Architecture Commons^™

The Five Tribes Of Machine-Learning: A Brief Overview, Jens G. Pohl

Architecture

This paper reviews recent advances in automated computer-based learning capabilities. It briefly describes and examines the strengths and weaknesses of the five principal algorithmic approaches to machine-learning, namely: connectionism; evolutionism; Bayesianism; analogism; and, symbolism. While each of these approaches can demonstrate some degree of learning, a learning capability that is comparable with human learning is still in its infancy and will likely require the combination of multiple algorithmic approaches. However, the current state reached in machine-learning suggests that Artificial General Intelligence and even Artificial Superintelligence may indeed be eventually feasible.

Beyond Human Intelligence: Redefining Intelligence, Jens Pohl

Architecture

The digital revolution driven by global connectivity, computing as a utility, artificial intelligence, and information sharing on an unprecedented scale is forcing the redefinition of intelligence in a broader context that extends beyond human intelligence. This paper addresses the principal characteristics of biological intelligence, as it exists on planet Earth and the form it may take in an extraterrestrial context. Human intelligence, as the most evolved form of biological intelligence on Earth, is treated as the aggregation of multiple intelligences that cannot be encapsulated in a single metric such as an Intelligence Quotient (IQ). The concept of a postbiological civilization …

Artificial Superintelligence: Extinction Or Nirvana?, Jens Pohl

Architecture

The purpose of this paper is to explore the subject of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) and identify in summary form the principal drivers and current status of Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), the impact that intelligent software in combination with the Internet serving as a Global Knowledgebase is already having on human capabilities, the likely path to ASI, the possible threats posed by ASI and proposed measures to curtail those threats, and finally the potential benefits to the human species if AGI and ASI remain under human control.

Multi-Story Pneumatic Building Revisited, Jens Pohl

Architecture

This paper describes the concept of pneumatic structures applied to multi-story buildings. In such buildings an internal environmental air pressure acting on the underside of the roof supports floors that are suspended from roof level. A continuous plastic membrane surrounded by an external cable-network for reinforcement purposes contains the pressurized building environment in a similar fashion to the container of a pressure vessel. The paper explores safety considerations, fire protection measures, special requirements relating to water and sanitary services in a hyperbaric environment, airlock entrance and emergency egress provisions, construction and erection considerations, cost projections, and the structural design process. …

Review Of Richard Longstreth, The American Department Store Transformed, 1920-1960, Bruno Giberti

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Interview With Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Saundra Weddle, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

No abstract provided.

The Role Of History: An Interview With Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Saundra Weddle, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Intelligent Software For Ecological Building Design, Jens G. Pohl, Hisham Assal, Kym Jason Pohl

Architecture

Building design is a complex process because of the number of elements and issues involved and the number of relationships that exist among them. Adding sustainability issues to the list increases the complexity of design by an order of magnitude. There is a need for computer assistance to manage the increased complexity of design and to provide intelligent collaboration in formulating acceptable design solutions. Software development technology today offers opportunities to design and build an intelligent software system environment that can serve as a reliable intelligent partner to the human designer. In this paper the authors discuss the requirements for …

Crossing The Digital Divide Through Digital Dexterity, Mark Cabrinha

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Traditional Chinese And Indian Architecture Compared: Black And White Or Shades Of Gray?, Christopher Yip

Architecture

How should one conceptually distinguish traditional Chinese from traditional Indian architecture? The late Nelson Wu posed a China/India dichotomy as a way of clarifying one’s thinking about traditional architecture in China and India in his essay length book, Chinese and Indian Architecture. His position has remained a major lens for understanding the difference between these two great poles of Asian architecture. This paper will examine and assess his view of the subject, arguing that it’s a useful framework upon which to build.

Apologues, By Carlo Lodoli, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Architecture Oriented Otherwise, David Leatherbarrow, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Myron Goldsmith: The Development Of The Diagonally Braced Tube, Marc J. Neveu, Edmond P. Saliklis

Architecture

Myron Goldsmith (1918-96) was a unique figure in the development of tall building design. He successfully blended the roles of architect, engineer and teacher throughout his tenure at Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) and in the Department of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Indeed, many of the projects supervised by Goldsmith and his colleagues, to include the pre-eminent structural engineer Dr. Fazlur Khan (1929-82), directly influenced built work. The few published studies of Goldsmith acknowledge, but do not fully explore, the innovations that Goldsmith oversaw as thesis advisor to many graduate students at IIT in the 1960s. …

Slow Time: Reading The Work Of Scarpa, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

In the mid 1980s Italo Calvino gave the Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. In his third talk on “Quickness” he explained, “I do not wish to say that quickness is a value in itself. Narrative time can also be delaying, cyclic, or motionless. In any case, a story is an operation carried out on the length of time involved, an enchantment that acts on the passing of time, either contracting or dilating it.” Umberto Eco, a decade later, referenced Calvino in the third of his own lectures at Harvard entitled “Lingering in the Woods.” In that essay, Eco described …

La Finta Pazza Di Venexia: Masking, Performance And Identity In Seventeenth Century Venice, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

This paper briefly explores the relationship between the theatricality of Venice and the expression of Venice in the theatre. I will do so by focusing on the wildly popular performances in 1641 of La Finta Pazza and the architecture of the Teatro Novissimo in which the opera was performed. The masking of identities, a central theme in the original story on which the opera is based, was given a particularly Venetian twist in the operatic retelling. Essential to the performance was the double entendre of the character Deidama who, feigning madness, performed both as a masked actor on the stage …

