Category Archives: Architecture

Architecture

Subitising

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Graham Shawcross

The school report of Emily, our 4 year old grandchild, said that she could subitise up to the number 6, and I had no idea what this meant. Subitising is a technical term that comes from the Latin root subito … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Architecture, Brain Physiology, Design, Design Methods, Enumeration, Geometry, Randomness | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Severely Constrained Design

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

When a design problem is severely constrained it becomes possible to generate all solutions to the problem. That is, it is possible to close out the problem. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the design of British Local Authority 2 and 3 … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design, Design Methods, Enumeration, Housing | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Embodied Materiality

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

This is another list, probably even a listicle, of objects with eccentric properties. In this case objects that are, or were originally, named for the materials they are made of. Richard Wentworth was the curator of the highly influencial 1999 … Continue reading →

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Archetypes and Visual Pangrams

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

This follows an earlier post on Visual Pangrams here Pangrams To recap, ordinary pangrams use every letter of the alphabet at least once to form a more or less meaningful sentence, for instance: – Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Architecture, Classification, Enumeration, Visual Pangrams | Tagged | Leave a comment

Audio Illusion

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

Observation The following diagrams illustrate the way, until recently, our television was setup. The television and speakers were connected to a Media Centre, with both Speakers markedly offset to the left of the Screen. With this setup, when the television program is … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Audiology, Brain Physiology, Illusions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Merely Conventional Signs

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

During a recent seminar on Vilém Flusser, organised by Ella Chmielewska and Fiona Hanley the discussion got round to the Borges story of Cartographers producing maps of larger and larger scales. I thought that Lewis Carroll had produced something similar … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Empty Signs, Logic, Randomness | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Haptic Interfaces: Extending Object Capabilities

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

Whilst looking for more up-to-date scanning devices I came across this nice haptic interface that extends the capabilities of everyday objects. It comes from the Fluid Interfaces Group of the MIT Media Lab and uses my favourite definition of a … Continue reading →

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Smartgeometry 2013

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

The tenth annual smartgeometry event has just finished in London, and was held at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Previous years’ events have been held at Troy, Copenhagen, Barcelona, New York and San Francisco with institutions bidding for the privilege of hosting … Continue reading →

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Woodland and Silver

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

The co-inventor of the bar code N. J0seph Woodland died recently; his other co-inventor, Bernard Silver, having already died in 1963 aged just 38. They had been inspired by Silver overhearing the president of a food chain pleading with one … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Architecture, Classification, Enumeration, Graphics Technology, Rhythm | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Visual Pangrams

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Graham Shawcross

How Space Begins: Georges Perec This is an extract from The Page the first essay in Georges Perec’s Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Perec (1974, 1997).  “This is how space begins, with words only, signs traced on the blank page. To describe space: … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Brain Physiology, Enumeration, Graphics Technology, Visual Pangrams | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments