Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

In the most absolute sense, battle royale is the survival of the fittest. Not only for the players who fight so fiercely over contested territory in constricting battlegrounds, but for the developers responsible for building those spaces too. When PUBG entered Early Access in 2017, it changed the composition of modern shooters forever. In the aftermath, industry leaders like Activision, EA, and Epic have invested heavily, propelling the genre to impossible heights and have left little breathing room for others to enter the fray.

It's this hyper-competitive environment which Sharkmob will enter on April 27 with the release of its debut game for PC and PS5, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt. Carving out a space between Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Warzone won't be easy something the studio is acutely aware of. But as IP director Martin Hultberg tells it, Sharkmob is ready to bare its fangs and show the world what it can do. "Anything in life worth doing, is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards."

Moderation is for cowards. That's a massive statement of intent which could easily masquerade as the studio's mission statement. Sharkmob was formed in 2017, founded by five of the principal architects behind Tom Clancy's The Division. The studio was supposed to be an independent outfit that would release experimental action-packed, online experiences. Fast-forward five years, and Sharkmob's ambitions have outgrown its humble origins; it was acquired by Tencent in 2019, has studios located in Malmo and London, and has over 200 developers working across three projects Bloodhunt, and two unannounced new IPs being built using Unreal Engine 5. Studio co-founder Anders Holmquist tells me that his fellow founders joke that Sharkmob was "the world's worst indie studio."

That attitude informed by a confluence of ambitious AAA standards and practices is pervasive throughout the Malmo HQ, staffed by industry veterans and developers fresh out of local universities. I visited the studio anticipating carnage, just six days out from the launch of Sharkmob's free-to-play, third-person battle royale set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. Instead, I found teams calmly working through final preparations checking systems and servers ahead of an anticipated swarm of day one players, all while other groups of developers sequestered themselves to lock down content for upcoming battle pass seasons.

"I'm a little nervous," admits Holmquist, Sharkmob's chief technical officer and the former technical director of The Division. "There's always something, that one last thing that breaks everything. But," he pauses, leaning forwards to knock his fist against the base of a wooden desk, "it's looking okay. We just got the submission pass from Sony on the day one patch, so that was quite nice."

I can understand why the Bloodhunt leadership would be a little nervous. Not only is launching a live service shooter an inherently stressful activity, but Sharkmob is about to learn whether it was right to strive for such an ambitious design with a new, untested team. "It's been quite a ride," says CEO Fredrik Rundqvist, who previously served as the executive producer on The Division and COO of Massive Entertainment. "We're in our fifth year as a company. The first two were us assembling IKEA desks, downloading Unreal for the first time, and then just trying things out. But the last three years have been very intense, and I'm super proud of what the team has accomplished."

"In six days, Bloodhunt is going to be out there," Hultberg adds, "and there's no turning back now." As you're reading this, those six days have turned into just 24 hours. Bloodhunt has gone gold, and it won't be long before you can try it yourself. It won't be long before you're sinking your teeth into Bloodhunt's unrestricted movement mechanics and deep character creation. Before you're getting a handle on Bloodhunt's combat, which walks a tightrope to find a balance between ranged engagements, melee action, and dazzling supernatural abilities. Before you drop into Bloodhunt's hyper-detailed urban playground, which Sharkmob believes may be the "most detailed PvP map ever created."

It's a bold claim that is impossible to fact check, but it feels as if it could be grounded in some type of reality. Bloodhunt is launching with one sprawling map, set in a faithful recreation of the Old Town district of Prague, and an adjacent social space dubbed the Elysium a neutral ground (and social space, which will evolve between battle pass seasons) where vampires can gather between games without fear of harm, located in a chamber beneath Prague Castle.

As fantastic as Bloodhunt is to play, and for all of the playstyle variations on offer between its seven customizable 'Archetype' classes, the game's ambition and achievement really shine through in its stunning depiction of Prague. Should you visit the city in real life, it transforms into a gothic fairytale come nightfall, making it the perfect hunting ground for a vampiric battle royale. Now that's a discovery Sharkmob probably wishes it could forget. "It was a nightmare," says Hultberg. "Like, coders and artists were fighting in the streets of Malmo about how to build this city."

It's easy to see how philosophical fights could have spilled outside the studio's doors. There's a palpable sense of tension between the artistic and programming divisions, with the former striving for a cityscape with a density of detail that can rival The Division's New York and the latter desperately trying to deliver a stable 60fps experience. "We're nerdy about fidelity. We want to make the game as beautiful as we can but obviously, it also needs to run. It's the tech people's nightmare," says one Sharkmob designer with a smile, "they love Rodrigo!"

"Nobody loves Rodrigo," retorts Rodrigo Cortes, laughing alongside his fellow founders. Cortes is Sharkmob's art director, previously working as the brand art director for The Division and the Snowdrop Engine. "We had a lot of knowledge on how to build big open-world cities and that helped us a lot in creating Bloodhunt But creating Prague was a huge undertaking. We had a small team with huge ambitions; Prague is a really cool city but very difficult to create."

