Architects and LEGO® Bricks. For many, it was love at first sight.However, playing with LEGO at the office - fun as it may be - is not exactly something you can justify doing (at least not everyday).
Well, no more. For your procrastination pleasure, Google Chrome and LEGO® have paired up and created "Build With Chrome," a game that lets you play with LEGO online. Good-bye productivity.
Learn more about "Build With Chrome," after the break..
Zahner, one of the world's foremost fabricators of façades, have launched new software to assist in design, fabrication, costing and delivery. CloudWall, part of Zahner's ShopFloor platform, is a web based programme which provides an interface for users to design and fabricate curving facades in metal. It is a tool that uses Zahner's "factory floor like a massive rapid prototype machine".
You can now use ArchDaily's content on Field Trip, an app which notifies you when you get close to something architecturally interesting. With ArchDaily's daily feed now embedded within the app, when you approach a building we've covered your phone will alert you and provide you with photos, facts and information. More info, after the break...
The Morpholio Project, the team of architects and designers behind Morpholio (for building/sharing your portfolio) and Morpholio Trace (the app that lets you draw on top of images as if using tracing paper), have just launched Trace 2.0. The new version introduces three fantastic new tools that hope to "put [the design] process in hyper drive."
As Co-Creator Anna Kenoff puts it: “The goal of the app was to embrace and enhance the fast paced and messy process of idea building, bringing back hand drawing to a culture no longer beholden to the desktop computer.”
Check out the three new features of Trace 2.0, after the break...
It’s unavoidable. In today's world, in order to reach out to your target audience and promote your services, you need to have a website. And just any won’t do. Keep in mind that if you are an architect, people expect creativity out of you and from your website. An efficient, well-built, and good-looking website is the most convincing marketing tool you have at your disposal.
So, we’ve come up with five tips that explain (1) why a good website is so important; (2) what you should have in mind when creating your website (including what to avoid!); and (3) how to get started immediately, after the break...
Following our readers poll last year, here's an updated list of what we think are the best ten apps for architects. From condensed versions of large scale programmes architects and designers use every day, to blank canvases to scratch ideas down onto, you might just find an app that could improve the way you work.
GRAPHISOFT’s latest iPhone and iPad App, a companion to ArchiCAD, has just been released. The heart of the technology, designed for easy BIM project viewing, is the “Hyper-model,” which enables the full integration of 2D and 3D plans. This makes navigation not only more intuitive, but a magnitude smoother and faster than most other construction-related model or documentation viewer mobile apps.
Get a more detailed look at the technology in action, after the break...
ArchiSnapper is a new, powerful tool for architects which takes away the time and effort required for producing construction site reports. Consisting of both an online portion and an app for iOS or Android devices, ArchiSnapper allows you to collect information while on site and quickly and easily assemble it once you're back at the office.
In collaboration with ArchiSnapper, ArchDaily will be offering 5 Business licenses (worth $119 a month) to our readers. To participate, all you need to do is become a registered ArchDaily user and answer a simple question in the comments section of this article.
To find out how ArchiSnapper works, and for your chance to win one of 5 free licenses, read on after the break...
3D Printing has opened up a whole new world for architecture. Technology that was once restricted to fabrication labs is now available to the end user - and at an affordable price. Of course, this new technology has also created the necessity to easily share 3D data over the web.
With this in mind, we have partnered with Gigabot - the biggest, most affordable 3D printer (it can print models up to 60x60x60cm) - and with Sketchfab, a new platform that is bridging the gap between the 3D models on your desktop and on the web.
We want to encourage users to start using this new technology, and what better way than to start printing the buildings we love? We invite you to model your favorite architectural classic and receive a real-life physical model, right on your doorstep.
The process is simple: model any building that is already on the AD Classics section, upload it to Sketchfab, and submit it using the following form. You’ll have two opportunities to win: ArchDaily readers will vote for one People's Choice Award winner, and, together with Gigabot, we at ArchDaily will pick one winner as well. Both winners will be printed and shipped anywhere in the world. We'll also make all the models available to the ArchDaily community, so anyone can add an extra layer of building information to these classics.
Submissions are open until October 1st; winners will be announced on October 7th. Read below for the full rules.
This article, by Shaun Bryant, CAD consultant, comes to us via our friends at Autodesk’s Line//Shape//Space publication.
In my previous article, I mentioned that I had been a CAD manager in a past life and that there were many hats I used to wear. One of these hats was training manager for the CAD department. I was the guy who liaised with HR, organizing and budgeting for the training my CAD employees needed. The big question was, what sort of CAD training did they need? Did I send both permanent and agency (freelance) CAD employees to take the courses, or did I let the agency folks fend for themselves? No matter what, they are your CAD team and everyone should get the same training, but the agency guys should be careful of their tax position when accepting training from a client under contract. All of this has to be taken into account when you have a finite training budget to spend.
But training on CAD software is imperative. Your CAD employees need to be the best on the software they use and not develop bad habits. They need the core training, plus the experience, plus supplemental training on new versions as they are released. (Each year in the case of Autodesk, right?)
Get the 4 Tips to Getting the Best CAD Team you can, after the break...
ArchDaily’s Architecture App Guide will introduce you to web and mobile apps that can help you as an architect: productivity, inspiration, drafting, and more.
