Architecture Style

Sketchup, Piranesi, Artlantis is doing very well in China as a combination tool with Ecotect. to find out more...

A very interesting bus station by Hannah Tribe and Marcus Trimble. to find out more...
Image from http://www.gravestmor.com/strips/north_sydney_02.jpg

Noticias Arquitectura shows a video clip of Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid.

I located a thesis abstract of quality management framework for architectural design phase best practices by ABDULLAH SANI BIN AHMAD from UTM Faculty of Built Environment done in the year 2000.
"Available literature indicates that considerable research effort has been directed towards the construction phase of building projects rather than the design phase. At present, the design phase has received little emphasis in relation to its degree of influence on project quality. However, it is well recognised that the design phase has the greatest impact on the quality of building’s performance. The design phase is the main indicator of success for the subsequent phases of tendering, construction, and maintenance. The objectives of this research are to evaluate the importance of quality management in producing quality design, and to establish a quality management framework for architectural design phase best practices." to find out more...

The artlantis contains some tutorials, yet I've never manage to watch them. However, sketchup forum helps. to find out more...
Graphisoft had some artlantis R Online Tutorial Clips as well:- http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/solutions/artlantisr_demos.html#

A minute you spent is a minute's result you get. Computer renderings is a time consuming process. The better the results, the more time you need to spend. It is all about efficiency and cost effectiveness at the end of the day. Everyone would crave to drive a Mercedez Benz but how much you need to spend on your transportation, just to bring you from one place to another? The concept is the same. 3dmax/Cinema4/Maya is great, as if you are driving a Benz, but how much time, efford, and cost need to be spent? It all depends on the job requirement. The balance of time, cost and efford.
BIM may have higher price at initial stage but think about the cost effectiveness of your work flow and entire design process. To me it worth millions by saving half the time spent just on drafting. Either ArchiCAD, REVIT, or even Vectorworks. We must invest. Time or efford at the initial stage to save more time and efford at the end of the day. It is a process of improvement and evolution in architectural design process everyone have to face, either now or then.
Rendering software. Maxwell, 3dviz+Vray, Artlantis, Piranesi, Cheetah3d(Mac) are great rendering software packages, it depends on your budget. As for starters I would recommend Artlantis+Piranesi, then when your budget is getting better, go for 3dviz+Vray+Piranesi. Piranesi is plus for non-photorealistic renderings.
Sketchup is as a design tool. Hopefully ti will be developed into BIM system. Then it would a real design+architectural software that makes every architects/designers' life easier and better.
Personally, I would now go for archicad, artlantis, sketchup and piranesi! Too bad not much firm in Malaysia or China is into archicad. My selection for archicad is due to the rendering results. Revit and ArchiCAD are more of less the same BIM system. The important matter is, they are BIM systems.
I had recently spent much time and efford browsing and looking for software packages.
I hope you would find my blogsite useful, you can support by linking my site into yours. to download Artlantis...
Image from http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/productivity_tools/artlantis.html

"mental ray® generates images of outstanding quality and unsurpassed realism and achieves scalable performance through the exploitation of parallelism on both multiprocessor machines and across networks of machines. The software uses advanced and proprietary acceleration and recursive sampling techniques for faster rendering on even the smallest, single processor machines."to find out more...
Passage from http://www.mentalimages.com/2_1_0_mentalray/index.html
Image from http://www.mentalimages.com/4_4_architecture/images/thumbnails/lehrterbahnhof/_001.jpg

What is VRAY?
"Enil Enchev - an architect working for Bonart and a father of two - has devoted himself to 3D modeling and architecture. Enil kindly answered some questions regarding his work. "to find out more...
Some useful links here:-
http://www.vrayrender.com/
http://commerce.vismasters.com/
http://67.15.36.49/team/Tutorials/linda_vray/vray_02.asp



Image from http://www.chaosgroup.com/fa/fa20050209.html
Passage from http://www.chaosgroup.com/

IntelliCAD is another drafting software similar as AutoCAD yet with much competitive selling price.
You can download IntelliCAD here for the trail version. There are several versions depending on the requirements needed by your company.
Image from
http://www.autodsys.com/purchase.htm#top

Please read before download.
Download the Revit trial version here.
There are some other comparisons of revit and archicad here from archicad talk. to find out more...
Image from http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/RTF-Revit_Building_9_Web.pdf

My collegue introduce me the famous Takamatsu from Japan. to find out more...
Image from http://www.takamatsu.co.jp/

Finally found another interesting firm in Malaysia. Works mainly focuses on residential projects. to find out more...

