Showing papers on "Architecture published in 1990"

The Logic of Architecture: Design, Computation, and Cognition

Abstract: From the Publisher: "The Logic of Architecture" is the first comprehensive, systematic, and modern treatment of the logical foundations of design thinking. It provides a detailed discussion of languages of architectural form, their specification by means of formal grammars, and their role in structuring design thinking. Supplemented by over 200 original illustrations, "The Logic of Architecture" reexamines central issues of design theory in the light of recent advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and the theory of computation. The richness of this approach permits sympathetic and constructive analysis of positions developed by a wide range of theorists and philosophers -- from Socrates to the present.

Control architecture for the Belgrade/USC hand

Abstract: This chapter describes design and control features of a five-fingered anthropomorphic end-effector designed primarily for grasping tasks Advantages and limitations of the design are discussed, and special emphasis is placed on its suitability for autonomous, non-numerical or reflex control of grasp Following a discussion of its mechanical design, we present the controller and sensor features incorporated into the current finger model A knowledge-based control of hand preshape (prior to grasping) is then outlined, and the hand’s suitability as a testbed for the study of human and robot hand motion control is discussed The final section of this chapter describes future directions

Minimalist mobile robotics: a colony-style architecture for an artificial creature

Abstract: Foreword Preface 1. Introduction 1.1 The Task 1.2 Animal Stories 1.3 Design Principles 1.4 Contributions 1.5 Roadmap 2. Architecture 2.1 What we Use 2.2 The Subsumption Architecture 2.3 The Multiprocessor Implementation 2.4 Related Architectures 3. Manipulation 3.1 Hardware 3.2 Sensors 3.3 Controlling the Hand 3.4 Controlling the Arm Locally 3.5 Controlling the Arm Globally 3.6 Controlling the Base 3.7 Experiments 4. Vision 4.1 Hardware 4.2 Image Processing 4.3 Visual Guidance 4.4 Experiments 5. Navigation 5.1 Sensors 5.2 Tactical Navigation 5.3 Strategic Navigation 5.4 Experiments 6. Discussion 6.1 Spatial Representation 6.2 Distributed Systems 6.3 Limitations 6.4 Extending Arbitration 6.5 Learning 6.6 Conclusion Bibliography Index

Thermae et Balnea : the architecture and cultural history of Roman public baths

Abstract: Based on over ten years' fieldwork by the author, this comprehensive two-volume study of Roman baths should be an indispensable reference work for students of classical antiquity, as well as students of architecture and the history of technology.

Archetypes in architecture

Abstract: In this book professor Thiis-Evensen is developing an architectural grammar which is linked to the basic elements in the art of building -- the floor, the wall, the roof. Centred around examples from architectural history, specific archetypes in architecture are discussed.

Places of the Soul: Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art

Abstract: For Christopher Day, architecture isn’t just about the appearance of buildings but how they’re experienced as places to be in. Occupants’ experience can differ radically from designers’ intentions as their concerns and thinking differ. Additionally, multi-sensory ambience, spatial sequential experience and embodied spirit resonate in the human soul. Sustainable design means much more than energy-efficiency: if sustainable buildings don’t also nourish the soul, occupant-building interaction will lack care and eco-technologies won’t be used efficiently. This major revision of his classic text builds on more than forty years of experience ecological design across a range of climates, cultures and budgets, and 25 years hands-on building. Treating buildings as environments intrinsic to their surroundings, the book explores consensus design, economic and social sustainability, and how a listening approach can grow architectural ideas organically from the interacting, sometimes conflicting, requirements of place, people and situation. This third edition, comprehensively revised to incorporate new knowledge and address new issues, continues Day’s departure from orthodox contemporary architecture, offering eye-opening insights and practical design applications. These principles and guidelines will be of interest and value to architects, builders, planners, developers and homeowners alike. Reviews of the first edition ... one of the seminal architecture books of recent times Professor Tom Wooley, Architects Journal The 'bible' of many architects and those interested in architecture. Centre for Alternative Technology ... an inspiration to all those who care about the influence of the environment on Man’s health and well-being. Barrie May, The Scientific and Medical Network At last an architect has written a sensitive and caring book on the effects of buildings on all our lives. Here’s Health This gentle book offers a route out of the nightmare of so much callous modern construction. I was inspired. Colin Amery, The Financial Times

