The Taj Mahal

Guest article by Prof Dawn Lovett

The Taj Mahal is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of architecture known to man. It is recognized all around the world as an engineering marvel. Construction began in 1631 but took many years to complete. While most people consider the Taj Mahal to be the white domed building and towers, it actually encompasses a large complex of buildings and gardens that stretches over 55 acres. It is located on the bank of the river Yamuna in the city of Agra, which is about 125 miles south of the capital, New Delhi. Here are some interesting facts about this world marvel:

Most beautiful object in the world!

Believe me! As usual, I am not bluffing. 

The fireplace seen in the picture here, designed by Dominique Imbert in 1968  [founder of Focus] has won a public vote to be named the most beautiful object in the world. 

The voting was done in a beauty contest reportedly as the first of its kind organized exclusively for objects.

Why not a beauty contest for objects?

It is designed to be suspended from the ceiling. It can rotate freely around in a full circle illuminating the whole room, at the same time providing warmth.

It is truly a revolutionary object in terms of the innovative ideas applied to its simple but pleasant looking form and technology.

This beautiful and marvelous piece of work is manufactured by a French contemporary fireplace maker Focus and they call it the gyrofocus.

It is now a featured item in several exhibitions of modern art and design including the world famous Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Please vote for Maldives

Give your vote while the nation still exists!

The small island nation of Maldives comprising of about 1,200 islands is said to be one of the first to submerge and disappear from the face of the earth into the sea due to sea level rise according to many climate and global warming experts and scientists.

It has a wonderfully friendly population of around 300,000. It so happens that I come from this fragile country with a proud people. We are proud because our beloved country has these characteristics completely  unique to it and we consider them as gifts of nature.

The beauty of Maldives may be categorized within one of the movements of Modern Art or often used interchangeably with Architecture and Art called Minimalism. Maldives’ scenery offers a pleasing sensuality of a perfect balance with just a few simplistic looking artistic shapes in colors of mainly Blue, White and Green. The land area is small cutting down the complexity of urban scenery as seen in most other countries making it a naturally existing minimalistic artwork by being less at the same time offering so much more.

Maldives is a true wonder of nature. And we the people of Maldives believe that it is our duty to give its rightful place as one of the wonders of nature in our world.

So please give the Maldives a vote and let it become one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Download ArchiCAD for free!

I am making this post mainly for my uni mates because I have met many students who have no idea whether ArchiCAD is available for free or not. And no idea at all how or where to get it from.

Having said that, I am sure it will also be of some benefit to any one who wants to find out how and from where to download ArchiCAD for free. I would also like to mention it here that ArchiCAD is not available as a free download for commercial use.

However, it is available for registered students and teachers worldwide. The academic version of ArchiCAD gives the same functionality and full features as the professional version.

And for those who might have stumbled upon here who have no idea what ArchiCAD is please note that, ArchiCAD is a professional software application designed for architects for designing and development of architectural drawings in 2D and 3D complete with project documentation from start to end.  

Steps:

1. Visit Graphisoft.com and register as a student for a temporary license key by providing your name and email address etc. [make double sure that your correct email address is entered here]
2. Download ArchiCAD and install it as academic version by selecting the academic option during installation. When prompted enter the temporary license key that was emailed to you automatically by Graphisoft in step 1. ArchiCAD has both mac and windows versions plus localized versions for specific languages. So choose which version you need from here.
3. After installation is complete run ArchiCAD and click on Help from the top menu and select Educational registration/Register for one year serial number
4. Fill  in your student/teacher details in the web form provided in step 3.
5. Wait for the one year serial number which will take about a week or so to reach you

That’s all. You are done!

If for any reason you run into trouble following these steps and you could not either download or install ArchiCAD I am more than happy to help you. Just give me a ring if you know my number. If not just Email me or leave a comment here.

The largest mud structure in the world

Photoshop tutorials

Here are a few Photoshop tutorials I found on the web.

These are really handy tutorials that take you through the Photoshop background layer to Creating and modifying text using layers. The whole tutorial list from 1 to 8 shows you how to prepare a nice poster with graphics and text. This might be exactly what some of you out there finding it a little lost when it comes to Photoshop skills, need to follow for making posters and presentation boards for class projects.

So, enjoy watching through these highly professional 55 minutes length of tutorials and learn these basic but vital Photoshop skills to design and make your own project posters or presentation boards.

1. Understanding the background layer 
2. Creating, selecting, linking and deleting layers
3. Locking and Merging Layers
4. Copying Layers, Using Perspective and Layer Styles
5. Filling and Grouping Layers
6. Introduction to Blending Modes
7. Blending Modes, Opacity and Fill
8. Creating and Modifying Text

Please note that these tutorials are based on Photoshop CS 4 and are provided by Total Training Online for free.

You will need the Apple Quick Time Player to view these tutorial videos. Please download the free Apple Quick Time Player here if you don’t have it installed already.

Buffalo’s architectural digest

Here is a nice video to watch if you are too down and tired after too much time without sleep making and remaking models drawings urgh! …enjoy and relax

Nice one eh?

Yet another tallest building design proposal

This building is said to be under consideration by the oil-rich middle eastern Abu Dhabi. If the project becomes a reality, plans are to build it on an artificial island.

The picture here is showing a scale model of the design with the designer/architect beside it. Picture source is Los Angeles Times. Please visit Los Angeles Times to read the full story by Roger Vincent.

I support Google books

Here is just one example of a book from Google books. This is an out of print and out of copyright book digitized by Google and is also  available for full download in PDF format.

 

The idea that, Books like this and many others digitized and made accessible with just a click by Google is so good for all seeking knowledge.

The Google books project is sadly being opposed by some giant corporations like Microsoft and Amazon for some reasons about which I care the least to understand.

I wish Google books good luck and hope they will succeed in the project making me and many others happy.

French Spiderman

 

This guy is crazy. A daredevil like no other. He climbed the topmost point of one of the tallest buildings in the world without any safety using just his bare hands! He is reported to have done the stunt in the early hours of yesterday morning when it was less likely to get caught by the security.

Imagine how wet and slippery the surface of the tower will be during that time making it more dangerous and difficult to climb.

Pushing limits with Lego

Image source: archdaily.com

Architects have used many different kinds of materials for buildings. Even paper have been used by famous architects such as Shigeru Ban.

But it is a different matter when a real building is built using toy parts. Lego is a mass manufactured toy product with complete modules with which different shapes can be formed, literally limited to the builders’ imagination.

I found this very interesting article about a Lego fanatic or master builder from the UK who has built a complete working house with Lego parts.

Check out the complete article at archdaily.com