Cool Bridge and Bar Design

Located on Aiola Island, right in the center of the Mur river in Graz, Austria.

read more | digg story

Make your own custom styles with Style Builder

There's a new plug in for SketchUp which allows you to create your own sketchy-edge Style that you can use to make your SketchUp models look hand-drawn. The plug-in is called Style Builder (Beta) and is for SketchUp pro 6.

Below is a video showing the STyle Builder in action:



Further info visit Google SketchUp blogpost

Photoshop gets HD Photo support from Microsoft

Microsoft has released a Beta version of a plugin to let Photoshop read and write files in the HD photo fomat.

The plug-in is available for free to download for Windows and Mac OS X systems. The plug-in works on Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 and Photoshop CS2 and CS3.

Further info visit Webware blogpost

Files Tube - Searchable Files

Files Tube is a new search engine which enables us to search files uploaded to various file hosting sites.

For further info visit Webware blogpost.

Google Earth adds weather information

Google Earth has added a new feature which lets users know what the weather is like while they zoom around the 3D application. It has a new layer that lets users toggle cloud cover, Doppler radar, and conditions and forecasts.


Further info visit blogpost by webware

Black & white adjustment layers and blending modes in Photoshop

A tutorial on Black & white adjustment layers and blending modes in Photoshop

read more | digg story

Plasma Studio : Hotel Puerta America, 4th Floor

The Design of the fourth floor of Hotel Puerta America by Plasma Studio

The deisgn is based on creating a series of crystallized space, with fractured and distorted rooms and hallways.





View the blog post by architecture.mnp for further info.

LTL’s Architectural Illustrations

Some of the presentation illustrations by LTL Architects


ENVISIONING HUDSON SQUARE




PARK TOWER




TOURBUS HOTEL

Further info check out the blog post by architecture.mnp

A Real House Designed Like a Toilet

The Toilet-Shaped house is in fact named Haewoojae, which signifies in Korean "a place of sanctuary where one can solve one’s worries". The Toilet-Shaped House has a very unique design, and was built by Sim Jae-duck, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association, and he hopes his toilet house will highlight the global need for better sanitation.

Click here to view a blog post by architecture.mnp and here to view a blog post by freeshome.com

30+ Mind Mapping Tools

We all need to organize our thoughts sometimes, and there seems to be no better way to do it than in a visual fashion. Mashable has got a list of 30+ mind mapping tools to help you do just that. And since some of you are on a budget, they've listed free and paid suggestions for you.

View the list click here.

Online auto-tracing tool (converts bitmaps to vector art)

Stanford University research project on converting bitmap images to vector art, aka "auto tracing" or "automatic vectorization". Similar to Adobe Illustrator's Live Trace and CorelDRAW's PowerTRACE but works better in many cases. Upload image and get a converted result (EPS/SVG) in a few moments.

read more | digg story

Digital House

The Digital House is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of research and development by the architects Bell Travers Willson, made possible by funding from the London Development Agency, with the aim of enhancing traditional house building through the use of digital technology.

Article can be found here

Creating a Stunning Digital Smoke Effect [ Tutorial ]

In this tutorial we are going to show you how to easily create digital abstract smoke using Illustrator and Photoshop. One of the best things about this technique is that it’s very customizable and you can do it pretty quickly.

Another tutorial of creating a smoke effect can be found here.

read more

Top 100 Architecture Blogs

International Listings have posted a list of the Top 100 Architecture Blogs. They can be viewed here.

Microsoft Virtual Earth offers 3D building capability

Microsoft and Dassault Systemes have released a 3D building application for Virtual Earth.

The application willlet people create 3D objects with textures and colours and share them with one another online. Basically, similar to 3D Warehouse.

The models can also be tagged with real-life addresses or town information so that they can be viewed in Virtual Earth as they would be on a map.

Building Energy Analysis Tool for Sketchup

Greenspace Research have developed an extension on a building energy analysis tool for SketchUp which is currently at its Beta stage.

The tool expands the benefits of using SketchUp for early conceptual design integrating the power of Green Building Studio's energy report system.

The system is based around the Green Building XML schema, referred to as “gbXML”, developed to facilitate the transfer of building information stored in CAD building information models.

Below is a video showing an insight of the plugin being used:

Online Photoshop Express

Below is a video showing a demonstration on the new online based photoshop called photoshop express which will be launched soon. This particular application will fully be a flash-based image editior and will run inside a web browser.

