IES Blog

In the architecture and design realm, keeping it simple often yields the best results. Keeping it sustainable doesn’t hurt either.

A push by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as highlighted in a recent article in The Washington Post, supports this idea. All across the United States, AIA chapters are “taking a stand for visibility, transparency and sustainability.” Brick and mortar no longer separates the AIA buildings from the public, something that becomes clear if you’ve seen the new building of the AIA’s chapter in D.C.

Thomas Corrado, project architect with the Washington firm that created the design, described the concept as “clear, simple and concise.” He went on to say that “the idea was about how to make the space a connection between architecture and the person on the street.”

What I find most interesting about this new open-door style is its appeal to the public. As the United States pushes for a greener, more efficient future, anything that can draw in the public to gain some traction is positive for the sustainability industry as a whole. When pedestrians peer through the floor-to-ceiling glass of the D.C. building, for instance, they see an open gallery that currently showcases the winners of a recent design competition. Next month, the gallery will feature an exhibit on art nouveau architecture from Brussels.

Another example of the AIA’s new design efforts is the soon to be completed Center for Architecture and Design in North Carolina.

The nation’s only AIA building to be built from the ground up, it was designed by Raleigh-based architect Frank Harmon after a statewide competition. Inside, the lighting adjusts to demand, monitored by a donated state-of the-art computer server that responds to the amount of daylight admitted. Early modeling projects energy savings as high as 64 percent.

As we head into 2012, we look forward to seeing the AIA’s new push for design transparency continue to generate public appeal and translate to more sustainable designs nationwide.

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Tags:AIA, Architects, design, energy, Modeling, North Carolina, sustainable, Washington

New York City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC). As the City’s primary project manager for construction projects, they build many of the civic facilities New Yorkers use every day.  And recently, the DDC has been designing and refurbishing libraries, firehouses and museums, bringing new life to old buildings and reviving the city with a renewed look at architecture.

One recent project is the Queens Central Library, referenced in the NY Times article, “New York’s Public Architecture Gets a Face-Lift.”

What I find interesting is the reference the editor makes to Starbucks and Barnes & Noble. These seem like the most un-architecturally appealing buildings, and certainly not a place for intellectual stimulation.

Libraries have also learned from retailers like Starbucks and Barnes & Noble about what people expect when they leave their homes to go someplace public to sit and read. Libraries have become modern town squares and gathering places; they offer millions of New Yorkers employment counseling, English-language classes and, crucially, Internet access.

But the inspiration certainly worked for the library in Jamaica, Queens. Its architectural design is fresh, unique and inspiring, but still fits in with the surrounding low-rises in the area. Looking at this project an architectural eye, I think this revival of sorts demonstrates what can happen when architects, even without a whopping budget, can do if they have an innovative agenda and a supportive client. Applying the basics and designing with the future in mind is something we can’t take for granted – NYC’s DDC is a great example of what a little updating can do to bring buildings into the 21st century.

This sums it up quite nicely.
And it’s the small things, after all — some greenery, good lighting, well-maintained sidewalks and well-made buildings — that shape our perceptions of where we live, whether or not we’re always conscious of them.

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Tags:Architects, Building, design, New York

Salvador Dalí, best known for his surrealist work, was a versatile artist. Some of his more popular works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to theatre, fashion, and photography.

And one of the most comprehensive collections of Dalí work is now housed in the newly redesigned museum bearing his name in St. Petersburg, FL.

So what does Dalí have to do with architecture? Well, this museum was designed with not just the interior in mind. Built to withstand extreme weather conditions (it is Florida, after all) as well as decrease its ecological footprint, The Dalí Museum serves not only as a home for some of the artist’s greatest works, but his art inspired much of the design of the structure itself.

The rough, unfinished concrete walls of the main structure deliver a stark contrast to the sleek elegance of the glass sections, which use geodesic triangulation to imitate the flow of liquids in nature. The reinforced concrete walls and the glass sections can withstand hurricanes (up to a category 5). Hurricane-resistant skylights allow natural light to enter the third-floor gallery space, and the glass atrium brings natural light into the lobby. Automated artificial lighting shuts off when the rooms are unoccupied, reducing unnecessary electricity use, while the exterior lighting is provided by high-efficiency LEDs.

Sustainability played a key part in the redesign of this museum. It serves as a model that design can be functional AND beautiful, while still incorporating energy efficient features. This museum could serve as a model for other buildings that are looking to make upgrades but are afraid of losing their uniqueness.

AOL Travel News named the museum as “One of the top buildings you have to see before you die.” Guess I better plan a trip to Florida!

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Tags:Architects, Art, Building, design, Sustainability

When you stop to think about architecture throughout the years, you definitely see the influences of each time period on architecture and design. But do you connect the space program and architecture? Probably not.

