...Guns, Germs and Steel Page 1 GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: The Fates of Human Societies By Jared Diamond, 1997 About the Author: Jared Diamond is a professor of physiology at UCLA School of Medicine. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and was awarded a 1999 National Medal of Science. He is also the author of The Third Chimpanzee. SUMMARY The book asks and attempts to answer the question, once humankind spread throughout the world, why did different populations in different locations have such different histories? The modern world has been shaped by conquest, epidemics, and genocide, the ingredients of which arose first in Eurasia. The book’s premise is that those ingredients required the development of agriculture. Agriculture also arose first in Eurasia, not because Eurasians were superior in any way to people of other continents, but because of a unique combination of naturally occurring advantages, including more and more suitable wild crops and animals to domesticate, a larger land mass with fewer barriers to the spread of people, crops, and technology, and an east-west axis which meant that climate was similar across the region. The book is well written and contains not only information about the history of cultures around the world, but excellent descriptions of the scientific methodologies used to study them, from how archeologists study the origin of agriculture to how writing evolved to how linguistics can trace the movements of peoples across huge geographic...
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...The paper introduces the category of “architectural innovation” on the basis that seemingly minor changes to technology which may earlier be classified as an incremental innovation can have competitive consequences of a radical one. The key concept is the distinction between component knowledge and architectural knowledge. The paper argues that firms concentrate on refining components within a stable architecture established by a dominant design, and consequently, their “information-processing capabilities” are shaped by the existing architecture. While building upon component knowledge, their architectural knowledge is outmoded and made obsolete by architectural innovations. Their resulting inability to identify or understand new interactions between components has serious competitive consequences. The conceptual framework of the paper is clear and straightforward. The main argument is advanced in a logical manner, and supporting premises (such as the way organizations manage knowledge) are supported by prior literature. Within the boundaries of the paper’s assumptions, the argument is persuasive. Furthermore, the application to the photolithographic alignment (PA) equipment industry justifies the model. The trends in the industry suggest the conceptual framework is largely accurate. Nonetheless, the assumptions made limit the usefulness of the concept. Firstly, the analysis of firms’ information-processing is restricted to communication channels, information filtering...
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...the means architects use to achieve novel forms of expression. Both of these perceptions are limited. Not only are they presented to us as two extremes of one thing, opposed to one another, but also as excluding one another. An architecture that follows a given style cannot be avant-garde because it makes use of compositional rules derived from the past; it is backward-looking and dependent on various forms of counterfeit to create the look of a bygone era. It is this tendency which, starting in the 1970s, has gained momentum as an option and has now become the universally accepted norm, with examples of buildings that show considerable ingenuity in the way tradition has been interpreted. The result, however, is a proliferation of architectural styles lacking in cogent ideas and which, in addition, have ended by debasing the very cultural values on which traditional...
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...Society & Architectural Design Architecture is defined as the complex or carefully designed structure of an object. In this case architecture can apply to a variety of different examples that are not just buildings, or objects, but as a reflection upon the thoughts and ideas of the time period in history. In this essay I will be discussing the dramatic impact that architecture has had on the major civilizations throughout time by being able to display them in their works, which not only was a clear representation of the time but as well helped mold and solidify the society’s thoughts through expression. By taking examples from ancient to modern times I will examine how the architecture of these eras clearly displays the thoughts and ideas of the culture in which it was built upon and as well the society in which it is placed. As well I will be examining how several major key architects played a dynamic role in these critical showcases that represented their time. I will be taking architectural examples from; the ancient Egyptian time period, the gothic and medieval time period, the renaissance & pre-modern period and the now contemporary period. Each one of these unique periods of time in architectural design were clear representation of the dynamic time period in our history. Here, looking back at these time periods we can see the most incredible works in architectural design that still to this day help us understand the culture at the time. As well I will be...
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...Architecture Comprehensive Examination Reviewer HISTORY AND THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1. The ornamental blocks fixed vertically at regular intervals along the lower edge of a roof to cover end tiles. a. ancones c. acroteria b. Antifixae 2. A continuous base or structure in which a colonnade is placed. a. stereobate c. stylobate b. Torus 3. The market in Greek architecture. a. Megaron c. agora b. Pylon 4. The smallest among the famous pyramids at Gizeh. a. Pyramid of Cheops c. Pyramid of Chephren b. Pyramid of Mykerinos 5. The largest outer court, open to the sky, in Egyptian temple. a. Sanctuary c. Irypaetral b. Irypostyle 6. The inner secret chamber in the mastaba which contains the statue of the deceased family member. a. Pilaster c. serdab b. Sarcophagus 7. The grandest of all Egyptian temples. a. Palace of Sargon c. Great temple of Ammon, Karnak b. Great temple of Abu-Simbel 8. The principal interior decoration of early Christian churches. a. stained glass c. painting b. mosaic 9. In early Christian churches, it is the covered space between the atrium and the church which was assigned to penitents. a. baldachino c. narthex b. apse 10. A dome placed on the drum. a. simple c. compound b. superpositioned 11. The architect of a church of Santa Sophia Constantinople, the most important church in Constantinople. a. Ictinus and Callicrates b. Apollodorous of Damascus and Isidorous on Miletus c. Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorous of Miletus 12. The second largest medieval cathedral...