The Cyber Security Threat, Jens Pohl

Architecture

There is justified concern that the Information Technology (IT) infrastructures of the United States (US) and probably all countries in the world are not secure. Our digital national security infrastructure is routinely penetrated. Some of these attacks have compromised critical systems supporting our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense contractor networks that store information vital to our national security are being attacked with increasing frequency (Harbiger 2010). In 2007 some unknown adversary broke into the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Commerce networks, and probably the Department of Energy and NASA as well (CBS 2009). In April …

Theses Of Thesis, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Material Imagination In Digital Culture, Mark Cabrinha

Architecture

Only 8 years ago when I began teaching, integrating digital media in the design studio was hampered by institutional politics and lack of hardware accessibility. Now students come to my studio with dual monitors and are multitasking maniacs with a host of distractions and a subtle reluctance to explore and test ideas physically. As design culture becomes more and more a digital culture, perhaps the fact so much digital work looks the same is not only due to a fairly basic understanding of tools and skills, but a lack of material imagination. Digital fabrication in association with the virtual prototype …

Design Collaboratory (Dc), Thomas Fowler

Architecture

The Design Collaboratory builds on the successful 46-year multi-disciplinary experience of this academic institution in developing an interdisciplinary design studio, which cultivates innovative models of practice. A team of professors, with over 40 years of collective cross disciplinary collaborative experience, and students from Architecture and Architectural (Structural) Engineering Departments with periodic involvement from the Construction Management Department (LEED workshop and student involvement on team) participate in a 20-week interdisciplinary design studio. This course has been taught since the 2007/08 academic year. This interdisciplinary team approach to building design has all disciplines involved from the inception of the building design project. …

Integrated Project Studio (Ips), Thomas Fowler

Architecture

A third year building design (BS) studio is integrated with a building environmental systems (BES) studio, which is referred to as the Integrated Project Studio. The same 18 students are in both the building design studio and the building environmental systems studio. The instructors for each studio, one an active practitioner who is a managing partner in a local firm and also a full time lecturer in the department and the second a full time academic (full professor) collaborate together on developing the content for both courses. The quarter starts of with a series of intense short workshops that used …

Challenging Computer Software Frontiers And The Human Resistance To Change, Jens Pohl

Architecture

This paper examines the driving and opposing forces that are governing the current paradigm shift from a data-processing information technology environment without software intelligence to an information-centric environment in which data changes are automatically interpreted withinthe context of the application domain. The driving forces are related to the large quantity of dataand the complexity of networked systems that both call for software intelligence. The opposing forces are non-technical and due to the natural human resistance to change.

Based on this background the paper describes current information-centric technology, proposes avision of intelligent software system capabilities, and identifies four areas of necessary …

The Space Of The Mask: From Stage To Ridotto, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

In this chapter, I consider the means of participation within the public sphere of eighteenth- century Venice. My interest is to flesh out the nature of discourse within interior institutional spaces, and I will do so through a discussion of two related phenomena. First, I will examine the role of the mask, which by the eighteenth century had become synonymous with Venetian carnival and debauchery. Indeed, Venice in the eighteenth century gained much of its naughty reputation due to the exploits of Sior Maschere. Masks, however, were not only worn for amusement or the possibility of anonymous pleasure. During …

Collaborative Integrative-Interdisciplinary Digital-Design Studio (Cids) 2009, Thomas Fowler

Architecture

The ultimate goals of research and community service projects are to improve how students learn. In architecture, teaching methods should serve as the bridge to industry, helping students to contextualize their class work in the light of their projections for future industry roles. Above all, emphasizing creativity in all its forms in this learning environment is important. Meaningful work by individual students and interdisciplinary collaborative teams must be of the highest quality in order for its contribution to have value. Knitting all of this together is the learning environment, which must provide a mechanism for capture and documentation. The process …

Architecture @ Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Architecture Department

Architecture

Newsletter from the Architecture Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Studia | Studio, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

This paper sets out to propose that the use of history in a design studio may help to overcome some latent difficulties of the studio as a model of education. I will first discuss the role and nature of studio within the education of the architect and will reference my analysis to the findings of the Boyer Report and the research into “reflective practice” by the educator Donald Schön. While I do support the studio as described by the Boyer Report and Schön’s research, it is a model that has disadvantages. As an alternate proposal, I will then describe the …

Educating The Reflexive Practitioner, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Life Size: Environmental Knowing Through Full-Scale Installations, Mark Cabrinha

Architecture

No abstract provided.

Thesis For A Thesis, Marc J. Neveu

Architecture

My lecture today will question the nature of a thesis project for an undergraduate architectural education. The topic of my lecture – the nature of a thesis – is probably of concern to many of you, either presently engaged in thesis preparations or those of you who will be thinking about your topics in the next few years. I will first question the nature of what a thesis may be and then propose one approach to making a thesis. The third part of the lecture will offer two examples.

Spring 2008 Cal Poly Professional Studio, Architecture Department, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

Architecture

Publication of quarter long studio project in San Diego, CA.

Unleashed: Cal Poly 5th Year Architecture Show, Architecture Department, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

Architecture

Pamphlet to accompany the Architecture Department thesis show at the Chumash Auditorium, May 23-25, 2008.