I recently came across this article - Ode to the Space Race: How it shaped architecture and design – and was intrigued at how the author connected the dots between our space program a few decades ago and the way in which it influenced design.

As he points out, “Ah, yes, architecture. Space and modernism connected to give us nearly 20 years’ worth of boomerang-shaped gas stations and amoeba-like signage.”

How very true. The article got me thinking about other architectural influences and what we tend to see in everyday life. Take the lasting effects of Frank Lloyd Wright’s style of design, for example. His design aesthetic is what I would summarize as “American architecture” in the sense that, he took a totally new approach to design, one that didn’t pull from European styles as architects in this country had done for many, many years. His influences are seen from coast-to-coast.

So what will the next influence be? I came across this viral video last year, and I thought I would share it with you. Perhaps “Domestic Transformer” is the next phase of modern design.

This video shows that even in 344 sq. ft. (a mansion by Hong Kong standards), you can have all of life’s necessities. Architect Gary Chang designed this space to change into 24 different designs, all with just sliding panels and walls.

So what do you think? What other events have influenced architecture?

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Tags:Architects, design, event, space program

Earlier this year, AIA challenged its member to design a dream house for Barbie – yes, Ms. Barbra Millicent Roberts herself. The AIA Barbie® Dream House™ Design Competition is part of Mattel’s spotlight on architecture as its “Career of the Year” for Barbie.

And it looks like the competition was a success! With more than 30 entries, the design submitted by Ting Li, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP and Maja Paklar, Assoc. AIA, took home top honors.

This Mother Nature Network article, “A palace fit for a doll: Barbie gets new green digs in Malibu,” links to the winning design.

Now you would think with such a high-profile “character” as Barbie, this would be a positive for the architecture community. Unfortunately, some of the articles I’m seeing online actually think the architecture profession itself needs a makeover, not just a new spokeswoman.

In an opinion piece on The Christian Science Monitor, John Cary states‘’Architect Barbie’ builds a dream home, but her profession needs a makeover.’

According to the article, “The American Institute of Architects has announced the winners of its contest to build a dream home for the Mattel doll, ‘Architect Barbie.’ The contest misses the point that the severe gender gap in architecture is a problem of retaining women – not one of recruiting them.”

What do you think? Does the architecture community have an issue retaining women? And if you answer yes, is that an issue exclusive to architects, or all professional careers?

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Tags:AIA, Architects, Barbie, Building, careers, LEED

I got the red eye out of Glasgow to arrive at this year’s Ecobuild exhibition a few hours out of its opening, and still feeling guilty about taking the plane instead of the train I entered the new location of ExCel right next to City airport (there really was no contest in ease of travel!).  The anticipation in the air was palatable!  What would this year bring?  Would the move to ExCel work?  Would the visitors come?

Having attended a similar show Greenbuild in Chicago in November last year for a disappointing 28,000 visitors (down from the estimated 40,000) we had no idea what to expect here…

…and WOW what a difference – in all honesty last year’s Ecobuild had felt stale and just a bit depressing, even with the 41,000 visitors – exactly like the market in general.  But this year spring was in the air and optimism abounded.

Ecobuild has finally arrived – It has been called “the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment and the UK’s largest construction event of any kind” for a while now.  However, this year it well and truly lived up to that expectation.  Plus, the international element was noticeably out in force with visitors and exhibitors from all over Europe and the rest of the world (maybe the close proximity to an international airport helped…).

In addition, the demise of Interbuild aka BEST was announced just prior to the show (for all you non-UK readers this was the UK construction industry’s behemoth show for many years).  The obvious conclusion being that our construction industry is all about sustainability now – it’s the norm!  An interesting problem for Ecobuild going forward will be how it keeps this specialisation and sustainable building innovation at the core of the show, while embracing the great news that the industry has well and truly changed its outlook over the last 5 years.  Back then the show only had 500 visitors, this year an estimated 50,000 came through the doors!

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), I was stuck on our stand for most of the show helping to speak to all you lovely performance analysis enthusiasts, and consequently I didn’t make it too much of the show, let alone any of the seminars.  My lifesaver was @PazzaArchitect who did a sterling job of keeping the #Ecobuild twitterarti up to date with live session tweeting.  Plus GAB (Green Architecture & Building) Report has undertaken a fantastic report of the show floor.  Check out all tweets with the #Ecobuild hastag for a review of the show and loads of funny pics ranging from the Dulux Dog to the Mr S&G Superhero at WhatTheHastag.

