Time out for fun in architecture.

When an architect couple I know recently bought a house they rated each structure on "zombie defensibility." I imagine my friend kneeling on the porch roof of her Denver Square in her Tsubo boots, sighting the approaching undead through her oblong-framed glasses, and pumping them full of lead with a sawed off. Evaluating the zombie defensibility of our drinking companions' abodes is a favorite happy hour pastime. A compact Tudor revival with narrow second story windows: excellent! A rambling Craftsman bungalow with mother in-law apartment: "Dude, they'd be in your basement before you'd know it." 

Enter the so-called "Zombie Proof House" or "Safe House" by Polish firm KWK Promes. It is replete with drawbridge, concrete slab shutters, and a steel roll up door protecting a modern expanse of glazing.

All kidding aside there is little doubt that environmental conditions influence the shape and function of the environments architects design. A March 2011 article from Architectural Record examined using design for both water management and as an integral element in structures. The devastation of Katrina has show that mechanical and structural means alone cannot protect coastal cities from rising sea levels. A Dutch firm aptly named Waterstudio has designed "watervillas" in Utrecht and a floating prison docked near Amsterdam. Their latest project of 60 half floating, half anchored residential buildings will be complete next year in the Netherlands. 

As destructive as urban flooding can be, living and working near bodies of water improves quality of life for people nearby. Venture Architecture has designed projects in Oklahoma City and Pueblo, Colorado integrating those city's canal systems as design elements.

As these projects illustrate, firms like Venture who practice smart design strategies, can offer protection from the most extreme situations inside spaces with immensely beautiful design aesthetics.

On virtual architecture...

Here in the office we have been discussing recently about how 3-D rendering software has made it easier to communicate our designs to both clients and contractors. In the past it may have been necessary to build foam core models to test lighting conditions, spatial relationships, or visual horizons. 

This recent editorial on the Architectural Record website shows that some people are considering the new digital fabrication to be a substitute for experiencing architecture in person. Most of us experience buildings from the exterior and never have the opportunity to move through soaring volumes or intimate spaces. I am on the Record's website weekly flipping through slide shows, comparing photos to plan view. As the editorial states there is no substitute for experiencing a building in person and the way it effects our senses: the somber cool interior of the Taj Mahal's mausoleum or the disorienting angles of the staircase at Liebskind's Denver Art Museum. 

Our clients appreciate the added information standing virtually in their new space affords them. While the construction process is always relatively fluid, now there can be little misunderstanding of how the finished space should look. Perhaps eventually we will just give 3-D renderings directly to contractors. With the advent of the iPad, the Venture Architecture portfolio is literally in our back pocket, or here, at your fingertips.