Week 4 - Records

The definition of record management is the practice of identifying, classifying, archiving, preserving, and destroying records. Records is also "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organisation or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business"[1]

Record keeping is an important aspect of architecture, all records need to be keeping such as word documents, drawing files hard copy or electronic and let’s not forget meeting records which are the minutes of the project.

Keeping record of any information is imperitive in the running of any job. From anything to setting down in writing, images or even sound, for the sole purpose of preserving evidence. As history has shown us, many records of the past have been used to helps us learn about our history, and present, but also helps us in answering questions for the future. This can be shown in recording information at work, and especially when many people are working together on a project. In any group work, it is important to record any work that has been completed. This is most important as it helps the individuals see what has been completed, and what the progress of completion is, on each individual part. In the case of where the work has to be continued by another person, that person can just see what has been completed so far, and continue on without much interruption in the progress of the project. It also helps in the future when a simple job has to be completed, as it gives a approximate estimate as to the duration of each task, and any problems that may arise in each step, and more importantly the solutions. Also, it can assist in problem solving when a mistake is picked up further down the work progress. It can be traced back to the person who worked on the project at the time of the mistake, so he/ she can be brought up to fix the problem.

In our group project records are important as it help us with the process of forming our presentations. We have found that having one person (being the group leader) it helps keep the organization process under control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_management%5b1]

Week 3 – Discipline

The building and construction industry is a fast growing industry with an expanding list of professionals such as architect, engineers, landscape architects, interior decorators, surveyors and let’s not forget local government authorities.

Once a client approaches the first consultant being the Architect who in turn is the client’s representative the design process begins and the architect leads the project to the final stage of construction.

Each Discipline has their own skills, rules and responsibilities to the client to finalise their requirements and to complete this project.

In our project we as a team have spit up the responsibilities between the four of us to complete the given task. Some of these tasks are:

Planning/Organisation of the project and communications
The 3 Dimensional geometry
The textures, UVW and normal mapping
The lighting and atmospherics
The soundscape
The interactivity
The context
WIKI
Video editing and images for the presentation

Each person in our group will have different skills and qualifications therefore we need to take these and use them accordingly. It will be trial and error to get the correct cocktail.

Week 2 - Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is an interactive simulated environment accessed by multiple users through an online interface. Virtual worlds are also called "digital worlds," "simulated worlds" and "MMOG's." There are many different types of virtual worlds, however there are six features all of them have in common:

1. Shared Space: the world allows many users to participate at once.
2. Graphical User Interface: the world depicts space visually, ranging in style from 2D "cartoon" imagery to more immersive 3D environments.
3. Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time.
4. Interactivity: the world allows users to alter, develop, build, or submit customized content.
5. Persistence: the world's existence continues regardless of whether individual users are logged in.
6. Socialisation/Community: the world allows and encourages the formation of in-world social groups like teams, guilds, clubs, cliques, housemates, neighbourhoods, etc.

Virtual worlds have been created for many different purposes. The largest and most common type of virtual world is the "MMORPG" which stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game." But virtual worlds have also been built for purposes other than gaming. Some of those virtual worlds which are currently being used are:

Socializing / Online Community Buildingsmall-scale, casual games may be incorporated into a social world, participants are not necessarily there to win or play a game, but rather to socialize with others and, in many cases, create and decorate a personal space such as a home, room, or apartment. Social worlds tend to use settings based on idealized versions of reality. Most provide some basic building tools and the ability to host activities and events that revolve around a wide variety of topics.

EducationEducational worlds come in a wide variety of forms, including 3D recreations of museum and gallery spaces, computer programming tutorials, virtual libraries, and meeting spaces for online university courses.

Political ExpressionVirtual worlds can serve as forums for political expression and debate. While real-world political issues can crop up in gaming, social, and educational worlds, there are a few cases in which completely separate virtual worlds have been built for the purpose of political debate or even experiments in various types of self-governing online communities.

References:
http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/whatis.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world

Week 1

I have done a search on unbuilt buildings of importance and have come across a few interesting building, all new and predicted to be built in the next couple of years.
Below are the following:

1. The Chicago Spire, which was designed by Spanish Architect Santiago Calatrava. This building is scheduled to be completed in 2011 with 150 floors. The Architects inspiration to the theme/design of this building was ‘nature’. I consider this building to be very interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Spire

2. Sola Residence – Los Angeles. Escher GuneWardena Architecture. I found this residential dwelling to be interesting as it is not your typical four walls and a roof design, this project is unbuilt and could be a possibility.
http://www.architecturalrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0604unbuilt/index.asp

3. Caribbean Hill-top Residence – Architects Carl Abbott FAIA Architects. This too is a residential dwelling and as about it is very unique.
http://www.architecturalrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0604unbuilt/caribbeanHilltop/overview.asp