Where New York is structured as blocks of buildings separated by straight roads, Prague is a different beast entirely. "There are basically no straight lines anywhere, the streets bend and twist, there are a lot of detailed and ornate buildings, and they all have different heights and unique looks," says Cortes, although this wasn't the only complication. "Another big difference was that The Division was mostly a street-level game while the Vampires of Bloodhunt can move everywhere: every roof, every terrace."

Holmquist says that being able to scale any structure was a part of the earliest proof-of-concept demos for Bloodhunt, back when he was the only programmer on the project. "You could only climb where there were drain pipes. That was where we started and we kind of built from there," he says. "Frederick usually jokes that I said, 'No, it's impossible to climb everywhere; it's going to be way too much work to make sure that it works.' And then he says that Anders came a week later, and it was working."

That's an exaggeration which speaks to the spirit behind the project. If there were problems in those early years, small teams were working to find big, transformative solutions. "I think that was one of the things that made Sharkmob work from the start. We were five people with very different areas that we were responsible for, sometimes disagreeing quite harshly. But we could always reach a consensus. And I think that the ability to find the way forward has really shaped the company," says Holmquist.

"The end result speaks for itself, I think. Prague has to be one of the most detailed multiplayer maps ever made"

With Cortes pushing to create "the most visually stunning F2P multiplayer game out there", with what he believes is "one of the most detailed multiplayer maps ever made", Sharkmob had to get creative. The studio took two trips to Prague, using photogrammetry to scan the city's statues and architecture into Unreal Engine 4 to better assist in their recreation in-game. The capacity to climb every building at any time better supported the vampire fantasy at the core of Bloodhunt, but it came at the cost of Sharkmob being able to load the map all at once, forcing the team to find creative ways to stream parts of the city in and out as you move through it at dizzying speeds.

Where battle royale maps are traditionally a balance between open terrain and contained settlements, rather than fully-rendered cityscapes, Sharkmob has had to use stark color-grading (inspired by the artistic direction of John Wick) to help players discern their locations and communicate with one another. These are just a selection of the stories I heard about the Prague map, but I think you get the idea by now. "We could have made a simpler game, but rich visuals and a stunning presentation is what Sharkmob stands for, and what we want our consumers to know us for," says Cortes.

The truth is, the Prague map is likely to be the element which helps set Bloodhunt apart from the pack in its earliest days as Sharkmob solidifies its live service and begins working with the community forming around the game following a successful Early Access period. You've never played in a battle royale space quite like it; the design of the city naturally fosters faster engagements and quicker cycles of life and death. It looks absolutely stunning on PC and PS5 too, and it's easy to lose yourself in the density of its scale and detail the sound of distant gunfire echoing through the streets is a constant reminder that death awaits at every turn.

"That's one of the reasons we decided to support Dolby Atmos and Tempest 3D audio on PS5," says audio director Simon Holm List. "Bloodhunt is all about the verticality of the city. So you need to be able to pinpoint whether someone is shooting beside you, or if a player is actually on the rooftops or beneath you."

I ask Holmquist about the push and pull between the art and technical sides of Sharkmob, ambition versus reality, and he says something that I think is telling about the studio's approach and what it is up against: "You're trying to explain that maybe we're a bit smaller right now, and we maybe don't have the resources but the ambition is still there. I think it's very hard for us to say 'stop, this is good enough', so we just keep pushing. I'm not sure how, to be honest, but we know we have to be this good, so it's a question of 'how do we get there?'"

Sharkmob knows it has to be "this good" because the battle royale market is immensely competitive. When work began on Bloodhunt, the future of the genre wasn't so certain. Sharkmob has seen it grow from an ARMA II mod to a domineering presence in the shooter scene to an honest-to-god cultural phenomenon. That success generates pressure.

"To be honest, we didn't think the battle royale could be as big as it is today," says Rundqvist, who explains that the team picked the genre for Bloodhunt because it had ignited their imaginations back in 2017. "Obviously, it's very difficult to compete with the top-line games in terms of the number of players and such. What I do think we can offer here is something that's quite different. In style, tone, maturity, and in slightly more advanced characters. So hopefully, if you're a battle royale fan, and you've been playing one or two games for a very long time, maybe you want to try something new."

Hultberg puts a point on this pressure. Every time a battle royale evolves, he explains, player expectations evolve in tandem. "You're basically going from 'look, there's a rising potential we could jump on', to 'oh shit, we missed the train.' Now it's the biggest genre on the market we went through that journey, and it's pretty awesome to see. But when you release a game, you are never compared to the original games in that genre, you're always compared to what's there right now. So we have a bunch of competitor games that have gone through multiple seasons, multiple cycles they've learned a lot, and they have a lot of content, so we're competing with that. We're not competing with what they were when they were released. We are competing with what they are now. So that's like the scariest thing with it."

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt doesn't have the vast foundation of content and iteration that titles like Apex Legends, Fortnite, PUBG, and Warzone have after years of investment, but maybe that isn't the worst thing in the world. The battle royale genre has spent five years evolving and domineering, but there is definitely space for something new. For something that brings the focus back onto combat and movement, and away from crossover events and live service spectacle that typically grabs headlines. With Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt launching on April 27, we won't have to wait long to see whether Sharkmob is fit enough to survive this battle.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt launches April 27, 2020, on PC and PS5 with cross-play support between the two platforms.

Read this article:
Inside Bloodhunt: How the architects of The Division are building a better battle royale - Gamesradar

a house of undivided, wide open areas

When designing its newly completed house in Yokohama, Japanese practice Nao Iwanari Architects takes inspiration from the inside of an aquarium. The team notes that the aquarium necessarily reproduces the atmosphere of the ocean through its wide-open areas, cavernous holes, and the shady spaces beneath rocks and plants the place is defined by a range of spatial properties all combined within a continuous, unseparated area. The inward-looking world of the aquarium opens only towards the luminous surface of the water overhead.

This urban dwelling, dubbed the Aquarium House, translates the imagined experience of the occupants of an aquarium into a work of residential architecture.

images Satoshi Shigeta | @sgt_74

The team at Nao Iwanari Architects (see more here) describes the spirit of its Aquarium House: An urban dwelling that requires multiple layers to be established. If we can develop such a space as underwater, I thought it would be possible to create a spacious place to live without feeling cramped.

When you put yourself inside the actual building, it looks like underwater Spaces in each layer with different properties are connected without breaks, when I was invited by the light that shines from the top to the bottom and went up, it reaches a semi-external space surrounded by walls on all four sides and only the upper part is open.

The upper end of the wall opened above it is like the surface of the water looking up from the water. Feel like you are in the most open zone. It is a residential building that gets closer to the outside as it gets farther from the ground.

the dwelling opens overhead with a luminous zone

the spaces of the house are connected without breaks

occupants move fluidly through the dwelling

some areas recreate the shady zone beneath plants or rocks

Originally posted here:
nao iwanari translates the fluidity of an aquarium into this house in japan - Designboom

Before architect William Fletcher was celebrated as one of Portlands most influential midcentury modern designers, he and his then wife, Joyce, moved into Fletchers first creation: A revolutionary looking, almost transparent dwelling built in 1954 on two forested acres near the Willamette River.

After 68 years, the family home is for sale for the first time: 10803 S. Riverside Drive in Riverdale, between Portland and Lake Oswego, was listed on April 25 at $1,250,000 by Lance George Marrs of Portland Modern Real Estate.

Marrs rightfully refers to the residence as an architectural gem.

Fletcher family members say Joyce, a photographer and painter, selected the location and William (Bill) designed the open floor plan with floor-to-ceiling windows that dissolve the boundaries between inside and out.

Soon, the avant-garde two-story with cork floors and planked ceilings was showcased in The Oregonian and national publications as well as the 1959 book, The Second Treasury of Contemporary Houses.

Midcentury modern enthusiasts will be attracted to this home and acreage, says Marrs, which he adds is on a short list of properties genuinely coveted in the Northwest modernism designed by William Fletcher.

Bill Fletcher, a second-generation Oregonian influenced by modernist trailblazer, German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and the spare International Style movement, designed a limited number of houses.

But architectural experts say his work is timeless due to its graceful geometric forms, highly livable layouts and carefully positioned windows and skylights that draw in natural light.

Here, clerestory windows add to the sense of lightness, as if elements are floating. The house with 2,298 square feet of living space also has a long, concrete fireplace hearth in the living room and three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

With a degree from the University of Oregons School of Architecture, Fletcher first set up shop in the basement of his home in 1955.

A year later, he shared a downtown studio at Southwest 14th Avenue and Columbia Street with architects Donald Blair and Saul Zaik as well as other members of the fabled 14th Street Gang of outliers designing intentionally pared-down buildings in the Pacific Northwest.

In the 1960s, Fletcher partnered with architect Curt Finch, and a decade later, with Dale Farr and Hal Ayotte at a Portland-based firm now known as FFA Architecture and Interiors, Inc., which continues to design sustainable residential and commercial projects.

Early commercial projects include Black Butte Ranch residential resort near Sisters and Rex Hill winery in Newberg, where Fletcher famously dedicated a space for a steel sculpture by Lee Kelly.

Aidy Bryant as "Annie Easton" (center) talks to Lolly Adefope ("Fran") and Luka Jones ("Ryan") inside Portland's 1959 Wedgwood Home of Tomorrow in a scene in Shrill. Hulu

The 1959 Wedgwood Home of Tomorrow that Fletcher conceived with Blair in Northeast Portlands Hazelwood neighborhood was used as a film location for Shrill, a comedy series starring Aidy Bryant and streaming on Hulu.

The experimental model home, with an incredibly lightweight folded-plate roof, prefabricated panels and suspended fireplace, earned a merit award from the American Institute of Architects during the halcyon days of midcentury architecture.

The house, often misspelled Wedgewood, was listed for sale at $639,000 on Jan. 12, 2021, and sold a month later for $77,000 over the asking price.

In 2017, the statewide historic preservation organization Restore Oregon dedicated its annual Mid-Century Modern Tour to Fletchers attractive, ground-breaking structures.

