The year 2011 was a great one for ArchDaily, and all thanks to you. In terms of web traffic, in our network we grew to more than 200,000 daily readers who viewed 350 million pages during 2011. Our social media reach has grown to nearly 500,000 Facebook fans, more than 60,000 followers on Twitter and an ever growing presence on Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest, all connecting with architects around our passion: Architecture.

ArchDaily is more than big numbers. It is recognized as the ultimate source of inspiration for thousands of architects around the world, who are covering new ground in architectural discussion, and generating new opportunities by being part of the world’s largest architecture network. During 2011, we participated in important events, such as the Pritzker Prize ceremony in DC, the AIA National Convention in New Orleans, among others, and visiting architects all across the US, in the UK, Switzerland, Israel, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. We’ve had the chance to interview renowned architects such as Steven Holl, Renzo Piano, Richard Meier, Peter Eisenman, and a long list of people who are advancing this profession. We spoke at the AIA Arkansas Convention, Harvard GSD, along with other events and schools. We launched our first local version, ArchDaily Brasil (more to come during this year!) and introduced our first tool to help architects collect and order information: My ArchDaily. We will continue to work very hard during 2012, with all our passion, to keep you connected to everything that is happening in the architecture world and help you with tools, as you will be the responsible of the noble task to shape our built environment.

Since 2009 we have held the Building of the Year Awards, an instance in which all of you make your voice heard by nominating and voting for the best projects featured on ArchDaily during the year. This is a peer based award that recognizes firms of all sizes, trajectories and locations. You can check the results of the previous editions here: 2009 and 2010.

Once again we have partnered with HP to present the 2011 Building of the Year Awards, starting today Feb 7th, 2012 at the following link:

http://www.archdaily.com/building-of-the-year/2011/

The nomination stage will run for 2 weeks until Feb 21st, 2011. All buildings featured under the available categories during 2011 are elegible for this round. You can nominate one building (in one category) per day.

Like last year, we will authenticate the votes with the My ArchDaily platform, so we can assure that the nominating and voting processes are conducted by the community. You can nominate once per day, so you can propose your favorite projects from Feb 6th to Feb 19th, after which 5 buildings per category will continue to the voting round, between Feb 20st and Mar 4th. The winners will be announced on Mar 5th, 2012.

Given that you are in charge of the selection process, we have decided to give away 2 custom engraved iPads 2 during the nominating/voting stages (more details on the rules below). Also, the most voted firm will receive an HP Designjet T2300 eMFP printer (MSRP US$8,000).

Once again I’d like to thank all our readers for your support in 2011, and rest assure that we are working on new ways to improve ArchDaily in 2012. Our inbox is always open, so feel free to leave your feedback, recommendations and support on the contact page.

Rules after the break:

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A few months ago I had the chance to visit and interview Architecture Research Office (ARO), just after they were announced as the recipients of the prestigious 2011 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture.

I was eager to meet this practice and share their projects at ArchDaily, especially because of the diversity of their work. Not only do they work at different scales (from master plans and institutional buildings, to a small recruiting station in Times Square), but they also strongly focus on research, with projects such as Rising Currents or Five Principles for Greenwich South -projects that invited other firms in a collaborative effort to share ideas for a strategic development of Manhattan- moving between a design practice and a research lab.

The firm was founded in 1993 and has become very influential in the NY area. It is led by Stephen Cassell, Adam Yarinsky and Kim Yao. I had the chance to sit down with the three of them for this interview, where they tell us about recent and ongoing projects. They share their views on innovation, collaboration and how to run a practice which is both what we know as the traditional practice, and a laboratory.

ARO projects at ArchDaily:

• Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, Brown University
• Hudson River Education Center And Pavilion
• R House
• Princeton Architecture School
• MV House

And more to come in the next days!

Credits: JC Labarca (camera), JP Barrera (editing).

James Lind Courtesy of Wikimedia CC License

How do we know that sulfuric acid does not cure scurvy? Is it our wonderful intuitive sense about sulfuric acid’s properties? That can’t be it. Vitriol (sulfuric acid) used to be the Royal College of Physicians’ favored choice. The British Admiralty preferred vinegar. Still others favored a variety of remedies including the seemingly ridiculous notion of fresh fruit.[1] This mess wasn’t sorted out until a young Scottish naval surgeon named James Lind did something revolutionary. In 1747 Lind conducted world’s first controlled clinical trial.[2] Fresh fruit won, sulfuric acid and vinegar lost.[3]

Similarly, there are various untested claims about which architectural interventions are beneficial for individuals with autism (see: here, here, here, and here). For the most part, these claims are mired in anecdote and conjecture. This makes it impossible to decipher which ones are sulfuric acid, vinegar or fresh fruit. Fortunately there are a few architects that have started to embrace the Lind spirit.  This is the most important and necessary step architects need to take. If architects do not try to verify their claims through fair tests then they run the risk of undermining the public’s trust or worse, unintentionally doing harm to a vulnerable population.