The end of architecture

Abstract: These days, we read editorials about our industry that go something like this: \"The maturi ty of the computer business is at hand. CBEMA predicts 9.7% revenue growth for the 1990's, down from 15.8% in the 70's and 12.8% in the 80's. The minicomputer manufacturers are moribund. The mainframe manufacturers are hurriedly refashioning themselves as integrators of vertically marketed 'open systems.' The term 'proprietary architecture' has become pejorative. For computer designers, the revolution is over and only 'fine tuning' remains.\

Monumental architecture and power in Polynesian chiefdoms: A comparison of Tonga and Hawaii

Abstract: Polynesia, with its rich ethnohistoric as well as archaeological materials pertaining to settlement landscapes, provides excellent opportunities for studying the role of monumental architecture in complex chiefdom societies. In this paper, the complex, highly stratified societies of Tonga and Hawaii are compared with respect to the forms, size ranges, spatial distribution, and function of monuments. While the specific forms and cultural associations of Tongan and Hawaiian monuments are seen to differ, there are also many similarities in monument hierarchy, size ranges, territorial distribution, and functions in these two Polynesian chiefdoms.

The GPA machine: a generally partitionable MSIMD architecture

Abstract: The GPA machine, a massively parallel, multiple single-instruction-stream-multiple-data-stream (MSIMD) system is described. Its distinguishing characteristics is the generality of its partitioning capabilities. Like the PASM system it can be dynamically reconfigured to operate as one or more independent SIMD machines. However, unlike PASM, the only constraint placed on partitioning is that an individual processing element is a member of at most one partition. This capability allows for reconfiguration based on the run-time status of dynamic data structures and for partitioning of disconnected and overlapping data structures. Significant speedups are expected from operating on data structures in place; copying of data to a newly configured partition is unnecessary. The GPA system consists of N processing-element/RAM pairs and an interconnection network providing access to and from P control processors or microcontrollers. With current technologies, values for N and P of 64K and 16, respectively, are feasible. >

The architectural theory of Viollet-le-Duc : readings and commentary

Abstract: Among architects and preservationists, the writings of Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) have long been considered major resources. They inspired a generation of American architects, including Frank Furness, John Wellborn Root, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright, In 1894, the critic Montgomery Schuyler observed that Viollet-le-Duc's books "have had the strongest influence on this generation of readers." But for the past century, all but one of his works have been out of print in English.These readings carefully selected from the entire range of Viollet-le-Duc's work make available the historical insights and practical principles of one of the most imaginative, and inspiring architectural theorists of the modern era. M.F. Hearn has culled from Viollet-le-Duc's books on architecture the passages in which his major ideas about the theory of architecture are most cogently expressed.Hearn has arranged and interplated the readings in a sequence of topics covering Viollet-le-Duc's views on the architecture of the past, his convictions about the education of architects, his philosophy of method, principles of design, and his guidelines for restoration. The selections are introduced by a biographical essay connected by interpretive commentaries, and followed by a biographical note.M.F. Hearn is Professor of Fine Arts and Director of Architectural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

Seventeenth-Century Roman Palaces: Use and the Art of the Plan

Abstract: Winner, Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, Society of Architectural Historians."Buildings have lives in time," observes Patricia Waddy in this pioneering study of the relation between plan and use in the palaces of the Borghese, Barberini, and Chigi families. Waddy reconstructs what was done at precise moments in a building's life, relating these acts of building to the needs and purposes of the owners and offering a rich understanding of architectural activity in seventeenth-century Rome.In its analysis of the relation between plan and use over the course of several decades, "Seventeenth-Century Roman Palaces" provides a valuable measure for estimating architectural changes over time and a basis for reevaluating seventeenth-century design skills. It is also a fascinating account that shows how the requirements of a hierarchical diplomatic society, whose leaders were celibate churchmen, intersected with a tradition of plasticity, flexibility, and revision in the architecture of Rome's major palaces.Waddy first delves into the complex workings of the household to conceptualize a general program for any large Roman palace of the period. She explains the intricate relationships between design and use at a time when elaborate rules of behavior governed the flow of aristocratic life. The activities of households requiring as many as one hundred staff are examined in lively detail as Waddy describes the specialized workplaces and living quarters, the segregated residences for the family's noblewomen and their attendants, seasonal apartments, the circulation of carriages and people, and the settings that reflected the patron's special interests--varying from theater and ball games to art and bathing. She then considers five palaces commissioned by families at the pinnacle of Roman society. The architects range from the well-known Carlo Maderno and Gianlorenzo Bernini to others who are barely remembered.Patricia Waddy is Associate Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University. An Architectural History Foundation Book.

Monumental Tombs of the Hellenistic Age: A Study of Selected Tombs from the Pre-Classical to the Early Imperial Era

Abstract: Most of the grandiose and often ostentatious Hellenistic monumental tombs were power- fully expressive and symbolic structures, built to glorify and display the wealth and power of kings, queens, nobles, and other persons of influence or to serve as shrines for the worship of the heroized dead. They were inventive in design and form, created to demonstrate the achievements of the dead in a public architecture of permanence and durability. This lavishly illustrated monograph brings together previously scattered information about Hellenistic funerary monuments and Janos Fedak's own research on the exterior architecture of these impressive structures in the Mediterranean region. The author first establishes a typology of main tomb forms and then considers some of the predecessors of the Hellenistic tombs. He explores the variations of form that resulted from differences in climate, building materials, and social and religious customs. Adherence to strong local traditional practice in building is visible in each region, but new ideas and novel funerary architecture were welcomed everywhere in the Hellenistic world. Fedak's wide-ranging approach makes the work of interest not only to specialists in Greek architecture and archaeologists but also to students of classical studies and historians of art and religion.

Formal structure in Islamic architecture of Iran and Turkistan

Abstract: Like its companion volume about Indian architecture (see NA1501), this volume presents the meticulous work of Herdeg and his students this time illustrating and explicating the great monuments of Islamic architecture in Iran and Tukestan. With some 150 measured drawings and analytical diagrams and

Postmodern Sophistications: Philosophy, Architecture, and Tradition

Abstract: Kolb discusses postmodern architectural styles and theories within the context of philosophical ideas about modernism and postmodernism. He focuses on what it means to dwell in a world and within a history and to act from or against a tradition.

The Details of Modern Architecture

Abstract: This second volume of The Details of Modern Architecture continues the study of the relationships of the ideals of design and the realities of construction in modern architecture, beginning in the late 1920s and extending to the present day It contains a wealth of new information on the construction of modern architecture at a variety of scales from minute details to general principles There are over 500 illustrations, including 130 original photographs and 230 original axonometric drawings, arranged to explain the technical, aesthetic, and historical aspects of the building form Most of the modern movements in architecture have identified some paradigm of good construction, arguing that buildings should be built like Gothic cathedrals, like airplanes, like automobiles, like ships, or like primitive dwellings Ford examines the degree to which these models were followed, either in spirit or in form, and reveals much about both the theories and techniques of modern architecture, including the extent to which the current constructional theories of High Tech and Deconstruction are dependent on the traditional modernist paradigms, as well as the ways in which all of these theories differ from the realities of modern building Individual chapters treat the work of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Eric Gunnar Asplund, Richard Neutra, Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, and Louis Kahn, as well as the Case Study, High Tech, Postmodern, and Deconstructivist architects Among the individual buildings documented are Eliel Saarinen's Cranbrook School, Asplund's Woodland Cemetery, Fuller's Dymaxion house, the Venturi house, the Eames and other Case Study houses, the concrete buildings of Le Corbusier, Aalto's Saynatsalo Town Hall, and Kahn's Exeter Library and Salk Institute -- with many details published for the first time

