Storing quantum information permanently – While rocking my son to sleep, I have been catching up on some reading and finely read this interesting article on quantum memory. The basic premise is that scientists have come up with a way to store information geometrically, in this case using a torus. Sound familiar to anyone… sounds like Architecture to me.

Case in point, my finally grad studio was on formalizing knowledge geometrically to create a library. The instructor encouraged us to us topological knots, such as torus's. Though my pursuit ended up exploring cellular automata instead, this article is fascinating as it points a way in which topological knots might actually be used to store knowledge.

Parallax is a dizzying monochrome nightmare created by two people – Parallax is a new maze game where one travels through two overlapping dimensions with different geometry to find the exit to the maze. It is difficult to explain without watching the video, but the general concept is that one can see and travel through portals between the two dimensions on your way to finding the exit.

To conceptualize multiple dimensions is a difficult task and one that Architects should consider. We already balance try to balance the multiple, overlapping and sometime contradictory uses, programs, perceptions and ideas that make up a space, but to formalize it is a whole other challenge, Parallax shows one possible way.

The implications for Architectural Visualization are immense.  In its basic form, it would allow one to take a photo, import it into modeling software that would generate a 3D model with mappings.  From there it would be easy to insert new rendered objects.

I really look forward to seeing where this technology goes.

However as several of the comments bring up, the idea of putting spec information directly on drawings or in schedules tends to break down when addressing public works who require multiple bids and true performance specifications with alternates for all products. Large complex projects have similar obstacles.

That said, in my own work, I find a hybrid approach best. For those products and specifications that require only performance information, a traditional specification is best, however for proprietary products or materials that are integral to the design I like to use a schedule(s) that list out the information in a concise way.

It seems to me, that this is fertile ground for an architectural concept. The very idea of treating architectural space as a material continuum rather than the more typical outlook of form that frames space. This is not an argument for the sleek forms of parametric thinking, though it doesn’t exclude them. Rather, I argue that a material thinking is more about exploring contextual relationships, both continuous and discrete, in a way that favors the field rather than any individual piece.

Scott Draves – Software Artist – Scott Draves is a digital artist who created fractal frames and electric sheep. His amazing work has been on the frontier of computational art for the last twenty years.

Theoretical physics breakthrough: Generating matter and antimatter from the vacuum – Space is never truly empty. Even a vacuum isn't pure absence. Scientists at the University of Michigan have proposed a theory where using a strong laster, once can generate additional particles from a vacuum. They are now working on ways to prove it experimentally, but the basic concept is mind incredible. A true void doesn't exist, all space is intensely charged with matter.

CHEAP — THE BI BLOG – As always, Bi Blog provides two different takes on their current post concerning the concept of CHEAP. While Jacob's half is poignant in how it describes the consequences of building cheaply even when it was with good intentions. Thom's thoughts on CHEAP, however, are more aspirational and thought provoking. Thom questions why contemporary Architecture seems fraught with expensive formal devices over the careful balancing material excess with other resources equally as important, such as space. It is a good question, but one that must be asked carefully, while heading the implicit warning in Jacob's post.

AD Classics: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library / Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill | ArchDaily – The rare book library at Yale is an excellent example of modernism done right. While the building is largely self contained and self referential like most classic modernism, the library's carefully crafted spaces and exquisite materiality of the translucent marble facade, give it a sense of progression and reverence for the functionality of the library.

While the seriousness and sincerity that the library takes for its function seems out of date compared to the irony filled and clever architectural programs that spill out architecture schools and magazines, it is also its greatest asset. While so much modern architecture has lost its ability to affect and instead comes across empty or naive, this library still carries with it a sense self and purpose that is rare.

