Can Architectural Design Be Research?

So far the Unit Factor series has focused on design research within the context of the Architectural Association in London. Here the series editor, Michael Weinstock, discusses the possibilities of architects undertaking research in practice. He draws on the experience of Chris Bosse, who is responsible for the competition-winning design for the Watercube, Beijing's National Swimming Centre. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design Intervened with Operation:An Opportunity for Architectural Creation

Quite a number of architects of China today are dissatisfiedwith the prevailing social environment of architecturalcreations; there is, however, no way-out but to wait passivelyfor the betterment of objective conditions.The paper deals with the design intervened with vision ofoperation, which if well tackled, would become a goldenopportunity for architectural creation.1. Characteristics of Design Intervened with OperationUsually an architect in the capacity of a designer mostlydesigns a purp…     

参数化下的建筑设计 ——Architectural Design Based on Parametric

在建筑设计的发展历程中,参数化作为一种新的概念,对于建筑设计和古建修复有着很大影响,它不仅为我们的生活提供更多可能性,更多的是提供给我们一种新的设计方法和设计思路。     

Architectural Design Perfected by Figuration and Allusion Michael Graves' Humanistic Architecture

A famous senior architect, Philip Johnson,compares architec-tural design trend of thought to a river, collecting many tribu-taries and going to the Ocean. Now a new century is coming,the architectural field will walk into the future with its achieve-ments and lessons of 20th century.There are two great architectural movements in thiscentury. The first is Modern Movement. It has greatly poundedat the classical architecture and started a new style ofdesign,then helped architecture walk into Industrial Age. The     

Defining New Architectural Design Principles with ‘Living’ Inorganic Materials

At the University of Glasgow, Leroy Cronin is leading a group of scientists that are pioneering the engineering of a fundamentally new approach to building materials, which scales up from the nano scale to the micro. Cronin reflects on the possibilities of this new paradigm that gives inorganic cellular materials the potential to be ‘programmed’ to sense environmental changes, generate power, self-repair, shift properties and even compete with other building materials for resources. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Architectural Requirements for Improving Social Interactions in Subway Stations： An Evidence Based Design Approach

Environmental design is concerned with the function of people within an environment and their interactions. Subway stations spaces are important examples of public spaces that are in close connection with the social life of people. Also, the fact that the social interactions and relations between people and city environments are becoming indispensable for subway station space indicates that these spaces play an essential role in urban life. This paper addresses the result of a study conducted by the authors on the influential elements pivotal to the improvement of social interactions in subway stations. The theory of John Lang in Urban design with consideration of social interaction was considered in this study. The objective of the study was to identify the architectural requirements in improving social interaction between people and environment in subway station spaces according to an evidence based design approach. To do so, relevant literature in different disciplines, architecture, urban design, social sustainability and so on, were reviewed Next, the most important environmental factors which contribute to human behavior in public spaces were derived and analyzed. Data of the study were collected via questionnaires filled out by the users of Tehran＇s subway stations. The collected data were analyzed and the architectural elements/requirements for improving social interactions were classified. The results of the study indicate that in the case of architectural requirements, contribution to the improvement of social interactions, design considerations for physical and mental safety, accessibility and lighting are the most important factors.     

Toward Turnkey: Architectural Opportunities or Pitfalls?

This article contrasts the dynamic, interactive building delivery processes that characterize the current practice of architecture with the traditional, professional concept of architectural practice. It concludes that the prime challenge facing architectural practice and education is the development of processes and techniques that will enhance architects' design contributions in the many and varied types of project organizations formed to address society's need for buildings.     

Rudolf Steiner: Occult Crank or Architectural Mastermind?

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) saw architectural creation as a means of apprehending our place in the cosmos and his esoteric system of Anthroposophy aimed to demonstrate the correspondence between the spiritual and material worlds. Much of the literature available on Steiner tends to polarize him as either a creative genius or eccentric oddity, with architectural historians generally tending to adopt the latter view. Despite the fact that Steiner's architectural conceptions have remained marginal, the highly acclaimed works of many Anthroposophically inspired architects suggest that his gnostic perceptions may have something worthwhile to offer contemporary architecture.