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Dear readers,

Since the day we started ArchDaily back in 2008, we have stuck to our mission to become a hub of opportunities for architects, and to improve the profession by making architectural knowledge available to architects around the world.

To help keep you architecturally inspired, a passionate team of architects works hard every day to bring our readers from around the world the latest news, projects and any information that is relevant to the architecture world. Working on a global scale has required that we focus on broader aspects of the architectural world. While this has its obvious advantages, it can neglect one of the most important elements an architect has to deal on a daily basis: context.

We know that local issues and national contingencies have more weight over projects than global trends. While the Internet turned us into global citizens, it is now a tool that allows us to connect with the local in an unprecedented way. And at ArchDaily we wanted to provide our readers with the local information that is relevant to them.

We decided to start with Brazil, the cradle of one of the most powerful movements in architecture. The works by the Brazilian modern masters can be resumed into powerful structures with humble details, a constant that is now seen among the new generation of talented architects, who respect that tradition but are still able to innovate and give identity to Brazilian architecture. The country is also facing an unprecedented growth, and will host two of the largest events in the coming years, the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de janeiro, posing several challenges for architects and urbanists. In this context the local architecture scene has developed interesting projects in different scales, from where several lessons can be learned.

ArchDaily Brasil will have a special focus on everything that is happening in the country related to architecture, mixed with a selection of the best projects to keep Brazilian architects inspired and connected to a global network. Our editorial team of Brazilian architects and correspondants throughout the country strive to keep you informed in the best way possible, interviewing local architects, covering events and lectures, news, etc.

We invite our Brazilian readers to visit ArchDaily Brasil, and also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

We’d love to hear your feedback about ArchDaily Brasil, please leave any ideas, suggestions or recommendations in the comments section.

And stay tuned for more exciting news from ArchDaily.

Obrigado!

Imagine meeting with a client and writing down only their limitations and dislikes. Now, return to your office and base your design on that criterion alone. How can any architect create an inspiring and meaningful design out of that? Yet, this is how many architects design for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).[1] The focus is on what individuals with autism cannot do rather than what they can. Such a negative approach seems misguided and unnecessary. Architects should make people more able not less disabled. It is a subtle distinction, but an important one.[2]

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USA Architects' design for the DLC © Donna Senopoulos

Similar to a mainstream school setting, Celebrate the Children, a school for children with autism, lines its hallways with colorful banners, photographs, and student artwork. Parents concerned with some of their children’s hypersensitivities often ask Monica Osgood, the school’s director, if there is too much stimulation. Monica responds that her students need to learn in ‘real’ world settings if they will ever have a chance to use their acquired skills outside of the classroom.[1] This logic for replicating ‘neuro-typical’ environments, argues directly against the sensory sensitive approach, and, with reasons worth exploring. Individuals with autism often have very poor generalization skills. Therefore proponents of ‘neuro-typical’ simulated environments claim that sensory sensitive environments actually cause less, not more, universal access and integration into the larger population. Whether or not there is any truth to this claim is unknown. There are strong arguments for and against the ‘neuro-typical’ approach, but there are no definitive studies comparing the sensory sensitive approach to the ‘neuro-typical’ approach.

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section of Sunfield's Rowan and Oak House / Courtesy of GA Architects

Last week we looked at the different sensory sensitive approaches to lighting design for autism.  We saw how contradictory recommendations have arisen from a lack of reliable research specific to autism and lighting. Conflicting recommendations are not limited to lighting. They can be found among nearly every aspect of autism design, including but not limited to acoustics, tactile and olfactory design. Today we will look at spatial considerations before we turn to the “neuro-typical” approach that contradicts the sensory sensitive approach altogether.

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New Struan Centre for Autism © Wardell Armstrong

What do we know about designing for individuals with autism? Those concerned with sensory issues are split on some issues.[1] Some say we should limit daylight and exterior views, keep ceiling heights low and spatial volumes small, use restrained details, subdued colors, and reduce acoustical levels. Others advocate for high ceiling heights, large spatial volumes, and high levels of daylight with plenty of views to the outside.  Still others disagree with catering to sensory needs altogether. They point out that individuals with autism struggle generalizing skills, and designing sensory heavens can do more harm than good. Thus they argue for autism classrooms, schools, and homes that mimic all the colors, sounds, lighting, and spatial volumes of “neuro-typical” environments.[2] So who is right?

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Dear readers,

First of all, I’m sorry about my delay on sending you this update. For the last few weeks I’ve been on multiple planes traveling around the world, connecting with and interviewing architects in an attempt to give you, our readers, all of the latest projects and insights in the architecture world. From San Francisco to Arkansas, New York, London and Basel, in just a few days.

On September 18th, we featured a story titled “Harlem’s New Renaissance”. The article was taken from Jenna McKnight’s article “Harlem’s New Renaissance” featured on Arch Record on August 25th. ArchDaily’s article written by Irina Vinnitskaya took the ideas proposed by Jenna and several of the quotes and information she used, accompanied by a link back to Architectural Record and photography credits, but failed to properly credit the person who came up with the original story idea, Jenna McKnight. Our mistake, a big one.

