organicsabre

I came accross this article in the BBC eduation and technology section about using an education version of simcity for problem solving etc. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131107-could-video-games-replace-exams Interesting concept and boy do i wish these new idea were availiable 20 years ago when I was doing my gcse's!

Well I'm an Architectural Technologist and without me architects buildings don't work and engineers have a stress overload, i am the middleman that makes buildings work technically and help teh engineer come up with solutions.

A couple from Lincoln, UK First one is The roundabout at the east end of Tritton Road. Its traffic light controlled and halways chokes up at rushhour as the sequences don't work! 2nd is right in the city centre and has a hotel in the middle. This whole area including the bus station and car park to the North is to be demolished for a new retail devlopemnt, bus station and link to the rail station in the south.

I give you the jewel of Lincoln, Uk. Lincoln Cathederal was built between 1185-1311 No part of the cathederal is less than 600 years old and was the worlds tallest structure for hundreds of years. Wikipedia link of info Here The cathederal also was where the westminster cathederal scenes were filmed for the latest Da Vince code film.

I gather your building it in insitu concrete as a steel frame could get brittle in the severe whether conditions you have up there, do you line the inside or outside with the insualtion layer? I also note you still constructing int eh snow!, here in the Uk site work would stop, do you have special agents in the concrete to prevent it from having problems curing in that wheather? and are those heat mats around those columns?

It has to be the triangle for Darkside of the moon. Rodger waters played the whole album this year when i saw him in the Uk in May as it is the 35th Aniversary of the album in March. and this year was the 35th aniversary of the tour they did in 1972 to promote the album before it was released. Oh Yes and 47 and if you want some inspiration see the video i shot at the gig here during Braindamage/eclipse where they had a laser prism.

Ok heres how we would do it in our ofice (though this is based on a Uk dentist practice). Entrance has to be clearly identified, with full disabled access (yes think about access from the begining) Think what the patient will do when he goes through the front door. Produce a bubble diagram to show Patient and follow their process of what they do in their, then create as much of a direct path to these areas. For example Reception to waiting room (toilet facilities located next to waiting room, if its only for 8 chairs than a unisex disabled toilet + 1 small male and 1 small female wc i.e. 1 wc each) next to the chairs, an easily identifyable route to the various areas i.e. treatment/examination and xray (though each chair in the uk has its own xray unit) Next section is staff. you need toilets and changing facilities, staff room (where they can have lunch, have a tea break etc.) also put a shower in, it encourages people to go to work by bike as they can shower before starting work. Think of storage, space for equipment storage, cleaning, patient records (make sure easily accessed from reception for the records) Now thats what to have in it.. Next when you have a satisfied layout we go onto the environmental aspects. Key for this type of practice is ventilation. Get as much natural ventilation as possible and natural light into rooms. Yes big windows are good for light but think about solar gain. One of the best inventions I have seen are called solar tubes which are like sky lights but can look like a standard ceiling difuser. These are also integrated into things called "wind catchers" which are small louvered cabinets on teh roof which allow natural air to be drawn down into teh room with raw air expelled back out by the "Passive stack" motion. (look it up!!) some also come with a fan to increasse airflow should the wind be very light and are usually powered by a sphotovoltaic cell ontop of the windcatcher. Right power... Photovioltaics are the best, wind turbines are ok, but are far less efficient than photovoltaic cells. also consider hot water, think about solar panels on the roof to heat the water up, to minimise the reliance on a boiler, this can prodcue hot water at 80% efficency in teh summer and 30% in the winter so you still need a boiler but the cost to produce the hot water is less, releasing less co2 into the atmosphere as well. Also consider collecting rainwater to use to flush toilets with. To relax a customer the waiting room needs to be light, airy with plenty of ventilation and painted in what they term "relaxing colours" i.e. cool tones not in your face bright colours!! Maintain full disability access through out, that means if 2 storey include a platform lift. Make sure all treatment/examination rooms are soundproofed so patients inside have privacy and patients outside don't hear too much of the dreaded drill!! Originally posted by: Jasoncw For the rooms, don't have "rooms" with "doors" but have the spaced just defined by some walls that add some privacy. Doors are bad because they'll want to move their equipment around, and will want to move quickly between rooms, and be able to communicate with each other from between rooms. quote> Sorry i have to disagree with that and it is stated in our guidlines to have enclosed treatment rooms. Originally posted by: Jasoncw Design the building so that it could easily be expanded or converted, and put that into the environmentally friendly part of your spiel, because in the future it will be more practical to re-use your building. For the employees, make sure their area is separate and private. They probably want to be "away" from their job while eating lunch or whatever. quote> I couldn't agree more with you on those 2 points. Theres a few pointers to think about. I could go on all day because buildings are complex things to design, you will find this out in the real world outside of college/university. Ok heres a few links that may interest you... sunpipe / wind catchers Solarboost windcatchers (i.e. solar powered ventilation fans) rainwater harvesting Info on photovoltaics Solar heating for hot water Heat pumps Heat recovery units (re-use heat in ventialtion systems ) Ok those should give you a starter on them. This site gives you an insight into sustainable materials for building with which may be of interest to you.

You have to start somewhere jose, speaking as an architect, to be able to freehad draw / sketch helps when trying to visulize what you want to do before you start inputting it into a CAD system. for one thing when you do sketches for real in an architects office, very rearely will they be precise works of art, a sketch is a sketch, a quick line drawing to visulise it, some sketches can look really rough but if they show a few items that can be developed into a building they are very usefull. A sketch will not usually take more than 30 minutes max to draw (thats actual drawing time and not thinking time).

