Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67, a project the architect designed for his master’s thesis at McGill University that was later spun into the 1967 world’s fair in Montreal, has been fully realized as a digital model through software from Unreal Engine and Reality Capture. Creative agency Neoscape was approached by Epic Games—the developer behind the game
Conferences appear to be back to nearly full swing based on attendance numbers and foot traffic at Geo Week 2023, held last February 11–13 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. Billing itself as “the Intersection of Geospatial and the Built World,” Geo Week 2023 saw its attendance rise 44 percent over last year,
A river so polluted it becomes cleansed—we are swimming amid trash. A land undisturbed by rainbows of gasoline—we are surrounded by toxic beauty ablaze. This summer, I have been using Midjourney to make buildings that appear just out of the realm of possibility and just out of the realm of the present. The results are
To play through Elden Ring is to take on a grave and foolish challenge. It took 135 hours of my life to finish the admired action role-playing video game directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with narrative content from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. I didn’t beat it just for the bragging rights, but for
Difficult as it is to choose, I do have a favorite episode of Frasier. Season 10, episode 11, titled “Door Jam,” revolves around La Porte d’Argent, a new Seattle day spa frequented by high-profile socialites that Frasier and Niles are dying to get into. They eventually scheme their way into the club and have the
In recent years, experiments in architecture have produced forms, moods, and effects that resist easy labeling. Still, some have tried putting a name to this diverse, variegated work: the “postdigital.” The term was first popularized by the British architect Sam Jacobs, who considered postdigital drawing (often taking the form of collage) to be a meaningful
One morning in July 2020, architectural designer Aaron Schiller was in his New York offices directing a project installation in London. “It was my first-ever FaceTime install,” he said, wincing at the mention of the iPhone app. “It was the middle of the pandemic, but I’d really like to avoid anything like it in the future.” He
It should, perhaps, come as no surprise that the “city of canals” is being threatened by rising tides. It has been less than a year since Venice, Italy, experienced its highest level of flooding in half a century years, as two-thirds of the city was swamped in mid-November. Some areas saw as much as six
While up to thirteen percent of museums worldwide are expected to close permanently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a digital art museum is opening in lower Manhattan. Hall des Lumieres is an immersive exhibition space that is being planned for the first floor of the former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank building, a 15-story tower at
Much has been made about the physical separation necessitated by the novel coronavirus. But the pandemic has also laid bare the digital divide separating communities across the country. Over the past few months, millions of Americans have had to shift their daily activities online with the help of web-based applications, productivity tools, and videoconferencing platforms.
The Pavillon de L’Arsenal (Arsenal Pavilion), an exhibition space dedicated to architecture and urbanism in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, is currently closed to the public to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. One of its current main exhibitions, however, seems to have been born for the internet in anticipation of the pandemic. Artificial Intelligence
Sidewalk Labs, the architecture and urbanism spinoff of Google parent company Alphabet, has detailed a new model for designing tall timber towers on their Medium page. The “digital proof-of-concept,” designed in Revit and hosted in BIM 360, is called PMX (proto-model X), and is intended to show how a modular 35-story tower could be designed
The presentations and activities at this year’s ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture) conference gave attendees a glimpse of potentially disruptive technologies and workflows for computational architectural production. The conference was held this year in Austin from October 12 through 14 and was organized by The University of Texas School of Architecture faculty members Kory Bieg, Danelle Briscoe, and
“Design is inherently interdisciplinary,” J. Meejin Yoon, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of Cornell Architecture Art Planning (AAP) school, told the department’s blog last month. In that spirit, Cornell AAP and Cornell Tech have announced a collaborative, cross-disciplinary program for digital design solutions. The partnership includes the new M.S. Matter Design Computation (MDC) program for graduate
In Tallinn, Estonia, a knotted wooden structure that combines both new and old technology has won the Huts and Habitats award at the Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Curated by Yael Reisner under the theme “Beauty Matters,” the biennale seeks to celebrate the beauty in opposition to architectural environs that can often be isolating, alienating, and ecologically
In Jorge Luis Borges’s 1946 one-paragraph short story “On Exactitude in Science,” a fictional 17th-century individual, Suarez Miranda, tells of a time that the “Cartographers Guilds” made a map of their empire so accurately that it matched it entirely, at 1:1 scale, point by point. Of course, this map was utterly useless. This meditation on
When examining technology transforming the AEC industry, Dennis Shelden emerges as a thought leader. He is an expert in applying digital technology to building design, construction, and operations, with experience spanning across research, technology, and development, and professional practice, including multiple architecture, building engineering and computing disciplines. He was director of R&D and led the
For years, leaders of architectural firms have bemoaned the lack of hand drawing skills among recent graduates and young professionals entering the practice. With a tendency to bypass hand drawing and rely primarily on computer-aided design software and BIM, it seemed for a time as though hand sketching was a dying art among architectural apprentices. To that point,
It’s a rare treat for those of us who teach in the “suburbs” of the curriculum (in my case, professional practice) to visit the hip “downtown nightclub” scene of the design studios.
