Building Futures

BUILDING FUTURES An approach to Information Modeling engaging concepts of equality, sustainability, and labor as they relate to environment and architectural practice Building Futures: Technology, Ecology, and Architectural Practice explores how architects, and the buildings and environments we create, can engage future realities, both abstract and readily understood. These range from climate change and public health to advanced ideas about manufacture and construction. The text demonstrates multiple and hybrid paths in which building information modeling (BIM) and outgrowth technological processes including environmental simulation and human-robot interaction can be utilized in today’s contemporary context, expanding the architect’s agency by focusing on a more conceptual, and ecological, basis for our work. Moving beyond a basic understanding of the role of computation in architecture and design, the work shows how to think critically and speculatively about technology’s deeper and more lasting impacts on both architecture and society. Topics covered in Building Futures include: Technology: information modeling and the relationship between computational and real objects, new approaches to coding in architectural design, and direct-to-manufacture workflows Environment: understanding part-to-whole relationships at a variety of scales and the interconnectedness of things, post-subjective architectural approaches to ecology, and new ideas about sustainability Practice: revisiting architecture by remote control in the time of new global challenges, and novel ideas about creativity, authorship, and professionalism Design professionals and practice leaders grappling with the relationship of technology to design pedagogy will use Building Futures to better theorize and execute their architectural vision. Students in upper-level courses studying technique and theory will also find value in the work, which prepares incoming professionals for the major changes that the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry may undergo in the coming years and decades. “The book prompts us to consider simulating events where architecture and architects could mitigate, redirect or develop contingencies, in relation to the environment, flows of material and capital, and other “things” that operate from the immediate, through to almost geological timescales.” From the Foreword by Robert Stuart-Smith, Director of the Autonomous Manufacturing Lab, University of Pennsylvania

A reduction in the energy demand of buildings can make a major contribution to achieving national and international carbon reduction goals, in addition to addressing the interlinked issues of sustainable development, fuel poverty and fuel security. Despite improvements in thermal efficiency, the energy demand of buildings stubbornly remains unchanged, or is only declining slowly, due to the challenges posed by growing populations, the expectations of larger, more comfortable and better equipped living spaces, and an expanding commercial sector. Building Futures offers an interdisciplinary approach to explore this lack of progress, combining technical and social insights into the challenges of designing, constructing and operating new low energy buildings, as well as improving the existing, inefficient, building stock. The twin roles of energy efficiency, which is predominantly concerned with technological solutions, and energy conservation which involves changing peoples’ behaviour, are both explored. The book includes a broad geographical range and scale of case studies from the UK, Europe and further afield, including Passivhaus in Germany and the UK, Dongtan Eco City in China and retrofit houses in Denmark. This book is a valuable resource for students and academics of environmental science and energy-based subjects as well as construction and building management professionals.

There is growing interest in future scenario planning of theconstruction industry but a disconnect between thinking about thefuture at the policy-making level and implementing real change. Constructing Futures: industry leaders and futures thinkingin construction takes a thematic approach to the future of theUK construction industry by presenting the results of a series ofin-depth interviews conducted with leading construction figures andstructuring this material into chapters addressing the keycontemporary issues in the industry. These high-profile figures are drawn from a wide range ofstakeholder groups representing the realities of construction,including architects, client organisations (public-sector andprivate-sector), consultants, contractors, developers, lobby groupswith special interests, policy makers, professional institutions,and trade unions. A total of 15 influential figures were interviewed for the book,from Sir Michael Latham and Bob White to Wayne Hemmingway and KevinMcCloud. Part One looks to the past by reviewing a series of foresightstudies undertaken of the construction industry and re-presentingstories of our interviewees' lives to explain the development ofleadership in the context of the construction industry. In PartTwo, the authors look at the present and discuss two fundamentalissues: sustainable development and governance of the constructionindustry. In Part Three the book concludes with an afterthought forthe future, highlighting key lessons learnt putting forward aseries of research questions derived from this scholarly reflectionof 'futures thinking' in construction. Throughout, the authors juxtapose the views of the 15influential figures interviewed with a review of the salient pointsfound in the relevant and authoritative sources of theoreticalliterature, both in the mainstream literature and the field ofconstruction management. This allows the reader to benefit from thepractical insights of those interviews whilst gaining a rapidunderstanding of the key debates of the theoretical subject underscrutiny.

Suburbs deserve a better, more resilient future. June Williamson shows that suburbs aren't destined to remain filled with strip malls and excess parking lots; they can be reinvigorated through inventive design. Today, dead malls, aging office parks, and blighted apartment complexes are being retrofitted into walkable, sustainable communities. Williamson provides a broad vision of suburban reform based on the best schemes submitted in Long Island's highly successful "Build a Better Burb" competition. Many of the design ideas and plans operate at a regional scale, tackling systems such as transit, aquifer protection, and power generation. While some seek to fundamentally transform development patterns, others work with existing infrastructure to create mixed-use, shared networks. Designing Suburban Futures offers concrete but visionary strategies to take the sprawl out of suburbia, creating a vibrant new, suburban form.

International Futures: Building and Using Global Models extensively covers one of the most advanced systems for integrated, long-term, global and large-scale forecasting analysis available today, the International Futures (IFs) system. Key elements of a strong, long-term global forecasting system are described, i.e. the formulations for the driving variables in separate major models and the manner in which these separate models are integrated. The heavy use of algorithmic and rule-based elements and the use of elements of control theory is also explained. Furthermore, the IFs system is compared and contrasted with all other major modeling efforts, also outlining the major benefits of the IFs system. Finally, the book provides suggestions on how the development of forecasting systems might most productively proceed in the coming years. Helps readers understand the IFs system, not at a detailed equation and technical level, but in terms of the important decisions made that dominate the structure and long-term behavior Presents information on the universe of long-term global forecasting systems, key decisions made, and the range of similarities and differences in the systems Covers the relationship between long-term forecasts in a variety of global issues and the forecasting systems and assumptions that underly them (essential information for forecast consumers)

- Mario Cucinella curated the Italian Pavilion 'Archipelago Italia' at the 16th Architectural Biennale of Venice in 2018 - Mario Cucinella Architects was founded in 1992, and is a world leader in crafting sustainable architectural solutions for a wide variety of building uses This book brings together a collection of recent projects and classic architectural designs by Mario Cucinella Architects, and explores the sensitive, creative, and sustainable solutions that architecture and nature can provide in answer to global challenges. The way forward is approached via constructive strategies of the past and from the plant world, looking at how man has adapted in every latitude, climate, and culture. Buildings of the past considered resources like wind, sun, rain, and local materials, sustainable strategies that are increasingly important today. Research in the plant world inspires buildings that can adapt to the climate and resonate with the environment. Each project featured here is accompanied by a wealth of illustrations and drawings, and an in-depth analysis that interprets all aspects of construction.