The Neglect of Urban Design in the American Academic Succession

Abstract: The dramatic growth of American urban areas since the 1940s, which has come in ever-larger increments especially at the urban fringe, has helped architecture and planning to flourish but has failed to produce an urban design profession of compara ble size or repute. The answer may lie in the ways in which architecture and planning have chosen to recon cile their internal forces with the de mands of societal change. But to un derstand those choices we may need to look at professional education in these fields and how they have made their place in the academy.

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Social Reform at the End of the Ancien Régime

Abstract: Winner, Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, Society of Architectural Historians.The work of the French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux has fascinated art historians, social critics, and architects alike since the French Revolution. Criticized in his own time for extravagance and megalomania, Ledoux has since been hailed as a visionary and utopian, and as a radical neoclassicist. In the 1930s Ledoux's designs were seen as anticipating modernist abstraction in architecture, and more recently they have been mined as a source of postmodern imagery.A product of detailed research into late-eighteenth-century cultural and social history, this book examines the controversial architect's life and work in the context of the Revolutionary period. It discusses Ledoux's education, early career, and the development of his personal idiom as a domestic architect. Vidler analyzes what was, perhaps, the most significant of Ledoux's public works, the Saline de Chaux, one of the most celebrated factory towns of its time and the only work of Ledoux to survive at the scale of its conception. The building of this rural factory, in conjunction with its proposed social and technical program, serves as a case study of Ledoux's early speculations on the relationship of architecture to industrial management.Ledoux was deeply involved in urban projects as well, and Vidler studies a number of them - most notably, the Palace of Justice of Aix-en-Provence, the Theater of Besancon, and the tollgates around Paris - as examples of Ledoux's attempt to create a "modern classicism" that would reinvest ancient forms with contemporary meaning and ultimately fashion an aesthetic for the representation of the public realmIn the book's final section, Vidler turns to the more explicitly utopian designs that Ledoux proposed for the "Ideal City of Chaux," which he imagined growing up around the saltworks in France-Comte. It was an entire city of symbolic and functional institutions, and Ledoux invented an architectural language to express their social and moral significance.Anthony Vidler is Professor of Architecture at Princeton University, where he also directs the European Cultural Studies Program.

The Architecture of Conquest: Building in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1535-1635

Abstract: List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The idea of architecture 2. First foundations 3. The builders 4. Questions of style 5. The American contribution 6. The art of architecture: a tradition transformed Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index.

Directing an animated scene with autonomous actors

Abstract: The main advantage in using motion recording systems for human figure animation is that exact replication of real movements can be achieved. In this paper, we present Pinocchio, an animation system that allows the control of human motion by introducing facilities for the design of animation sequences. In Pinocchio, movements performed by real actors are digitized using Elite, a 3D vision system based on a two-level architecture reflecting the hierarchical structure of vision in living beings. A general movement dictionary has been developed to classify movements and each movement in the dictionary has been stored in a motion database where it is available for display. Sequences of movements of the characters acting in an animated scene are specified by the animator through an animation script, then before display the characters themselves take care of the coordination issues related to the scene.

The Museum Transformed: Design and Culture in the Post-Pompidou Age

Abstract: "The Museum Transformed" analyzes the collision of architecture and culture in the controversial realm of contemporary museum design since the opening of the Pompidou Centre in 1977. The author assesses the extent to which architects satisfy the requirements of the modern museum. Presenting examples of recent museum architecture, including the work of Frank Gehry, Arata Isozaki, Hans Hollein, Michael Graves, Fumihako Maki and Gae Aulenti, this book discusses the collision of architecture and culture.