3D computer modeling has become a ubiquitous tool in architecture and design, but - even now - there’s no real solution to the problem of easily displaying or sharing models. An exciting new tool, however, might just change this. It’s called Sketchfab, and it displays 3D models natively in the browser - no plugins necessary, and no need to download to your desktop. A resource like this allows any viewer or reader to glimpse into the future of publishing and communicating architecture online.
Users sign up for Sketchfab and upload models directly in 27 native 3D formats (including .3ds, .stl, .kmz, .dwf, .lwo and others); these models can then be embedded anywhere. Not only will this allow architects to showcase finalized projects, but designs can be followed as they evolve and change. It will be particularly valuable in the remote review process that occurs between the architect and 3D visualizers. And Sketchfab’s platform has an integrated comment and like system to foster discussion and critique.
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The latest BIM software from GRAPHISOFT was announced recently. ArchiCAD 17 will be shipping soon. The company has also announced an upcoming free online seminar that will familiarize you with all the new features and enhancements to the software.
Scheduled for June 18, the demonstration of ArchiCAD 17 will feature the actual model used to design one of Moscow's most prestigious buildings, the Mosfilmovskaya Street multi-purpose building complex.
All the information after the break.
Entries are now being accepted for “Your World, Reimagined: A Global Design Competition.”
Presented by Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., MAXON Computer, DOSCH DESIGN, Arroway Textures® and AMD FireProTM graphics, “Your World, Reimagined” asks professional and student designers to tackle an old, dilapidated, or run-down locale and redesign it for a new, improved use. Entries can range in focus from adaptive reuse to landscape reclamation or object redesign.
Winners will be selected by a panel of judges from around the world, including designer and sculptor Nicholas Dunand; digital artist Shinya Fujimura from 3D-KOBO architect François Lévy lighting and production designer Tyler Littman of Sholight, LLC architectural visualizer Alejandro Nogueira from DECC 3D Art; architect Peter Petz from German-Architects.com digital animator Marc Potocnik from renderbaron architectural visualizer Erik Recke from Datenland assistant professor Katherine Bambrick Ambroziak from the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee Knoxville; and project architects Maxime Czvek, Thomas Rigby and Tom Boogaerts from BOGDAN & VAN BROECK ARCHITECTS.
In addition to an overall award for Best Overall Design Concept, winners will be selected in the following categories: Best Computer Rendering, Best Animation, Best 3D Modeling and Best 2D Plan. More information, including prizes by categories after the break.
ArchDaily’s Architecture App Guide will introduce you to web and mobile apps that can help you as an architect: productivity, inspiration, drafting, and more.
A year ago we introduced you to The Morpholio Project a web and mobile app based portfolio, created by architects, for the entire creative industry. A few months later they released iPad App: Morpholio Trace, a layered drafting tool that gained traction among architects and designers. This feature was just the beginning of what evolved into Morpholio 2.0 (free download from the App Store ) part of a series of new tools that turn the portfolio app into a flexible workspace where designers, architects, fashion designers, 3D artists, photographers, automotive designers, and everyone in the creative industry can interact and evolve ideas through feedback.
It builds on research into human-computer-interaction to deliver innovations like a tool for image analytics called "EyeTime" and virtual "Crits" where collaborators can share images, and comment on each other’s work via notes or sketches. Human behavior data-mining is essential to offering these forms of powerful feedback, letting you know how your followers are interacting with your work.
Learn more about the 7 new tools Morpholio 2.0 offers to the creative world:
According to writer Ana Lui, architecture is an "unlevel playing field." From unpaid internships to the C-suite, the profession has made itself awfully difficult to break into - unless you come from privilege, of course. However, there is one factor contributing to the profession's inaccessibility that you may not have considered: the prohibitive costs of design software for young, budding architects.
There are many ways that the architecture profession has lead the way in environmentally friendly design - but when it comes to the process of creating buildings themselves, the industry works its way through huge amounts of paper. Frank Gehry, through his offshoot technology company Gehry Technologies, is aiming to change that.
The company has recently announced that its GTeam software, which has so far been available for less than a year, will now make use of Box, a cloud based storage system that is well suited to large files associated with complex 3D models that are often required in designing buildings.
Read more about Gehry Technology's new software collaboration after the break
Lats year, we asked our Facebook Fans to share with us their thought on the best smartphone apps for architects. The list was quite interesting and at number 9 we had [steel] an app for iOS and Android developed by our friends at The Mobile Engineer.
ArchDaily’s Architecture App Guide will introduce you to web and mobile apps that can help you as an architect: productivity, inspiration, drafting, and more.
With SXSW around the corner, many startups will be launching their new apps during next week, and here is a glimpse. We introduce you Webnote by Hopin a free iPad/iPad Mini app that can help you during your creative process. Webnote is basically a browser, with added gesture functions to clip content and create visual notes from web pages, store it under your profile (with privacy settings), easily share theme on Facebook or Twitter and discover interesting contents or "notes" from people you follow.
A simple double tap on any part of a web page (image, text or video) will isolate that particular element and bring up a frame with a preview of the note, where you can adjust or pinch for zoom in/out. On that frame you will have the option to configure the sharing options, and another tap will bring a text area to describe what you are capturing or to make your own annotation.
All the contents that you save or share will be display for you to revive on a simple and visual sidebar where you can check your private notes, the notes that you shared and also the notes from people that you care about to follow, being also a great source of inspiration.
Within your side bar you can simply slide a note to the right to open the web page from where it was made. Or if you want to save a note for later, slide to the left and save it into your private area.
You can download Webnote at the App Store for free . More screenshots of Webnote after the break: