From Model Thinking to Process Design

The introduction of computational design processes and particularly of computer-aided fabrication methods recast roles across the design team. As Jan Knippers , founding partner of Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering and Head of the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart explains, it offers structural engineers a unique opportunity: the potential to break through the barriers of conventional model thinking (thinking in discrete typologies) and to embrace process design and new forms of interaction.     

The Unified Project

Albert Pope argues that a unified architectural and urban project is not possible without addressing the conceptual divide that exists between building and infrastructure. It is a split that was first set in motion by the breakdown of Modernism in the 1960s and was reaffirmed by the rise of Postmodernism. Since then, architectural form and urban infrastructure have not only remained disjointed, but have been overtly celebrated by the collages and juxtapositions of the contemporary and the historic in our cities.     

Recent History - Art In Ruins

Some two decades on, guest-editor Nic Clear returns to the work of Hannah Vowles and Glyn Banks of collaborative art practice Art in Ruins. As cited by Brian Hatton on their behalf in 1989: ‘in the city of the future everything will be historical (ie visited) for fifteen minutes’. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Drawn into Space: Zaha Hadid

Visionary New York architect Lebbeus Woods reviews the evolution of Zaha Hadid's work from the 1970s to the present. Tracking the shifts in her work from a Suprematist-informed fragmentation in the 1980s to a more contemporary fluidity and a preoccupation with complex curvilinearity, he throws light on the relationship between Hadid's drawing and her architecture. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

China's Macro-Planning Policies: Architectural Catalyst or Constraint?

China is undergoing one of the most intense and rapid processes of urbanisation in the world today. It also has one of the most centralised planning systems, which is driven by a Soviet-style, five-year plan. Edward Denison looks at the relationship between China's highly systematised planning process and the high-density, standardised form that urban development typically takes. Amidst this formal context, he locates a ‘whisper’ of change afoot for architects.     

‘Never Mind All That Environmental Rubbish,Get On With Your Architecture’

Could the primacy of green architecture in recent years be eroding the discipline? Is it reducing architecture to a mere ‘environmental techno-science’? Penelope Dean argues for a revised environmental agenda that is driven by ideas and concepts rather than subservient technologies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structured Becoming: Evolutionary Processes in Design Engineering

Computational design techniques are changing the role of analysis tools in collaborations between architects and engineers. Digital feedback loops of synthesis, analysis and evaluation establish a ‘process of becoming’ in which structural solutions evolve and adapt to specific requirements. Highly differentiated constructions are possible when digital techniques are fully integrated in design and production. Klaus Bollinger, Manfred Grohmann and Oliver Tessmann discuss these novel paradigms in relation to recent projects from engineering office Bollinger + Grohmann. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Jan Kaplický (1937-2009): Homage to an Extraordinary Life of Unfulfilled Dreams and Major Successes

Jan Kaplický's visionary work for Future Systems was some of the most imaginative and inspiring of the last few decades. His passion and excitement for architecture exudes through such remarkable forms as the Lord's Media Centre and Selfridges in Birmingham. It was also effectively disseminated through his publications: most notably the For Inspiration Only picture books that he produced for Wiley-Academy in the late 1990s. A staunch believer in the power of books and journals, he was a loyal supporter of AD and an editorial board member for many years; always generous with his time and willing to express his ideas candidly. Here, close friend and fellow Czech architect and writer Ivan Margolius, celebrates not only Kaplicky the architect, but also the extraordinary life and sensibility of the man behind his work. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Grand Work of Fiction: The Detail as Narrative

A practising architect and Professor at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Edward Ford is the leading expert on the architectural detail and the author of three seminal books on the subject. Here Ford explains that, though the decision ‘to abstract or to articulate’ architecture ‘may be largely subconscious’, it is never ‘arbitrary’. For ‘in the well-designed building, it is done in the service of the creation of a larger narrative, a unity of vision’.     

A Century of Ecological Innovation

As humanity faces its greatest disruption to date – climate change – placing the planet and its long-term survival in jeopardy, visionary designer Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE incites optimism. Rather than being defined by disruption, he predicts that the 21st century with be characterised by innovation, which ‘promises to solve the global challenges we face’.     

Arup Associates

A specialist architectural division of the wider Arup group, Arup Associates has a unique composition and ethos. In its studios, teams of architects, structural engineers, environmental engineers, urban designers and product designers work alongside each other on the design of buildings from a project's inception. It is an interdisciplinary approach that the practice pioneered in the 1960s, and which has been reinvigorated in the last few years by a new emphasis on ‘unified design’ – a radical wholeness in thinking and execution. Here, Jay Merrick talks to Arup Associates' principal Declan O'Carroll and considers his vision of an architecture capable of addressing complexity and sustaining humanity in the face of modernity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

London Short Stories: Drawing Narratives

Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and a successful practitioner, CJ Lim has won international awards for his exquisite drawings, including the esteemed Royal Academy of Arts Grand Architecture Prize. Here CJ extols the virtue of narrative and signified meaning in buildings and describes his project London Short Stories that employs ‘real and imaginary sites as springboards for the imagination’. Often ‘immoral, licentious, anarchical and unscientific’, the short stories, which are three-dimensional creations constructed out of paper, are from ‘an aesthetic point of view, glorious, ravishing and a pleasure to behold’.     

The Future is Unwritten: Global Culture,Identity and Economy

Is architecture no more than a mere handmaid to global capitalism and the international property market? Murray Fraser , Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, asserts that the true picture is both much more complex and less homogeneous than it might appear. While acknowledging that economic conditions are significant drivers in architecture, he argues that it is still possible for designers to respond creatively with suppleness and foresight in their exploration of paths for a better future.     

The True Counterfeits of Banksy: Radical Walls of Complicity and Subversion

Tattoo or consummate object of consumption? Banksy's artwork has an uneasy status. It simultaneously has the power to subvert, questioning the conventions of the art world while potentially colluding with it. Eva Branscome explores the paradox of Banksy in the light of Post-Modernism. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ecoLogicStudio

From their office in Hackney, in London's East End, Italian duo Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, have established an international reputation as ecoLogicStudio, an innovative practice that fuses digital technologies with environmental design. As Terri Peters explains, the ethos and approach of the studio extends beyond that of finding technological solutions to ecological design projects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.