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The article features architects Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani, founders of the Office dA. Their firm, known for its precision of presentation and methods of design and construction, employs digital modeling and computer numerical control (CNC) milling, together with hand drawing. According to Tehrani, he and Ponce de Leon used to draw everything before discussing with their team.

This article presents information on Technology in Construction conference in Orlando, Florida, in January 2004. designers posed that question to each other about building information modeling (BIM), long billed as the technological sine qua non for efficient and cost-effective design and construction. But most designers, it seems, are taking a wait-and-see attitude about BIM--interested in its benefits, but hesitant to adopt it unless assured of Building information modeling (BIM) is the latest rebranding of a 25-year-old idea that architects should create intelligent 3D models instead of paper drawings to communicate design ideas and guide construction.

The article profiles architect Alejandro Villareal, who founded the architectural firm Hierve Diseñeria. Villareal previously worked and studied at The Instituto Technologico Autonomo de Mexico, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Central Saint Martins College of Arts in London.

The article describes the architectural design of Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. The airport's importance to the city's economy and culture inspired Wellington Reiter, an architect and dean of Arizona State University's College of Design, to sketch out a vision of its future. The architect conceived the highway pipeline into the airport as both a sort of utopian entry and a darker surveillance system.

The article features architectural designers from Madrid, Spain, César Jiménez de Tejada Benavides and brother and sister María and José María Hurtado de Mendoza Wahrolen. Representing their estudio entresitio, they built a complex program in Daimiel where they used a series of long parallel terraces as their own designs. Entresitio's approach is said to be anticontextual wherein the work of the firm aims to stand out rather than blend in.

This article discusses the use of build-design by architects and clients. Design-build proponents say changes have occurred largely because many more clients and industry members came to feel that the design-bid-build's enforced separation fostered conflicts among the various parties holding separate contracts with the client, thus fueling litigation and increasing overall costs. One of the biggest fears architects have about leading a design-build project is the increased risk associated with construction. While the tasks traditionally associated with architecture are insurable, work occurring on a construction site is not.

This article informs that when architect Aldo Celoria began designing a home for his sister in Castel San Pictro, within the Swiss canton of Ticino, he was still a student at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Although the 3,770-square-foot house would look completely unlike the neo-Tuscan home next door, town authorities apparently recognized the merit of Celoria's scheme, and accepted it over a din of protest. Castel San Pietro — near the Italian border and not far from Mendrisio, where Celoria was born in 1969 — is a sleepy town with a population of 1,800.

Recent discussions about innovations in prefabrication and modular or unitized construction methods generally focus on the aesthetics and economics of the final product. The process, or rather processes, of reaching the end tend to be described generically, as if all programs can be addressed the same way. The terms also describe a range of building products, such as the production of structural insulated panels and exterior insulation and finish systems, both of which are ubiquitous in commercial and residential building. The projects here can be described as component-based design, a term that lacks the preconceived notions associated with prefabrication. With the wealth of materials at hand, and the vision of what they can do, the editing skills of an architect in making material design decisions is very important. It is not the materials that are new. Aluminum has been around since 1807, glass since 4,000 B.C. It is the understanding of these components and the consideration of how they can be used together that opens up the design.

Optical reciprocities between ball and bleachers overwhelmingly determine the design of sports buildings. Architects typically derive the diagram for arenas from wrapping walls around optimal lines of sight to generate a box of a bowl. At Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois however, Boston architect Benjamin Wood, Carlos Zapata working with Lohan Caprile Goettsch as the master planner, recently broke free of convention, scoring an end run into new precedent. When architects Wood and Zapata received the commission to update Soldier Field as a $385 million state-of-the-art venue for the Chicago Bears football team, the architects faced the challenge of fitting a new, 62,000-seat bowl within the old one.

This article focuses on 2003 Business Week/Architectural Record Award for architecture. As CEOs increasingly think of the design of their company's buildings as a way to achieve strategic corporate goals, scientists are demonstrating that highly effective working environments don't happen by accident. Resulting from clearly articulated goals, good building design can significantly enhance the well-being and productivity of workers. Architects can fulfill this objective by creating environments that sustain occupants in the many positive ways evidenced by the winning designs. Many factors determined by the design of buildings, including exposure to nature and daylight, air quality, temperature, noise, ergonomics, and opportunities for social gathering, relaxation, and exercise affect occupants' performance and well-being.