Restore Oregons first book, Oregon Made, A Tour of Regional Mid-Century Modern Architecture ($35 at restoreoregon.org), includes a chapter on Fletchers talent at balancing the allure of transparent walls with the need for privacy.

Bill, whose friends said was a detailed-oriented, jazz drumming rebel, died in 1998. Joyce, a graduate of Cornell University in New York who traveled throughout her life to understand world cultures, died in January 2022.

Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

More on the Portland and Oregon real estate market:

Midcentury modern architecture home tour and book fair support Restore Oregons preservation work

Three levels, big views, seven offers in a week: Portland architects house for sale for the first time

Buying mansions in Boring, where theres more bang for the buck

Two Pearl District townhouses in former train station are for sale, starting at $1,575,000

Oregons Terrible Tilly lighthouse on private island for sale at $6.5 million

Portlands huge mansions for sale: What kind of homes with space can you get for $8 million or less?

Oregons best-known baker, Ken Forkish, puts SW Portland house with bread oven up for sale

Portland homes designed by Pietro Belluschi come with camaraderie

Former Timbers star Diego Valeri puts NW Portland home with private soccer field up for sale at $1,199,000

Read the original post:
Midcentury modern architect William Fletchers first Portland house is for sale for the first time - OregonLive

Brian Libby: Given that Death by Design at Alcatraz is a mystery, did you know who the killer was before you started?

Anthony Poon: No. I had no arc. At first, I was writing about a character. Then I decided to kill this person off. I was probably a good halfway through writing the novel, and I still didnt know what the ending was.

Youve probably heard the phrase that writers often fall into two categories: the planner or pantser. A planner would be someone like J.K. Rowling, having the entire seven-book Harry Potter series arced out and the characters outlined before she started writing. Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants and include people like Stephen King. In interviews, King just says, Look, if you need to plan your book, then youre not a writer. Some of his books are better than others, but he just writes and sees where it takes him. I feel the same way.

The question of rigid composition versus improvising also relates to being a pianist. Could you talk about that?

Growing up, my training was classical music. Its this process of aiming for perfection, a flawless performance. Playing a piano sonata, there are a hundred thousand notes and youve got to hit them all right. If I would get one note off, my piano teacher would say, That whole performance is ruined. But what I really got interested in was something beyond technical proficiency. Youve got to be able to add a voice, a story, some kind of narrative to what youre performing. Thats what I eventually learned about jazz. It blew my mind that these pianists would just sit at the keyboard and start making things up. I was at a performance called The Jazz Bakery, where the pianist asked the audience to throw out numbers between one and eight. Then he associated those with notes on the keyboard because there are eight notes in an octave. Through that, he started to improvise and build a song, and his ensemble jumped in. It was incredible.

Your thesis at Harvard was about how jazz improvisation informs the architecture process. What did you learn?

Architecture is very methodical. It takes a long time to produce a building. There are a lot of practical considerationscode, budget, square footage. You cant just whip out a building the way a jazz musician would whip out a piece. But in the creative process, I always ask: Why cant we just grab colors and make an idea? Why cant we just have this sort of jazz-like conversation of bouncing ideas and just grab something from that, and make that the basis of an entire building design, whether its a library or museum or a house?

Lets go back to this question of architecture and narrative. Could you talk about the importance of storytelling in design?

Its all about communication. Everything that I do creativelypainting, music, writing, architectureis all a form of language. In architecture, we look to our clientswho they are and what they areto craft a story. If its a family, we want to know how they celebrate the holidays, if the in-laws stay with them, whether they have dogs. And thats the story we tell when we design a house. For designing a school, we ask: whats the educational methodology? How do the teachers teach? How do the students learn? Same thing when we do an office: whats the corporate culture, whats the mission statement? And obviously, when we do a religious project, there is an entire set of beliefs that need to be somehow expressed in architecture. Whats exciting about music and architecture, and what makes them different from writing, is that they are abstract. Its kind of open-ended communication.

Besides being a mystery, Death by Design at Alcatraz reads like a satire of architects and their clients. Did you enjoy puncturing egos a little bit? After all, in your memoir, Sticks & Stones | Steel & Glass, you write about realizing you didnt want to design big arenas and corporate projectsyou wanted to design more intimate spaces for people.

Well, its funny the timing of your question. I just came back from Modernism Week in Palm Springs, where I did a presentation on ego and arrogance. The lecture was saying that society has granted us architects a tremendous amount of influence and power. And the question is what have we done with it? Whats also interesting about your question, though, is I didnt think of Death by Design at Alcatraz as a satire. Maybe the developer is an amalgam of two or three actual clients blended together. But these architects, theyre all people I know.

What we talk about at my firm is that good design belongs to everyone. It could be a restaurant where everyone can go and eat. It could be a design of a bench. It could be a corporate headquarters or a public school. There isnt any specific kind of project that I seek. Its more about harnessing the talents that my team brings, and then reaching as many people as possible.

Where do you stand on the introvert-extrovert scale? Because architecture, especially when you get to a certain scale, is teamwork. Painting, which youre also acclaimed for, is a more solitary activity.

