Croatia Insurance Building in Zagreb: Research into Architectural Shaping with High Technology

Poslovna zgrada Croatia osiguranja u Zagrebu arhitekta Velimira Neidhardta među najvaćnijim je arhitektonskim ostvarenjima zagrebačke arhitekture na početku 21. stoljeća. Interpolirana s kasnomodernističkom poslovnom zgradom Lloyda arhitekta Marjana Haberlea, zgrada Croatia osiguranja u sebi uspješno spaja tradiciju domaće moderne i postmoderne sa suvremenim arhitektonskim zbivanjima.The offices of the Croatia Insurance Building in Zagreb by architect Velimir Neidhardt is one of the most significant architectural creations of architecture in Zagreb at the beginning of the 21st century. Interpolated with Lloyd\u27s late-modern office building by architect Marijan Haberle, the Croatia Insurance building within itself successfully joins the tradition of domestic modern and postmodern with modern architectural happenings

Architectural students’ year-out training experience in architectural ofces in the UK

This paper investigates architectural students’ ‘year-out’ learning experiences in architectural offices after completing RIBA Part I study within a UK university. By interviewing and analysing their reflections on the experience, the study examines how individual architecture students perceive and value their learning experience in architectural offices and how students understand and integrate what they have learned through two distinct elements of their training: in university and in offices. The architectural offices that students worked with vary in terms of workforce size and projects undertaken. The students’ training experience is not unified. The processes of engaging with concrete situations in real projects may permit students to follow opportunities that most inspire them and to develop their differing expertise, but their development in offices can also be restricted by the vicissitudes of market economics. This study has demonstrated that architectural students’ learning and development in architectural offices continued through ‘learning by doing’ and used drawings as primary design and communicative media. Working in offices gave weight to both explicit and tacit knowledge and used subjective judgments. A further understanding was also achieved about what architects are and what they do in practice. The realities of their architectural practice experience discouraged some Part I students from progressing into the next stage of architectural education, Part II, but for others it demonstrated that a career in architecture was ‘achievable’. This study argues that creative design, practical and technical abilities are not separate skill-sets that are developed in the university and in architectural offices respectively. They are linked and united in the learning process required to become a professional architect. The study also suggests that education in the university should do more to prepare students for their training in practice. Yun Gao is an architect and Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Design, and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. After earning a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1998, she practiced architecture in Bristol. Her research has explored teaching and learning in architectural education. Kevin Orr has been Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield since 2006 where his research has mainly focused on work-based learning and professional development of teachers in the lifelong learning and skills sector

Architectural students' year-out training experience in architectal offices in the UK

This paper investigates architectural students’ ‘year-out’ learning experiences in architectural offices after completing RIBA Part I study within a UK university. By interviewing and analysing their reflections on the experience, the study examines how individual architecture students perceive and value their learning experience in architectural offices and how students understand and integrate what they have learned through two distinct elements of their training: in university and in offices. The architectural offices that students worked with vary in terms of workforce size and projects undertaken. The students’ training experience is not unified. The processes of engaging with concrete situations in real projects may permit students to follow opportunities that most inspire them and to develop their differing expertise, but their development in offices can also be restricted by the vicissitudes of market economics. This study has demonstrated that architectural students’ learning and development in architectural offices continued through ‘learning by doing’ and used drawings as primary design and communicative media. Working in offices gave weight to both explicit and tacit knowledge and used subjective judgments. A further understanding was also achieved about what architects are and what they do in practice. The realities of their architectural practice experience discouraged some Part I students from progressing into the next stage of architectural education, Part II, but for others it demonstrated that a career in architecture was ‘achievable’. This study argues that creative design, practical and technical abilities are not separate skill-sets that are developed in the university and in architectural offices respectively. They are linked and united in the learning process required to become a professional architect. The study also suggests that education in the university should do more to prepare students for their training in practice

Designer buildings: an evaluation of the price impacts of signature architects

This study investigates whether commercial offices designed by signature architects in the United States achieve rental premiums compared to commercial offices designed by nonsignature architects. Focusing on buildings designed by winners of the Prizker Prize and the Gold Medal awarded by the American Institute of Architects, we create a sample of commercial office buildings designed by signature architects drawing on CoStar's national database. We use a combination of hedonic regression model and a logit model to estimate the various rent determinants. While the first stage measures the typical rental price differential above the typical building in a particular sub-market over a specific timeframe, the second stage identifies a potential price differential over a set of buildings closely matched on important characteristics (such as age, size, location etc.). We find that in both stages offices design by signature architects exhibit a premium. However these results are preliminary. The premium could be indeed an effect of the name of the architect, but others factors such as micro-market conditions might be the cause. Further tests are needed to confirm the validity of our results

