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The National Building Museum prepares to launch its Climate ABC programs

2021-10-29T17:51:00-04:00

The National Building Museum has announced the upcoming launch of its new program series, Climate ABC (Action/Building/Community). Commencing on November 16, the series will offer programs designed to both educate the public about climate action and to push for significant solutions in the building industries to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

As stated in The National Building Museum’s announcement: “The series will focus on three essential aspects to addressing climate change: Actions by individuals, businesses, nonprofits, policy makers, and civic entities; examples of Building, both physical structures and landscapes, as well as coalitions of stakeholders; and Communities at every scale that are working to reduce carbon emissions.”

The series will highlight innovative new technologies and best practices from around the world that are accelerating climate solutions. Offered live online, the programs will address topics that can positively influence climate change, includ...

New Museum appoints V. Mitch McEwen as curator of IdeasCity initiative

2018-07-24T18:04:00-04:00

The New Museum announced today the appointment of V. Mitch McEwen as Curator of IdeasCity, the museum's initiative exploring the future of cities. McEwen is the principal and cofounder of A(n) Office, a collaborative of design studios in Detroit and New York exploring the intersection of architecture and exhibition.

IdeasCity is a creative and collaborative enterprise operating through conferences, workshops, commissions, projects, and exhibitions in order to investigate key issues and proposes solutions. The Curator is a two-year appointment linked to the biennial presentation of IdeasCity in New York and is responsible for the two-year cycle leading up to this presentation.

As Curator of IdeasCity, McEwen will head up the 2018–19 cities and launch an open call for cities around the world to apply for the 2020–21 cycle. The next IdeasCity will take place in Toronto on September 15, 2018, in partnership with the Bentway.

Since 2017, McEwen has been Assistant Professor at Princeto...

Edna Ledesma and Miriam Solis appointed to lead UT Austin School of Architecture diversity initiative

2017-08-09T13:57:00-04:00

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture appointed Edna Ledesma and Miriam Solis as its new faculty leaders for the Race and Gender in the Built Environment Initiative. Launched last fall by scholars Anna Livia Brand and Andrea Roberts, the ongoing initiative fosters teaching and research on race and gender-related issues in U.S. cities, and aims to facilitate diversity among design and planning professionals and students. Ledesma and Solis will replace Brand and Roberts for the upcoming 2017-18 academic year.

Ledesma, who is currently a lecturer at UTSOA, will join the school as a 2017-18 fellow. Her research focuses on understanding development and the evolution of the smart, green, and just 21st century city, with consideration to the cultural landscapes of immigrant populations and micro-economies. She acquired a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M University.

Solis will join UTSOA as an assistant professor in Fall 2018, after she completes a 2017 ...

Thirty-three projects win $5 million prize in 2017 Knight Cities Challenge

2017-06-12T13:04:00-04:00

The Knight Foundation held another successful Knight Cities Challenge for the third consecutive year...Starting with a staggering 4,500 design ideas in the open call, the jury narrowed down the competition pool to 144 finalists. Now, the 33 winners have been revealed and will share the $5 million cash prize that will help implement their projects in 19 Knight-invested communities.

The winning ideas range from an urban beach along Detroit's Atwater Street to a new public space in Columbia, South Carolina that connects two isolated neighborhoods. See all the winning projects on Bustler.

2016 Fuller Challenge finalists announced

2016-08-23T12:32:00-04:00

Multi-disciplinary teams from across the globe work hard for a chance to win the $100,000 Fuller Challenge grand prize that will help implement their initiative. Last month, the Buckminster Fuller Institute revealed 19 hopeful initiatives who were shortlisted for the 2016 cycle. Now, that competition pool has narrowed down to the final six.

CommuniTree by Taking Root

Cooperación Comunitaria

The Rainforest Solutions Project

Una Hakika by the Sentinel Project

The Urban Death Project

(cover image) Waterbank Schools by PITCHAfrica

Read more about the finalists on Bustler.

Previously:

Fuller Challenge winner says his GreenWave 3D ocean farm concept "could feed the world"

GreenWave's 3D ocean farm initiative wins the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Living Breakwaters wins 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Seattle architect seeks to redesign America's burial landscape

2016 Fuller Challenge announces 19 semi-finalist initiatives

2016-07-12T14:04:00-04:00

The ninth cycle of the prestigious 2016 Fuller Challenge is well underway, and competition is as fierce as ever. Following the expert jury's rigorous evaluations, 19 semi-finalists were announced today...Multi-disciplinary teams work hard for a chance at winning the $100,000 grand prize that will help implement their initiative.

