The Architecture Report

Esri CityEngine MeetUps

Geoff Taylor — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:01:06 +0000

Esri CityEngine will be holding MeetUps in several Cities throughout the NorthEast United States.

So what exactly is CityEngine? Esri CityEngine, is a 3D modeling software application developed by Esri R&D Center Zurich (formerly Procedural Inc.) and is specialized in the generation of three dimensional urban environments. With the procedural modeling approach, CityEngine enables the efficient creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models with merely a few clicks of the mouse instead of the time exhaustive & work intensive method of object creation & manual placement.

Click the city of choice below to learn more and sign up.

Suburbia Transformed 2.0, One Garden at a Time | Call for Entries

Brooks Patrick — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:00:54 +0000

SUBURBIA TRANSFORMED 2.0, ONE GARDEN AT A TIME:
EXPLORING THE AESTHETICS OF LANDSCAPE EXPERIENCE IN THE AGE OF SUSTAINABILITY

AN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR BUILT AND VISIONARY (UNBUILT) RESIDENTIAL LANDSCAPES sponsored by the James Rose Center for Landscape Architectural Research and Design; co-sponsored by the American Society of Landscape Architects, New Jersey Chapter; and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

ENTRY FORMS DUE: FEBRUARY 17, 2012.

THE COMPETITION
The goal of Suburbia Transformed 2.0 is to promote and celebrate residential designs that go beyond “green” by explicitly using sustainable strategies, tactics and technologies to enrich the aesthetic spatial experience of people. ST 2.0 will assemble contemporary projects achieving this goal into an exhibition and catalogue. The emphasis is on how such sustainable landscapes can be beautiful, inspiring, perhaps profound; and serve as examples for transforming the suburban residential fabric, one garden at a time.
Significantly, this year’s version invites the submission of visionary (unbuilt) work, along with built projects, thus opening up the competition to students, as well as professionals.

ELIGIBILITY
Open to all, including landscape architects, landscape designers, architects, individuals, teams or firms…and students of design whose work will be judged in a separate category.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Submissions must be for two-acre or less residentially-zoned single-family properties. A submission with a newly built house is allowed as long as the lot was part of a pre-existing subdivision or town property. Submission requirements are outlined in detail on the Call for Entries, available for download at http://www.jamesrosecenter.org

JURORS

Cornelia Oberlander OC, FASLA, FCSLA, LMBCSLA, Landscape Architect
Meg Calkins, LEED AP, ASLA, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Ball State University
Matthew Urbanski, Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., Landscape Architects, P.C.
Joseph S. R. Volpe, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

SCHEDULE
August 15, 2011 Call for Entries posted
February 17, 2012 Entry Form and fee due
March 9, 2012 CD submission due
March 24, 2012 Jury convenes
May 19, 2012 Opening Reception at James Rose Center
August 31, 2012 Exhibition travelsTO ENTER
Fill out the Entry Form available on the website, http://www.jamesrosecenter.org. An entry fee of $95 ($35 for students) must be received together with the Entry Form by February 17, 2012.FOR FURTHER INFORMATION GO TO HTTP://WWW.JAMESROSECENTER.ORG

Chongqing Mixed-Use Complex, Safdie Architects

Geoff Taylor — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:03:59 +0000

Neoscape collaborated with Safdie Architects to create this 2.5-minute film that demonstrates the architectural firm’s design concepts for this 10-million sf mixed-use complex to development partners CapitaLand, CapitaMalls Asia, and Singbridge. The project, to be located at the junction of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers, will serve as an important cultural reminder of Chongqing’s trading past and China’s exciting future as an economic power.
Neoscape created a dramatic, immersive piece to convey the full impact of Safdie’s design inspiration of sailing ships on the river. Our digital artists worked closely, and in real time, with Safdie Architects to translate their design into an accurate portrayal of Moshe Safdie’s vision for this complex. Animated sketches and information graphics were used to tell the programmatic story in an engaging way that would be memorable to the audience. To portray the magnificence and majesty of the project, the film team incorporated dramatic music and sweeping camera moves into realistic 3D animation, while close-up shots of detailed interior spaces and scenes brought the viewer right into the project on a more intimate level. Because of our past history of successful collaboration, Safdie trusted the Neoscape team to create a film that would not only inform, but inspire, the audience.

