ACADIA 2012

Synthetic Digital Ecologies
October 18-21, 2012 _ San Francisco, California

The contemporary city is characterized by highly integrated and interdependent systems. More than ever this complex weave of bits and atoms demands the application of an eco-systemic methodology to architectural and urban analysis, digital design, fabrication and production. In this context, an emerging ecology of digital tools and techniques now allow designers to craft synthetic relationships and blur distinctions between the digital and the physical, between the natural and artificial, and between performance simulation and real-world analysis. These synthetic digital ecologies thrive at the intersection of creative and technical domains whose boundaries are elastic and continuously evolving. Navigating this dynamic terrain requires modes of synthetic reasoning in order to advance to advance design research and digital innovation.
What are the implications for architecture, landscape, the city and beyond?
What are the spatial, material and organizational possibilities?
How do these influence the social, cultural and political life of cities?

The conference co-chairs seek papers and projects that highlight experimental research and explore the reciprocity and synergy between bits and atoms, the digital and the physical, and digital code and material logic.
ACADIA 2012 will bring together designers, academics and practitioners who engage, question and aspire to stretch these boundaries. Architects, fabricators, engineers, media artists, technologists, software developers, hackers and others in related fields of inquiry are invited to submit works that explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Responsive environments; sensing, real-time computation, actuation and feedback
• Synthetic fabrication and robotic craft; new paradigms in rapid prototyping and assembly
• Energy, form, performance modeling, simulation and prototyping
• Synthetic tectonics; composite materials, smart assemblies, emerging trends
• Virtual environments; gaming; social networking; interaction and collaboration
• Computational models of complex systems in design; emergent and self-organizing systems
• Dynamic information modeling & design (body / building / landscape / urban micro-climate scales)
• History and theory of digital architecture and synthetic production

Works may be submitted in one of the following three categories: 1. Full Papers (4,000 words); 2. Work-In-Progress Papers (2,000 words); and 3. Projects (for exhibition). Accepted works will be included in the peer-reviewed Paper Session Presentations and the published Conference Proceedings.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Abstracts (500 words) due: March 5, 2012 (optional)
• SUBMISSION DEADLINE for Full Papers, Work-In Progress, Projects (for blind peer-review): April 10, 2012
• Notification of acceptance by e-mail: May 15, 2012
• Revised submissions due (for proceedings): June 15, 2012

email 2012 Organizers (Jason Kelly Johnson, Chair; Mark Cabrinha & Kyle Steinfeld, Co-chairs): acadia.conf.2012@gmail.com

ABOD shelters

ABOD, 1 house, 1 family, 1 day ...

All homes are customizable according to family needs

"In 2006, Doug Sharp put together a team of architects within BSB Design with one goal: design a sturdy home, with lightweight materials, that would be easy to ship and could be built in one day by one family. All this for as little money as possible.

The need for safe, sanitary and durable housing is global. It’s the first crucial step for improving the health, safety and quality of life for millions of people living in poverty, as well as victims of natural disaster.

The benefits of Abod are easy to imagine. They spring forth from the structure’s innovation, interior, exterior and durability."

PNUM 2012: Morfologia Urbana nos Países Lusófonos

No seguimento do interesse despertado pela conferência de Junho de 2011, a Rede Portuguesa de Morfologia Urbana / PNUM está a preparar a segunda edição da sua conferência anual, com o tema ‘Morfologia Urbana nos Países Lusófonos’. A conferência irá realizar-se no Instituto Universitário de Lisboa / ISCTE nos dias 5 e 6 de Julho de 2012, e incluirá apresentações convidadas, apresentações em sessões paralelas, e um conjunto de eventos sociais.

A Comissão Organizadora e a Comissão Cientifica do PNUM 2012 convidam, desde já, académicos e profissionais a participarem na conferência. O PNUM 2012 pretende acolher a participação, não apenas do espaço Português mas, de todo o espaço Lusófono: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, São Tomé e Príncipe, e por fim, Timor-Leste. Nesse sentido, temos o prazer de contar desde já com a participação de três investigadores do Brasil e de Moçambique na Comissão Científica do evento.

