Cuban heat !!!

The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism ,1928-1960 - by Eric Mumford

2011-10-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

I am quoting few lines from the book, which will give us inside into CIAM (Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne)and the modern architecture movement .

i am quoting lines from forward to this book by Kenneth Frampton.

CIAM has long enjoyed a mystic status within the recieved history of twentieth century architecture. Commonly regarded after 1945 as an organization that was unduly dominated by sigfrie Giedion and Le Corbusier .

The idea of modern architecture includes the link between the phenomenon of architecture and that of the general economic system.

The inaugural congress of 1928 was attended by more than 20 architects from 8 european countries .Why certain leading architects of the weimer republic failed to attend remain a mystery ,above all Meis van der rohe ,walter groupis and eric mendelsohn. The absence of these liberal humanist left the field open to the more polemical basel based ABC group - Mart Stam , Hannes Mayer , and Hans schmidt- who insisted that a rigorous modern architecture must be contingent upon the broader issues of politics and economics and that ,far from distancing itself from the realities of the industrialized world, architecture must depend for its future quality not on craftsmanship but on the adoption of rationalized production methods.CIAM emphasized the need for standardization and a more equitable distribution of wealth in term of low-cost , mass housing . It advocated the introduction of normative dimensions and efficient production methods as a preliminary step towards a rationalization of building .Thus,what aesthetes would regard as a formal preference for regularity was for CIAM a prerequisite for increasing both quality and quantity by superseding the limited methods of traditional craftsmanship .

Casa Malaparte (A House Like Me)

2011-10-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

Casa Malaparte (also Villa Malaparte) is a house on Punta Massullo, on the eastern side of the Isle of Capri, Italy. It is one of the best examples of Italian modern and contemporary architecture.

The house was conceived around 1937 by Italian Rationalist architect Adalberto Libera for Curzio Malaparte. Malaparte actually rejected Libera's design and built the home himself with the help of Adolfo Amitrano, a local stonemason.

BCIL - Biodiversity consevation india limited

2010-12-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

Chandrasekhar Hariharan, Founder, Biodiversity Conservation India Limited (BCIL)
by your story

Zero Energy Driven!of Biodiversity is an important global issue. And so while we dominate this planet we still need to preserve the biodiversity. Now there is a solution to this. This time we present a very unique and innovative venture Biodiversity Conservation India Limited(BCIL). YourStory had a conversation with Chandrasekhar Hariharan where he discussed his entrepreneurial journey.

Please tell us about BCIL?

As the name suggests, this is a company that strives for conservation of biodiversity in various forms beyond vegetation and forests into cultural diversity and urban lifestyles. Our mission objective is to mainstream sustainability with successful market acceptance among various constituents in the building industry in particular and among various other segments of industry at large. Our work extends to offering directions for energy efficiency beyond housing into buildings of every variety as well as industrial process efficiency.

What is your target audience?

Our clientele extends from homebuyers in various economic segments, to corporate
representative, who are looking for creating green buildings. It also includes professional and practicing engineers, architects, and other service consultants who seek to learn insights into the new green guidelines and parameters of performance efficiency for all varieties of buildings. The benefit for such people ranges from financial savings to health benefits [clean, pollen-free air, natural warm floors that’s great for asthmatics / rheumatism-afflicted, lack of chemical and
toxic materials being used in our patented processes for construction…. It also gives them the advantages of efficiencies in terms of both Cap Ex and Op Ex.

What basic idea do you follow?

At core, BCIL aims at demonstrating powerfully different methods of enhancing energy
efficiency in buildings. Our work emphasizes innovations in all the areas and elements of work that go into making any building. We strive to reduce carbon emission with planned reduction of energy use in our buildings that we create and design. We consult for companies on housing and commercial buildings. We also train and disseminate information on green building to young and old professionals.

Why is your venture unique?
The uniqueness of our design approaches is that it revolves around the central axis of a 6 strand strategy. Every building that we work on is created around the multiple implications of these 6-strands—energy (both embodied and actual), air, water, waste, earth material, and biomass or landscape planning. What distinguishes BCIL’s buildings is that they offer lower running cost for occupants in terms of energy or water that is needed to run the buildings,regardless of whether they are homes or offices.The other USP is that these buildings that we create reduce as much as 50% on carbon emission of the building. The buildings are cooler. BCIL’s buildings don’t use bricks nor concrete blocks, or clay blocks or clay tiles, since they are high on use of fertile top soil. We very nearly don’t use vitrified and ceramic tiles for the high embodied energy such tiles consume. Our structural engineering is far more efficient and reduces use of concrete. We do not use toxic
paints. We don’t need water from the grid supply. We need only 40% of energy from the grid.No waste is exported from any of our housing projects. We do not use chemicals even for waterproofing compounds or for swimming pool water treatment, or for all plants and trees wevegetate. We do not use regular conventional floors. We do not use deep borewells for supplying water for our housing colonies and enclaves, while we ensure that there is 24/7 water supply. We do not use incandescent bulbs or halogens or regular tubelights. We do not use mortar for our construction of walls. We do not use pure cement for any of our structural building work.There are many more such unique factors that make our buildings sustainable in terms of planet
resources, while not compromising comfort and convenience for the customer. Effectively this means that we do not need the grid and state infrastructure for power, water, and waste. Our air-conditioning is free of HFC and HCFC or other ozone-depleting substances.

Please tell us something about your entrepreneurial journey?

My constant drive for innovation and for definitive impact on communities in terms of lower eco footprint was a drive that has remained with me for 20 years. When I did not find the right organization to work with and fulfill these basic professional drives of mine, I decided to create one! Entrepreneurship is not something that comes naturally to me. It is thanks to hard work,dedication and commitment from many professional colleagues who have had the joy of traveling with me on this unique journey.Initially we had no seed capital! In October ’94 I borrowed Rs 1 lakh and paid it as advance for a land of 41 acres which I bought at 97 lakhs. I did not know how I will pay the rest of the money while a small group of four of us had the confidence that we had the right set of homes to offer on paper to people who will trust us and pay the initial advance amount. We started in January
‘95 and began a long haul to completion of that first residential enclave called Trans Indus in Bangalore.We only had our deep conviction that there was a value that we were offering which could be seen by some farsighted individuals who aspired to have homes. The process was long and took five years for that first project. From then on we picked up momentum over the four years.The last five years has been a story of many ups and downs, but we have set our course on achieving urban sustainability and have not strayed from it. Our focus on water and energy leading to quality of life has remained steadfast and unchanged. That has been our seed
capital!It has been a long and hard journey, but it has had its rewards even if they have been slow in coming. Today with the extended base of people as professionals, we have a greater and more confident role to play into the future.

Any challenges so far?

I am myself personally the biggest challenge for the organization! My ability to understand my own self and my limitation and strengths will in turn get me to grow the trust and confidence of the professionals who drive the company’s initiative. I wish I can overcome such challenges of my own inherent limitations in certain areas of understanding organizational development.There has been no major external big challenge that we have not surmounted in the past. At the worst times, I have learnt to offer bad news to people who have to receive it. I don’t wait for them to know it from others. That has always helped me, for people see the earnest and sincerity, and are willing to partner you through a difficult phase or crisis.

What mistakes did you make initially?

In the early years we did not professionalize the company and build the middle organization.Money was always a challenge, so we couldn’t recruit enough people. There were not enough trained minds who were willing to work on just passion and tea! If we had overcome that challenge in the beginning, we would have grown faster.
There are many battles that are lost but if you keep your objectives in sight, you will win the war.That has kept me and our colleagues determined.

What is the present scenario of BCIL?

We have grown from that borrowed Rs. 1 lakh to a stage where we are now creating about over 200 homes in the next two years at two residential projects that that company is promoting, and about 4500 homes that we are guiding other major builders to create with green guidelines.We have grown to about 150 people and have about 1500 virtual workers who create our projects on an outsourced basis. Our projects today are in Bangalore, Goa, Chennai, Mangalore and Mysore. We hope to be extending our influence in green buildings to other cities over the next two years.

Whats in the future of BCIL?

Our vision for the future is to build the team with greater depth of leadership so that an organizational legacy can be firmly put into place, to complete two projects that are currently under way and which are ambitious in their higher thresholds of sustainability, to impact more buildings with our green directions and strategic interventions across India and the world.

What has been the biggest achievement for BCIL? Any moment of Recognition for it?

Our demonstrated success with business viability of many sustainable design and technologies is our single big achievement in the last 15 years. As far as the recognition are considered we are humbled by the global and national acclaim that we have received in the last 5 years after our initial phase of completion of the first three or four projects. When proof of concept was visible, with energetic endorsement from our clients, recognition came easier. We have won 6 awards from 5 countries in just the last three years. We have won about 14 awards in the last 6
years from institutions as varied and diverse as the CII, the Institution of Economic Studies, The Asian Development Bank, the IGES in Japan, Ademe in Paris, and many others. We were recently awarded the San Diego based Core Net Global Award which was given to only four projects in the world! We received the Realty Plus award for excellence in April 2010. We have been nominated for many advisory boards in the center as well as in state governments for them to learn policy directions from our accomplishments.

What do you think is the biggest challenge for the coming entrepreneurs and how can
they overcome it?

The government is the single biggest challenge. Getting clearances for any idea you want to promote is not easy. People will be your next big challenge and if you have got the right team in place you can overcome your financial challenges. But I would like to advice them that don’t strike out on your own if you do not have the strength to persist and persevere in the face of failures. Do not chase money in your professional pursuits, and yet constantly think of costs!That’ll offer a key to success. Trust your people and build your strengths along with the team.

World's first business of architecture degree launched

2010-11-26T03:52:00.000-08:00

The world’s first architectural masters degree combining design with management has been launched by a Spanish university in collaboration with the Royal College of Art and New London Architecture.

The 13-month programme, which begins in February, will be taught in English both online and with face-to-face periods in London and at IE University’s business campus in Madrid. The RCA’s department of Innovation Design Engineering is providing studio space and teachers for the UK element.

Aimed at young independent architecture professionals and employees or partners it is intended to bridge the gap between advanced design and business management.

Javier Quintana de Ua, dean of IE School of Architecture, said: “Throughout the modern history of architecture, there has existed the noble if naive perception that the best design came from artists whose practice remained untouched by the imperatives of business or finance.

“However, contemporary practice has proven that while design excellence is very necessary it is not sufficient to perform with success. Most architects are, in fact, entrepreneurs and vocational designers who face business responsibilities without the right training.”

He said highlights would include the chance to meet architects who combine design excellence with business success.

Guest speakers during the programme will include architects from Foster & Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Snohetta, SOM, David Chipperfield Architects and Kristine Fallon.

Architect Norman Foster - TED

2010-04-12T06:13:00.001-07:00

Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically pollution-free." He shares projects from throughout his career, from the pioneering roof-gardened Willis Building (1975) to the London Gherkin (2004). He also comments on two upcoming megaprojects: a pipe to bring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, and the new Beijing airport.

via - Architecture linked

OMA Museum Plaza

2010-04-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Photorealistic 3D Reconstruction of Interiors with Autodesk ImageModeler

2009-09-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

Autodesk Revit 2010

2009-09-21T23:49:00.001-07:00

3D Sketching .

2009-09-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Realty firms betting big on low -rise floors

2009-07-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Real estate developers in the national capital region are banking on low - rise independent floors to induce customers into buying homes .The developers are able to offer these homes at lower prices,almost 30% lower than a typical multi-storey apartment .A significantly lower maintenance cost for these homes is also buyers.

Realty companies,including BPTP ,Emaar MGF ,Ansal API, have together sold close to 7000 homes in NCR in the past three months ,as per the executives of these companies .BPTP had sold over 5,500 low rise independent floors homes in a project in Faridabad in May .

As per an Emmar MGF spokesperson ,the company sold a thousand homes in this segment in gurgoan last month .
"Many people ,especially in NOrth India ,still prefer low rise and independent floors .They are not very comfortable using lifts and feel safer in low - rise homes ," says Kunal Banerjee , executive director ,TDI ,a reality firm that will launch 400 such homes next week in kundali in NCR .TDI is offering homes for a price of Rs 17.5 lakhs for 810 Sqft to Rs 26.5 lakhs for 1100 Sqft built up area .

via The Economic Times

Cisco Rolls Out Building Management ‘Mediator’

2009-07-11T01:34:00.000-07:00

Cisco Systems is rolling out technology to integrate the world of proprietary building automation systems into its overall platform for managing energy use by building HVAC, lighting and other systems.

Cisco Systems is delivering early on its promise to bring entire building energy management systems under its control. That's a $12 billion market over the next three years or so, it thinks – but it won't be taking it on alone.

The networking giant announced the availability of its Network Building Mediator, a device that connects HVAC, lighting, security and other electricity-using building systems into its EnergyWise platform.
you can read the whole arcticle here

Kitchen Designs

2009-06-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

We at cubanheat designs are designing kitchen . i am blogging few one then i really liked .

Lavasa lake city

2009-05-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hill-station tourism is not new for Indians who enjoy the cold weather at locations such as Darjeeling, Shimla, Ooty or Nainital during Summer. These towns, for over 100 years, have been looked at as India’s prime hill stations necessarily promoted and developed by the British rulers.

Over the next 10 years, another name might well be added to this list, which is 12,500-acre huge ‘Lavasa lake city’, being developed by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) near Pune within the Western Ghat ranges. Promoted as free India’s first planned hill station, Lavasa lake city, will be ready as a complete town with a population of 1.5 lakh.

Being developed in accordance with the controversial Hill Station policy passed by the Maharashtra government, the Lavasa lake city, has attracted opposition right from day one. However, the developers have now overcome all the difficulties and socio-political hurdles, as the first phase of this Rs 40,000-crore project is nearing completion. The city is coming up on eight huge hillocks that surround the illongated Varasgaon dam backwaters to ensure excellent natural habitat for the city.

“Lavasa is not a township or a huge real-estate project such as the Sahara group’s Amby Valley. It is a complete town that is self sufficient and meets residential and living needs of poor, middle-class and elite people. The hill station itself will create more than 50,000 jobs over the next 10 years. Hence, citizens residing here can enjoy the walk to work lifestyle,” said Lavasa Corporation President Rajgopal Nogja.

Lavasa is planned in four phases out of which, the first phase titled ‘Davse’ will be operational from 2010 with almost 1,000 villas and 500 apartments. The development of phase-II will begin next year and the same would be ready by 2014. The third and fourth phases would be ready by 2017 and 2021, respectively. “We are managing the Rs 40,000 crore investment through equity, debts and internal accurals as of now. We will come out with an IPO at an appropriate time,” Nogja added.

Considering Pune city’s identity as the next information technology (IT) hub, the developers have already working towards getting a number of IT firms to have development centres within Lavasa. In addition to this, prominent educational barrons such as Symbiosis, Oxford University and a number of other prominent institutions are setting up their campuses here. Names such as Apollo Hospitals, Accor developers, Grand Mercure Hotel and Spa, ITC, Inistitute of International Business Relations-Germany, University of Berlin along with National School of Hotel Management-Kolkata will all be at Lavasa to serve citizens.

The benefit that Lavasa enjoys over other similar projects is its pricing. There is a wide range of investment options at Lavasa beginning with studio apartments worth Rs 16 lakh to villas worth Rs 8-10 crore. “We are also creating small localities for people who will work here as workers, sweepers and maids,” he added.

Lavasa has already signed electricity supply agreements with power-starved Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) and Tata Power Company Ltd while it will pump water from Varasgaon dam, which is mainly responsible for Pune city’s water supply. “Lavasa pays the irrigation department for actual consumption of water. However, through several dams and check dams, we would be adding 0.9 TMC (thousand million cubic ft) water to the Varasgaon reservoir. Lavasa will consume approximately 0.5 TMC of water. Therefore, a surplus of 0.4 TMC water would be added to the Varagaon dam,” Nogja claimed.

Like all major projects, Lavasa too has landed into a number of controversies. There have been allegations of forceful land acquisition, construction of dams within Varasgaon dam, the company's close relationship with politcos like union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and the probable environmental hazards it might cause in future. Activist Medha Patkar had recently launched agitations at Lavasa demanding a CBI inquiry of land deals at Lavasa saying, land-owners were duped and not rehabilitated by the company using political influence.

Pawar's influence on this projects was obvious as his daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Supriya Sule along with his close associates Vitthal Maniar and Aniruddha Deshpande jointly owned more than 15 per cent stake in Lavasa Lake City. In the wake of agitations and controversies, Sule as well as Deshpande sold their stakes while Maniar continues to hold 6 per cent stake in the project. “Apart from Maniar, the ownership lies with HCC real estate (65%), Venkateshwara Hatcheries (13%) and Avantha Group (16%),” Nogja stated. “Lavasa is a privately developed hill station as per government rules and there is no participation of politicians,” he concluded.

Mentoring 2.0

2009-04-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

The next generation of interior designers may be unlike any before it. But interior design firms are crafting new, inventive mentoring methods to develop the skills of younger designers.
By B.G. Yovovich

Make no mistake: Major changes are forcing businesses of all kinds to reshape their mentoring tactics in an effort to attract, retain and nurture the design leaders of the future. First of importance is the workplace significance of the more than 70 million Millennials (those born beginning in 1977 who make up Generation Y) who have already begun to enter the workforce as the first of 78 million Baby Boomers head toward retirement. Secondly are the major differences in values, attitudes and behaviors between Millennials and the generations preceding them.

“Everyone is going to have to face this: The Baby Boomers are going to retire, and the Generation X population is roughly two-thirds the size of the Baby Boomer population. Millennials are fast becoming an influential factor in the workplace and an increasingly important part of its future,” says W. Stanton Smith, National Director of the Cross- Generation Initiatives at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. “There are huge numbers of people moving toward retirement, and very little has been done to preserve their knowledge.”

But turn in any direction and you can see clear signs of how the design community is responding to the distinctive challenges of coaching Millennials.

In San Diego, Viveca Bissonnette, IIDA, LEED AP, Associate at Carrier Johnson + CULTURE and IIDA Vice President of Communications, makes it a point to provide the firm’s younger designers with the steady stream of “timely feedback and performance evaluations that Millennials find especially important.”

Celia Barrett, IIDA, ASID, Principal of Celia Barrett Design LLC in Jackson, Miss., is an adjunct professor at Mississippi College School of Fine Arts. She emphasizes the need for students and young designers to improve their drawing skills, which she says are often under-developed.

Farther north, more than 80 percent of the managers at HOK Canada, recently named one of Canada’s top 100 employers by Mediacorp Canada, have completed an ambitious firm-wide program “designed to train all of our managers to have better coaching skills,” says Lara Koretsky, HR Manager of Consulting, who works out of the Toronto office of the architecture and interior design firm. “It is an important step in helping us build a mentoring culture.”

READY AND WILLING

Fortunately, as a group, Millennials tend to be very receptive to mentoring opportunities. “Millennials seem more trusting of senior leaders than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers were, and they are very willing to be coached and mentored by those with experience,” Smith says.

Part of Millennials’ willingness to be mentored stems from their oft-noted self-confidence and lofty aspirations. Says Bissonnette, “Young designers coming into the workforce today have more expectations and higher aspirations for themselves, a quality instilled in them by their Baby Boomer parents who told them they could do anything.

“This new generation of workers also has more expectations of their employers than previous generations. They want to know they are on the professional path to success, and they are looking for guidance from employers to help them get there.”

But despite Millennials’ striking confidence and great expectations, they often have a heightened “need for reassurance,” Bissonnette says. “One interesting thing about this generation is that they are looking for validation, and they constantly are looking for feedback.”

Adds Smith, “They really don’t want to make mistakes. As a consequence, they seek continuous feedback, and they will respond positively to it.”

MENTORING THE MENTOR

This Gen Y desire for frequent evaluations and ongoing communication puts increased demands on those who try to mentor them. The need to meet those demands is a big reason why, for example, HOK launched its mentoring and coaching initiative about two years ago.

“Communication is the No. 1 skill on which we focus to improve managers’ coaching and mentoring skills,” HOK’s Koretsky says. A key component of the program is an approach dubbed SBI, which stands for “Situation, Behavior and Impact.” The initiative is intended to help mentors do a better job of providing ongoing, targeted feedback to their mentees.

“The idea is to help the coach to focus on the specific situation that has occurred, the behavior that was displayed within the situation and the impact of that behavior,” Koretsky says. “The point is to go beyond just telling them what they did wrong or just saying, ‘Good job.’”

The final step in the SBI approach is to “always finish off the piece of feedback with a bridging statement that allows the individual to respond and leaves an opening for continuing the conversation,” Koretsky says. “The aim is to have a dialogue, not a one-way communication.”

These communication tools are especially important when difficult conversations or discussions of performance are needed. Says Koretsky, “When you are about to begin a performance conversation that is not going to be easy, you can start by saying, ‘We have a difficult conversation ahead of us,’ and laying out the specific framework and being transparent about it.”

THE RIGHT FIT

Today’s mentoring efforts respond to distinctive Millennial characteristics in other ways, as well.

At Gensler, the architecture and design firm has taken steps to address “Millennials’ particular trigger points,” says Janine Pesci, the firm-wide Director of Learning. “Millennials feel like they need to frequently change jobs in order to develop new skills, so we are creating an environment in which they are frequently exposed to opportunities within our own organization to get that experience without having to leave us.”

These types of inside-the-firm skill-development opportunities can have a significant impact on employee retention.

“Millennials have a desire for a long-term relationship with their employer,” says Smith. “These young people, unlike even 10 years ago, very much would prefer to have multiple careers within one employer.”

Another Millennial trait that employers must keep top-of-mind: They are, as a group, social-beings. To address this point, Gensler has developed a “Rising Professionals” peer-to-peer networking initiative. The program was begun in the firm’s D.C. office by a group of young professionals who saw the need to share ideas about professional development. The idea soon spread throughout the firm. The program also involves an event called “Power Portfolios,” whereby the firm’s young professionals assess the portfolios of design students and offer feedback. “[Rising Professionals] taps into the Millennial mindset of wanting to work through social networks,” Pesci says. “We know that they like to work in tribes, so we look for ways to create opportunities for teamwork, social interaction and collaboration.”

HOK also recognizes the importance of encouraging greater interaction with Millennials. “We have studio critiques every week in our main studio space or library that give opportunities to people from every level of the organization to give presentations about the projects on which they are working,” says Keri Daniel, HR Manager of Programs and Organizational Development at HOK Canada. In addition to serving as a forum for sharing information about projects, these get-togethers also provide a channel for firm-wide interaction and make it easier for Millennials to develop relationships with senior professionals that can lead to mentoring opportunities.

COMING FULL CIRCLE

Perhaps one of the top benefits of a successful mentoring program: “Reverse mentoring,” or junior-to-senior guidance, can be just as effective.Says Smith, “Reverse mentoring is one way to stay on top of rapid changes in technology and how they are being applied.” Pesci cites the example of one young designer with whom she works. “I am mentoring her on her professional career, and she is mentoring me on technology,” she says.

More generally, says Smith, “through their willingness to question established procedures and make suggestions, young people also can help us to identify longtime practices that no longer are effective and that need to be changed.”

Really interesting arcticle how new generation of architects and interior design is moving forward. This article was published in IIDA

Rem Koolhaas Builds

2009-03-10T06:35:00.000-07:00

article New York Times Magazine By ARTHUR LUBOW

Before he could build, Rem Koolhaas wrote. Now that buildings of his design are cropping up everywhere, he continues to write. "In my own mind, I am as much a writer as an architect," he says.

An architect of Koolhaas's far-reaching ambition might plausibly prefer sitting at his desk to building in concrete. Remaining within the realm of his own imagination, he need not worry about pesky clients who can dilute a project into mediocrity. But, in fact, part of what Koolhaas likes about architecture is the chance to mesh gears with a client. When I asked him if he would consider designing a house for himself, he replied that the idea bored him. "It would feel too solipsistic," he said. "The whole point of architecture is the engagement with the other. So there wouldn't be any sparks."

Koolhaas, 55, is in the business of making sparks. Last month, at a meeting in his New York hotel room, I watched him review the mock-up of a book on shopping, which he produced with Harvard graduate students in a research seminar that he directs. (They meet about every three weeks.) The book had been redesigned since he last saw it. He was not happy. "It's so sedate now," he said as he rapidly turned the pages. "This was supposed to be something with real tension, a kind of schizophrenia where you say something and see another, and now it's too parallel and neat. It's lost an aggressive, invasive quality that it had in the beginning." He delivered all this talk of tension, invasion, aggression and schizophrenia in a polite monotone that barely rose above a murmur.

Koolhaas was an hour and a half late to the meeting, having been detained at a conference on modern architecture at the Guggenheim Museum, where he was a star speaker. "I couldn't sneak out early because they were discussing my work," he said apologetically. These days, Koolhaas's work seems to be constantly under discussion and, even more gratifying to him, under construction. Whereas in the past his cutting-edge designs rarely advanced beyond the model stage, Koolhaas's current commissions include a concert hall in Porto, Portugal; the Seattle Public Library; a student center on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus; three U.S. stores for Prada, the Italian fashion house; and the Dutch Embassy in Berlin. His office is also collaborating with the Basel firm of Herzog & de Meuron on a luxury hotel in downtown New York for Ian Schrager, whose holdings include the Mondrian in Los Angeles and the Delano in Miami.

Koolhaas is at the forefront of what has become arguably the most exciting branch of culture. The wild critical and commercial success of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao has made it clear that in architecture, unlike any other art form, the critics' favorites are also the public's favorites. People are flocking to Bilbao to see the building, not its contents; in Berlin, Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum doesn't even have any contents -- the exhibits have not yet been installed -- but the powerful structure is drawing unanticipated throngs. Suddenly, every city wants its own knockout piece of modern architecture. Koolhaas recalls competing for the commission for a new museum of modern art in Rome. "The director said, 'We need a building that does for Rome what the Guggenheim did for Bilbao,"' he recounts. "That is a staggering statement, because Rome doesn't need to be put on the map."

Koolhaas, despite his professed admiration for Gehry, is uncomfortable with buildings that, like the Guggenheim Bilbao, seduce by dazzling. He wants to arrive at beauty as a byproduct, not the goal, of the design process. He is suspicious of the wow factor. "I like to do things that on first sight have a degree of simplicity but show their complexity in the way they are used or at second glance," he says. Although he is not a pop-culture celebrity on the order of Gehry, within his profession Koolhaas is the more influential figure -- because he writes as provocatively as he designs and because his innovative style, unlike Gehry's metallic whorls, has not solidified into a one-of-a-kind signature. "We are flamboyant conceptually, but not formally," Koolhaas says. His firm is known for thoroughly researching and radically addressing a client's needs; this cerebral approach to design undergirds all of his work.

"His intellectual view is a lot more accessible to younger architects coming out," Gehry says. "I look at my work as personal. I'm not trying to create a school." Of Koolhaas's intellect, Gehry says: "He's capable of challenging everything. He's one of the great thinkers of our time." Adding immeasurably to Koolhaas's reputation as a writer is his proven prowess as a builder. His volleys are coming from within the fortress. "When he says that design is not necessary or it's a value not to have it -- if he said all of that and I thought he was an apologist for his own inadequacies, that would be a fascinating position for some mad charlatan," Gehry says. "But it's not about that, because he can do it."

Koolhaas projects the calm of opposing forces held in balance. Although he is mobbed like a rock star at lectures, he disdains the auteur theory of architecture. "It is an insult to me, as well as to the others, to make it all seem like just my work," he says. "If I pride myself on one thing, it is a talent to collaborate." Conspicuously rejecting individual primacy, he gave his Rotterdam firm a blandly anonymous name, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (with the typically droll twist that the acronym OMA means "grandmother" in his native Dutch). This garb of humility, however, barely disguises his estimate of his own abilities. Indeed, if his denunciation of the cult of personality has only enhanced his own mystique, that is the sort of contradiction that he relishes.

Physically, he is a model of functionalism. He is thin, as if to reduce resistance. His aquiline nose, extended ears and penetrating eyes ensure that nothing can escape him. His long legs allow him to outpace the pack. But basically, his body is just a delivery system for his mind. Like Le Corbusier, Koolhaas has the double-barreled power to write brilliant, provocative essays and to design surprising and satisfying spaces. Young architects revere him -- in large part because he has refused to ossify or settle down. "At a certain point, certain architects begin to capitalize on their success, to kind of do it again, rather than look to new territory," says Terence Riley, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. "I've never seen Rem attracted to that. Instead, there is an unbelievable willingness to keep the thing as a series of new questions. When kids go to a lecture by Rem, they come out with questions, not answers." Koolhaas energetically cultivates his renegade persona, not such an easy task as he attracts grander commissions and prizes. When he confided in March that he was about to be proclaimed the winner of architecture's highest honor, the Pritzker Prize, he relayed the news with a shrug that approached annoyance.

As behooves a superarchitect, Koolhaas travels as often as a supermodel. (He stays in hotels so often that he is excited to be involved in designing one himself: "It is the typology I have experienced most in my life.") His commissions are divided about equally between Europe and the United States. His life in Europe is also divided about equally between an airy apartment in North London, which he occupies mainly on weekends with his wife, the artist Madelon Vriesendorp, and a workweek centered on his Rotterdam office and often shared with his other female companion, Petra Blaisse, an Amsterdam-based designer of interiors and gardens. (He and Vriesendorp have a daughter, 23, and a son, 20.) Vriesendorp's quirky illustrations grace Koolhaas's first book, "Delirious New York," while Blaisse has long held chief responsibility for Koolhaas's curtains, landscaping and exhibition installations. For the Netherlands Dance Theater, constructed in The Hague in 1984, Blaisse did the interiors while Vriesendorp designed an exterior mural.

"Part of the whole thing in London is it's a place away from the office, so I'm protected from the daily invasion," Koolhaas says. "I can do nothing." In the London flat, Vriesendorp's ebullience is on view everywhere -- for example, in a fish motif that recurs on the shower curtain, on the tablecloth and in a puppet that is sailing through the kitchen-door transom -- everywhere, that is, except for Koolhaas's spare, white, book-lined, high-ceilinged studio.

When asked about his domestic equipoise between Vriesendorp and Blaisse, Koolhaas slips into the counterbalanced syntax that distinguishes Rem-speak: "It's all about facets and a kind of extension of territory, not in terms of claiming but in terms of exploration." Refusing to be tied down to one place or person is also a way of defying gravity. Just as he does in his architecture, Koolhaas welcomes tension into the structure of his life. Other people adjust. "I always feel that he is a plug and the whole world is full of sockets," says Vriesendorp, a striking-looking woman with silver hair, sharp blue eyes -- and a talent for blunt metaphors. "He has chosen different sockets in different worlds. It will always be sensitive, because there will always be competition between different sockets. Everything in his life that seems functional gets everyone around him in hysterics." Koolhaas has manufactured a form for his life that radically rethinks convention to accommodate his requirements. The stress lines are visible. And that sums up both his design for living and his design philosophy.

AMO and OMA

2009-03-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

From AMO and OMA's website

In the late nineties, while working on the design for the new headquarters for Universal (currently Vivendi), OMA was first exposed to the full pace of change that engulfed the world of media and with it the increasing importance of the virtual domain. It led Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) to create a new company, AMO, exclusively dedicated to the investigation and performance in this realm.

While OMA remains dedicated to the realization of architectural projects, AMO applies architectural thinking in its pure form to questions of organization, identity, culture and program, and define ways - from the conceptual to the operative - to address the full potential of the contemporary condition.
AMO is now a research office that embodies both the professional experience of OMA and knowledge generated by the Harvard Design School Project on the City. Supervised by Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf and with a core staff based in Rotterdam, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, AMO has consolidated a series of existing and new professional collaborations and cross-disciplinary partnerships.

AMO’s work is to develop new models of thinking about systems and to create clearly considered blueprints for change. AMO often works parallel to OMA for the same clients, providing extra services in the domains of organization and identity while, at same time, work on the design of a building is being conducted. This is for instance the case for fashion house, PRADA: while OMA worked on the design of five epicentre stores (including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles), AMO worked on PRADA’s in store information technology, the website and media content. This has also led to work on PRADA’s advertisement campaigns, websites and general business consulting.

AMO has acted as a consultant for WIRED - a magazine on the impact of technological inventions on contemporary society - and published a guest edition. AMO’s resume also includes work for Universal Studios, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Harvard University, Conde Nast and Ikea.

Most notably AMO was involved in a brainstorm on the visual communication about Europe organized by the European Commission. The coloured `barcode`, one of the results of this brainstorm, has received full attention of the media, touting it a `new European flag` replacing the twelve gold stars. In 2006 the barcode was adopted by the Austrian Government as a symbol of its European Union Presidency.

AMO’s resume also includes work for Universal Studios, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Harvard University, Condé Nast, Heineken, and Ikea. Recent works include the development of in-store technology for Prada, a strategy for the future of Volkswagen, a strategy for TMRW, new organic fast food chain and work for Platform 21, new design institute in Amsterdam.

In summer 2005 AMO curated an exhibition titled ‘Expansion & Neglect’ for the prestigious Venice Biennale which explored the expansion of the world’s museums and art galleries and investigated whether large extensions were necessary. For the 2006 Venice Biennale AMO explored the rise of The Gulf cities, followed by the book, Al Manakh, which was published in autumn 2007, coinciding with OMA’s continued architectural and theoretical presence in the Middle East. Early 2008 AMO curated ‘Dubai Next’ at Vitra Museum in Switzerland which was an exploration of the challenges of change and tradition in Dubai.