learn more about Neoscape & Safdie Architects: neoscape.com msafdie.com

Think.Urban Introducing Megapolitanism

Geoff Taylor — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:06:19 +0000

A recent article from John King at the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned the concept of using the Megalopolitan scale for planning purposes. The article references the new book by

Arthur C. Nelson and Robert E. Lang entitled ‘Megapolitan America: A New Vision for Understanding America’s Metropolitan Geography‘ (APA, 2011).As an example, King mentions the Sierra Pacific Megapolitan Area, seen below as a large geographical area that extends from the San Francisco Bay area all the way into Western Nevada, around Reno. The region includes 27 counties and includes over 12.4 million people, and its expected to grow substantially in the next 30 years.

As mentioned in the article, the significance of the concept of megapolitan areas is to look more broadly at a larger scale, King, quoting Nelson, mentions that “regions can be more proactive in everything from transportation planning to economic strategies… to have people look at things a little differently, the whole rather than the parts.” While explicitly not a model for mega-regional government, there are some possibilities of what this might mean for regions by looking at larger areas. As mentioned by King, “It’s too early to say whether the concept of megapolitan areas will catch on as a framework for government policy, much less in terms of how regular people define where they live.” The significant of megapolitan areas, thus is undetermined.

The overall ambiguity of the defining characteristics of a ‘city’ has led to a lot of questions related to city centers, sprawl, and other hybrid urban agglomerations like edge cities, exurbs, and the shift from urban area to metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). This leads to a lot of diversity in definition (outlined in the SF Gate article) – including the largest megapolitan area (NY-Phil 33.9 million people) to the smallest, fastest growing (Las Vegas 2.4 million). While Vegas booms, the Steel Corridor of wester PA is creeping along slowly. In terms of diversity, not surprisingly, the Southern California region has the largest percentage of minorities (62.7%) and the Twin-Cities are the least diverse with 15.5% of minorities. The terms megaregion, megalopolis, megapolitan area, while similar in nature, are somewhat different historically, spatially, and statistically, so it is worth a look at some of the designations. A map of megaregions shows the eleven areas in the United States as determined by the Regional Plan Association.

This differs somewhat from a more recent version of Megapolitan areas from a recent essay by Lang and Nelson on Places from Design Observer) They identify 10 megapolitan clusters that exist in 23 megapolitan areas that are similar but slightly different from those above.

The different terms, definitions, and geographical extents makes the concepts a bit difficult to parse, but in general terms, the areas are defined by a population of more than 10 million people that exist within a ‘clustered network of cities’ typically delineated through transportation corridors. The new interpretation of Megapolitan area builds on earlier concepts to describe a more general ‘transmetropolitan geography’ which is typically thought of more commonly in larger, global areas such as China, Japan, Brazil – which include megaregions of 120 million (Hong Kong, Shenzen-Guangzhou), 60 million (Nagoya-Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe) and 43 million (Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo). While the concepts are similar, the scale of these new global areas are immense in comparison to the US.

Interestingly enough, the term has been used since the 1820s, and the conceptual usage of the concept of Megalopolis as a grouping of urban areas within a region dates back almost 100 years. This includes references by Oswald Spengler in The Decline of the West (1918) and Lewis Mumford in The Culture of Cities (1938). The most popularized recent usage was from 1950s and 60s, in the book on the Northeast United States by Jean Gottmann entitled ‘Megalopolis’ (1961).

More on this in subsequent posts, specifically additional information on Lang and Nelson’s longer essay in Places, and a closer look at the book. Stay tuned.

[Original Post: 12/02/11 from THINK.urban - Jason King]

RIO 2016 Olympics Video |Squint Opera|

Geoff Taylor — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:19:18 +0000

Aecom approached Squint/Opera to help with their 2016 Olympics pitch for a key site in Rio de Janeiro. Squint Opera delivered an aerial site image and a compelling three-minute animation that referenced the Argentinian artist Blu’s fascinating stop-frame animated mural in Buenos Aires.

