i’m impressed with this one because at first the room seemed cavernous (the interior shots) then i saw that it was a single caravan camper … reminds me a bit of John Fairey’s cube project … so for those of you who have him and wonder what that project will ever ammount to – heres your answer!
the section tells all … of all of the types of drawings i must say sections are the most informative/my favorite. read the full article
Physicist and surfer Garrett Lisi presents a controversial new model of the universe that — just maybe — answers all the big questions. If nothing else, it’s the most beautiful 8-dimensional model of elementary particles and forces you’ve ever seen.
Physicist Garrett Lisi has proposed a new “theory of everything” — a grand unified theory that explains all the elementary particles, as well as gravity. Full bio and more links »
There’s power in them thar waves! That’s why Portugal built Agucadoura, the world’s first wave farm off its coast, consisting of three Wave Energy Converters generating a total of 2.25MW.
The elongated metal contraptions bob up and down with the waves, while internal pistons, attached to the sea floor, remain stationary and pump hydraulic fluid. This drives electric generators, whose power is brought ashore by underwater electrical cables. The wave farm is now tapping into enough constant, renewable energy to power 1500 homes.
Who knew there was so much power in the ocean waves? If we laid these 459-foot orange caterpillars all over the world’s oceans, we could tap 2 terawatts of power, twice the consumption of the entire world. That’s not exactly practical, but a smaller-scale rollout of such generators might be a clean power alternative, ready to be snapped up by an energy-starved planet.
About this talk
Architect Thom Mayne has never been one to take the easy option, and this whistle-stop tour of the buildings he’s created makes you glad for it. These are big ideas cast in material form.
About Thom Mayne
Founder of the influential studio Morphosis, and co-founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne marries conceptual ideas with form,… Full bio and more links »
Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths. Are you an architect working out of the box? Do you know of someone that has changed careers and has an interesting story to share? If you would like to suggest an (ex-)architect, please send us a message.
archinect: Where did you study architecture?
Peter: Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, E’cole DE’Beaux Arts – Tours France, and the University of Adelaide in South Australia. I must admit that my interests while studying were very broad, from photography to supercomputing and robotics as well.
Eric: I have a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon, with a minor in Business Administration and Marketing.
Eugene: I studied Industrial Design and Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University.
Ashwan: I have a Bachelor of Architecture from Sushant School of Art & Architecture in New Delhi, India and an MS in Informatics & Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York.
At what point in your life did you decide to pursue architecture?
Peter: My junior year of High School, while I was taking a class that incorporated bridge building. It didn’t seem like enough to just build a bridge that held up, I wanted it to make sense and provide some aesthetic benefit to whoever might see it someday. The arts were always important to me all along the way, music, fine art, and design – my father was always a great sketch artist and my uncle builds stringed instruments for a living [an amazing talent and not an easy thing to do] so they both influenced my decision to be involved with the arts.
Eric: Pretty early on – around the ninth grade. Being good at both art and math and sciences, I was told by several people at the time that architecture was a logical career path. I took a class in architecture, a real studio class, while I was in high school and a 10-week summer session at Carnegie Mellon before my senior year in high school, so I was pretty sure.
Eugene: Never… Well ok since we are being truthful there was a brief moment back when I was in school and I saw this show called Seinfeld. Anyway since I am sure that you probably have not seen it as it was not that popular I will explain the situation. There is this character named George who was having a tough time picking up the ladies. So in all his infinite wisdom he decided that when he was out and a woman asked him what he did for a living he would simply say that he was an architect. The next scene was of him waking up in bed with the woman. I thought to myself if this guy could get lucky by claiming to be an architect then what would happen if I was an architect. So I signed up and quickly realized the error of my ways when I suddenly had an additional year of school to complete the degree and spent the whole time in the studio without sight of a woman.
Ashwan: In high school I was very interested in design and technology and around the same time I was involved in a small construction project. Meeting with the architects and being on the site really helped me in deciding my future career path. I decided to take on Mechanical Drawing as a subject in senior high school with additional focus on science and computer technology as well. To be really sure, I did get into an economics program after finishing school, but that didn’t last very long. I was very happy when I moved into the architecture program.
When did you decide to stop pursuing architecture? Why?
