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“You need more fingers than ten:” Collaborating to Document Architectural Practice

Kathryn PierceSchool of InformationUniversity of Texas at Austin

VRA + ARLIS/NA 2011Friday, March 25, 2011

Presentation overview

The Problem Inspiration Context My project Collaboration

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Long term preservation of digital architectural records

Architectural firms have limited concern about the preservation of records

Problem

“A crucial link in the continuum between architectural records of the past and those of the future is being contemporaneously lost simply because no one knows what to do with the records of the moment.”

By Richard Binning (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Drawings at the Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin, Photo by Kathryn Pierce, July 2, 2010

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DVD.png

5.5 in. floppy disk at the Alexander Architectural Archive, The University of Texas at Austin, Photo by Kathryn Pierce, February 12, 2010

– Laura Tatum, “Documenting Design: A Survey of State-of-the-Art Practice for Archiving Architectural Records,” Art Documentation 21, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 29.

Inspiration

PFC/30-b/Esquema FuncionalImage by Alvaro Carnicerohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/alvarocarnicero/113846152/

00-RESUMEN2-CImage by Alvaro Carnicero http://www.flickr.com/photos/alvarocarnicero/116738738/

revit_screenshotWilliam Cromarhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/williamcromar/4998526213/

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Digital Design Data – Art Institute of Chicago Architecture and Design Department

Modern wing, Art Institute of Chicago, 2009Photo by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaarhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/hinnosaar/3796423217/

Art Institute of Chicago - Allerton Building, 2006Photo by Wally Gobetzhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/170180928/

ContextFACADE – Future-proofing Architectural Computer-Aided DesignMIT Libraries & School of Architecture and Planning

Ray and Maria Stata Center, MITPhoto by Christopher Chan http://www.flickr.com/photos/chanc/374392584/

Project Information Model, FACADE, MIT Librarieshttp://facade.mit.edu

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Interview and observation based study Engage record creators Consider lifecycle of recordsInclude asset managers

My Project

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Can libraries, archives, museums, and visual resources collections become viable repositories for long-term preservation?

What else can be done to create an active, contemporary, evolving collaboration between these professions?

Questions?

“You need more fingers than ten:” Collaborating to Document Architectural Practice

Build relationships between repositories and the architectural community

Multiple perspectives Different priorities

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Kristine Fallon Associates, Inc. Collecting, Archiving and Exhibiting Digital Design Data. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2004-2007, http://www.artic.edu/aic/depts/architecture/ddd.html.

Jolene de Verges & Allison Benedetti, “Saving Our Cultural Heritage: New Efforts to Preserve CAD Models” presentation at the annual meeting for the Art Libraries Society of North America, 38th Annual Conference Proceedings, http://www.arlisna.org/news/conferences/2010/proceed_index.html.

MacKenzie Smith, “Final Report for the MIT FACADE Project: October 2006-August 2009,” MIT Libraries, accessed online at http://facade.mit.edu/presentations.html.

Laura Tatum, “Documenting Design: A Survey of State-of-the-Art Practice for Archiving Architectural Records,” Art Documentation 21, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 29.

Flicker images used under Creative Commons license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/.

Selective Bibliography

Thank you to ARLiSNAP for selecting me to speak in the “New Voices in the Profession” session. I would like to acknowledge the Institute of Museum and Library Services for their generous support of the Doctoral Preservation Fellows at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information. Finally, a special thanks to the Alexander Architectural Archives and Architecture and Planning Library staff and to faculty and students in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin.