Support for the modular system of building construction, touted in the second half of the 20th century as the best basis for academic library building design, appears to be waning. A study of "green" libraries in 2008 revealed that not only has energy conservation become important, but that spaces designed for users rather than books…

It is not surprising that the Library of Congress would be defined as our national monument of art given the scale of the project, its federal sponsorship, and its posture as a public library with access to all Americans. Paralleling the assumption of the Library of Congress as not merely a building for housing books but a ritualistic center of…

The study addresses the automated translation of architectural drawings from 2D Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) data into a Building Information Model (BIM), with emphasis on the nature, possible role, and limitations of a drafting language Knowledge Representation (KR) on the problem and process. The central idea is that CAD to BIM translation is a…

Today, the threat that has caught the attention of many Americans is Mother Nature herself. 2010 and 2011 may go down as two of the most destructive years in the recent history: The Haiti earthquake; the Icelandic volcanoes; the Japan earthquake and tsunami; flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; wildfires raging in Texas. And, a…

This article draws together two linked studies on formal teaching spaces within one university. The first consisted of a multi-method analysis, including observations of four teaching events, interviews with academics and estates staff, analysis of architectural plans, and a talking campus tour. The second study surveyed 166 students about their…

The built environment accounts for a substantial portion of energy consumption in the United States and in many parts of the world. Due to concerns over rising energy costs and climate change, researchers and practitioners have started exploring the area of eco-informatics to link information from the human, natural and built environments.…

Good architecture responds to contemporary challenges, irrespective of fashionable trends, and is characterised by rigorous building processes. Office buildings, housing, stadiums and theatres offer outstanding examples of this principle. But do school buildings figure among them? Happily, in Germany they do, although they are still too rare. This…

This article describes a cooperative project between eighth graders and first graders called "Going Green in the Neighborhood." The project entailed the first grade students sketching home designs on paper to make a model community, and the eighth grade students taking those drawings and making them into 3D computer models and then…

To contribute effectively to academic discourse on urban sustainability, disciplines need to think outside their silos and work together more collaboratively. Although straightforward to posit in theory, the practical realities of bringing together people with different worldviews, languages and skills can be frustrating and lead to loss of…

The architectural design process is based on a creative phase where creativity is highly valued. Although the literature on creativity is rich in ways to stimulate the decision-making process, these tools are rarely formally present in the building design process. To further the discussion on creativity and design education this paper presents a…

This article presents a critical overview of European school building design types, based on an analysis of morphologies and spatial layouts. The different design types are evaluated in function of specific didactic and social needs. (Contains 1 figure, 18 footnotes, a bibliography and 2 online resources.)

This article describes a design/build exercise conducted in an Architectural Materials and Methods class to achieve three interrelated objectives: (1) to apply physically the semester's theoretical focus on the constituent process and languages of architecture investigations, (2) to capitalise on the physical and aesthetic properties of concrete…

The development of the skyscraper is an American story that combines architectural history, economic power, and technological achievement. Each city in the United States can be identified by the profile of its buildings. The design of the tops of skyscrapers was the inspiration for the students in the author's high-school ceramic class to develop…

There is an extensive and well-developed body of literature on the nature of faculty work (e.g., Blackburn & Lawrence, 1996; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006) that has examined numerous aspects of faculty work and sources of influence on that work (e.g., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, personal characteristics, disciplinary affiliation,…

Education administrators involved in construction initiatives unanimously agree that when it comes to change orders, less is more. Change orders have a negative rippling effect of driving up building costs and producing expensive project delays that often interfere with school operations and schedules. Some change orders are initiated by schools…