Figure 1. Post-Hurricane Harvey, Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston, Texas. (Credit: Jonnu Singleton/SWA)Ellicott City, a historic patch of Maryland nestled between the Tiber and Patapsco rivers, regularl...

Urban Informatics Research Group, QUT Design LabQueensland University of TechnologyBrisbane, AustraliaEstablished: 2006Lab Leadership:Marcus Foth (Team Leader, Urban Informatics group, and Founder, QUT Design Lab)Evonne Miller (Director, QUT Design Lab)Glenda Caldwell (Associate Director, QUT Design Lab)Current Lab Structure:Academic Faculty: 40Research Staff: 17Postdoctoral Researchers: 7Graduate-Level Students: 112Visiting Faculty and Students: 17

The literature on design methods suitable for research related to the built environment is prolific. But the majority of methods are derived from other fields and consequently do not leverage the u...

If the first phase of architecture’s engagement with digital technologies focused on form (roughly the early 1990s to the early 2000s) and the second phase focused on fabrication, (roughly the earl...

The research and development of Timber Volume Calculators (TVCs) was conducted to determine the amount of wood used in off-site light-frame construction compared to traditional on-site stick-built construction. A four-story mixed rate housing project in the fastest growing region in the US was used to: 1) quantify the total wood volume of the project as-built stick framed onsite, and 2) compare it to simulated factory built panelized and modular construction methods for the same housing configuration. Panelized construction used 6.7% more total wood and modular construction 69.4% more than the as-built scenario. A life cycle assessment found that panelized and modular construction store 4.5% and 32% more CO2 equivalent than on-site stick built construction. Next steps for evaluating economic costs of off-site constructed systems are presented.

Mark R. Cruvellier, Bjorn N. Sandaker, and Luben Dimcheff Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2017 272 Pages $60.00 (paperback)An architect’s ability to be creative and to translate conceptual ide...

The recent history of architecture and engineering has rightly focused on rationalization to realize otherwise overly complex and thus cost-prohibitive projects. All too common “value engineering” ...