Architectural Blogs of Note
New to our blog this week is a feature that we will return to on a regular basis called, “Architectural Blogs of Note.” If you have an architectural blog you feel is noteworthy – please feel free to share the link by adding it to the comments area below. These blogs are selected for their quality and contribution to the online architectural knowledge base. As architects and bloggers we have a responsibility to continuously evolve our profession through smart and vibrant discussions, education, and involvement. We hope you enjoy our blog selections.
ARCHITECTURE BUZZ!!
http://www.architecture-buzz.com/
ARCHITECTURE BUZZ offers select architecture works from around the globe. Tanakorn Koomrampai, CEO of Ergo Architect in Thailand is Managing Editor of the site and provides detailed photography, facts, and thoughtful overviews of architectural sites, award winning designs, and technology.
iModernHome
http://www.imodernhome.com/
iModernHome features beautiful photography of contemporary homes, furniture, toys, and more. The site is clean and easy to navigate with succinct overviews of the featured designs.
+Mood
http://www.plusmood.com/
+Mood is an online resource for all things relating to contemporary architecture and design. The site reviews a wide variety of projects and products well organized by category and industry served.
inhabitat
http://inhabitat.com/architecture/
Inhabitat.com is devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices, and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future. Founded by NYC designer Jill Fehrenbacher as a forum for investigating emerging trends in product, interior, and architectural design.
BLDG BLOG
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/
BLDG BLOG is devoted to “architectural conjecture, urban speculation, and landscape futures.” Essayist Geoff Manaugh explores design, art, and culture with an intellectual edge.
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011
Modern Construction Lexicon
Words are powerful conveyors of information – but only if we are all on the same page as far as what the words we use actually mean. And words can change in their meaning over time. Look at the phrase “pre-fab” for example. Pre-fab comes from prefabricated. This word can be applied to just about everything made these days (except most buildings). In the context of buildings it has roots in home building, as in “Prefabricated Homes.” This phrase was first used a few decades ago and commonly referred to mobile homes. To many people this reference invokes connotations of cookie cutter shapes and cheap construction methods. More recently “prefabricated” has been shortened to “pre-fab” and its meaning also has shifted to be applied to a new breed of house that is cleverly designed, manufactured, sustainable, of modern style, and of high quality. We hope our new glossary helps to clarify the meaning of words that are defining Modern Methods of Construction today.
Link below to see the new glossary page! We will update this frequently with new words. Please feel free to add new words you would like to see in the glossary in our comment area.
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011
McGraw Hill: Increasing Productivity in the Construction Industry
McGraw Hill Construction recently published a document called: “Prefabrication and Modularization: Increasing Productivity in the Construction Industry.”* This is the latest in their Smart Market Reports, a series they publish on construction industry trends.
A lot of research went into the report and it contains many interesting sub-topics. However, it only takes a quick look at the cover to find the first item of note. The report’s sub-title is: “Increasing Productivity in the Construction Industry.”
Most people who work in the construction industry are keenly aware that traditional site-built methods of construction have a bad reputation when it comes to efficiency. Likewise, most building owners and developers are keenly aware that those efficiencies hit the pocket book hard as they manifest themselves as poor quality work, change orders and completion delays. That McGraw Hill chose to include off-site construction in the general discussion of how we build all buildings is a huge step in the right direction of understanding that there is a better option in the way we create and assemble buildings.
This is a significant notion. Most non-industry discussions about prefabrication tend to see it as an anomaly, a mere curiosity for small scale players. They relinquish ‘prefab’ to the sidelines of the greater discussion of how we build all buildings, big and small. Those of us who currently practice in the off-site industry understand how efficient this method of construction really is and generally have a large vision of how important a role it can play in curing the productivity woes found with on-site construction. That McGraw Hill decided to take this on with an in depth analysis is in itself worthy of mention.
* While primarily researched and published by McGraw Hill, this Smart Market report included a number of partners. One partner was the Modular Building Institute Educational Foundation, of which James B. Guthrie, AIA, President of Miletus Group, is the Chair.
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The Modular Building Institute Educational Foundation is offering a limited number of full color printed editions this report in exchange for a $100 or more tax-deductible donation to the Foundation. You can contact us through the comment area if you would like to make a donation and receive a copy/copies of the report.
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011
Modular Architecture Brown-Bag Roundtable
AIA Meeting August 2, 2011 in San Diego
Find out more about the latest methods in modern, modular construction. It’s not just theory; it’s winning prestigious design awards for architects interested in sustainable building, cost efficiency and quality control.
Come to the next meeting of the Modular Architecture Brown Bag group to hear Eric Naslund, FAIA of Studio E Architects discuss his project: High Tech High. Eric will be sharing his experiences using modular construction in his COTE award-winning design.
Modular Brown-Bag Roundtable
August 2, 2011
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
AIA San Diego
233 A Street, #200
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: (619) 232-0109
Email: info@aiasandiego.org
Increasing interest and the recent growth in the US and abroad of new construction substantial modular buildings, and the industries surrounding it, signifies a significant change on the architectural landscape. At the National AIA level, on the new AIAKnowledgeNet, The Modular and Prefabricated Architecture Group has been established to provide a central location where architects and allied professionals can share, learn and promote state-of-the-art offsite construction to new architectural levels.
AIA San Diego invites you to join your peers who share your interest in this topic at a local Brown-Bag Roundtable. No RSVP is necessary. This is a free, member-only, bring-your-own-brown-bag event. Food vendors are available in the building for those wishing to purchase their lunch.
