To answer these questions the researchers decided to extend their research to 560 public schools in California. They decided to calculate the green area in all schools including the percentage of forest, small trees and large trees located on the side of the road as well as the area covered with grass. The researchers concluded from the results of this study that a 10% increase in green space directly affects a 10% decrease in the total number of autistic children and a 19% decrease in this number if the amount of trees on the side of the road will increase by 10%.

This binomial between autism-green spaces is proven once again in schools which were close to the main roads. Heavy traffic urban areas were directly related to an increase in the number of autistic children. Hypothesis / The solution that these researchers thought to implement after this study was to increase the number of trees near the main roads by thinking of it as a ‘Form of Prevention’. But it will take many more studies and evidence to fully confirm the correlation between this pathology and green spaces, not forgetting that noise pollution, as a result of heavy traffic, can be another influential factor in autistic children.

Source: NEUAR

“ARKITEKTURA DHE DIKTATURA” BY PETRAQ KOLEVICA

In the book “Arkitektura dhe Diktatura” (Architecture and Dictatorship),  Petraq Kolevica greets “today’s architects and more those of tomorrow” inviting the reader to become part of a storytelling of lives inmersed in content of a regime’s totalitarian concept, which makes sure to fiercly crush everyone that brings the spirit of controversy.

Download the book HERE

INVISIBLE CITIES BY ITALO CALVINO

The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo. The book is framed as a conversation between the elderly and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his expanding and vast empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Polo, many of which can be read as parables or meditations on culture, language, time, memory, death, or the general nature of human experience.

Download the book HERE

THINKING ARCHITECTURE BY PETER ZUMTHOR

In this book Peter Zumthor expresses his motivation in designing buildings that speak to our feelings and understanding in so many ways and that possess a powerful and unmistakable presence and personality.

Download the book HERE and the expanded edition HERE

JAPAN: ITS ARCHITECTURE, ART, AND ART MANUFACTURES BY CHRISTOPHER DRESSER

Japan: Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures by the British designer Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) is more than just a book on such subjects: It was born of Dresser’s extensive travels in Japan in 1876-77, and thus also records a journey and what transpired on it. That travelogue makes up the first part of the book; analysis of architecture, art, and design makes up the second part, with more extensive illustration.

Download the book HERE

THE POETICS OF SPACE BY GASTON BACHELARD

Thirty years since its first publication in English, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space one of the most appealing and lyrical explorations of home. Bachelard takes us on a journey, from cellar to attic, to show how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shape our thoughts, memories, and dreams.

Download the book HERE

JAPAN STYLE: ARCHITECTURE + INTERIORS + DESIGN BY KIMIE TADA & GEETA MEHTA

Traditional Japanese homes, with superbly crafted fine wood, great workmanship and seasonal interior arrangements, have an aesthetic of infinite simplicity. Unlike Japanese inns and historical buildings, the Japanese architecture featured in this book is on private property not open to public viewing. Japan Style offers a rare glimpse into the intimate world of everyday Japanese culture and fascinating insight into the traditional architecture of Japan.

Download the book HERE

COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE BY ROBERT VENTURI

This collection of excerpts is from the book Venturi wrote for the Museum of Modern Art as partof a book series curated by the museum in the 1960’s. The objective of the series was to explore and promote ideas that were too complex or involved for exhibit. The re-publication of the book was not to accompany a museum exhibition, rather its purpose was to recognise the importance of Complexity and Contradiction as a critical and historical expression of a turning point in modern architectural history.

Download the book HERE

Architects and urban planners have been responsible for years to craft, visualize, and design solutions for our physical bodies and their limitations. Today, while we evolve in our understanding of our surroundings, bodies, and the way they function, we become more conscious about other aspects of our lives, involving emotions and behavior, therefore we need to rethink the way we design. An urban layout or building, now and in the future should not fulfill just its physical aspect, by solving a problem of functionality but cover the psychological and emotional aspect of the people using it. The spaces of the future will be conscious spaces by melding together cross-sector creative solutions coming from neuroscientists, architects, urban planners, environmental therapies, psychologists, behavioral scientists, and community planners.

