How Buildings Learn

How Buildings Learn

This six-part, three-hour, BBC TV series aired in 1997. I presented and co-wrote the series; it was directed by James Muncie, with music by Brian Eno.

The series was based on my 1994 book, HOW BUILDINGS LEARN: What Happens After They’re Built. The book is still selling well and is used as a text in some college courses. Most of the 27 reviews on Amazon treat it as a book about system and software design, which tells me that architects are not as alert as computer people. But I knew that; that’s part of why I wrote the book.

Anybody is welcome to use anything from this series in any way they like. Please don’t bug me with requests for permission. Hack away. Do credit the BBC, who put considerable time and talent into the project.

Historic note: this was one of the first television productions made entirely in digital--- shot digital, edited digital. The project wound up with not enough money, so digital was the workaround. The camera was so small that we seldom had to ask permission to shoot; everybody thought we were tourists. No film or sound crew. Everything technical on site was done by editors, writers, directors. That’s why the sound is a little sketchy, but there’s also some direct perception in the filming that is unusual.













BBC
Presenter/writer: Stewart Brand
Brian Eno, original music: James Runcie, Producer

open source knowledge sharing with UNStudio

UNStudio launches open source knowledge sharing - Unique knowledge developed
through building practice is the new core value of architecture.

In June this year UNStudio will launch the new organisation of its practice as an open-source knowledge-based practice operating projects around four specialised Knowledge Platforms.

As part of the reorganisation of the studio a new interactive online knowledge platform will be launched, aimed at facilitating the open exchange of knowledge, with the ultimate goal of introducing and encouraging the expansion from a collaborative to a co-creative working model for architecture.

Whilst the architect will continue to design his or her own projects, the practice of architecture needs to adjust, to gather, edit and apply co-creative intelligence in order to create responsive architecture that is more integral, more holistic, more responsible and more intelligent.

Ben van Berkel:

From the outset at UNStudio we have continually reexamined and reevaluated our practice, with the result that at certain key moments we have recognised the need for extensive reorganisation. Now, once again, the challenging climate within the profession today has in turn challenged us to take a close look and to rethink our organisational model with the ultimate aim of improving our architecture and ensuring its relevance within contemporary conditions. However, finding ourselves unable to locate a relevant model from within the profession, we became fascinated by the new initiatives put in place by online start-up companies – such as social networking firms – who have moved from an old economy to a far more innovative economy which celebrates communication, open exchange and co-creation. Believing that architecture can benefit greatly from adopting and adapting such an approach, in recent years we have set about the reorganisation of our studio into an open knowledge-based practice.

KNOWLEDGE PLATFORMS – AN INTERNAL MODEL
Since the founding of the practice, UNStudio has been developing knowledge as a result of combining the design and building of projects with an active participation in architectural theory. Following on a continued interest in geometry, digital production, material effects and attainable design solutions, this communal knowledge led to the introduction of four distinct Knowledge Platforms to the studio. Whilst the primary objective of our project teams is to deliver the ‘result’ of architectural thinking (buildings, plans, designs), the objective of the Knowledge Platforms is to distill knowledge from within the practice of architecture in order to propel design thinking and innovation.

NStudio’s Knowledge Platforms have been developed into self-organised groups, operating as cross-linked platforms within the studio. Instead of being organised as processes which run parallel to the design work, the Knowledge Platforms form an integrated part of the practice. Organising the Platform-project relationship in an interactive, non-linear manner allows us to effectively combine research with practice, cross-fertilise innovative solutions and discover new approaches to architecture.

The dual goals of the Knowledge Platforms are facilitating the exchange of knowledge within the studio and expanding UNStudio’s range of co-creation with our current and future collaborators. Each Platform, within its specific topic—Sustainability, Organisation, Materials, or Parametrics—is mandated to assemble our project knowledge and produce new knowledge through internal initiatives and innovative external collaborations.

Caroline Bos:

Our primary goal with the introduction of the Knowledge Platforms is to improve our buildings though the creation of new dynamic ways of working and to develop expertise through knowledge-based strategies and working models. People who join UNStudio can choose a platform that they would like to participate in – and perhaps after a few years they will join 2 or 3 platforms – with the result that they can eventually become specialists in very specific areas of design. In this way we can create highly concentrated knowledge exchange with individuals within the company and thereby create more dynamics and more innovation in the creative process of working with knowledge in design.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING – FROM NODES TO KNOWLEDGE, FROM NETWORK TO MESHWORK
Equally essential to developing UNStudio’s in-house knowledge however is the mutual value to be gained by the exchange of expertise with external collaborators. Ben van Berkel: “It is essential to continuously gather information and to make this knowledge available when engaging in dialogues with other specialists with whom we collaborate, both within and outside of the profession.”