Peter: It didn’t come as part of a plan or anything calculated, I engaged the architecture profession whole heartedly and worked with some great people right out of school. Cambridge 7 was a fascinating place to work, talents like Peter Chermayeff and Peter Sollogub while I was there were amazing conceptual designers- though what I really took away from working with them was more of their entrepreneurial spirit, something that I can’t see myself ever letting go of. Moving to New York was amazing, changed my whole perspective on the profession. I worked with Chris Choa at HLW International, another entrepreneur at heart– after he left the country following his global aspirations; I decided it was time for me to do my thing as well. My education was amazing, the people I worked for were truly inspirational, and in 1997 the profession wasn’t developing that quickly within digital communications, so I took the opportunity to start IOMEDIA and try to make a change. I had the opportunity to marry the two things I enjoyed most as a professional – the arts, and technology.
Eric: While I was pretty certain that I was going to be an architect – there was no doubt in my mind really – by the time I finished my first year at Carnegie Mellon, I’d already had the equivalent of 4 semesters of freshman architecture studio. So, that’s pretty much what my perception, at that early age, of what the profession was based on these experiences – problem solving exercises based upon relatively short design charrettes and the visual representation of that design solution. As things got more “real” – about half way through the 5 year program, I started losing interest. I also felt that while the curriculum was meant to be very well rounded, it was also very confining and because of all the required classes, it left little room for exploring other interests, which I felt was key to developing my identity as a designer and keeping things interesting. I also felt it was completely irresponsible that it wasn’t until our 5th year that we had a “profession practice” class – where we learned what architecture, the practice of versus the study of, was all about. This only after 4 years of study and half of the class had already dropped out . . .
I did however practice for 3 full years after graduating, hoping that architecture practice might hold something for me that in the end architectural study didn’t. Unfortunately, as a junior architect, what I found instead were stair details, exiting diagrams, redlines and lots of AutoCAD – so not exactly what I was looking for in order to sustain my interest. I’ve always had a somewhat short attention span and really just didn’t have the patience for projects that lasted years (after 3 years, nothing that I worked on was built, which I now know is not uncommon). Maybe if I’d gotten over the initial hump of being a junior designer, but probably not. At IOMEDIA, most projects last a few weeks to a few months, although in some cases we are involved periodically or off and on throughout the project’s life-cycle. With computer visualization there is just much more immediate feedback and (relatively) instant feedback.
At Carnegie Mellon, I did get a very solid and early exposure to computer visualization and from day 1 through my 3 years in practice I actively pursued 3d Viz until I felt I couldn’t go any further within a conventional firm (at least not one at that time). I spent all of my free time honing my 3d skills and learning everything I could about the industry as well as immersing myself in film and animation. Right before I left architecture, I took an intensive class in 3d graphics at NYU’s Center for Advanced Digital Applications.
I don’t however regret for a minute having studied architecture or where I studied it as it definitely gave me the tools to do what I’m doing today and there was really no course of study for design visualization, so I wouldn’t have done anything differently.
Eugene: See previous answer.
Ashwan: After finishing my five year course in Architecture, I worked for about a year as an architecture intern, working on design, drawings and construction as well. Though I found this somewhat fun, it did not really satisfy my technology bug. Around the same time I started ‘dabbling’ in architectural visualization which helped fulfilling that void to a great extent. I wanted to pursue a stronger relationship between computer technologies and architecture, looking around I found RPI was offering a Masters program that was exactly that. I applied for the course, got accepted, packed my bags, embarked on my first trip to the US and moved to Troy, New York from New Delhi. At RPI, I found the program exactly what I was expecting, it was set within the Architecture school and the focus was advanced computer technologies; ranging from visualization to developing software programs that helped design processes. I decided to research the field of soft computational technologies such genetic algorithms and neural networks and their applications to urban design. As RPI had a strong computer science department, I was able to pick up concepts in programming and write code. Finally, I was able to effectively work on design and computer technology at the same time! … read full article
About this talk
Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus takes the audience on dazzling, dizzying virtual tours of three recent projects: the Central Library in Seattle, the Museum Plaza in Louisville and the Charles Wyly Theater in Dallas.
About Joshua Prince-Ramus
Joshua Prince-Ramus is best known as architect of the Seattle Central Library, already being hailed as a masterpiece of contemporary culture. Prince-Ramus was US Partner of Rem Koolhaas’ Office… Full bio and more links »
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