So what did we get up to then?  Interest from the non-converted IESVEers was definitely up, especially in the architect arena with many seeking us out from among the 1,300 exhibitors.  And for them we were offering a 2 for 1 special offer on our newly revamped VE-Gaia tool.  If you’ve ever wanted to incorporate sustainable performance analysis into your design process right from the beginning this is the tool for you.  Climate, LZCT, Energy, Daylight and much more…

Then on the UK Building Regulations side we launched our unique new guided VE-Navigator for UK Compliance 2010 for new-build compliance and EPC creation.  Visitors were able to discover the time saving, facilitation and QA functionality it offers at live demos on stand.  Plus, three new software packs from as little as £320 per quarter we launched to offer our customers a range of flexible DSM/SBEM & EPC solutions.

Our very own David McEwan was recorded talking about our presence at the show and plans over the coming year – listen to it here on Audioboo.

Then our very own IES Faculty educational series of free events was launched which will cover a wide range of performance analysis topics – book now if you want to attend places are filling up fast!!  The first session is a Modelling Masterclass scheduled for the 21st March in London. 

Plus Richard Qunicey of IES and Tristan Kershaw from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Energy and the Environment presented at the UKGBC Big Tent on the village Green on ‘Is Adaptation our industry blind spot?’ Can climate data help buildings cope over the long term?  The Prometheus research project was covered to analyze how weather data lets you assess a building’s ability to adapt to climate change.

Phew what a busy week!!  Finally thanks you to all for your interest, enthusiasm, wit and inquisitive nature.  See you there next year!!

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Tags:Architects, Building, education, Greenbuild, IES, software, Sustainability, VE-Gaia

And is that a bad thing?

A recent study by Robert Gaarder, a leadership coach and consultant on organization development, thinks architects might come with certain personality traits.

ARCHITECH Magazine featured his findings this week, and there’s been quite the buzz on the Internet.

His findings?

“…the most frequent type among the architects was ENTJ—extraversion, intuition, thinking, and judging. ENTJs accounted for a whopping 31 percent of the architects that Gaarder tested, despite the very low frequency of the type (estimated at 1.8 percent) within the general population.”

But it’s not all bad.

In Gaarder’s less stilted words, “The good news is, the ENTJ has a lot of leadership qualities. They can envision the future. They are these grand-scale organizers; they think in terms of systems.” It makes sense, then, that the architecture-firm principals in Gaarder’s group overwhelmingly scored as ENTJ (16 of them) as opposed to other types (three ISTJs, for example).

How accurate is his study? Well, with just a sample of 100 architects, mainly at the senior level and based in Washington, DC, probably not wholly representative of the entire U.S. architect population. But it’s fun to see the results, nonetheless. If you’re an architect, where do you think you fall? Engineers, do you think the architects you work with fit this mold? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Tags:Architects, leadership, research

As a software developer the similarities between how we build and develop the software and how architects design buildings has always struck me. In this blog, I’d like to talk about how the architecture design concept of software engineering.

What is Software Architecture?

The software architecture is a structure which comprises of different elements, the external visible properties of these elements and relationships among them. It’s the organization process of defining a solution that meets all of the technical and operational requirements. It involves a series of decisions on a wide range of factors such as quality, performance, maintainability and overall success of the application.

Why is Architecture Important?

Like a complex building structure, software must have a solid foundation. Failing to consider key scenarios, design for common problems or to predict the long term consequence of a key decision can put the development work at risk. Poor architecture can make the software unstable, produce more bugs during coding phase and it is hard to support development for future business requirements.

The architecture design is an important phase of the whole development process; full consideration of user requirements, business goal and system ability, it draws a blueprint for the later work. At this stage, you should outline all the key scenarios in great details and identify all the possible pros and cons of each software attribute.

We should consider high level concerns instead of implementation details when designing architecture:

• How will the user be using the application?
• How the features of the application will benefit the user?
• How can the application be designed to be maintainable to meet the development schedule?

To understand the user requirements is the key to good architecture design, the software is just a service product which offers convenience and efficiency, all the design should be based on the consideration of those two factors.

The Goals of Architecture

An ideal architecture should be a perfect conversion between business requirements and technique requirements by understanding user cases and then defining a clear and neat way to implement those requirements by programming the software.

A good design is sufficiently flexible to be able to handle all of the user case studies and scenarios, both functional and quality requirements, efficient in implementation details.

The Principles of Architecture Design

Design the architecture with evolution in mind so that it will be able to adapt to requirements that are not fully known at the start of the design process, do not try to over engineer the architecture, and make assumptions that you can’t verify.

Instead you should keep your options open for future changes, identify the foundational parts of the architecture that represent the greatest risk if you get them wrong.

Key Architecture Principles

• Building software for change instead of building to last. There are always new requirements and feedbacks.
• Identifying critical decisions. Identify the areas where mistakes and further changes are most often made, getting these key engineering decisions right the first time so the design is more flexible.

Start with a base-line architecture to create the big picture, and then evolve the details and iteratively test and improve the architecture. Do not try to get every tiny detail right on the first attempt, get the big decision right first, and then focus on the details.

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Tags:Architects, Building, Engineers