The recent expansion of the profession of architecture has meant that architectural collaborations have now become increasingly wide and varied, encompassing both the sciences and cultural fields. Similarly today’s climate calls for an architecture that is responsive to environmental, political, social, cultural and economic requirements and as such there is call for an architecture that contains all possible layers of knowledge.

In order to initiate and encourage this exchange of knowledge, in June this year UNStudio will introduce a new interactive online platform that will share information about our current research projects and the knowledge garnered from these, whilst actively inviting contributions from collaborators and interested parties. The goal of the online Knowledge Platform is to create a podium where UNStudio can become more open with its expertise and thereby share knowledge on a wider scale. In so doing it is our aim to encourage a co-creative approach to architecture; one which intensifies knowledge and ultimately results in a more responsive architecture born of innovation through co-creation.

ONLINE KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM – THE FIRST STEP
UNStudio’s interactive online knowledge sharing platform is currently in the final design stages, however in the meantime, we have updated and upgraded our research pages with new information about current research projects generated by our four internal Knowledge Platforms. Also integrated in the updated pages is a ‘contribution’ function, which allows readers to actively participate and share their own references and related expertise, rate the usefulness of information, find related knowledge and share posts on social networks.
In addition a ‘Platform Dialogue’ section has been added in which video content relaying discussions and events carried out by UNStudio’s Knowledge Platforms can be viewed online.

Full Article Via http://architecturelab.net/2013/04/unstudio-launches-open-source-knowledge-sharing/

Revitalisation of Historic Cities

Revitalisation of Historic Cities
#AKAA #AKDN

Revitalisation of Birzeit Historic Centre
Location: Birzeit, Palestine (West Asia)
Architect: Riwaq - Centre for Architectural Conservation, Ramallah, Palestine
Client: Birzeit Municipality
Completed: 2009 ongoing
Design: 2007-2011

Cathleen McGuigan (at) GSD

"Women and the Changing World of Architecture" Cathleen McGuigan LF'93
Cathleen McGuigan is editor-in-chief of Architectural Record, the nation's leading architecture publication for more than a century. McGuigan, who is the second woman to serve as editor in chief, was named to the post in 2011. Under her leadership, Record won the 2012 Grand Neal award, the top American Business Media award for overall excellence, as well as being named to the Media Power 50 list in B to B Magazine. She also serves as editorial director of GreenSource, an award-winning sustainable design magazine launched in 2006, and SNAP, a products publication that debuted in 2009.McGuigan, a former Newsweek architecture critic and arts editor, has more than three decades of cultural journalism experience. A Michigan native, she holds a BA degree in English, with a minor in art history, from Brown University. In 1992-93, she was a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.
Besides her career at Newsweek, where she was on staff from 1977 to 2008, McGuigan has worked as a consultant for various clients, including the Syracuse University School of Architecture. She served as an executive editor of HQ: Good Design Is Good Business, a McGraw-Hill pilot project. Her freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and Harper's Bazaar, among other periodicals. McGuigan has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and has been a Poynter Fellow at Yale. Currently conducting research for a biography of the critic Aline Saarinen, she also serves on various design juries and sits on the board of trustees of the Skyscraper Museum in New York.

#Women-in-Architecture

Music (at) GSD

Diller (at) GSD

Diller (at) GSD
#Women-in-Architecture

Zaha (at) GSD

Zaha (at) GSD

Published on Mar 18, 2013

Zaha Hadid Architects (London) has become a world leader in urbanism, architecture and design through projects that integrate man-made systems and preexisting topography. The practice has benefited from its collaborations with leading artists, designers, engineers, and clients, and from its work with state-of-the-art technologies. The MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Guangzhou Opera House, and Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympics are salient examples of the firm's dynamic architectonic sensibility. Current projects include the KAPSARC Research Centre in Riyadh, High-Speed train stations in Naples and Durango, an office tower in Marseille, and urban master plans in North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Zaha Hadid was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004.
#Women-in-Architecture http://architecturelab.net/2013/03/lecture-by-zaha-hadid-at-harvard-gsd/