Program of “ArchMaratahon Awarads – Beirut 2015”
8-9-10 October – Biel Hall 3

BEIRUT: It has been two weeks since Beirut’s governor reopened the capital’s main public park on Saturday 5 after 20 years of closure, but visits will only be allowed once a week.

ßyblos: One Step Closer to Sustainability. Help the world’s oldest city become a sustainable pioneer

Organisation De Developpement Durable (ODDD) is a local global NGO which was founded in June 2012 and which has been concentrating on spreading the sustainable development concept among local and worldwide communities.

Our vision is to be a platform that promotes and implements sustainable living & development at both local and international levels.

Our mission is to create a transnational community whose aim is to secure economic development, social equity and environmental protection thus leading to a better world.

ODDD is part of the UNESCO GAP on ESD, youth empowerment, and have actively participated in various sustainable summits, namely; earth summit (Rio+20), The Millenium Development Goals and Post-2015 Development Agenda,

ODDD facebook page including the different achieved campaigns
Campaign & Magnitude of the contributionThere is momentum throughout the country to make the Lebanese community more walking, commuting by public transport and cycling-friendly, thereby making them more viable. But, the actual state composition, strategies, and priorities won’t be helpful in achieving such objectives on small nor large scale, leaving Byblos, the oldest inhabited city in the world, to face a rapid development without evaluating its exposures to risks on social, economical and environmental levels.
ODDD took this challenge and led the way by showing an example on how to change the people (citizens and tourists) behavior and upgrade the city’s transportation strategies to meet up with sustainable models.After a full year of studies, researches, analysis, questionnaires, measurements and simulations, an international lab inviting 8 different cities, from 5 different continents,  will be held in Byblos, on October 22^nd-24^th 2015, to share the specialists’ knowledge and help in developing the Byblos sustainable public transportation strategy.  As well, we will be executing examples of the sustainable urban public transportation fixtures designed by the local community

ODDD FB page campaign event

Your contribution will help us in achieving 4 main tasks:

1-  Execute a sustainable bus shelter designed by youth participants through a competition

2-  Trips and accommodations for the Lab guests from : Boston (USA), Curitiba (BRA), Sousse (TUN), Amman (JOR), Nicosia (CYP), Masdar city (UAE), Byblos (LEB)

3-  The first inner Byblos city bus lane activation  for three days during the Lab, to facilitate people and attendees commuting to the workshop

4-  Execute the sustainable designed road & parking signs for Byblos city which is deeply in need of. (like the transformation of the Liban cable wooden wheel into parking and entrances signs)

What we need and what you get:

·  In order to complete our vision, it comes down to raising a sum of 13000$ that will be parted among four projects.

–  Sustainable Bus shelter: ($4000)

Starting with the number one goal, $3500(execution) + $500(printing and communication) will go to executing a sustainable bus shelter prototype designed beforehand in the “Byblos Bus Shelter Design Competition”.

–  Trips & accommodations: ($4500)

$4500 from your generous contributions will help fund the trips and accommodation of the 7 different countries participating in the Byblos International Lab on sustainable transportation…as an addition to $5000 raised earlier through sponsors.

–  First Byblos Bus lane launch ($2500)

Our target number 3 would be $2500 for activating the three days free bus lane, linking the inner Byblos roads, facilitating the journey to and from LAU University where Byblos International Lab will be taking place. This includes the rental and labeling of 4 buses, bus stop signs and maps giveaways.

–  Sustainable Urban fixtures execution ($2000)

$2000 will go to executing the sustainable designed prototypes of Byblos roads and parking signs, which are a need to better perspicuous streetsThe Impact

One of the campaign main goal is simply to upgrade Byblos city inhabitants lifestyle into a sustainable one, which will lead to a worldwide contribution in fighting climate change, thus a development towards the usage of clean, renewable energy, breathing pollution-free air, increasing human been comfort socially, thermally and economically and finally protecting the environment. Second, bringing large experimented developed cities on board with small scale cities from developing countries is a way to exchange knowledge, culture, technology and experience and join forces to make this world a better sustainable one.

Such project, might have a direct impact on the oldest inhabited city in the world, but also, its international dimension make the impact on a worldwide level, thus your contribution will make difference on local, regional and international level.
Risks and Challenges

Each risk is a challenge, so definitely will deal with it to overcome it in a positive way… In our campaign we have 2 main risks.