The article analyzes key design considerations and product attributes, as well as provide guidance in designing partitions. The process starts with the understanding that there are six primary factors. They are fire resistance, acoustical performance, structural capacity, moisture, abuse resistance and aesthetics. A good designer must look at all facets to determine the best possible design solution. Fire resistance is determined by local code requirements. The codes will establish if the materials in the partition can be non-combustible and, when installed in a system, what the hourly fire resistance must be. Next in the design process is determining the size of the stud needed to obtain the 18 toot height. Then, they need to determine what the partition requires in terms of sound performance. The single number system that is used to determine sound attenuation in a partition is Sound Transmission Classification.

The article features San Francisco, California-based architectural firm Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW), founded by couple Dan Spiegel and Megumi Aihara. Information on the house designed by Spiegel for his parents in Menlo Park is provided. In 2014, the firm was chosen to design an expansion of a Depression-era house tucked into a Golden Gate Heights hillside.

Clients have always known that architects can save them money by designing space that can be constructed economically. Now, a new generation of building owners and facility managers is catching on to the fact that employing architects to do programming may help them save even more. Programming can help owners analyze the way they do business, how much space they need, how it will be organized and what the cost implications of different alternatives will be. An important step in programming is data gathering, through interviews with the client, users and other stakeholders. INSET: Basic Steps for Successful Programming.

This article reports that Geoffrey Bawa's architecture was always a response to site. Living in a tropical paradise like Sri Lanka certainly put Bawa in touch with his surroundings. How could he go wrong with palm fronds swaying in the breeze, waves rolling onto endless white beaches, and a great tradition of classical Sinhalese Buddhist, Portuguese, Dutch, and English architecture enriching towns and countryside alike? But many others have gone wrong and continue to do so. Contemporary architecture in Sri Lanka can be as bad as anywhere else.

Presents several letters to the editor related to architectural designs. Perspectives of architects regarding the rebuilding of monuments and memorials after September 11, 2001; Potential of China as a market for architectural industry; Recent architectural developments in China.

The two partners, Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen took an economic risk in buying land and building their first building, but it has been a risk that paid off.Wilhelmsen is Norwegian, but Saunders emigrated from Canada, where he lived until 1996.In 1998, Tommie Wilhelmsen returned to Norway from Stuttgart, Germany, where he had been working with Behnisch, Behnisch&He and Saunders were both becoming known around Bergen, and the director of the Bergen Architecture School paired the two up to teach a six-week course.

The article offers a profile of architect Thomas Heatherwick. The author describes Heatherwick's studio, set up in London, England in 1994, and previews Heatherwick's 2012 book "Making." The author suggests that Heatherwick's work involves the disciplines of architecture and furniture describes his designs for the British pavilion of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China and an apartment complex in Malaysia.

This article offers a look at the efforts of architects and engineers to push for more passive design strategies. According to Devon Patterson, a principal with Solomon Cordwell Buenz, they created a mixed-mode systems for Loyola University's digital library that combines conventional heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning with various levels of natural ventilation. There are basically two kinds of natural ventilation--the stack effect and wind. For risk-adverse developers, mixed-mode designs offer flexibility.

The article describes the architectural design of the ten-foot-square houses dubbed Micro Compact designed by architect Richard Horden. His tightly integrated prefabricated cubes came onto the European market last summer, retailing for $60,000 installed, and he is handling the production of 12 of them on order from a European client for a project due this fall. The houses are factory-produced in Austria.

The article focuses on the efforts of architects and consultants to develop sustainable operations plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from their offices. To reduce carbon dioxide emission at their own work spaces, architects and their consultants rely on the same strategies they employ in the buildings they design, including daylighting, energy efficient office equipment and lighting controls.

The author of this article likes to share some thoughts about the gypsum board industry with architects, engineers, and designers who read his columns. The gypsum board industry in the U.S. and Canada keeps a low profile outside of the construction trades and related professions and the building code arena. Notwithstanding their inherent unease about being in the public spotlight, the board producers quietly contribute to the success of residential, commercial, institutional, and other types of construction. For many years, manufacturers have invested diligently in research and development in order to bring innovative and quality products and systems onto the market place.