Hsiangshan Visitor Center / Norihiko Dan | ArchDaily – The Hsiangshan Visitor Center is spectacular in the way it engages and separates with the earth around it. Like a rock face, pushing up out of the ground, the Hsiangshan Visitor Center has a certain inevitability to it, without falling into banality. With long sweeps of concrete, that twist into openings or sweep out to form vistas to the landscape, the building has a unquestionably contemporary form, yet it doesn't fall into the all to typical foreign object perched in the landscape.

The building is like a continuous field of variation that extends the landscape and focuses it into a building. With its green roofs, the blur between landscape and architecture is further intensified.

Overall, the building is a study in extending the ordinary field and though using the formalisms of the singular, it actually critiques the approach that so many today favor, one of explosive expressionism that favors the object over the field.

Queensland Courtyard House / Plazibat & Jemmott Architects | ArchDaily – The Queensland Courtyard Houses are row houses with a thoughtful twist. The spatial organization of the house is based around an open alley way that climbs the grade of the site. This opens onto an exterior courtyard near the rear of the building that then becomes the entrance to the interior of the house. This spatial arrangement gives the house a layer often missing from row houses, the exterior and allows for more light and air to penetrate the house. Living in New York City, I see townhouses all the time that are long, dark and narrow feelings. The Queensland Courtyard Houses don't suffer from this problem.

Add in the focus on sustainable, durable construction that at the same time, give the house a materiality beyond a simple contemporary gypsum box and these houses really show off what a row house can be.

New look at relativity: Electrons can’t exceed the speed of light — thanks to light itself, says biologist – A Cornell Biologist has suggested that it is the viscous nature of ever present protons that act as the limit for why Electrons can't exceed the speed of light.

As suggested in the paper, space is rarely, truly empty, but always contains some intensive structure that determines the capacities of the objects that inhabit it.

Much like how gravity forms the shape and contour of space-time, the Cornell biologist is suggesting that light forms a kind of viscous medium throughout that space.

Fascinating.

Titus’s work itself are constructive pieces of canvas, wood and paint. Something akin to a painting, but showing also an idea of the process of construction and a situation of site.

While certainly not innovative, like Woods, I admire the complexity and affectation that they invoke with their simple methods. There is a certain ambiguity of purpose that much like Woods work, creates an uncertainty in the viewer.

While I disagree with Woods that personal expressive vision is what the field Architecture needs today, it is hard to deny that such methods hold something worth exploring by at least some of the field.

A house designed for two sisters and their families with busy thoroughfare in the front and overlooking the Tama River. The house is built as two separate dwelling units in the single building, yet a few spaces between can be jointed when the occasion fits. The exterior matches the mostly industrial nature of the surrounding area by using zinc siding and perforated steel sheets.

The project seems to do a good job of addressing the contextual problems of the area as well as the programmatic challenge of separate but connected dwelling units for this extended family.

Saved By: Synthetic Architecture | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: architecture, project, residential, !post

This bridge finally convinces me that variation can actually produce an interesting variation of program. This project works because of the context in which it is put. Too often projects like this are too isolated from the context, giving them a superficial feeling despite the convoluted plastic form.

Saved By: Synthetic Architecture | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: architecture, infrastructure, bridge, !post

The simple, rectangular steel and glass structures floats above the ground and seems almost parked next to the veranda rather grounded like most buildings. This strong relationship activates the space of the veranda by creating a destination and way station for the busy student.

The cafe itself is glazed on all four sides with a clear glass. The three outside facing sides are shaded with a bris-soleil set between the panes of glass. The interior is organized by a long bar with a few small tables at either end.

The project is amazingly straight forward and simple yet seems create a dynamic and usable space for the everyday needs of the students and faculty of the university. Few buildings can successful address an everyday need without falling into the trappings of overly architectural expression or banal practicality. This cafe avoids both.

Yet what might this hold for the design of Architecture. Surely the practical implications are big enough but the conceptual ones are interesting too. Too often Architecture is thought to be an expression of some conceptual intent, but what might a building that cloaks intentions, expressions and movement be like. What can the idea of an architecture of the invisible teach us.