Im probably somewhere in the middle but skewing a little towards the extrovert side. Some of these art forms are solo explorations, but I dont see the art being complete until it reaches the audience. The enjoyment for me comes from people engaging the art, or better yet, if its going to hang in their living room or their conference room. Thats the completion of the artistic arc.

With any kind of artist, both introversion and extroversion are tapped. In architecture, for example, the introverted, introspective, self-examining qualities usually launch the design process, and the extroverted side leads a team, sells the idea to a client, and supports the creative ego.

In Sticks & Stones | Steel & Glass, you described how San Franciscos Portsmouth Square in Chinatown inspired you to become a designer. The park dates to 1833, but its 1963 redesign was derided at the time for raising the park to fit a parking garage underneath. What made it special to you, and the community?

I would answer that question with a question: Isnt it incredible that it is a parking structure and an extraordinary park? A structure like this would often be an eyesore. But they found a way to maintain an active plaza on top. It acts like a blank canvas, and you watch the community paint their life onto this canvas, whether its old men gathering together to play chess or children playing on the play equipment. It was across the street from the church that I went to as a kid. Its just that kind of wonderful, idyllic place that you dont imagine would be in such a dense area. Im looking at Portsmouth Square, not as an architect fetishizing its design, but as what it offers to the community: to have a Tai Chi class at 5:00 in the morning, a wedding there at noon, and kids running around in between. Thats the power of architecture.

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Whether it's Music, Painting, or Writing, Architect Anthony Poon Has a Story to Tell - Metropolis Magazine

The week moves on here as FC Dallas begins to put the Texas Derby behind them and begins to prepare for another rival in Kansas City this weekend.

// FC Dallas //

Catch out the latest Big D After Dark podcast show here:

FC Dallas Announces Official Watch Party Series Presented by Heineken | FC DallasWatch parties are back for another year when FCD is on the road, starting this weekend.

// MLS //

Chance creators: Who are the architects of MLS's most dangerous moments? | MLSSoccer.comEven though FCD is scoring goals at a good rate so far this season, they don't have one of those architects like this list shows.

Mixed results so far in 2022 for Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto | US Soccer PlayersMontreal and Toronto are improving in the Eastern Conference, but the Vancouver Whitecaps are already running into trouble in the West.

Loss was reminder to Sounders to never let their guard down - Sounder At HeartSounders had never before lost a game they led by two goals until this past weekend, which could be a good wake-up call for them as they head into the CCL finals.

LAFC sign Nathan Ordaz to homegrown contract - Angels on ParadeI keep having to remind myself that teams like LAFC are still fairly new here and that their academies are also pretty new too. Just the fourth HGP signing by them.

Major League Soccer has to hold its TV partners to a higher standard - Dynamo TheoryHouston fans are still feeling the sting from the Memo Rodriguez free kick that looked like a goal on some angles. I do agree though with this that TV partners need to all be using the same stuff, so if one has a goal-line camera, they all should.

Columbus Crew tactical review: Black & Gold ends losing streak at Sporting Kansas City - Massive ReportAfter being beaten in their last four games, the Crew secured a positive result using tactics that were out of character for the team.

Revs desperately searching for consistency in 2022 - The Bent MusketThe Revs haven't been themselves this season, or at least a version of themselves that earned a Supporters' Shield trophy last year.

Link:
Tuesday Links: FC Dallas notes, who are the best architects in MLS - Big D Soccer

Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio have been selected to lead a multi-million-dollar overhaul of the Barbican Centre, a beloved but aging Brutalist landmark and multidisciplinary arts and cultural hub that anchors a sprawling post-war housing estate of the same name in Central London.

We are interested in the notion of revealing, of finding places of untapped potential within and around the walls of the Barbican, remarked Simon Fraser, partner at Allies and Morrison, in a press announcement. Not only will this approach offer substantial savings in embodied carbon, and respect the Centres significant heritage value, but it opens a myriad of opportunities for creative, inclusive reinvention.

The two London-based practices, both boasting a number of high-profile cultural projects under their respective belts includingTate Britain, Shakespeares Globe, and the Museum of London, triumphed in a closely watched international design competition launched by the City of London Corporation in September 2021. A total of five shortlisted teamsrevealed in Januarywere in the running, with Allies and Morrison and Asif Kahn Studio winning out over Adjaye Associates with Benedetti Architects and PUP Architects; BIG with Avanti Architects and POoR Collective; Diller Scofidio + Renfro with McCloy + Muchemwa, and Purcell; and FCBStudios with Bureau de Change, Schulze+Grassov, and Thinc.

Joining Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio on the larger project team are heritage experts Alan Baxter Ltd, engineering and sustainability consultancy Buro Happold, theatre, acoustic, and digital design consultancy Charcoalblue; lighting design firm les claireurs, and Oakland, Californiabased art, urbanism, and landscape architecture practice Hood Design Studio. Also on the team are artistic advisors Julien and Nadia Fall.

