June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment

Why Smart Home Control Points Are Good

Image: oskay | Flickr

The smart home will be able to do a lot by way of automated systems that assist, guide, and educate building occupants. But what happens when such guidance is wrong? How will the smart home know it needs to correct itself? As such, adaptive architecture needs to allow for occupant override — so occupants can choose their own preferences, or can cancel an action.

The beauty of adaptive architecture is that it does have a predictive element, where architectural behavior can tune itself toward occupant needs and goals in real-time. However, there are moments when occupant preference, characteristics, or upcoming need should be able to be inputted into the rule-based system that makes up a smart building. After all, the smart home [Read more...]

Filed Under: Smart Environment Tagged: , , , , , , ,
June 13, 2013 Leave a Comment

Strategy: Consider Your Building Message to Outside Observers

Image Credit: Stig Nygaard | Flickr

Featured Image Takeaway Design Strategy:

While the above photograph isn’t of a building (it is a metro sign), it suggests what may lie ahead for urban architecture. What if your building could communicate with observers in entirely new ways? Your architectural exterior skin could announce or respond to changes in weather, urban events, or even changing trends made available through the internet. Suddenly, your building becomes a beacon — that perhaps behaves differently from day to night.

To Apply This Strategy, Ask Yourself:

Should my building communicate with exterior observers about changes in the weather, urban events, or even about what is going on inside? How can my building add value to its urban context by announcing or responding to such changes? And how will such communication affect those inside the building?

Filed Under: Featured Image Strategies Tagged: , ,
June 11, 2013 Leave a Comment

Why Lacking Creative Vision Will Hurt Your Architectural Design

Image: Paul Bica | Flickr

At the outset of your architecture project, you have the most leverage. Changes you make at this point cost less, and testing out variations of your creative vision early on will help to ensure that your building project is the best possible solution for your client and its future building occupants. But that is not all — a well thought out creative vision will also help your building project to survive the various phases of review by client, boards, and committees. Thus, your creative vision is what will guide design decisions throughout the design and review process so your building concept doesn’t get chiseled away as the project goes on.

When an architect lacks a well thought out creative vision, the entire architecture project suffers. Not only will such a building lack in its functionality and beauty, but the cost and quality of the project will suffer as well. You see, creative vision is about solving for your [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architectural Design Tagged: , , , , ,
June 4, 2013 Leave a Comment

Rethinking the CubeSensor to Boost Occupant Performance

Image: Jeremy Levine Design | Flicker

Emerging technology is now able to monitor an environment’s conditions — to alert occupants should certain qualities change: like temperature, light, noise, or humidity. Such technology is being called a “CubeSensor” in that it acts as a monitoring device to help occupants regulate their surroundings —- after all, slight changes in temperature, light, or even noise can drastically affect an occupant’s performance. (1)

Such innovations, like the CubeSensor, are a step in the right direction. But, I must ask, how we can push such innovations further. For example, what if an innovation like the CubeSensor could do more than monitor and send alerts to occupants about their environment? What if such [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged: , ,
May 28, 2013 Leave a Comment

Buildings That Make You Think

Image: toprankonlinemarketing | Flickr

As interactive architecture gives way to adaptive architecture, it becomes important to understand how a more responsive space impacts its occupants. That is, does it make decisions for them? Or, does it provide choice to get occupants to think more carefully about their own decisions? Perhaps, the adaptive architecture can decipher when to do each — giving occupants the best of both worlds.

You see, as a designer of adaptive architecture, you may not want your design to do everything for your occupants. There are some things that occupants either like to do, or need to do, themselves. For example, technologies integrated within an adaptive architecture might suggest [Read more...]

Filed Under: Adaptive Architecture Tagged: , , ,
April 23, 2013 1 Comment

Why Your Design Model Should Highlight Occupant Narrative

When working to create your architectural design presentation — how do you communicate the benefits of your design to your client? Do you simply rely on your design model to explain how the design will look? Or do you use it to explain the positive value that your client will get out of inhabiting your design?

You see, you can be strategic about the way you use your presentation design model when communicating with your client. You can use it to show how their needs and goals will be met. For example, if you are designing an office building, you can depict how ceiling height will play a role in triggering either more abstract thinking or more detailed thinking among employees. In other words, you can use your architectural design model features to demonstrate how your designed space will function.

The elements that you incorporate within your design model matter, as does the story you tell with your architectural presentation materials. Each rendering or physical model you create acts as a “snapshot” in time of your design. So, you want to be certain that you are choosing the best [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digital Media Tagged: , , , ,
April 16, 2013 Leave a Comment

How to Maximize Your Rendering Lighting to Communicate What You Mean

Image: seier + seier | Flickr

Often, an architectural rendering is about capturing a moment. And that moment is meant to communicate to its observer something deeper behind that architecture. In particular, the lighting within a given rendering becomes quite revealing, as it sets the scene and brings life to materials. You see, light and shadow help a rendering to express itself. In fact, the following is a list of the various ways light and shadow help renderings to communicate:

  • Time of Day
  • Geometric Form
  • Materiality
  • Depth / Distance
  • Texture
  • Transparency
  • Reflection
  • Ethereal Quality

Overall, the lighting expressions listed above can be used to make a rendering richer — where it communicates a lot of information about [Read more...]

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