Studio 30/04/09

1:00pm- Today we had a guest presenter come in called Jack Barton to give us a talk about what he does and his UrbanIT project.
3:00pm- After the presentation we got back into our groups and I briefed my team members on what tasks we still needed to do and set before the deadline for next Thursday. After sorting that out we got a marks back for our first experiment. My group got a distinction and I was pleased with the work that we had done. Our final fabrication is getting closer to being finished with just final detailing needed which would be lighting, entourage such as A.I - people walking around the Hydropolis and general texturing and furnishing. My team will start working on the presentation By next Tuesday and Wednesday in which we are hoping the final will also be completed by then. Below are some more progress shots for the Hydropolis.

Studio 23/04/09

1:00pm- Today in studio we had a guest speaker come in an talk to us about social phsycology. It was quite an interesting topic and related quite well to our team collaboration. It was a shame that the presentation was quite short as he only had 1 hour of his time to spend. After studio our class tutors had a discussion with us about our class wiki and our team work.

3:00pm- We went back into our groups and discussed what we could do to help improve our goals that were set for the final task. After discussing with our group tutors in our team progression we sorted out what each of our group memebers would be doing till our next group meeting on the following wednesday

Team Meeting 21/04/09

We had a team meeting today after the easter break. We discussed what tasks we had completed and sorted out areas that we would continue working on for the group fabrication. After looking at our draft I decided to re-create the underwater structure and try fix the portals and visarea and add new areas as well as an access point so that people could get to the rooms from the surface. The portals work much better now but after creating underwater hallways to link the rooms there are still problems that I cant fix. When walking inside the hallways there are still graphical glitches where things disappear for a second then reappear, but I think it works well enough. Also Changed the underwater environment to go with the new underwater structures. Created an underwater area for scuba diving or snorkling where users can access the outside underwater environment.

Studio 09/04/09

1:00pm - Today in studio we had a guest Niel Brown come in and talk to us about world domination and global linux development. It was quite an interesting talk about about how he collaborates with collegues from all across the world using a source code called GIT and email. He also talked about the community that he is invloved with and the qork that they are doing.

3:00pm- After the presentation we went back into our groups and discussed what our team plan would be for the next following weeks leading up to our final collaborated fabrication. My team set some goals and benchmarks that we would try and acheive. We also worked on our team wiki on wetpaint. The class tutors gave our teams our new topics for collaboration.

Week 4 Studio Task 09/04/09

I Added my sources for Culture and Management to the class wiki on wetpaint. Michael Bao and I worked out a referencing system for the class wiki on wetpaint and added the pages. We think this system will work well as long as everyone follows the format that we have set. I have also added the strength and weaknesses task for our unbuilt architectures and will be updated by my fellow team members.

Studio Class - 02/04/09

1:00pm: Today in studio we had a guest speaker called Michael Brand come in and talk to us about conflict resolution. It was quite an interesting presentation which gave me a different insight into the construction industry.

2:00pm: After Michael's talk we then had our team draft presentations. My team Atlar was first and I felt we did quite well and gathered some great feedback from Jeremy, Graham and the class. It was quite interesting to see the other team's collaborated work and how they developed there architectures.

Week 3 Studio Task 26/03/09

My category is Synchronous Messaging; e.g. Skype, Team Speak, MSN

My team could use several different instant messaging applications to communicate with. One such application is google mail which has an inbuilt instant messenger By using this instant messenger, anytime a user is online and I am using gmail I can instantly send them messages. On the net there are many online chat rooms where users can join and socialise. There are also forums where users can register and log on. Once logged on they can create new topics where multiple discussions can occur in realtime. There can also be moderators who can overlook the topics and make sure things are in line. Moderators have the power to remove and ban users from forums. Other Synchronous messaging applications that can be used are programs such as ICQ and MSN. These messenger apps can be used by our team members so that instant messaging of conversation can take place. These applications also have the ability to send pictures, videos and hyperlinks to websites. When users are online they can all be added into a single group chats so that everyone can receive and say the same messages.

Week 3 Studio - 26/03/09

1:00pm: Today in studio My team ATLAR presented our team journal to the class and proposed our design intent. We also brought forward our tech tests. The other teams presented their projects and it was interesting to see the suc a diverse range of ideas.

2:00pm: We broke of into our groups and started discussing plans for our first assignment submission which is the draft.

Collaboration Topics Round 1

Culture:

I found a book by Edgar H Schein called Organizational Culture and Leadership. This book basically outlines a few key points about how there are different cultural groups within organizations and how the concepts of culture show its relationship to leadership. To summarise this E.Schein (2004 p. 3) does a case study about how he helped a management group to improve its communications, interpersonal relationships and decision making. He found the group had high levels of interuption, confrontation, debate and found that all group members wanted to win all the time. So E.Schein (2004 p. 4) introduced suggestions such as better listening, less interrupting, more orderly processes of the agenda and reducing frustration levels. The group members found the suggestions helpful and changed certain aspects of there procedures. The group members even scheduled more time into there meetings but the basic pattern did not change. So with this in mind, all of E.Scheins interventions still couldnt change the basic style of the group.


However E.Schein continued to work with the group and during a meeting that had much debate and conflict suggested to one of the group members to restate their point instead of punishing the interruptor. The group then focused on the items on the chart and found that this helped there communication and descision process. E.Schein (2004 p. 6) then quotes "I had finally understood and entered into an essential element of their culture instead of imposing my own".
So culture as a concept can have multiple meanings. But in this case study it can show how the right kind of culture can influence how effective an organization can be.

Reference:
Schein, E 2002, Organizational Culture and Leadership, John Wiley and Sons


Management:

I found an article on Time management and the small business operator (Ingrisano 2008) Within this article Ingrisano talks about planning out your business day to try avoid working seven days as a business owner. But even by having a plan, things do happen that can disrupt this but it allows you to have a sort of control. (Ingrisano 2008) quotes that you need to "Compartmentalize your work. Do this by blocking out the things you will and must get done this day. Then estimate the time required and do not quit until they are done". I would also like to add that if you are doing a task and you see yourself getting stuck or into trouble with it down the line then ask you team members if you can split the work up or allocate more group time towards it. The earlier you can work out these kinks then the less problems you and your team will have come submission time.
(Ingrisano 2008) also talks about allocating time away from a busy schedule to relax, rest, hobbies, friends and family etc. (Ingrisano 2008 quotes) "Most of all, make a conscious effort to manage your time, your work, your life. Do not let others dump favors-that-need-doing in your lap or take on projects and jobs that do nothing for either your business or yourself". So learning to prioritize what comes first or what is more important to you will help in your decision making and time management.

Reference:
Time management and the small business operator 2008, BNET Australia, accessed 25 March 2009, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5426/is_200810/ai_n30992309>.

Tech Tests

My first tech test was to find out if buildings could be created underwater and also to see if they could hold out the water. I found a great tutorial on the internet which helped me to accomplish this. Here is the link: http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?postid=170487#post170487

Creating the structure underwater was simple enough but creating the visarea and portals was quite difficult as the portals had to be placed precisely inside the walls so you could actually see through it, which is described in the tutorial.

Here is the main building that has been constructed under the water.

This is a screenshot of the solids being edited and where the visareas and portals will be placed

This is looking at the finished building from the outside

And this is an inside perspective

For my second tech test I wanted to find out if sea life was createable and if it was possible to make some relistic sea evironments. Sandbox 2 already has some pre-loaded sea life that u can simply add to your maps. You simply create an entity and label it e.g fish. You can then place it in your map and adjust certain attributes such as how many you want there to be, what model of fish, size etc. There is also underwater vegetation that can help to create relistic environments.