When Jenna noticed this (as Arch Record constantly reviews our content to syndicate it on their website and on their daily newsletter) she was very upset and contacted me immediately, but given my low email access due to travelling I saw the note a few hours later rather than instantaneously. Immediately upon receiving the email and noticing the improper crediting, I took down the article redirecting it back to Arch Record. In the meanwhile, Jenna posted a story on Arch Record stating that we plagiarized her story with all the given facts.

I reached out to Jenna, told her that there had been no bad intentions and gave her my apologizes as ArchDaily’s editor in chief and assumed my responsibility. Jenna replied, and she was ok with my apologies.

After that, a few blogs picked up on Jenna’s blog post and called this a “blog wars”, trying to add more fuel to the fire. Sadly none of them even asked us our side of the story, except for Sydney at StinkyJournalism.

Our mission at ArchDaily is to provide knowledge to architects around the world, and we will continue bringing you our highest quality of original content, along with information from other respected and useful sources we think will add value to our readers, always sticking to the best practices of fair use.

I hope that this doesn’t affect our relation with Arch Record, as we are both voices of the architecture world. As I mentioned before, Arch Record syndicates our content on their site and includes links on their newsletter (pointing to their site, not ours) citing ArchDaily as the source (but not crediting the specific author, failing to provide a byline). They stopped doing this as of last week.

Dear readers, our commitment is to every architect around the world. Rest assured that the passionate team of architects here at ArchDaily will do their best efforts to keep serving you, as you continue improving our world’s built environment.

- David Basulto

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / catroga

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Lisbon and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Lisbon.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:

Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown
Architect: Charles Correa Associates
Location: Pedrouços, Av. da Índia, Lisbon, Portugal
ww.flickr.com/photos/catroga/5502496721/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Photographer: catroga

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / localjapantimes

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Tokyo and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Tokyo.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:

Architect: Kisho Kurokawa
Location: 35°39′56.20″N 139°45′48.20″E
ww.flickr.com/photos/localjapantimes/4594773378/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Photographer: localjapantimes

Are you following us on Twitter? If you are not, here’s 5 reasons why you should:

• We Tweet every update on the site.
• We Tweet what´s happening behind the scenes at ArchDaily: Tweets from events we attend, links we share, buildings we are visiting, thoughts, etc.
• We re-tweet interesting tweets from architects and practices we folllow around the world.
• We announce future postings or interviews we upload to Vimeo, before featuring them on the site.
• We always take feedback and recommendations from the people we are following.

So what are you waiting? Go follow at @archdaily, and recommend us to your friends this #ff by tweeting: “I recommend @archdaily #followfriday #architecture“. Feel free to add anything else you´d like to recommend following on Twitter: other architects, practices, blogs, schools, etc.

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / barspiller

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Shanghai and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Shanghai.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:

Shanghai World Financial Centre / KPF
ww.flickr.com/photos/7408004@N06/4912832635/
Century Avenue 100, Pudong New District Shanghai, China

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / DPerstin

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Beijing and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Beijing.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:

Birds Nest National Stadium / Herzog & de Mueron
ww.flickr.com/photos/dperstin/3980482265/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Olympic Green, Beijing, China

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / pmorgan67

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Rome and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12-24 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Rome.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:

Auditorium Parco Della Musica / Renzo Piano
ww.flickr.com/photos/pmorgan67/2415383517/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Viale Pietro de Coubertin 15, 00196 Rome, Italy

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / Samuel Agudiño

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Madrid and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12-24 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Madrid.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:

Puerta de Europa / Philip Johnson with John Burgee
ww.flickr.com/photos/txamu/32017894/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Plaza de Castilla, 28046, Madrid, Spain

Courtesy of Flickr CC License / Bart van Damme

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Amsterdam and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12-24 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Amsterdam.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:
NEMO Science Center / Renzo Piano
ww.flickr.com/photos/bartvandamme/3794590169/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Address: Oosterdok 2, 1011 VX Amsterdam, Netherlands

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / Unify

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Berlin and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

This week we are headed to Berlin.

Example of the information we need for your suggestion:
Berlin Philharmonic / Hans Scharoun
://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philharmonie_1a.jpg
Address: Herbert-von-Karajan-Str 1, Berlin, Germany

© Iwan Baan

Nobody ever discovered ugliness through photographs. But many, through photographs, have discovered beauty. Except for those situations in which the camera is used to document, or to mark social rites, what moves people to take photographs is finding something beautiful.

-Susan Sontag, On Photography

Julius Shulman was best known for photography that envisioned architecture as art. His images distilled architecture as paeans to its central function in society. As such, Mr. Shulman created a photographic trope that either ignored people altogether or portrayed them as props that highlighted architecture’s mastery. It is thus fitting that the winner of last year’s inaugural Julius Shulman Photography Award went to a photographer whose focus some might arguably say is people.

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