The team showed total commitment to preserving the Barbican Centre building as a much-loved global icon, while ensuring it remains a leading creative centre for generations to come, said Tom Sleigh, chair of the City of London Corporations Barbican Centre Board. Were delighted to have this world-class design team working with us to help deliver our creative vision, while also making major improvements to the Barbicans environmental performance.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to shape the future of this iconic centre for arts and learning, and strengthen its ability to play a leading role in the recovery of the City, and the capital, from the pandemic, he added.

All shortlisted proposals were evaluated by a panel of external specialists in equity, diversity and inclusion, and heritage and sustainability who were joined by representatives from the City Corporation and members of its Barbican Centre Board as well as senior Barbican Centre staff.

The panelists were:

As previously reported by AN, the scope of the Barbican Renewal Project, estimated to cost in the range of $68 to $204 million (50 to 150 million), will entail upgrading venues, bringing underused spaces back to life, and improving the welcome, wayfinding and digital technology at the site, reflecting the energy of Londons many communities and the Barbican Centres commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, per the City Corporation. As mentioned in the above quotes from Sleigh and Allies and Morrisons Simon Fraser, sustainability-minded fixes will play a prominent role in the exhaustive-yet-sensitive refresh of the Grade II-listed structure. The City Corporation has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon status for its own operations by 2027 and its investment and supply chain by 2040 as part of its Climate Action Strategy.

Remarked Asif Khan in a statement:

My dad first brought me to the Barbican just after it opened to the public in 1982. From those early visits as a two-year-old we would spend countless Sundays enjoying the free programme and public spaces. For him, the lake was a reminder of the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore. For me it has always felt like home and has been a constant presence in my life. Who would imagine that exactly forty years later there would be an opportunity to contribute towards its future? Amazing things happen like that in this city.

This renewal project will care for the things we all love about the place, solving parts which could have been better, but most importantly helping to open up the Barbican to London and Londoners in ways that couldnt be imagined before. The incredible team we have assembled to bring about this change are embarking on this journey with great excitement and dedication to the vision for the Barbicans new life.

With the winning team now announced, its vision will further be refined and developed with extensive engagement from Barbican stakeholders. The full design brief can be viewed here.

AN will report back when that vision is made public.

Continue reading here:
Allies and Morrison, Asif Khan Studio tapped to revamp Barbican Centre - The Architect's Newspaper

If you want to work with cloud technology, you need to know AWS. This exam training bundle will teach you.

Despite recent inroads from competitors, Amazon Web Services remains king of the cloud. Whether youre looking for a full-time career change or want to start a side hustle, The 2022 AWS Certification Paths Bundle is a step in the right direction.

This comprehensive bundle is curated and offered by CramWise, a leading educational organization that specializes in providing robust exam prep materials for AWS, Cisco and CompTIA certification exams. CramWise provides comprehensive exam simulations via their exclusive CramWise Exam Environment, allowing students to test their knowledge and gain confidence before sitting the real exam.

If youre interested in cloud computing, this bundle will get you on track to ace four essential certification exams: AWS Solutions Architect (SAA-C02), AWS SysOps Administrator (SOA-C02), AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C01) and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01). Youll have unlimited lifetime access and updates to each of the exam paths, so you can take as much time as you need. When youre ready, you can simulate the real exam with performance-based questions based on the official AWS certification exam objectives.

Prepare yourself for a career in the cloud. Right now, you can get lifetime access to The 2022 AWS Certification Paths Bundle for 85% off at just $29 (normally $199) while supplies last.

Prices and availability are subject to change.

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Study with these practice exams to become an AWS cloud architect - TechRepublic

Property Details:

Location:6009 Rodgerton Drive, Los Angeles, California

Price:$2,295,000

Year Built:1991-1993

Architect: AGPS

Footprint: 2,083 square feet (two bedrooms, two baths)

From the agent: "Exceptional and award-winning architectural statement nestled beneath the iconic Hollywood sign in Beachwood Canyon. Built as the architects own home, The Experimental House is an internationally published creative space by AGPS, and is as inspiring as it is versatile. Like an urban loft in the lush and quiet hills, the home features two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a sprawling two-story living room, and an open loft. There is also a large studio space with a separate entrance. A true architectural in its innate wisdom and creativity, this is the first time ever offered on the market."

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An Architect Couples Experimental House in the Hollywood Hills Hits the Market for the First Time - Dwell

As architects grapple with low fees, fluctuating workloads and lengthy procurement procedures, a new wave is going it alone: putting their money where their design ethos is and developing their own buildings.

Its not easy. There are multiple challenges involved in acquiring land, raising finance, building and selling for a profit. It requires knowledge and keen business skills which famously are not often taught at architecture school. And, meanwhile, DIY architects have to juggle their work for existing clients. But architects who take the plunge find developing can benefit their practice in a range of ways, potentially including if they get it right making some proper money.

Because its so difficult to make money from architecture, architects are looking around at the other kind of things they can do, says Amanda Baillieu, co-founder of Developers Collective, which helps designers become developers. But, she adds, in contrast with most developers, profit is not always the only motivation: Architects want to build something that showcases what they are capable of.

Suzi Winstanley, director at Turner Works, says her practice has benefited enormously from taking on a public tender to design and build Pop Brixton, a temporary space in south London which supports independent businesses. We used it as a way to expand our portfolio, and it has shifted the practice into doing public works, she says. The practice went on to win projects including Peckham Levels and a temporary building by Hackney Bridge.

Winstanley adds that development projects help balance workloads, as a major problem for architecture practices can be peaks and troughs. Working as your own client allows more flexibility, as there are fewer deadlines outside your control that you have to meet.

Architects who develop also learn a clients language and get an insight into their perspective skills which can help them win work and work more smoothly with clients.

The main niche for architect-developers is small and complex sites which larger developers are less interested in, according to Baillieu. Planning is a major risk for a developer, but thats where architects have an advantage they understand that risk, she says.

There are several approaches to finding sites, including working with estate agents and land promoters and keeping a lookout for auctions but these options come with a danger of overpaying. Finding derelict plots in the neighbourhood where you live and work, and then approaching the landowner directly, can be a better bet. Small, leftover sites are good which nobody else is going to develop because they cant be bothered, says Baillieu.

Raising capital is also a problem, especially for a first-time developer without cash to invest from previous projects. One place to start is grants from Homes England or the government, for instance, that are keen to promote small developers and regenerate brownfield sites and high streets. Another option is to speak to a variety of investors, including potential buyers. Once the planning stage has been completed, it also becomes easier to borrow from high street banks, although this is still expensive.

Despite the global pandemic and Brexit and material prices which swing wildly by the day Baillieu says it is nevertheless a good time for architects to get involved. There is so much uncertainty in the market its a good time to buy sites, she says.

There is also the political will for more design-led development of small sites and homes in particular. Housing secretary Michael Gove said last month that there are all sorts of unhappy consequences of the cartel of volume housebuilders who operate in a particular way. If that sentiment led to further financing of small developers and a greater emphasis on selling small sites held by the public sector, it could present a golden opportunity for architects to get involved.

A series of mini-profiles of architect-developers will be published this week, starting with Mae and Pitman Tozer

Architects as developers: The new wave of practices building their own projects

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Architects as developers: The new wave of practices building their own projects - Architect's Journal

Per Wikipedia, The Martha Mitchell effect refers tothe process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist, mental health clinician, or other medical professional labels a patients accurate perception of real events as delusional, resulting in misdiagnosis. Per Sundance, Full Frame, Hot Docs, and ultimately Netflix, The Martha Mitchell Effect is one must-see doc.

Running at just under a brisk 40 minutes, Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchys all-archival short which recently screened at the virtual Full Frame in the NEW DOCS section and is set to play in the Persister Shorts: Mothers Day program at the hybrid Hot Docs spotlights the titular figure, once only known to the public as the outspoken (read out of bounds when it came to the women of her day) wife of President Nixons attorney general (read criminally convicted henchman). The Arkansas-born, paparazzi-loving socialite was also a heck of a brave soul, whose inability to ignore her moral compass may have brought down the entire Nixon administration. (At least Tricky Dick thought so. Then again his many failed efforts to silence her including drugging and kidnapping may have played a role in that vitriol.) Her rectitude did, however, most assuredly bring down Martha Mitchell herself.

Its a tragic tale made all the more poignant by the filmmakers deft mixing of Mitchells many controlled interviews and television appearances with her off-the-cuff phone calls. (The UPIs Helen Thomas was both a trusted confidant Mitchell could dial up at all hours and one of the few journalists to actually take her seriously.) With a face that belied an emotional truth deeper than words, Mitchell was equal parts media savvy and heartbreakingly honest. Someone whose trauma had always been hiding in plain painful sight.

Fortunately for history, we now have a doc-making duo that bothered to look. The Martha Mitchell Effect debuts online April 28 at Hot Docs (geo-blocked to Canada, unfortunately) before heading to Netflix.

Filmmaker: So how did this film originate? Was the idea sparked by the Watergate-level corruption of the Trump years? The anti-gaslighting groundswell of MeToo?

Alvergue: Yes and yes. We were both devastated by the 2016 election and looking to tell a female-driven story that could shed light on the present. Marthas story really checked all the boxes. But more than anything we were captivated by what a savvy, hilarious and telegenic person she was; and dismayed by how effective the gaslighting campaign to silence her had been. She is truly a hidden figure of the Watergate era. Now seemed the time to resurrect her story and restore her agency.

McClutchy: Yes, the impeachment scandals of the Trump administration clearly resonated, as did the reckoning around MeToo. We were fascinated with how this conservative Republican wife became one of the first prominent figures to call out the Nixon administration and the retaliation that followed. She was the unlikeliest of people to do it and had a lot to lose. When I first heard her story I was floored.

Filmmaker: How exactly did you acquire the archival material? Is it all in the public domain?

Alvergue: I wish! We first started at the Nixon Library. We knew about the Haldeman Super 8 collection, which is a treasure trove of home movies shot by Nixons young cabinet members. That is in the public domain. But unfortunately, and not surprisingly, there isnt much of Martha there as they were not big fans of hers.