Creating an entity for crabs

Adjusted entity values to create more fish

After adding vegetation and sealife to create an underwater environment

Week 2 Studio - 22/03/09

1:00 pm: In todays studio we started off by having a group discussion about collaboration where we all defined certain topics.

2:00 pm: After our group disscusions we broke off into our own teams. Once we were off into our teams everyone in our group started presenting there 2 unbuilt architectures to the other team members. After discussing the unbuilt architectures amongst ourselves and then with the tutors we were left with 2 designs. One was the Dubai Opera house and the other was the Hydropolis in Dubai. In the end we decided to choose the Hydropolis as it was an underwater hotel that would look good, espeically with the water visuals within crysis. The dubai opera house had a very nice design aspect to it but trying to recreate this in crysis looked quite difficult. And by looking at our given space we decided to go for the Hydropolis. With the hydropolis we hope to create exciting underwater architecture in realtime using the crysis engine. One big element that my team wants to focus on is creating a realistic water environment complete with sealife that will further enhance the ambience of the Hydopolis.

4:00 pm: After deciding on the Hydropolis we then wrote up 8 areas of inquirey that would have to be researched and tested to find out if it was possible within crysis.

The 8 areas of inquiry are:

1. If design of form and complex structures can be created within crysis.
2. Test if structures can be placed in the water and to also hold it out.
3. If we can import models from 3dsmax into crysis and test if model collisions works within sandbox2.
4. Test the scale size of creating islands in Crysis and the structure.
5. Test what materials would look authentic within an underwater environment
6. Test if sealife is creatable.
7. To test if models can me imported from sketchup.
8. The tech tasks were divided up into 2 per person with the following people doing these tasks.

Allan- 2, 6
Philip- 1,4
Eva-5,7
Stephen- 3, 8

Task-Research 2 unbuilt architectures

Design Proposal 1

For one of my unbuilt architectures I want to bring forward the "Hydropolis" which is an underwater hotel under construction In Dubai. The reason why I'm choosing this is because currently there is no underwater architecture that exists besides a few underwater aquariums and condo's.

Below is an actual underwater condo that was built next to a Coral reef.

After looking at the graphics in the game crysis, I can see the visual effects of the underwater Hydropolis hotel looking really good. Because Crysis is a game as well it will enable us to explore in realtime the construction of an underwater building, if it as at all possible within cryengine 2.

Below is a illustration of the proposed final outcome of the Hydropolis.

I think that this building should be our team collaborative fabrication because it outlines a new theme in architecture that has not been fully established yet. I think that a underwater hotel would look fantastic next to a reef where marine life would be just outside your window acting like a giant aquarium. And using the cryengine2 it all seems possible.

Design Proposal 2

For the other unbuilt architecture I have been researching information about another proposed structure in Dubai. It is called the Dubai deathstar by Rem Koolhaas pictured below.

Although the actual purpose of the design is undefined it looks to me like it can serve as a stadium, like a modern version of the Colosseum. From the pictures that have been posted on this website "http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/rem_koolhaass_d.php", it does look like this structure can be a nature reserve or park as well as being a stadium.

I think that my team could use this as our collaborative fabrication as this structure would be interesting to make using the cryengine 2 as it is quite a large complex. By looking at some of the cryisis environments, a large scale project like the Dubai deathstar seems possible. The structural elements and landscaping would be quite challenging to do but I think it would be worth it in the end.

Week 1 Studio and Crysis tutorial

In week 1 studio we were organised into groups. My group consists of Philip, Eva and Stephen. After reading through our project briefs and course outlines we decided on coming up with a team name. We eventually decided to call our team ATLAR. After talking briefly about possible designs for our first assignment we started on the crysis tutorial.

Creating the land masses first was pretty straight forward as crysis can randomly generate terrain for you which you can then edit later.

The next part of the tutorial consisted of adding materials and vegetation to the terrain to make it look relistic.

This is the end of the tutorial which showed me how to create cliffs and caves. It also showed me how to place objects and animate AI.