(1), the failure of the long term (10years) implementation of the Byblos lab sustainable policies outcome…During nowadays, the local municipality is supporting and is part of the project. Following the upcoming elections, a change might occur in the municipality body, which might influence a change in priorities… Therefore, during this year of studies, we included the local citizens, economical powers, educational bodies alongside the youth generation in the decision making, so they become the natural owners and defenders of the work which aims to answer their right to have access to a sustainable public transportation

(2)  Not meeting the full amount we are raising… In such case, we will go into different fundraising options, related to the mobility such as: sell tickets for cycling tours in Beirut and Byblos, organize a 10km race in the city, or make the tour of Lebanon by bicycle, or sustainable garage sales
Other ways you can help:

(1)Do you find yourself motivated towards spreading sustainable awareness and sharing your knowledge?

Contribution doesn’t only mean financially.

Don’t hesitate contributing your ideas and visions! We are always looking for incentive volunteers on local and international levels, as sustainability is a right for all

(2) Does our campaign find you interest?

You can help Byblos’s mission to becoming one of the world’s top sustainable cities by spreading the word and sharing our work with your friends and on social media.

Source: Indiegogo, ODDD FB Page

ARCHMARATHON is an International Architecture event that brings together 42 Architecture Design Studios in a unique and unprecedented format.
The first edition took place in November 2014 in Milan and was a great success.
A special edition will be held in Beirut, Lebanon from the 8th to the 10th of October 2015.

To ensure that the one to one meetings go smoothly, each participating Studio will be assisted by the ArchAngels: students of architecture and design who have been chosen by the organization and who will take care of each individual studio during the three days, assisting them in managing their meetings timetable and helping with any logistical requirement.

If you are an architecture student interested in becoming a personal assistant of one of the 42 architects that will attend the Marathon, send an email to archangels@archmarathon.com

For more details: http://www.archmarathon.com

As part of the 40th anniversary of Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) is organizing an exhibition entitled “40+ Student Expression”.
This event, hosted by the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, will take place on Thursday June 25, 2015, between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm, in the floor B3 of Building H.
The exhibition will continue until Friday June 26, 2015, from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Sources:
USEK Events
USEK Official Website
USEK Arch Club (U.A.C)

Illustrator Federico Babina, seen previously, imagined, in a collection named “Archidirector”, the architecture of iconic movies directors houses. Homes are faithful to the particular movies univers of Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Wes Anderson, George Lucas or Stanley Kubrick.

Source: Fubiz.net

Every year The Holy Spirit University Of Kaslik (USEK) give a 6 months job opportunity at Renzo Piano Building Workshop for the architecture student who win the first place and get the highest grade on final year senior project.
This year (spring 2015) the prize went to architect Vanessa Houeiss who got 95/100 on her project.
Congratulations to our fellow architect and good luck in the new job.

Source: USEK Arch Club (U.A.C)

A group of Lebanese Architecture students from USEK University went to France to attend a workshop at domaine de Boisbuchet with Architect Álvaro Siza Vieira !

Source: USEK Arch Club

Drawing perspective is considered one of the hardest things in art, except the mistakes usually done are pretty much always the same and can be avoided with a little care.

1. Lines not reaching the vanishing point

Well this is pretty simple to avoid but it’s the most common mistake. It’s probably due to either carelessness or really not having understood the basic of perspective. I encourage you to go back and find some basic tutorial for this.

Anyway, be ALWAYS careful about where to ‘send’ your lines, they NEED to go towards the correct vanishing point or it will just look awkward. Double check if necessary.

And always, ALWAYS use a ruler.

If your style requires lines that are a bit less geometrical (as mine do, I have a style of inking that’s sketchy so ‘perfect’ lines drawn with a ruler usually don’t fit well in the picture) use a ruler anyway for the pencils and then ink later by freehand. At least you’ll have correct guidelines underneath.

For traditional drawing be sure you have a ruler and be sure to use it for each one of your lines.

Modern drawing software will help you a lot with this if you draw directly on computer: painting software such as Clip Studio Paint or Manga Studio 4EX or 5 have perspective tools that will automatically snap your lines towards the vanishing point.

it’s quite a long tutorial, you’ll find the rest under the Read More or you can download the pdf file here

1a. Planes not reaching the vanishing points.

Same thing as before, but very often people send more than one line to the wrong vanishing point.

Try to have your lines being consistent and reaching the right vanishing point. If one side of the plane has a different vanishing point from the opposite side the resulting plane will look awkward.

There are of course cases where you need to use different vanishing points purposefully, but of course you have to be consistent with the rest of the shape you’re drawing. I do not want to add to the confusion so I won’t talk about those instances, so my advice is: avoid doing this until you are confident enough to advance your studies of perspective more.

More often than not those mistaken planes reach a vanishing point that’s outside the horizon line. Let’s remember that vanishing points NEED to be on the horizon line.

Here’s the correct one

2. Depths

This is an error that EVERYONE will do at the beginning and it’s the first telling that someone is a novice. Actually it’s the most common error I’ve ever seen. It’s also an error you see in half the perspective tutorials you’ll find online.

Objects have depths. These depths needs to be not as long as you imagine it.

This is a cube:

Actually it’s not.
This one is:

It looks much more like an actual cube.
At the beginning you’ll tend to make depths MUCH MUCH longer than they should be. And this is something you can correct only with exercise and double checking everything.

That shutter is gigantic.

Furthermore, the closest you get to Horizon Line the ‘thinner’ the depth of the object should be.
Not like this:

If you walk in front of that building over there you’ll have a Km long building. That won’t do.

Actually like this:

Be always careful with skylines, you’ll tend to draw monsters longer than 10 Km. If it’s a central perspective you can easily draw the skyline with no depth at all like this

With a 2 point perspective the skyline will need a tiny bit of depth but be careful not to overdo.

The only thing you can do is exercise and exercise and exercise and you’ll get the hang of it.
3. Repeating Depths

Repeating distances are often mistaken by beginners. Because it’s one of the things you think you should do by guessing, the point is that no, it should be done with rulers, otherwise it’ll look weird.

You have to use rulers. These are the steps:
Draw the first unit by guessing the depth

Draw three lines in perspective like this: base, height and exact half

Draw a diagonal

Find the new unit thanks to that diagonal

Keep drawing diagonals

Now use this as a base to draw the rest

4. Planes tangent to Horizon Line

This is not an error per se, but it’s just ugly to see. Unless you’re doing a geometrical architecture drawing where the exact measurements are important (in that case I’m afraid this is not the tutorial for you) you can change things to help the general image.
Why do this if you can just move the table a bit and or making it a bit taller to make it look better?

When the planes meet in an awkward way either with the Horizon Line or with each other it look false, it look constructed and honestly it doesn’t help composition one bit.

The drawing is yours, you decide what to do with it, you are not forced to put that table there, if you need to then change it.
5. Lines with no width variations

Another thing that help a lot in giving a sense of depth is variating the width of the inking (or pencil) lines. Closer objects with wider lines and objects far away with thinner lines. It’s simple.

The first one catches your eyes to the far point where all those lines go and make a mess, the second one gives you a sensation of depth.. The ink help perspective a lot.
6. Patterns and details going on towards the infinite

This point reconnects to #2, things get smaller when you approach the L.O, why would you keep drawing those tiles forever?

They tend to distract the eye and it just becomes a big horrible black area while probably your focus for the image was elsewhere. This is something I see a lot with bricks on the walls. At a certain point drawing every single detail hurt the drawing, so you should stop.
The best thing to do is to artfully lower the details level. This is difficult most of the time because you need to tune the amount of details with the image and it’s something that will come easy with time and exercise.

Also details on repetitive objects need to have a lower definition while approaching the Horizon Line, you can’t keep drawing ever single decorated nook of those windows:

It is better to simplify. For example you don’t have to repeat all the details in the bricks for all the windows. Just removing that alone you image is much less of a mess.

Using thinner lines (see previous point) of course help a lot.

7. Objects with no depth and finishings

Another error that look really bad in illustrations and comic pages is when things have no depth and finishings.

Ok that one looks like it’s a sticker on a wall.

I can understand rush and I understand that perspective is long and boring but you can’t do things half-way, it will look weird. Windows and objects are not cardboard cutouts they have depths!
The way to correct this is using references. Go find a real life one, or a photo, or google it.

Have fun with the details, give life to your drawings!

I can understand that different people have different styles but more cartoonish kind of drawings still need a base in reality, and a realistic preparation cannot do anything but help the artist.

8. Central perspective exaggerated
Well, just don’t do it.
If you need to draw a widespread panel just use 2 points perspective.
Central perspective has limitations, and those limitations are: if you bring objects too far the measurements gets weird.

The light blue one is a cube, the other is…. Not.

9. Misplaced Vanishing points and exaggerated perspective

While there are some masters that can exasperate perspective to create really dashing images those are people who have a deep understanding of every rule of perspective and know when to break them. If you’re reading this tutorial chances are that you are not one of those (as I’m neither, I’m good but I cannot do weird things and still make them look good as other people can) so you definitely should avoid doing this.
Placing vanishing points too close or inside the panel/illustration will result in awkward things.

Well, no.

Avoid placing vanishing points INSIDE the panel, really. I don’t even know what’s happening in that door….

And anyway you’re not required of drawing everything, if you notice that keeping drawing towards the borders makes the perspective look weird you’re allowed to crop the drawing there and end the panel or the illustration. You don’t need to keep going on to the infinite, ok?

You are allowed to crop.
I’ve treated how to place vanishing points in another tutorial you can find here.
10. Characters not in perspective

Well, characters need to fit an environment as well. You can’t have tiny people next to a gigantic door.

Be always careful about proportions.

As well as that you need to be careful with relationships between characters as well, characters far away need to be put in relation with characters in front.

Be careful about this. And if you need, help yourself with perspective lines so you can understand the size of your characters. But this is another thing that will come easy only with exercise and making mistakes again and again and again.

This last point has been expanded here.
That’s pretty much it. Actually the most common are without a doubt the first two points, work towards correcting those two and you are already halfway there.

By Martina
Source: electricalice.tumblr.com

When it comes to wooing the ladies, some careers have an edge over others. While the stereotypes of sexy policemen and doctors still persists, we’re finding that women also go weak in the knees for a man in a well-tailored suit – such as lawyers, architects and accountants.

While some of these careers come with a big pocketbook, others come with more altruistic or creative responsibilities. There’s just something irresistible about a man who wants to make the world a better place.

No matter the reason, here are the top 10 careers women find to be the most attractive in a potential partner.

1. Architect

   
   Annual Salary: $73,090

   If there’s one thing a woman wants in a man, it’s commitment and stability. Nothing screams commitment like something that is built on a concrete foundation and set in stone: literally. Go ahead, then. Design something that will last forever. You won’t hear any complaints from the ladies.

2. Lawyer

   
   Annual Salary: $113,530

   It never hurts to have someone with an intimate knowledge of the law on your side. Add the allure of a courtroom drama or two, the sophistication of a well-tailored suit, and you’re well on your way to being more than just desirable.

3. Doctor

   
   Annual Salary: $187,200

   Doctors are caring, smart, and incredibly skilled. What woman doesn’t want a man who touches so many hearts? And I’ll tell you one thing: the income isn’t going to hurt a bit.

4. Marketing

   
   Annual Salary: $67,780

   Presentation is everything. No woman likes a slob, so an innate ability to put your best foot forward will help you to get that foot in the door. Put on the right display, and she’ll realize that you’re that little something she’s been missing all along.

5. Teacher

   
   Annual Salary: $55,050

   What girl didn’t have a professor crush or two in college? Knowledge is power and power is sexy. End of story. Throw in some boldly-framed glasses and an academic affinity for the finer things in life, and the women will be happy to learn another thing or two about you.

6. Environmental Scientist

   
   Annual Salary: $63,570

   If green is the new black, then a green thumb is the new standard for sexual appeal. Let’s be real, nothing indicates a sensitive side more than a guy who’s dedicated to keeping the earth fresh for the next generation. And probably save the whales while he’s at it.

7. Engineer

   
   Annual Salary: $79,340

   Known as the ultimate problem-solvers, engineers know just about everything, and use that knowledge to solve complex problems. It seems men have always complained that they just don’t understand women. Maybe now some of them do. What gal wouldn’t want that?

8. Physical Therapist

   
   Annual Salary: $79,860

   You’ll never hear a woman complain about a man who is good with his hands. She’ll always be up for a quick massage after work. But not to worry, chances are, she’ll be happy to return the favor.

9. Accountant

   
   Annual Salary: $63,550

   Historically, accountants have had a reputation for being good with money, and not much else. Clearly, today’s ladies disagree. If he organizes his socks with half the skill he applies to organizing spreadsheets and financial records, then he’s an absolute keeper.

