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SuperMaterial public and online exhibition 

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SuperMaterial public and online exhibition 

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Kais Al-Rawi, Director of the Jordan AA Visiting School describes their 2017 adventures between the Martian landscapes of the Wadi Rum Desert and Petra, the ancient city carved into a mountain, prior to the launch of MARS 2.0 this summer.

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Oliver Wainwrights top 10 buildings of 2016

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Oliver Wainwrights top 10 buildings of 2016

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Jutting up behind Giles Gilbert Scott's stately temple of electricity like an aggressive brick Dalek, the Tate Modern Switch House is one of the strangest buildings to appear in 2016. And its power comes from its refusal to do anything that you might expect.

Jutting up behind Giles Gilbert Scott's stately temple of electricity like an aggressive brick Dalek, the Tate Modern Switch House is one of the strangest buildings to appear in 2016. And its power comes from its refusal to do anything that you might expect.

In an age when public buildings are supposed to be transparent and welcoming, it is opaque and brusque, a forbidding monolith that speaks more of a watchtower than a gallery of modern art. It meets the street not with arms wide open and a friendly smile, but with a fortified bastion wall of brown concrete, like a rammed-earth rampart. The entrance isn't grand and ceremonial, but takes the form of a low slot around the back, through which visitors shuffle like mice. The structure and materials are just as counterintuitive: the brick walls don't carry their load, they hang like chainmail, forming a kind of masonry veil draped over the chunky concrete skeleton within, only pierced by arrow-slit windows.

This unsettling tower of Babel is the work of Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, who first brought their light touch to the design of the original Tate Modern in 2000, undertaking the biggest loft conversion ever seen. Sixteen years on, they have matured from restrained floorboard-sanding minimalists to full-blown expressionists (as the billowing Elbphilharmonie, below, also attests), crafting an exhilarating vertical journey of Piranesian spatial power.

Rising from the Stygian underworld of the power station's former oil tanks, to the panoramic views at the crow's nest summit, the building leads you through an unfolding sequence of radically different spaces, from little cave-like areas carved out beneath the concrete staircase, to a gaping, 64-metre-long hangar. It all adds up to a tangled knot of riddles - with floors sloping almost imperceptibly, the structural cage expanding to provide seating nooks - that's as intriguing as the work on show.

2. Grand Parc, Bordeaux, by Lacaton & Vassal

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Photograph: Lacaton & Vassal

"Never demolish, never remove or replace - always add, transform, and reuse!" This is the rallying cry of French architects Lacaton & Vassal and Frédéric Druot, masters of estate refurbishment, who transformed three ailing concrete slab blocks in a 1960s estate in Bordeaux with a deft economy of means. They wrapped the existing buildings with new, deep facades, extending the flats by four metres, with full-height windows - all on a budget of just €65,000 per home. A model for how Britain's postwar estates could be renovated.

3. Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, by Herzog & de Meuron

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Photograph: Thies Raetzke

Seven years late and 10 times over budget, Herzog & de Meuron's €789m glass mountain finally opened this year - and it was well worth the wait. From the curving, sequin-lined escalator at the entrance, to the bulging glass facades, to the scaly, coral-like lining of the auditorium, it is a project that revels in its strange material experiments and the theatrical experience of moving through its carved-out spaces, which exude unparalleled intricacy and complexity. You can stay there, too.

4. Kunstmuseum Basel, by Christ & Gantenbein

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Photograph: Julian Salinas

Standing at a crossroads in the centre of Basel like a big chunk of rock freshly hewn from the Alps, the new Kunstmuseum has a suitably geological weight for a building that houses the oldest municipal collection of art in the world. The sharply chiselled edifice uses three shades of brick to give a stratified, sedimentary quality, while the galleries are designed as a suite of intimate rooms. It is a refreshing departure from the prevailing fashion for big, open-plan halls.

5. Bacton Estate, London, by Karakusevic Carson

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An example of the new wave of council-led housing beginning to gain momentum across London, in defiance of Tory housing policy, the first phase of the Bacton Estate regeneration in Camden comprises around 50 new social-rented homes, with a mixture of four-bed townhouses and two-bed maisonettes cleverly interlocked in a handsome brick block. Developed with the close involvement of an active residents' association, it shows how councils can do it for themselves, retaining value in perpetuity, without a developer creaming off the profit.