Neuroarchitecture represents an integration of neuroscience, psychology, and architecture that aims to show us how we perceive, imagine, interpret, and react to buildings to help create environments and spaces that can improve our behavior, health, and well-being of man and society as a whole. A discipline that studies the various responses produced by our brain during our presence in a given environment or space. These neural responses can directly change the emotional state and behavior of users in any space, both short-term and long-term. Neuroarchitecture as a research field dates back to the 1970s, when the first hypotheses of research into the psychology of environment and space, and evidence-based design were put forward in the 1980s, which has found use in recent years in the design of hospitals and some school buildings.

In NeuroArchitecture, technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), research, and sensory technological apparatus come together to measure a person’s heart rate, body temperature, brain waves, eye movement, and “awakening.” The most common research methodologies combine the analysis of a number of other parameters such as: 1) brain stimuli (in areas of the brain that are active during the period that the user is in the environment); 2) responses produced by the brain in that environment; 3) vital signs that change in the environment (for example, heart rate, blood pressure) etc. In the long run, urban planning and functional solutions affect our habits and health, which is documented through monitoring the health performance of the population over the years. This data helps architects and urban planners, who can build spaces that contribute to the health of residents and citizens.

NeuroArchitecture helps physicians deepen their work in understanding the neurological nature of human behavior and interrelationship with the surrounding environment, as well as architects to design buildings and spaces that will have a more positive effect on our mood and senses, and ultimately on our well-being. By understanding how our relationship with space affects us, we are able to gain knowledge of how to design spaces, but also enable spaces to evolve over time to become more people-centered. Designing cities should make people feel comfortable and give them a sense of belonging: including public places and parks where people get together, where they feel welcome and comfortable, thus strengthening social cohesion.

During the ANFA conference in 2016, the architect Steven Holl displayed one of his watercolor drawings, in which he described the human body as an island in a sea called the environment, with the brain drawn as a structure on the island, and the mind as an area within this structure.

Neuroscientific research present a new opportunity in designing spaces for people with disabilities and special needs. The acoustic and tactical qualities of an environment, designed through careful materials and spatial choices, can help this typology of people move, interact and experience environments without limitation. Not only does such a design enhance the experience of everyone in a building; it also challenges the visual ways in which we often conceive and design buildings. Design typologies, such as re-education spaces are also expected to change, through neuroarchitecture these objects will not be designed as punishment spaces, but as healing and social interaction spaces focused on thinking and human behavior.

In a world that is evolving daily, where technology is taking an important place in our lives, the human connection to build spaces is also changing. Architects, urban planners, physicians and neuroscientists must help build stronger relationships between cities and their inhabitants by creating and inspiring productivity and habits for a healthy life.

Authors: Aurora Baba & Andela Malaj, NEUAR

1. The Fountainhead (1949)

The Fountainhead is an American film based on the novel by Ayn Rand.  The movie directed by King Vidor in 1949 and its scenario was again written by Ayn Rand. The main character in the movie is an architect and the director tried his best to shows the place of the architects in society. The movie has many scenes of modern architecture. Ayn Rand was influenced by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright when he was creating  the character Roark. Frank Lloyd Wright was well-known for his buildings such as the Waterfall House (1936) and the Johnson Wax apartment (1936-39).

Modernist architect Howard Roark, played by Gary Cooper, battles to stick to his ideal rather than conform to traditional aesthetics in black and white drama The Fountainhead.

3. My Architect: A Son’s Journey (2003) 

A documentary film about the American architect Louis Kahn (1901–1974), by his son Nathaniel Kahn, detailing the architect’s extraordinary career and his familial legacy after his death in 1974. The film features interviews with renowned architects, including B. V. Doshi, Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Shamsul Wares, I.M. Pei, Moshe Safdie and Anne Tyng. Throughout the film, Kahn visits all of his father’s buildings including The Yale Center for British Art, The Salk Institute, Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

4. Dogville (2003)

Dogville is an avant-garde crime revenge tragedy film written and directed by Lars von Trier, and starring an ensemble cast led by Nicole Kidman. A barren soundstage is stylishly utilized to create a minimalist small-town setting in which a mysterious woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman) hides from the criminals who pursue her. The town is two-faced and offers to harbor Grace as long as she can make it worth their effort, so Grace works hard under the employ of various townspeople to win their favor.

5. Inception (2010)

Inception is a US film of science fiction written and directed by Christopher Nolan. In the film, Christopher Nolan does not just make architecture a central theme; the whole story develops depending on the ability of architects to design buildings, neighborhoods and cities in other people’s dreams. Dom Cobb is a talented thief and his mission is to steal the most precious secrets by descending into the subconscious depths while he is dreaming at the most vulnerable moment of the mind. When Cobb says, “Always dream of new spaces” to the young architect Ariadne, Cobb offers us the reason to look at the invented worlds with curiosity. In the same scene, Ariadne’s tense subconscious makes some of Paris frantically folding on itself. From this point onwards, architectural sets are becoming increasingly familiar.