10. Police

    
    Annual Salary: $56,980

    Let’s get real: sometimes a woman just wants her man to take charge. Who better to do that than a guy in law enforcement? A little authority can go a long way with a woman. Go get the baddies, just be sure to keep an extra pair of handcuffs at home for later.

Source: collegeatlas.org

Source: Archdaily

In the last five years, we have experienced a boom in social media as a means of sharing and exchanging ideas using textual, auditory or visual information. This has permeated across disciplines and lives of many and has changed the way we communicate with the world. Among other disciplines this has also affected the way an architect communicates with the world, to keep up with the growing needs of communication through social media platforms. Rob Kitchin and Martin Dodge talk in depth about how our space is created through software and media elements in ‘Code / Space: Software and Everyday Life’. Explained through everyday experiences, their theory explores the inter-relationship between software, space, and everyday life. An architect has the ability to freely manifest ideas through social media and as mobile technology has become commonplace, a multiple platform approach has enabled a network of millions to connect with each other globally at the touch of a button. The power of social media in business is no longer debated and is a tool which naturally lends itself to the role of the architect.

Social media promotes dialogue with other professionals and among many communication platforms used daily, the popular ones are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, reddit, which offer different ways of communication and showcasing opportunities reaching a diverse global audience. As the largest social networking service, Facebook alone has 1.28 billion users and Swiss practice Herzog & de Meuron are a favorite with 178,000 followers. Founding architect of BIG, Bjarke Ingels has an impressive 33,000 followers on his Instagram. Photos are posted of not only latest architectural interests but also of personal highlights throughout the week – perhaps with the aim to better relate to general public.

Connecting creative professionals with shared interests can provide insight into world-wide trends, developments in architecture and the opportunity to gather valuable research. While some of the celebrity architects prefer to avoid social media appearances, there are many who exploit it to connect to their audiences, to share their thought processes, or to engage in collective interdisciplinary discussions.Social media also provides a forum for academic debate among individuals with a passion for the built environment and an insight to creative thinking processes. It has the capacity to become an intrinsic part of the design process as well as studio activities. Social media creates an entire network of interactions and its transference into physical reality can be seen as ‘Invisible Cities’, an application developed by Schema design in which geo-mapping of online activities, tweets, becomes visible through point by point 3D visual representation, creating new possibilities for architecture to view the surrounding environment as an informational landscape, a virtual architecture per say.

It is up to architects to reinterpret and make full use of the available media tools in order to create our future cities in concordance with the emerging virtual reality. How people interact with their surroundings online and offline, both, is going to be as important in the future as it is essential for successful businesses to have a website today. We have reached a point where social media has the ability to change the functionality of a space instantly – a café can turn into an office with the simple action of opening a laptop, connecting to the internet and communicating with the clients, for example.

As with many aspects of technology, caution must also be exerted in the use of social media. Firms may be poorly represented, the reality of images over exaggerated and mistakes made in a very public manner which could be damaging. Balance must also be exercised between the amount of time spent on social media opportunities and other aspects of architect’s work. Maintaining an online presence requires regular updates and posted material may be announced, praised or criticised in a matter of minutes while the public watches intently. We are coming to a point where, to correctly and responsibly make use of all online media resources, a ‘Schematic Blueprint’ will be required. As an example of how this could be achieved Andrew Hawkins of Hawkins Architecture, organises the uses and goals of some platforms, and divides them into several main categories seen in the image.

 In this rapidly developing digital environment, advancements in the area of digital applications are being made, in particular an augmented reality app which is being tested on MVRDV’s Markthal Rotterdam opened in October this year.

The Netherlands Architecture Institute has developed an application, named SARA, wherein a mobile phone is used to scan a building giving instant access to a 3D model with layers of building development and its architect’s entire digital presence on-line. This application is significant in transforming the way users connects with their built environment.

Datagrove, a media installation by Future cities lab explores how online activities can mirror to a material level, which can then actively transform characteristics of our surroundings and social relations within society.

With physical and audible representation of the invisible social media, Datagrove broadcasts trending phrases from nearby environment and creates a space for public to discuss, laugh, and debate as they gather in a small shelter for contemplation and exchanging of data.

While the structure maintains a visual appeal, authors communicate metaphorical online activity into a ‘physical’ cloud in reality through various spheres of light and sound, bringing varying thoughts of the users together.

