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October 05, 2012
Metropolis Magazine Announces Annual Next Generation® Design Competition Call for Entries
Winning Design to be Awarded $10,000. Entry Deadline is February 18, 2013

July 25, 2012
Opening Games: Next Generation winner designs for London’s East End
London Mayor’s office has commissioned an urban installation called BLOOM Games, by Bartlett architecture professor and Next Generation winner Alisa Andrasek, for Victoria Park in the East End.

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The Architect's Newspaper
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Software Aims to Revamp Masonry Practice

November 10, 2004

Michael Silver, a runner-up in the 2004 Metropolis Next Generation® Design Competition, is working closely with the International Masonry Institute to develop Automason, a software program that aims to revolutionize age-old masonry building practices. The software, which would run off cellular automata—a method of computing that produces complex patterns based on a few basic rules—would allow on-site masons to receive, via cell phone or PDA, precise instructions on how to lay each individual brick of a building. The result of the program would be intricate, computer-generated stonework patterns with maximize structural efficiency.

“The software is intended to augment existing building practices, an idea that really appealed to the masons and craftsmen we met with, who felt the industry was in need of an innovative approach that would give it a competitive edge,” explains Silver, an architect and visiting professor at the University of Michigan.

The International Masonry Institute is funding the research and, more important, providing craftsmen to test the software and assemble a prototype. Silver also received a research grant from the Boston Society of Architects and may soon enlist the help of University of Michigan students if the class he is proposing—on integrating software code-writing skills into the design process—is approved.



January 21, 2009
The Freer Masons
Michael Silver’s new audio software liberates bricklayers from their paper plans.

January 12, 2009
A CASE in Point
2004 Next Generation Runner-up launches an original academic program

June 04, 2008
Growing Full Steam Ahead

November 01, 2007
Shelter from Taliesin to Manila

June 06, 2007
More on Molo
See what’s unfolding for a past runner-up

February 16, 2005
Updates: Forsythe + MacAllen, Lira Luis, Jeanine Centuori
Updates on 2004 Metropolis Next Generation® Design Competition runners-up Forsythe + MacAllen, Lira Luis, and UrbanRock Design/Jeanine Centuori.

December 22, 2004
Seattle Waterfront Plan Dealt Setback
Next Generation Design Competition runner-up Cary Moon and her People’s Waterfront Coalition were dealt a blow this week when Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced the city’s plan to replace the Alaska Way Viaduct with a six-lane tunnel.

December 01, 2004
A Place to Dock
Architect Lira Luis’s temporary shelter would give Manila seafarers someplace to come home to.

December 01, 2004
Building Blocks
A young designer finds a way to recycle plastics into reusable building components.

December 01, 2004
Flower Power
Landscape-architecture studio StoSS proposes a plan that uses phytoremediation to make brownfields into public gardens.

December 01, 2004
Reclaiming the River
Pete Seeger and friends promote a permeable swimming structure for the newly cleaned-up Hudson River.

November 22, 2004
A Backup Plan
When his study of leading task chairs revealed that most of them force the sitter into unhealthy postures, industrial designer Jeff Jenkins decided to start with healthy postures and work backward.

November 22, 2004
Improv Theater
Architects often espouse the idea of adaptability, but they rarely give it center stage.

October 01, 2004
Do the Strand
Seattle activists suggest that the best plan for a troubled waterfront freeway may be to eliminate it.

August 01, 2004
Radiant Living
Emergent turns infrastructure into ornamentation with a concept house based on systems of circulation.

July 01, 2004
Mapping the Competition ‘04
Where did all these ideas for the Metropolis Next Generation Design competition come from?

July 01, 2004
Accordion Architecture
A Canadian firm’s material experiments produce flexible living spaces.

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