Archinect - Features

Transforming Climate Pessimism Into Resilient Design Action

2021-10-01T08:48:00-04:00

Like in so many places across the US, summer of 2021 was announced by the symphonic celebration of cicadas that, for seventeen long years, were patiently colluding within the earth’s caverns before proclaiming their virtuosity in our parks and green spaces. The cicadas that have made so much noise, literally with their raucous reaching up to 100 decibels, and figuratively as they managed to capture a sensational buzz across various news media, are part of the largest generation of periodic cicadas known as Brood X. The next time we will see these winged torpedoes will be in 2038. By then, the world will look very different.

FireCity | FireLAnd: New Models of Resilience and Community with UCLA's Hitoshi Abe and Jeffrey Inaba's Research Studios

2021-07-22T13:48:00-04:00

What does building resiliency look like for urban landscapes? With the effects of climate change increasing, architects, urban planners, and landscape architects must work towards land use design strategies while having humans and nature coexist effectively.

The University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design's faculty and students continue to unpack challenges between land development and urban conditions. An institution that focuses on collaborative research between its students and faculty, it strives to create learning environments fueled by experimentation and discovery. To highlight these initiatives, Archinect connected with Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba and Professor Hitoshi Abe to discuss their collaborative research studios FireCity and FireLAnd. In addition, they explain common misconceptions students have when learning about urban regeneration, land use, and ways to approach design strategies for fire resilient urban infrastr...

It’s Getting Hot in Here: Will Heat Waves Become the New Normal?

2019-07-21T12:28:00-04:00

Let’s face it...it’s hot. Even though it is the summer season, sweltering temperatures ranging in the 100’s with added humidity isn’t due to the season alone. With Archinect’s recent coverage of sustainable cities and alternative building practices to help regulate building temperatures, how can this information be applied to the everyday American? Cities and infrastructures can’t be rebuilt in a day so what can residents, especially those in the Central and Eastern portion of the U.S. do to survive the heat? What can we learn from heat waves like this, and how can the built environment respond to these changes?

One step to staying cool and safe during these extreme weathers is staying informed. In this piece, we break down terms relating to heat waves and learn how the built environment impacts these temperatures.