By: Sushant Verma, Lucy Cassels, Boris Timev
Source: Arch2o.com

MIT scientists are making solar cells that could make ordinary items, such as, windows and electronic gadgets create their own power, without adjusting what they look like, or hold the capacity to power them via battery today. These new cells are capable of absorbing infrared and ultraviolet light only. Visible light goes through the cells unobstructed, so our eyes do not know they are there. Furthermore, the analysts have used coatings on their new solar cells, which consist of different materials, and have employed them to be used in displays utilizing encompassing light. They think that utilizing covered windows in skyscrapers could give more than a quarter of theses building’s energy needs without transforming their appearance. They are presently starting to coordinate their sun based cells into buyer items, including cell phone displays.

Image Source: Justin Knight / MIT – Vladimir Bulović of electrical engineering and computer science (left), Miles Barr PhD (right), are making transparent solar cells that could one day be deposited on everyday objects, from mobile devices to windows, turning surfaces everywhere into low-cost energy harvesting systems. This research was supported by the MIT Center for Excitonics, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy.

Creating another solar cell that can compete financially with today’s solar cells is difficult, given existing arrangement methods. However, a photovoltaic (PV) cell can bend all these rules. It could be stored on any surface without darkening the look of the basic material. “You can have zebra stripes or elephant foot shaped impressions or whatever you need underneath in light of the fact that the phones that sit on top are imperceptible,” says Vladimir Bulović, professor of electrical engineering and chief of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories. “They could be on everything around you. Including every one of your windows and you would not even notice them.”

The design was inspired by Lunt’s idea, the group that originally created the transparent cell. The thickest layer (toward the left) is the glass, plastic, or other transparent substrate being coated; the multiple layers of the PV coating are toward the right. At the core of the coating are the two active layers; the absorptive semiconductor materials that get excited by sunlight and interact, creating an electric field that causes current to flow. Sandwiching those layers are electrodes that connect to the external circuit, which carries the current out of the device. Both of the electrodes must be transparent and not the usual reflective metal. Furthermore, a layer on the back of the cell can be added to reflect sunlight of selected wavelengths, sending it back for a second pass through the active layers. Finally, anti reflective coatings can be used on both outside surfaces to reduce reflections, because any light that potentially reflects as much as ten percent of the total, does not go through the device.”We utilize a blend of atomic designing, optical configuration, and gadget streamlining a comprehensive way to deal with planning the straightforward gadget,” says Barr who co-founded a company with Lunt, Bulović, & Bart that is called Ubiquitous Energy, a name that reflects their vision of PVs seamlessly being deployed throughout our everyday life.

Image Source: MIT – This schematic diagram shows the key components in the novel transparent photovoltaic (PV) device, which transmits visible light while capturing ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (NIR) light. The PV coating—the series of thin layers at the right—is deposited on the piece of glass, plastic, or other transparent substrate. At the core of the coating are the active layers, which absorb the UV and NIR light and cause current to flow, via the two transparent electrodes, through an external circuit. The reflector sends UV and NIR light back into the active layers, while the anti-reflective (AR) coatings on the outside surfaces maximize incoming light by reducing reflections.

However, the expense of executing this technology will differ with the custom application, solar cell proficiency, and other different factors. For example, the procedures utilized, as a part of creating the new PV cells, are environmental friendly and not energy intensive. In fact, the coatings are kept at about room temperature, so the solar PV cells can be fixed on basically any kind of surface. There is no compelling reason to utilize glass, which is an unreasonable part in the manufacture of traditional frameworks.

Perceiving the business capability of this innovation, they are proceeding with improvement work to streamline their PVs, utilizing distinctive semiconductor materials and gadget arrangements that will prompt higher efficiencies and better transparencies. Also, they are making sense of how to incorporate the PVs into customer items that will perform their standard capacities and harvest energy.

Source: Anonhq.com

Growing up I never imagined I would marry an Architect (what do they even do??!). Movies always paint them to be serious, black turtleneck wearing types with paper everywhere. (Guys in turtlenecks aren’t hot. Sorry Steve Jobs). The reality is far from this, thank God!