Currently AMO is working for the Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg) and for fashion house Prada. In addition it is engaged in studies for the European Union and various OMA projects.

God is in detail

2009-01-28T03:10:00.000-08:00

This article was published in Indian architects and builders magazine Dec 2008 edition . The article is written by Mumbai based designer jashish Kambli who explores the importance of detail in Indian collective consciousness and suggests a change in the current thought process.

article :

" God is in the detail "

An interesting answer,if one knows the question. Designers would unanimously agree that nothing kills a great design more than really bad detailing .Design anathema is all about replacing that superlative fine idea with an insensitive ,unfinished , unforgivable product . And so one hears it all the time -when one is studying design or struggling with one's first commercial product ,and later one is even saying it to one's apprentices - God is in details .

But if it is divine blessings one is looking for ,detailing can be pretty controversial.The most pressing of which is the chicken and egg story -which came first ? There are a bunch of designers who believe detailing can be delegated to later date .This approach unfortunately demotes detailing to a clear second place .Also , fundamentally the design itself must allow for good detailing .A great design that puts off the details to a later date might simply not be possible to detail at all.This leads us to conclude that good design can be realised by designing and detailing at the same time i.e. designing with enough focus on what details could be possible , and doing this early enough in the process.

So if detailing really is that critical to good design , what are we doing to ensure that we have got a handle on it ? While as a community , Indians are more than capable of absolute stunning , world stopping, breath catching design , we are far distance from realising this capability . The key is to first find why we struggle to be what we can, and then attempt to find a few solutions to fix it . If one goes back far enough in our history , it becomes evident that everything we designed was greatly detailed. Our temples, paintings, craft design was detail. Historically design relied heavily on master craftsmen whose understanding and mastery over the materials of their craft produced some of the most intricately finished and visually stunning objects the world has ever seen .

But when the industrial revolution heralded mass production , in an attempt to catch up on losing ground , design was lost and so was detail to the cause of technology .As a result , today , we have the best breed of technical professionals but struggle to find good designers .

Why detailing is held dear in the west and why it constantly eludes us , can be explained even via smallest of detail that are often eye-catching .For example , at a busy curb of Piccadilly circle in London , within a host of commuters, motorcars and much chaos, one can look up to see, hanging from an intricate , immaculately polished lamppost , a basket of brigh flowers.Inevitably , one ends up comparing this , to the infinitely more dreary curbs at any of our major cities.While there are many reasons we don't put up flower baskets at busy curbs, most of them stem from the fact that we belong to a poorer nation ;where fine living and good design are way too far from our thoughts .The first person to stand at the curb would look up and probably not think "How lovely that looks , what a super morning ".He would probably think "I'd better nick the basket now when no one's looking ,and sell it for scrap." If not , he is probably too busy fretting over how he could take on clearly unstable traffic , to even look up and notice flowers.Or the flowers might wilt with the overwhelming stench of the dangerously heavy emission clogging the air at the curb . Our best efforts are spent on managing basic infrastructure and meeting our basic needs , so attention to detail is clearly way down in priority .

while one can understand that though process, it is difficult to agree with it . India is at crossroads. While we grapple with the basics , we are clearly ready to take on much more .Indian markets today , are flooded with the same well-finished products available abroad ; so the argument 'we can't afford better quality ' does not ring true .Some of our home bred industries have acquired European factories, so the argument 'we don't have the best equipment ' does not hold water either .We have the resources and the ability to produce design that is detailed to the very end , finished to reflect a quality we deserve to use . If we fail, it is only because we do not demand enough.

social design

2009-01-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

Article by Radhika Bhalla

Radhika Bhalla -- Social Design

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Research culture branding

Design thinking by Tim Brown

2009-01-27T03:40:00.000-08:00

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services , processes- and even strategy .

Thomas Edison created the electric bulb and the wrapped an entire industry around it . The lightbulb is most often thought of as his signature invention , but Edison understood that the bulb was little more than a parlor trick without a system of electric power generation and transmission to make it truly useful. So he created that , too.

Thus Edison's genius lay in his ability to conceive of a fully developed marketplace, not simply a discrete device. He was able to envision how people would want to use what he made, and he engineered towards that insight.

Edison's approach was an early example of what is now called " Design Thinking " - a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human - centered design ethos . By this I mean that innovation is powered by a thorough understanding , through direct observation ,of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike about the way particular products are made , packaged, marketed, sold , and supported .

Many people believe that edison's greatest invention was modern R and D laboratory and methods of experimental investigation . Edison wasn't a narrowly specialized scientist but a broad generalist with a shrewd business sense .In his Menlo park , New Jersey , Laboratory he surrounded himself with gifted tinkerers, improvisers , and experimenters . Indeed , he broke the mold of the "lone genius inventor " by creating a team based approach to innovation .Although Edison biogrphers write of the camaraderie enjoyed by this merry band , the process also featured endless rounds of trail and error -the "99% perspiration " in Edison's famous definition of genius . His approach was intended not to validate preconceived hypotheses but to help experiments learn something new from each iterative stab . Innovation is hard work ; Edison made it a profession that blended art, craft , science , business, and an astute understanding of customers and markets .

Design Thinking is a lineal descendant of that tradition .Put simply, it is a discipline that uses the designer's sensibility and methods to match people's needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity . like Edison's painstaking innovation process , it often entails a great deal of perspiration .

I believe that design thinking has much to offer a business world in which most management ideas and best practices are freely available to be copied and exploited .Leaders now look to innovation as a principle source of differentiation and competitive advantage ; they would do well to incorporate design thinking into all phrases of the process .

This arcticle was published in Harvard Business Review and it represents IDEO's approach to developing the methods and sensibility of a designer .

Green Building To Rocket in 2009! Top Ten Trends

2009-01-17T04:27:00.000-08:00

Jerry Yudelson’s Top Ten trends includes the following:

1. Green building will continue to grow more than 60 percent in 2009, on a cumulative basis. We’ve seen cumulative growth in new LEED projects over 60 percent per year since 2006, in fact 80 percent in 2008, and there’s no sign that the green wave has crested.
2. Green building will benefit from the new Obama presidency, with a strong focus on green jobs in energy efficiency, new green technologies and renewable energy. This trend will last for at least the next four years.
3. The focus of green building will begin to switch from new buildings to greening existing buildings. The fastest growing LEED rating system in 2008 was the LEED for Existing Buildings program, and I expect this trend to continue in 2009.
4. Awareness of the coming global crisis in fresh water supply will increase, leading building designers and managers to take further steps to reduce water consumption in buildings with more conserving fixtures, rainwater recovery systems and innovative new water technologies.
5. LEED Platinum-rated projects will become more commonplace as building owners, designers and construction teams learn how to design for higher levels of LEED achievement on conventional budgets.
6. Solar power use in buildings will accelerate with the extension of solar energy tax credits for buildings through 2016 and the prospect of increasing utility focus on renewable power goals for 2015 and 2020. As before, third-party financing partnerships will continue to grow and provide capital for large rooftop systems.
7. Local governments will increasingly mandate green buildings from both themselves and the private sector. While concern over economic impacts of green buildings mandates will be present, the desire to reduce carbon emission by going green will lead more government agencies to require green buildings.
8. Zero net energy designs for new buildings will gain increasing acceptance in both public and private buildings. I’ve shown that you can get building energy use down to low levels with better design,” said Yudelson, “and that makes it easier and more cost-effective to buy green power to displace the remaining energy use.
9. Green homes will come to dominate new home developments in more sections of the U.S., as builders increasingly see green as a source of competitive advantage. This trend was foreseen in my 2008 book, Choosing Green (New Society Publishers), which for the first time documented the large number of new green housing developments in the U.S. and Canada.
10. European green building technologies will become better known and more widely adopted in the U.S. and Canada. My forthcoming 2009 book, Green Building Trends: Europe (Island Press), will be out in the spring and will help accelerate this trend, along with more European architects and engineers opening offices in the U.S.

Sounds good for Architects around the world ! ...You can read more about Jerry Yuldeson his website

Emerging trend in Asian comercial real estate

2008-11-24T03:17:00.000-08:00

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by Tito1

CEO for cities

2008-08-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

CEOs for Cities is a national network of American urban leaders dedicated to creating next generation cities that hold the answers to many of the challenges our nation faces.

Carol Coletta is president and CEO of CEOs for Cities and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City .Previously, she served as president of Coletta & Company in Memphis. In addition, she served as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors, and American Architectural Foundation.

CEOs for Cities:

- Connects urban leaders to powerful ideas and each other.
- Mobilizes new urban activists to execute real change in cities .
- Produces new urban insights that lay out the best opportunities for cities, and the people who live in them, to succeed .
- Tells powerful stories about the potential of cities to solve our most pressing problems .

Carol Coletta will be a guest speaker at the REMIX conference to be held at ogunquit , Maine , USA from Oct 5-8 ,2008. REMIX is the 33 Annual Design Management conference organised by DMI .

Carol Coletta, will share the latest research on market trends at work in cities and how designers can make an important contribution to the success of cities.

Gensler's focus on business created a new standard

2008-08-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Business Times - by Lizette Wilson

I am copy pasting the whole article as it is.....its really interesting how architectural frm are getting more professional and treating architecture like any other trade . The hype created by architectural colleges and then by the students ....leads to frustration once the students are thrown into the real world which is beyound the reality the arch students have created , hope this article prove an eye opener .

article :-

The founder of the nation's largest design firm doesn't dress fancy and doesn't have a favorite building.

Art Gensler of Gensler architects is atypical in other ways, too.

He studied architecture at Cornell University, but doesn't consider himself an artist. He specialized in building interiors during the '60s when exterior design was the rage, and interior work was still essentially furniture arrangement.

But the biggest difference is the way he runs his architecture firm. He runs it like a business.

"He's reading the Wall Street Journal, and I'm reading an architecture magazine. He's looking for an industry, and I'm looking for one good project," said San Francisco architect and occasional Gensler competitor Theodore Brown, recalling a transatlantic flight when Gensler was his seatmate.

Ed Friedrichs worked alongside Gensler for 34 years, including eight years as president and three years as CEO of his company. "He got the money gene -- we all did," he said.

Indeed, with the industry's cyclical and highly competitive nature, slim margins and long delays between services rendered and payments made, architecture firms are not easy businesses to run.

Most schools still emphasize theory and design over business rules, and architects are typically drawn to the profession for a love of the work -- not a burning desire to run a business. Businesses are usually small, too, with 87 percent of firms nationwide operating from a single office and fewer than a dozen employees, according to the American Institute of Architects.

"Small firms don't have the resources to weather a downturn," said Kermit Baker, chief economist for the AIA, noting that just 14.2 percent of firms founded before 1970 are still around today. And Gensler is the largest of them.

During the past 40 years, Gensler has grown from one office in San Francisco to 28 offices and more than 2,000 employees worldwide. Revenue for the year ending March 31, 2006 is tracking 28 percent ahead of last year's numbers, thanks to rapid growth in every office except Tokyo and Detroit.

Practice areas now stretch beyond interior design work for corporate clients to include hospitality, education, airports, railways, furniture design and large-scale urban planning, with projects ranging from the 110-acre International Financial Center in Dubai to redesigning the approach to the Black Stone of the Ka'aba in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Art Gensler, 70, steps closer to retirement this month and is appointing three co-executive directors to lead the firm, including his oldest son, David Gensler.

While the change could signal a major shift in company operations, chances are it won't.

Beyond Art

Although the firm is named after Art Gensler, he's never been the sole decision maker.

Run for roughly 30 years by directors including his wife, Drucilla, Friedrichs, Anthony Harbour, Denis Rice and Margo Grant Walsh, the practice would usually reach consensus after debate, according to past and current board members. Votes were taken rarely, if ever, and nearly all major decisions emerged after a roundtable discussion.

While the management structure recently put in place will be different, the leadership has been active since 2003.

That was the year Friedrichs, Harbour, Rice and Walsh stepped down and the firm added 10 new board members to join Gensler and Drucilla. That board included their oldest son, David Gensler, who splits his time between Los Angeles and San Francisco; Washington, D.C.-based Diane Hoskins; and Los Angeles-based Andy Cohen. All three now hold responsibilities as co-executive directors and continue to serve as part of the 12-person board.

Gensler will handle finance and operations; Cohen will focus on clients and design; and Hoskins will be responsible for employee and practice issues.

Said David Gensler: "To change from a founder leader to the next generation is something that we've been working on for 15 years. It's an evolution."

The firm's design style, which is as diverse as the client roster, is also unlikely to change with Art Gensler less active in daily operations.

He only touched 30 to 40 of the 1,000 projects the firm was working on in any given month, with much of his time going to networking and not-so-glamorous tasks like bill collecting and handling insurance issues.

And on the projects he did touch, Gensler didn't leave a signature mark. He's proud of the fact the firm doesn't have a distinct design style, and instead takes its leads from clients.

That was a major reason why Gap founder Don Fisher continued to hire the firm for the past 40 years. He estimated the firm has done roughly 3,000 of the Gap's 4,000 stores worldwide, plus the majority of the corporate office build-outs.

"He does not have a distinct architectural style where people will look at his building and say 'that's a Gensler building'," Fisher said.

Said Gensler: "Architecture has to be appropriate. It's about solving problems. One of the problems is aesthetic -- it's the most obvious, but it's not necessarily the most important."

The most important?

Money. And Gensler learned that lesson from his clients.

Money honey
When Gensler launched operations during the mid-'60s, it was the beginning of the great white-collar expansion. Professional service firms were opening up branch offices nationwide and multi-tenant buildings, particularly in San Francisco, were becoming the norm. With older floorplates not always well-suited to an organization's business or focus, a lot of work was available.

"At that time, interior work was really done by housewives. The attitude of most architects was, 'We'll take the rough and tumble part -- the exterior -- and leave this other prissy stuff to the women,' " said Brown.

The sector meant both a major opportunity for Gensler -- it was the first firm to specialize in interior design -- and an education.

Execs at fledgling companies didn't have blank checks for build-outs and had to make the numbers pencil out for corporate headquarters.

"The culture very early on was to work on business-to-business terms. Not be interior decorators," said Friedrichs -- noting the firm broke the stereotype that interior design was more an artistic endeavor than a business.

Shortly after starting the company, Gensler realized he needed to know more about running a business. He attended a few night classes at San Francisco State University before deciding it would be more efficient to hire a business professor to come to Gensler and teach all the firm's architects -- roughly two dozen at the time -- business basics.

An early lesson was the importance of collecting on overdue bills.

"Most architects are generally embarrassed to ask clients for overdue bills," said Friedrichs. "We had a re-education process for people who carried that attitude. People make a science of floating their late payments, and if you let them, they'll work it to the max."

Along with hiring business consultants on an ongoing basis, Gensler and other executives sought out best business practices and principles from other fields. They learned to be flexible, creating a separate business unit for Gap projects to ensure they snagged all the company's business, and they learned to focus on financials.

That was among the reasons Friedrichs began courting David Gensler to join the firm in the early '90s.

With an undergraduate degree in economics from Dartmouth and an M.B.A. from Stanford, David Gensler had worked at the Pacific Stock Exchange, Morgan Stanley and Microsoft.

He was chief financial officer of Datis Corp., a software firm in San Mateo, and was happily anticipating it going public. He was a numbers guy, and architecture, let alone joining his father's firm, was the furthest thing from his mind.

"Being the oldest of four boys, the closeness to Art was a little overwhelming," David Gensler said. "I wanted to make my own way in life, so I got as far away from design as possible."

Friedrichs, who had known David since he was 10, had been searching for a CFO-type to help run the rapidly growing firm. After sitting next to David during the firm's 25th anniversary celebration, he decided to pursue him as a job candidate. The men had several clandestine meetings at the San Francisco International Airport -- Gensler would meet Friedrichs when he was flying up from the Los Angeles office -- before deciding to discuss the idea with Art.

"We agreed on a couple of ground rules going in, the main one being that we would never let anybody or the company come between us. That's always a risk when you go into a family business," said David Gensler. "We've fought about issues, and I'm sure there are hard feelings on both sides. But at the end of the day, our father-son relationship is different than our business relationship."

David began working at Gensler in 1992.

The youngest of the Gensler boys -- 37-year-old Doug -- joined the firm that same year. He had studied architecture at Cornell University, like his father, and then traveled in Asia. He worked at the San Francisco office for three years before being asked to run the Boston office.

After building the group to 70 people, he moved back to San Francisco, where he now does a mixture of academic, mixed-use, hospitality and life-science projects.

"When we're all together, we tend to talk about (the business) a little bit. It doesn't consume us, but it can certainly be a big part of a dinner conversation -- everything from individual projects, to clients to strategic initiative -- you name it," said Gensler, before adding, "but it's not a family business."

Extended family
With 1,600 or so shareholders and a 2,000-plus employee-roster, critics often say Gensler has grown too big to respond to client needs.

David Gensler and other company leaders say scope is the firm's greatest strength, enabling the company to select the best people for a job. While a project is often handled from the nearest office branch, location becomes irrelevant as the project advances. Firm directors, who discuss roughly 1,500 of the firm's 2,000 employees at review time, frequently create new teams, drawing from locations around the world.

The 28 offices share the same profit and loss statement so they don't compete with each other.

While Gensler has not formally announced expansion plans, more activity in India and Asia will likely require an increased presence in those markets.

"People talk about us being a large firm, and it's like, 'Yeah, we're the tallest fifth-grader in the class,' " said David Gensler. "We're trying to build a truly multi-disciplinary global design firm."

Lizette Wilson covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times

AEC World Expo 2009

2008-08-05T05:02:00.000-07:00

361 Degree The conferences 2009
March 19,20,21,22
Mumbai , INDIA

India's first comprehensive internation design forum for ideation , inspiration and interation.

Objectives:

1.To provide a comprehensive insight into ideas and innovations that are today driving the fields of architecture, construction and design

2.To create a platform of interaction and expression for the thought leaders in the field of design across the globe today.

3.The Conference and workshop sessions offer dialogue opportunities satisfying the information needs of all segments of the design and construction fraternity - from business to academic scopes, from the professional to the entrepreneur...

For more info on World expo check out website

JLL Acquires LEED Rival

2008-08-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

In a move certain to raise eyebrows in the industry that has grown around benchmarking and certifying green buildings, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL) has acquired the developer of Green Globes, an online interactive tool viewed as either a competitor or supplement to the U.S. heavyweight Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, depending on who you talk to.

In the deal, JLL acquires Toronto-based ECD Energy and Environment Canada Ltd., an environmental consulting firm known for developing suites of online environmental rating systems for buildings, including Green Globes, licensed and overseen in the U.S. by the nonprofit Green Building Initiative (GBI) in Portland, OR, and Go Green, supervised by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in Canada. ECD staff will join Jones Lang LaSalle’s Toronto office, but other terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The GBI, which emerged as an alternative to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standard in 2004, touts Green Globes as "the practical building rating standard" on its Web site.

Green Globes’ roots go back to 1996 when the Canadian Standards Association, a public/private group establishing safety and performance standards, published the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) as a guideline for existing buildings in Canada. It became an online assessment and rating tool for existing buildings under the Green Globes brand in 2000 and began developing standards for new building design.

In 2004, Green Globes for Existing Buildings was adopted by BOMA Canada, where it operates under the name Go Green Plus. Under the terms of the acquisition, Green Globes/Go Green standards will maintain independence from JLL and continue to operate under the GBI in the U.S. and BOMA in Canada.

JLL, which has emerged as a leader in energy conservation and sustainability in the commercial real estate industry, acquires ECD’s technology platform for measuring sustainability and benchmarking across commercial building portfolios. The tools assess new building design, existing building operations and interior modifications for their impact on energy, water and other environmental factors, along with occupant health and well being.

Although the upstart program is often described as a competing standard to LEED, Jones Lang LaSalle officials describe it as a supplement rather than a replacement for the well-established USGBC program, especially for owners of large commercial portfolios.

"Green Globes is more of a tool than a standard. We think they are very complementary," Dan Probst, chairman of energy and sustainability services at JLL, told CoStar Advisor. "LEED is clearly a standard that has gained wide acceptance and carries a lot of meaning for people in the marketplace, particularly for new construction.

"The marketplace is begging for a tool that will enable a quick assessment. Owners who have a large portfolio of existing buildings want to know where they stack up in terms of LEED. We think Green Globes is a great tool for doing that baseline assessment, and generating some recommendations to improve the buildings’ overall performance."

"It’s a fairly lengthy process" under LEED to assess performance to the standard, especially portfolios that may have hundreds or thousands of properties, Probst continued. One scenario would be for an owner to start the process with a Green Globe assessment, then use the baseline and recommendations as a foundation to pursue LEED certification, "if they think it’s important to have [LEED] designation."

JLL "definitely does not" see Green Globes as an all-out replacement for LEED or Energy Star, he said.

"We really see it as more of a tool; in fact, we’re already looking at some enhancements to link it to Energy Star. We’ve already had some discussions."

In a statement released to CoStar on Wednesday evening, USGBC Manager of Corporate and Investment Real Estate Marc Heisterkamp called the JLL acquisition 'yet another proof point in the business case that green operations and maintenance practices are moving from an add-on, ‘nice-to-have’ feature to an integrated approach to sound building management that makes good business and environmental sense."

Heisterkamp noted that the USGBC has been working with 40 organizations -- including CB Richard Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield and Transwestern, which together own or manage more than 4 billion square feet -- to green their portfolios using LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance.

"But those numbers, even considering Jones Lang LaSalle’s commitment, are small in the face of this tremendous challenge of greening 5.1 million commercial buildings," he said. "As an industry, what we have here is a good start, but there’s a lot more work to do."

While JLL supports LEED, Energy Star and BREEAM, "there are few efficient tools like the Green Globes/Go Green programs that allow owners to bring their entire portfolios up to these standards," said Lauralee Martin, JLL global chief operating officer.

Solar roof

2008-07-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

C21e & C21t
solar electric & solar thermal roof tiles

High efficiency
C21e:
• Delivers high power output - 52Wp per tile, less than eight square
metres per kWp (kilowatt peak)
• Back mounted contact strips increase the effective collector area
and reduce surface glare, typical with standard solar cell technology
• Integrated ‘thru-flow’ ventilation enhances PV performance

C21t:
• Less than eight square metres provides roughly two thirds of the
hot water for an average three bedroom home
• Latest insulation technology maximises heat retention

gma radio - viability of this concept in India

2008-06-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

23rd UIA world Congress in Torino , June 29rd to July 3, 2008
The theme of the congress is Transmitting Architecture , Since i cant visit the place , i am just relying on their website for information . Another interesting thing that's happing at the congress is the launch of the first web radio in streaming dedicated to the world of architecture . That's interesting concept and i was thinking what about having a dedicated radio for architects in India ....anybody listening !....anyways my mind will work on that .....Those are few initiatives to make the architecture world more connected . We will see more of these in developing nation as our economies move towards progress. Lot many venture funds are available in India but the thing is

- How big will be the market for such a new concept .
- How receptive Indian architects will be for such a concept .
- what will be the content so that it will be usable for the working professionals (as nobody can waste time on useless stuff).
- Will architectural colleges ,studios be interested in contributing to it ( That can be a platform to promote upcoming architects and create a visibility for established studios ).

Pieta by Michelanglo

2008-06-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

Indiabulls raises Rs818 cr from Singapore Reit offer

2008-06-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd, India’s fourth largest listed real estate developer, raised S$262 million (Rs818 .7 crore) from its offering of a real estate investment trust (Reit) in Singapore, less than the S$285 million the company had sought.

The initial public offering (IPO) of 262 million shares closed on Friday.

Indiabulls Properties Investment Trust fixed the price at the lower end of the price band at S$1 per share, the company said in a filing with the Singapore stock exchange. It had sought between S$1 and S$1.10 a share.

The offer was to close Thursday, but Indiabulls had to extend the share sale by a day, after it failed to attract the 1,000 retail investors required for a listing.

“There is not much appetite for property trusts.,” David Lum, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research in Singapore, said. “The last IPO we had was in November and we dont expect one to happen in the next few months. I think the poor demand is reflective of the weak market conditions,” he said.

Company officials declined to comment because of a rule requiring them to observe a “silent period” ahead of the listing on June 11.

L.N. Mittal, chief executive of Arcelor Mittal, the top global steel firm, had earlier acquired 91 million shares in the unit as an anchor investor, meaning Indiabulls Real Estate raised a total of S$353.5 million. Deutsche Bank AG and Merrill Lynch (Singapore) Pte arranged the share sale.

RMJM Founds Business-Focused Program at GSD

2008-06-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

Source: ARCHITECT Magazine
By Amanda Kolson Hurley

On March 17, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announced a $1.5 million gift from U.K.-based architecture firm RMJM to support a new integrated design program at the school. The RMJM Program for Research and Education in Integrated Design Practice will emphasize business management principles and a thorough understanding of the construction process to round out students' design skills.

Speaking to attendees of Harvard's Design Firm Leadership Conference, who filled the GSD's Piper Auditorium, dean Mohsen Mostafavi said, “We believe very strongly in the role of transdisciplinary research. We believe it's the future of design education.”

RMJM CEO Peter Morrison told the crowd that “architects must regain the status of master-builder” and that to do so, they must learn “to generate proper reward for the value [they've] created.”

GSD professor Spiro Pollalis told the audience that although the details have not been worked out yet, the program will entail collaboration between the GSD and the Harvard Business School.

DFJ’s Steve Jurveston on a clean tech business plan competition and playing god

2008-05-30T03:22:00.000-07:00

The California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) stands out as one of the biggest business plan competitions around. Each year, researchers from some of the most prestigious labs in the country meet with entrepreneurs who can dream up ways to turn their work into gold. Out of 45-50 finalists in the CCTO start-up boot camp, five winners receive cash and professional services totaling around $100,000 each, but each finalist comes out with a fully fleshed out business plan and a lot of valuable connections.

whole story

Reliance Industries to enter solar energy market

2008-04-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India's biggest listed firm, plans an investment of $25 billion over the next five years in solar energy acquisitions and greenfield projects for photovoltaic cells.
Reliance's recent investment in semiconductor fabrication plants is not for computer chips but mainly for solar panels.
RIL has submitted the proposal for setting up two units with a total investment of Rs 30,000 crore.
One unit will be for manufacture of semiconductor wafer fab with assembly, test, mark and packaging facility at an investment of Rs 18,000 crore. RIL is in talks with states of Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana to set up a unit.
Another solar project will be located in Jamnagar with an investment of about Rs11,000 crore.
Reliance is already experimenting with a pilot project in Maharashtra where it is electrifying 84 villages with solar power.
At the current pace of 20 per cent annual growth, experts expect India’s solar sector to emerge as the fourth largest generator of solar energy after Germany, Japan and China in the coming years.

Project Architect: UNICEF Child Friendly Schools

2008-04-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

Volunteer Opportunities

Location: Ganta, Liberia
Type: Design Fellowship

Architecture for Humanity in partnership with UNICEF is seeking a project architect to assist in the design and construction of an innovative school program in post-conflict border areas of Western Africa. The program will involve building two prototype facilities, a primary school and a secondary school, that incorporate the guidelines of UNICEF's Child Friendly School approach. Each school will include innovative learning environments, but will incorporate alternative energy sources, water reclamation, basic services play spaces, and will serve as a model for sustainable development in the region.

The goal: to support peace building by designing world class schools that inspire a love of learning and create a sense of harmony between the school, the surrounding community and the environment. If successful, the program will be expanded to include similar schools in the border regions of Western Africa benefiting thousands of students and teachers.

Calera Corporation

2008-04-07T01:15:00.000-07:00

calera corporation a start-up by a former Stanford professor Brent Constantz (a specialist in earth sciences) .It is one of the portfolio company of khosla ventures .They are into Sustainable, Renewable New Building Materials .
Calera Corporation is dedicated to reversing global warming and ocean acidification by trapping the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in the built environment, proactively reducing the level of free carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.

Architectural firms Going Global

2008-04-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

Western design firms are cashing in on international construction hotspots by opening foreign offices equipped to serve the local clientele.And thanks in part to the evolving globalization of economies and the advances in electronic communication,working overseas is more feasible for design professionals than ever before.

Of course, venturing beyond your familiar business circle to the global stage requires a somewhat intimidating investment. After all, hiring special consultants to educate you on the local practices, relocating and housing staff, and
maneuvering through government bureaucracy are not without steep price tags. However, the move can pay off for those willing to think beyond today’s dollars — and toward tomorrow’s euros, rupees and yen.

“When we consider opening an [international] office, we know that the first few years will require more investment with less return,”Ray Hoover, AIA, Managing Principal of Atlanta-based Thompson,Ventulett, Stainback and Associates(TVS), a multi-disciplinary firm of more than 300 people. TVS has maintained an office in Dubai for the past four years and is now opening one in Shanghai, China.

wise companies aren’t just looking for profits — they’re also looking for growth and stability. By spreading offices across different countries, a firm diversifies its cash flow supply, says Cheryl Neumann,COO and Executive Vice President of Wilson Associates, a Dallas, Texasbased interior design firm.“When one market is up and one is down, we’ve got coverage,” she says.“There are times when not every office is going gangbusters, and the diversification helps us manage through.” Wilson Associates is well diversified, with offices in three major U.S. cities, as well as in Singapore,South Africa, China and India.

Leo A. Daly, a 1,200-person interiors,architecture and planning firm based in Omaha, Neb. “You can go to the hotspots and hope to do work, or you create relationships and let the clients tell you where they need you.”Dalluge’s firm takes the latter, more service-focused approach.Dalluge takes pride in noting that Leo A. Daly was one of the first design companies to venture into China, opening there in 1967. “We wanted to be an international company,”he says. It was part of the firm’s strategic plan.Neumann agrees that, first andforemost, having overseas offices is primarily about clients. “It gives our clients a perceived closeness,” she says. With that closeness comes a stronger designer/client relationship,and as any business-savvy designer will attest, it is relationships that continue feeding work to a hungry company.That said, one of the biggest pulls and payoffs to establishing foreign branches is the opportunity to createone-of-a-kind, world-class buildings that would probably never get built in a developed Western nation. In fact,many designers choose to become designers to test boundaries by creating.

entrepreneurs architects

2008-03-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

via - VOLUME

In order to actively grapple with the challenges of our age, architects have to transform themselves from extremely competent executors of assignments into entrepreneurs and producers.

How true!.

Fun with Photoshop

2008-02-27T04:42:00.000-08:00

when one gets bored with all those drawings what can bring smile to your face .....yup its colouring ..one of my lazy days work !

study report - Village settlement pattern - Rajasansi village

2008-02-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

Few years back in college we did a study on village pattern of a border ( INDIA-PAK) village in north INDIA . The name of the village is RAJASANSI and it got few specimen of old sikh architecture buildings . We studied the pattern of settlement of the village and how it has changed over the last 200 years . Few of the old structures are in ruines . Hope they survive another century ....

Sustainable Real Estate Development in India Starts to Gain Momentum

2008-02-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj Paper Evaluates Emerging Trends and Adoption of Sustainable Practices in India

Taking action on India’s environmental crisis is no longer an option – it is a necessity. Sustainable real estate presents India with an unique and enormous opportunity to make concrete progress in the country’s effort to improve its environment. In a recent research report titled ‘Sustainable Real Estate Development in India’, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj highlights the increasing trend of sustainable development in India. There is greater consciousness towards the environmental crisis in India with terms such as sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and triple bottom reporting becoming more common in the real estate industry. The report also details the best practices and processes that owners and occupiers can adopt to reduce the environmental impact of their real estate assets and at the same time, gain from substantial ROI (Return on Investment) from their ‘green’ initiatives.

The ‘Sustainable Real Estate Development in India’ report points out that despite the ever rising construction activity, awareness of sustainability in India has significantly lagged behind countries in the West. Nevertheless with the growing importance of environmentalism in India, the Indian commercial sector has begun to make conscious efforts towards creating sustainable real estate. With support from the Indian government, almost 40 construction projects that are currently underway are registered with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). LEED is soon emerging as the preferred rating system as it is flexible enough to be applied to a diverse variety of markets and also because it enjoys the greatest recognition of the various international rating systems. This recognition is especially important when one considers that a prime motivator for developers to create a certified sustainable building is to differentiate their project from competition. The government has introduced several schemes to encourage sustainability such as the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) schemes for subsidising capital for installation of solar water heaters, encouragement of energy audits and management schemes, mandatory use of fly ash-based construction material, groundwater and rain water harvesting and most importantly increased monitoring of air and water pollution.

The green building revolution by jerry yuldelson

2008-02-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks jerry for a such a wonderfull book with the right information . I really cherished reading it .

Michelangelo writes....

2008-02-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

THE LOVER AND THE SCULPTOR

The best of artist hath no thought to show
which the rough stone in its superfluous shell
doth not include; to break the marble spell
is all the hand that serves the brain can do.

THE ARTIST AND HIS WORK

How can that be , lady,which all men learn
by long experience? shapes that seem alive,
wrought in hard mountain marble, will survive
their maker, whom the years to dust return!

