The rise in compensation for architects over the last two years has barely climbed, although certain business metrics are improving, according to results from the 2013 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Compensation Survey. The biannual report indicates that between 2011 and 2013, the average total compensation (which includes overtime, bonuses, and incentives) increased from $75,000 to $76,700.

CEOs/presidents ($186,900), managing principals ($178,400), and directors of design ($146,000) experienced the biggest gains in compensation over the last two years at 13, 14, and 11 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, totals for senior design and project management staff averaged $94,900 in 2011 and $99,400 in 2013. Salary growth among unlicensed architecture/design staff and interns hovered between 2 and 4 percent in the last two years, as COOs saw the largest drop at -6 percent.

Among other highlights from the survey:

Data from federal agencies suggests a modest uptick in other business conditions. Last year, revenue at architecture firms increased nearly 11 percent over 2011 levels, according to U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that practices payroll employment rose 3 percent between a mid-2011 low and the end of 2012.

Compiled from 1,023 valid surveys submitted by U.S. architecture firms, the AIA Compensation Report includes compensation data for 39 architecture firm positions in 28 states, 28 metro areas, and 14 cities. Click here to order the report.

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Architects' Salaries Creep Up as Business Conditions Stabilize

Epoch - Architects of the Third World
Film przes #322;any z mojego telefonu komrkowego.

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Epoch - Architects of the Third World - Video

Weibliche Software-Entwicklerinnen lsen berraschung aus: Karin Huber, Software Architects
Mehr zu Karin Huber: http://storify.com/TeresaArrieta/time-cockpit-stropek-huber Mithilfe von "Time Cockpit", einer intelligenten Software aus Obersterreich...

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Weibliche Software-Entwicklerinnen lösen Überraschung aus: Karin Huber, Software Architects - Video

Amazing Animal Architects - Zoo La La - Earth Unplugged
The natural world is full of highly skilled construction engineers and architects. Maddie Moate takes a look at some of the most surprising examples. Subscri...

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Amazing Animal Architects - Zoo La La - Earth Unplugged - Video

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) August 15, 2013

Vocon, a leading architecture and interior design firm, announces the acquisition of New York-based Conant Architects. This deal anchors Vocons New York presence with Conant Architects strong local leadership team possessing more than 60 years experience combined while expanding the firms depth of design expertise and geographic reach to better merge the disciplines of architecture, interior design, branding, graphic design, workplace strategy and change communications to benefit clients across the advertising, public relations, retail, consumer products, professional services, legal and municipal sectors. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Vocon is recognized as one of the top 40 design firms internationally. This deal cements Vocons position as one of the largest design firms in the country, bringing its staff to 120 professionals. While this development expands Vocons New York staff and adds senior leadership, the firm has long enjoyed working with several New York-based clients.

Conant Architects was founded by Peter Conant in the spring of 2000 based on the simple idea of providing creative design solutions for the needs of business. Since that time, Conant Architects has grown to offer architecture, interior design and branding services to clients in the finance/banking, advertising, consumer products, not for profit and professional services sectors. As a result of this deal, Mr. Conant is the principal of Vocons New York office, and the Conant Architects staff now joins the Vocon team.

Im pleased to lead Vocons New York office with senior professionals Lois Palguta and Lance Amato, as well as bring a unique breadth of strategic capabilities to solve clients design challenges, stated Peter Conant, principal of Vocons New York office.

"This deal is an exceptionally great fit as the ideologies and values of both firms are very aligned, explained Debbie Donley, founder and principal of Vocon. This move supports our existing New York operations and provides us with a solid platform for future growth.

We are excited to offer broad architectural project capabilities, including architecture, interior design, branding, graphic design, workplace strategy and change communications to clients nationwide and internationally to grow the firm, said Paul M. Voinovich, Vocon Principal.

About Vocon Established in 1987 with offices in Cleveland and New York, Vocon creates distinctive, productive work environments for private- and public-sector clients across the globe through the delivery of full-scale architectural project capabilities including architecture, interior design, branding, graphic design, workplace strategy and change communications. Licensed in all 50 states, Vocon is one of the largest design firms in the country as well as one of the top 40 design firms internationally. Some of the largest organizations worldwide are Vocon clients including KeyBank, Goodyear, Willis, Cliffs Natural Resources, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Avon Products, J. Crew and Thomson Reuters. For more information about Vocon, visit http://www.vocon.com .

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Vocon Welcomes Conant Architects into their Family

The first thing youll notice about the Lego Architecture Studio is that its white. There are no colors, no shades, no pigments, no hues here. It is as white as a piece of paper, a glass of milk, a blind albino lizard skittering in a lightless cave a mile below the ground. White, white, white.