The application focusses at consumers rather than proffesional developers however; it would be a faster and a much efficient way in editing images online especially when you using internet cafes while traveling. Im just not sure about the speed due to the application being all flash-based.

Google Earth's Flight SImulator

Google Earth has a flight simulator feature which can be used by holding Ctrl-Alt-A tobring up the flight simulator and after that, Ctrl-A or a selection from the tools menu activates it. I found the simulator quite slow but interesting to navigate in 3D.

Space Navigator

Space Navigator is a new product by 3Dconnexion which allows you to navigate easily through 3D appications such as Google Earth. It makes it easier to zoom, pan and rotate when viewing 3D imagery as shown below:



Below is a presentation showing how it works:

Architecture professor uses virtual world to teach collaboration

Checkout this article: City Turns New Leaf in Second Life. It shows how Architecture Professors are using second life as a tool to teach students how collaboration can be achieved.

Architectural Visualisation from Neorama

Neorama is a Brazilian and an international provider of Architectural Visualisation solutions. There vision is one of 'a constant search for a sharp and accurate creative vision, allying art and technology to reinforce property features and values'. Below are animations created by Neorama:





They are now moving into second life architectural visualisation as represented by there recent completion of project on Dellano in second life which to me looks a bit like the farnsworth house.

Further info visit Digital Urban blog post.

Microsoft's new search interface called Tafiti

Mocrosoft has just released a new search engine interface called Tafiti. It users microsoft silverlight technology and live search to enable interactive searching. It also enables the viewer to save searched information such as images, rss feeds, etc. Below is a video showing Microsoft's Tafiti in action:

Google Earth Launches Galaxies

A new version of Google Earth has been launched which includes galaxies. You get a 3D view of all the constellations viewable from earth, and you can explore them in 3D. 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies are included. Belowis a video showing the new features of GE v4.2:



Further info visit webware blog post on GE.

Reflexive Architecture

Reflexive architecture is a new direction within the world of virtual architecture whereby the building elements are responsive to the presence of a person.Below is a video showing a gallery of reflexive architecture on Second Life explored by Keystone Bouchard.



Further info visit ARCH blog post on reflexive architecture. For further sources on reflexive architecture click here.

Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0: A Visual Difference

For those who do not understand the difference between web 1.0and web 2.0 below is an image which shows a visual difference between the two rather than finding wordy definitions which do not make too much sense.



Further info visit sizlopedia blog post.

Hyposurface

Hyposurface is a new interactive 3 dimensional moving wall surface which is mainly used to display advertising. It uses a powerful 'information bus' technology to control many thousands of moving objects and allowing high speed movememnt in real time off the screen surface. Below are videos showing the new product in action:





Further info visit Hyposurface website and architecture.mnp blog post.

Embedding Google Mymaps Directly

As my earlier post showed how to embedd Google Maps into your website or blog using other external websites or sources. Google Maps NOW has this feature directly available from today as represented by the image below which shows where it is located:



Further info visit Digital Urban blog post.

Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid Project in Beijing

Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid project in Beijing is quite a good example of a sustainable design. The project consists of several buildings linked together to create a city within a city. Some of its sustanability features include green roof gardens, geo thermal wells to heat and cool the building and a recycled grey water pond.

Below is a presentation in two parts showing the architecture of the design and its green features.





Further info visit architecture.mnp blogspot which shows a great deal of green architecture features of the project.

Holographic Technology

Holographic Technology is a developing technology which displays a projection of an image in mid air. Heliodisplay is a product on the market developed by I02 Technology which displays video images and projects it into free-space or mid air. The video below shows an overview of the product developed.



For further info visit Digital Urban blogpost which shows the recent development of holographic technology in detail and how it can be used to produce digital cities and virtual world interactively.

Dubai Waterfront

Dubai's waterfront is proposed to be the largest waterfront development in the world. The project includes many groups and organizations working collaboratively in order to develop the project by creating various management processes such as feasibility studies. Below is a promotional video showing Dubai Waterfront development and planning.



For further info visit Digital Urban blog post.

Understanding some powerful web 2.0 tools

Some of the web 2.0 tools such as social bookmarking and RSS feeds are difficult to understand. Below are two videos showing what social bookmarking is and what RSS is in plain english.





Fo further info and more videos on web 2.0 tools visit commoncraft or there YouTube videos

tutorials on YouTube

The power of web 2.0 is changing the way we learn. YouTube, one of the giants in the web 2.0 world has a lot of video tutorials for 3dsMAX and other software's such as sketchUp and photoshop. It is just easier to view tutorials interactively rather then using other sources such as text books. Books can be very painful to read and get useful information out of it whereas, with video tutorials it can easily be viewed and at the same time you could be using the software. The learning process is just simply easier with digital technology and it's FREE!!

