Wick Architecture & Design and Land Design Studio introduce their brand design of the Santa Monica, California, store of Odd One Out Tea, a Taiwanese companyhttps://www.e-architect.com/california/odd-one-out-cafe-santa-monica-california#architecture #design #santamonica #california #cafeWick Architecture & Design and Land Design Studio proudly introduce their brand design of the Santa Monica store of Odd One Out Tea

Nationwide nonresidential construction spending decreased by 0.4% in the month of October, according to anAssociated Builders and Contractors(ABC) analysis ofrecent U.S. Census Bureau data. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential spending totaled $1.228 trillion.Octobers spending declined in 11 of 16 nonresidential subcategories. For the private nonresidential sector, spending decreased by 0.3% while public nonresidential construction spending declined by 0.5%.Table credit: Associated Builders and ContractorsSome of Octobers nonresidential weakness and residential strength can be attributed to hurricanes Helene and Milton, ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu said about the figures. The storms stalled work on several projects in North Carolina and Florida and initiated a massive increase in residential repair work. Construction of new housing units is actually down slightly over the past year, while spending on renovations and repairs is up by a robust 18.5%....

This week's edition of our curated career roundup from the Archinect Job board features eight architecture schools in search of faculty and facilities staff.Preparing for a new job? Be sure to follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, and interviewing skills and increase your chances of getting that next job.Teaching PositionsTexas A&M University seeks a Tenured/Tenure-Track: Open Rank Faculty in the Department of Architecture in College Station, TX"The responsibilities of the successful candidate include conducting original research, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, and obtaining and managing funded research projects. The candidate will teach courses in their area of expertise, contribute to masters and doctoral committees, and provide service to the public and architecture professions. Additionally, they will actively participate in the governance and administration of the department."Image courtesy Texas A&M College of Architecture/Face...

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work throughArchitizerand sign up for ourinspirational newsletters.For centuries, France has led in higher education, cultivating a legacy of academic prestige that shapes ideas, culture and professions worldwide. From the influential Sorbonne in the Middle Ages to the renowned grandes coles of today, French institutions have been pioneers of specialized education, inspiring generations of creative minds.That being said, academic distinction is not their only hallmark design plays a vital role as well. From campuses housed in centuries-old landmarks to striking contemporary structures, Frances higher education institutions reveal how thoughtful design supports the pursuit of knowledge.Through expressive materials, precise techniques and forward-thinking methods, these spaces echo the same dedication to excellence found in their curricula. So without further ado, lets take a look at eight French institutions where architecture acts as a foundation for learning.ESIEE-IT school of engineering and digital expertisesBy Vallet de Martinis architectes, Pontoise, FranceThis building reimagines the educational experience by combining carefully guided circulation with open, flexible spaces. Tiered levels create a variety of shared areas, including interior terraces, outdoor terraces and a stepped access to the amphitheaters, fostering collaboration and interaction between staff and students. The design emphasizes movement, encouraging users to explore and engage with the structure, promoting both work and well-being.The faade, characterized by rhythmic metal louvers, provides a striking visual identity while serving a functional purpose. These louvers, oriented at varying angles, reduce solar heat gain and allow for expansive full-height glass windows, ensuring natural light fills the interiors. The carved design creates an interplay of shadow and transparency, offering a unique dynamic experience from both inside and outside the structure.Deloitte University EMEABy Dubuisson, Bailly-Romainvilliers, FranceThis campus is a carefully designed training facility that integrates architecture and landscape to support collaboration and professional development. Inspired by French estates, the fan-shaped layout maximizes sunlight and natural ventilation while preserving the sites natural features.Terracotta tile roofs and wooden facades create a strong connection to the local environment, both visually and materially. The interiors are tailored to encourage interaction and productivity, with open, flexible spaces that adapt to various training needs.Sustainability is at the core of the design, with bioclimatic principles guiding the massing and energy-efficient materials used throughout. The campus demonstrates how thoughtful planning can enhance both the user experience and environmental performance.Btiment H Maison de lconomie Pessac University CampusBy marjan hessamfar & joe verons architectes associes, Pessac, FranceBtiment H Maison de lconomie is a centerpiece of the University of Bordeauxs campus renewal, combining academic and administrative functions within a sustainable and adaptable structure.The building features three distinct blocks for research and training, administrative offices and shared spaces, connected by circulation areas and patios that bring in natural light. A carefully proportioned massing strategy ensures harmony with its surroundings while maintaining a sense of accessibility.The faade incorporates pale concrete, glass and anthracite-painted metal, with vertical and horizontal brise soleil that provide shading, reduce heat gain and improve energy performance. Inside, a grid-based design supports flexibility, while bioclimatic systems like active slab heating and high-density wood wool insulation create a comfortable and efficient environment.ESSCA School of Management BordeauxBy GUIRAUD-MANENC, Bordeaux, FranceJury Winner, 12th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +GlassLocated in Bordeauxs growing Bastide Niel district, the ESSCA School of Management transforms a 19th-century barracks into a contemporary teaching facility for future business leaders.The design preserves the original masonry walls while constructing a seven-story structure within them, creating a striking contrast between the historic base and the light, reflective new addition. Off-white stone panels and glass brise soleil bring modern functionality, allowing natural light to filter into the interior while providing shade and energy efficiency.Outside, a rooftop terrace offers a place for students to interact and relax, while enjoying the panoramic views of Bordeaux.University of Law-Paris I, Modernisation of the Lourcine Barracks, Paris (13)By Chartier Dalix, Paris, FranceThis 19th-century military site retains its historic features while introducing new educational functions for the University of Law-Paris I.The parade ground has been transformed into a landscaped forecourt, framing an underground gallery and lecture theatre. Above ground, classrooms and offices are integrated into the original masonry walls, with spacious interiors and historic materials carefully preserved to honor the sites heritage.Contemporary additions, including glass elements and refined finishes, create a functional and welcoming academic environment. This thoughtful redesign provides students and staff with a setting that respects history while meeting modern educational needs, fostering learning and connection in an exceptional architectural context.Alstom Warehouses, Nantes Higher School of Fine ArtsBy Franklin Azzi Architecture, Nantes, FranceLocated in the transforming industrial district of le de Nantes, the requalification of the Alstom Warehouses reflects a forward-thinking approach to urban renewal. The project restructures 26,000 square meters of existing warehouses into a multipurpose district, bringing together education, culture and enterprise.At the heart of this redevelopment is the Nantes Saint-Nazaire Higher School of Fine Arts, designed by Franklin Azzi Architecture within Warehouses No. 4 and 5. The monumental structure accommodates 500 students with workshops, open spaces for experimentation, an art library and public spaces like a gallery and youth center. These new facilities are tailored to support contemporary art production across a range of mediums, including material, digital and print.The revitalized district fosters collaboration among over 4,500 students from various fieldsart, architecture, design and digital mediaencouraging an exchange of ideas while integrating the old industrial site into the citys evolving fabric.International Fashion Campus, ParisBy Architecture Patrick Mauger, Paris, France The former City of Fashion and Design has been transformed into an educational space dedicated to couture and fashion professions. Across its floors, collaborative and flexible environments are designed to support creative learning and experimentation. Wood plays a central role in the design, drawing inspiration from the warmth and craftsmanship of Parisian fashion houses and giving the building a distinct identity.An interior street on the ground floor connects the school to the city, fostering an open relationship between the institution and its urban surroundings. The design emphasizes natural light and transparency, with raw concrete and glass partitions creating a modern aesthetic while maintaining a functional and welcoming environment.From design studios to shared workspaces, the building provides students with practical, adaptable spaces that reflect the collaborative nature of the fashion industry, supporting their growth and creativity in an inspiring setting.Universit de Technologie de Compigne (UTC)By Ameller Dubois & Associs, Compigne, France With a three-level open plan, wrapped in a bioclimatic faade of wooden panels, this building is designed to optimize light, shading and ventilation according to orientation and use. This thoughtful integration of shading devices allows full-height windows to illuminate laboratories and workspaces while maintaining energy efficiency.The building creates a cohesive identity through its design, offering outdoor terraces and double-height interiors that encourage relaxation and collaboration. A striking 14-ton suspended staircase connects the levels, combining dark iron and light beech tones to echo the buildings material palette.Prioritizing environmental sensibility, the structure aligns with prevailing winds and sunlight while maintaining strong visual connections to the surrounding park. From its adaptable faade to its welcoming interiors, the UTC building embodies a careful balance between technical precision and a supportive academic environment, fostering innovation and interaction.Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work throughArchitizerand sign up for ourinspirational newsletters.The post La Crme de la Classe: 8 French Higher Education Institutions That Lead by Design appeared first on Journal.