6. Utøya Hegnhuset, by Blakstad Haffner

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Photograph: Are Carlsen/Blakstad Haffner Arkitekter

A rare example of a memorial site of a terrorist attack handled without mawkish schmaltz or lurid sensationalism, the Hegnhuset on the island of Utøya makes a simple, powerful record of an event that shook the very foundations of Norway's national identity. The cafe building, where Anders Breivik murdered 19 students before killing a further 50 on the island, has been retained as a stark relic, its walls sliced with Matta-Clark rawness, and encased in a simple timber and glass pavilion.

7. Holmes Road Studios, London, by Peter Barber

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Photograph: Peter Barber Architects

An imaginative reinvention of the almshouse for the 21st century, Holmes Road, Kentish Town, provides a stepping stone for homeless people to gain the skills and confidence to move on to independent living, with 59 micro-flats, counselling spaces and training facilities arranged around a planted courtyard garden. The units have a clever compact plan, conceived as double-height barrel-vaulted studio

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Oliver Wainwright's top 10 buildings of 2016

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Jutting up behind Giles Gilbert Scott's stately temple of electricity like an aggressive brick Dalek, the Tate Modern Switch House is one of the strangest buildings to appear in 2016. And its power comes from its refusal to do anything that you might expect.

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Loyn & Co's Stirling Prize-shortlisted Outhouse in the Forest of Dean and the renovation of a 1960s Modernist house in Wiltshire by Coppin Dockray will be joined by another five finalists over the coming weeks.

The overall winner is set to be announced on the Channel 4 programme on 15 December.

Outhouse, which missed out to Caruso St John's Newport Street Gallery in this year's RIBA Stirling Prize, was last month awarded the relaunched Manser Medal. Coppin Dockray's Ansty Plum house had also been in the running for that prize.

The first programme, themed 'building for the countryside', also featured Hudson Architects' Le Petit Fort, Owers House by John Pardey Architects and Zinc House by JLR+H, which were all longlisted for the prize.

le petit fort

The judging panel for the award is chaired by Mole Architects' Meredith Bowles and includes Joanthan Dallas of Dallas Pierce Quintero, Wallpaper architecture editor Elle Stathaki, Phil Thorn from sponsor Hiscox and Charlotte Skene Catling of Skene Catling de la Peña, which won last year's award for its Flint House.

The RIBA House of the Year Award replaced the institute's long-established Manser Medal last year when the television series was introduced. The relaunched Manser Medal is now part of the British Homes Awards.

Last year the special Grand Designs show, fronted by Kevin McCloud saw the prize reach a greater audience than ever before with the first show attracting 2.2 million viewers.

The shortlist so far...

Ansty Plum by Coppin Dockray

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Ansty Plum by Coppin Dockray
Source: Rachael Smith
Judges' citation

Ansty Plum is a very special 20th-century house, resurrected for viable modern living without damaging the spirit or the fabric of the original. In the house, what has been taken away and what has not been added is as important as what has been rescued or retained.

The building is now perhaps as close to its original form as at any time in its subsequent development, and the removal of limited but unhappy accruals, such as an en-suite shower room on the first-floor platform were essential in resetting the balance of the space.

Careful thought has led to a building that is discreetly and successfully heated, lit, insulated and serviced, leaving the classic period interior intact and the house's future assured. One could debate the change in atmosphere created by replacing the original brick floor to allow underfloor heating and service improvements, but the use of stock paving slabs surface-ground down to the aggregate is a clever and pleasing intervention that sits well in context. The house is modest, and the viability initiative sensibly and sensitively looked elsewhere for ancillary accommodation.

The stone shell of the dilapidated Smithson-designed studio adjacent to the house was inhabited to provide an accommodation annexe featuring bedroom, shower room and storage sub-space, sitting above a garage and store on the steeply sloping site. The apparent collapsed state of the building could perhaps have led to a slightly bolder - that is a less reverent - architecture, but the rebuild is fastidiously faithful to the spirit of the original while adding considerable comfort and some delight.

The space is lined with timber of a delicious hue to create an almost nostalgic atmosphere. Great care has been applied in detail throughout; a frameless and seamless door hung on a brass piano hinge opens to reveal a glass-backed shower room overlooking a fern-lined embankment in a typical example. This is an intimate gem of a space which complements the initiatives undertaken in the main house, as a skilfully crafted small project.