Going through university, I somewhat sailed through my 3 year business course. It was a mix of (sometimes) attending lectures and convincing tutor’s they had seen me in class at least once before. My then boyfriend (now Husband) had a much different experience. I watched from the sidelines, and occasionally got in the trenches, as he endured six gruelling, sleepless years to achieve the title of “Graduate Architect”. I have yet to see another course that pushes people like that. I think I would have snapped. A lot of people do, because the 1st year’s intake rarely reflects the size of the graduating class.

Once you complete your degree you’re raring and ready to go. Ready for the glory. Ready for the pay day. Logic might have you believe a person with a Masters degree is going to earn more than a person with a Bachelors degree. You’d be wrong if the Masters is of Architecture. Can you believe that someone who spent six years of their life studying the design of the built form (the creator of one of the most basic needs: shelter) earns about $42,000 their first year out of university? I couldn’t and I still think it’s a joke. A graduate Engineer earns anywhere from $60,000 in their first year out. What is it that sees society place more value on Engineers than Architects?

It’s no secret there is a long running Architect vs Engineer rivalry. Engineers are all like “Why you design hard stuff we have to stretch our formulas to make work?” and Architect’s be like “Why you so lazy that you refuse to try anything new?” Alas I digress. But with more training at a Graduate level, I think it is easy to see why Architects are peeved. Engineers earn more and study less, then society hands them a sweet pay day.

Back on topic, why are Architects so maligned? Why have we become so closed off to this form of artistry that we would rather see hideous, extruded, cookie cutter buildings adorn our skylines than something fit for use, amazing and outstanding?

I think there are a few reasons. The first being the terrible public relations job of the Australian Institute of Architects. The AIA seem to be MIA in a major way. They are not educating people about what it is that Architect’s actually do; they are not pointing out the value they contribute; and they are most definitely not making inroads to changing community perceptions about architecture and its importance. This lack of effort and lobbying from the AIA in my opinion has given rise to ability of a person to complete a one year TAFE degree, call themself a Building Designer, and directly compete with an Architect. What the? In what parallel universe has the AIA been so distracted that it allowed pesky Building Designers to encroach on the turf of Architects? Oh right, this universe.

This might seem like a purely bitter lament and in part it is. It is difficult to see the man I married and his peers having to accept low wages; competing for business with building designers; and justifying everyday to the masses why their role is relevant and required.

So please, if you know an Architect, hug them. Ask them what it is they do and actually listen. The next time you think of building a new place or extending an old one, call an Architect. Don’t accept poor design because Architects seem to loom large as an unknown quantity who will charge you the earth for a kitchen redesign. None of that is true. Architects are like the Doctors of the design world. You wouldn’t trust a 1st year medical student to remove your appendix, so why trust a building designer with your design project?

Take a chance, try an Architect. You won’t be disappointed.
Trust me, I’m an Architect’s wife.

Source: Chelsea van Riet

Architecture school: It’s a veritable cauldron of emotions, the like of which is unlikely to compare with any other environment we will work in. The extreme highs and lows that accompany every late night design session and critical review can be exhausting – each semester brings with it mental challenges that leave a permanent impression on the mind of each and every one of us.

But, while the infamous ‘architorture’ can feel pretty unbearable at the time, each psychological hurdle cleared is another step towards realising your dream of becoming an architect – and toughens you up for the trials of professional life. Below are 10 classic feelings you will undoubtedly experience at least once during student life – embrace the FEELS and remember… we’ve all been there. #StayStrong

1. When you forget to sleep that week before the final review.
   
   

2. When someone complains about having stayed up until 1am to finish their essay.
   
   

3. When someone says “Must be fun, drawing pretty pictures for a living.”
   
   

4. When You Hit ‘Hatch’… and Autocad Crashes.
   
   

5. When You Hit ‘Save’… and You’ve Run Out of Memory.
   
   

6. When you finally go to bed… but continue to redesign your project in your head.
   
   

7. When you are told the laser cutter has broken down.
   
   

8. When someone tells you their favorite architect is Frank Gehry.
   
   

9. When you are printing out… and realize you forgot to fix the scale on your drawings.
   
   

10. When sit down after handing your final project in.
    
    

SOURCE: The Angry Architect

Results of the 15th Jaderji Awards 2015 for young Lebanese architects (for 2013-2014 projects):

– 1st Prize: Teddy Touma (USEK)
– 2nd Prize: Acile Sfeir (AUB)
– 3rd Prize: Mariane Ghrayche (USEK)

Congrats for the winners !!