The new directions that I am looking at revolve around the idea of simulation. My last post looked at how construction and fabrication technologies are used to simulate the elements of building construction and use. In entertainment design the elements of space are a means to a different end – the simulation of experience. As a result (and thank goodness!) people are at the centre of the action.

CG Morgan Freeman (yes, both versions are CG - click the image for more details)

The crews who work on production design for film, television and the stage might easily have been on a building site the previous day using the same skillset. The main difference is that what they build for productions is a prop – a temporary installation whose primary function is to add context and scenery. The production designer’s work may take us backwards or forwards in time or completely out of place into a fantasy (it is physical sets that I am thinking of here - CG next).

Looking at musical stage sets it is probably no coincidence that London’s Architectural Association gave us both Archigram and Mark Fisher and hosted the musical architecture students who went on to form Pink Floyd.

There is no need to mention how many different fields computers have revolutionised but probably the most accessible product of this digital age is computer graphics. No need to deal with the command line or complicated circuitry – just to sit back and soak it in. It is quite ironic that the buzzword in film today is 3D (like it was in the early 1950’s) – to make the film experience more immersive. Titanic director James Cameron talks of how he devised a ‘virtual camera’ (on a monitor) to allow him to ‘move’ around the 3D scenes of his upcoming magafilm Avatar. As architects look to film, film is becoming a bit more like architecture.

… which leads us to the fields that are really at the cutting edge - 3D gaming, which is established; virtual worlds, which are still not quite mainstream; and augmented reality, straight out of the movies (as far as I am concerned) and coming soon to a street near you. They are all developments of the concept of virtual reality. Anybody remember Jaron Lanier. He has been evangelising about VR since the 1980’s. The idea seemed to have so much promise in the 90’s but, on the surface, did not live up to its hype. I do not think it is an overstatement to say that now its time has come.

The pace of development in gaming in the past 40 years has been breathtaking. We have gone from the likes to Pong to massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft.

Simulation on screen (online) probably does not get any more literal than Second Life - the best known virtual world of its kind. It comes with its very own 3D modeling software, but also currency, land ownership and many other features that would be found in the real world.

I think augmented reality and the film Minority Report immediately comes to mind – the mall scene where Tom Cruise’s immediate environment responds to his presence (the billboards – advertising!). AR happens when virtual and real worlds are merged. As the phrase suggests it is a heightened experience of reality. If you have ever worn a headset kit in a museum to get commentary of what you are looking at then you have experienced augmented reality. The difference now is the incredible impact of digital and mobile technology. This is an area that I will really keep my eyes on.

I haven’t been to a Bartlett jury in a while but I am sure that all of the developments mentioned above have been tackled in one way or another in student projects. It is the nature of the school (and its neighbour the AA) to push towards what is coming next. The unfortunate thing that I recall is that this exploration hardly ever comes to anything post-graduation. There are many reasons that I can think of but won’t bother to go into here but as I said in my original post of this series – these tough times present an opportunity for new directions to flourish.

I look forward to seeing what can happen now that the lights have been turned off at the summer show.

::

A few related resources:

• New directions for young architects in a credit crunch economy
• New directions for young architects: TECHNOLOGY
• Gnomon School – Entertainment Design
• CGTalk (CG Society forums)
• Exposé (Ballistic Publishing)
• CreativeDesignPros Twibe
• Coroflot (Concept Artists & Entertainment Design)

(Image at top from Rudolph Herczog)

In my last post I had a look at the bigger picture of challenges and opportunities for young architects in a tough economy. ‘Technology’ is the first of two more in-depth looks at the possibilities. Here the focus is on 3D, and specifically ‘intelligent’ 3D. Intelligence is what separates the old from the new as far as possibilities go – not just representation of a building but simulation of it. For inspiration we do not have to look far because the principles are well established in the field of industrial design. It is no coincidence that as architecture has become more organic (’blobified’) we have looked to ID for the tools to realise our ideas.

