georgiavoudouriIAAC

Here is an example of customization in RPG.You can create the elf that suits you most.

In this video you can see parametric modeling in action.

If you want you can even make the character look like you or an existing person.

The measurement I chose to take was the proportion of the leg length to the upper body length, so I measured tree different points: length A from the ankle to the knee, length B from the knee to the heap and length C from the heap to the shoulder. My number is A+B/C.

The reason I chose to measure that part of the human body is that I have been noticing how different a result can this proportion give to the overall height or figure of somebody. I have also been noticing how people with different in-leg proportions can have trouble seating comfortably in the same chair or airplane seat or desk. Also it is a quite large scale number in the body, so creating something with the use of that could be connected to an architectural scale more easily.

Looking at the measurements chart, one can see the differences in people’s proportions, of course we can make conclusions on some differences between men and women. The overall average is 1.70.(The more this number grows the longer feet are.)

We have finally reached a point where we can make general conclusions on the scattering of the different kinds of hosting and occupation around the city. We are mainly focusing on the density of occupation in every area,and the price range. We also tried to compare Barcelona with other big cities, starting with NY.What I am thinking is that eventually we should reach some conclusions as far as what the reasons for the concentration of houses or hotels are in each area, the state of the buildings and the financial and cultural background of the inhabitants forming the character of each area. What are the landmarks that are connected with the location of tourists?Finally, is the city benefited by the phenomena we noticed or not?Can the existing tissue of la ciutat vella take all that, or should sth change?

The ideas of sustainability, self-sufficiency and energy saving are nowadays in the basic vocabulary of current architectural production world-wide. However, one of the greatest problems architects face when using photovoltaic panels is the formation of building facades, as the specific form of these extremely useful elements affects radically the design process. The launching of new materials gives way to the better integration of sustainability and energy saving in everyday architecture. One good example is Power Glass, produced by XsunX, which makes it possible to manufacture windows that generate electricity and still allow 70 percent of light to pass through.
Power Glass is made using amorphous silicon, the non-crystalline form of silicon that can be deposited in a very thin film and remains flexible. If we are going to compare the non-crystalline silicon and the crystalline silicon we see that the crystalline silicon used in conventional solar cells is a thousand times thicker, requiring more silicon. And crystalline silicon must be deposited on a rigid substrate that can withstand high manufacturing temperatures. The applications of amorphous silicon thus far have been primarily in liquid-crystal displays and thin-film transistors; its photovoltaic applications have been limited by its relatively low power-producing efficiency compared to crystalline silicon.
XsunX company is using a cassette system that allows high-volume production of thin films with low risk of contamination. Solar cells are applied in a thin layer - about 0.2 microns thick - onto large rolls of supporting material. The process happens at 150 °C, low enough to use plastic or polyester substrate. Multiple cassettes or film are processed simultaneously and the result is rolls of photovoltaic film. The flexible film is then applied, like low-e coating, to the surface of a multi-plane window. The film allows edge-to-edge coverage. This system makes the entire window an active energy conversation area.
Of course there are other materials that are aiming to perform the same function, like Scheuten Solar’s product. This product is consisting of opaque solar cells in glazing, separated by clear spaces, but it is resulted in visible mosaic or stripes, actually changing the way light enters the building. Power Glass- on the other hand- looks more like tinted solar glass, without a pattern. It blocks 30 percent of the incoming light, uniformly oacross the window opening.
What encourages Power Glass to fly economically is that it doesn’t only look like a tinted glass, but it works like one and at the same time produces electricity. The primary electrical energy cost of a large building is air-conditioning (A/C) and lighting. Using Power Glass to transform 4-5 % of the solar energy into electricity instead of using conventional tinted glass, the lighting and the A/C load decreases. So the annual energy consumption in a building that would normally be huge is much smaller having Power Glass performing both functions.
Links:

http://www.xsunx.com/advanced-celldesign.htm

http://www.hollandtrade.com/vko/zoeken/showbouwsteen.asp?bstnum=1464

http://www.scheutensolarsystems.nl/

Proceeding with the detail study of the area of Born, we made some conclusions concerning the kinds of hosting

as well as the way of living in the area, which you can see in th pdf attached. borne-detail-study.pdf

The group is Georgia Voudouri + Renu Gupta

So, thinking over the READINGS words, i started searching and writing something from what I had understood locative media are about.

Networks in the city: example no1-WHILE WE ARE MOVING IN THE CITY

We are creating a network of trajectories from one position to the next, just like pones on a chessboard.

We are carrying with us or participate in a series of locative media networks

The mobile phone network

A gps network

A wifi network if we are using the internet for some reason

A mediascape- kit (from what I found out!)

If we are at the same time listening to music we are actually filtering the environment, so that we can create our personal system of landmarks through our trajectory. This can consist of our previous memories, the images we are seeing at that point, their interaction with the rythmum we are listening at that time.

So, there is also the network of the sounds, the analysis of our personal soundtrack and the urban sounds that come into our ears.

Or even if we don’t have soundtrack, we focus on the external sounds, so our trip becomes less introvert and, thus, less fruitful.

All these overlaying nets create a 3d space that doesn’t exist in terms of materiality, but exists very much in reality. It is our actual surrounding space and it often becomes more important for us than real space. It doesn’t matter where we are or if we are standing or sitting, as long as all these conditions we need to exist and function are applicable. If space is “topos” (greek), this virtual space around us could be called “chronotopos” (“chronos” =time in greek). And that is because it is a kind of space totally depending on time. It changes from one moment to the other because our position changes, our mobile phone signal changes, our wi-fi connection strength changes, the flow of information changes. The boundaries of our personal world are susceptible to changes-the thickness of the wall around us flexible. Sound may enter our bubble in between the songs.

Locative media denotes in artistic and cultural practice that which has become a nominator for site-specific, context-aware, and often participatory platforms exploring the possibilities of pervasive and ubiquitous computing technologies.

for getting more into it, here is a BLOG ON LOCATIVE MEDIA

Mediascapes are location-based experiences, games and tours on a handheld device. Here you can download the software, grab the latest mediascapes created by the community and most importantly, learn how simple it is to make your own.

Its about real-life games virtual space actually comes into real world

So they have: virtual space-its media after all

Real people

Memories-you need it in order to play+ it mingles with it since it goes back to the past

Game

Landmarks, which- again –you need to set in order to play

http://www.mscapers.com/msin/ABA0000109

http://www.mscapers.com/tags/games try them out!

last but not least, check out this video-it also refers to the un-built, George

locative media workshop in delhi

I hope my thoughts make sense, because its 12:00 at noon and I have been up since 9:00 yesterday morning!

You can see three pdfs of our mapping-week 2 in Ben’s Blog.

The second week was maybe not as productive as the first one, but we did actually make progress. We tried to follow the plan I had explained in a previous post- researching four different small parts of the old city. Renu and I tried to make some investigation in the area of Born, starting fromcalla Princesa. What we realized in that area is that there are not many samples of non permanent occupation:there are only a few hotels and almost no hostels, whereas there are lots of apartments for sale. That made us realize that this area is bound to develop during the next years.

Also we had some data retrieved by the municipality, concerning the whole of the old city and a comparison to barcelona in terms of the formation of population, the number and kind of hotels existing etc. But we realized that all the data we may get from external sources refer to the old city as a whole, and that’s only one part of the research we want to do. So we created a first form of the questionaire we’re thinking of using around the city, in order to get more accurate information on the specific characteristic of the thre different areas-Raval, Gotic and Born. We hope to hit the roads during the next week. Thank god people around here are quite friendly and easy to answer to questions, but in our group we have a problem with spanish-speakers, so it might get a bit hard!

See the questionaire here-comments are more than welcome! mapping-questionaire.pdf.

“the tube” is ready! and it comes with a fully illustrated instruction manual!

Check the instruction manual.pdf and the .dwg printing file.

After reading different things in my blogs and other sites, I decided the topics that interested me the most were two:“locative media”, meaning media that are closely connected to the location of users in space such as internet, mobile technology , games, that form a kind of virtual “media network”, and “memory”. As general as the term memory may sound, I have always been interested in its various aspects, and right now I am actually thinking of researching on the comparison and interaction between computer memory and human memory ;in what way can we introduce computer memory and software into our way of thinking and decoding information? Is it feasible to alter our memory and how should we think over architecture-the space around us in the future in order to “manipulate” our memory?

Another interesting thing was that after discussing with the other members of the readings group -GROUP 6 (Georgios Machairas, Maria Papaloizou, Eduardo Mayoral), and revising everybody’s terms, we found out that it is possible to find multiple connections between them.

So, we have :“un-built” and “sim-society”, “redefinition of urban space-as in virtual” and “chronotopos”, “non-standard production” and “atmospheres”. We are all going to search more on ours and each-others’ topics, and we are positive that a very interesting and productive “virtual discussion” will come up!

I was walking home through the Passeig de Colon the other night and I could see the lit Montjuic in front of me. For a moment I was sure I was in Athens, walking through Syntagma square and facing the lit hill of Lycabettus! It took me a couple of moments to realize where I am and what I am doing here.This natural mixture of images in the brain reminded me how many data each one of us has gathered in there and how greatly the “search engine” works insatiably, linking images to memories and information from our personal database or attached by others. Many different sciences and researchers are working or have worked on some aspect of the way the human brain works , that being kinesthetics, landmark systems- eg. Kevin Lynch-and memory, or the pure neurological research that still goes on. It is always fascinating though to find new information on that subject. Today, with the progress in the interaction with technology and software programming, we also hear about efforts to help human memory using software principles, or even to alter it (no, it would not be a film this time).I’m not sure what my opinion is on interfering straightly with the … of our mind, but I can see that since computer technology and the internet started by imitating human brain processes in order to help us, it is now time for computers to give us the way to accumulate and classify the immense information and knowledge we are given every day. the comparison of human memory to computer memory is more up to date than ever

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/brain/brainmap.swf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/organs/brainmap/