Outhouse by Loyn & Co

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Outhouse by Loyn & Co
Source: Charles Hosea
Judges' citation

Outhouse is located on a fabulous sloping plot in the Forest of Dean, running beside Offa's Dyke, with long views to the Wye Valley and Severn Estuary. The design exploits the site potential to the full with a discreet design that beds into the site literally and metaphorically, finely balancing respect to context with confident architectural expression.

The simplicity of the house, which was undoubtedly hard-won, is founded on rigour and restraint. This is a house with a field on top - not an 'architectural' green roof but a proper field, punctured with light wells that creatures are having to learn to avoid. It is a concrete house where the concrete feels warm and luxurious, and a considered and crafted palette of surfaces form a backdrop for the artist-owners' own refined art and furniture.

The design eloquently and effortlessly tackles many familiar issues; the blurred relationship between interior and exterior space, the penetration of light into a deep single-aspect plan, the control of sustainability without flaunting it.

The key architectural device is a rigorous plan organisation separating studio and working spaces on the uphill side and glass-fronted living spaces on the downhill side to take advantage of spectacular views. The building's backbone is a linear circulation space driven through the plan perpendicular to the site slope, with the front door at one end and Wales at the other. The entrance is a Modernist set-piece with a covered approach flanked by a black pigmented concrete pavilion and a simple solid open stair running through a rectangular puncture in the roof plane. Channelled views through the glass door reveal the spine, active as a gallery space opens to and illuminated by the living space on the downslope side. Fleeting glimpses of the retired owner's traversing the house on micro-scooters confirmed the very definite feeling that we wanted to enter.

To misquote Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire: 'they had us at "Hello''.'

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Revealed: First homes up for RIBA House of the Year 2016

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Loyn & Co's Stirling Prize-shortlisted Outhouse in the Forest of Dean and the renovation of a 1960s Modernist house in Wiltshire by Coppin Dockray will be joined by another five finalists over the coming weeks. The overall winner is set to be announced on the Channel 4 programme on 15 December.

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Dreams of a Russian "Silicon Valley" started becoming reality in 2010, when then-president Dmitri Medvedev announced the creation of a sprawling tech hub, dubbed the Skolkovo Innovation Center, situated just outside of Moscow. Since then a cadre of international architects has been tapped to design separate elements of the complex, which offers research and educational labs, office space for savvy start-ups, networking opportunities, and eco-friendly residential nodes. (Skolkovo also recently made history with the successful debut of the country's first self-driving bus, which will start commercial production next year.)

Among the architects chosen to handle housing for researchers and their families was Paris-based firm Agence d'Architecture A.Bechu. On a roughly four-acre swath, the studio devised a circular community composed of a hundred single-family dwellings. The energy-efficient, concrete-framed homes are clustered "much like penguins on an ice shelf forming a circle to share their heat," said the firm in a statement. "The intention is to create micro-communities organized around a central space that provides the atmosphere of a village square." That public square, which will hold services for residents, will "provide a landmark for cars entering the site and a real social link for all the inhabitants." A green roof will also crown each dwelling, bolstering Skolkovo's eco-conscious bona fides.

The architecture firm has not announced a completion date.

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How Penguins Inspired the Design for Russia's Next Silicon Valley | Architectural Digest

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Dreams of a Russian "Silicon Valley" started becoming reality in 2010, when then-president Dmitri Medvedev announced the creation of a sprawling tech hub, dubbed the Skolkovo Innovation Center, situated just outside of Moscow. Since then a cadre of international architects has been tapped to design separate elements of the complex, which offers research and educational labs, office space for savvy start-ups, networking opportunities, and eco-friendly residential nodes.

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The cities of the future could be built by microbes

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The cities of the future could be built by microbes

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You might be disappointed to hear that some intriguing underwater structures recently discovered off the Greek island of Zakynthos are not part of the lost city of Atlantis. But the structures, which resemble colonnades of cobble stones and bases of columns, have an equally fascinating origin. They were actually constructed by microbes gathering around natural vents of methane and forming a natural cement in the otherwise soft sediment.

To some degree, these formations are an accident, sculpted by the interaction of the microorganisms with their physical and chemical environments. But they still point to a complex ability not usually associated with simple single-celled organisms less than 0.0002cm in diameter. So if bacteria can grow their own "cities", could we use them to grow ours as well?

Bacterial building is actually more common than you might think. If you rub your tongue across the back of your teeth and find a rough spot between the base of the tooth and your gum you should probably go and see a dental hygienist. But you might also contemplate the fact that you have a city growing on your teeth. The rough patch, known more commonly as plaque, is a biofilm, a complex structure built by bacteria living in your mouth.

Biofilms are, in effect, buildings for bacteria. They provide the bacteria with physical protection and (unfortunately for us) protection from antibiotics. They also enable a complex communications network between the bacteria that lets them work together, with different groups of cells performing different functions and even helping control the populations.

University of East Anglia

Researchers are now experimenting with using the building abilities of bacteria in the human world. For example, we can make self-healing concretes that use bacteria to re-mineralise cracks. It is even possible to create bacteria-based bio-cements using a process similar to that which built the structures found in Zakynthos.

Both systems use a process known as biomineralisation, where bacteria cause mineral crystals to form by changing the chemical composition of their environment. In the case of self-healing concretes and bio-cements, they combine calcium found in their immediate environment with carbon from carbon dioxide in the air. The beauty of the process is that, unlike normal cements and concretes that produce a lot of carbon dioxide, this actually takes carbon out of the atmosphere.

Under pressure

Our research takes this idea even further. We want to use the capacity of microorganisms to sense and respond to their environment, as well as add to it with their own structures. For example, imagine if we could lace the ground of a building site with bacteria that react when they feel mechanical pressure by binding the surrounding soil grains. This would mean we could create a self-constructing foundation just by putting the right amount of pressure on the ground, removing the need for costly excavations and reinforced concrete slabs.

Such a system may still be some way into the future but we have started down the path. Through the emerging discipline of synthetic biology we have already been able to identify genes in certain bacteria that activate in response to pressure. We've then used genetic engineering to design bacteria that glow when pressurised. Our next step is to begin to use this pressure-sensing capacity in the bacteria to trigger the the process of biomineralisation and the production of new binding materials including polymers.

The site off Zakynthos may have been an archaeological disappointment but it reveals something about the way we might construct buildings in the future. Imagine visiting the ancient remains of our microbial-built future cities. When the archaeologists assess whether they are natural or artificial they may not be able to tell.

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The cities of the future could be built by microbes

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You might be disappointed to hear that some intriguing underwater structures recently discovered off the Greek island of Zakynthos are not part of the lost city of Atlantis. But the structures, which resemble colonnades of cobble stones and bases of columns, have an equally fascinating origin.

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GREAT BRITISH BUILDINGS: ALPHABETA, LONDON 7th September 2016

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GREAT BRITISH BUILDINGS: ALPHABETA, LONDON 7th September 2016

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An exclusive architect-led, behind the scenes tour of ALPHABETA a RIBA London Award winning building by Studio RHE.

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5th-25th September  2016 the RIBA Regent Street Windows Project

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5th-25th September  2016 the RIBA Regent Street Windows Project

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Your definitive guide to using social and creative media as an academic

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makes the work of the seminal architectural group Archigram available free online for public viewing and academic study.

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archigram architecture utopia 1960 telegram magazine project modern ideas group revolution

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The Archigram Archival Project makes the work of the seminal architectural group Archigram available free online for public viewing and academic study. The archive is arranged in three main ways: magazines; projects; and people.

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The Making of a National Park City

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Plug in to Flexible Housing

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Plug-In to Housing | Event | Royal Academy of Arts

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Inspired by the bold ambitions of Archigram's 'Plug-In City', a panel of architects and designers discuss new and potentially radical approaches to the housing issues of today.

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New London Architecture (NLA) Annual Cycling Summit: speakers include UoW's Rachel Aldred

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Paperspace Architectural Magazine // Issue 5: Boundaries // Published January 2016

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Free Range is an Old Truman Brewery special project set up to provide new creative graduates with the opportunity to showcase their work. Our annual exhibitions present the work of thousands of art and design students.

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Peter Cook RA: Floating Ideas

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Peter Cook RA: Floating Ideas | Exhibition | Royal Academy of Arts

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Visionary architect and educator Sir Peter Cook RA creates an installation in the Architecture Space that evokes a world of architectural possibilities through over 60 drawings submitted to the Summer Exhibiti...

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International fabrication festival 28th June-2nd July 2016

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International fabrication festival 28th June-2nd July 2016

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http://fabfest.london/

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FAB FEST - International Fabrication Festival

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RIBA Late Tuesday: Community Architecture now

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LATE TUESDAY - COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE NOW - London Architecture Diary

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Join us for the reveal of the three 1:1 installations developed and built for our 'Constructing Communities' Open Call as part of the London Festival of Architecture, as well as screenings, performances, talks and debates. Sponsors of the Open Call, Cityscape Digital, will present projects in digital form using some of the latest VR headsets including the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and on-screen.

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(free) Film screening of Equal By Design

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equal by design: additional screening tickets

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equal by design: additional screening london

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equal by design: additional screening london tickets

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Additional screening date now available for booking Equal By Design is a documentary film about equality, wellbeing and the UK housing crisis. Made with Lone Star Productions, it examines economic and housing inequality in the UK housing crisis, with contributors from the architectural profession, national charities, journalism and academia.

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It's here and it's free!

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As digital technology advances, the technological practices of the construction industry are lagging behind other industries. The creators of the course set out to help practitioners respond to the rapidly changing industry and adjust working practices accordingly. On this MOOC, participants will collaborate online to learn about the potential of digital technology in their everyday practices, to manage data to improve their own productivity and profitability.

A principal aim of the course is to give people at all levels in the industry the confidence to challenge existing working practices and start to integrate digital approaches into their work.

The free four-week course is completely flexible, and can be completed comfortably in three or four hours a week. There is also an optional quiz each week to test the knowledge gained on the course. There is no fixed timetable, meaning that people can dip in-and-out of the course.

The course is led by Senior Lecturer Rob Garvey and Principal Lecturer Tony Burke from the University's Department of Property and Construction, and is organised in partnership with The B1M and with the support of the London BIM Region.

Speaking about the course, Tony Burke said: "We are very excited about the potential of our first ever MOOC. The course draws on the work which Rob Garvey has done for our Building Information Management MSc course, and our experience in online, collaborative learning. We have designed the course to actively involve participants in the learning process and to utilise the expertise and extensive resources of The B1M, our innovative industrial partner."

The course starts on 20 June. Register now or find out more about the Digital Construction MOOC at the University of Westminster.

Image credit: Myimagine / Shutterstock

Here we hope you find everything you will need to research, write and publish your story or blog post.

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University of Westminster launches free digital construction online short course

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As digital technology advances, the technological practices of the construction industry are lagging behind other industries. The creators of the course set out to help practitioners respond to the rapidly changing industry and adjust working practices accordingly.

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Tim Ingold

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tim ingold: if the city were ocean and its buildings ships?

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tim ingold: if the city were ocean and its buildings ships? tickets

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tim ingold: if the city were ocean and its buildings ships? london

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tim ingold: if the city were ocean and its buildings ships? london tickets

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Tim Ingold: If the city were ocean and its buildings ships?

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Image: Landmarks (detail) Screenprint on found paper by David Lemm 2014 Ticket sales closed! Sorry, tickets are up to the current room capacity. Click the green 'GET TICKETS' button to stick your name on the waiting list in case we get any late cancellations, or check back again Friday pm.

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Urban Smellscapes and Soundscapes

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January 2016, Alan Baxter, London

The second event in the Feeling good in public spaces series explores the impact of urban design on auditory and olfactory senses. It focuses on how climate change or climate disruption would affect or present future challenges for these sensory experiences

Chair

Professor Emeritus Derek Clements-Croome

Keynote talks:

How to explore a smellscape: Glasgow & Singapore

Kate McLean, Royal College of Art

This talk will focus on primary research conducted in Glasgow and Singapore as part of the Sensory Maps project. The Sensory Maps project is an art & design practice that explores and communicates urban smellscapes globally from a human-centred perspective. Sensory data can be measured using technological sensors but the nose is perfectly designed for detecting fine-grained data enabling the simultaneous collection of qualitative measurements of smell data and perceived quality of life. Equally, whilst the traditional role of the map purports to be a scientific exactitude the practice of crowd-sourced smellscapes reinvigorates the map to be a magical instrument of speculation and imaginative meandering. The talk will draw parallels between the smellscapes of Glasgow and Singapore and indicate individual, notable differences. It will culminate with an introduction to the Smellfie a free, downloadable kit I developed to enable anyone to conduct and record a smellwalk anywhere (pdf, 6.6 MB).