New meanings from old buildings

The three modest house projects described here are by three fellow travellers — the two authors and David Lea — interested in the Organic side of Modernism. Conversational partners who have worked together in various capacities over many years, they share a common conviction about ‘working with the given

Reset button: place in the digital age

Abstract The computer is to contemporary society what the machine was to modernism this statement form Christine Boyer has a profound effect on the way we currently engage with our built environment. The architecture and urban issues that come with this digital era are important and have a profound affect on our public services, the character and content of our public spaces and the control and access of power. Disciplinary spaces once described by Foucault are now dislocated, hidden within electronic global networks. This paper involves speculating on how digital technology and communication gain importance over material form and how cities are becoming saturated. Our culture is now one of simulation. The paper draws upon work undertaken at the University of Lincoln and manifests itself both within a Poststructuralist and later a phenomenological framework it speaks of the need to readdress what Paul Virilio calls our overexposed city and what Charlene Spretnak suggests is the flattening process of mass culture. Embracing the need to maintain some degree of autonomy in a world wishing to reduce everything to one vast commodity the paper seeks to through independent research explore projects, which speak of a sensual knowledge such concepts as anxiety and the “un-canny”, interiority, three dimensional space and perception of it, the proposition of capturing “real” three dimensional space as a two dimensional image, the oppositions between the real and the imagined, solid and void, permanence and transience, darkness and light, memory and loss. As Sverre Fehn best sums up “When man conquered darkness the latent generosity of night ceased to exist

James Stirling and the Tate Gallery Project in Albert Dock, Liverpool, 1982-88

El proyecto de James Stirling para adecuar el viejo almacén de Albert Dock para la Tate Gallery en Liverpool contenía dos niveles de intervención. El primero afectó a la intervención en su interior, que el arquitecto pudo desarrollar, coincidiendo en el tiempo con un momento de madurez personal y con el final de algunas obras claves de su trayectoria. Analizaremos las estrategias que Stirling utilizó para organizar el programa museístico, poner en valor la herencia estructural del proyecto de Jesse Hartley, sin renunciar a las mejores condiciones expositivas que la experiencia en el diseño de instalaciones similares le había permitido alcanzar. El segundo nivel de intervención, cuya propuesta fue rechazada y no pudo realizar, contemplaba el proyecto de nuevos accesos y conexiones con el viejo edificio. Fue una época en la que las autoridades estaban apostando por la readecuación y rehabilitación de toda la zona de los docks, de la que Albert Dock era y es la joya de la corona. Analizaremos los contenidos gráficos y escritos del irrealizado croquis de 1982 y veremos la aspiración de Stirling de vincular la visibilidad del museo con la propia historia de la ciudad y la arqueología vital de su propia memoria, planteando estrategias formales que, aun estando presentes en parte en otras obras, muestran una innovación que surge del diálogo con las arquitecturas y los paisajes preexistentes que sirven de soporte al proyecto.James Stirling’s project to adapt the abandoned Albert Dock warehouse for the Tate Gallery in Liverpool involved two levels of action. The first affected the inside of the building, a task that the architect was able to complete, coinciding in time with his personal maturity and with the completion of some key works in his career. We analyse the strategies Stirling used to organise the museum project, showcasing the structural legacy of Jesse Hartley’s project without renouncing the best exhibition conditions that his experience in designing similar premises had allowed him to reach. The second action level, one he could not bring to fruition because the proposal was rejected, contemplated new entrances to and connections with the old building. It was an era in which the authorities were focused on readapting and restoring the entire dock area, of which the Albert Dock was –and is– the crown jewel. We analyse the drawings and notes for the unachieved 1982 proposal, which reveal Stirling’s aspiration of linking the visibility of the museum with the city’s own history and the essential archaeology of his own memory. We can see how he formulated formal strategies that, although partially present in other works, show an innovation that arises from the dialogue with the pre–existing architectures and landscapes that anchor the project

The Life and Work of George Dombek

George Dombek is an accomplished artist who graduated from the University of Arkansas with degrees in Architecture and Painting. His career as both professor and painter has taken him around the world and produced a substantial body of work. This work seeks to examine his art in a larger art historical context and consider the development of the subjects and style of his paintings over the span of his career

The Future for Architects?

In this study Building Futures sets out to explore the future role of architects, asking: who will design our buildings in 2025; what roles will those trained in architecture be doing then and how will architectural practice have changed as a result? Through a series of one-to-one interviews and round table sessions the study aims to examine the breadth of those who shape the built environment: including traditional architects and those working in expanded fields of practice, as well as clients, consultants and contractors. The resulting speculations should be an opportunity for discussion and interrogation- an exploration of the imminent changes likely to affect the industry over the next 15 years