Cornell scientist turns photos into 3-D buildings

10:49 pm | Architecture, Cornell, Software | No comment

A set of algorithms that generated three-dimensional models from unstructured collections of two-dimensional photos was enhanced by a Cornell computer scientist, Noah Snavely, while working on his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Washington.  PhotoCity, a new method that developed from his original work. There are teams of students at the University of Washington and Cornell that have been playing the PhotoCity game. The researchers plan to mix their system with a social game that allows teams to add images where they are necessary to enhance the visual models in order to improve the quality of the renderings. Researchers are planning to open it for public use to be able to gather three-dimensional renderings in cities like New York and San Francisco. An iPhone application that uses the phone’s camera, or upload collections of digital images can be used by the participators.

Kathleen Tuite, a University of Washington graduate student and a computer graphics researcher who is one of the designers of PhotoCity said that researchers are suggesting to award real prizes that would create incentives similar to Geocaching, the popular Internet GPS game.

NJIT students solving Urban Challenge

5:15 pm | Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology | No comment

Thirteen students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology are trying their best to find an answer to an urban challenge: Can an inexpensive home avoid ending up like their horrible box-like pioneers?

A student Joan Lui shows her hand made model of a townhouse that she has been working on for Habitat Newark during an architecture class at NJIT in Newark in November.

Part of an alliance with Habitat for Humanity, students were given real-world experience and gives the non-profit with new concepts for its homes.

The students have drawn numerous ideas last September that will be utilized to construct 7 multi-family townhouses on Ridgewood Avenue like a simple project that will restore the city’s building design.

The city builders said that three-level buildings lack design qualities, and it should be replaced by a design that requires organizing it into place than in a Rubik’s Cube, with a topsy- turvy regulations, green aspect, and stretched budgets that must be monitored.

Detailed shot of sketch and a hand-made model that Cara Constantino, NJIT student, has been working on to design townhouses for Habitat Newark during an architecture class.

The working designs still consist of ingenious characteristics in the assigned 1,500 square-feet. There are uncovered courtyards inside, private places amid the house for children’s safety. Others have added environmental features, such as tilted roofs that will catch and store rainwater in a rain garden, and “solar chimneys”, vertical shafts that better aerate apartment buildings.

Alex Merlucci, 21, of Kinnelon , one of the students who describes the mission as noble though it is complicated and challenging, said that their concentration is to build efficient homes with the significance of architecture – “a reason for every designed component”. They are not only trying to give people a shelter, but also a home.

Students design projects for vacant Phoenix lots

5:57 pm | ASU, Architecture | No comment

On December 8, there will be a presentation at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus regarding low cost ideas like the construction of planter boxes and the transformation of vacant lots in downtown Phoenix for temporary use.

The university students in an urban design practice class educated by Nan Ellin, an associate professor produced the multimedia presentation of research models.

The mayor’s office asked for the ASU students to produce a model for the temporary use of publicly owned vacant lots to address the vexing challenge and as a result, students created the Desert TULIP – Temporary Urban Laboratory Infill Project – a low-cost method to convert vacant lots until their progress.

An area on the lots on the south of Garfield between Third and Sixth Streets chosen to become part of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus were particularly asked for the students to concentrate on.

Undergraduate and graduate students of different backgrounds and majors looked worldwide for city vacant lot schemes.

To visualize Desert TULIP projects, high-resolution 3-D models of Phoenix were employed while the joint project of building planter boxes was considered as a first step toward transforming Phoenix’s vacant lots into urban facilities.

ASU sustainability students Carissa Taylor (left), Truman Kiyaani and
Braden Kay with a planter box nearing completion.

There will be a panel of discussion that includes representatives from the city of Phoenix, the    Phoenix Community Alliance and Roosevelt Row after the multimedia presentation with the outcome from the class research that contains the introduction of the demonstration planter box project. The presentation is scheduled from 11 a.m. to noon in the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory which is located on the eight floor of the Security Building on the southwest corner of Van Buren Street and Central Avenue.