BEAUTY AND THE ARTIST

Beauteous art, brought with us from heaven,
will conquer nature; so divine a power
belongs to him who strives with every nerve.

If I was made for art, from childhood given
a prey for burning beauty to devour ,
I blame the mistress I was born to serve.

From THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY by IRVING STONE

Barcelona Chair

2008-02-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

concrete wall projects

2008-02-10T03:33:00.000-08:00

via BD online

story by will hunter

Concrete is too often used in predictable forms, but there’s nothing routine about Alan Chandler’s Wall One or Gramazio & Kohler’s Perforated Wall

It is perhaps concrete’s rectilinear familiarity, coupled with its ability to fit almost any formwork, that has prompted architecture schools to find new ways to interpret the material.

The two examples here have taken strikingly different approaches. Alan Chandler and his students at East London University wanted to see if they could merge the design process with the construction process. They found they could respond to the fabric formwork’s unpredictability, intuitively placing “buttons” as pouring progressed.

Architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, who teach at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, were more interested in how digital modelling and production techniques could be used to make a wall read as a 3D experience rather than as a 2D surface.

Project- Wall One

Project Perforated Wall

Multitouch os concept by NID guys

2008-01-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

check out blog A Touch Sensitive Desktop

Green skyscraper will have 'steel-like' concrete skin

2008-01-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

Paris-based architect Jacques Ferrier was at the AIA Show in San Antonio earlier this month to show off his latest concept for a “green” mixed-use skyscraper, called Hypergreen.
The design, which was recently submitted for a project competition in Paris, incorporates a curving lattice façade made of ultra-high-performance concrete that will act as the building’s primary structural system. The thin, prefabricated concrete members will free the interior structure from any wind-bracing functions, reducing the number of columns required to support the floor plates.

Height: 246 meters
Green features:

* Geothermal heat pumps
* Photovoltaic panels
* Wind turbines
* Earth cooling tubes
* Vegetated sky lobbies
* Roof garden
* Rainwater recovery
* Highly flexible and adaptable floor plates
* Deconstructability

Structural system:

* High-performance concrete exoskeleton made of Ductal from Lafarge
* Interior frame structure built with precast reinforced concrete

via architectural videos & Building design+construction

Ishanya Concept

2008-01-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

Ishanya is a India's largest Specialty Mall focused on the interior and exterior needs of a home or office owner, builder/ developer or an architect and facilitates shopping that is destination based. It is located in Pune .
Ishanya is a destination mall that combines retail with over 5000 brands, spread across 100 retail outlets packaged with customer conveniences like design consultants, design studios and services, knowledge centre and information centre etc to aid customers in informed decision making.

It is the only design centre endorsed by the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID) and the Confederation of Construction Products and Services (CCPS).

Ishanya is unique. It's a business destination by day and a cultural hub by the evening. With its amphitheatre and art galleries Ishanya features the finest in the arts – whether visual or performing.

BEL-AIR

2007-12-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

BEL-AIR is a new filtering system using plants designed by Mathieu Lehanneur

via www.mathieulehanneur.com

The air quality indoors is worse than outdoors. Plastic used for our daily furniture production emits pollutants (benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene) whose levels are maximal during warm and humid periods.
Crucial for the health of the NASA's astronauts, who stay in orbital station in a polymer-saturated environment, the American agency has set up an air purifying system by plants research program in the early 80's. With Bel-Air , this program is now completed and optimized by french designer Mathieu Lehanneur, together with the Harvard University scientist David Edwards, and ready for domestic use.
Bel-Air is a mini mobile greenhouse that continuously inhales the
space-polluted air that goes through tree natural filters: the plant leaves, its roots, and a humid bath before rejecting it purified.

"Bel-Air" (News about a Second Atmosphere)" is currently presented in Paris until January 14, 2008 at the Laboratoire, a new Parisian creation site initiating collaborations between artists, designers and scientists.
"Bel-air" will be presented at the MoMA (New York) in the exhibition
"Design and the Elastic mind" starting next February.

Mathieu Lehanneur takes part of the "Design Now" selection, edited by Taschen this fall, as one of the 80 designers the most innovating in the world. Graduate from ENSCI- Les Ateliers in 2001, he explores the technological advances for their functional possibilities and their capacities to produce magic. His research works emphasizes on the relations and the invisible frictions that govern our relations to the daily environment.

DESIGN PSYCHOLOGY

2007-12-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Design Psychology, a new discipline introduced at the 1999 American Psychological Association annual conference,involves the practice of architectural, interior and landscape design in which psychology is used as the principle design tool. Rather than looking outward to shelter magazines or to the signature styles of architects and interior designers,Design Psychologists call upon their clients to look inward for place inspiration. Design Psychologists help clients engage in environmental self-reflection, bringing to the fore the vast personal store of experience and emotions that contribute to their clients’ vision of ideal place.Inevitably, such self-reflection involves an exploration of the past, present and future links between self and place.

Jones Lang LaSalle plans to invest $5 bn in Property market

2007-12-18T09:49:00.000-08:00

The world’s leading integrated global real estate services and money management firm, Jones Lang LaSalle is planning to strengthen its position in India. Seeing the lucrative opportunities in the mushrooming Indian Real Estate market, the firm is thinking of investing $5 billion in the Real Estate sector. Recently, Jones Lang LaSalle merged with Trammel Crow Meghraj, a property consultant based in Mumbai.

Colin Dyer, president and chief executive officer, Jones Lang LaSalle said that they don’t have any presence in India’s investment management service sector and they have lined up plans to bring in the business to the country. He also added that the firm has allocated close to $20 billion for the Asia-Pacific region, and India would get anywhere close to 5% of the amount.

The fund would be deployed in the high growth sectors like real estate, hospitality and infrastructure sectors for investment. For the first time in its 220 years of history, JLL recently hosted in India its global board of directors and global executive committee.

via indianrealtynews

Carbon Reduction in Buildings (CaRB)

2007-12-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

A socio-technical, longitudinal study of carbon use in buildings

CaRB is a major research project funded by the EPSRC and Carbon Trust as part of Carbon Vision Buildings (CVB) - a research programme aimed at reducing carbon emissions from the UK building stock. CVB has been formed out of the Carbon Vision Partnership of the EPSRC and the Carbon Trust, and with the support of the ESRC.

The vision of CaRB is to create an innovative, public domain, socio-technical model of energy use in buildings applicable at national, regional, city and community level. It will predict current carbon emissions and the changes resulting from energy efficiency measures, the deployment of renewable energy technologies and the use of non-technical interventions. CaRB is being conducted by a consortium of five universities in the UK in partnership with ESD and RICS.

5 universtities are:-

1. The Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD) is a specialist research, consultancy and teaching group based within De Montfort University
2 .The Barlett , Faculity of built environment
3.University of Reading
4. The University of sheffield
5.The University of Manchester

Bentley Architecture

2007-12-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

A comprehensive building information modeling (BIM) solution for architectural design and documentation.

With an intuitive user interface, extensive libraries of building components, and powerful tools for modeling,drafting, and reporting, Bentley Architecture supports all phases of the architectural workflow, from conceptual design to construction documentation. Integrating design, visualization, drawing production, and reporting,Bentley Architecture is part of Bentley’s BIM solution of integrated design, engineering, and management applications for the entire lifecycle of constructed assets. Used on large and complex projects around the world,Bentley Architecture was specifically developed to support workgroups and distributed teams in a managed environment, allowing architects, engineers, and contractors to build as one.

BIM enables business-critical benefits over traditional computer-aided drafting (CAD), eliminates waste, significantly reduces errors and omissions, provides greater predictability of costs and performance, allows exploration of more design options, and ultimately results in better buildings.

Bentley’s unifying technology platform and discipline-specific applications for the AEC industry, include:

1.Bentley Architecture
2.Bentley Structural
3.STAAD.Pro
4.RAM
5.ProSteel
6.Bentley Building Mechanical Systems
7.Bentley Building Electrical Systems
8.Bentley Facilities
9.GenerativeComponents
10.MicroStation
11.ProjectWise
12.Bentley Navigator
13.Site Design Solutions
14.Infrastructure Solutions
15.PDF Composer

FEATURES

Building information modeling

- Comprehensive and dedicated tools for every type of building component.
- Parametric, dimension-driven creation and modification of building components
- User-definable attribute schemas (property sets) for any type of building object
- Inherent component attributes and properties significant for design ,
documentation,analysis, construction, and operations.
- Embedded parameters, rules and constraints to capture design intent.
- Relationships and associativity between architectural elements for rapid design
changes.
- Flood-option for automatic generation of spaces, floors and ceiling slabs.
- Automated placement of finishes to walls and columns .
- Suspended ceiling tools with space height detection option .
- Terrain modeling, roof and stair builder tools .
- Support for international steel section tables.
- Powerful solid modeling for easy creation of virtually any form .
- Double-curved surfaces and solids for accurate construction information and smooth rendering.

Ease of Use

- Work in plan, elevation, isometric, or perspective view .
- AccuDraw function .
- Choice to work in 2D plans, 3D models, or both – with a single set of tools.
- Storage of ‘most recently used’ input.
- Enforcement of national, corporate, and project standards .
- Multiple filtering options, e.g. by level, by symbology, by attribute,by selection set, etc.
- Customizable interface and workspaces .
- Floor management tool for floors and floor reference planes.
- On-line help.

Construction Documentation

- Creation of coordinated floor plans, sections, and elevations .
- Automatic coordination of architectural design and construction documentation.
- Automatic re-symbolization of 3D objects to 2D symbols.
- Material-dependent hatching/patterning, annotation, and dimensioning.
- User-definable labeling of building objects and spaces .
- Incremental doors and window numbering .
- Room and component schedules, quantity and cost calculation, specifications .
- Compatibility with office automation tools for further processing and formatting.

Design visualization and 3D output

- High-end integrated rendering and animation tools, including radiosity and particle tracing.
- Export to STL to support rapid model making and prototyping with 3D printers, laser cutters, and stereo lithography machines .
- Support of 3D Web formats, such as VRML, QuickVision, panoramas .
- Publish Bentley Architecture models to the Google Earth environment.

Support of 3D within Adobe PDF

- Creation of Adobe PDF documents directly from Bentley Architecture with embedded 3D navigational models.
- Include DGN and DWG drawings, project documents, renderings, and interactive and animated 3D models .
- Navigate models in PDF using hyperlinks and bookmarks.

Support of international and custom standards

- Create, manage, verify, and enforce company and project standards .
- Support for U.S. and other national CAD standards .
- Support of DGN, DWG, DXF, PDF, STEP, IGES, STL, and other major industry standards.
- Import/export of IFC 2x, the emerging standards for sharing building information.
- Viewing of ADT multi-view blocks.

Interoperability with building engineering, analysis and facilities management

- Full integration with Bentley Structural, Bentley Building Mechanical Systems, Bentley Building Electrical Systems, Bentley Facilities, and more.
- A shared multi-disciplinary model for team collaboration and coordination .
- Interference detection across multiple files and disciplines in conjunction with Bentley Interference Manager.
- Simulation of construction schedules in conjunction with Bentley Navigator and project management applications, such as Microsoft® Project or Primavera® P3.

Smart Geometry workshop 2008 at munich, Germany

2007-12-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

The SmartGeometry group has been created in the belief that Computer Aided Design lends itself to capturing the geometric relationships that form the foundation of architecture.

SmartGeometery is organising a conference features a day long agenda focused on advanced computational and parametric design. Parametric design tools and consequential manufacturing technology are allowing new forms of architectural and structural expression which are changing radically the world of the built environment. Sessions will also include a selection of highlights from the four day workshop being held before the conference — providing a wonderful immediacy to the issues and concepts discussed. The SmartGeometry Group is dedicated to educating building professionals in the application of advanced 3D design tools and computational design.

Events :-

1.Generative Components Pre-Training Class
February 27 – 28
2.Generative Components Workshops
February 29 – March 3
3.SmartGeometry Alumni Summit
March 4
4.SmartGeometry Conference and Reception »
March 5

From smartgeometery 2008

The workshop is a unique annual opportunity to meet and work with tutors from some of the leading practices exploiting new parametric technologies as design methodologies.
The key focus this year is on design to manufacture. Increasingly areas of expertise are converging based on digital tools and in today’s environment operating between multiple computing environments is common. Although the base software used at the course will be Bentley’s Generative Components (provided for free to attendees) several of the workshops will explore links to other design, computation and design environments. For applicants unfamiliar with GC there will be a compulsory 2-day free training course immediately preceding the workshop.

Other workshops will focus on linkages to analysis for performance evaluation such as environmental, structural, and of course light simulation.

Workshop tutors

Workshop groups are led by 22 tutors, including these senior tutors.

Achim Menges - Architectural Association London / HFG Offenbach
Andrew Kudless - California College of the Arts / Matsys
Axel Kilian - TU Delft / designexplorer.net
Brady Peters - Foster and Partners
Chris Williams - Bath University
Francis Aish - Foster and Partners
Hugh Whitehead - Foster and Partners
Jalal El Ali - Buro Happold
Jeroen Coenders - Arup
Jonathan Rabagliati - Foster and Partners
J Parrish - Arup Sport
Judit Kimpian - Aedas
Kaustuv De Biswas - MIT
Lars Hesselgren - KPF
Mirco Becker – KPF
Onur Yuce Gun - KPF
Rob Woodbury - Simon Fraser University
Roly Hudson - Bath University
Shane Burger - Grimshaw
Steve Sanderson - SHoP
Stylianos Dritsas – KPF
Xavier De Kestelier - Foster and Partners

Applied Materials Inc

2007-12-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Today's mint inteview was with Mr Charles Gay VP and general manager , solar business group , at applied materials inc , the california based technology solution firm .Mr charles was in Mumbai to participate in a conference on advances in energy research at the IIT , Mumbai .

Applied Material Inc is a global leader in nanomanufacturing technology solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass.

The talk was about advancement in solar technologies which will replace the traditional source of energy .I was surprised to read about a material called SunFab .SunFab is a thin layer of silicon atoms .
It will replace the huge solar panels which is the only image i get whenever i think about solar energy but research is going to redefine the old boundaries and create a world beyond our imagination . These materials will redefine the way we built and the way we perceive our habitable spaces .

About Sunfab:-

Applied Material Inc got Green Innovator award for SunFab.

The thickness of the film is approximately 10 nanometers which is 10,000 times thinner than human hair .The film is so thin that it can be applied on the huge glass facades of the buildings . According to Mr Charles only 10% of installation of this film is on facades of the buildings .

There can be few reasons for it :-

1. Lack of awareness among architects about this technology .
2. Lack of availability of the material ( in Indian context ) .
3. The installation cost which can scare the client and force architects to go for cheaper materials .
4. Lack of risk taking ability ( can be in architect or client ).

Advanced glass manufacturing processes, developed by Applied Materials Glass Coating Products, allow glass manufacturers to produce revolutionary new glass products that enhance the energy efficiency of homes and offices.
Applied Materials’ state-of-the-art vacuum coating systems for the architectural and automotive glass industry allow glass manufacturers to produce large area (up to 3.2M x 6M) functional glass with solar-control and variations of low-e coatings and increased performance at reduced coating costs per unit.

Another question was about the capital investment in solar power by Venture capitalist firms . (Khosla Partners)got venture fund for renewable energy .Vinod Khosla's Khosla partners had already invested in 26 renewable energy startup's . The whole list of the startup's can be found here

2007-12-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

steven holl architects - city within city

2007-12-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

shortage of architects in India

2007-11-29T22:51:00.000-08:00

via mint

challenges before construction industry

Construction in India is growing at about 30% a year; architects joining the industry by just about 10% .

There are 86 architecture schools in the country, from where 3,000-4,500 architects graduate every year. This is barely sufficient to meet the demand. What’s alarming, accordingto a survey conducted by E2e Business Solutions,a people management company,is that architectural firms in India are having a hard time stemming attrition. The survey estimated an attrition level of close to 50% in firms at the entry level, especially over the last three year.

Builders cashing in on three years of galloping real estate values are creating developments that have moved beyond stand-alone commercial blocks and residences—they
are converting vast swathes of land into townships.And that’s set off a race for
architects and fattened pay packets.and even with a doubling of salaries almost every
year, there just aren’t enough specialists going around.

“The growing pains of Indian architectural and consultancy firms are not new, as they have been experienced in many markets around the world in similar boom cycles. Our advice to the India construction world is not to be fooled by the hype and build for the long term,” said Jeffrey M. West, director, project management services,DTZ India.The rush for talent is so acute that firms are getting in architects from overseas—from locations ranging from nearby Singapore to far-off North America, if they can afford it.

“We have tied up with Hok, a leading architect company in the US. This has helped create newer designs, in terms of space management in our forthcoming SEZ (special economic zone) venture in Chennai,”says S.S. Asokan, executive director, Shriram Properties Ltd.Others have joined the fray.Unitech Ltd, the country’s second largest real estate developer by market capitalization,behind DLF Ltd, has just assigned one of India’s most expensive commercial buildings that will come up in Mumbai.The complex will be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Llp.,

Irfan Razack, chairman and managing director, Prestige Group, explains, “The challenge lies in trying to retain good talent. This may not be difficult for leading names, but smaller ones are busy training newcomers and this is an
ongoing process.”As a result, smaller firms are facing a problem. Projects are getting delayed as they try to juggle training architects and hiring new ones almost as soon as the trained ones leave for bigger and better offers

.“Leading construction companies are even willing to pay Rs4 lakh per month to hold on to skilled professionals,” explains Subrata Kumar Ghosh, chief architect, Ansal Housing and Construction Ltd.

EnviroMODE

2007-11-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

check out the products

extract from news release

Thinking outside the box is something EnviroGLAS Products principal Tim Whaley does well. Nicknamed “Scrappy” by the Dallas Business Journal, the Texas entrepreneur was granted a U.S. patent in 2003 for developing the ‘method of making a terrazzo surface from recycled glass.’ The idea for combining the multi-colored crystals with epoxy resin to create recycled glass terrazzo came to him after he saw a news story in July 2002 about Plano, Texas’s overabundance of crushed recycled glass.

Two years and several awards later (including the Recycling Alliance of Texas’s 2003 “Closing the Loop Program” award and the Texas Environmental Excellence Award for small business in 2005) Whaley is at it again. This time it was the City of Dallas who asked him if he could do anything with a bunch of old toilets and commodes. The juices started flowing and soon EnviroMODE™ was born.

This brand new terrazzo surface is made from recycled tubs, sinks and toilets.

Recycled Toilets Find a Home

Green building consultant

2007-11-28T10:40:00.000-08:00

Urban Rhythm by DeanChristopher

2007-11-27T01:24:00.000-08:00

check out dean cristopher's blog and his photography potfolio

Increase in Cement Production by Increasing Dry Fly Ash Addition

2007-11-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

Company details

Dalmia Cement (B) Ltd started cement production
operations in 1939 at Dalmiapuram.Then, the capacity of this Polysius plant was 250 TPD clinker production. Presently the total capacity is 4600 TPD of clinker production, due to continuous up gradation. How ever, still the old machinery of
1939 plant is in operation continuously.Dalmia cement manufactures a variety of cement Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolona Cement (PPC),OilWell Cement, Rapid Healing Cement etc.

Project Details

Fly ash is being used as a pozzolonic material for producing Portland Pozzolona Cement (PPC). This helps in material(Limestone, Clinker & Coke) conservation.
Previously out of the total fly ash addition, only 15% was dry fly ash. In the remaining wet flyash, the moisture content was as high as 25%. The higher moisture content has resulted in reduction of mill output.

In order to remove the moisture and increase the mill output the total heat requirement is about 14Mkcal/hr, out of which 11Mkcal is provided from the cooler vent and the remaining heat which is about 3Mkcal is provided by burning fuel.
The percentage dry fly ash addition was limited by the dry fly ash handling system.

Action taken

The plant team debated & brainstormed various aspects to identify and increase the utilization of fly ash.Various options including installing a new silo and a new fly ash handling system was one of the main aspects considered. How ever this scheme involved major capital investment & posed several layout related issues.The unit, how ever had some old raw meal silos which were a part of the earlier plant configuration. This silo did not have any role in the modernized unit & hence the plant team decided to use this idle capacity available for storing fly ash.
Using the pneumatic conveying system the dry fly ash from silo is transported to intermediate hopper. From the hopper the dry fly ash is fed to the mill feed chute in a controlled manner.
This resulted in increasing the dry fly ash addition from 15 to
40%, resulting in both electrical and thermal energy savings.

Results of the project

1.Electrical power savings of about 3,60,000 kWh,equivalent to a monetary saving of Rs 1.5 million
2.Coal saving of about 793 tons, amounting to about Rs 2.84 million
3.Total saving of Rs 4.34 million per annum
4.Reduction in fugitive emissions.

via Green business center

Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth

2007-11-21T00:31:00.000-08:00

Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth is the first work to intervene directly in the fabric of the Turbine Hall. Rather than fill this iconic space with a conventional sculpture or installation, Salcedo has created a subterranean chasm that stretches the length of the Turbine Hall. The concrete walls of the crevice are ruptured by a steel mesh fence, creating a tension between these elements that resist yet depend on one another. By making the floor the principal focus of her project, Salcedo dramatically shifts our perception of the Turbine Hall’s architecture, subtly subverting its claims to monumentality and grandeur.

Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built.

How Design Management Helps Companies

2007-11-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Everything designed, be it a product, identity, interface, architecture or communication, has one thing in common—it has to be managed.

Design management is the way to enhance collaboration and synergy between “design” and “business”.

In the UK, companies that are “effective users of design” outperformed the stock market by 200% over the last decade. —British Design Council, Design Index

Design management is the art and science of empowering design, for social, economic
and environmental benefit.

To use design effectively, companies apply design management methods and processes which include:

> Research and observation
> Envision future scenarios
> Innovation planning
> Create design strategy
> Build corporate reputation
> Visualization and modeling
> Design infrastructure
> Design organizations
> Design sourcing
> Financial resources
> Design process
> Creativity management

Incollaboration with DesignSingapore Council,DMI-theDesignManagement Institute ,will
host an exceptional conference on November28-29,2007 in Singapore.

Venture capital investment in clean technologies companies

2007-11-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

Chennai metro rail project

2007-11-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government today announced that it would implement the metro rail project, envisaged to ease traffic congestion in the metropolis, at an estimated cost of Rs 9,757 crore.

Of the total 46.5 km stretch, about 20 km would be underground and the remaining line would be elevated, the release said.

The Keys to Marketing Green Building

2007-11-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

By Jerry Yudelson,, P.E., MBA, LEED AP, Yudelson Assocs., Tucson, Ariz. -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 5/1/2007

Engineering firms are beginning to realize that the green building revolution is here to stay and that they should join in. In 2006, LEED-registered projects increased 50% over the previous year, and LEED-certified projects increased nearly 70%, which suggests that more firms are accumulating green building expertise with each passing year. My own projection of green building growth points to a cumulative total of 24,000 LEED-NC registered projects by the end of 2012—a six-fold increase in just six years.

The keys
There is no single competitive response to the growing green building market that is right for every design firm, because much has to do with the 4 Cs—the clarity of the company's strategic vision, the firm's capability to execute its vision, the capital available for marketing and sustainability initiatives and the character of the principals—their willingness to “walk the talk” of green engineering. Nevertheless, a conscious choice among strategies, and a clear focus on one dominant approach, is vastly preferable to having none or just improving responses to opportunities. This series describes seven good ideas for developing a marketing strategy.

The seven keys to marketing green building are a combination of two familiar principles of marketing, as shown in the STP formula (p. 30): Segment your market, target key segments and position your company, and then, use the building blocks of competitive strategy—differentiation, cost and focus—to achieve success

The whole arcticle can be found here

construction boom in India and Middle east

2007-11-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Extract from - Knowledge@wharton

"The turnover of all construction companies in India last year was around $15 billion. This year it may rise to $20 billion. But a total of $50 billion is [slated] to be spent on construction every year in India, which requires a capability of 2.5 times the sector's size."

India's planned infrastructure outlay over the next five years has been revised upward by various government authorities, from $150 billion to almost $475 billion. The country currently spends around $21 billion a year on infrastructure, compared to China's $150 billion.

Consider the various construction firms:

1. Punj Lloyd, one of the country's largest engineering, procurement and Construction (EPC) companies, earned 72% more income for the quarter ended June 2007, at Rs1, 4179.5 million ($359.43 million). Yet, its order backlog rose to Rs 152,250 million ($3,859.32 million).
2. Larsen & Toubro, one of Asia's largest vertically integrated engineering and construction companies, announced that gross sales rose 47% in the quarter ended September 2007 to Rs 55.74 billion ($1.41 billion), and yet its order backlog rose to a record Rs 400 billion ($10.14 billion).
3. At Wartsila India, which had an order book of one times sales in 2003, the backlogs have risen to almost three times that amount.
4. Patel Engineering, which expects to close the current year with sales of Rs 16,000 million ($405.58 million) has an order book of Rs 54,000 million ($1.37 billion).

Rupen Patel, managing director of Patel Engineering, says that alone, the planned roll-out of highways by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) over the course of the next 10 years exceeds the total turnover of all construction companies in India today.

"Construction companies have never seen such a boom in India. Even if [they all] did only road projects and left all work on building airports and power plants aside, NHAI still has more work to offer than firms can take.”

Almost every Indian company -- big or small -- that has some expertise in
Construction finds itself flooded with orders that are nearly three to four times its annual sales. The size and pace of orders could threaten the development of the country's already creaking and short-supplied infrastructure. "Execution is the biggest issue in India today, especially on time and within budget," says Pratyush Kumar, president and chief executive officer of GE Infrastructure, India.

Foreign firms might view the huge gap between the sector's existing capabilities and those required as an opportunity to make their mark in India. Indeed, the infrastructure spending boom in India has benefited a bevy of overseas companies, such as Dongfang Electric Corporation in China and Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Company in Korea, who are filling orders for turbines used to generate power. A number of leading global construction companies, such as Australia's Leighton Holdings and Italian-Thai Development Public Company, have also entered India.

CHALLENGES :-

1. Skilled-labor Shortage

It's difficult to fathom the words "talent shortage" in a country of a billion people that's getting younger over time. But speak to any infrastructure builder, and you hear anecdotes about shortages of trained fitters, welders, masons and plumbers. "Whether we will get the people necessary to support the growth
is the real challenge. Both engineering and blue-collared skilled workers are in short supply. Fitters and welders are not available in the numbers you want. The industry also needs mechanical engineers who have worked in capital goods industries and would like to pursue a career [in that sector] rather than Switch into software," says Allen Antao, vice president, process equipment, at Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company.

2. Equipment shortage

At the lower end of the skills chain, companies are responding to labor shortages by automating parts of the production process, which makes them less susceptible to shortages of vocational staff. As a result of this, and partly in response to customer demand for faster build-outs, construction companies that once relied on an army of cheap labor now employ a variety of equipment, from low-end concrete mixers to goods elevators and tipper trucks for transporting materials, tower cranes, tunnel-boring machines, robotic drills and hydraulic excavators.

Patel, for instance, has spent Rs 600 million to Rs 800 million ($ 20.28 million) so far to build an equipment bank, while IVRCL estimates it has invested between Rs 2,500 million to Rs 2,750 million ($69.71 million) in equipment so far.

The boom in building activity in Asia and the Middle East has not only increased demand for such building equipment but also resulted in a rise in lease rentals and forced many companies to own equipment. This has made the operations of such companies far more capital intensive.

While funds can be raised, companies have also been rethinking their work methods and the building materials they use. Many companies now employ ready-mix concrete rather than prepare a cement and sand mixture on site. This helps speed up production since ready-made cement can be poured faster and in a uniform consistency to lay out foundations and pillars. Companies have also started employing prefabricated materials -- like brick wall sections or Siporex blocks for ceilings -- to help speed things up while using less manual labor. "India may soon move to [another] stage of mechanization, where developers use completely knock-down assembly components to build projects."

2007-11-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

In one of my regular visits to the atelier A+D blog ,i was amused to find an article written by Michelle Linden in a online magazine called art signal .Hope to see more of your ideas!

Sherwood Forest’s new tree

2007-10-26T22:06:00.001-07:00

The Tree features a café, educational facilities and a shop at its roots, with a spiralling walkway leading up the trunk and through the branches and to a 30m-high viewing platform

via BD online

CPH Experiments

2007-10-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

An exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC
Oct 2 2007 - Nov 24 2007

BIG is a Copenhagen based group of over 80 architects, designers, builders and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. In their projects, BIG tests the effects of size and the balance of programmatic mixtures on the triple bottom line of the social, economical and ecological outcome. Like a form of programmatic alchemy, they create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, and shopping.
The exhibition will showcase some built works and a number of large-scale models illustrating proposals for innovative residential typologies, all of which are situated in Copenhagen. Focusing on Kløverkarrén, BIG House, the LEGO project, Mountain Dwellings and VM Houses (both designed in conjunction with JDS Architects), the exhibition presents a broad spectrum of the research that has gone into varying housing solutions for different generational attitudes and economical backgrounds

TREMIX Vacuum System

2007-10-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Tremix Vacuum System is a method for laying high-quality concrete floors at an acceptable cost. The key of the method is dewatering concrete by the vacuum process.

Through vacuum dewatering,the surplus water is removed from the concrete, which means that the water/cement ratio automatically leads to a noticeable improvement of almost each of the concrete properties. These improvements are particularly noticeable on the top surface i.e. the most vital part of a floor.

The 24-hour-strength of the vacuum dewatered concrete slab is much higher, which reduces the risk of damage on a newly cast floor.The final strength is about 50 % higher than that of a conventional concrete floor.

Advantages:-

* Higher and more uniform quality
* Increased tensile strength in bending
* Thinner slabs - lower cost
* Minimized plastic shrinkage
* Minimized dry shrinkage
* Increased wear resistance
* Improved frost resistance
* Minimized crack formation
* High flatness accuracy
* Better adhesion to the base, when casting
a wear course on already hardened concrete
* No curling

Accelerating innovation in concrete: Lafarge inaugurates a unique new research facility

2007-10-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Lafarge inaugurating a new technological building dedicated to innovation in concrete at its research center in L’Isle d’Abeau, near Lyons, the world’s largest building materials research facility. The creation of this unique facility demonstrates Lafarge’s drive to accelerate the implementation of its strategy for innovation in concrete, a major strategic focus of its "Excellence 2008" plan.

With floor space of 2500m² and a ceiling 12m in height, the building houses an experimental concrete plant where laboratory research results will be tested in real time on an industrial scale. It also houses specific testing zones where materials can be tested and manipulated. This new research facility will therefore enable testing of formulas or experimental plans on an industrial scale while controlling external factors such as temperature or hygrometry. This will considerably speed up time to market for innovative products and solutions for the construction industry.

The floor was laid using Extensia™, a concrete with exceptional properties launched earlier this year, itself the result of research carried out at the L’Isle d’Abeau research center. Whereas before, it was not possible to pour slabs over 25m² without joints, Extensia™ makes it possible to pour 400m² surfaces without joints, a real technological breakthrough for the industry. What is more, its exceptional resistance allows a reduction in slab thickness, means that there is no need for steel mesh or fibers, and reduces maintenance requirements. The product therefore has a reduced ecological footprint, in particular through a significant reduction in the CO2 emissions usually associated with pouring a large floor surface.

Marx and engels theory on Art

2007-10-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

Extract from - Marx and engels -On literature and art

when developing their theory of Aesthetics, Marx and Engels naturally based themselves on the achievements of their predecessors . But the main aesthetic problems - and above all the problem of the relationship between art and reality - were solved by them in a fundamentally new way, on the basis of materialist dialectics. Idealist asethics consider art as a reproduction of the ideal ,standing over and above reality. The origin of any art form ,its development ,flowering,and decay ,all remained incomprehensible to the art theoreticians and historians of the pre-Marxian period, in as much as they studied these in isolation from man's social existence .
Marx and Engels considered it absolutely impossible to understand art and literature proceeding only from their internal law of development .In their opinion ,the essence ,origin,development,and social role of art could only be understood through analysis of the social system as a whole , within which the economic factor - the development of productive forces in complex interaction with production relations- plays the decisive role .Thus art ,as defined by Marx and Engels ,is one of the forms of social consciousness and it therefore follows that the reasons for its changes should be sought in the social existence of man.

Neemrana Fort-Palace Revitalisation, Neemrana, India

2007-10-18T11:41:00.001-07:00

jali designs

2007-10-16T20:44:00.001-07:00

Design for people in need .

2007-10-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was going through bustler and found a Toilet design competition .Its interesting to find a competition which is focusing on the need to sanitary facilities in the developing countries....check it out here

JVC hotel by Zaha Hadid

2007-10-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright calls up the image of " The Floo Floo Bird "

2007-09-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

" I know of nothing more silly than to expect 'government' to solve our advanced problems for us . If we have no ideas , how can government have any ?"

" EARLY IN LIFE ," said the greatest of American Architects , " I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility .I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change ."

Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959 , at the age of ninety-one .During the seven decades of his innovative career ,Wright developed a " Prairie style " in the design of buildings with long, low horizontal lines and open interiors .