McLean, K. (2014). Smellmap Amsterdam: Olfactory Art & Smell Visualisation in Forbes, A & Chevalier, F (eds), Proceedings of the IEEE VIS 2014 Arts Program, VISAP'14: Art+Interpretation, Paris, France, 9-14 November 2014.

Effects of climate change on the sensory experience of the built environment

Dr Michael Barclay, University of Wales Trinity St David

The senses are effected by a wide range of factors. It can be useful to incorporate this into the design of places by quantifying these factors to help make design decisions or to help weigh up the benefits and challenges for specific cases. In this talk I will give an overview of ARCC research into quantifying the effect of climate change and noise distribution on natural ventilation performance. This gives site-specific information about natural ventilation potential. I will also cover work done to describe the moisture buffering of natural fibre building materials.

Barclay, M. 2012. PhD thesis - The interaction of building energy use, ventilation performance and urban noise under future climate scenarios (pdf, 3.5 MB).

Barclay, M., Kang, J. & Sharples, S. 2012. Combining noise mapping and ventilation performance for non-domestic buildings in an urban area. Building and Environment, 52: 68-76.

Short talks:

Soundwalking in South London: listening, place and sonic identity

Chris Wood, Queen Mary, University of London

An overview of research into the sonic identity of Brockley / Crofton Park conducted with communal reflective soundwalking. We explored the question of what sounds dominated the area and how they created effective and emotional responses in the participants. This research was conducted in partnership with the ECF funded R&D Revealing Spaces project. We hope it can illustrate the importance of sound in the experience and design of urban spaces.

Reactive soundscapes - how can games audio techniques be applied to large scale, immersive sound installations?

Andy Visser, University of St Mark & St John

Having been involved as a sound designer in the creation of large scale, multi-speaker soundscape installations for commercial clients for many years, it has become clear that there is a need to move away from passive soundscapes towards a more active, immersive model. My work in game audio as an educator has exposed me to non-linear gaming processes, both in terms of sound design and sound implementation. My current research is centred around adapting non-linear gaming processes and technologies to immersive physical spaces that allow audience-driven events to trigger changes in sonic environments.

Smellscapes in urban intermodal transit spaces: a case study of Sheffield Railway Transit Network

Jieling Xiao, Birmingham City University

Urban intermodal transit spaces are multi-functional public spaces, resulting in interesting smellscapes within a rich social context. Taking Sheffield Railway Transit Network as a case study, a framework of human perception process of smellscape was derived to help better understand smellscape and guide the urban design process. The talk also covers the factors needed to compose smellscapes at different scales.

SmellyMaps: the digital life of urban smellscapes

Daniele Quercia, Bell Labs

City officials and urban planners deal only with the management of less than ten bad odors. Why this negative and oversimplified perspective? Smell is simply hard to measure. SmellyMaps is a new way of capturing the entire urban smellscape from social media data (i.e. tags on Flickr pictures or tweets).

Making sense of health

Steve Kemp, OpenPlan

When assessing the "form" and "character" of places, planners and urban designers mostly focus on how a place looks and how its buildings are used. Observing a place through our eyes is a good starting point but it's not where we should finish. Sight is only one of the senses through which we experience places. Theoretically, the spatial relationships in a "good place" can be replicated to produce a similar "good place" somewhere else. In a way that's what Urban Form Coding aims to do. In reality though, the place "recreated" will not be much like the original. Most of the important things will be different: smells, the sounds, the tastes, the feel of the air, the climate, the rhythms, vibrations and movements - almost everything that combines to make each place unique. Studies of soundscapes and smellscapes mark a big step forward - but I want to go further by exploring how all the sensory qualities of a place combine to affect our perceptions and our well-being. I am seeking ways of considering the effects of changes affecting any and all of those sensory experiences to be considered in the planning, design, development and management of the urban environment.

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The second event in the Feeling good in public spaces series explores the impact of urban design on auditory and olfactory senses. It focuses on how climate change or climate disruption would affect or present future challenges for these sensory experiences Kate McLean, Royal College of Art This talk will focus on primary research conducted in Glasgow and Singapore as part of the Sensory Maps project.