Archinect - News

Bolts along Bay Bridge bike path fail

2013-05-29T15:37:00-04:00

Crews that built the railing committed what experts called a basic mistake - they welded the bolts in place firmly in their slots rather than leaving a small amount of room to accommodate a natural expansion of the bicycle path that happens in hot weather. As a result, scores of the 1-inch-diameter bolts have been sheared off along the 1.2-mile bike path on the southern side of the span's skyway section.

See physics behind why buildings crumble

2013-05-22T15:22:00-04:00

CNN's Tom Foreman explains the strength of the tornado in Oklahoma and why some buildings couldn't withstand the force.

Polish Scientists and Engineers Put A New Spin On Underwater Living

2013-02-07T19:43:00-05:00

Scientists and engineers from the Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship Technology at Gdansk University in Poland have teamed up with other Polish scientific and R&D institutions to come up with a landmark underwater hotel. The Water Discus Underwater Hotel, as it is called, may not be the first but plans for the Dubai venue call for the biggest site of its kind.

The world's greatest buildings provide a window on great math and great design

2013-02-04T17:56:00-05:00

Roof structures of this size and complexity cannot be built without an explicit geometry that can be expressed mathematically. Without such a mathematical model, it is not possible to calculate the loads, stresses, and rotational forces to which the vaults will be subjected and to estimate the impact of wind and temperature changes on their stability. Parabolas and ellipses were Utzon's first choices for the profiles of the vaults, but neither provided a buildable option.

The Science Channel Peels a City Apart to Show How Structures Survive Disasters

2013-02-01T11:53:00-05:00

Science Channel’s upcoming series, Strip the City, uses oversized CGI effects to take a very deep look into the engineering behind some of the most iconic municipalities and the potentially disastrous natural elements they must overcome. Working with architects, engineers and historians, the producers have unearthed the specific elements that help San Francisco’s bridge survive tremors and Dubai’s towering skyscrapers stand firm in soft, unstable desert sands.

Architects, Engineers Selected For John Tyler Community College Phase III

2013-01-24T16:30:00-05:00

Clark Nexsen and Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee will design the Academic Building and Parking Deck

January 24, 2013 (Raleigh, NC) -- The team of Clark Nexsen and Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee (PBC+L) has been selected to design the Phase III Academic Building and Parking Deck on John Tyler Community College’s (JTCC) Midlothian, Virginia, campus. Both firms bring extensive experience in higher education facilities design and sustainable architecture to the team.

This will be the fifth building on the JTCC Midlothian Campus, and college administrators say it will be critical to the growth and emerging identity of the campus.

Jeffrey Lee, FAIA, Design Principal for the project, anticipates that the 70,000-square-foot building will include academic classrooms, faculty offices, auditorium space/performance arts space, a student services center, food service, and a 350-space parking garage.

The project will be on a fast track for completion in January 2015, Lee said.

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Man Versus Sea: Engineering Artificial Reefs

2013-01-07T21:10:00-05:00

Designers for The Wave, Muscat, were tasked with the challenge of engineering a luxury, mixed-use development stretching along six kilometres of natural beach coastline between Al-Athaiba and Al-Mawelah while ensuring it was protected as much as possible from the Sea of Oman.

The UK’s Most ‘Outstanding’ Green Building

2012-12-20T20:23:00-05:00

The building, known as 1 Angel Square, has been designed to deliver a 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption compared to The Co-operative’s current Manchester complex and an 80 per cent reduction in carbon. This will lead to operating costs being lowered by up to 30 per cent.

SafetyNet Wins First Prize at 2012 James Dyson Awards

2012-11-08T16:57:00-05:00

One winner and two runners-up have today been announced at this year's edition of the James Dyson Awards, an international student design award running in 18 countries. The first prize went to the entry 'SafetyNet - Escape Rings' from the UK. The two runners-up were the design concepts 'The BETH Project' from the United States and 'Revival Vest' from New Zealand.

How The Sound Of Rain Helps Engineers Diagnose Unsafe Bridges

2012-10-25T12:11:00-04:00

In the same way that structural deficiencies can be detected with something solid, two engineers from Brigham Young University--Brian Mazzeo and Spencer Guthrie--are listening in for the tell-tale acoustics by splashing bridges with water. They're looking for something called "delamination."

Structureless structure?

2012-08-20T11:05:00-04:00

The general Idea from my interpretation was to produce a lightweight structure that uses minimal material yet uses technology to account for the lack of girth and material. - Rogelio Mercado

The buildings are always designed with redundant structural assemblies to resist forces that might happen maybe .001 time of their existence and sometimes never. So what happens when all that structural apparatus and weight has taken out from an experimental "structure" is explained to a group of traveling students by Prof. Haag from HOCHSCHULE BIBERACH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES in Stuttgart, Germany. This fascinating video shot by Cal Poly student Rogelio Mercado shows how the actuators placed in four corners re-distribute the weight continuously and keep the large plywood sheet dome from collapsing.

Is There a Limit to How Tall Buildings Can Get?

2012-08-16T15:37:00-04:00

For a Middle East-based client he's not allowed to identify, Johnson worked on a project back in the late 2000s designing a building that would have been a mile-and-a-half tall, with 500 stories. Somewhat of a theoretical practice, the design team identified between 8 and 10 inventions that would have had to take place to build a building that tall. Not innovations, Johnson says, but inventions, as in completely new technologies and materials.

How is computing changing the architect’s job?

2012-07-02T13:18:00-04:00

“The form was reinvented to an extent,” says Yanni Loukissas, a postdoc in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). And while the question of exactly which design changes should be credited to Utzon or Arup’s firm has been a matter of some dispute, the building, Louskissas says, stands as “an example where the engineer was instrumental in reshaping the project.”

With 'Power in a Box,' Princeton students win national competition

2012-05-02T15:34:00-04:00

Converting a standard shipping container into a sustainable source of energy for remote or disaster-torn regions, a team of Princeton University students took top honors in an 18-month national competition that culminated April 21 and 22 on the Washington, D.C., Mall.

Colorado design/build firm's projects under scrutiny

2011-11-29T18:58:30-05:00

Structural issues have emerged at another school being constructed by the Neenan Co., a major builder of rural Colorado schools that already has admitted making mistakes that closed an $18.9 million school in Meeker.

Moscow's Observation Wheel

2011-11-22T16:40:21-05:00

In a bid to bolster tourism in Moscow, plans are underway to build what could become the tallest observation wheel in the world. The graphic below breaks down the proposed wheel, possible locations and compares it to other giant observation wheels in the world.