Every five or six years, a different country takes the architectural lead in Europe: England came to the fore with High Tech in the early 80s; by the end of the 80s, France came to prominence with Francois Mitterand’s great Parisian projects; in the 90s, Spain and Portugal were discovering a new tradition; and recently the focus has been on The Netherlands. In this ever shifting European landscape, Italy is now set to challenge the status quo.

By closing the gap between conceptual design and the documentation required for construction, building information modelling (BIM) promises to revolutionise contemporary design practice. This issue of AD brings together a group of pioneering academics, architects, engineers and construction managers all of whom are engaged in the use of building information models in the actualisation of complex building projects, from design stage to construction.

This issue of AD explores the remarkable resurgence of ecological strategies in architectural imagination. As a symptom of a new sociopolitical reality inundated with environmental catastrophes, sudden climatic changes, garbage-packed metropolises and para-economies of non-recyclable e-waste, environmental consciousness and the image of the earth re-emerges, after the 1960s, as an inevitable cultural armature for architects; now faced with the urgency to heal an ill-managed planet that is headed towards evolutionary bankruptcy. At present though, in a world that has suffered severe loss of resources, the new wave of ecological architecture is not solely directed to the ethics of the world's salvation, yet rather upraises as a psycho-spatial or mental position, fuelling a reality of change, motion and action.

A new breed of public interactive installations is taking root that overturns the traditional approach to artistic experience. Architects, artists and designers are now creating real-time interactive projects at very different scales and in many different guises. Some dominate public squares or transform a building’s facade – others are more intimate, like wearable computing. All, though, share in common the ability to draw in users to become active participants and co-creators of content, so that the audience becomes part of the project.

This issue of AD introduces a new approach to architectural practice based on the interrelationship of emergence and self-organisation concepts. A sequence to the successful Emergence: Morphogenetic Design Strategies title by the same guest-editors, it advances on the previous publication by taking on board the latest developments for fully integrated design evolution, manufacturing and construction.

Investigating the current groundswell of experiments and creative work that utilises design as a method to explore and manipulate actual biological material, Neoplasmatic Design presents the impact of emerging and progressive biological advances upon architectural and design practice. The rapid development of innovative design approaches in the realms of biology, microbiology, biotechnology, medicine and surgery have immense significance for architecture, being as important for their cultural and aesthetic impact as for their technical implications.

Focusing on the intersections between textiles and architectural design, this title communicates the full range of possibilities for a multidisciplinary design hybrid. It examines the generative concepts, forms, patterns, materials, processes, technologies and practices that are driving this cross-fertilisation in contemporary urban and architectural design. Architextiles represent a transition stage in the reorientation of spatial design towards a more networked, dynamic, interactive, communicative and multifunctional state.

Elegance represents an important watershed in architectural design. Since the onset of computer-driven technologies, innovative designers have, almost exclusively, been preoccupied with the pursuit of digital techniques. This issue of AD extrapolates current design tendencies and brings them together to present a new type of architecture, one that is seamlessly trying processes, space, structure and material together with beauty. ‘Elegance’ here is cast with a new contemporary meaning as it is applied to work that is effortlessly complex

Traditionally, most detailing of connections is the responsibility of the steelwork fabricator, but for exposed steelwork, detailing is of much more interest to the architect, as it impacts on the aesthetics of the structure. In this respect it is important that designers appreciate the common fabrication and erection techniques, which may exert a strong influence on the method and approach to the detailing of modern steelwork in buildings.

A new title in the Architectural Design series that explores the potential of computational mathematics in cutting-edge designMathematics has always been a vital tool in the architect's trade, but the last fifteen years have seen a sharp rise in the power of computers and has led to computational abilities far beyond anything previously available. Modern design software and computing power have changed the traditional role of geometry in architecture and opened up new possibilities enabled by topology, non-Euclidean geometry, and other areas of mathematics.With insight from a top-notch list of contributors, including such notables as Philippe Morel and Fabien Scheurer, Mathematics in Space discusses how the advent of computation and information technology has affected the work of contemporary architects.

Great examples of interior design in various parts of the world and its authors, ideas and general information.

What form should one use to enhance to the utmost the brilliance, harmony and depth of sound from a symphony orchestra? Is there perhaps an ideal form on acoustics grounds for a drama theatre for Shakespeare’s plays? Such questions must have inspired many of the more original solutions to the auditorium problem. A particularly appealing approach for instance, especially for those sensitive to the charms of classical architecture, is that certain ratios of proportion are propitious. The argument runs that since our ears appreciate harmony and harmony is based on simple proportions, so buildings to support harmony should likewise be built with favourable ratios of proportion. Sadly this charming argument is fallacious since the actual dimensions are also relevant. This means that a concert hall with preferred proportions would only be suitable for one musical key, a concert hall in C perhaps? However there is the further point that the dimensions of auditoria are in any case too large for such considerations to be significant; we can fortunately design halls for all keys.

A PDF library which is comprised of documents on the topics of architectural reference, architectural standards, building design drawing, general architecture, green architecture, residential design drawing and misc. architecture documents.

Basics Architecture: Architectural Design explains the mysterious and little-discussed process of designing architectural projects. Through discussion and case studies, it allows the reader to develop a personal approach to architectural design, based on their own values, skills and preoccupations.

The architectural design process is as diverse as the people who practice it; every architect follows their own individual design process. Basics Architecture: Architectural Design introduces a number of different processes through examples and case studies. This allows a reader to identify with certain methods that they could develop to respond to their own work, and enables them to develop their own unique approach.

Questioning the traditional boundaries between cities, suburbs, countryside and wilderness, this issue of AD explores emergent types of public space in low-density environments. It describes this new form of urbanism: decentralised, in a constant process of expansion and contraction, not homogenous or necessarily low-rise, nor guided by one mode of development, typology or pattern.

Throughout the ages architects have attempted to capture the essence of living systems as design inspiration. However, practitioners of the built environment have had to deal with a fundamental split between the artificial urban landscape and nature owing to a technological 'gap' that means architects have been unable to make effective use of biological systems in urban environments. Protocell Architecture is an edition of AD that shows for the first time that contemporary architects can create and construct architectures that are bottom up, synthetically biological, green and have no recourse to shallow bio-mimicry. In the next few decades, synthetic biology is set to have as much, if not more, impact on architecture as cyberspace and the digital. The key to these amazing architectural innovations is the Protocell.

In the next few years, emerging practices in interactive architecture are set to transform the built environment. ‘Smart’ design was once regarded as the preserve of museum exhibits or Jumbotrom advertising screens, but 'multi-mediated' interactive design has started entering into every domain of public and private life as a spatial medium, interactive architecture is revolutionising and reinventing our work, leisure and domestic spaces.

In this highly pertinent issue, guest-editor Nic Clear questions received notions of the future. Are the accepted norms of economic growth and expansion the only means by which society can develop and prosper? Should the current economic crisis be making us call into question a future of unlimited growth? Can this moment of crisis – economic, environmental and technological – enable us to make more informed choices about the type of future that we want and can actually achieve? Architectures of the Near Future offers a series of alternative voices, developing some of the neglected areas of contemporary urban life and original visions of what might be to come. Rather than providing simplistic and seductive images of an intangible shiny future, it rocks the cosy world of architecture with polemical blasts.