A few of this year's semi-finalists include:

Cooperación Comunitaria, which works with marginalized communities in Mexico's most seismically active region to build housing that is affordable, seismically sound, sustainable, and culturally appropriate.

The African Design Center “aims to transform the African built environment through a comprehensive program to recruit and train the next generation of African designers and architects.”

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) produces sustainably designed feminine hygiene products made out of discarded banana fiber. They call out the lacking availability of such products in developing countries, as well as broader taboos surrounding menstruation.

(cover image) Taking Roots' CommuniTree project works “to tackle deforestation, climate change, and poverty, through a comprehensive reforestation and carbon sequestration strategy” in Nicaragua and Guatemala, in collaboration with local rural farmers and their families.

Check out the full list of se...

158 finalists revealed for the second Knight Cities Challenge

2016-01-12T12:41:00-05:00

The second Knight Cities Challenge is ready to create a bigger impact in neighborhoods across the U.S. The Knight Foundation announced today a hefty shortlist of 158 Challenge finalist initiatives, which were selected out of a staggering 4,500 applicants who responded to the national call for ideas last October. Open to anyone, the Challenge posed one question: "What’s your best idea to make cities more successful?"

The winners, who will share a $5 million prize to launch their projects, will be announced in the spring. Check out the full list of finalists on Bustler.

GreenWave's 3D ocean farm initiative wins the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2015-10-22T16:04:00-04:00

The non-profit group GreenWave, which won the prestigious 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, is gaining attention for designing reportedly the world's first 3D multi-species ocean farms. Much like the group's marine-oriented initiatives, the ocean farm project aims to restore ocean ecosystems and biodiversity, and work toward a blue-green economy. Another objective is to create more jobs for coastal communities that will turn fishermen into restorative ocean farmers. Restorative aquaculture was a favorite in last year's Fuller Challenge, wherein SCAPE's "oyster-tecture" proposal scored the $100,000 grand prize.

The GreenWave ocean farms are designed as zero-input "vertical underwater gardens" that consist of layers of seaweed, scallops, and mussels that grow on floating ropes, which are stacked above oyster and clam cages. These crops enable the ocean farmers to produce food, fertilizers, animal feeds, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and other products.

A single acre of the farm would remo...

Jakarta's "car-free days" are only the start of the city's long journey to becoming bike-friendly

2015-09-11T18:13:00-04:00

Ask a cyclist what it’s like to ride in Indonesia’s capital – a sprawling megalopolis of 10.2 million people...More than likely, they’ll tell you it’s outright dangerous...Car-free days may be popular, but there is almost no [cyclist] infrastructure... [However, there] is hope among cyclists that bike lanes will become a priority after the city’s [mass rapid transport] system is finished in 2019. In the meantime, several young innovators are taking matters into their own hands.

The BEACH to be reincarnated in arts competition for D.C.'s Dupont Underground initiative

2015-09-01T12:55:00-04:00

The wildly successful BEACH installation is down to its final exhibition days at Washington D.C.'s National Building Museum. Since opening on July 4, over 120,000 visitors both young and old "splashed" around in its bubbly waters, lounged about on the "shore", and perhaps saw a live band rock out in the 10,000 square-foot monochromatic ball pit, designed by Brooklyn-based Snarkitecture. Although the Beach closes on September 7, that won't be the last of it.

Recycling the Beach was always part of the plan. Even before the installation opened, representatives of the D.C.-based initiative, the Dupont Underground, proposed to transport, store, and re-use its building materials.

The Dupont Underground has set its sights on revitalizing an abandoned trolley station beneath the Dupont Circle neighborhood into a public venue for arts and design-oriented events. As part of their inaugural programming, the group will take the Beach's more than 650,000 anti-microbial plastic balls and its 6,000 ...

Follow the yellow wooden road into Rotterdam's new Luchtsingel pedestrian park

2015-07-14T19:46:00-04:00

Rotterdam recently welcomed The Luchtsingel, a communal endeavor to spruce up the long-neglected Hofplein neighborhood in the heart of the city. Locally based architecture practice Zones Urbaines Sensibles (ZUS) devised The Luchtsingel in 2011. The focal point of the emerging "three-dimensional cityscape" is a nearly 400-meter wooden pedestrian bridge that was largely built from crowdsourced funds, accompanied by a network of refurbished public spaces.

