Poorly Written Literature

How many times, have you been put of using a product, because the technical literature is badly written. It happens to me more than I care to admit, sometimes I just battle on simply because its the only product that will do the job, but so often, I go looking for something new.

• When I wrote literature I took care, will the literature lie flat on a desk, can I leave a page open without the folder closing. a symptom of plastic folders !.
• Does the text, tell me specifically what the product does, no sales waffle, give me the facts.
• Can I see good, clear Technical drawings, that show me exactly how its fitted into the detail.
• Does it make reference to the building regulations,
• Are the drawings available as a CAD download in several formats, Vectorworks, Rewvit, Sketchup, Archicad, Dwg
• Are the CAD drawings correctly drawn for both 2D and 3D, with full specs attached so they work for IFC.
• Does it have an agrement certificate,
• Is there a clear dedicated telephone line to a technical help desk. I don't want a sales person, a simple clear techy is just fine.
• Is it available in pdf
• Finally please put of a CI/sfb logo and code for the library, some of us still use it.

Its not much to ask, yet companies spend £1000's on literature and its useless, and before you question me on paper or PDF, I like both, somedays it has two be paper.

And a final message to marketing people, you do not know construction, so why do you think you can write tech literature, give it to the tech department,.

Thats it, its not so hard, good quality Technical Literature, is this CPD, dam right it is, make it a quest, comment back to the manufacturer if literature is bad.

I love todays photo, "I think, there fore I am", seems to fit my current frustration with literature, think before you send out bad literature.

Dessau Bauhaus Video

You might well take some time from modern construction methods and Architecture, to view this video on the BauHaus movement.

I have long been fascinated by the ethos and the way it was set up and funded, sadly the outcome in terms of actual construction was not as good as you might expect, but its so worth the time to watch.

I have watched this twice now, which together with my past reading, I have made my private notes in Evernote.

Should we aspire to this again, I think not, but the example of some of the thought process and idealism yes, a greater understanding of materials and a more hands on approach to the physical use and assembly of materials, yes.

The Bauhaus which operated from operated from 1919 to 1933, and closed by the Nazis rise in power,  was first founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus during the first years of its existence did not have an architecture department. Nonetheless, it was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together.

As it happens, A cool €25M has been set aside to build a major Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Germany, the second headquarters of the influential design movement started in 1919 by modernism's grandsire Walter Gropius. The new museum in Dessau City Park, which will have a permanent collection of nearly 40,000 Bauhaus objects, will ready in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the rigorous architecture and design school. At the same time, the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin will be spending €56M to open a new museum on the site, and renovate its historic Walter Gropius-designed building.

What Does BIM Stand For

When you talk with anyone already associated with CAD and BIM and ask them what BIM stands for, you are going to get one of two correct answers :

• BIM Stands for Building Information Modelling
• BIM Stands for Building Information Management

I like both but they both demand a little more explanation and as I said both are correct

The first statement is correct because in my book it relates to the use of BIM within the 3D modelling process, both as a tool to define an object's place when drawing and as part of the embedded information that's built into any object to define what it is, size, material, colour, and manufactured by and performance data, mass, thermal data strength.

The second statement, also correct, refers to the use and management of the data built into the object, its use within the design team,, engineer, H&V engineer, Lighting engineer, QS, and how it's shared, and used outside of the design team, the contractor, and perhaps we can introduce the client here. And often as not outside the 3D cad program as data sheets in the form of specialist spreadsheets, or Cobie files, and the whole model as the IFC file. Their is also a whole realm of other uses for this data in the management of the completed building by maintenance people, and the client.

It's my aim in future blogs to expand on this, but for now I think this simplistic view allows for a little research on how different people view and use BIM from a historic view, as well as a futuristic stance as to how BIM can and will develop.

Will CAD and BIM stay as we see them now, will they evolve.

Todays photo is a sketch I made in my Moleskin to try and understand the way CAD can evolve, my guess is that Augmented Reality is the way, and Point Cloud will play a major part in the way CAD can evolve.

Walter Segal update

I have just added an old 1966 television program from Youtube to the first post in this set of articles on Walter Segal, this time however, I thought I would separate Walters work with this video looking at his designs from a different perspective.

This link will take you to the Google Map, there is a lot of tree cover, but the site is there to be seen.

Walter Segal Foundations

Building the Walter Segal Way, takes you into a minimal foundation design. Its simplicity itself, yet works as well as a strip foundation, and the steeper sites lap up the method.

So whats involved, simply a paving flag sitting on the earth, with perhaps a small circular concrete pile below, the paving flag following the contour of the natural land.

The load from the timber structure loading direct onto the paving flag at its centre.

The AJ Article has this in depth, which I will send or give a link out for, if for research,  and the films particularly the Grand Design film explains this in a little more detail.

The impact on the land from the house is minimal.

The video below bottom helps to understand it all, its not great and uses concrete posts rather than paving flags, but you get the basic principal, but I downloaded a sketchup file of a very good 3D Sketchup model part finished, and made the video immediately below.and the jpg to the left, I think it shows the construction better.

Walter Segal - Grand Designs

Grand Designs produced this program in 2014, its an up to date view of construction the Walter Segal Way, the construction, but more the people involved, and the problems.
But excellent all the sane.

Car Parking

One of my lectures I give is the design of car parks, and as part of this I walk my student round at least one car park, explaining the design and operation.

Yet this is a low level approach to the problem of cars and what to do with them in big cities.
This article on ArchDaily, and very obviously one sided, takes a look at how Audi, might tackle the problem with self parking cars and reduced volume car park, with no pedestrian space.

