3+1 architects

Without the predominance of a single presiding tradition of modern architecture in Estonia, the way has been clear for a younger generation of architects to make their mark. Andres Kurg describes the work of 3+1 architects, who launched their career in the mid-1990s with an Estonian Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania. Through their trend-setting domestic work, they have proved able to appeal to a new wealthy client base, while also developing their own interests in programme and architecture's relationship to the physical landscape. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

2008 award winners: Distinguished scientific contributions.

This journal article presents the The 2008 recipients of the APA Scientific Contribution Award. The recipients are: Michael S. Gazzaniga, Janellen Huttenlocher, and Hazel R. Markus. This article includes a citation and biography of the three winners along with original work from Janellen Huttenlocher and Hazel R. Markus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Can Code be Used to Address Spatiality in Architecture?

Is code entirely incompatible with an intuitive exploration of space? Leon van Schaik, Professor of Architecture (Innovation Chair) at RMIT University thinks so. He contests the usefulness of the data-crunching capacity of the computer to truthfully model human flows. Moreover, he flags up a concern that an overemphasis on computation could lead architects to neglect an awareness of the place of their own spatial histories in the world, causing them to impose their own subconscious preferences on their clients.     

Engineering Ecologies

Engineering disciplines have, historically, been strongly dominated by physics. Structural and civil engineering are still based on the notion of controlling the forces of physics within our material world. However, a shift from physics to biology as the underlying paradigm of engineering is on the horizon, and with it a fundamental change in the way we conceive and practise architecture. Peter Trummer speculates on the possibilities and potential repercussions of ‘engineering ecologies’, which will be inherent to such a paradigm shift, by investigating a broad palette of contemporary design disciplines aimed at the careful modulation of environments and ecologies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards Robotic Swarm Printing

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mediated Matter Group is honing its research into robotic swarm printing by focusing its efforts on material sophistication, or ‘tunability’, and communication or coordination between fabrication units. Here, the group's Neri Oxman, Jorge Duro-Royo, Steven Keating, Ben Peters and Elizabeth Tsai illustrate this by describing three case studies that investigate robotically controlled additive fabrication at architectural scales.     

Details Around the Corner

Munich-based DETAIL magazine is an internationally renowned architecture and construction publication, uniquely focused on the architectural detail. Here, its Editor-in-Chief Christian Schittich acknowledges how design concepts provide the key driver for architectural detailing, as details combine to provide the overall character or aesthetic quality of a building. However, how might an increasingly diverse design team collaborate on the execution of high-quality detailing when designing large-scale schemes?     

Award for distinguished scientific contributions: Hazel Rose Markus.

Presents the citation, biography, and selected bibliography for Hazel Rose Markus, one of the 2008 recipients of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. An article by Markus is also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender schema theory and self-schema theory compared: A comment on Markus, Crane, Bernstein, and Siladi's 'Self-schemas and gender."

Notes that the present author's (see record 1982-23588-001) gender schema theory proposes that sex-typed individuals are schematic with respect to gender (masculinity and femininity), while the self-schema theory of H. Markus et al (see record 1981-25685-001) proposes that sex-typed individuals are schematic with respect to either masculinity or femininity, but not both. It is maintained, however, that the 2 theories do not share a common conceptual definition of what it means to be schematic and, therefore, are not in direct opposition. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)