Alongside the architects Squint-Opera worked swiftly and simultaneously to respond to many iterative changes. The film’s urban illustrations gradually build up on the blank canvas concrete wall. The final cut is a rich tapestry of imagery that reflects the high energy aesthetic and culture so rooted in the culture of the Olympic Games and Brazil.

Visit Squint Opera

Landscape and Future Internet – 9 Paper Special Issue

Brooks Patrick — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:00:25 +0000

We are pleased to announce a special issue of Future Internet, Volume 3, Issue 4 (December 2011). Focussed on Landscape and the Internet and edited by Dr. Christopher Pettit Principal Research Scientist and Research Manager, Spatial Information Sciences, Department of Primary Industries Victoria, Australia and Dr. Arzu Coltekin,Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 80750 Zürich, Switzerland, the issue represents a series of notable papers:

Mark Imhof, Matthew Cox, Angela Fadersen, Wayne Harvey, Sonia Thompson, David Rees and Christopher PettitArticle: Natural Resource Knowledge and Information Management via the Victorian Resources Online Website Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 248-280; doi:10.3390/fi3040248
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/248/

David Parsons, Ramesh Lal and Manfred Lange
Article: Test Driven Development: Advancing Knowledge by Conjecture and Confirmation
Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 281-297; doi:10.3390/fi3040281
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/281/

Haifeng Li and Bo WuArticle: A Service-Oriented Architecture for Proactive Geospatial Information Services
Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 298-318; doi:10.3390/fi3040298
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/298/

Subhash Sharma, Christopher Pettit, Ian Bishop, Pang Chan and Falak ShethArticle: An Online Landscape Object Library to Support Interactive Landscape Planning
Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 319-343; doi:10.3390/fi3040319
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/319/

Saviour Formosa, Vincent Magri, Julia Neuschmid and Manfred SchrenkArticle: Sharing Integrated Spatial and Thematic Data: The CRISOLA Case for Malta and the European Project Plan4all Process Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 344-361; doi:10.3390/fi3040344
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/344/

Sabrina Lai and Corrado ZoppiArticle: An Ontology of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of City Masterplans
Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 362-378; doi:10.3390/fi3040362
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/362/

Arzu Coltekin and Tumasch ReichenbacherReview: High Quality Geographic Services and Bandwidth Limitations
Future Internet 2011, 3(4), 379-396; doi:10.3390/fi3040379
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/3/4/379/

Full details can be found over at the Future Internet Journal.

Pruitt Igoe Now Competition | The Unmentioned Modern Landscape

Brooks Patrick — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:00:20 +0000

Pruitt Igoe Now is an ideas competition launched by a non-profit organization of the same name. The subject is the 57-acre site of the long-mythologized Pruitt and Igoe housing projects in St. Louis, Missouri, USA — a site whose future is intertwined with emerging ideas about urban abandonment, the legacy of modernism, brownfield redevelopment and land use strategies for shrinking cities.

This competition seeks the ideas of the creative community worldwide: we invite individuals and teams of professional, academic, and student architects, landscape architects, urban planners, designers, writers, historians, and artists of every discipline to re-imagine the site and the relationship between those acres to the rest of the city.

March 2012 will mark the 40th anniversary of the demolition of the first of the Pruitt-Igoe high-rises, designed by architects, Helmuth, Yamasaki and Leinweber, who have long been blamed for the troubled legacy of these towers–problems that are now known to be the result of complex political and economic circumstances. Although later maligned by historians, the Pruitt and Igoe housing projects were the embodiment of modern architectural ideals for public housing, and as powerfully symbolic of St. Louis’ urban renewal as the Gateway Arch would become. For forty years, the site of this complex has been largely untouched, and today the site is an overgrown brownfield forest. As countless other social housing projects across the country are torn down, and rebuilt in the idiom of new urbanism, the site of Pruitt-Igoe remains untouched.

What is Pruitt-Igoe now? Can this site be liberated from a turbulent and mythologized past through re-imagination? This call seeks bold ideas that re-invigorate the abandoned site: ideas from sources as diverse in media and background as possible. This competition imagines the site of Pruitt-Igoe as a frontier: the threshold between North St. Louis, which is showing signs of stabilization after decades of decline, and the new design for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

Our jurors will select the first, second and third most inspiring proposals and award them $1,000, $750 and $500 respectively. A broad selection of entries will receive honorable mention and inclusion in an online gallery. In April 2012, a symposium on urban dwelling and creative intervention will be held at Portland State University; the advisory committee plans to curate all proposals, and exhibit these at the symposium. The advisory committee also plans to curate select competition submissions into a traveling exhibition that will tour beginning in Summer 2012, starting in St. Louis. The initial setting for display will be publicly accessible and either on or near the Pruitt-Igoe site itself.

Registration Deadline
03/16/2012
Submission Deadline
03/16/2012
Open To
All

Website: http://www.pruittigoenow.org/

Tokyo’s Sustainable Quake-Proof Communities

Brooks Patrick — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:00:02 +0000

Future Cities (CNN) travels to Tokyo where architects design communities to withstand natural disasters

Be sure to maximize the viewer on the bottom right side… after clicking play!

More from Future Cities:

Simulating Emergent Behavior in the Urban Environment

Brooks Patrick — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:00:28 +0000

Crowd, transport and urban simulations are at their roots down to ‘Agents’ or ‘Objects’ that are assigned a set of rules as to how to moves in relation to both the environment and other agents around them. 3D Studio Max has a built in ‘Crowd and Delegate’ system which can be used to assign behavior and therefore create realistic traffic of pedestrian systems in 3D space.

The movie below displays the first tentative steps to explore emergent behavior via the introduction of simple rules. The movie starts out with a basic ‘wander’ behaviour where the agents only knowledge is the shape of the surface. Moving on each of the ‘cubes’ are assigned a level of vision so they can see ahead and therefore avoid each other and objects in their environment. Read more via Digital Urban

Movie detailing various crowd and delegate models in 3D max leading to emergent behavior. digitalurban.blogspot.com

If we were using the built in Crowd and Delegate system a true 3D flocking system would be possible, but it would be pure visualisation, by importing via NetLogo you gain access to the raw data and thus spatial analysis is possible. It is also quick to model and provides the best of both worlds – 3d visualisation and complex modelling.

While 3D Max is of use for crowd and particle simulation when it comes to modelling complex systems an external package is required, such as NetLogo.

Sample movie on exporting behavior from NetLogo into 3DMax for a blog post on digitalurban.blogspot.com

NetLogo is a cross-platform multi-agent programmable modeling environment that is widely. It is particularly well suited for modeling complex systems developing over time. Modelers can give instructions to hundreds or thousands of independent “agents” all operating concurrently. This makes it possible to explore the connection between the micro-level behavior of individuals and the macro-level patterns that emerge from the interaction of many individuals.(Nation Master Encyclopedia).

The movie above explores exporting from NetLogo into 3D Max for a blog post on digitalurban.blogspot.com

Designing Egypt | HewittNassar Studio |

Geoff Taylor — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:01:33 +0000

Over the past year, the views of individuals towards Egypt have shifted away from the unique splendor of a historical landscape to a world of politics and change. With the chaos of change also strikes ingenuity and creativity in design. Public spaces for gathering, protesting, conversing, and leasure are still in the works for Egypt. One example of such an endeavor is the Opera-Gateway competition for Azbakayeya Park in Cairo. An excellent proposal for this competition is this design by Cube Consultants based on Cairo’s 2050 development strategy.

Moving south of Cairo one comes across Egypts Jewel of the Nile “Luxor.” One project currently under construction in Luxor is HewittNassar Studio’s Corniche and Avenue of the Sphinxes Master Plan. HewittNassar Studio has worked on several projects throughout the Middle-East for years. Their projects and research have gained the attention of such prestigious organizations such as National Geographic, and been featured in ASLA magazine.

The following images are slides from the 2011 SCASLA awards.

It will be interesting to see exactly how many projects begin development in Egypt over the next year as politics continue to change. Will digital-democracy through social media help to shape the landscape in the same way that it is currently effecting the countries politics? Will tourism increase and help fund further development along the Nile? How will the countries political change effect development? These are all questions that only time can answer.

Click the following links to learn more about Cube Consultants and HewittNassar Studio: Cube Consultants, HewittNassar Studio