Below is a tutorial on chapter 1 of a series of tutorials on 3ds Max hosted on YouTube by a user called prabinpebam.The user has more tutorials uploaded mainly on 3ds MA and a few on photoshop.



Further info visit Digital Urban blog post.

Architectural Animation - 3D Blue Print

3D Blue Print is another company which producers 3D visualisation and animations for architects, designers and developers. Architectural animations are currently developed by using the 'flying in' construction animation method which is quite impressive but is over used.

3D Blue Print starts off with an interesting play on the concept of scale with a building emerging from a tabletop site plan shown in the animation below:



Visit previous blog post of squint/opera to checkout there architectural animations.

Google Maps Image Cutter

Image Cutter is an application developed by CASA which takes any image and cuts it into tiles which then can be viewed interactively via a Google Map. Using this tool, the viewer is able to zoom and pan using the standard Google Map interface. This is a very useful tool to publish images on the web.

Below is an example using the Google Maps Image Cutter tool.



You can download Image Cutter for free which users java application to run the software and creates a html file and a directory folder of the tiled images which then can be uploaded to your server. For further info visit Digital Urban blog post.

Online Storage: File Hosting and Sharing Sites

If you are wanting to store, backup or share your files online then this particular blog post on Mashable has put together 80 different websites which allows online backup, sending services, storage/sending services and many more file hosting tools. File hosting and sharing is quite useful because you can only attach smaller files via e-mail to share whereas, bigger files can be stored and shared online via file hosting websites.

I particularly like Mediafire because you don't have to register or login and once a file is uploaded, it provides you with a link which you can then share. It lets you upload up to 10 files of up to 100MB each at a time and has unlimited storage.

Uploading Videos to YouTUBE with max quality

YouTubeis one of the busiest video sharing site. As a result, some of the videos tend to be better than others as far as quality is concerned. Below are two links to websites which show how you can optimize your videos for YouTube so the quality is not totally lost. The websites provide a guide and show the various features YouTube users to upload your videos.

blog post from CrunchGear and post on this website.

Understanding Wiki

Wiki is like a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with acess to it. It is simply an online database that could be used in communicating via a website which enables people to edit a page by using a simple markup language using a web browser. The most common of all being wikipedia - the free online encyclopedia. This is a great tool for working collaboratively where group or team members can write and edit stuff somultaniously. However, biggest disadvantage mainly with open-source wiki systems such as wikipedia it is easy for anyone to change information which could either be true or false.

There are a few websites which enable people to create there own wiki's such as : Wetpaint, pbwiki or wikispaces

Below is a video explaining what Wiki is and how it can be used in collaborative work.

How to embed a Google Map on your website or blog

There are quite a few websites which show you how to embed a Google Map on your website or blog. One of them is My Maps Plus. My Maps Plus is a site that lets you embed maps created using Google My Maps into any blog or website. Google My Maps feature allows you to create mashups which then can be embedded into your website or your blog (click here to view my previous blogpost on Google My Maps) . Another useful website is map-generator.net which allows you to generate your own map and embed it to your homepage. Other cool services include Frappr which is a web based community mapper another web 2.0 service developed after Google released the API for the Google Maps service.

Below is a map I created using Google My Maps and using My Maps Plus to embed it.






Further inf visit here or check previous blogs for Google maps and Google mapplets.

A Closer Look at Microsoft's Virtual Earth

Microsoft's Virtual Earth is the competitor of Google Earth. Not much has been said about Virtual Earth. It simply comprises of similar features to that of Google Earth in terms of navigation however, Google Earth is just too ahead of Virtual Earth in terms of usage and its various features such as importing sketchup models and creating your own mashups. New features are still getting developed for Google Earth users. I guess one of the cool feature of Virtual Earth is navigating via a browser which shows 3D buildings as well and the quality of the resolution of the 3D buildings is much better than Google Earth.However, a plugin needs to be downloaded which can take several minutes.

Below is a video showing Stephen Lawler of Microsoft giving a talk on Virtual Earth.



Below is a video showing Virtual Earth in action:



More info visit: Inside Microsoft blog post.

