Morgan designed more than 700 buildings over her nearly 50-year career, including Hearst Castle, William Randolph Hearst's grandiose seaside estate in San Simeon, California. She was the first woman to graduate with a degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and shortly after became the first woman to attend the cole des Beaux-Arts architecture school, graduating in 1902. Two years later she would become the first female architect licensed to practice in California.
She worked in a wide variety of styles, designing everything from Tudor houses to Spanish Colonial estates and Romanesque Revival churches. She helped establish the First Bay Tradition of architecture, a style influenced by nature and focusing on the use of locally sourced materials and craftsmanship.
Julias work is prolific, enduring, and continues to enhance the lives of those who experience it, Helene Combs, the 2014 AIA president, said in a statement.
In letters of recommendation for the award, Frank Gehry called Morgan "an architect's architect," and Denise Scott Brown referred to her buildings' "modest monumentality and tender gravitas, beautifully executed."
Morgan is the 70th architect to receive the Gold Medal, but only the first woman to be chosen since the contest began in 1907. She's the seventh person to receive the award posthumously, but "she deserved the Gold Medal in her lifetime," as Scott Brown noted, raising the question of why it's so hard for women in architecture to have their work acknowledged.
Morgan's long-delayed recognition, more than half a decade after her death, highlights the broader struggle women still face in attaining recognition for their work. The prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize faced controversy earlier this year when the organization refused to revisit Scott Brown's role in the work of her partner and husband, Robert Venturi, who won the Pritzker in 1991. By comparison, the Gold Medal committee's decision to recognize one of the AIA's most influential members 56 years after her death seems positively progressive.
[*The article originally misidentified this building as the Mills College Library.]
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Julia Morgan Becomes The First Woman To Receive An AIA Gold Medal
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The construction of a building does not only start with its design by architects and engineers. It also depends on determining a broad array of factors, including the price of materials, labour, the writing of specifications and of the building contract, as well as the careful orchestration of all of the activities that are part of the building process. The trouble is that the organisation of these activities is still labour intensive. To address the increased complexity of buildings, a type of software, called 'Building Information Modelling' (BIM), has gradually been developed and introduced in the construction industry, in recent years.
In the building sector, the introduction of BIM can be a challenge, especially for big companies, according to Carlos Barcena, head of the R&D projects department of Dragados, a large general construction contractor based in Madrid, Spain, and one of the partners of the DIRECTION project. "We have to integrate systems, new tools, and new procedures," he says.
However, this approach is beneficial. "We are involved in some networks in Spain tackling the issue of implementing BIM in our companies," he adds. And it has paid off. Last year, the company had to start the construction of a complex building, but were faced with too many inconsistencies. They then delayed the building for three months while implementing BIM. He concludes: "We were able to catch up and saved time and money."
Unlike many software packages used in industrial design, BIM is not just a new technology, argues Ezio Arlati, a professor of architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy. "It is a process, and it is important to implement the process, and not the technology." Essential to the process is the reliability of a very large set of data and their management. "You have to create a transparent process for managing the data sets for their flow along with the design and construction of the building," Arlati adds.
An important aspect of BIM is the possibility of modelling the entire building process, using the parameters of the project. This allows the anticipation of pitfalls, one of the reasons of the success of BIM. "The advantages are based on the elimination of all areas of waste: wasted time, wasted money, wasted materials, and waste caused by mistakes," says Arlati, who is also the vice president of the Italian chapter of BuildingSmart International, an organisation that supports the worldwide use of BIM.
Easy access to documents and information is the key that makes BIM attractive. "You have to manage the data sets so that it is transparent for every stakeholder: the client, the designer, the construction entrepreneur, and the supply chain," notes Arlati.
BIM is changing the approach to implementing a new building project, thus changing the work of architects, designers and construction companies. "Some of their roles will change, but expertise will remain the key," says Radbouw Baayen, a technical advisor at Stabu, a foundation based in Ede, the Netherlands,that develops information systems for the construction industry.
BIM has made the evaluation of the entire costs associated with the building more precise. "Traditionally, choices in the building sector were only based on the price for buying a building; now we can estimate the total cost, including the cost of the operation during the entire life cycle of the building," he says. With his approach one can avoid unpleasant surprises. "You could have a building that is cheap, but you can run into problems with the cost of managing the building, something you could have resolved at the beginning of the design process," says Baayen.
Adoption of BIM in the building industry is not yet universal, however. Baayen concludes: "We have the early adapters, and you have the followers, who do not yet understand what BIM can bring to their work."
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BIM: Changing the way architects and builders work
Jack Syms Creations - The Art Architects Banner
Jack Syms Creations projects (Open description for more info) Project: The Art Architects Banner Time: 45 mins Final Image: http://prntscr.com/29va1m Music: ...
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Jack Syms Creations - The Art Architects Banner - Video
Acoustics are fundamental - Michal Cohen from BCSE award winning architects Walters and Cohen
Interviewed at the BCSE awards by Ecophon #39;s Shane Cryer, Michl Cohen from Walters and Cohen is staunch in her support of ensuring schools are fit for purpos...
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"As architects we have a responsibility to society" - Richard Rogers
See more architecture and design movies on Dezeen: http://www.dezeen.com/features/movies/ Newer story Older story "As architects we have a responsibility...
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"As architects we have a responsibility to society" - Richard Rogers - Video
MUNCIE Imagine youre on a plane.
Except youre not really going to fly anywhere. And while youre sitting inside the fuselage, youre actually... at a bus stop.
Ball State University architecture students are dreaming up second lives to recycle old airplanes. What if, they asked themselves, instead of sending retired aircrafts to graveyards to rust, they could be used to build bus stops and apartment complexes and emergency relief huts?
What really interested me is reusing something thats literally going to sit in a wasteyard, said second-year architecture masters student Daniel Potash, 23, who designed the bus stop. Why not reuse it?
Think of the strength and the size of an airplane the enormous amounts of pressure and extreme temperatures it must withstand, and the hefty amounts of weight it must carry.
The potential of its parts is a playground for an architects imagination. Its an intriguing concept, even if the experimental sketches may never be realized.
Like many brilliant ideas, this one originated at a bar.
About four years ago, Professor Harry Eggink had been toying with the concept of reusing airplanes and explored it a little with one of his advanced architecture classes. He brought some designs with him when he went to a bar with his youngest son and friends a bunch of aeronautical engineers.
Let me show you a couple of things, he said.
The feedback: Why arent we doing this already?
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Ball State architects dream up new uses for old planes
Saudi Arabia participated in the two-day Arab Union of Architects (AUA) meeting in Tunisia, which discussed the teaching of architecture in various colleges and universities in the region over the weekend. We suggested the need to host another meeting in six months time to discuss the criteria in certifying colleges or universities. This is a significant contribution from the Saudi side, said Ghazi Saeed Al-Abasi, secretary-general of the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE). He revealed that the next meeting would be held either in Algeria or Morocco. Al-Abasi said that certifying schools based on standards set by the Arab architects union is necessary to ensure that quality architects graduate from the regions universities and colleges. He added that the meeting also discussed ways to improve the teaching of architecture as well as the problems encountered by architecture students. The 50 experts from ten countries also shared their own experiences as architecture students and practitioners in their respective countries in two sessions of the meeting. There were a total of 16 presentations made by the representatives from eleven countries, which included Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunis, Algeria and Morocco. The AUA has 18 members, seven of which abstained from participating in the meeting. He added that at present there are over 25,000 architects in the Kingdom, of whom about 3,000 are Saudi. There are also some 25 government and private colleges. A bright future awaits Saudi architects. Their services are very much in demand, to use an understatement, as the country is undergoing massive development, he said.
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KSA participates in architect’s meeting
IDEAS Boston 2013: B.K. Boley and Tamara Roy - Urban Architects
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IDEAS Boston 2013: B.K. Boley and Tamara Roy - Urban Architects - Video
Architects invited to register interest in designing new Crystal Palace
12:36pm Friday 13th December 2013 in News By Robert Fisk
Designing a Crystal Palace which evokes the spirit of the original while being fit for the future is no mean feat.
But the job is up for grabs, with ZhongRong Group wanting to hear from any architects who think they can take on the challenge.
Anyone interested in creating a landmark in the spirit of Joseph Paxtons original, has until January 20 to express their interest to the property developer.
A short list of three architect teams will then be drawn up in the spring, when the trio will be invited to prepare a detailed submission including initial concept designs.
The selected architect who will be appointed in the summer, will work closely with the lead consultant Arup.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "Creating a Crystal Palace for the 21st century is a truly unique opportunity.
"I am confident this search will attract some of the world's finest creative minds, many of whom we know are home grown talents.
"The key to the success of this exciting regeneration project, which is set to generate a significant number of jobs in London, is high quality design working in harmony with the rich heritage of this historic site."
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Architects invited to register interest in designing new Crystal Palace