Courtesy of reader Mariana Abib, here is another set of AutoCAD drawings, yes, those 4 little blue guys with the mushroom house are cartoon characters from the Smurfs, and according to Mariana Abib they’re three apples tall. Do email me your collection of AutoCAD drawings of animals, cars, people, furniture, and trees.

[Download AutoCAD People / Figure Libraries]

Technorati Tags: AutoCAD, Drawings, DWG, Download, Free, Libraries, Library, CAD, People, Animals

Image Source: Tropolism

Image Source: Tropolism

Known as the Disneyland of architecture, Dubai has lost it all, to quote Tropolism: "Koolhaas and OMA have officially lost their marbles", a rather extraordinary big marble.

Taken from George Lucas’s Rem Koolhaas’s drawing board, the Death Star like 44-story sphere shaped building appears to be floating on the water is the proposed Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre in the UAE, news had it that the project was shelfed due to some unknown reasons. Just like every large scale building in dubai, it holds a convention centre, hotel rooms, apartments, offices, retail space, and a man made oasis.

Image Source: Treehunger

To say the building resemble the Death Star from the movie Star Wars is entirely not accurate, Gravestmor thinks that the Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre was modeled after Panasonic’s Panapet radio dates back to 1972, five years before Star Wars made it to the big screen.

A golf ball like building, a bowling ball? Probably the designer was inspired by Harmon Kardon speakers for Apple computers .

Image Source: Gravestmor

Come to think of it, it is somewhat different, something new in the architecture world. After all, the Sydney Opera House received some really nasty feedbacks from architects around the world, who knows, the Death Star like building could be the next big hit. Biologist P.B. Medawar once said: "The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it."

Image Source: Guardian

Further Readings:
Wired Magazine - Rem Koolhaas Designs a Death Star for the UAE
Guardian - Introducing Rem Koolhaas’ Dubai Death Star
Architectural Record - Koolhaas Unveils New Waterfront City in Dubai
Ny Times - Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment

Technorati Tags: Death Star, Rem Koolhaas, OMA, Dubai, Disneyland Architecture, Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre

Google SketchUp is celebrating Earth Day with the launch of a new website (I miss the old layout, the new layout is simply ugly) and some really interesting plugins for people that are into sustainability.

Created by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Design Plugin is a free plugin for the Google SketchUp 3D drawing program. It models heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation and other energy flows in buildings.

Google SketchUp appears to be growing stronger every day, it used to be a simple 3d modeling tool. Anyway, Tuesday was Earth Day.

Happy Earth Day, you know, there seems to be some “special day” everyday, women day, labor day, mother’s day, father’s day, teachers day, blah blah blah, someone should propose - “No Day”, we need a break from all of these celebrations.

Technorati Tags: Earth Day, Energy Stimulation, 3D, Plugins, SketchUp, Google, Earth Day

Life was like a UPS parcel, you never know what you’re gonna get - Graphisoft, the creator of ArchiCAD mailed me a gift all the way from Budapest.

Enough of the chit chat already, check out the ArchiCAD 10 and ArchiCAD 11 t-shirt!

The ArchiCAD 11 t-shirt is my favorite, probably the fonts comes is bright orange in colour, but the “What If” text is sort of big, well, the t-shirt itself is too big for me because it is size L, my built is kind of small and S is definitely the ideal size.

The ArchiCAD 10 t-shirt on the other hand appears to be somewhat less attractive, maybe it is the colour and the size of the fonts, again, this is a size L t-shirt.

Do I look like a penguin? or is it just me.

Being an avid Giordano T-Shirt lover myself, as far as the feel of the garment and quality goes, I’m happy to say that the T-Shirt is comfortable, it is made of 100% cotton, after all, cotton t-shirts and have always found the fabric to be very soft, this t-shirt is no exception.

Since Graphisoft is kind enough to mail me a set of t-shirts, it would be appropriate for me to make a small announcement as a show of appreciation. ArchiCAD 11 is now free for students and teachers, all you need to do is register online and you’ll receive the serial key from Graphisoft within a few minutes, follow the link and download ArchiCAD® 11 for Students and Teachers now.

Technorati Tags: Graphisoft, ArchiCAD, ArchiCAD 11, ArchiCAD 12, T-Shirt

Image Source: Dezeen

On Jun. 2, Nouvel will receive the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor, in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington. The Paris-based architect has won the profession’s highest honor - Pritzker Prize 2008, for a career of memorable buildings. This is undoubtedly Jean Nouvel’s moment, aside from winning the Pritzker, his offices in Paris, New York, London, Copenhagen, Rome, Madrid, and Barcelona are busy with more than 40 active projects in 13 countries (My design lecturer claimed that he has 30 projects in hand, and I would assume that he has about 15 - 25 staffs, probably more, Jean Nouvel has something to learn from him).

Jean Nouvel’s structures bear no signature style, unlike Frank Gehry and his curved walls; Jean Nouvel has to constantly re-invent himself instead of relying on a single award winning style, which is what most architects does.

Jean Nouvel (Icon Magazine) and Dr.Evil (Right). Image Source: Dezeen

Anyway, does Jean Nouvel resemble the movie character Dr.Evil from Austin Power? Probably it is just me. Here is a summary of his family and education background:

Nouvel was born August 12, 1945 in Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne, France, the son of Renée and Roger Nouvel who were teachers. His family moved often when his father became the county’s chief school superintendent. His parents encouraged Nouvel to study mathematics and language, but when he was 16 years old he was captivated by art when a teacher taught him drawing. Although his later said he thought that his parents were guiding him to pursue a career in education or engineering, the family reached a compromise that he could study architecture which they thought was less risky than art. - Wikipedia

“…they thought was less risky than art…”, I guess lots of parents has this opinion of art as a useless subject, especially Asian parents with their traditional mindset. I’ve always believed that art is the key to man’s salvation.