How can 3D be made intelligent?:

Parametrics: Literally using parameters to define design forms and/or the development of a design form. Paramertrics are involved in form generators such as Grasshopper for Rhino (3-dimensional forms generated by algorithms) and the construction history of SolidThinking (the ability to modify a design form say 10 steps in by changing the first step and effecting a ‘ripple effect’). A simple architectural example is a door ’system’ which is chosen once but then adjusts to different sized openings around the same building.

(Building) Information Modeling: … 3D parts that know what they are. It is a step up to translate a 2D line representation of a door to a 3D form but BIM goes further – identifying that 3D form as a door in a database while giving the form measurable physical properties. So once you have dropped the door in you can use it to produce presentation and construction drawings, your door schedule and include it in a thermal assessment of the enclosure, for example. Pioneers ArchiCAD more intuitively called this idea the ‘virtual building’ long before the acronym ‘BIM’ became popular. BIM software is typically parametric by nature.

Lifecycle Management: Industrial design has PLM (with ‘P’ for product) but the principle is the same, and it starts at the design stage. Airbus can get contractors all over the world to bid on production of various parts by distributing digital information which forms the basis of design, manufacturing and servicing systems for the aircraft. Digitally the aircraft is a complex 3-dimensional whole with metalwork, electrics, hydraulics and a multitude of other parts and services represented and coordinated within shared digital files. It doesn’t take a great leap to translate the principles to the design, construction and management of a building. Software such as Vico Office Suite and  Navisworks which aggregate information from various others are pointing the way. They go beyond 3-dimensional simulation of the building to layer on sequencing/scheduling (’4D’) and costing/resourcing (’5D’).

In the examples just above both the aircraft and the building are modeled in CATIA software (the building in the CATIA derivative, Digital Project).

Little by little building simulation is becoming not just an option but a requirement – whether for local authority submissions or design competition entries. It is a disruptive force to the ‘old’ ways of CAD. How it is implemented and the possibilities for its potential to be properly exploited depend on the scale of operation into which it is introduced.

• BIG: Sorry guys but the project manager has moved from prince to king in this space. I recently read a blog post about a construction job with 200+ BIM files aggregated. Just imagine the scenario –  the architect here is a very specialised ‘BIM file provider’, submitting alongside the MEP and structural. No big surprise really but a little depressing. Nevertheless the process of successful coordination on a complex project can be breathtaking to witness. Employing BIM is a natural progression from a project management point of view and I expect to see most innovation driven by the requirements of operating at this scale.
• MEDIUM: The middle is often a tough place to thrive and particularly so in a difficult economic climate. I am surprised that my first thought is that there is least incentive to migrate to a BIM system for this group. Without the benefit of economy of scale of the larger players or the versatility of the smaller it is a harder business case to prove. The investment in time and cost for software and training for an office of say ten can make it quite unattractive. I worked for many years in an office of that size and I can imagine the disruption going all the way through. A larger operation could isolate it to one team at a time, who the office is less likely to depend on as multi-taskers in any case. Having said that, mid-size firms like everyone else need to make the transition now or they will simply cease to be competitive.
• SMALL: This is where I see the most exciting possibilities and young architects are best placed to take advantage. The decision to make the transition need not be for 10 or 100 but could be for as few as one – no meetings, no delay, just a thought and an action (and an invoice!). Self-training resources are plentiful – a few links below. My personal motto for when I begin to feel unfocussed during the day is “never do nothing”. The ArchiCAD tutorials have modules for you to pace yourself, jump into a lesson when you have a moment and come back to another later. The ‘virtual building’ is exactly what a small firm needs – layers of information created on the fly and coordinated in 3D space amongst co-workers with the option to take the rich details to third party consultants.

For all architects with 2D CAD skills now is the time to make the move, not just to 3D but to intelligent 3D. Do not hesitate because the industry is not turning back. Parametrics, information modeling and lifecycle management are the key markers along the way.