Your first thought might be: "Thats a little bland for Lego." But you should power through that impression. Theres a reason that every single brick of the 1,200+ Lego Architecture Studio set is white: Its a serious effort by Lego to get bricksmiths young and old the world over thinking about the core concepts of architectural design, not just a Lego buildings bright, Technicolor facade.

"We rarely offer a toolkit in only one color, but using white actually creates natural lines and shadows that can more accurately represent architectural shapes and form," explains Legos brand relations director, Michael McNally. "We felt using all that white gave the kit a very 'sketchbook feel. And since weve never offered a kit that is all white, theres that novelty factor at play for collectors, too.

The kit itself doesnt feature any exotic pieces or other elusive Lego chimeras. Except that they have been bled of color, the 1,200-odd pieces in the Lego Architecture Studio could have come from any Lego set. What makes them special is context. With every Lego Architecture Studio, Lego has included a vividly designed 268-page book that illustrates real-world case studies of six different professional forms, trying to seriously explain the principles of original architectural design by showing how you can do it all in Lego.

Arguably, this book is the meat of the Lego Architecture Studio. Not only does it feature a wonderful layout that brings to mind some of the funky, beautifully designed textbooks aimed at curious kids in the 1970s and 1980s, its a fascinating glimpse into the brains of real architects and how their methodology actually ties in with fitting dimpled plastic Lego pieces together. In fact, you get to see how real architects play with Lego themselves!

Each of the architect firms featured in the book--REX Architecture, Sou Fujimoto, SOM, MAD Architects, Tham & Videgrd, and Safdie Architects--are given as many as 50 pages to talk about their theories on architecture and construction, where they get their inspirations from, how their design process works, and in what ways Lego fits into all this. At the end of each chapter, the lead architects will all sit around a table with Lego and play with the pieces! Only then is the reader invited to take part in a hands-on Lego workshop exploring some of the theories and concepts explored in the chapter, which can range from exercises exploring symmetry, mass, density, the use of negative space, modules, repetition, and more.

"We wanted to have a mix of internationally renowned projects a broad audience could relate to, so we prioritized firms that represented global architects, various architectural styles, and diversity," McNally tells Co.Design. "Because they used Lego bricks in some of their workshops and educational programs, we worked with the Danish architecture firm KRADS to help us pick firms that showcased some of the best architectural principles in the world." The result is a fun, easy-to-understand and totally charming primer on the concepts of architecture that not only shape the world around us, but the innovative new designs that are going to make up the world of the future.

So who is this set for? Its a grown-up concept, but Lego wants this to be a toolkit that is accessible to teenagers who are first starting to think seriously about design, too.

"Lego building from the earliest age is just a terrific primer for budding designers, engineers and architects," says McNally. "We think its a compelling toolkit for adolescents who may be seriously considering a career in architecture or design, or even college students who have real needs for prototyping designs and models. It can even serve as an inspiration for budding architects or as a fun sketching opportunity for real-time design ideas."

The Lego Architecture Studio provides tangible, immediate experience with both classic and cutting-edge architecture concepts. Its a fantastic set that would be as at home in an architecture firms break room as it would be in a high school drafting classroom. Lego has long turned imaginative kids into builders, but the Lego Architecture Studio is the set that will help turn those builders into the designers and architects of tomorrow.

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A Monochrome Lego Set To Teach Tomorrow’s Architects

Concept image of environment by Li Xiaodong, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, detail.

The Royal Academy of Arts' lofty halls are to be transformed into a sensory architectural maze by seven firms from across the globe.

The exhibit, Sensing Space: Architecture Reimagined, has been brought together by Kate Goodwin, Drue Heinz Curator of Architecture of the Royal Academy and will open on 25 January, 2014. Rather than opening up the brief for the world's architects to compete for, Goodwinhandpicked the seven architecture firms based on how they embraced the exhibit's ethos of architecture as a very human, multi-sensory and evocative experience.

"I once spent an afternoon talking with an architect about his influences and references, and this was personally etched on my mind," Goodwin explained at the exhibit's announcement on 14 August. "He spoke about how haptic touch was central to his work -- the feel of a cool doorknob, a warm threshold under foot. A sense of atmosphere." Leaving that conversation, Goodwin says, she looked at everything with heightened senses, suddenly appreciating the way light would fall on the staircase she used everyday at work. "I felt very present and in the moment," she explained. This sense, of looking at and appreciating architecture anew for how it makes us feel, rather than its perfect lines and ratios, is what she hopes to achieve through Sensing Spaces -- to have the audience delight in and experience architecture in a totally new and visceral way.

The Academy will have just three weeks in which to make this happen, shutting down whole sections over the Christmas period to erect seven building sites within its walls. This is because, as Goodwin notes, the only way to get an audience to experience what she intends is to place them in "direct proximity with a space".

Architectural models and photos will be replaced with the real thing for the public to walk around, climb on and explore. "We're doing something we never do, which is encourage visitors to touch," said Goodwin.

Building a space specifically for the public to interact with and immerse themselves in issomething many galleries have already experimented with (notably the Light Show at the Hayward Gallery or the grownup playground that was Bodyspacemotionthings by Robert Morris at the Tate Modern). But for the RA this is an epic exhibit built on the shoulders of centuries of experience. Scottish architect Sir William Chambers was a founding member of the Academy in the late 18thcentury, and today it counts some of the biggest names in the business -- from Norman Foster to Zaha Hadid -- as members. The academy has also run a series of prestigious exhibits focused on architecture over the years, and has a series of ongoing architecture programmes.

The exhibit is also not designed for the sake of art or play, but aimed squarely at introducing architecture to a new audience or, alternatively, reawakening perspectives in an old audience. Describingthe exhibit's sentiment, Goodwin borrowed some words from composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky who said: "I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it". The hope is to give laymen and amateur experts alike a new and accessible way to experience architecture in their daily lives, by being reminded of what it was about it we once found so enthralling. As children it was easy to see a curve in the wall as an excellent spot to imagine a cave, or associate the hard cool wood of a stairwell handrail with being home -- it's this sense of possibility and familiarity the exhibit hopes to evoke.

Any information on the exhibits, which will not be mapped out for the public to explore in any specific route, was left deliberately vague by the curating team. It was noted though that it would be reflective of how the digital and virtual worlds increasingly influenceour lives, and how, though our lives have become more and more portable and our spaces have less need for distinct functions, we have a human reluctance to become homogeneous, and so architecture will come to focus on how a space makes us feel.

We do have some snippets of information of what to expect from the chosen architects, however.

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Seven global architects to build sensory structures inside Royal Academy of Arts

The new Lego Architecture Studio set doesn't come with instructions for any one building. Image: Lego

Instead, in the box is a guidebook outlining some basic architectural concepts with exercises for exploring them in Lego. Image: Lego

The idea is to give budding architects a more sophisticated platform to explore. Image: Lego

Here, a sample page from the guide book, on surface. Image: Lego

Real-world examples help bridge the gap between the plastic world and our own. Image: Lego

A sample building. Image: Lego

Seventy-three different kinds of bricks are included in the set. But bricks are easy to find. Its the guidebook thats truly new. Its pages offer accessible overviews of basic architectural concepts, along with illustrated exercises for exploring them in Lego form. Pages on negative space and interior sections, for example, encourage budding builders to think not only about how their miniature creations look from the outside but also in terms of what sorts of spaces they contain within them.

That, admittedly, is a bit headier than snapping together a castle for a smiling minifig army. And the set does come with a recommendation of ages 16 and up. But if Lego products have proven anything over the years, its that with simple tools, young kids can prove to be surprisingly proficient designers. For a 10 or 12 or 13-year-old whos just starting to get curious about some of the concepts involved in their structures, this could be an excellent stepping stone.

The guidebook features contributions from a number of acclaimed firms, including REX, Safdie, Skidmore, MAD, and Sou Fujimoto, among others. Their real-world projects are used to bridge the gap between the clean plastic world of Lego and the one we live in. A hundred and fifty bucks for a bunch of white bricks might seem steep, but its hard to get mad at a product aimed squarely at encouraging kids to nurture their innate creativity in imagination.

And if youre looking for slightly more profound way of putting that, this passage from the guide book does a fine job: It is no coincidence that Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Buckminster Fuller were all taught kindergarten in the school system that introduced building blocks into educational play. These simple forms reveal the first traces of modernismthe start of a relationship between architecture and creative childrens games that continues to this day.

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A Lego Set for Budding Architects, With No Instructions

Architects ft. Jason from Letlive. - Follow the Water (warped tour #39;13)
St. Petersburg - Tampa.

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Monday, August 12, 2013, 11:48am

New York-based Ennead Architects has been selected to design the Peabody Essex Museum's (PEM) $200 million 175,000-square-foot expansion. The expansion is expected to open in 2019.

The expansion project is part of the museum's $650 million campaign. The expansion will add approximately 75,000 square feet of new galleries; public program and education spaces; a restaurant; and allow for improvements to the museum's collection, conservation and exhibition processing areas.

Ennead was chosen following the completion of the first phase of the building project, executed by London-based Rick Mather Architects. This initial phase included master planning and the renovation of the Dodge wing, which will reopen in October with a new and expanded Art & Nature Center and other special exhibitions.

Ennead previously designed the expansion of the Yale University Art Gallery, as well as projects at the Brooklyn Museum, Natural History Museum of Utah, William J. Clinton Presidential Center and the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History.

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Ennead Architects To Design Peabody Essex Museum’s $200M Expansion