High Tech High
Jim Brady Architectural Photography
High Tech High Modules
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011
Miletus Group Returns to its Roots! Opens Chicago Architectural Office
Miletus Group has officially announced the opening of its new office in Chicago, IL at 2823 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Suite E, (312) 265-6447. The new Chicago metropolitan location will house architectural services, building on the continued success of the Miletus Group management, design, and production operations in its Rochester, IN headquarters.
“The new design office gives us a great new platform to reach out to the entire Chicago metropolitan market,” says James B. Guthrie, AIA, president of Miletus Group, adding, “We have exciting plans for innovative, large-scale modular solutions involving hotel, apartment, and healthcare facility projects,” he further explains. “Chicago is a natural market for substantial building in these sectors, making it a perfect fit for our future growth strategy. In addition, Chicago is my hometown, so I very much look forward to working there with our staff of talented architects.”
Chicago was selected as a key growth market, according to Guthrie, because of its proximity to the company’s production facility in Indiana, and because it provides a large market area with a history of progressive thinking in terms of architecture and building. Guthrie points out that early in the twentieth century, Chicago-founded Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold over 70,000 precut and prepackaged homes through their mail order Modern Homes program, which allowed customers to choose a house to suit their individual tastes and budgets. At approximately the same time, he goes on to explain, Frank Lloyd Wright introduced his textile block Usonian home concept to demonstrate that exceptional quality and design, using prefabricated components, can be made available to the masses.
“Conceptually, we stand on the shoulders of such Chicago icons as Sears and Frank Lloyd Wright, who paved the way for modular architecture,” Guthrie states. “Today, we are seeing a resurgence in modular architecture,” he continues. “The interest is driven in small part by economics, but more so by a desire for greener construction practices, creative design, and the caliber of high quality production that Miletus Group consistently delivers and will now extend into the Chicago market.”
Frank Lloyd Wright McBean House in Rochester, Minnesota. This Usonian house is an example of the second type (Prefab #2) of the Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses.
Sears Homes 1908 – 1914, Chicago, IL From the Sears Archives Model No. 52
Architectural icons ‘modularized’ in LEGO bricks
Modular Architecture is just like LEGOs. Only Bigger
At Miletus Group, we like to say, “just like LEGOs only bigger” when we try to describe modular building to people who aren’t familiar with it. How appropriate then that LEGO has selected two architects to feature in their Architect series – Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright – who both embraced their modern methods of construction and made them into enviable art forms. (For more see our recent blog post, Mies vs. Modular.)
Mies van der Rohe’s modernist masterpiece Farnsworth House joined the LEGO Architecture product line about a month ago. The Architecture line also includes Wright’s Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater.
LEGO Architecture is a collaboration between the LEGO Group and Chicago architect Adam Reed Tucker. It started as a pilot of 200 boxes in 2007. In 2010, international distribution started through LEGO online stores, brand retail stores and in a growing number of outlets around the world.
The actual Farnsworth House is located in Plano, Illinois, just outside Chicago. It was designed and constructed between 1945 and 1951 as a one-room weekend retreat for Dr. Edith Farnsworth, a prominent Chicago physician. Today, the house is a pilgrimage site for architects and designers worldwide, owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the U.S. The historic site is open to the public. We recommend a visit to this outstanding piece of architecture.
Mies van der Rohe is the second architect to be featured after Frank Lloyd Wright in Lego’s ‘Architect’ series.
Like our friend Architect Barbie, (see our recent post on Barbie for more), LEGOS and other interactive toys bring the importance of design home and encourage boys and girls to dream about and participate in building a brighter future. Using modular blocks like LEGOs also fuels a child’s imagination, just as imaginative minds in architecture today are fueled by the possibilities of modular construction methods.
Own your own modular home!
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011
Barbie: Modular Architect Makes Her Debut
At the recent AIA convention in New Orleans a very special kind of modern ‘debutante ball’ (aka a product launch) was held for the newest member of the architectural community – Barbie.
The architectural ball was well attended and well received as Barbie made her debut. In grand southern tradition, young women of all ages participated in the celebration. The party theme was “design” and attendees did what all architects love to do: talk about architecture, discuss client’s needs, debate the latest styles, share professional experiences and design dream homes.
A special part of the ball was the AIA’s announcement of a design competition for AIA members to design their own dream house for Barbie. Read more about the competition here:
http://www.aia.org/practicing/AIAB089214?dvid=&recspec=AIAB089214
Architect Barbie is a special kind of architect as she may be the world’s first Modular Architect. Using the latest in modern methods of construction, she was assembled from six prefabricated components (a head, a torso, two symmetrical arms, and two symmetrical legs) that were then assembled off-site into a complete architectural package ready for delivery.
After her debut party, Architect Barbie went on an architectural tour of New Orleans. Here are some pictures of her Uptown tour:
While waiting to catch a streetcar, Barbie points out the pedestrian oriented street signage indicating the location of her cotillion, the New Orleans convention center.
In the Uptown neighborhood, Barbie, an architect committed to the AIA’s 2030 Challenge, enjoyed the public transportation. Here she watches as the St Charles Avenue streetcar heads towards Tulane University.
Barbie stops to enjoy the masonry details of one of the large historic homes on St Charles Avenue.
Barbie admires the craftsmanship and detailing of the traditional wrought iron seen throughout historic New Orleans.
The large front porches and lush front yard landscaping of New Orleans homes appeal to Barbie’s community sensibilities.
Barbie is struck by the somber beauty of one of New Orleans many cemeteries. The nearby rising Mississippi River and the possibility of flooding remind her of why the crypts are above ground.
Back at the streetcar stop, Barbie waits for the car back to the French Quarter. She is looking forward to a dinner of shrimp Creole, a New Orleans favorite.
© Miletus Group, Inc. 2011