At the forefront of revolutionizing urban and architectural landscapes, Shahram stands as a leader in innovation in the realm of the built environment sector. As Managing Director of an award-winning architecture firm for over 14 years, Shahram directed multidisciplinary design teams and experts in diverse fields to develop advanced communities and sustainable cities. Shahram has
Adam Vosburgh is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the M.S. Computational Design Practices program at Columbia GSAPP. He is interested in architecture as a software system, the critical use of geospatial data to describe the built environment, and the representation of architecture in interactive digital media.
Zoltan Z. Toth is the Head of the Global Solution Engineer Team at Graphisoft. With a background in interior design, architecture, and engineering, Zoltan brings two decades of experience in both practice and technology. After working as a BIM Manager in New York City, he joined Graphisoft in 2012 and has since held multiple technical
Keyan Rahimzadeh, Founder/ Formulate Ltd. Keyan combines his dual education in architecture and structural engineering with a deep expertise in computational design. He spent 10 years at Front, Inc. developing facade systems for high profile projects around the world and working with many premier global design firms. He then went on to lead the Computational
Nate is curious by nature, always asking why. Because of his passion for continuous learning, leading research initiatives and exploring digital tools are natural extensions of his design responsibilities at Page. He believes that through research, we gain deeper insights into client, context, and history. Like composers intimately understanding how each instrument produces sound, designers
Al is an innovative architect and entrepreneur with a Ph.D in Architecture Digital Design. After teaching internationally, he founded DRAMS Architects in California, ventured into construction with DRAMS Construction, and developed technology with Blueprints AI, showcasing his forward-thinking approach to integrating architecture and digital advancements. He is active in the design and technology community and
Passionate about combining research with project work, Brendan serves as the region’s dedicated technology partner, defining the requirements and uses of software, digital tools, and digital expertise. His role is to empower staff to innovate through technology and stay ahead of the curve. Major areas of Brendan’s focus include computational design, advanced visualization, and artificial
Nicole Buhles is a Practice Technology Leader at HED, where she co-builds and implements firm-wide digital design-delivery strategies. She specializes in BIM management, coaching project teams to maximize technology and seize innovation opportunities. A change agent for over a decade, Nicole knows what drives “digital-first” in AECO firms—and it’s not troubleshooting Revit. Previously as a
As the Director of Technology at KTGY, a renowned national architecture, branding, interiors, and planning firm, Gautam leads the Technology team. He excels in leveraging design technology to enhance project delivery systems and develop comprehensive workflows, specializing in strategic planning and overseeing firmwide infrastructure technology, cybersecurity, and digital transformation initiatives. With over two decades of
Erik Narhi is the Computational Design Lead in Buro Happold’s Los Angeles office with educational experience in architecture as well as engineering. Erik has experience with advanced computational techniques (Grasshopper, Dynamo, Digital Project, Processing), studio design projects at a wide range of scales, realization of a design from concept to CD’s using Revit, and construction