Second Life and Architectural Practice

Some architectural firms are starting to use Second Life as a professional tool for architectural collaboration, presentation and communication with clients. With SL it is easier to communicate designs to clients as they are able to walk into the built design concepts and have meetings sitting inside the designs instead of describing drawing over the phone. The more virtual models enable clients to interact with them and make changes to them.

Autodesk have already started an island on SL and softwares which import AutoCAD models into SL have already been developed. One particular software "Henshin" will be available soon. Below is a demonstration video showing how to import AutoCAD models into SL using Henshin.



For further info: visit The ARCH blog post on Second Life and Architectural Practice and New World Notes blog post on AutoCAD into SL

Burj Dubai: The Tallest Building

Burj Dubai currently under construction will be the tallest building and the tallest man-made structure in the world. In fact as at of 21 July 2007, the tower's developers reported Burj Dubai's height as 512.1m with 141 completed floors surpassing Taipei 101 (509.2m) as the tallest high rise building in the world.

Burj Dubai designed by Skidmore Owings and Merill will comprise of 162 floors and an overall height of aprox 808m.

The SketchUp Show

Google SketchUp is a free modelling tool which has a lot of features such as importing models into Google Earth. A new podcasting website called The Sketchup Show has been created to help people use SketchUp. It includes video podcasts on tips, tricks and tutorials on modelling in SketchUp. A SketchUp blog has also been created which includes tutorials and other useful information.

Photoshop CS3's photomerge feature

Photoshop CS3 has a feature which creates panoramic views. The new photomerge feature combines several photographs into one continuous image. It automatically stitches them together to create panoramic views. You can also create interactive panoramic views.

I think this feature is available in CS2 and CS to some extent.

To view a video tutorial on how to use the photomerge feature on CS3 click here.

MyVu Personal Media Viewer

MyVu Corporation a company, has developed a product to view ipod videos through a new dimension. It has developed glasses which project videos which can be viewed via a virtual big screen. An amazing technology however, it has some issues which needs to be developed further. It can be purchased via the product website.

For further info visit the blog post on EcoGeek which shows the sustainability of the design and its 'green' features.

SPEED-PAINTING

A speed painting of John Locke from LOST:



Further info visit YouTube to check out more videos on speed-painting. To visit the speed-painting websit click HERE which shows how it is done.

Microsoft touch screen table

Check out this video showing Microsoft's new surface computer. A great product for interactive presentations.

The Top Ten Green Skyscrapers

EcoGeek has announced the top ten green skyscrapers. To check out the top ten green skyscrapers visit Eco-Towers blog post. Mixed Greens, is an organisation which is working on sustainable and energy efficiency design in skyscrapers.

REALVIZ HDR Imaging Studio

REALVIZ HDR Imaging Studio is a new product by REALVIZ which combines Stitcher 5.6, VTour 1.2 HDR and Photomatix Pro in order to create HDR environments for virtual reality, architecture, industrial design, special effects and video game applications. With Stitcher 5.6, users can produce HDR panoramas and directly export them as environment maps in a 3D modeling software such as 3ds Max. VTour 1.2 HDR creates 3D virtual tours from existing single environmets or panoramas. It adds HDR depth to environment maps for Spatial Image-Based Ligthing (SIBL). Photomatix pro has tone mapping capabilities and creating HDR images from various exposures.

Visit InsideCG blogpost and REALVIZ for further info.

HyperShot

HyperShot is the world’s first interactive photography software by Bunkspeed. It lets you load 3d models and environments, then lets you see automation in real time. It also delivers real time rendering. "See instant global illumination and physics-based materials on models come alive, right before your eyes…with stunning photographic results." It's another type of rendering software but has other features such as real time interactive view with environmnents and change of renderings of the same object in the same environment.

Visit InsideCG blogpost and Hypershot website for further info.

Squint/Opera Animations

Squint/Opera is a company which makes films,animations and renders for architectural firms. I came across a few animations which were very interesting and very cool! Below is a presentation created by Squint/Opera. To view more films visit there YouTube site.



Some interesting CG images created by Squint/Opera:

C.G.I. and Compositing

An interesting video I came across in youTube showing a CGI and a compositing showreel which includes live bluescreen work.



Below is a tutorial on a Node-Based Compositing program used to create CGI. This gives an idea how it is done.

Dynamic Architecture

To be constructed in Dubai, is this skyscraper designed by architect David Fisher which rotates by wind power. The building rotates by individual floor, creating ‘dynamic architecture’.