"What steps do you take when you add to a house? What is the process of getting a custom home built? How much will it cost? How long will it take? These are questions that I'm frequently presented with by owners. The road to completing a project winds around many bends, but it all starts with an initial idea. To illustrate the process, I'll take a theoretical project from idea to move in." to find out more...
Passage from http://www.ericksonarchitects.com/process.html

"See how ArchiCAD, eDrawings and VectorWorks allow you to view, edit and manipulate DWG files on the Mac. to find out more...
Watch Brad Peebler, President of Luxology, as he provides a tour of modo and find out how you can turn your inspiration and creativity into amazing 3D models. to find out more...
Join Jacques Sedille as he demonstrates and discusses the Mac and key 3rd party design tools that enable architects to imagine, design and communicate.to find out more..."
Passage from http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1511&page=14&highlight=archicad

"从建筑师的角度上看，ArchiCAD绝对是优于autocad的绘图软件，只是苦于国内用ArchiCAD的人太少，成了曲高和寡之作。
在发展“虚拟建筑”技术方面， Grapshisoft是全世界的领先者。在以模型为基础的建筑行业软件开发和 服务上，Graphisoft被公认为是全世界最优秀的开发者和供应商。这是最新释放的，时间：2006.5.23。Graphisoft ArchiCAD v10 International 最新国际版! 在全球建筑专业与室内、舞台设计等领域从业人员众所期待下,Graphisoft公司终于在2006年度五月份，於全世界推出最新版ArchiCAD 10 体验在“虚拟建筑”环境下的乐趣和好处的时候到了，ArchiCAD“虚拟建筑”让你充分发挥创造力——完全集中精力在设计上，你的时间可自由的用在你喜欢做的事——创造有灵感的设计！虚拟建筑的时代到了！"to find out more...
Always wanted to find a chinese architectural blog to blog about. Found a chinese architectural blog that introduce archicad 10.

Passage from http://smalljohnabc.spaces.msn.com/blog/cns!7AA3320FB472C7C9!1286.entry
Image from http://smalljohnabc.spaces.msn.com/Default.aspx?beid=cns!7AA3320FB472C7C9!1286&d=1#postcns!7AA3320FB472C7C9!1286

What software do you need to establish an architectural firm?
I would assume some basic software as listed below:-
1.An operating system and word processing software:-
Microsoft office package and microsoft project , window system and lotus or other email operating system
2.Cost effective architectural program package:- Revit/Archicad/Autodesk/Vectorworks.
3.Rendering software:-
3dmax/maxwell/artlantis or others
4.Cost effective image tools:-
Illustrator/photoshop/piranesi
4.Other software:-
winzip/stuffit.
Architectureasia has a list of cad softwares and links. to find out more...
And some comparisons of architectural software by sketchup forum here.
Comparisons of architectural software from pushpull forum here.

Found a quicksolution company that sells vectorworks, artlantis in Malaysia. to find out more...
There is a series of trainning sessions from nemetschek. to find out more...
For the books of vectorworks 12 here.
Some sharing and opinion on the software by pushpullbar. to find out more...
Look at the feature demos of Vectorworks 11.5 by nemetschek. to find out more..
For the Vectorworks12 feature demos here.
Image from http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10150&stc=1&d=1138011202

Comparisons of prices and autocad software free downloads for 30days' trial version by nextag! to find out more...
Downloads from Pugh...

Movie 1, Movie 2 , trailers of workshops by Jim Leggitt, and tradigital Imaging with Sketchup.
The inspiration is generating renderings by hand based on 3d images generated from sketchup, a rather traditional yet powerful technique. Some introduction from Miragestudio7.
Image from http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=21&csid=102

There are free sketchup Ruby Scripts from www.smustard.com and amazone.crai.archi which is very useful and powerful.
Flightpath.rb script sets up pages along a selected path to create animation. to find out more...

Sketchup forum are now open to public which contains tips, tricks and discussions of the ruby scripts and various powerful features of sketchup tool, the tutorials, the techniques, the presentations and so on. to find more...

Image from http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread.php?t=40538

An interesting article from Architecture and Morality"...modern architecture struggled to express monumentality, function was not apparent to the users due to the style’s minimalism and lack of signifying ornament. Modern architecture seemed contemptuous of the local context, deliberately clashing with the surrounding built context instead of harmonizing with it.In response, the trends in design have adapted to these criticisms, incorporating context to form a new synthesis commonly called critical regionalism. The rise of the Post-Modern style addressed the importance of traditional architectural motifs and the need for the building to clearly express what it is (albeit in its ironic and ambiguous way). And still much of the design highly regarded by the architectural profession still borrows heavily from the formal innovations of the earliest Modernist pioneers. This incessant tendency among the most highly regarded architects to design in the modern idiom fails to win many fans outside professional and academic circles or people with a general appreciation for modern art. One gets the impression that only if architects could return to using traditional styles and conform to classical rules of design and re-use time-tested building typologies, then all would be hunky-dory and architects wouldn’t come off as smug aesthetes." to find out more...

"It’s a hotbed of innovative architecture, from diaphanous theaters to buildings heated and cooled by water China ’s current building boom is doing more than sucking up the world’s supply of steel — it’s creating a stage for some of today’s boldest architecture and engineering." to find out more...
The image beside shows the National Grand Theater, Beijing by Paul Andreu and ADP, which is under construction and to be completed in 2008
Passage & Image from http://wadias.in/site/arzan/blog/archives/10-wonders-of-the-new-china/