We are entering a new era of architecture that is technologically enhanced, virtual and synthetic. Contemporary architects operate in a creative environment that is both real and digital; mixed, augmented and hybridised. This world consists of ecstasies, fears, fetishisms and phantoms, processes and spatiality that can best be described as Surrealist. Though too long dormant, Surrealism has been a significant cultural force in modern architecture. Founded by poet André Breton in Paris in 1924 as an artistic, intellectual and literary movement, architects such as Le Corbusier, Diller + Scofidio, Bernard Tschumi and John Hejduk realised its evocative powers to propel them to 'starchitect' status. Rem Koolhaas most famously illustrated Delirious New York (1978) with Madelon Vriesendorp's compelling Surrealist images. Architects are now reviving the power of Surrealism to inspire and explore the ramifications of advanced technology. Architects' studios in practices and schools are becoming places where nothing is forbidden. Architectural languages and theories are 'mashed' together, approaches are permissively appropriated, and styles are not mutually exclusive. Projects are polemic, postmodern and surreally media savvy. Today's architects must compose space that operates across the spatial spectrum. Surrealism, with its multiple readings of the city, its collage semiotics, its extruded forms and artificial landscapes, is an ideal source for contemporary architectural inspiration. Contributors include: Bryan Cantley, Nic Clear, James Eagle, Natalie Gall, Mark Morris, Dagmar Motycka Weston, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Shaun Murray, Anthony Vidler, and Elizabeth Anne Williams. Featured architects: Nigel Coates, Hernan Diaz Alonso, Perry Kulper, and Mark West.
Loose-Fit Architecture: Designing Buildings for Change September/October 2017 Profile 249 Volume 87 No 5 ISBN 978 1119 152644 Guest-Edited by Alex Lifschutz The idea that a building is 'finished' or 'complete' on the day it opens its doors is hardwired into existing thinking about design, planning and construction. But this ignores the unprecedented rate of social and technological change. A building only begins its life when the contractors leave. With resources at a premium and a greater need for a sustainable use of building materials, can we still afford to construct new housing or indeed any buildings that ignore the need for flexibility or the ability to evolve over time? Our design culture needs to move beyond the idealisation of a creative individual designer generating highly specific forms with fixed uses. The possibilities of adaptation and flexibility have often been overlooked, but they create hugely exciting 'loose-fit' architectures that emancipate users to create their own versatile and vibrant environments. Contributors include: Stewart Brand, Renee Chow, Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, John Habraken, Edwin Heathcote, Despina Katsakakis, Stephen Kendall, Ian Lambot, Giorgio Macchi, Alexi Marmot, Andrea Martin, Kazunobu Minami, Peter Murray, Brett Steele, and Simon Sturgis.
We are now on the brink of a new era in construction – that of autonomous assembly. For some time, the widespread adoption of robotic and digital fabrication technologies has made it possible for architects and academic researchers to design non-standard, highly customised structures. These technologies have largely been limited by scalability, focusing mainly on top-down, bespoke fabrication projects, such as experimental pavilions and structures. Autonomous assembly and bottom-up construction techniques hold the promise of greater scalability, adaptability and potentially evolved design possibilities. By capitalising on the advances made in swarm robotics, the collective construction of the animal/insect kingdom, and advances in physical computational, programmable materials or self-assembly, architects and designers are now able to build from the bottom up. This issue presents future scenarios of autonomous assembly by highlighting the viability of decentralised, collective assembly systems, demonstrating the potential to deliver reconfigurable and adaptive solutions. Contributors include: Marcelo Coelho, Andong Liu, Robin Meier, Kieran Murphy and Heinrich Jaeger, Radhika Nagpal and Kirstin Petersen, and Zorana Zeravcic. Featured architects: Aranda\Lasch, Arup, Philippe Block, Gramazio Kohler Architects, Ibañez Kim, Achim Menges, Caitlin Mueller, Jose Sanchez, Athina Papadopoulou and Jared Laucks, and Skylar Tibbits.
Everyone involved in a building project wants to achieve a better building but design quality means different things to clients, users, architects, cost consultants and contractors. Negotiating design priorities is an important part of the development process. The Design Quality Manual helps give an objective evaluation of the qualitative aspects of design. Matrices with five defined levels of quality have been developed that cover the key areas of architecture, environmental engineering, user comfort conditions, whole-life costs, detail design and user satisfaction. These can be scored by a visual survey and professional judgement and then augmented by scientific measurement where possible (e.g. temperature, lighting and sound levels). The resultant scores allow comparisons in terms of overall and specific aspects of building performance and design quality. The Manual covers schools, hospitals and housing and offers a set of criteria by which to judge a broad range of design values; it focuses the design team on the needs of the end user and on the overall building performance.
Architects are facing a crisis of agency. For decades, they have seen their traditional role diminish in scope as more and more of their responsibilities have been taken over by other disciplines within the building construction industry. Once upon a time, we might have seen the architect as the conductor of the orchestra; now he or she is but one cog in a vast and increasingly complex machine. In an attempt to find a way out of this crisis, there is growing debate about how architects might reassert the importance of their role and influence. On one side of this argument are those who believe that architects must refocus their attention on the internal demands of the discipline. On the other are those who argue that architects must, instead, reacquaint themselves with what many still believe to be the discipline’s core mission of advancing social progress and promoting the public good, and at the same time the scope of their traditional disciplinary remit. At root, this question is fundamentally about freedom, about whether architects still possess it – if they have ever done – and whether it is possible to find the professional, disciplinary and individual autonomy to be able to define the spheres of their own practice. Presenting a variety of views and perspectives, this issue of AD takes us to the heart of what freedom means for architecture as it adapts and evolves in response to the changing contexts in which it is practised in the 21st century. Contributors include: Phillip Bernstein, Peggy Deamer, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Kate Goodwin, Charles Holland, Anna Minton, Patrik Schumacher, Alex Scott-Whitby, Ines Weizman, and Sarah Wigglesworth. Featured architects: Atelier Kite, ScottWhitbyStudio, C+S Architects, Anupama Kundoo, Noero Architects, Umbrellium, and Zaha Hadid Architects. Architects are facing a crisis of agency. For decades, they have seen their traditional role diminish in scope as more and more of their responsibilities have been taken over by other disciplines within the building construction industry. Once upon a time, we might have seen the architect as the conductor of the orchestra; now he or she is but one cog in a vast and increasingly complex machine. In an attempt to find a way out of this crisis, there is growing debate about how architects might reassert the importance of their role and influence. On one side of this argument are those who believe that architects must refocus their attention on the internal demands of the discipline. On the other are those who argue that architects must, instead, reacquaint themselves with what many still believe to be the discipline’s core mission of advancing social progress and promoting the public good, and at the same time the scope of their traditional disciplinary remit. At root, this question is fundamentally about freedom, about whether architects still possess it – if they have ever done – and whether it is possible to find the professional, disciplinary and individual autonomy to be able to define the spheres of their own practice. Presenting a variety of views and perspectives, this issue of AD takes us to the heart of what freedom means for architecture as it adapts and evolves in response to the changing contexts in which it is
This book can be first considered as a complete synthesis of the EcCoGen ANR project (2011-2012), involving researchers from different French labs (including MAP) and domains, breaking major difficulties of the real-time generative design in the early stages of a pre-architectural project. Then the scope becomes larger, and the authors introduce major prospects following recent advances on natural and artificial evolution.
THE DEFINITIVE RESOURCE ON OUTSOURCING Outsourcing is the hottest topic in business, and it will likely stay that way. Managers, workers, executives, and almost anyone else involved in any large business will probably have to deal with it one day, in one way or another. Outsourcing is a business issue first and foremost, but it's also a political, personal, and cultural issue that many people, not least managers and executives, find difficult to fully understand. Outsourcing documents the theory, facts, myths, benefits, and costs of outsourcing and gives managers the information they need to implement an outsourcing program that will help their business the most and hurt their employees the least. Bringing together noted academics, corporate leaders, and outsourcing practitioners, the book covers all the major topics in the outsourcing debate, but also presents expert guidance for business leaders dealing with the practical side of this global issue: What outsourcing is and is not Which companies can benefit from it Incentives and implications Notable successes and failures Outsourcing for small and large companies Communicating about outsourcing Outsourcing terminology And much more
Workplace learning and performance professionals simply don t have the resources to make systemic improvements for employees to collaboratively learn anytime, anywhere, and integrate it throughout the organization. iLearning offers these professionals a resource that describes how to facilitate collaborative work in an organization and explains how to facilitate integrated learning in an organization. The book also offers interventions for creating an integrated learning and collaborative work environment and shows how to apply the methodologies and technologies that support an integrated learning and collaborative work environment in an organization.
The financial markets play a crucial role in contemporary society. They can change the lives of whole communities for better or worse and form an essential part of the overall economy. Yet their intermediaries are frequently criticised for misuse of the power that they wield. In this defence of the markets Michel Fleuriet draws on his many years experience in the field to span history and contemporary culture, addressing the market practitioner's raison d'être, his/her wider role, the skills required and the techniques employed. This is a thought-provoking and informative work for all those working in the financial markets, intending to enter them or with an interest in the wider economy. * Draws on the extensive experience of the author – a highly respected name within financial circles. * A synthesis of the author's life time experience within the financial markets. * A seminal work addressing key questions of the philosophical and conceptual background to the financial market. * A controversial and thought-provoking work that every practitioner should read.
The company that became GKN was forged in the first fires of the Industrial Revolution. And through the two-and-a-half centuries of its remarkable life, GKN has proved a master of Industrial Evolution. From a single blast furnace fuelling a tiny iron works on a remote Welsh hillside, GKN was built by a group of men – and one woman – into a world leader. Not just once or twice, but many times, it has changed shape and direction to hold its place at the forefront of the engineering industry. When iron gave birth to the worldwide railway boom in the early 1800s, GKN was there. It was among the first to seize the opportunities created when steel superseded iron in the 1860s. After the First World War, GKN moved into the 20th century’s greatest new industry – automotive. Late in the century, when aerospace began to be transformed by the use of new materials, GKN was at the leading edge. Geographically too, the company has evolved. As the balance of economic growth has shifted, from Britain in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to America, continental Western Europe and Japan in the 20th and on to the emerging powers of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe in the 21st century, the group has moved with it and frequently ahead of it. Today, the businesses that comprise GKN reach from the US to the eastern shores of Japan, from northern China and India to South Africa, Latin America and Australia. GKN is a truly global corporate citizen. This is its remarkable story.