O PNUM 2012, à semelhança da edição anterior, promove em Portugal uma oportunidade de debate e de reflexão sobre um conjunto de temas da morfologia urbana. Pretende ainda estabelecer um espaço primordial para a articulação entre as questões chave do International Seminar on Urban Form / ISUF e temas específicos da forma urbana no espaço Lusófono. Nomeadamente, no que se refere às diferentes teorias, conceitos e técnicas morfológicas; à história da forma urbana; aos diferentes elementos da forma urbana; às diferentes escalas de análise e de intervenção; à inter-disciplinariedade; às relações entre teoria e prática profissional; bem como às diferentes abordagens desenvolvidas no espaço Lusófono.

A aceitação de comunicações será feita com base na apreciação de um ‘resumo longo’ (extended abstract) que deverá ser submetido por email para o endereço pnum2012@gmail.com até ao dia 26 de Fevereiro de 2012 (600 e 800 palavras). Os resumos serão avaliados pela Comissão Científica. Os autores serão notificados da aceitação do resumo até 31 de Março de 2012. Os autores dos resumos aceites poderão enviar os artigos completos até 31 de Maio de 2012.

A Comissão Organizadora é composta por Teresa Marat-Mendes (Presidente), Mafalda Sampayo, Paula André e Rosália Guerreiro. A Comissão Cientifica é composta por Vítor Oliveira (Presidente), Frederico de Holanda, Jorge Correia, Luís Laje, Mário Fernandes, Paulo Pinho, Stael Pereira Costa e Teresa Marat-Mendes. Um conjunto de informação mais detalhada, sobre a conferência, estará disponível através do website http://pnum2012.dinamiacet.iscte-iul.pt..

eCAADe 2012

"Digital Physicality | Physical Digitality"

Digitality is the condition of living in a world where ubiquitous information and communication technology is embedded in the physical world. Although it is possible to point out what is "digital" and what is "real," the distinction has become pointless, and it has no more explanatory power for our environment, buildings, and behaviour. Material objects are invested with communication possibilities, teams are communicating even when not together, and buildings can sense and respond to the environment, each other, and to inhabitants. Digital is no longer an add-on, extra, or separate software. Reality is partly digital and partly physical. The implication of this condition is not clear however, and we need to investigate its potential. We have to search for new strategies that acknowledge the synergetic qualities of the physical and the digital. This is not limited to artifacts or what we design, but it also influences the process, methods, and what or how we teach. For the conference therefore, we are looking for contributions that explore this synergy. Authors are encouraged to submit their work on the conference theme.
Subjects may be, but are not limited to:

• CAAD curriculum.
• Modes of production.
• New design concepts and strategies.
• Mass customization.
• Collaborative design.
• Digital aids to design creativity.
• User participation in design.
• Generative design.
• Virtual architecture.
• Shape studies.
• Virtual reality.
• Precedence and prototypes.
• Web-based design.
• Design tool development.
• Human-Computer Interaction.
• Simulation, prediction, and evaluation.
• City modelling.
• Digital applications in construction.

Important dates

• Deadline extended abstracts 4 February 2012
• Acceptance of papers 11 March 2012
• Submission of full papers 3 June 2012
• Deadline early registration 3 June 2012
• eCAADe workshops 10-11 September 2012
• eCAADe conference 12-14 September 2012

City Induction

A generative urban design research project, supported by FCT 

"Urban planning and design have a considerable impact on the economic performance of cities and on the quality of life of the population. Efficiency at this level is hampered by the lack of integrated instruments for formulating, generating, and evaluating urban plans. This chapter describes the theoretical foundations of a research project, called City Induction, aimed at the creation of a model for the development of such an instrument, departing from existing theories, which are integrated through a discursive grammar. The proposed model is composed of three sub-models: (1) a model for formulating urban programs from the analysis and interpretation of the context, based on Alexander’s pattern language; (2) a model for generating urban plans that match the program, based on Stiny’s shape and description grammars; and (3) a model for evaluating urban plans, that can be used for analyzing, comparing and ranking alternative solutions, departing from Hillier’s space syntax. A common urban space ontology guarantees the syntactic and semantic interoperability among the three sub-models. This ontology will be used to structure and codify information into a Geographic Information System (GIS), which will be the kernel for the computer implementation of the larger model. A CAD system is used to construct 3D models from contextual information stored in the GIS. In short, following Stiny and March’s design machines concept, the goal is to create an urban design machine that is able to produce flexible urban plans at the site planning level.

Keywords: urban design, ontology, pattern language, shape grammars, space syntax, GIS, CAD"

Augmented reality by National Geographic