A few useful resources:

• BIM Learning Studio (ArchiCAD)
• Learning & Training (Revit Architecture)
• Be Employable (Bentley)
• The World According to BIM (Cadalyst)
• A Case for Virtual Mock-Ups (Vico)

Ten years ago Napster had just been launched and it was the beginning of the end for the recording music industry as it was known then. Its decline continues but a new model is emerging out of the ruins of the old - p2p, iTunes, Spotify and others are pointing the way to a new direction. Each is dealing a lethal blow to an established business model and they have precipitated a clear paradigm shift in the inudstry.
I cannot help but feel that a shift of similar magnitude is underway in the world of architecture. The beginning of the shift can be traced back to a particular date – not the demolition of a housing block – but a fracture in the global financial system. On August 6th 2007 American Home Mortgage Investment Corp filed for bankruptcy. A few days later French bank BNP sent another shockwave through the system and the credit crunch had begun. We are now almost two years in and the financial world has changed more than just about anyone imagined. The West has been the most careless and is now feeling the brunt of the pain but the phenomenon is global.

For all the talk of ‘green shoots’ and recovery I subscribe to Robert Reich’s view that there will be no recovery – in effect that there is no going back to the ‘old’ economy of July 2007. Earlier this month the UK’s Office for National Statistics reported an almost 1,000% (one thousand percent!) increase in unemployemnt for architects since last year. Architectural firms of all sizes are suffering and the layoffs continue, but of course the universities are still pumping out graduates. Most of these graduates are not going to find work any time soon so its begs the question – what should they do? The same applies to architects made redundant and the self-employed who are under-employed. My experience of architecture school was often like a fairground ride passing through a series of technical and creative worlds leaving me as passenger a little unfocussed but a lot enlightened, and eager to try almost anything. Unfortnately the realities of the world of work quickly dull that enthusiasm, but what if that intervention is delayed, aborted or avoided altogether? What are the realistic career paths for young architects?

These thoughts emerged as a conversation with myself watching business slow, fees negotiated down and opportunities delayed or cancelled. They are symptoms of a systemic decline in the profession which even prompted the president of the RIBA to send a letter to all members warning against (literally) devaluing their work. Unfortunately stimulus spending by the state by nature favours large, established firms. Young entrepreneurial professionals may get some trickle down but ultimately they are in a tough spot.

I have heard stories of graduates trying to wait out the crisis by working in bars but again I do not see the old economy coming back. Reich himself ends with a question mark about what a new economy will bring and this is what brought the music industry to mind.  The distribution of music, whether the industry likes it or not, has become social and the companies and systems that have harnessed the power of the idea are the new players. We still have pop stars like we did ten years ago but the relationship with their fans has been revolutionised.

The relevance for me as an architect? – the need to think different. Whether or not the Chinese word for crisis really is a combination of danger and opportunity the argument is correct because there are opportunities to be had. Naturally what works in the end will depend on what a ‘new’ economy looks like.

This is a thought in progress so for now I will mention the first two paths that have come to mind. My main requirement is that you should maintain and exploit your core competencies, but crucially expand on them by acquiring related, new skills. So my focus for grasping the opportunities is a willingness and effort to learn:

1. Technology
   We already know how much CAD and 3D have changed the way we do things, but there is more change to come. Companies such as Case and Design to Production are, in crude terms, your IT department on steroids – both, ultimately computing consultants – Case more about how to create and Design to Production about how to deliver. They are an inspiration for the more digitally minded graduate. [Update: follow-up post here]
2. Entertainment
   Architecture is about space and portable architecture is about spaces that you can take with you. Mark Fisher has been designing sets for the likes of Pink Floyd and U2 for over two decades. His work is physical and structural but also demountable and moveable.
   Entertainment architecture that never leaves the page or screen is the ultimate in portability.  Think of the environments of comic books,  film and 3D gaming. [Update: follow-up post here]

I’ll expand on these with dedicated posts in the coming weeks. I would also love to hear about your ideas which you can share by commenting below or by contacting me directly.

AJ: Unemployment continues to rise among UK architects

BD: RIBA warns architects against cutting fees

I regularly evaluate all of the tools and practices of my day-to-day business and project management has come up. Amazingly I had never used project management software in my first 13 years studying and working as an architect but I immediately began to explore it when I set up on my own. The RIBA has a Plan of Work which sets out workstages from A to L that breakdown the process of creating a building – from initial appraisal through to completion on site (there must be equivalents around the world – if you know of any please share). This is a great starting point for setting up a template for timelines.
Project management is about resources – time, money, personnel etc. but since there are better places to look at the theory, here I will concentrate on my actual experience using various products. I cannot claim that this is an impartial review because what I used reflected my personal requirements and even these have changed over time. As in any discipline there are various schools of thought but in general I would say that I have moved from a Gantt chart time/task focus to a collaborative/communication one.
Also there are also a lot more options than I have covered here, especially in the web application space. I would love to hear about your own experiences.

Merlin

[from US$210 one-off]

If you have used Microsoft Project on Windows you will understand Merlin – but I was bowled over by the sumptous interface. It is truly a joy to look at on screen and I use it to this day, although not nearly as actively as I used to. As the image suggests this is Gantt chart territory – where I put in the RIBA workstages plus more details from the Job Book. Add personnel, hourly rates and other resource costs and requirements and the future is laid out in front of you. A few quirks here and there but good exchange with Microsoft Project and very good overall.

• credit card vote: yes
• local / web: local
• genuinely multi-user: server version available
• add-on’s: yes
• family of related products: no
• tiered plans/features/pricing: no
• iPhone app: yes

FastTrack Schedule

[$349 one-off]


I initially chose FastTrack (then version 9) over Merlin (version 1) because of better Microsoft Project exchange and better overall robustness, however the next version of Merlin fixed a lot of that – and this leads to why I do not use FastTrack now. I bought v9 in 2005, and they are still at v9 – shocking but true. Also I found that I simply did not launch the application very often. For all its great features (such as consolidation of multiple files into one chart) it reminded me that project management can feel like a chore.

• credit card vote: yes
• local / web: local
• genuinely multi-user: no
• add-on’s: no
• family of related products: no
• tiered plans/features/pricing: no
• iPhone app: no

OmniPlan

[$150 one-off]

Like Merlin, OmniPlan has a clean, intuitive and very mac-like user experience. For those who are familiar with the venerable OmniOutliner, ‘Plan’ is similarly well thought through. I am guessing that there was some cross-pollination with the development teams – since outlining is only step away from Gantt charting anyway. The software feels a little ‘light’ in comparison to FastTrack/Merlin but actually the 20% of project management requirements that the 80% use are very well implemented here. Not enough to pull me away from my existing workflows but a great product.

• credit card vote: no
• local / web: local
• genuinely multi-user: no
• add-on’s: yes
• family of related products: yes
• tiered plans/features/pricing: no
• iPhone app: no

Daylite

[$189 one-off or $29 per month]

Daylite is actually a CRM application – ie. its foundation is your contact list which then links to events, tasks, projects, opportunities, notes etc. – although, to be clear, anything can link to anything independently of contacts if necessary. This was by far my most valuable application for three solid years, built to be networked and with flawless syncronisation with my old Treo  650. It now links in to Mac OS X’s SyncServices which means that it updates Addressbook and iCal in the background, and syncs with any device that iSync can. Daylite also has a Project Pipeline function which ironically I never used since its function overlapped with Merlin. Overall a solid all-round application.

