What are our aims here at BE?

As a former Bentley employee, a cad guru, an architect and a journalist storytelling is as close to my heart as A is to B in the alphabet.

Then I find myself often in a mix of awe and bewilderment when I see new creations of architecture being created. Old architecture has alway told us a story. Perhaps of a genius architect, a great pharaoh or emperor or something - but what does new architecture tell us? And is that story really relevant? Do the architects and engineers of today really know what they are telling with concrete, steel and glass?

Modernism started about a century ago, perhaps with the Fagus factory by Walter Gropius in 1913. And back then modernism, or functionalism as we are used to calling it in Sweden, had a story to tell. A story of new times, cutting of from the old hierarchic structures, democracy and equality. We are still creating the same class and steel buildings, the same skyscrapers. On the www.skyscraperpage.com there are over six thousand high rise buildings and we still talk about creating new ones. What does that tell us? Do we ask ourselves what kind of cities we are creating?

Perhaps BE can be a place to discuss not only the tools and software we use to create all kinds of infrastructure - but perhaps BE also can be a hub to make our World a better place. Better by inviting everyone to talk, to reflect and to communicate on the subject of a sustainable future for all. Microstation might be our main tool, but you can do lots using it!

I do believe that - Start the ball rolling!

  • "Sustainable future" - nice - don't think I've heard anyone in the Bentley world say that before. Perhaps that's because Bentley's speciality 'Infrastructure' encompasses all the most finite-resource-greedy and energy-hungry things we do in the world. I feel an essay coming on.

    "Sustainable" has become such a debased word, almost gutless, so re-phrasing things to say "Unsustainable" carries more meaning - as in

    "Have we caused human habitation soon to become unsustainable on this planet? If so, what to do from now on?"

    Answer Verified By: Hans Loord 

  • Did loorddesign ever come back to look at the thread he started?

    Was my response any good, as

    "BE also can be a hub to make our World a better place. Better by inviting everyone to talk, to reflect and to communicate on the subject of a sustainable future for all"?

    What next with this great suggestion?

  • Thanks very much for your valuable input. Glad to be able to trigger an idea or two :-).

    What's Your Story?

    www.loorddesign.com

    +46 7 66 22 66 40

    @loordathome @loorddesign

  • My story? If that means 'what makes me personally tick' then I could say lots about my belief (perhaps passion?) that we should be aware of the effect of what what we design, on the world - socially, environmentally, not merely commercially. There's just about none of that evident in BeCommunities.

    Ultimately, that resource/energy-hungry 'Infrastructure' could be transformed from 'yet more damage', into the very thing that actively assists the planet in clearing up the mess we've made, in 100s or 1,000s of years, rather than 1,000s or 10,000s if 'nature' is un-aided. Because we won't survive a wait of 10,000yrs!

  • >Do the architects and engineers of today really know what they are telling with concrete, steel and glass?

    I'm no architect but the glass/steel buildings make me sick. There is a common know how among designers that glass buildings blend with surroundings because it reflects environment. This argument is used when constructing new steel+glass buildings between existing ones that they do not need facade as will "reflect" other buidlings facade. I strongly disagree with that it doesn't "blend" at all for my eyes.