Join us virtually on December 13th for a special Trading Notes, sponsored by Vestre, titled "Designing Public Space: Social Forums and Sustainable Materials for Public Landscape." Come listen to speakers Kristoffer Vestre (Vestre) and Isabel Castilla (Field Operations) and Christine Ten Eyck (Ten Eyck Landscape Architects) discuss how to design successful outdoor spaces that create energizing places for gathering, recreation, and play. The online event is free to attend; just save your seat! Register now at https://tradingnotes.archpaper.com

Mass timber is here to stay, but when is it right and why will it matter for residential design? Join The Architect's Newspapers Daniel Roche in conversation with William Richards, author of Against the Grain: Mass Timber in the Home, and architect Aaron Schiller of Schiller Projects on December 5th at 55 Hudson Yards in New York for a night of drinks and conversation. Space is limited! RSVP now https://t.ly/x1Jmk. This event is hosted by Schiller Projects and media partner The Architects Newspaper and kindly sponsored by Richard H. Jenrette Foundation.

Powerlesshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS42YC1ipN0&list=PLc6NCp8iAPDaszNF0AF3F5FA35QK-6bgh&index=25 #3d #cgi #animation #animated #shortfilm #short #Artist #DigitalArt #3DArt #Art #2D #Artwork #Games #GameArt #Illustration #DigitalArtist #Drawing #YouTube #cgmeetupCGI 3D Animated Short Film: Powerless Animated Short Film by Daryl Seah, Ge Jian Han Benny, Jasmin Tan, Keith Tsang, Shaun Phoa at DigiPen. Featured on CGMee...

Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral: An icon digitally revisited by MPC Parishttps://www.cgmeetup.com/news/notre-dame-de-paris-cathedral-an-icon-digitally-revisited-by-mpc-paris-823. #3d #cgi #animation #animated #shortfilm #short #Artist #DigitalArt #3DArt #Art #2D #Artwork #Games #GameArt #Illustration #DigitalArtist #Drawing #MPC #cgmeetup

Capcoms Monster Hunter Wilds has received some new details courtesy of new hands-on previews, including information on monsters like Uth Duna and Quematrice. While weapons now benefit from Equipment Skills (learn more here), it also seems that certain types will receive changes following beta feedback.GamesRadar was advised not to use the Lance and Switch Axe in their time with the build since theyre due for substantial changes. These will apparently be big upgrades, but thats not all. Sword and Shield and the Insect Glaive will also receive some changes to address issues with Focus Mode and controls.It wouldnt be surprising if all weapons received some changes and balance adjustments following feedback, so stay tuned for more details in the coming months. Monster Hunter Wilds launches on February 28th, 2025, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It will feature brand-new mechanics like carrying an extra weapon to switch to during a hunt, the previously-mentioned Focus Mode for more precise aiming and special attacks, and much more.

Weve discussed GSC Game Worlds S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl a lot, both before and after launch. As the sequel to the beloved sandbox shooter franchise, which was first announced back in 2010 before being cancelled and re-announced in 2018, its been a long time coming with reasonable amounts of hype.Returning to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and immersing in the Anomaly-filled region, interacting with other Stalkers, fending off mutants, and uncovering mysteries felt like a long time coming. That it looked so good and offered substantial improvements over the older games was also exciting.However, the technical aspects have left something to be desired, though. Even after the launch with patches, there are still several bugs and performance issues. When the experience works, its an engaging affair, thats as oppressive as it is immersive. Seeing the Zone come to life like this, whether its the weather rolling in during a firefight or invisible mutants silently hunting before striking, is an incredible experience for fans, story be damned.However, when it doesnt work and makes fans question whether a feature is even working properly (or not), then there are some big problems, and nowhere is this more apparent than with A-Life 2.0.A-Life, for those who havent played any of the previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, is a system that affects the AI in the Zone. Non-playable characters arent just presenting detailed actions in front of the player they also have schedules and effectively exist even if you cant see them. As lead programmer and creator Dmitriy Iassenev explained in 2008 to AiGameDev, its like they have their own lives.You can essentially divide the system into two layers online and offline. The former dictates everything thats happening in front of or around the player, while the latter is whats simulated in the background when the player isnt nearby. NPCs and enemies will then switch between these layers within proximity of the player.Its a staple of the older titles and what effectively made them so dynamic. Even if you played through before, theres no guarantee that the same events will transpire, thus adding to the replay value. With S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, GSC Game World promised a reimagining of sorts. The reimagined version of this system, which we call A-Life 2.0, will control the state of the world and the behavior of characters and mutants, making the Zone ever-changing and truly alive. Countless events and encounters will happen every moment even if you are not around to witness them with your own eyes, it said.The FAQ also called it a simulation system for life in the Zone. Factions and mutants are fighting for living space, migrating, capturing new places, or retreating to safer areas. A-Life is what makes Zone truly alive and unpredictable. On the surface, it sounds like the evolution of a beloved system integral to the identity of the series as a whole.The good news? Its not missing by any means. The bad news? It doesnt currently work. At least, not like its supposed to.Post-launch, some players reported the AI scripting as being underwhelming. Theres even a clip of NPCs spawning out of thin air (and even behind the player) as theyre killed in rapid succession. Reports of GSC Game World removing mentions of A-Life 2.0 on the games Steam page also didnt help, though its still very much included in the FAQ on the games official site.However, the development team seemingly noted spawning issues with A-Life in the day one patch. The teams community manager would subsequently confirm that the system isnt working as intended. It will have updates coming up to make it really feel like A-Life 2.0, but unfortunately, it will take longer than expected. The recent patch notes confirmed the issues plaguing the system will take a bit longer to resolve.How long exactly? The same community manager didnt have a timeline, only commenting on Discord that it would be addressed in future updates.While GSC Game World hasnt gone into the nitty gritty outlining everything wrong with the current system, a modder named ConnerRia, who created the Roadside Panic mod to restore A-Life to the Zone, did offer some explanation. They noted that the AI director is adversely affected due to severe bugs compounding each other. The AlifeGridVisionRadius is allegedly quite low (about 80 meters), which means characters effectively dont exist outside of it.But what about the offline layer? Apparently, its not even working. As the modder notes, The offline A-Life of the past games no longer exists. The Director in this game has its own system to manage offline events outside the bubble range. Except this kind of flat out does not work. While Roadside Panic attempts to restore it, its very performance-heavy and can result in NPCs with quests outright disappearing or towns becoming empty, necessitating a reload. The modder notes, This is a stopgap measure until GSC fixes the underlying bugs with the AI Director, or A-Life 2.0. Try at your own risk and all that jazz.In a recent interview with IGN, GSC CEO Ievgen Grygorovych and creative director Maria Grygorovych offered more details on issues with A-Life 2.0 and why it ended up the way it did. The former confirmed that the distance around which the system should function had to be limited to optimize performance.To work properly, this system requires a much larger area for spawn NPCs and much more memory resources. We were fighting with optimization. To optimize, you have a lot of things that need your resources, and you try to cut things from different directions to properly optimize the game.But to make it work, we had to optimize some things, and they make A-Life work in many situations in ways that it shouldnt. Also, we created some bugs not long ago before release, with NPCs spawning in the air and dropping back to the bottom. They should actually spawn in the terrain. Why it happened, I dont know! Also, we had some bugs with AI behavior.So, all these things connected make it look like its very broken and not working. But we are now working on the optimization part to bring more resources for the A-Life system and to increase the range where A-Life is actually visualized.There are NPCs outside of the range of the player and they are in offline mode. When the player reaches some distance, they go to online mode and pop back up. The distance is dictated by our optimization range, where we stream the real world and the non-real world with all the collisions. It was tough work, and because of these optimization problems and bugs, its become broken.However, the development team is committed to fixing A-Life 2.0 with optimization, squashing bugs, and giving more resources. Its also working to make it more advanced, though, once again, theres no ETA for all of this.Shipping a product with such a major feature in shambles would rightfully result in a fair amount of ire. Look no further than Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, which is suffering its own fair share of issues, not the least of which includes heavier reliance on cloud-based streaming of content. You could even point out how two out of three big console exclusives for Microsoft this season are buggy affairs and use that to criticize the publishers state of affairs.However, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2s situation is different, not just because the studio is independent but purely due to the hardship its endured after Russia invaded Ukraine (with some development team members even joining the fight). Then theres the fact that its faced cyberattacks, resulting in its test builds leaking and causing further strife. Its a brutal affair all around, and developing a video game in those circumstances, let alone one of this magnitude, seems straight-up impossible. GSC Game World pulled it off though, and deserves all the credit.Nevertheless, there is a school of thought which, though understanding the developers predicament, still points out that this is a full-priced game. Bugs and polish issues are one thing, but when an essential feature hyped for so long doesnt work, its not a good look. Then again, even if it took an extra week to fix the bugs and launch a more stable product, A-Life 2.0 would still be in shambles.Also, without the feedback that a wider player base can offer, GSC Game World may not have even caught on to how extensive the problems really were. And you would best believe that no one wants the system to work as intended as much as the team that created it.Its effectively a no-win situation for everyone involved. The only thing to be done is for players to effectively point out the issues and wait for the development team to fix them. Nothing more and nothing less.