Archinect - News

To pour concrete in mid-summer Phoenix, wait until the moon comes out

2016-06-29T12:59:00-04:00

A team of construction workers is pouring concrete onto the frame of a structure that will eventually become a wastewater treatment plant. It's 1 a.m. on a clear night in the suburbs of Phoenix. The temperature is still in the high 80s. But that's way down from the area's recent record high temperatures, up to 118 degrees. [...] "We try to pour and place and finish concrete when it's below 90 degrees," says Daniel Ward, the construction company's project director.

This atlas shows how much light pollution has infiltrated night skies worldwide

2016-06-10T21:08:00-04:00

Where should you travel if you want killer views of the stars unblemished by artificial light?Certainly not the U.S. or Europe, where nearly 100 percent of the population endures some form of light pollution...Italy’s [ISTIL], NOAA, the National Park Service, and elsewhere built one of the most comprehensive atlases of global light pollution to date. They hope their work will set a benchmark for future generations struggling with day blending into night.

You can find the atlas of artifical sky brightness here.

Designing for the Night

2015-03-13T15:10:00-04:00

When I speak with a student about nightlife they have something different in mind than a 65-year old town planning manager. In the municipalities, finding contacts is difficult - often nobody feels responsible or capable of speaking. That should change.

There are sleepy cities and cities that never sleep. There are cities famed for their raucous nightlife, and others whose adolescent residents dream of leaving. According to the German urban scientist Jakob F. Schmid, interviewed for DW.DE, "Nightlife often defines the character of entire streets or districts." Schmid runs the "City After Eight - Management of the Urban Night Economy" project with Thomas Krüger, which is funded by the German government.

Looking at a variety of German cities including Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, the researchers mapped nightlife "with online recommendation platforms as the basis for the data." The hazy blue results indicate that various forms a city's nightlife may take. In the famed-party city Berlin, for example, hotspots are diffused throughout the expansive metropolis. In a traditional German city, on the other hand, the nightlife tends to be concentrated "on the city center, usually on the streets directly surrounding the center proper."

In the...

The Nocturnal Face of Architecture: AWP's "Vers un climat" exhibit opens this month

2013-08-07T19:37:00-04:00

Cities can transform into an entirely new place once it's nighttime, sometimes to the point of disorientation that you wonder if you're still in the same city. The upcoming "Vers un climat: Building (With) The Unstable" exhibit at Cornell University presented by award-winning interdisciplinary practice AWP explores the alluring atmosphere of the urban nightscape to illustrate how structures can evolve, change, and perform as active participants in our cities.

"Vers un climat" is based on years of in-depth research by AWP founders Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud, and Alessandra Cianchetta, who continuously explore how intangible elements like climate, time, and light affect architectural design.

The exhibit will showcase AWP's realized and proposed designs that convey the practice's recurring themes of impermanence, evolution, and the uncontrollable. Featured projects include The Lantern Pavilion in Norway, the Troll installation pieces, the LAM Museum sculpture park, a...

LA Light

2012-04-25T16:58:00-04:00

Stunning time-lapse video of Los Angeles at night that recently made it on the 2012 Vimeo Awards shortlist in the category 'Lyrical'.

Here some more info from Colin Rich, maker of LA Light:

I sought out to capture the electric radiance of Los Angeles at night and paint a portrait of my city.

It took me 6 months of on and off shooting to finish this project.

Shooting time lapses is a labor of love and a study in patience.

This video is dedicated to the memory of my Grandmother. She spent most of her life bettering the lives of others and was exemplary of what humanity can be in its purest form.

Cinematography, direction, and editing by Colin Rich
Production Company: Pacific Star
Produced by William Ahmanson