     

Architectural history from eye-level: Nikolaus Pevsner's ‘Treasure Hunts’ in the Architectural Review, 1942

In 1942, Nikolaus Pevsner published a series of articles in the Architectural Review that he called ‘Treasure Hunts’. Discussing mostly obscure, and often unpopular, buildings of the last hundred years, Pevsner jovially invited readers to join him in a game to ‘Date your District’. Instantly recognisable through bubble-shaped detail photographs and with a mixture of cheerful language and dense art-historical analysis, these articles present a unique opportunity within Pevsner's often-examined oeuvre to explore word-image relationships and their appeal to the lay public. The present article analyses the use of typography, layout and photography in the Treasure Hunts and relates them to two specific modes of writing, analysis and ‘pictorial criticism’, a term coined by James M. Richards. Both verbal and graphic elements of the Treasure Hunts work by contrasting overviews to close-ups, imitating human vision and intellectual cognition and, by doing so, facilitate the education of the lay public in visually reading—and enjoying—buildings, their proclaimed aim. Thus, Pevsner established an architectural history from eye-level that relied on natural vision paired with art-historical method, bred and shaped through his German training, applied in a distinctly English context, and refined later in his Buildings of England.     

Architectural Patents and Open-Source Architectures: The Globalisation of Spatial Design Innovations (or Learning from ‘E99’)

Patents are the strongest form of intellectual property rights available internationally, so far unbeaten by open source as a body of innovation and know-how. Mark Garcia , senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture & Landscape at the University of Greenwich, London, here considers the pros and cons of the patent system for architects in the digital age: from issues over patent categorisation by type, to possibilities of micro-royalties through the capacity of design software to track every stage of input from multiple contributors.     

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.     

‘Complexity and Contradiction’:The Italian Architectural Landscape

Italy is renowned the world over for its vibrant design culture. Yet for decades its architectural heritage has held contemporary architecture in a stranglehold, stifling the real possibility of realising innovative schemes in historic cities. In recent years, there has been every outward sign that this situation has abated: a growing number of municipalities are actively setting out to attract signature architecture, and a new generation of architects has emerged - largely educated abroad - who are unhindered by the strictures of historicism. Though, as guest-editor Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi explains, there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful, the situation is far more complex and contradictory than it first appears, as the passage of architectural advancement in Italy constantly stop-starts and is beset by some major roadblocks. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Architecture of Disbelief: Is Architectural Speciation a Good Thing?

Can visionary architects have their cake and eat it, luxuriating in pecuniary success while also continuing to assert their avant-gardism? Neil Spiller attended a conference in Cornell that brought the role of the architectural visionary under the spotlight and gave him much food for thought. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chinese Architectural Firms:Going to the Market to getherwith Their Growth

The architecture firns in China failed to achieve a rapiddevelopment in the period of nearly half a century afterthe establishment of P.R. China was due to the limitationof the original planned economy. From the annual statisticsof 2001, there are a total of 11,338 designing enterprisesin China, including 9,599 state-owned and state shareholdingenterprises, accounting for 84.66%; there are 4,327architecture designing institutes in China, including 3,488 state-owned sole proprietorship enter…     

林恒民&林文炳:Drill Design

<正>Drii Design三点水文化创意公司成立于2011年,专职于家用产品开发与设计,除产品设计服务外,并执行许多与工艺相关的产品创作,开发出如爆竹、竹编公文包、竹包管桌灯等多项兼具竹材特性及设计美感的经典作品。林桓民和林文柄是三最水文化创意的创办人,毕业于南台科技大学研究所两人从学习到开发产品,至今已有五年的时间,从学习竹材处理的过程中了解到竹材的特性与精湛之处,藉由现代设计展现竹艺Know-How,每年持续开发四至五件竹工艺生活用品到国际     

A Review of “The Environmental Impact Statement After Two Generations: Managing Environmental Power”

This article discusses the implementation of environmental and historic reviews in the UDAG (Urban Development Action Grant) program. In 1979 local controversies over charges of excessive demolition or inappropriate scale delayed a series of UDAG supported economic development projects. Research shows UDAG has been funding, overall, considerable rehabilitation and preservation activity. The central problem is not a new federal bulldozer, but rather adjustments of federal standards and procedures for assessing environmental quality in a program designed to attract the private sector and facilitate local decision making. Changes in the last months of the Carter administration in program administration, regulation, and legislation emphasized more careful attention to historic preservation planning in UDAG projects by the cities and “expeditious action” in federal review. As an example in the ongoing debate about federal standards in decentralized programs, the events are instructive regardless of the fate of the UDAG program.