Technorati Tags: Jean, Jean Nouvel, Nouvel, Pritzker Architecture Prize 2008, Pritzker Prize, 2009, Architect, Architecture

Autodesk’s AutoWoof 2008 is a revolutionary new product; it has the ability to speed up your work by 100%. For your information, AutoWoof 2008 is schedule to replace AutoCAD 2008 in the future; this new amazing product has swept across the global like wild fire and has captured the hearts and imagination of draftsperson and architects.

NO! It is not an AutoDesk 2009 or 2008 crack, it is not some seed file for Bittorrent.

Prepare to be amazed!

Autodesk Dog Biscuit
Don’t forget about Fido! Turn your companion into a working mate. Keep a stash at your desk for the pup who accompanies you to the office… or for your colleague’s dog down the hall, yourself or your boss, yes, especially your boss, he’ll love it and listen to you like a good dog too! Buy the revolutionary Autodesk Dog Biscuit now! Only $0.89.

Technorati Tags: AutoDesk, AutoWoof, AutoCAD, 2008, 2009, 2010

Source: TimesOnline

The World Election 2008 United States presidential election 2008 is around the corner, and this could be the most interesting election ever, that is if, a BIG if, one of the Democratic Party candidate wins the erection election.

I’m a supporter of Hillary Clinton, and a little bit of Obama, any candidate dished out by the Democratic Party gets my full support. 8 years of Republican and their imaginary War on Terror is enough, we’re heading for a global recession if the American do not sort out their subprime mortgage crisis, and the savior would be non other than Hillary or Obama from the Democratic Party.

Obama Wanted to be an Architect?

Yes, architect, architect, and architect. He wanted to be an architect, the architect for America.

Off topic, the guys over MNP are tired of people appropriating the term ‘architect’, couldn’t agree more. According to Wikipedia:

An architect is a person who is involved in the planning, design, and oversight of a building’s construction. The word “architect” (Latin: architectus) derives from the Greek arkhitekton (arkhi, chief + tekton, builder”). In the broadest sense an architect is a person who translates a user’s requirements into a built environment.

The term ‘architect’ has lost its original meaning. I’ve came across job ads in newspaper for software architect, hairstylist architect, warehouse architect and many more.

Via MNP

Technorati Tags: United States presidential election 2008, Hillary Clinton, Obama Barack, Democratic Party, Republican

Two most significant urban prototypes produced by Modern Movement are Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City - where every family with its own separate home on its own separate acre of land. Wright’s Broadacre City is a prescription for today’s suburbia on a bigger scale.

At first glance, these two prototypes appears to have absolutely nothing in common, but they do share one significant flaw: neither can possibly work without elaborate transport systems.

The ‘Walking City’ seen here approaching Manhattan Island, technically in the real world, supercarriers or also known as aircraft carriers loosely fit the definition of a walking city. Source: Archigram.

The old saying goes: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Preoccupied with mechanized mobility in cities seemed to increase in the 1960s. Archigrammers were fascinated by the space hardware - the huge transporter that move the Saturn V rocket from the assembly building, suddenly they found the answer both Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright was searching for - Form Follows Fiasco.

Francois Dallegret’s Space City, code name Astronef 732 was designed in 1963. It was a proposal to launch 7000 people on a trip to Mars and back. Francois Dallegret is an imaginative designer, not an architect to begin with, but the proposed space city in the form of a huge rocket that could launch into orbit seems to be somewhat beyond mankind’s league.

Source: Archigram.

Mobility in today’s world, is of course a perfectly desirable objective, especially if you don’t care for your present place of residence and want to get away from it all as often and as rapidly as possible.

Modern Movement like Le Corbusier and many more have misinterpreted the ideal city for mankind, an ideal city, if indeed any, would be the one require fewer transportation system. Ideal cities, it seems clear, are pedestrian friendly cities like those in Europe, not all of the cities but a big number of it.

The ideal city is a place of crowd, and of confrontations, not highways or monorails that are symbol of alienation.

While Asian cities rushed to embrace these Western concepts that exist only in blueprints and Hollywood movies where the futuristic ‘ideal city’ with flying cars, elevated highways, and concrete rail system erected between two buildings, the west itself was rethinking those concepts.

Souce: Flickr

Urbanities made restless by these concept of ‘ideal city’, and they the best part is, they have no idea what hit them. A conversation with one of my non-architecture friend ended up with a debate, it appears that the ideal city are those from the west - which is true, and when asked why, the answer is the neo-classical architecture the city has, it is not the pedestrian friendly city nor the idea where newer building should respect the existing architecture in the surrounding.

A stretch of elevated highways in Guangzhou. Source: Flickr

I’m not sure what the politicians are thinking, but we’re heading the wrong direction with our head high thinking that we’re reaching for the ideal city with the elevated highways and monorails.

Technorati Tags: The Fantasy of Architecture, Form Follow Fiasco, Le Corbusier, Ideal City, Frank lloyd Wright, Pedestrian Friendly, City, Cities, Architecture, Guang Zhou

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Colophon
Currently studying Architecture in Curtin University, Western Australia. Calvin loves web designing and photography, occasionally he blogs about his thoughts and opinions.

Every morning he refill himself with weird energy-inducing substances known as coffee and tea and then off saving the world, I mean studying and blogging of course.

The author is not a CAD expert nor a web genius. Just another guy spending too much time online (believe me, way too much). The tutorials featured here are meant for basic level understanding.











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