Wind turbines are positioned horizontally between each floors which, will produce energy to the building itself and will supply energy for several other buildings. The skyscraper consists of 59 floors and will have 48 wind turbines, making the building to be a Power Station producing Green Energy for the city. In addition to the horizontal turbines, the building is to be fitted with photovoltaic panels on the roof in order to generate more electricity.

For further info visit dynamic architecture=green architecture post.

Below is a presentation of the dynamic architecture showing its sustainability and functionality.

Popfly Mashup Service

Microsoft has launched a new mashup application called Popfly designed for people who do not know how to develope codes.

The free online srvice which is still at its Alpha stage provides a way to construct mashups by combining various web 2.0 applications. The application users microsoft's Silverlight browser plugin which is now in beta. In order to use Popfly Alpha, you have to sent an invitation request. For more info visit webware blog post on popfly.

Below are videos showing what popfly is,its features and how to use the application.

To checkout my embedded mashup click here.

Open-source architecture to house the world

An open-source architecture network has been developed by architecture for humanity, a charitable organisation. It is a great idea in order to share and communicate ideas through an open-source network. Below is a video which shows what the network is all about and who is behind it.

Photosynth

Photosynth is a new software still in development by microsoft which takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object through photosharing applications such as flickr, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional way.

The video below shows a presentation of photosynth at the TED conference 2007 by its developer Blaise Aguera y Arcas.



Below is a videoof photosynth in action



For further information visit anarchitecture blog on photosynth.

The system requirements to run this application is quite demanding. A good graphics card is reccomended and windows vista. To check out the system requirements click here.

A Closer Look At The iPhone

the new apple iphone is released in US. The video below shows a quick demonstration of the product and its features.



You can also download a guided tour from the apple website.

To view the specifications of the iphone click here.

To view reviews and listings of any and all software for the iPhone click here.

High Dynamic Range Image (HDR)

High Dynamic Range images are images which capture the whole dynamic range of a scene. It stores a set of exposures in one image creating depth to provide more information on light, shadows and materiality. To create HDR images, you will need to take 3 or more photos of the same scene in different exposure levels. This will capture the whole dynamic range of the scene in order to create the HDR image.

Below is a short video showing how to create an HDR image using photoshop CS3 (If you have CS2 this is basically the same in terms of its functions and settings).

You can also use a software called photomatix to create HDR images. Click here to view tutorial on HDR images using photomatix.



Check out Flickr to view some interesting HDR images created from photomatix and photoshop.

Google Maps: Draggable Driving Directions

Now you can customize your driving directions on Google Maps by simply dragging & dropping the default directions to your preferred roads or highways, route around traffic, or add multiple stops on your way.

Google Mapplets

Google Mapplets are a new feature of Google Maps that combines the Google Gadgets API with the Google Maps API to allow embedding mini-applications within the Google Maps website.

The Winery Production Center

Part of the Winery project by the students of 3rd year at the School of Architecture, Tel-Aviv University. A great presentation and a great design.

Designhive's Snowhill Animation

presentation for a new building complex, snowhill in uk created by www.designhive.co.uk.

Generative Components

Generative Components is a design tool or a system which enables designers to explore different forms without manually building the detail design model for each scenario. Generative Components graphically presents design ideas and abstract relationships between them in order to create organic forms and geometry. It allows architects and designers to explore design concepts in depth and create forms relating to its design intent.



For further info: visit Bentley.
download a pdf on generative components

Bloom Frame window style

A new window style which is both a window and can change into a balcony. Bloomframe is designed by Dutch architecture firm Hofman Dujardin.



I guess it's a cool idea but still has issues with its materiality i.e the floor being a wall which would have footprints all over it, an issue which needs to be solved or this could be part of a conceptual idea.

Fo further info click here. or visit Gizmodo

Nokia - Achieve: Achieving Together

A short video presentation by Nokia illustrates how advances in communications technology might conceptually help architects share their ideas together as a team in order to work better.



For further information click here.

Architectural Thesis Presentation

A video seen in YouTube of a thesis presentation.

Architectural Presentation by OMA New York

Presentation of the museum plaza proposal by OMA Architects.

Kumu Museum Final Renders

Kumu Museum Final renders. For more info visit my course website.

Kumu Art Museum Initial Renders

Kumu Art Museum Inistial Renders. For more info visit my course website.

BBSc 303 Rendering Exercise

Slideshow of the tutotial exercise carried out for BBSc 303. The Exercise consists of renderings done for the Villa Savoye, Vontz Center and the Pregassona House: For more information visit my course website.

Microsoft's Popfly

Trying out the new popfly mashup tool