Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect Program

"Foreign architects are eligible to apply for an NCARB Certificate through the Broadly Experience Foreign Architect Program. The BEFA process requires establishment of an NCARB Record, preparation of a dossier to demonstrate experience, and a personal interview." to find out more...

Passage via http://www.ncarb.org/Certification-and-Reciprocity/Alternate-Paths-to-Certification/Broadly-Experienced-Foreign-Architect-Program.aspx

Goettsch Partners Designs New Commercial Tower for Al Hilal Bank in Abu Dhabi

"Architecture firm Goettsch Partners (GP) has designed the flagship commercial development for Al Hilal Bank in the heart of Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island, formerly known as Sowwah Island. The new speculative office tower is located in the Emirate’s developing new central business district, with direct access to three main island roads and the nearby Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Sowwah Square, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange headquarters, and the Rosewood Abu Dhabi hotel." to find out more...
Passage and Image via http://www.gpchicago.com/users/news_view.asp?FolderID=3088&NewsID=115
Related link: http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/goettsch_partners_designs_new_bank_tower_in_abu_dhabi/

Critical chain project management

Something away from architecture but interestingly shared in a HDB talk last week of critical chain project management. The definition can be found wikipedia in below quote. This is an alternate effective project management compared with critical path:
"Critical chain project management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that puts the main emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks. It was developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. This is in contrast to the more traditional critical path and PERT methods, which emphasize task order and rigid scheduling. A Critical Chain project network will tend to keep the resources levelly loaded, but will require them to be flexible in their start times and to quickly switch between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule." to find out more...
A youtube sharing here:

Shipping Container Homes – Stacking, Joining and Side Wall Modifications Video 13 of 15

"Easy to understand, practical, hands on advice and coaching for the Shipping Container Home Owner Builder guaranteed to save you time, money and stress." to find out more...
Passage and Image via http://www.containerhome.info/side-wall-modifications.html

Rieteiland House

"Envisioned by Amsterdam-based studio Hans van Heeswijk Architecten, Rieteiland House and is a 2,900 square foot, three story home especially developed for the van Heeswijk family. The residence was constructed in a peaceful setting, on the island of IJburg, near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands." to find out more...
Passage and Image via http://freshome.com/2012/03/23/modern-family-home-in-the-outskirts-of-amsterdam-rieteiland-house/

'The 48-hours online BIM (Building Information Modelling) Competition 2012 is organised by the Building and Construction Authority, in conjunction with the Singapore Construction Productivity Week 2012 . Both the industry and education categories are open to all Singapore registered building & construction related firms and the institutes of higher learning, with NOT more than 10 members in each participating team (including the team leader). All the participating teams will be competing with one another on a virtual environment."to find out more...
Passage via http://sgbimcompetition.com/about/ 
Image via http://sgbimcompetition.com/teams/industry-architecture/information/ 

2012 Pritzker Prize: Wang Shu

"Wang Shu, Chinese architect and founder of Amateur Architecture Studio, has been just announced as the recipient of the 2012 Pritzker Prize." to find out more...Passage and Image via http://www.archdaily.com/211941/2012-pritzker-prize-wang-shu/
Related links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WM71gG8tCXo
http://www.chinese-architects.com/en/amateur/en/
http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPMYSEWij4A&feature=related

buildingSMART Singapore

"buildingSMART Singapore is a non-profit alliance of the building industry including: architects, engineers, contractors, building owners and facility managers, software vendors, government agencies and universities. Its mission is to integrate the AEC/FM industry by specifying Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as a universal language to improve the communication, productivity, delivery time, cost, and quality throughout the design, construction, operation and maintenance life cycle of buildings." to find out more...
Passage via http://www.buildingsmartsingapore.org/about-us.htm

National Board of Architectural Accreditation (NBAA)

"National Board of Architectural Accreditation of China (NBAA), established in 1990, is an expert authority in charge of the organization and implementation of the architectural accreditation at the university level in the mainland of China. It was jointly initiated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Education and the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, operates and coordinates with the National Administration Board of Architectural Registration (NABAR), who is the authority in charge of the examination and registration of the First Class Registered Architect. NBAA is composed of 23-25 experts, of which half are from educational background and half are from practice background. The Architectural Society of China has an ex officio seat in NBAA. The architectural accreditation in China mainland started in 1992. Up to May 2008, the architectural programs from 38 universities passed the accreditation, such as Tsinghua University and Tongji University. Among them, 37 are undergraduate programs and 20 are graduate programs." to find out more...
http://www.canberraaccord.org/signatoriespublic/China.aspx

