AEC Tech News (#202)

Shelter Pod Finds a New Purpose

Reshaping an old design for a new cause
in ArchiCAD

Having earned an architecture scholarship in the United States, Lira Luis, AIA, born and raised in Quezon City, Philippines, found herself in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, looking out into the Valley of the Sun in Arizona. For the next several years she spent much of her time absorbing the principles of Frank Lloyd Wright at the legendary Taliesin school. In her apprenticeship years, she slept in a canvas tent pitched outside. That was how the school made sure its graduates remain connected to Nature. Little did Luis know that, later in her career, her Taliesin camp would become the inspiration for an internationally recognized project: the Portable Transient Shelter Pod.

A Mariner’s Pod
Long before the Arizonian prairies became her campus, Luis was attending the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. In her homeland, the thriving port cities attracted an influx of migrant workers from the rural areas and the neighboring countries. Philippine News highlighted the plight of this underserved community in an article (“Filipino Team in the Finals of MIT’s Entrepreneurship Competition,” May 16, 2006).

 “[As] many as one million Filipinos a year spend months away from their home provinces and in Manila’s port areas looking for jobs as seafarers … While looking for job contracts, most Filipino seafarers live in shanties under depressed and undignified living conditions.” Read more>>

1-2-3 Revit: BIM and Collaborative Project Management

By Rick Rundell, AIA

Think about how your office would function without e-mail. If you're old enough, you remember those days. Stacked plastic in-boxes and out-boxes overflowing with paper. Standing over a copy machine, duplicating memos and sending them off via trusty manila interoffice envelopes or, even worse, the U.S. postal service! E-mail is so pervasive that we've forgotten the inefficiencies that surrounded the simple act of correspondence before the Internet. Read more>>

Webinars: 10 Project Pain Points -- and How to Relieve Them
July 10 – September 20, 2007
11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EDT
Software company Newforma is presenting its summer webinar series, “10 Project Pain Points -- and How to Relieve Them.” These webinars discuss solutions to the top ten pain points of today’s practicing engineers and architects. The series will run twice each month through September.
Read more

MicroStation PowerDay
July 23, 2007
London, United Kingdom
Evolve, a CAD consultancy and training firm, is offering CAD training called PowerDay, a series of short, focused training sessions on the most important areas of CAD. This PowerDay will offer sessions on many aspects of MicroStation; participants sign up and pay for only the sessions they wish to attend. Read more

AutoCAD PowerDay
July 24, 2007
London, United Kingdom
AutoCAD PowerDay, presented by Evolve, will offer sessions on many aspects of AutoCAD; participants sign up and pay for only the sessions they wish to attend. The sessions are designed for all user levels. Read more

ISEIT 2007 Americas
October 22-23, 2007
San Antonio , Texas
The International Symposium for Engineering IT (ISEIT) 2007 Americas will provide an opportunity to participate in a networking forum with leading technical consultants and advisers on plant and marine technology. Interactive presentations on the new AVEVA PDMS 12 and on AVEVA NET will demonstrate these progressive and innovative technologies. ISEIT Americas is colocated with Viewpoint, the AVEVA Americas independent users' group. Read more

For Cadalyst's full calendar of events, click here.