The Architecture of Adrian Smith - Toward a Sustainable Future: The SOM Years 1980-2006

A comprehensive look at the emergence of infrastructure finance Just as infrastructure development acts as a catalyst for economic growth, it is also changing the landscape for potential investors and the burgeoning field of infrastructure finance. Infrastructure systems for transportation, utilities, and public works are essential for economic growth and have quickly developed into an emerging alternative asset class. Infrastructure Finance examines how the activities associated with updating and creating efficient transportation and communications, reliable and affordable energy, clean water, and other essential systems, have become a profitable financial endeavor. Recently, providing, operating, and maintaining infrastructure has advanced as a recognized and important investment sector that reaches beyond earlier business models. Infrastructure Finance puts this field in perspective and details what you need to know to succeed within it. An informative look at infrastructure finance-an emerging alternative investment for all types of institutional investors Dissects the central organizational and financial issues behind the revolutions that are occurring in infrastructure management and finance Contains detailed guidance for navigating the dynamic field of infrastructure finance Discusses infrastructure as arteries of life for a better world Highlights infrastructure undergoing transformations to adapt to turbulent environments Focuses on Green infrastructure to balance economic and environmental changes As infrastructure finance continues to grow in importance, you'll need to enhance your understanding of its essential aspects. Infrastructure Finance will provide you with the insights to achieve this goal.

This is the first interdisciplinary exploration of the philosophical foundations of the Web, a new area of inquiry that has important implications across a range of domains. Contains twelve essays that bridge the fields of philosophy, cognitive science, and phenomenology Tackles questions such as the impact of Google on intelligence and epistemology, the philosophical status of digital objects, ethics on the Web, semantic and ontological changes caused by the Web, and the potential of the Web to serve as a genuine cognitive extension Brings together insightful new scholarship from well-known analytic and continental philosophers, such as Andy Clark and Bernard Stiegler, as well as rising scholars in “digital native” philosophy and engineering Includes an interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web

Transgression suggests operating beyond accepted norms and radically reinterpreting practice by pushing at the boundaries of both what architecture is, and what it could or even should be. The current economic crisis and accompanying political/social unrest has exacerbated the difficulty into which architecture has long been sliding: challenged by other professions and a culture of conservatism, architecture is in danger of losing its prized status as one of the pre-eminent visual arts. Transgression opens up new possibilities for practice. It highlights the positive impact that working on the architectural periphery can make on the mainstream, as transgressive practices have the potential to reinvent and reposition the architectural profession: whether they are subverting notions of progress; questioning roles and mechanisms of production; aligning with political activism; pioneering urban interventions; advocating informal or incomplete development; actively destabilising environments or breaking barriers of taste. In this new dispersed and expanded field of operation, the balance of architectural endeavour is shifted from object to process, from service to speculation, and from formal to informal in a way that provides both critical and political impetus to proactively affect change. Contributors: Can Altay, Edward Denison and Guangyu Ren, Kim Dovey, Chris Jenks, David Littlefield, Silvia Loeffler, Alistair Parvin, Louis Rice, Patrik Schumacher and Robin Wilson Featured architects: atelier d’architecture autog?r?e, Lina Bo Bardi, Construire/La Machine, EXYZT, Didier Faustino/Bureau des M?sarchitectures, Lacaton & Vassal, N55, Catie Newell/*Alibi Studio, Wang Shu, Superflex and Bernard Tschumi

Despite the exaggerated news of the untimely 'death of the detail' by Greg Lynn, the architectural detail is now more lifelike and active than ever before. In this era of digital design and production technologies, new materials, parametrics, building information modeling (BIM), augmented realities and the nano-bio-information-computation consilience, the detail is now an increasingly vital force in architecture. Though such digitally designed and produced details are diminishing in size to the molecular and nano levels, they are increasingly becoming more complex, multi-functional, high performance and self-replicating. Far from being a non-essential and final finish, this new type of highly evolved high-tech detail is rapidly becoming the indispensable and critical core, the (sometimes iconic) DNA of an innovative new species of built environmental form that is spawning in scale and prominence, across product, interior, urban and landscape design. This issue of AD re-examines the history, theories and design of the world’s most significant spatial details, and explores their innovative potentials and possibilities for the future of architecture. Contributors include: Rachel Armstrong, Nic Clear, Edward Ford, Dennis Shelden, Skylar Tibbits. Featured architects: Ben van Berkel, Hernan Diaz Alonso, Peter Macapia, Carlo Ratti, Philippe Rahm, Patrik Schumacher, Neil Spiller.

The world of banking is changing dramatically as a result of regulation, technology and society. New developments in the past three years include advances in regulatory change, the impact of China and India; from the latest technologies to impact bank services, to the latest experiments with a cashless society. The Future of Banking in a Globalised World provides an entertaining yet informative look at the world of banking and chronicles the radical changes that have occurred in the industry over the past three years. Renowned analyst and international speaker, Chris Skinner assesses the trends that have occurred during the past three years and looks at predictions for the future of banking. Issues discussed include: • The impact of emerging markets such as China and India • Regulatory changes including Europe’s Financial Services Action Plan, MiFID, SEPA, as well as the impact of Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley • The latest technologies to impact Bank services from algorithmic trading through Web 2.0 • The displacement of Cash and Cards through Contactless, Mobile and Biometric Payments

Recent Events -from September 11, to the anti-globalization protests to the collapse of the high-tech boom have accentuated the sense that the global economy is moving into uncharted waters Bringing together the leading authorities on globalization and international business The Future of the Multinational Company looks ahead to the new challenges facing multinational firms and predicts what the multinational company will look like in ten years time. Brings together the leading authorities in the field of global / international busi-ness. Accademically rigourous but accessible · Addresses a topic of concern to practitioners and academics alike

Strategy is not a modern invention. It is an essential and enduring feature of human history that is here to stay. In this original essay, Colin S. Gray, world-renowned scholar of strategic thought, discusses the meaning of strategy and its importance for politicians and the military as a means of achieving desired outcomes in complex, uncertain conditions. Drawing on a wide range of examples from the Great Peloponnesian War to the Second World War, Vietnam, and the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gray ably shows how great military thinkers of the past and present have acted strategically in their various ideological, political, geographical and cultural contexts. Looking to the future, he argues that strategy will continue to provide a vital tool-kit for survival and security, but that the global threat posed by nuclear weapons remains an on-going challenge without obvious practical solutions. As Gray boldy asserts, there is no promised land ahead, only hard and dangerous times that will require us to master the theory and practice of strategy to secure our own future.

Liveness is a persistent and much-debated concept in media studies. Until recently, it was associated primarily with broadcast media, and television in particular. However, the emergence of social media has brought new forms of liveness into effect. These forms challenge common assumptions about and perspectives on liveness, provoking a revisiting of the concept. In this book, Karin van Es develops a comprehensive understanding of liveness today, and clarifies the stakes surrounding the category of the 'live'. She argues that liveness is the product of a dynamic interaction between media institutions, technologies and users. In doing so, she challenges earlier conceptions of the notion, which tended to focus on either one of these contributors to its construction. By analyzing the 'live' in four different cases – a live streaming platform, an online music collaboration website, an example of social TV, and a social networking site – van Es explores the operation of the category and pinpoints the conditions under which it comes into being. The analysis is the starting point for a broader reflection on the relation between broadcast and social media.

Never before has diplomacy evolved at such a rapid pace. It is being transformed into a global participatory process by new media tools and newly empowered publics. ‘Public diplomacy’ has taken center-stage as diplomats strive to reach and influence audiences that are better informed and more assertive than any in the past. In this crisp and insightful analysis, Philip Seib, one of the world’s top experts on media and foreign policy, explores the future of diplomacy in our hyper-connected world. He shows how the focus of diplomatic practice has shifted away from the closed-door, top-level negotiations of the past. Today’s diplomats are obliged to respond instantly to the latest crisis fueled by a YouTube video or Facebook post. This has given rise to a more open and reactive approach to global problem-solving with consequences that are difficult to predict. Drawing on examples from the Iran nuclear negotiations to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, Seib argues persuasively for this new versatile and flexible public-facing diplomacy; one that makes strategic use of both new media and traditional diplomatic processes to manage the increasingly complex relations between states and new non-state political actors in the 21st Century

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is the biggest change programme Europe’s capital markets have ever attempted. It takes all the protection away from Europe’s Stock Exchanges and forces investment banks, brokers and dealers to guarantee best execution. The organisational, process and technology changes demanded by the MiFID are massive. In order to understand these challenges, industry commentator Chris Skinner has gathered the views of Europe’s leading figures in the MiFID community to discuss its implications. From an introduction from the European Business School and European Commission, through the views of leaders in the key constituencies of MiFID Connect and the MiFID Joint Working Group, through to organisations supporting the markets such as Reuters and SWIFT, this book provides a 360-degree perspective of the world of investing in Europe’s markets after the MiFID implementation. Anyone who has anything to do with dealing, trading and investing in European equities and instruments will find this book an essential guide to the markets now and into the future. With this book as their guide, readers will understand: • The key MiFID business issues • How to implement the directive • How it will affect the markets once it comes into force