• credit card vote: yes
• local / web: local
• genuinely multi-user: yes
• add-on’s: yes
• family of related products: yes
• tiered plans/features/pricing: no
• iPhone app: yes

Mac OS X built in - Addressbook, iCal, Mail

[already paid for]

The reason that I have included this is simple – before I had ever launched a dedicated project management application Addressbook, iCal and Mail were it. Workflow is critical and unsurpisingly they operate well together. But they also extend out to other applications on your mac, directly to the web via MobileMe and to other devices via iSync/iTunes. Also critical is that they use standards such as vCard and CalDAV which makes information exchange a snap. The direct competition on Mac OS X is Microsoft Entourage but I stuck with the built-in apps because of superior interoperability.

• credit card vote: yes
• local / web: both
• genuinely multi-user: sharing possible but best through Mac OS X Server
• add-on’s: yes
• family of related products: yes
• tiered plans/features/pricing: no
• iPhone app: yes

Basecamp

[from free, but I use the $49 per month plan]

Basecamp is the reason that I no longer use Daylite. I used them together for a while but even though they belong to different project management paradigms there is significant overlap. These last five applications are web-based – therefore accessible from any computer with a web browser, and all with a focus on collaboration. I am not sure if Basecamp was the first but it is probably the most widely used of them all – and for good reason. Management here revolves around communication, within the project with related tasks, milestones, file exchange and more. Basecamp is effectively your company’s extranet so it is available not only to your staff and external team but also your clients. It is a great way to keep everyone on the same page.

• credit card vote: yes
• local / web: web
• genuinely multi-user: yes
• add-on’s: yes
• family of related products: yes
• tiered plans/features/pricing: yes
• iPhone app: yes

Goplan

[from free, but I tried the $35 plan]

Goplan is often described as a Basecamp clone but that does not do it justice, especially with the new Version 2. Admittedly ‘1′ was lacking in certain feature departments and that is why it lost against Basecamp for me but there have been many improvements since then. I am particularly attracted to the calendar, file versioning and tags. Goplan is a very rounded and uncomplicated package. Apparently an iPhone app is also in the works.

• credit card vote: no
• local / web: web
• genuinely multi-user: yes
• add-on’s: no
• family of related products: no
• tiered plans/features/pricing: yes
• iPhone app: no

activeCollab

[from $249 one-off]

ActiveCollab is the only web application of the five here that is hosted on your own servers. With the others you sign up and they take care of the rest, technically – storage, backup, upgrades etc (no they can’t do your work for you). AC began open source and free but recently became a paid-for product. This has put some people off and there is a new open source project that is based on a fork from the last freely available version of AC. However I am happy to pay for a good product if the cost is quickly matched by increased productivity. The developers come from the same school of thought as those behind Basecamp and Goplan so it feels quite familiar to me. If you want total control over your data then activeCollab is the way to go.

• credit card vote: no
• local / web: web
• genuinely multi-user: yes
• add-on’s: yes
• family of related products: no
• tiered plans/features/pricing: yes
• iPhone app: no

Wrike

[from $9.95 per moth, but see website]

In the project management web application arena Wrike stands out with a unique approach. Their sales pitch is “If you know how to create emails, you already know how to use Wrike”. Other web-based options have the ability to ‘email in’ but Wrike is built on this approach. Users can genuine manage their integration with Wrike without going through their web browser. Having said that the web interface integrates the information together for easy access and assessment of the big picture. I would certainly recommmend trying Wrike alongside anything else that you already think you might go with.

• credit card vote: no
• local / web: web
• genuinely multi-user: yes
• add-on’s: no
• family of related products: no
• tiered plans/features/pricing: yes, but see website
• iPhone app: no

Zoho Projects

[from free, but I tried the $35 per month plan]

I have to say that initially I was intimidated by Zoho – talk about a suite of products. I count 19 different web applications such as Zoho Docs, CRM, Mail, Meeting, and on and on – an entire ecosystem. But back to Projects, even though it is ‘only’ one of many it is quite comprehensive. Apart from the typical management of tasks, milestones, documents etc it also includes a ‘Project Wiki’, Gantt charts, group chat and integration with other Zoho products. Last but not least if offers direct import of Microsoft Project files. I would love to see the size of their development team because they have tried to cover all bases – and remember, this is only one of their 19 products.