In his autobiography , he wrote ," No house should be on any hill or on anything .It should be of the hill ,belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other." This central concern of Wright's work was expressed in the title of his 1939 book ,An organic Architecture .

In 1938 , he addressed a meeting of the Association of Federal Architects. Speaking in the nation's capital , he discussed organic architecture as a field outside of governmental regulation ,and added to his reputation for being irascibly opinionated.

In the speech ,he derogates America's cultural heritage and doubts the effectiveness of government in advancing American architecture .In addition to the repition of "now" to introduce his ideas ,Wright uses rhetorical question and the unforgettable illustration of "the floo floo bird " to construct his argument .

THE SPEECH

The cultural influences in our country are like the floo floo bird .I am referring to the peculiar and especial bird who always flew backwards .To keep the wind out of its eyes ? No .just because it didn't give a darn where it was going , but just had to see where it had been . Now ,in floo floo bird you have the true symbol of our government architecture -too ,and in consequence ,how discredited American culture stands in the present time.All the world knows it to be funny except American .What prevented us and still prevents us from knowing it ? Armchair education ,let's say .

Now ,all this has parallels in history .The Romans were just as incognizant as we of the things of the spirit .They ,too, has no culture of their own. England had none of her own ,and we,having none,got what we have as a substitute second ,third,or fourth hand from them all .Romans culture ,for instance ,was greek. The Romans however,did have great engineers ( you have all heard of the arch),but what did the Romans do with their greatest invention - THE ARCH ? you know well enough that for centuries they wasted it by pasting a travesty of greek trabeation over it to conceal the truth of structure , until finally ,some vulgar Roman ,more "uncultured" than the rest ,one day got up nd said ,"Hell ! take it all away ! What's the matter with arch ?It's a genuine ,beautifull ,and noble thing "; and finally they got it ,got the common arch as indigenous architecture .

We,the modern Romans, probably are going to get architecture something like that same way . We are going to have a true architecture of glass,steel,and the forms that gratify our new sense of space.We are going to have it . No colonial Eden is able ,long,to say us nay .
Culture ,given time ,will catch up and assert itself in spite of reaction. This thing which we call America ,as I have said ,goes around the world today .It is chiefly spirit but that spirit is reality .Not by way of government can we find encouragement of any help .No ,we can have nothing by way of official government until the thing is atleast ten years in past .

What can government do with an advanced idea? If it is still a controversial idea ,and any good idea must be so ,can government touch it without its eye on at least next election ? It cannot .I know of nothing more silly than to expect "government" to solve our advanced problems for us .If we have no ideas,how can government have any ?

Architecture in Second Life Machinima

2007-09-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

Erick van Egeraat designs artificial islands in the shape of Russia

2007-09-27T03:24:00.000-07:00

Erick van Egeraat

Erick van Egeraat has revealed his designs for a 330ha artificial archipelago in the shape of Russia, to be built in the Black Sea near Sochi.

Federation Island, is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. It will consist of seven main islands, over a dozen private islands, and three breakwater islands with sandy beaches, dunes, grasslands, bushes, small forests and riverside. It will contain hotels, cultural, leisure and recreational facilities, beach residences, luxury villas and apartments, dune, river and cliff houses.

The pattern of Russia’s river network is reflected in the island’s waterways, while the country’s mountains are reflected in the island’s relief.

The development will be 15 km from Sochi and the regional Adler airport and near to the cty, marina, airport and skiing resort of Krasnaya Polyana.

Van Egeraat presented the plans to Russian president Vladimir Putin at the International Investment Forum 2007 held in Sochi.

The project is being developed by M-Industries of St Petersburg and designed by Erick van Egeraat in co-operation with Dutch engineering companies Witteveen & Bos and Van Oord Dredging and Marine.

Beautifull pottery

2007-09-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

via dinah_verleun's

Pervious concrete

2007-09-18T21:18:00.001-07:00

via Indiana green living

Coffee isn’t the only thing that needs to percolate. Water needs to perk through the soil to slow down runoff and trap certain pollutants. However, in urban areas, where there is twice as much pavement as buildings, about two-thirds of rainfall hits an impervious surface, where it runs directly into streams, rivers and lakes — unfiltered, or without percolation — carrying with it pollutants like oil, salts and metals that contaminate our water.
We can’t do much about the weather, but there are options for patios, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots and other hard surfaces in the use of porous, or permeable materials.

The move to permeable surfaces is driven by two things, said Drew Bender, regional manager of J.F. New, a natural-resources and ecological consulting firm headquartered in Walkerton, Ind. The first is regulations to require the control of flooding and to improve water quality. Second, there is a cost benefit to developers as space becomes a premium.

"The opportunity to create green space and attractive features in sustainable development is catching on from a marketability standpoint," he said. Because porous concrete or asphalt is a relatively new process, it may seem costly. But that should improve as contractors become more experienced in the process.

Engineers and scientists have made improvements in the design of storm-water filtration systems and have been successful with pervious surfaces. In Chesterton, Ind., the Coffee Creek Center is an example. The effort combines native plants, whose roots filter pollutants, and underground pipes that put wastewater to work, said Steve Barker, director of the Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy. A series of pipes, called level spreaders, move water captured in an underground pond downhill to nourish the plants in an expansive prairie.

Permeable paving is most appropriate for sidewalks, patios, driveways or alleys. It is not for high-traffic or high-speed areas because it has lower load-bearing capacity than conventional pavement.

coffee creak centre

Pervious materials have more voids, or air spaces, which allow water to pass through. Traditional concrete has from 2- to 6-percent void structure, while pervious concrete contains around 25 percent

The method that is used for pervious concrete application is based partially on a soil’s percolation rate. The soil percolation rate is the amount of time water takes to move through soil, measured in minutes per inch. Finer-textured clay soils have slower percolation rates than sandy soils.

store display

2007-09-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

via - dishi54

2007-09-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

WaveRock , Hyderabad

2007-09-11T03:03:00.000-07:00

Architects - Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

TSI Ventures Business Park in Hyderabad is poised to set a precedent in India’s commercial real estate landscape.
It is located in Hyderabad in Gachibowli, next to the Financial District, it will provide 2.2 million sq.ft. of office space in a Special Economic Zone being promoted by the APIIC(Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation ).

The Green Office

Designed as per the standards of the US Green Building Council, it aims to qualify for LEED accreditation with a Gold rating. Key environment friendly features would be:

-Building management systems that ensure high standards of energy efficiency
-Use of local materials and resources that are low in terms of embodied energy.
-Systems that minimize the impact of construction on natural resources.

Features and Specifications

-Efficient floor plates with efficiency ratios as high as 90%.
-Double Glass curtain walls that ensure abundant natural light in offices.
-Sophisticated automated building management systems.
-Central elevator cores with wait times of 30 seconds.
-Multi Level, covered parking.

Green Building Congress 2007 , Chennai

2007-09-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Green Building Congress 2007 - Event Calendar

A. International Conference on Green Buildings - 20 & 21 September 2007
B. Exhibition on Green Building Products - 19 to 22 September 2007
C. Seminar on Green Homes - 22 September 2007
D. LEED Workshop - 19 & 22 September 2007
E. Green Building Mission - 19 & 22 September 2007

Venue : Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai

World over, the construction sector is growing at a rapid pace. In India, the construction sector is growing at 13% and real estate at a stunning 30%.
This would undoubtedly burden the already stressed urban infrastructure. If this kind of a growth rate is to be sustainable, there is an imminent need to look at construction which is environment - friendly.

Since the past 5 years, green buildings have caught the imagination of several stakeholders of the construction industry for a variety of reasons:

40% to 50% reduction in energy cost
30% to 40% reduction in water consumption
Green corporate image
Health of building occupants
Imbibe best operational practices right from day one

The projected growth potential for Green Buildings in India is estimated to be Rs. 2000 crores by the year 2008

Objectives

-Create awareness on green building concepts
-Expose the participants to the latest global trends
-Exhibit green building products and technologies
-Provide a platform for networking
-Facilitate exploring new business opportunities
-Enable market transformation of green products and equipment

Focus Areas

-Architectural perspecttves in Green Buildings
-National & international experiences on Green Building concepts
-Case studies on green buildings
-LEED Green Building rating system
-Green Building materials, equipment & technologies
-Public policies.
-First hand feel of Green Buildings in Chennai.

Global designs on India

2007-09-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

via Business standard
Global designs on India
by Arati Menon Carroll

Indian real estate is benefitting from the integration of global architecture and design firms. What is driving this trend?

By the end of the year Mohit Gujral, will be extending his architectural firm’s talent pool to include 30 Singaporean architects and designers in his first overseas office. Many of them will be practitioners in specific design areas like lighting or landscaping.

Edifice Architects — a Rs 300 million architecture and interior design firm with a focus on the IT, ITeS, telecom and hospitality sectors — is also looking at starting an overseas office in the Philippines by the end of the year.

Their approaches may be different — Gujral is climbing up the value chain by employing highly skilled designers, Edifice is leveraging cost efficiency and will outsource its base level drafting and 3-D animation work to the Philippines. Both, however, are means to achieve a greater scale of operations. And quick.

Some of this urgency, both admit, comes from the increasing competition on home turf. From DLF to Unitech, Ansal API and Emaar-MGF, prestigious developers are signing on architects with a global imprint and Indian architects are feeling just that little bit unsettled.

What started with the government liberalising the foreign investment regime in the $14 billion (source:Dun &Bradstreet) real estate sector and the subsequent rush of foreign investors, is unlikely to slow down.

According to a report published earlier this year in fDi — a bimonthly publication on the business of globalisation — overseas funds of about $7 billion have been announced for investment in Indian real estate and FDI in real estate is estimated to reach $16 billion by 2012 from $600 million last year.

“As a result, an increasing percentage of retail and commercial real estate development is now driven by standards set by private equity,” according to Peter Burke, a senior architect with Buchan group that is, at this time, involved with masterplanning projects in India.

“It’s not as if there’s not enough work to go around but the imbalance between the scale of construction and the supply of local architects in the country is undeniable,” concedes Gujral.

According to Vijay Sohoni of Council of Architecture, there are 40,000 registered architects in India, of which only 30,000-odd are practising — 80 per cent of these in the 10 large cities. But the problem, most say, is the proverbial quantity over quality.

When Provogue tied up with UK-based Liberty International to float Prozone, a retail infrastructure arm, they were convinced that to create true brand differentiation in the mall space, a retail infrastructure specialist would have to be roped in.

“Unfortunately local architects hadn’t had exposure to developing a mall of three million sq ft,” says Salil Chaturvedi, promoter of Provogue.

So they signed on Benoy, a UK based practise with expertise in the retail and leisure markets. “Did you know that 35 per cent of the traffic in a mall is replenishment traffic, so certain procedures for traffic flow, service entry, offloading terminals have to be followed. Local suppliers just did not have that kind of hindsight,” says Chaturvedi.

Ravi Sarangan, director, Edifice Architects, suggests that the demand-supply gap is even more conspicuous in sectors like hospitality. Edifice, who’ve chosen to focus on hospitality for precisely this reason, themselves collaborate with foreign architects to gain expertise.

Similarly, as John Zeckendorf of Mandala Asset Solutions — professional developers and asset managers — points out, “The concept of integrated townships are around three years old in India and 50 years old elsewhere. International architects have had time to iron out the kinks and debug problems.”

Mandala, that is currently working on mandates for eight townships, works with Australian biggies like Edaw and Buchan to ensure that land owners are able to “supply a differentiated product to a limited market”.

The fact that projects are getting more grandiose in scale and complexity is driving the need for experienced master planning and urban design specialists.

Take for instance, Unitech Grande, a super-luxury residential community with a Greg Norman golf course, that is being developed in Noida over 347 acres. The project involves 10 global architectural and design consultants.

Often developers use different firms for specific areas of design within one project. Ansal API’s 5,000-acre Sushant Golf City in Lucknow offers golf villas designed by KTGY inside an 18-hole professional golf course designed by Martin Hawtree with landscaping by Belt Collins.

There is also an upsurge of real-estate projects that wish to emulate foreign architecture. Mohali Hills, an Emaar-MGF development, is a gated mixed-use community with Spanish style architecture.

“Global design firms work with the best developers worldwide and have to their credit some of the finest landmark structures in the world today,” says a senior company spokesperson.

“When developers want iconic solutions, they tend to go with a global biggie like HOK, Renzo Piano or FX Fowle, all of whom are looking at entering India in a big way,” explains Sarangan.

But what does that do to costs? “For most projects, there is a fractional increase in cost, of say Rs 10 per sq ft, but this is easily recouped from a sale price premium of up to 20 per cent on account of better design.”

“If you have a ‘developer’ attitude with a view to flip the asset in three years you will tend to tightly manage costs. If you follow an asset owning model you want flawless and accurate designing because the cost of rewriting is very high,” explains Chaturvedi.

DLF believes it is an equitable trade-off bet-ween cost and time saving. Last year, they entered into a joint venture with a leading UK-based construction company, Laing O’Rourke, and have commenced the development of 14 projects covering a total area of 25.7 million square feet with an order book of Rs 4,172 crore, including big-ticket projects like The Magnolia, The Belaire and the Mall of India in Gurgaon.

“They give us access to the latest advances in design and construction techniques, which always shortens lead time for completion,” says a company spokesperson.

Sarangan hints at several peers whining about work being snatched away from them. But developers will tell you that there is a more than fair integration of local talent even when foreign architects are involved.

“It is always a collaborative effort. Local architects have a better appreciation of local code compliance and regulatory issues. They also possess a sound understanding of the onground social milieu which largely influences realty design and development,” says the spokesperson for Emaar-MGF.

In fact, Banerji’s lament is that senior Indian architects are actually so inaccessible that it’s impossible to tie them down to a discussion even. Mohit Gujral’s order books, for example, are overflowing with over 65 million sq ft of project work.

With the Indian real estate market getting exposed to global best practices and international standards of designing, it seems certain that only those architects who rise to the occasion will profit, while others will get relegated to undertaking routine contracting work.

As Gujral says, “With a huge infusion of funds in the market no one needs to learn from mistakes. They can afford the best the first time round.”

The Thinker

2007-09-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, held in the Musée Rodin, in Paris. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. It is sometimes used to represent philosophy

What is concept ?

A concept is a mental integration of two or more units which are isolated by a process of abstraction and united by a specific definition .By organizing his perceptual material into concepts , and his concepts into wider and still wider concepts , man is able to grasp and retain , to identify and integrate an unlimited amount of knowledge , a knowledge extending beyound the immediate concretes of any given , immediate moment .

In any given moment , concepts enable man to hold in the focus of his conscious awareness much more than his purely perceptual capacity would permit . The range of man's perceptual awareness - the number of percepts he can deal with at any one time - is limited . He may be able to visualize four or five units - as , for instance , five trees . He cannot visualise a hundered trees or a distance of ten light years . It is only his conceptual faculty that make it possible for him to deal with knowledge of that kind .

Man retains his concepts by means of language . With the exception of proper names , every word we use is a concept that stands for an unlimited number of concretes of a certain kind . A concept is like a mathematical series of specifically defined units , going off in both directions , open at both ends and including all units of that particular kind .For instance , the concept " man" includes all men who live at present , who ever lived or will ever live - a number of men so great that one would not be able to perceive them all visually , let alone to study them or discover anything about them .

Language is a code of visual - auditory symbols that serves the psycho - epistemological function of converting abstraction into concretes or , more precisely , into the psycho- epistemological equivalents of concretes , into a manageable number of specific units .

( Psycho - epistemology is the study of man's cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious)

Consider the enormous conceptual integration involved in any statement , from the conversation of a child to the discourse of a scientist . Consider the long conceptual chain that starts from simple , ostensive definitions and rises to higher and still higher concepts , forming a hierarchical structure of knowledge so complex that no electronic computer could approach it .It is by means of such chains that man has to acquire and retain his knowledge of reality .

Yet this is the simpler part of his psycho-epistemological task . There is another part which is still more complex .

The other part consists of applying his knowledge - i.e, evaluating the facts of reality , choosing his goals and guiding his actions accordingly .To do that , man needs another chain of concepts , derived from and dependent on first , yet separate and , in a sense , more complex : a chain of normative abstractions.

While congnitive abstraction identify the facts of reality , normative abstractions evaluate the facts , thus prescribing a choice of values and a course of action .Congnitive abstractions deal with that which is ; normative abstractions deal with that which ought to be .
Extract is from - The romantic manifesto by Ayn Rand.

Middle of Nowhere

2007-09-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

Beams

skeleton barn

via flickr

The Palm Jebel Ali , Dubai

2007-09-02T04:09:00.000-07:00

Source :- NAKHEEL

The Palm Jumeirah: the creation of an artificial reef

In the creation of the island, a primary goal was to ensure that construction not only had the smallest possible negative impact on the environment in which it was being created, but that it actually enhanced the environment above the original, pre-development status.

Two independent oceanographic experts from California, Professor Joseph Valencic and Jim Miller, spent several years documenting the sea life around the location of The Palm Jumeirah, before, during and after reclamation. Their work on monitoring the temperature and salinity of the water, as well as the bottom conditions and the health of the marine animals, involved numerous dives in and around the site to establish base-line parameters and verify how the reclamation work has affected them.

Before reclamation commenced, the area was almost barren with virtually no signs of marine life; in studies conducted, 95% of the area was bare sand or mud. The impact of the project has been simply to create a foundation for a variety of landscapes and seascapes, which give way to the existence of marine life.

The importance of using natural material in the creation of the island was key to encouraging the development of marine life in the area. In creating the breakwater only natural rock was used, despite it being difficult to find in the region, expensive and requiring a higher level of engineering to place. Using natural rock has meant the creation of a 550 hectare reef on which corals and a biodiversified eco-system has grown, resulting in a dramatic increase of fish in the area.

As soon as the placement of rocks began, algae started to grow, offering some hard substrate for colonization. Urchins, barnacles, sponges, clams, crabs and fish soon followed. As the island was reclaimed, the fine sediments that were created by the reclamation eventually paved the way for a biologically and organically fertile soil on the sea bed, on which turtles and a variety of fish are living. This will lead to a highly oxygenated water, with excellent visibility for divers and snorkelers.

In fact, it is not only the natural reef on the breakwater that will attract divers – and fish. Two passenger aircraft – an Airbus A 340 and an Illushyn 76 (a huge Russian cargo plane) have been salvaged, environmentally sanitized and sunk into the nearby shallow waters. Entirely environmentally friendly, the same process of colonization that happened on the breakwater, has happened on the planes. This will provide a visually fascinating dive site just off the breakwater of The Palm Jumeirah

Nakheel is currently employing a ground improvement technique at The Palm Jebel Ali known as vibrocompaction. The process, which is performed with specially designed vibrating probes, significantly increases the bearing capacity of the soil making it ready for construction and ensures that no subsidence of land can take place in the future.

Currently 18 vibroprobes are being used at The Palm Jebel Ali, each weighing approximately 2,600 kilograms and capable of up to 1,800 revolutions per minute, resulting in a force of 30 to 50 tonnes. The long, hollow probes go through the entire depth of reclamation until they penetrate the seabed’s hard layers at average depths of 15 metres. During this process, the combined action of vibration and the jetting of water rearrange loose sand grains into a compact state. Sand is then added from the ground surface to fill the void space created by the vibrator and to ensure that any soft layers on the sea bed are densified

Vibrocompaction increases the soil bearing capacity of reclaimed land by around 80% to create a land mass that is similar in strength to mainland Dubai. The average area being compacted at The Palm Jebel Ali on a daily basis is approximately 13,000 m2 per day, with the entire 7.5km by 7.5km island to be treated. The entire process is expected to be completed at the end of March 2008.

Marwan Al Qamzi, Managing Director, The Palm Jebel Ali, said:

“What would normally take nature a period of more than 20 years to achieve can be accomplished in just a few months using vibrocompaction. The process ensures that the reclaimed land mass of The Palm Jebel Ali is strong enough to build buildings of significant height; it also ensures that the island will not move - there’s absolutely no chance that the island can sink despite the rumours that seem to circulate in Dubai!”

The Palm Jebel Ali is a landmark commercial, residential and tourism development for Dubai, which, along with the Waterfront project, will transform an area of empty desert and sea into a bustling international community, with an estimated population of 1.7 million people by 2020. With the majority of land reclamation on The Palm Jebel Ali complete, Nakheel has already begun putting in place an infrastructure which will eventually support a population of more than 250,000 people.

Cityscape 2007

2007-08-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

The international property investment and development event.
19- 21 Nov 2007
Bombay exhibition centre, Mumbai

The potential of India real estate industry is catching everybody’s eye around the globe . Indian real estate industry is growing at a rapid pace as a result of continued economic growth , favourable demographic changes , fiscal benefits , lower interest rates and sustained demand from end user as well as investor . The industry is estimated to grow by 33% to US $ 50 billion by 2010 .
Cityscape is common platform for world leaders in real estate industry , investors , Architects , strategy advisers to discuss and access the growth potential .

The important issues that will be addressed are :

1 Key driver for international investment.
2 Strategies for improving India’s Infrastructure to sustain property growth.
3 Identifying the most profitable asset classes and cities .
4 capitalizing on global markets – which location will offer the best returns ?
5 Fuelling investment opportunities in retail and criterion for success in mall development.
6 winning formulas for structuring joint ventures.
7 Capitalizing on the rise in private equity and other strategies for rising capital .

For more information check Cityscape 2007

News from the Real estate industry .

2007-08-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

1 DLF to purchase New Delhi mill land

DLF, India's most valuable real estate company, will purchase around 38 acres of land in New Delhi.The company will buy Swatantra Bharat Mills from DCM Shriram Consolidated in a deal worth 16 billion rupees - the largest private sector land deal in India.
Bharat Mills, located about four to five kilometres from the capital's central business district, lies adjacent to about 25 acres of land that DLF acquired in 2005. With a further two acres acquired earlier this year, the company now has 65 acres in one locality.
DLF has already received an in-principle approval to develop an IT SEZ on this land, and may invest 110-120 billion rupees in building an integrated township there.These purchases mark a shift in DLF's focus towards the capital and away from peripheral markets such as Gurgaon, in which its operations had previously been concentrated.

2.Massive property expansion planned by Reliance Retail

The hypermarket arm of India's Reliance Retail, Reliance Mart, has acquired over 50 million square feet through franchise direct routes over the last six months alone as it eyes fast expansion, Rediff India reports.The company has set a target of 100 million square feet by 2011 to develop its hypermarket
business, the news service said.The firm's first hypermarket will open in Ahmedabad .
Two further hypermarkets, ranging in size between 1,65,000 to 2,00,000 square feet, will open in Jamnagar, Gujarat, and Gurgaon, Haryana, in September.The company aims to open one or two new stores every month during this financial year.

3. Indian property investment moving to smaller cities

Smaller cities could be the next big wave in property investment in India, according to industry experts.With property prices soaring in the main cities, tier II and tier III cities might benefit from an increased attention from property developers and investors .Better infrastructure due to the proliferation of IT companies might further draw interest to tier II and tier III cities, as previously only major cities were sufficiently well connected, argues writer Rakesh Malhotra, of The Indian Real Estate Forum. Tier II cities such as Mangalore, Mysore, Lucknow and Jodhpur can save companies up to 30 per cent in costs drawing interest in operations and employees setting up there.According to estimates, demand for commercial property in tier II cities could amountto 1.2 million to 1.5 million square feet in the next year.Property developers have seen their stocks soar in recent years, with New Delhi-based Unitech having seen its share price almost triple in the past year, and the Bombay's Stock Exchange's main index for property has grown by almost 40 per cent in thesame time period.The growing interest in commercial property development in more out of the way towns could mean that growth is far from stalling in India.

Ashden awards for sustainable energy -2007

2007-08-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

INDIA won the two internation awards and one second prize . Summary of all the winner here .

1 BIOTECH - Innovative scheme turns food waste into gas for cooking and electricity.

In 1994, driven by a desire to see an end to the dumping of waste in public places, Saji Das set up BIOTECH to focus on ways of managing organic waste to produce alternative sources of energy. Four years later BIOTECH launched its innovative biogas programme which uses unwanted food waste and other organic waste to produce gas for cooking and, in some cases, to produce electricity.

In order to have a real impact on the waste problem in Kerala and to produce significant amounts of clean energy, BIOTECH has developed biogas digesters that are not only suitable for domestic use but also for schools and hostels and larger municipal sites. To date BIOTECH has built and installed 12,000 domestic plants, 220 institutional plants and 17 municipal plants that uses waste from the municipal fish markets to produce biogas which is then used in a 3kW engine to generate electricity for lighting the market.

2 SELCO - Making solar energy affordable yet commercially viable

SELCO is a private business, based in Bangalore, which provides solar-home-systems (SHS) and other solar services to low-income households and institutions. Its network of local sales and service centres are set up where micro-finance organisations can provide loans to customers. All systems are sold on a commercial basis, but SELCO is committed to providing the highest quality services to poor people on financial terms they can afford.

Darwin initiative .

2007-08-22T03:46:00.000-07:00

I digged deep into the Lakswadeep islands , and found out that LEAD is working on India's first marine conservation project called 'Darwin project '. LEAD is working with Bombay natural history society , to conserve the 'Giant Glam '

Agatti was selected for number of reasons :-

It has the most significant Giant clam population in Lakshwadeep and it has the most vunerable live bait fish stock as agatti is the number one tuna landing island in lakshwadeep

giant clam symbolisis the health of coral reef . Due to their long life span ( >40) and selective ecological requirements they are excellent indicators of changes in the integrity of coral reef . A healthy giant clam population reflects a heathy reef which is the source of local people's livehood .

Agatti Island !! ......Thinking of taking a break

2007-08-22T02:46:00.000-07:00

I was flying on a trip to google earth .......and suddenly i landed up on a small island just n the left side of my country .......and i am stuck with its beauty . The nature is the bigest master in the world.......and no matter who you are......designer or architect....

Agatti Island (occassionally called "Agathy") is a small 7km long island, situated about 250kms off the Kochi Coast. It is surrounded on all sides by a beautiful coral reef, so the waters around it are a lagoon and not the sea.
It is a part of the Lakshadweep Islands. Lakshadweep is the smallest union territory of India. Located in the Arabian Sea, it consists of twelve coral atolls, three coral reefs, five banks, and numerous islets that lie 200–300 km off of the coast of Kerala. The total land area of the territory is 32 sq.km.

Eleven of the islands are inhabited. Capital of the Union territory is Kavarati Island. Pitti Island is a small sandy uninhabited island which is a Bird sanctuary

Mall Development In India

2007-08-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

Retail and real estate compliment each other. The current growth trends in Indian retail market present large prospects in the retail real estate segment. Indian retail enjoys the status of representing one of the 10 largest retail markets in the world.

If the progress forecasted for retail sector in India keeps moving like this, then, by the end of 2008, a supply of 66 million sq ft. of new retail space will be developed in the eight largest Indian cities.

Developers are primarily focusing on the metros like Delhi and Mumbai for the supply of retail space as these cities enjoy advantages because of their sheer size and population. They have emerged as the most lucrative consumer markets in Asia. Close by heels are the cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, where the per capita income is increasing due to high proliferation of IT companies.

Big Realty players Unitech, Omaxe, Suncity Projects among others are planning to come up with big retail projects in tier-II cities like Ludhiana, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Amritsar. What is attracting these majors to foray into these cities is their increasing customer base.

Around 100 shopping malls are already operating here, generating 20 million sq ft of retail space. 60 more malls are likely to spring by the end of next fiscal year.

Chief hosting spots to see the major retail development are NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai. However, the mall culture is likely to hit 60 more cities. With Delhi Development Authority releasing real estate space in peripheral retail areas, mall development has got a strong boost.

According to the real estate trends report compiled by Merril Lynch, number of malls in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune may touch 250 by 2010 against the present 40. Growth of real estate in Delhi mainly owes to huge outlay in IT/ITes, and BPO centers, thereby attracting investments in the segment.

via India real estate news

iMAP - Portable Architecture Concept

2007-08-19T03:51:00.000-07:00

Thread collective is a Architectural design studio in Brooklyn ,NY .

iLAND is Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance investigates the power of dance, in collaboration with other fields, to illuminate our kinetic understanding of the world. ILAND, a dance research organization with a fundamental commitment to environmental sustainability as it relates to art and the urban context, cultivates cross-disciplinary research among artists, environmentalists, scientists, urban designers and other fields.

iMAP (Interdisciplinary Mobile Architecture and Performance) is a collaborative project between choreographer Jennifer Monson and architect Gita Nandan and landscape architect Elliott Maltby, both of thread collective.

iMAP is a sustainably designed mobile performance space and interdisciplinary laboratory. Temporarily sited in underused urban areas, the vehicle will facilitate intensive on-site exploration and research, with a particular emphasis on cooperation between artists and scientists. These investigations will lead to the development of performance projects that engage local communities in new understandings of their environment.

Large Firms Struggle to Outbid Small Firms- firm within firm model

2007-08-18T00:24:00.000-07:00

By Jessica Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

Event: Super-Models, MEGA_100+, Large-Scale Firms Revised
Location: Center for Architecture, 07.11.07
Speakers: Aaron Schwarz, FAIA — Principal, Perkins Eastman; Christopher McCready, AIA — Associate Principal, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Christopher Lee — Principal, HOK Sport
Moderator: Julie Iovine — Executive Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper
Organizer: AIANY New Practices Roundtable Committee
Sponsors: The Architect’s Newspaper; Häfele America Co.; Skyy 90; Severud Associates; Fountainhead Construction; MG & Company; Microsol Resources

In the U.S., many large firms are beginning to compete with — and lose to — small firms for innovative projects. To remedy the situation, large firms are using the small firm model to shift the balance in their favor. By establishing smaller companies within the larger organization, big firms are finding they are able to take advantage of the flexibility and collaborative work environment offered by small firms while maintaining the vast resources and funds offered by the parent firm.

SOM Education Lab and HOK Sport are smaller, specialized firms operating within the large firms of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and HOK, respectively. Since the profitability of small projects is the biggest issue for small firms, according to Christopher McCready, AIA, associate principal of SOM Education Lab, working as a firm within SOM helps alleviate monetary pressures. Focusing on campus planning and design, the firm can comfortably work on lower-budge projects in a small studio environment.

Although HOK Sport receives funding and office space from HOK, the independent practice struggled, as many small firms do at its start — entering competitions until it was able to build up a small client base. Christopher Lee, principal of HOK Sport, argues that the firm-within-a-firm model is successful because it creates long-term loyalty and employee satisfaction. Every employee is important to the continuing design process, and therefore, each project improves with his or her growing experience.

Perkins Eastman has not founded a small firm within its firm, but even though it has 700 international employees, principal Aaron Schwarz, FAIA, claims it is really “a small firm on steroids.” Large firms often have quality control problems and rely on bureaucracy to organize inevitable chaos. In doing this, firm structure can get in the way of the work. Large firms also tend to be run by individuals who are farther away from school, and forget the contributive nature of architecture school studios. Perkins Eastman avoids these pitfalls by breaking into smaller studios and encouraging principals to pick up teaching jobs on the side. The firm retains its flexibility and employees learn from their peers in an open environment.

Resources, money, security, and confidence are benefits of large firms; however, small firms are able to better maintain agility, a collaborative environment, and employee satisfaction. Although the two seem to be incompatible, large firms are starting to adapt and use small firm models to reinvigorate their work. By having the best of both worlds, large firms could become forces with which no other firm can compete. However, will the additive drawbacks smother their efforts? At this point, HOK Sport, SOM Education Lab, and Perkins Eastman do not think so.

via AIA new york chapter .

Emaar MGF likely to invest $12 billion in INDIA

2007-08-15T00:37:00.000-07:00

Emaar MGF , a jont venture between dubai based Emaar properties and india's MGF developments , is likly to invest US $12 billion in India in next five years for setting up nine special economic zones and 50 hospitals . The company started the expansion programme by laying foundaion stone for a township project at mohali hills , a satellite town of chandigarh . The project will have capital of Rs 16,000 cr and will include residential plots, town houses , villas and shopping malls , in addition to facilities such as hospitals and IT parks.

Happy independence day !.... A look Towards future .......

Documentation

2007-08-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

In 9Th semester we did documentation project . we were a team of five students . The project required documentation of an old historic building . We were to produce all the measurement drawings and a report on the historical importance of the place . We chose a historic village on the border of India Pakistan .......it is a small village named RAJASANSI . The village got few historic buildings .....The place was inhabited by sardars ( influential landlord ) who had there Havelies ...but few of these homes exist now .....we can see old balconies , chajja , old wooden carved door . Everything from a simple door to lock tells a story ......and takes one back to history ....

Below are the :-

1. site plan of the mosque ( the mosque is believed to be 200yr old )
2. Plans ( GF and Roof Plan )
3. Elevation ( Mosque )
4. Jallis ( Elevations of doors and windows )
5. Elevation and Plan of the Dome ( Dia - 24' , Total height - 30')
6. Jallis
7. sectional elevation of gurudwara

Blue pottery

2007-08-10T07:23:00.001-07:00

The age old craft of blue pottery is being kept alive in Rajisthan . The motifs looks beautifull and how delicately they are made on the pot and then painted . Will love to learn pottery ........

via Geobeats