Architecture

About: Architecture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25849 publications have been published within this topic receiving 225266 citations.

Extending design environments to software architecture design

Abstract: Domain-oriented design environments are cooperative problem-solving systems that support designers in complex design tasks. We present the facilities and architecture of Argo, a domain-oriented design environment for software architecture. Argo's architecture is motivated by the desire to achieve reuse and extensibility of the design environment. It separates domain-neutral code from domain-oriented code, which is distributed among intelligent design materials as opposed to being centralized in the design environment. Argo's facilities are motivated by the observed cognitive needs of designers. These facilities extend previous work in design environments to support reflection-in-action, opportunistic design, and comprehension and problem-solving.

The Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses

Abstract: "In both early and late life," write Grant Hildebrand, 'Wright had an enormous number of domestic clients...They cam to his drawing board in droves, and, having seen through to completion their adventure with him, they were, by and large, ecstatic about what they got...Many of these clients subsequently returned to Write for another house, and sometimes more than one..."Yet few houses of equal fame have embodied more conspicuous faults. Many of Wright's plans defy reasonable furniture arrangements, many frustrate even the storage of reasonable and treasured possessions. In many cases sever problems afflict the architectural fabric: leaking roofs, unserviceable detailing, even structural inadequacies...There were problems of personality as well...Many of Wright's clients found him arrogant, careless, slow, and misleading, and were not by any means always amused by his temperament. And there are more vague and subjective difficulties, for the sheer power of these house as dramatic exercises in space and form can intimidate the...acts of ordinary daily life: how does on have a casual conversation in the Robie house dining room, or hang a cherished delicate picture in a Usonian?" If, then, these houses lacked so many of the usual aspects of satisfaction, why were they built with such profusion, and valued so highly? In this book thirty-three of Wright's domestic buildings, including all of the major houses on which his significance depends, are analyzed in detail in terms of their spatial characteristics. Fireplaces, seating, ceiling form, glazing, terraces, and roof overhangs are seen to follow a repetitive organization or pattern characterized by complementary juxtapositions of what the English geographer Jay Appleton calls "prospect" (a condition in which one can see over a considerable distance) and "refuge" (a place where one can hide). According to Appleton's theory of landscape aesthetics, this juxtaposition offers the ability to see without being seen (or to hunt successfully without being, in turn, successfully hunted) and thus, eons ago, had survival value. But such a condition must have been sought, originally, because it was intrinsically pleasurable to our species. Hildebrand finds a striking correlation in Wright's houses. Wright's pattern of prospect and refuge, to which are added similarly derived qualities of complexity and order, is show to be unique in domestic architecture to the degree to which it provides these preferred characteristics, suggesting why - in spite of serious drawbacks - his house were built and valued by so many clients. The text of the book is enhanced by photographs, plans, and by nine exquisitely drawn diagrams of key dwellings specially prepared by William Hook. Addressed to architects, landscape architects, architectural historians, environmental psychologist, anthropologists, philosophers of aesthetics, and the lay public with an interest in these subjects, "The Wright Space" is essential reading for anyone who has ever lived in, looked at, or studied Frank Lloyd Wright's remarkable houses.

Software architecture and agile software development: a clash of two cultures?

Abstract: Software architecture is taking a bad rap with the agilists---proponents of agile and lean software development approaches: "BUFD big up-front design", "YAGNI You Ain't Gonna Need It", "massive documentation", "smells of waterfall", it is pictured as a typical non-agile practice. However, certain classes of system, ignoring architectural issues too long "hit a wall" and collapse by lack of an architectural focus. 'Agile architecture': a paradox, an oxymoron, two totally incompatible approaches? In this tutorial, we examine the real issues at stake, beyond the rhetoric and posturing, and show that the two cultures can coexist and support each other, where appropriate. We define heuristics to scope how much architecture a project really needs, to assign actual value to an otherwise invisible architecture; and we review management and development practices that do work in the circumstances where some significant architectural effort is needed, when you are actually going to need it.