• credit card vote: no
• local / web: web
• genuinely multi-user: yes
• add-on’s: no
• family of related products: yes
• tiered plans/features/pricing: yes
• iPhone app: no

I was intrigued by a recent post over at archiCentral about a vertical park design by Mexico’s Jorge Hernandez de la Garza. I have seen several other ideas over the years for vertical farms but this particular proposal got me thinking that the idea is gaining traction – a park to be sure, but with farming woven right in.

Vertical Park By Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Vertical Park By Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

While there has been a world of concern over the idea of peak oil, what about ‘peak food’. Fortunately food is not a finite resource and I do not think that humanity would walk blindly into a Malthusian catastrophe but there is a very architectural dimension to plausible urban solutions.

Some advantages of vertical farming:

• Continuous crop production
• Protection from weather-related crop failures
• Conservation of resources
• Controlled environment / organic crops
• Water recycling
  … and much more

Perhaps we will see farming requirements in urban planning laws alongside affordable housing, disabled access, energy conservation and so on.

I haven’t forgotten that I banned the word ‘green’ from this blog but that is because here it is literal.

'Dragonfly' vertical farm concept by Vincent Callebaut

(Image at the top of the page from “The Living Tower” by SOA Architects)

The first I ever heard of the AA was in a description of a summer installation that stuck out of one of the school’s front windows, crept along the facade and then went in another window. I believe it was from 1993 or thereabouts. I never saw it myself but it may have inspired Thomas Heatherwick’s later Harvey Nichols window. Nevertheless it fixed an idea about the school in my head which has never completely gone away.

This year ‘Driftwood’ by Unit 2, 3rd year student Danecia Sibingo has been unveiled and it is a characteristic 3-dimensional exploration. As usual it has generated a lot of discussion on issues such is its contextualism (is has none), eco credentials (also none) and potential for human interaction (very little). So why do I still enjoy it? Well first and foremost it gets students building. I have serious reservations about architectural students’ over-obsession with 3D on screen. Ironically here they must have been pretty obsessed but at least it was done with a view to actually constructing it. It is a pavilion (ultimately a sculpture) – a yearly summer experiment, and I don’t judge it according to its architectural usefulness. Similarly the Serpentine Gallery has an annual summer pavilion in Hyde Park but they have been horrendous in recent years.

We are in the early stages of the ‘great unwinding‘ and architects have been hit particularly hard, at a point when we have been quite insecure anyway. ‘Architects’ such as Design to Production, Case and Heatherwick himself are showing us new directions. If we still want to be in the business in a few years time we may have to follow a few of them.

ArchDaily had a recent story on this new iPhone application. Since I’m a bit of an iPhone nut I had to give it a try.

On launch you are greeted with a main screen with a feature image, which is then followed by a thumbnail layout of notable buildings. The buildings then have location and direction details from where you are. They say that they will update the buildings daily but I immediately a sensed a fundamental flaw – that the app is not social. There is no way for me or anyone else to add to the database if you snap something interesting. It goes against everything that is most exciting about the web now, the iPhone and GPS. If you mix those three ingredients together I would definitely assume that a social app would come out of the oven. Instead we are stuck with a top-down model which is, for want of a better phrase ‘very yesterday’.

On the other hand we already have the hugely popular Google Earth, which not only has locations but 3D models of buildings all over the world – added by users. It has spawned other sites such as Panoramio and MIMOA which plug in to Google Earth’s social features. I have recently installed Mobile Fotos on my iPhone. In a few simple steps I can use the phone’s GPS to locate myself, then view Flickr photos taken close to where I am, and add some of my own if I want – location aware. Powerful and fun.