Ok first one is ok, perhaps you can have 50 LED lense bulbs in it making it energy efficent and still give adequate light. next one, there would be structural issues with the pull out laods at the roads edge, pehaps a vertical member to assist with bracing it near the bottom. Third, support is two narrow I can see what you want to achieve, but the windo loads would put too much pressure on the small centre support. The Tuska Bridge one would need supporting on the right to stop the heavy signboard and cantilever from trying to tip to the left. The dual one of the above would be self supporting, i.e. the members on either side would remove the tipping effect. Next, the lattice between the two large supporting members arn't required as they wouldn't brace it much, a simple thicker member would brace the two adequately. The 2nd to last one wouldn't work, the wind wuld cause the thin supports to the main sign board to break s teh pressure on such a large flat surface would cause this. Think some of your hanging traffic lights in america and what they are like in a strong wind, then multiply the effect 10 fold. The last one, I would run away from Looks like 2 tripods from war of the worlds approaching!!. still would work well, is vey asthetic and furturistic. As for the first post, with the street lights you need to get your proportions right, the size of teh light lenses and their projection is too much in comparrison to their bases, cut the projection in half and add that half to the height, the proportions would look much better and more realistic.

Considering the type of construction as long as they can protect the piling workers below it shouldn't be much of a problem. This construction technique meant that the building was supported from the core and built out from it minimising the surface area of foundations required. Obviously the new tower being bigger needs a more advanced foundaiton of a greater side. This can take month to do all the piling and concreting so basically they are fast tracking this by incorporating it at the same time as part of the demolition.

As a UK architect I cannot advise on how to get there as the US system is different, i can however give you an insight into the job. First things first. You see all these massive buildings going up, futuristic designs etc. Yes? well forget them, when you start you will start on the bread and butter stuff. You will come out of university thinking you know alot, when actually that is just a small backbone. The real learning in architecture is when you work in a practice. The thing that 100% of architecture students do not know how to do is detail drawings, they can draw a pretty picture, know about form and function, but when you ask them how will you build it, the face drops and the ermmmm ahhh etc. My best advice would be as follows. When at college/university try and get a holiday job in a practice, get a feel for the job you will be devoting 6-7 years of your life in university to, you wont get paid much, but in this industry experience sells you more than your qualification so any once of experience you can get, grab it. Go for a small practice, why you say? well simple large practices means that you sometimes get the dregs i.e. big project needs a door schedule doing, who does it, yup the probie you will find yourself doing the stuff people don't what to do and you don't learn anything. If you are in a small practice they need every body to work on different projects so you get immersed in projects at a deeper level and you learn alot, yes the learning curve is steep, but it makes yo a better person and a better architect. Don't be afraid to ask for help and do a bit of background research on basic construction principles, it will help you base knowledge. Always look at things with this attitude:- * How does that stand up * how is that protected from the weather * how does that stay there * how do i move around in there * If I do this how will it effect other things I could list over a hudnred questions, but you get the point. By constantly disecting your design and building, makes it easier for you to present the correct information to the builder and not have him keep phoning asking those questions. The most important thing to remember is its not just the design and detailing work. You have to elarn contract law, about different trades (general knowledge helps) i.e. mechanical services, structural, civil engineering etc. You will have to do lots of paperwork, i.e. architects instructions, reports, letters/faxes/emails, sort out disputes, bollock contractors, attend lengthy meetings, do site visits in all weathers and be expected to look at every part of the building i.e. going on roofs, sometimes much higher than you think, crawling through roof spaces etc. Deal with the ever increasing regulations and in a few cases be expected to do unpaid overtime just to get a job out on time. It is not a cushy job, you need alot of commitment to do it, but I always say it is a satisfying job in the end as if you design a building well and it looks great, it'll be there for hundreds of years to come and you can always walk down that street and say to your grandkids, "I designed that". Originally posted by: Jersey_17011Ratieya....about the CAD, i was worried that hand drawing was...(for lack of a better term)..outdated?quote> Nope, you are expected in teh UK to give CAD drawings to the planning department and building regulation control services, mainly because it is easier to read, but I still sketch on a board when doing first sketch schemes and also its good to sketch on a piece of paper when you are trying to work out construction details, so alsways keep a dab hand in drawing with a pen or pencil. As CAD has been brought up in the office I work we use ArchiCAD V9 on Macs.

I went to london last week to see Spamalot at the Palace Theartre on shaftsbury avenue near Soho. As I was early I had a walk aroudn teh local vacinity and managed to find an interesting building stuck ont eh side of an edwardian 6 storey building on James street. Light was fading fast so i have had to brighten the picture. The palace theartre is a great building but unfortunately was dark when i got there so no picture I'm afriad.

Remember it went to an international design competition, the winners design was ended up being thrown out, a new design was done (thats 1 year already). These days Health and Safety, beurocracy etc. has to be got passed, then theres the workforce to employ and all the specialists not forgettin that competition entries are only what the building looks like and a basis of structure not full working drawings it can be imediately built from . Full working drawings would have to be procured from architects, structural engineers, civil engineers, utility engineers, mechanical and environmental consultants, health and safety consultants etc etc. all in all for a building of that size its a very time consuming operation, especially as it involves as you say an underground station etc, then you have material order lead in times, steel has to be fabricated for the foundations, mass concrete has to be poured frames have to be manufactured, cables pipes etc. For a specialist building i.e. a skyscraper these things are not bought "off shelf" but have to be designed manufactured specially for it which takes time. I am a design proffessional and I know that people do not realise how much has to go into a building design, procurement and construction wise before you see any results above ground. I hope the above gives you a tiny insight into the mass of work that has to go on behind scenes before a building is even started.