"Based on the idea of Permanent Temporality, the Luchtsingel introduces a new way of [city-making]. This means using the city's evolutionary character and existing forms as a starting point. Therefore, we have developed new instruments for design, financing, and planning," said ZUS partner Elma van Boxel in a statement.

The project gained traction when ZUS set up the "I Make Rotterdam" crowdfunding campaign for the bridge. The campaign sold over 8,000 boards painted in a hard-to-ignore shade of yellow inscribed with the supporter's name...

Schindler Lab Initiative recounts intricate process behind Schindler House artistic interventions

2015-03-24T10:20:00-04:00

This publication documents an exhibition-oriented initiative that prompts artists and architects to develop installations highlighting Rudolph M. Schindler’s domestic experiment...Visitors often ask detailed questions. They are curious about Schindler’s thought process when designing and constructing the house; how the house has been used, understood, and canonized throughout the decades; and how the house is holding up today.

For years, the Schindler House in West Hollywood has served as a cultural backdrop for a multitude of MAK Center exhibitions that have -- in turn -- continuously reinvented the experience of the house and also uniquely demonstrate the ongoing need to preserve the house. Whether engaging with the house itself, examining its use as a domestic space, or reflecting on its 93-year-old history as a modernist icon, every one of these artistic interventions resulted from a meticulous process of discussion, debate, and creative problem solving -- all of which the MAK Center chronicles in an online publication known as the Schindler Lab.

First initiated in 2011 by MAK Center consultant and cultural producer Sara Daleiden, the Schindler Lab is divided into sections that starts off with the Schindler House's architecture and history. The publication then goes on to present the variety of perspectives, proposals, and after-thoughts that architects, designers, artists, curators, and administrators...

The Getty Foundation selects the first 10 modern projects to receive grants in worldwide preservation effort

2014-09-18T15:07:00-04:00

For the sake of preserving the holy modern architectural canon (and some), The Getty Foundation officially announced today the first 10 projects to receive grants of their Keeping it Modern initiative. In a race against time among other challenging factors, the philanthropic effort aims to conserve the world's architectural landmarks of the 20th century.

The Foundation states Keeping it Modern will address the pressing issues involved with the conservation of modern architectural heritage through the support for key model projects. Each grant project was selected for its architectural significance and its potential to advance conservation practices relevant to modern architecture.

The first ten projects selected to receive funding are:

(Above) Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House

Hilario Candela’s Miami Marine Stadium

Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House

Ray and Charles Eames’ residence ‘The Eames House’

I.M. Pei’s Luc...

The 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge semi-finalists

2014-08-27T21:14:00-04:00

The next edition of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Challenge has already begun! Every year, the highly competitive international challenge searches for the most inventive -- and effective -- holistic solution strategies to the world's most pressing problems. The Challenge Review Committee selected 20 semi-finalist initiatives out of 450 proposals worldwide. Each project went through three rounds of rigorous evaluations.

See the rest of the projects and other details on Bustler.

Flaunting foam and function in An Insulation Installation at Makeshift Society Brooklyn

2014-07-18T18:40:00-04:00

From preventing drafts and keeping moisture out of walls, to being used as inexpensive material for crafting 3D models, rigid insulation foam is a familiar friend to many architects and designers during the creative process. But what to do with all those scraps?

Designers Elisa Werbler and Lucy Knops of The Foam Agency (TFA) are inviting architects and designers around the Brooklyn community to send their foam scraps to be permanently showcased in An Insulation Installation at the Makeshift Society's newest location in Brooklyn.

The installation reclaims the foam back to their original place in a transparent wall, while also sharing the back-stories of the collected foam pieces that'll add a collaborative vibe to the Makeshift space.

Werbler and Knops -- who are both product design grad students at New York's School of Visual Arts and are doing their summer residency at Makeshift -- established The Foam Agency this year to celebrate the foam and its purpose in the creative process.

TFA'...

Marine Conservation Initiative Named Winner of the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2011-06-13T12:58:04-04:00

Blue Ventures, a conservation organization that simultaneously protects marine environments while improving the standard of living in some of the world's poorest coastal communities, has been named the winner of the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. The London based non-profit, which validates the bio-economic viability of conservation, was awarded $100,000 to further develop and scale up its work.