Its an interesting problem, the other side is the way Uber might evolve and then there is Googles auto drive car, here we might just send it away to drive around till it's needed.

So many interesting concepts. Last time i was in New York I saw what can only be described as car jack that held two cars in what I recognised as garage car lifts.

I take the train to Birmingham every now and then, its a reminder just how difficult the problem is, getting onto a crowed train and putting up with time tables and ticket machines, only emphasises the need to sort out parking, because its so easy to drive in compared to the alternatives.

Computational Thinking

I have just signed up for a course run by Google called Computational Thinking, as if I don't have enough to do over the Christmas break, still I have no work to mark, just three planning applications and a building regs drawing to complete.

But what intrigues me about this course is that its there for free, and its a subject I can't ignore, we as technologists, spend so much of our time on computers solving construction problems by drawing them, but that if there is a better way to approach the problem. Our regulations, and here I talk globally, are complex, often require calculation and last but not least, understanding, some times the law is not quite clear.

And then there is BIM and big data, this subject on its own justifies my time here.

I also want to be able to teach the subject, so perhaps I can mingle with other like minded educators and see how they approach the subject.

So I thought, why not take a look at this course and see if I can learn something different that may help tackle the problems we face daily and approach it in a different way. after all, we all have quite powerful computers sitting on our desks, can we use them in a different way to find answers to problems, or perhaps not even use it, just change my approach to problem solving.

Thats it, my spare time over Christmas sorted,  I will let you know how I get on, I plan to tackle this in small chunks, say an hour each morning whilst I an keen, I am a morning person, I fade as the day grows so morning is best.

Until I find more out, I went to Wiki to see what it says about the subject

"Computational Thinking (CT) is a process that generalizes a solution to open ended problems. Open-ended problems encourage full, meaningful answers based on multiple variables, which require using decomposition, data representation, generalization, modeling, and algorithms found in Computational Thinking."

Sounds interesting does it not !, and the CPD is top notch.

Related articles

• Because keeping things safe should be rewarded
• Breaking Into Quantum Computing
• Google rolls out Shared Albums in time for holiday family photos and videos
• Architectural Technologist - BIM for the SME
• Marionette, CAD cross-platform visual-scripting
• An Evening with BIM Estimating - exploring 5D BIM for the QS

Tesla Powerwall - PassiveHouse

I can't find a blog I have made recently that goes so well into the Tesla Power Wall unit, its via the very excellent ColdFusion Tv unit, and again he goes into a subject and just gives fact.

Although I like this, I think they have missed a vital point, in that we, the human, need to change, adopt a slightly different life style and use lower power consuming products, and choose when to use them,

Heating and cooling are also overlooked, we can do away with cooling, but heating and staying warm, is a priority, which Tesla can't supplement. I remember the night storage hears of a few yeas ago, we need to take another look at this together with efficient ways to store energy that will be used for heating, Solar water panels come to mind, together with mass to store the heat, perhaps under the house. PassiveHouse comes very much to mind here. So yet again I add Passive technology onto my list and raise its rating to high.

Inspired by glass, Corning Willow Glass

I think Corning is beating a whole new path with it's glass technology, this new video describes Willow Glass, the ultra thin flexible yet very tough glass sheet that comes on a roll

The video, I think does not do it justice, there is so much we can do with this material from simple laminates, to complex laminates with imbedded printed circuits.

RMI report on the Energy Storage North America conference (ESNA 2015)

One thing is unmistakably clear: the energy storage market is only in its infancy and is poised for huge growth in the coming decade, and it will make the biggest impact we have seen on construction in general.

Why do I say this, well I have just been reading the report of the RMI, Rocky Mountain Institute on the  Energy Storage North America conference (ESNA 2015) in San Diego, California. 

We can expect massive changes in the way we create, store, distribute, and use electricity, and you can easily see that this will have an effect on the way we design, and detail. Plus the way we treat the sun, its position, and out use of via both PV and water panels, ie roof orientation, and the attachment of panels to gather the best of the sun, ie tracking software.

This is not just a USA project, the impact is global, so perhaps the UK government can take another look at the nuclear plants they plan to build.

Big apologies for the blatant use of the battery logo from the RMI report, but it say's it all.

To read the report use this link

Big Data is best

Kenneth Cukier talking on Ted, Berlin 2014, outlines how Big Data can be better, but add some warning. This is a realy good overview of data, so often we used to her about data overflow, just to much data, now the complete reverce is relevant, we just can't get enought data.

Watch the Video in full.

Structure lecture - First Year

It's so hard, how to teach the basics of Foundations in less than an hour, so this presentation set is my stab at introducing the subject. There is a load more to teach, so this is meant as the opening salvo.

I have one on Piling, water tables and an intro into Walter Segal, and his pad foundations, plus more on the Building Regs Part A, and more on the effect of trees.

Its also a chance to see if I can import my presentation into Blogger from google Docs using the link code.  Which I am please to say seems to work well. One of the benefits of using Google Slides, is that as I see more info on the subject, I can add it to the slide set, and my students will see it, as the link as in this case is direct to my account.

I am also using this as a test to post date this blog, so although your seeing Wednesday, I wrote it late Tuesday afternoon.

Related articles

• Walter Segal Video
• Architectural Technologist - Walter Segal and his Tartan Grid
• Architectural Technologist - The Architectural Grid
• Pile Foundations and the DPM
• Architectural Technologist - House on stilts
• Architectural Technologist - Structural Grid
• Architectural Technologist - Walter Segal - Time animation of build
• Architectural Technologist - Water table drops