Lumion 2.2 - Changing the architectural visualization industry

Lumion® Pro has just been launched and the entire Lumion® product range has been updated to version 2.2. Lumion® Pro is the new top of the line version of Lumion® and includes additional features that are ideally suited for professional visualization studio environments. to find out more... Passage from Lumion

Villa Amanzi by Original Vision

"Nestled in a cascading, west facing ravine with a dramatic slab of rock defining the northern edge and a stunning outlook over the azure blue of the Andaman Sea to the south, our commission; to do this demanding but ultimately spectacular site justice, was both daunting and exciting." to find out more... Passage and Image via http://www.contemporist.com/2012/04/29/villa-amanzi-by-original-vision/
Related Link http://www.original-vision.com/

World Architecture Festival 2012

From 3-5 October 2012,Singapore Marina Bay Sands will be hosting the World Architecture Festival!


"World Architecture Festival is the world's largest, live, truly inclusive and interactive global architectural awards programme. It is a unique meeting point for architects, suppliers and clients, attracting hundreds of entries and visitors from all over the world. 
...
www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com is fast becoming the largest library of international projects - every single entry to the WAF Awards is kept online for future reference." to find out more...

Passage via http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/visitor_costs.cfm

KKA BUILDS PASSIVE HOUSES IN MALM

"In 2009 Kjellgren Kaminsky won first prize in an open competition to build four passive house apartments in Vהstra Hamnen, Malmצ, Sweden. Now the project is inagurated. 
The design takes the Vהstra Hamnen city plan as a starting point. Being the site for the Swedish housing fair in 2001 the building regulations stipulate diversity of function, lush greenery and front line ecological solutions. This is the last site of the area to be developed. Our winning proposal includes 4 apartments built with passive house technology. Architecturally the aim was to create a small scale and diverse formal language, in harmony with both the surrounding houses and the future tenants."to find out more...
Passage from Joakim and Fredrik
Image via 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjellgren_kaminsky_architecture/sets/72157629744593117/ Related links:
http://www.kjellgrenkaminsky.se 
http://www.supersustainablecity.blogspot.com

Autodesk’s 2013 Product Launch and AEC Portfolio

"It is that time of the year that Autodesk typically launches its next release of products, and this year was no exception—Autodesk has just released its 2013 product portfolio. This includes new releases of applications across all the three main industries it serves, including AEC (which includes buildings as well as infrastructure), manufacturing, and M&E (media and entertainment). This AECbytes newsletter provides an overview of the overall 2013 release and then takes a deeper dive into the more AEC industry-specific details that were shared.
Needless to say, with the commanding lead that Autodesk has over competing products, at least in the AEC industry, interest in every new release is always very high, and Autodesk users are eager to know what to expect. Let’s see if the 2013 release holds any surprises, or is comprised more of routine enhancements rather than dramatic changes." to find out more...
Passage via http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/2012/issue_56.html
Related links:
http://aecbytes.com/blog/2012/04/11/autodesk-2013-product-launch-and-aec-portfolio/

How Green Building Studio Works

"Autodesk Green Building Studio is a web-based service that provides building energy and carbon analysis results of your project. Green Building Studio interoperates with Revit® Architecture and Revit® MEP software, as well as other compatible energy-analysis software via add-ins that are available for download from the Green Building Studio downloads page. The computationally intensive hourly simulations are carried out on remote servers, and the results are provided to you in a web browser.
The Green Building Studio web-based service analysis process collects data from three sources:

1. Your Revit® software model. All the building geometry comes from your model, including the number of rooms, the connections between rooms, and their relationship to the exterior, exposure, and aspect to the sun; and the shape and total area of built surfaces or openings. If you are using Revit MEP you can also specify space types, interior loads, constructions, and HVAC equipment.
2. Your responses to a few basic questions. In order to explain the building’s use or context, you specify a building type and enter the project geographical location. You can also select a weather station for the project.
3. Regionalized databases. Based on the above information, Green Building Studio extracts additional information about local weather conditions, construction, and materials. The service automatically adds any information you have not provided in order to adapt to your requirements as your design evolves.

Green Building Studio relies on an extensive and continually updated database of building constructions, schedules and equipment to supply the assumptions needed to perform whole building energy analysis. You can view these assumptions in the Building Assumptions and Details section of the Energy and Carbon Results for a given simulation. You can modify the assumptions in the Design Alternatives or Project Defaults page." to find out more...

Passage via http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Green_Building_Studio/enu/2012/Help/0000-Welcome0/0001-How_Gree1

Related links:
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Green_Building_Studio/enu/2012/Help/0003-Getting_3/0004-Using_Gr4#GUID-AE6EF2CC-D09B-4017-981D-DA1EF0CE347A
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Green_Building_Studio/enu/2012/Help/0013-Projects13/0016-Creating16/0017-Creating17