So we knew we would have to seek out primarily news stories to visually illustrate her journey. Luckily, the press followed Martha everywhere once they discovered how outspoken she was, and she in turn would play to the press. But so much of the visual archive in the early 70s has been lost; there was a lot of footage we knew about that we couldnt exhume. It really was a two-year research expedition to uncover sources, ranging from national to local news outlets, YouTube to eBay. As well as mining the archives of journalists. One found an interview tape in his attic that hadnt been broadcast since 1972.

McClutchy: We also took an early research trip to the Library of Congress where we uncovered rarely heard interviews that Martha had given. Its such a thrill to find these gems of archival material. It makes the hunt for more all the more exciting. And then prior to the pandemic both Anne and I researched in person a couple of times at the Nixon Library, which became our main and crucial resource. Were archival nerds and absolutely loved researching there in person. Once the pandemic hit, we still hadnt completed our research. It was only through the Herculean efforts of archivist Ryan Pettigrew that we gained access remotely to even more material.

But our research also extended far beyond the Nixon Library. There were many hours spent on the internet digging in archives, library collections, news outlets and more. It was always the random research finds that were the most thrilling.

Filmmaker: I found your editing choices quite remarkable. The decision to close in on Marthas face, for example, making us aware of the heavy emotional toll speaking truth to power takes on the individual, really prioritizes the woman over the media circus perpetually surrounding her. So as the editor, Anne, can you talk a bit about what that process was like?

Alvergue: We knew from the start we wanted to prioritize the archival and immerse the viewer in Marthas world. Given that her version of events was buried under the prevailing Watergate narrative, we also wanted to lead with her voice as much as we could to return some agency to her own story. But we were limited by the archive. There were some great pop cultural TV show segments, but most of what we uncovered were news stories; there was very little verite footage of Martha, and no home movies.

For Nixon we had the Haldeman Super 8 collection we could pull from, so his story feels much more observational. What raw footage we could find of Martha was mostly interview outtakes. But we were lucky enough to work with the incredible editor Toby Shimin for a week in the final stage of the edit. She really mined these outtakes, slowing down the closeups of Martha to highlight her pain and frustration, particularly during the height of the gaslighting campaign. You can almost see her reacting as if in real time. And by staying within the native 43 aspect ratio of the footage we could focus on Martha and Martha alone in these key emotional scenes.

Filmmaker: When it comes to the historical record, the tragedy of Martha is that her story had been hijacked so thoroughly by the white men around her, her narrative told almost solely through the white male gaze (despite legendary journo Helen Thomass Sisyphean efforts). So was it difficult to even locate enough material to reflect a more nuanced perspective?

Alvergue: Part of the story of this film is how Martha was framed by the media and the White House, which was told predominantly from a male gaze. But we knew we could counteract that somewhat by isolating her interview bites and foregrounding her voice throughout the narrative to tell her side of the story.

We also had the White House tapes, which were much more revealing than the official party line, and allowed us to investigate the media machinations of Nixon and his cabinet; and how they orchestrated public information vis a vis Watergate and Martha. For me, one of the biggest revelations from the tapes was how much Nixon gossiped about Martha pre-Watergate, and then was obsessed with containing her post-Watergate. There was a lot of fear surrounding her and what she might expose.

McClutchy: Were also incredibly lucky that intrepid women journalists back then like Helen Thomas and Winzola McLendon took Martha seriously and listened to her. Without them, we wouldnt have the record we do in order to tell a more nuanced story. And Martha was savvy in developing these relationships with the press so that she would have some agency in telling her story. So these were women who were proactively building this historical record together.

Filmmaker: Upon her death a floral arrangement spelling out Martha was right was sent anonymously to her family, and yet in the decades since shes mostly been forgotten as a heroic American. That said, there does seem to be something of a Martha revival lately, with Julia Roberts even playing her in the Starz seriesGaslit(based on theSlow Burnpodcast) premiering this month. Any thoughts as to why shes being resurrected at this moment?

Alvergue: I think this country is so divided politically that Americans are now thirsty for outliers individuals who are brave enough to cross party lines and risk it all to speak truth to power. And for those few who do speak out we are seeing the same blowback now that we saw then, particularly against women. Treating your opponent as an existential threat, to be dehumanized and then marginalized, is a political tactic used time and again.

I also think we are in a period of looking back at the past through different lenses, and seeking out those who were lost to history. Watergate was one of the 20th centurys biggest political scandals, and yet we know nothing of the women that were involved. As the 50th anniversary of the break-in approaches, we have an opportunity to revisit who was overlooked and in Marthas case, silenced for political gain.

McClutchy: Fifty years after Watergate were facing another existential crisis in our democracy. Its not surprising to me that a story like Marthas is capturing our collective imagination. People are looking to history to help navigate where we go from here.

We were actually at a film festival recently and a young liberal filmmaker said to me, I just really want my conservative Republican dad to see your film so we can talk about Martha. And I thought, yes! Please connect and have that conversation with your dad. If our film can spark a dialogue then thats one small step to a healthier democracy.

Link:
The Tragedy of Martha is That Her Story Had Been Hijacked So Thoroughly by the White Men Around Her: Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy on The Martha...