Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Urbanus

"URBANUS Under the leadership of partners Xiaodu Liu, Yan Meng and Hui Wang, Urbanus is a think tank providing strategies for urbanism and architecture in the new millennium.
The name of "Urbanus" derives from the Latin word of "urban", and strongly reflects the office's design approach: reading architectural program from the viewpoint of the urban environment in general, and the everchanging urban situations in specific.
Urbanus is committed to the Modernist believe that architecture is a pivotal force for a better life, and hence architects should push the boundary of their traditional role and be a progressive force in the society. Urbanus theorizes its idea and ideal through a unique practice. The core concern of this practice is design excellence.
Urbanus' design scope includes urban design, architectural design , landscape design, interior design and exhibition design. Its works have been widely exhibited in prestigious domestic and international shows, and reported by major trade magazines. It has been recognized as one of the leading forces among China 's young design firms. " to find out more...

Passage from http://www.urbanus.com.cn/cn/main.htm

Image from http://www.urbanus.com.cn/cn/PROJECTS1-OFFICE/2007-07014-ditieshanggai/2007-07014.html#7

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Radical approach to cities rethinks the urban myths

Some interesting studies from AA for your browsing pleasure.
"But in some ways its radicalism in design is becoming mannered and predictable. A high percentage of the work here seems locked into a narcissistic logic that cannot stop producing the same architectural bling of distorted nets, abstract grids and curvy blobs. Although this is all drawn and modelled to an incredibly high standard, it is reiterative. But the work on cities is strong, inspiring, and authentically radical." to find out more...
Passage & Image from http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3091651

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

LTLArchitects


"Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis (LTL) is an innovative, award-winning architecture partnership founded in 1997 by Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki and David J. Lewis, located in New York City. LTL actively pursues a diverse range of work, from large scale academic and cultural buildings to interior architecture to competitions. LTL's approach is to realize inventive solutions that turn the very constraints of each project into the design trajectory, exploring overlaps between space, program, form, budget and materials.
The firm's work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally. LTL Architects received the 2007 National Design Award for Interior Architecture from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and was selected as one of six American architectural firms featured in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale. In addition, LTL was included in the 2000 National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt and was selected in December 2000 by Architectural Record as one of ten firms representing a Vanguard in Contemporary Architecture. Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis are co-authors of two books, the monograph Opportunistic Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008) and Situation Normal....Pamphlet Architecture #21 (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998)."to find out more...
Passage from http://www.ltlarchitects.com/pages/profile.html
Image from http://www.ltlarchitects.com/pages/portfolio/speculations/tourbus.html

Saturday, May 03, 2008

U.S. Whole Building Design Guide

"The WBDG is the only web-based portal providing government and industry practitioners with one-stop access to up-to-date information on a wide range of building-related guidance, criteria and technology from a 'whole buildings' perspective. Currently organized into three major categories—Design Guidance, Project Management and Operations & Maintenance—at the heart of the WBDG are Resource Pages, reductive summaries on particular topics.
Development of the WBDG is a collaborative effort among federal agencies, private sector companies, non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Its success depends on industry and government experts contributing their knowledge and experience to better serve the building community." to find out more...
Passage from http://www.wbdg.org/about.php

Friday, May 02, 2008

Ecotect with Sketchup model importing tutorial

"ECOTECT allows you to run analyses on models imported from Sketch-Up. If you use the right format (explained below), ECOTECT will maintain all your Sketch-Up material assignments, allowing you to auto-convert them to elements in its own library.You will need about 5 minutes to complete this tutorial." to find out more...
There are more training packages available. to find out more...
And to familiarize fast, got a post in pushpullbar forum that introduce Ecotect. to find out more...
Passage & Image from
http://squ1.org/wiki/Importing_From_SketchUp_Tutorial