6. EAMES: The Architect and The Painter (2011)

Narrated by none other than James Franco, this vision of Charles and Ray Eames explores its great influence on the development of modernism, the rise of the information age, and his approach to running a creative unconventional work that created all kinds of mid-century furniture. The film also delves into his personal life, particularly the challenges of being a woman in a creative society dominated by males.

7. Snowpiercer (2013)

Snowpiercer is a science fiction action film based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette. The film was directed by Bong Joon-ho  and it takes place aboard the Snowpiercer train as it travels a globe-spanning track, carrying the last remnants of humanity after a failed attempt at climate engineering to stop global warming has created a new Snowball Earth. Chris Evans stars as Curtis Everett, one of the lower-class tail-section passengers, as they rebel against the elite of the front of the train. Filming took place at Barrandov Studios in Prague, using train car sets mounted on gimbals to simulate the train’s motion.

All of the series fans can see Snowpiercer in the 2020 production available on Netflix, based on the Bong Joon-ho movie.

8. Columbus (2017)

The film follows the son of a renowned architecture scholar who gets stranded in Columbus, Indiana, where his architect father is in a coma and strikes up a friendship with a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library. This movie would be suitable to architecture fans. Among the famous Modernist buildings that feature in the film are the First Christian Church by Eliel Saarinen, the Irwin Union Bank, Miller House, and North Christian Church by Eliel’s son Eero Saarinen, and the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I. M. Pei.

9. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Blade Runner 2049, US-made science fiction movie directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green in 2017. The Blade Runner 2049 universe which takes place in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere and carries a dystopian narrative was designed inspired by a brutalist architecture. Brutalism is one of the most striking architectural trends of the 20th century.

10. Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

MINIMALISM: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE IMPORTANT THINGS examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from all walks of life—families, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, scientists, and even a former Wall Street broker—all of whom are striving to live a meaningful life with less.  People dedicated to rejecting the American ideal that things bring happiness are interviewed in this documentary showing the virtues of less is more. You can find it on Netflix.

Other films suggested by our followers are: Fahrenheit 451 – in two productions 1966 and 2018; The Truman Show – the commentator describes it as a very dystopian urban settlement associated with social problems; Parasite – to which we have dedicated a full article; Where’d you go, Bernadette; The great beauty; 12 Angry Men and above all the unique Metropolis.

The house was surrounded by walls and today the south-western part is ruined. As a unique case, it has three court-yards besides the garden in front of it, surrounded by walls too. The courtyards are interconnected with gates. In the right courtyard, we can find the ‘odajashte’ (representing a special place for the second category friends) as well as some ruins of a ‘grass storage’ room.

The inequality of the land and the deepening of the cistern, have enabled the development of two wings of the house, with one floor difference. Being the right wing, three-story in contrast to the central and left wing, four. The left wing comes forward and is wider. Therefore, it belongs to the two-wing variation. In the composition, it is re-presented with a central interconnecting core, on the side of which the main blocks are placed, while in the last two floors there are two spaces added, one for each floor.

The ground floor and the living room above the ‘sterne’ (water cisterne), have auxiliary functions, being built in with a ‘sterne’, ‘katua’ (space for animals) and a pantry. The first floor has two living areas, besides the kitchen. On this floor, the right wing receives another development from the one below it, since no sanitary facilities are constructed.

The ‘guest-room’ is on the left wing. Next to the ‘cardak’, separated by the last ramp of stairs, there’s the ‘kamerie’ (a kind of balcony), which is sustained by a system of columns-vault system, as well as stairs, circulating on three sides, the main volume of the house. Exept the balcony and the hallway, you can find also a higher ‘sofa’ for the head of the family to rest there.

The third floor is made out of three rooms, two of them summer rooms because of the generous size of the windows. One of the rooms is treated with an impressive attention to details, ornamenting and mural paintings, apart from its treatment with perimetral sofas also known as ‘mindere’ or musandras for the clothes and carpets deposit etc. The ground floor is treated with stone tiles and on the other floors with wooden planks.

The house stands out, for its composition towards the height, with a monumental appearance and protective character. It has maintained in very good conditions its architectural elements and its original construction.

Source: https://thealbanian.house/

A tenet of architectural photography is the use of perspective control, with an emphasis on vertical lines that are non-converging (parallel). This is achieved by positioning the focal plane of the camera at so that it is perpendicular to the ground, regardless of the elevation of the camera eye. This result can be achieved by the use of view cameras, tilt/shift lenses, or post-processing. Traditionally, view cameras have been used for architectural photography as they allow for the lens to be tilted or shifted relative to the film plane. This allows for control of perspective, as well as a variety of creative possibilities.

8 Tips on How to Capture Great Architecture Photography

1. Choose a location

You shouldn’t have trouble finding possible subjects for building photography in any city. You can start with buildings or structures that grab your attention or have some meaning to you. Often, architecture photographers focus on shooting things like government buildings, museums, and historic landmarks. These types of structures are usually able to offer interesting or impressive architecture.

Also, old building photography makes for captivating images. That includes well-maintained historic sites that offer examples of classic architecture, as well as run-down or abandoned buildings that show their age in different ways.

2. Get to Know Your Subject

Once you choose a building or structure to shoot, you should spend some time to get to know it. Start by simply walking around the outside of the building and exploring the inside (if possible). Also, consider doing some research on the building and its history. Learn about how it was built and how it’s been used.

All of this information can give direction to your architecture photos and help you decide what kind of style you want to achieve. For instance, if the building has a long and storied history, you might want to experiment with black and white architecture photography. It can lend a timeless feeling to your shots and bring the history of the structure to the viewer’s mind. During your research, you may also discover a unique or interesting architectural feature that you can showcase in your photos.

3. Try Shooting at Various Times

To capture some different looks when shooting structure photography, try revisiting the site to shoot at different times of the day and in different weather conditions.

For example, try shooting at sunrise or sunset to capture some golden hues, window reflections, and long shadows. Or visit at night to capture the structure in its artificial lighting. Cloudy skies, snowfall, or some rain-soaked surfaces can add interest and dramatically change the mood of your photos, so don’t limit yourself to shooting on sunny days.

4. Try not to objectify the building

Imagine the shock of visiting a building you’ve only seen photographed from that one, good angle. Objectifying a building to the point where one only visualizes it from one point of view is one of the greatest disservices of architectural photography.  Making an effort to record the complete spatial context of the building is not easy, but not impossible either.

5. Include Some People

Although building photography usually focuses on buildings, you should consider including people in some of your shots. After all, architecture only exists because of humans.

By including people, your architecture photography can bring to mind the relationship between humans and architecture, and illuminate how people use it. Including people in the composition can also breathe life into an otherwise sterile scene.

If you find people in the scene are a distraction from the architecture, try shooting with a long exposure so they become a blur. These types of shots tend to emphasize the timelessness of buildings, as you can see the structure sitting still while the blurred people convey the movement of the crowds.

6. Look for a unique angle

Playing with perspective is not only an entertaining thing to do, it can also be very rewarding. Taking time to find a different angle from which to photograph can expose an overlooked form or abstraction of a building’s detail that may give rise to another level of beauty and appreciation for its form.

While you’re experimenting with different perspectives, keep in mind some of the basic rules of photo composition to create interesting images. For example, find an archway or opening you can use to frame a shot. Or use the architecture to create leading lines, symmetry, and repetition of shapes.

Once you break free of trying to capture a standard shot of the whole building, you’ll have a lot more freedom to get creative.

7. Use post-processing tools

Processing images has become quite a standard part of photography, allowing you to tweak your images to perfectly match that atmosphere you want to capture. While images should only be altered with a clear understanding of what kind of changes are acceptable, software such as Photoshop and Lightroom are easy to use with a wide variety of advanced functions such as lens correction. If you’re looking for an easy way to create a panoramic photography using a series of images, try Hugin.

8. Invest in appropriate photography equipment

If you’re serious about getting started with high-quality architectural photography, investing in the right equipment is going to reap big rewards. A wide angle lens is most commonly used for photographing buildings and interior spaces and including a tripod will open up possibilities to shoot in low-light conditions, among other things. Using a polarizing filter can also help to add contrast and make your images more vivid. If you’re looking for something on the next level, a drone with a quality camera installed could be an exciting way to go.

Source: format.com; archdaily.com; wikipedia