The people behind 29GPS Architecture also develop 29GPS Hotels, Motoring Life and Los Angeles. Ultimately the architecture app is a disappointment and will likely languish on my last iPhone screen unused. It is obviously not just me since a quick search on the App Store reveals plenty of 1-star ratings.

29GPS Architecture is available free from iTunes.

Arquitectum recently completed a design competition for a residential development in Pucusana, Peru with developers Rodrigo Associates I first saw the teaser on their website and I was intrigued. The top prize of US$5,000 was on the low side for what the competition seemed to be but I loved the site and the idea of designing a project in Latin America. I counted down the days to the launch.

Teaser

The first minor disappointment was that I had to keep counting longer than they said I would – the launch date was delayed. Unfortunately the submission deadline of June 1 stayed the same. But it was the brief that had the biggest shocks in store.

1. The first was positive – they increased the first prize from US$5,000 to US$15,000. On the surface this seemed great but the reasons lay just below.
2. Arquitectum is not in the business of free entries but this was breathtaking – US$300 entry fee ‘early bird’ (by April 30) and US$400 after. I don’t know what they were thinking but it was an immediate and obvious put-off. This is WAY too much to ask from the kind of young architect that is likely to enter. As I will get to next, the scope of the project was HUGE (198 houses and 14 villas plus the common areas) so the $15K top prize would not cover the expenses of a larger  firm.
3. To the competition programme:
   • masterplan – materials, massing, heights, colours …
   • two residential prototypes
   • designs for common amenities – club house, terraces, beach area, administration, boardwalk, parking …
     All presented as a ready-to-go ’system’
4. What I found particularly insulting was that you were not allowed to ask any questions until you had paid the entry fee. This is absolutely crazy and was the ultimate dealbreaker for me.
5. The insults continued – if you won you would have to make your own way to Peru to collect your prize.
6. They wanted your drawings in .dwg format as well. Now I used to work for a developer so I know that this means something very simple – bye bye.
7. The timeframe – they were asking for an entire masterplan, thematic proposal, 2 prototype villa designs and common buildings in under two months. What quality of work and depth of enquiry were they expecting? Assuming that we have to make a living otherwise, we cannot drop everything for those two months.

This competition struck me as a terrible attempt at a quick profit making venture (before a single house is sold). Both Rodrigo and Arquitectum are based in Peru. That could have worked to bring more common sense to the equation, but it seems to have done the opposite. These are tough times for architects, and young architects in particular are at their most exploitable. Arquitectum seems to have jumped at the opportunity to take advantage.

I checked back occasionally to the Architectum homepage and I noticed that they had extenedd the ‘early bird’ period indefinitely for up to 20 entrants. As the submission date approached I watched it dwindle down leaving about 8.

Congratulations to all who entered and particualrly the winners, but there was no way that I was going to join you.

2nd place

3rd place

I am generally much happier navigating with tags rather than categories because tages give more freedom. Nevertheless here comes category No.1 – demystify. Just like it sounds, it is about posts that reveal the inner workings of how I get various things done – on the professional, business and technology sides. There are a few other categories to come.

So, for example this is a self hosted wordpress blog. I looked at going down the wordpress hosted route but even though it is free and ready to go there is much more versatility with the self hosted option (at first I just could not figure out the difference between the blue wordpress .com and the grey .org sites).
I am not actually hosting the blog on my own server but with Media Temple. They are not the cheapest option out there but they have a robust service and will pick the phone any time of the day, any day of the year, if necessary.

3gucrf9kzs

Speaking of bold forms in concrete – this has got to be one of the most popular ones. A 10,000 sq ft building with a 74 metre! span across a public plaza. It is a standout on Sao Paulo’s ‘main street’ - Avenida Paulista, with high rises and business people all around. You’ll find all kinds of happenings going on below, like capoeira groups.

Architect: Lina Bo Bardi