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...Materials Readings for each week are provided both online on the course website at aafirstyearhts.wordpress.com and on the course library bookshelf. Students are expected to read each assigned reading every week to be discussed in seminar. The password to access the course readings is “readings”. TERM 1: CANONICAL BUILDINGS, PROJECTS, TEXTS In this first term of the lectures for this course, we will examine some of what are considered to be the most important modernist buildings, projects and texts from the 20th century. The course sets out to not only forensically scrutinise significant architects, movements, buildings/projects and texts, which by general consensus are considered to represent key moments in the history of architectural...
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...cover for the award book at the British Book Design and Production Awards in 2014. The architectural works by the studio S333 contained within the book 'British Built' also inspired me to undertake further research. From this I discovered the studio's Great Kneighton project, based in Cambridge, which focused on efficient design with many open green areas, creating an environmentally and socially sustainable area. In my recent travels to Tuscany, I discovered that the...
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...Step produced for ArchiCAD 8. The author, Thomas M. Simmons, spent seven years as an architect and served as the Director of Design Technology for Esherick, Homsey, Dodge and Davis Architects, an award-winning and internationally acclaimed architecture firm, before starting his company, ARCHVISTA. While at EHDD Architects, he was instrumental in integrating and managing ArchiCAD on a variety of projects including single-family houses, commercial buildings, libraries and aquariums. Simmons received a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A & M University. He has been a speaker on a variety of subjects including Beginning to Advanced ArchiCAD, Architectural Multimedia,...
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...Paper Review – Architectural Innovation Incremental and radical innovation have always been the centerpiece and basis of a company’s innovation strategy. Henderson and Clark (1990) however, attempt to bring another categorization of innovation to the foreground. Termed as architectural innovation, they define it as “innovations that change the way in which the components of a product are linked together, while leaving the core design concepts untouched”. This type of innovation serves to make established architectural knowledge, knowledge of how individual components interact with each other, obsolete. In their paper, they established that organizations that are deeply entrenched in existing architectural knowledge have high levels of inertia to change when there is architectural innovation. Firms tend to resist such changes due to the high costs for an overhaul of existing systems or their inability to recognize such innovation. Without recognising and acting upon it, established firms may decline despite being the inventor of the core technologies in a system, much like in the case of Xerox. New entrants, on the other hand, have a greater advantage as they are not encumbered by existing but partially irrelevant architectural knowledge. That being said, it is not easy to recognize such innovation since the core technologies doesn’t change and this could lead firms to mistakenly believe that they are able to comprehend the new technology. This new concept, or rather category...
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...PART 1 In previous articles I have outlined how the usage of the term innovation has grown exponentially over the last years. You can hear it in politics, institutions, international organizations and so on. Despite this popularity, however, we can say that innovation management is still an immature “science”. There is no dominant theory on the field and little agreement among managers and academics alike regarding what affects a company’s ability to innovate. With that in mind I decided to start a series of articles covering the most influential innovation management theories, laying down a comparative analysis where the insights gained from one theory can be used to fill the gaps of another. Throughout the series I will cover different authors (Henderson, Utterback, Teece, Tushman, Forster, Christensen, etc) and different concepts of innovation (incremental, modular, architectural, radical, product, process, market, disruptive, organizational, complementary, etc). Schumpeter: The first part will be dedicated to the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, a pioneer when we talk about innovation management. Around the 1930s Schumpeter started studying how the capitalist system was affected by market innovations. In his book “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” he described a process where “the opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development [...] illustrate the same process of industrial mutation, that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure...
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...Working Paper: November 2006 Innovation: Basic Concepts and Models By S. N. Nasirpourosgoei and A-M Coles For many firms the development of new products is a major business activity, although Ettlie (2006) points out that many new products are merely copies or imitations of existing ones. The study of innovation is concerned with identifying how firms use their existing knowledge and technical resources to develop goods, processes and services that are significantly novel. Innovation is often seen as a key driver of economic growth for a country and increased firm productivity (Gann, 2003 cited in Abbott and Jeong, 2006). Trott (2005) demonstrates that the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century was fuelled by technological innovations, while Abbott and Jeong (2006) argue that there is now increasing emphasis on the importance of innovation for long-term economic success. At an organisational level, specific benefits include such factors as market growth, reductions in production cost, competitive positioning and opening up of new markets (Slaughter, 1998). For Ettlie the key questions in the study of innovation relate to the way some firms can utilise individual creativity in innovation more successfully than others. Innovation is has become a vital part of business survival and is supported by much academic study into reasons for its success and failure, for example, in 1994 – 1995, 275 books published in the US had the word ‘innovation’ in their title (Trott 2005)...
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...The Hamilton Hotel The first Hamilton hotel was built in 1885-1889 and was attributed to Mr. J.M. Hamilton. The construction of this building transformed the Laredo community into a flourishing metropolis. Due to the escalation of the community’s popularity, the three story hotel would later undergo essential renovations. The San Antonio architectural firm of Ayres and Ayres engineered the distinctive construction of this Renaissance inspired building. The statuesque Hamilton Hotel stands its ground in South Laredo, Downtown at an appalling twelve stories high. The hotels prominent location, stylistic beauty, and the community’s determination to keep it preserved uphold the building to a high degree of architectural and historical integrity. Taking a walk through downtown, towards the esteemed Hamilton hotel is as if taking a stroll through history. Right across from the hotel is a pharmacy and a neighboring building that are only a few years younger. On the front, right corner, lays the Jarvis plaza and on its left is the U.S. Post Office/ Court House edifice. The Hamilton hotel is situated smack in the middle of all these historical landmarks. The favorable route is through the Jarvis Plaza and the U.S. Post Office/Court House. It is two o’clock in the afternoon and the sun is out with no mercy, but the green-leafed, willowed trees surrounding the court house provide a sufficient amount of shade. There’s very little commotion. No yelling or running, only pedestrians sitting...
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...Architects design all types of things. (What Does an Architect Do?) They design schools, skyscrapers, hospitals, churches and many other things. (What Does an Architect Do?) Almost ever building you walk into is most likely designed by a architect.(What Does an Architect Do?) If there was no architects what would this world do? A architects income is around $56,000-$85,000 per year. (Learn More Indiana) When you first start off as being an architect you are considered as a Junior Drafter, those are the ones that make around $56,000 a year. (Career Information Center Seventh Edition) Work place would be in a office. (Learn More Indiana) Some things that you would need to be capable of doing is public speaking. (Learn More Indiana) You would also need to be able to work independently and able to have a face-to-face conversation. (Learn More Indiana) A architect is easy to become as long as you have a collage degree for architecture and graduate collage. (Career Information Center Seventh Edition) Some training is needed. Courses that are needed are mechanical drawing, art, history, physics, and mathematics. (Career Information Center Seventh Edition) You also need to know how to draw blue prints and drawing plans. (What Does an Architect Do?) If you like art, this would be a good job for you because you may need to make paper or plastic models of your design. (What Does an Architect Do?) What you do as a architect. Architects do a lot of thinking. They have to...
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...The skyline of San Francisco is certainly a view that will remain in the minds of those that have witnessed it. A special building included in that skyline is a tall, white concrete column, known as Coit Tower. Coit Tower was completed in 1933 on the peak of Telegraph Hill. The tower is named after Lillie Hitchcock Coit, a wealthy advocate of the San Francisco firefighters. Although she died in 1929, she had money reserved for the construction of the tower as well as a monument dedicated to volunteer firefighters in Washington Square. The design of Coit Tower was done by Arthur Brown, Jr, an architect who designed the San Francisco City Hall. Coit Tower is a slender white concrete column easily visible when viewing the city's skyline. Although...
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...“The Bean”, more properly termed Cloud Gate, is an awe-inspiring sculpture in the heart of downtown Chicago, Il. In 2006, Indian born British artist Anish Kapoor created this sizable spectacle originally designed for a competition. Once Kapoor’s design was chosen, there were many obstacles to overcome in implementing the sculpture. Cloud Gate was formally dedicated on May 15, 2006, has gained considerable popularity with the public, and is now on display in Millennium Park as a tourist hotspot. This monument can be formally analyzed in terms of its obscure shape. The structure is an unusual shape for a monument. Most outside structures are simply rectangular or circular. This bean shape gives the piece an attractive and interesting quality, lending to peaked intrigue by viewers. Obscure works create mystery and fascination with them and the viewer. This shape enables the viewer to observe the sculpture from all sides, even underneath. This allows for all ages, even children, to enjoy the view and interact with “The Bean”, which lends to multiple visits of the site. Since the site is located in the heart of Chicago, the community will profit from this piece, even though it is free to view. Other venues, including malls and restaurants, will have increased sales when tourists come to view the spectacle. The color and texture of Cloud Gate leaves so much to the imagination. The shiny smooth outer surface allows for a “mirrored” affect. This simple yet elegant work allows for...
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