Archinect - News

Cobe, Dorte Mandrup, JAJA, and Tegnestuen Vandkunsten to lead new mixed-use housing development at Copenhagen's South Harbor

2024-04-12T13:41:00-04:00

Cobe is joining fellow Danish architecture firms Dorte Mandrup, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten, and JAJA, alongside Sweco engineers, to deliver a new mixed-use residential district in Copenhagen’s South Harbor. The one-million-square-foot design is set to include 1,000 new units of housing (25% of which are considered affordable) designed to help key the Danish building sector's vital green transition.

Each of the buildings will be constructed in line with the Reduction Roadmap initiative, an analog of the Paris Agreement, as well as the Planetary Boundary for Climate Change and a German DGNB platinum certification. Wood will be used as a primary building material throughout the structures, which are connected via canals, bridges, and new green areas.

Rendering courtesy Cobe

Cobe is also under tender to deliver the newly redesigned Danish parliament buildings and public entrance in Copenhagen and has nearby completed another mixed-use housing tract called Paper Island at its Inner Harbor, w...

NYC public school students are pushing the city for greener school buildings

2024-01-09T13:48:00-05:00

New York City teens have launched an initiative, born out of a 2019 citywide climate walkout, to urge Mayor Adams to "speed up plans to retrofit school buildings to make them safer, healthier, and more climate-friendly."

The student-led environmental coalition named, TREEage is "asking peers across the city to post videos to social media about why their schools urgently need green energy upgrades. The group is also asking students to grade how green their school is from A to F," reports Jessica Gould of the Gothamist.

Over the years, they have gained significant concessions from the Adams administration, including a pledge to make all new public school building constructions all-electric by 2030.

Their advocacy for the city’s Green New Deal is bolstered by an understanding of the correlation between healthier environments and better learning outcomes.

TREEage is now preparing a social media campaign that will kick off next month using the hashtags #MayorAdamsFixMySchoo and #Gree...

MVRDV begins construction on 'urban oasis' mixed-use concept for Paris

2023-11-29T12:44:00-05:00

MVRDV is behind a newly commenced mixed-use housing tract called La Serre, to be located in the Paris region’s ZAC Léon Blum eco-district at Issy-les-Moulineaux.

The firm’s project announcement details an 18-story development defined by its open facade with a landscaped vertical village provided by landscape architect Alice Tricon.

MVRDV says a total of 390 trees will be planted throughout the structure, helping to defy “traditional housing norms” in order to present a refreshed take on urban dwelling that’s in tune with Paris’ need for biodiversity and constructed using a host of low-carbon materials.

Image: © ENGRAM

The city’s Mayor, André Santini, said: “The project prioritizes nature, placing it at the forefront while the building recedes into the background. This urban oasis is not just a residential space; it's a genuine village square.”

Image: © ENGRAM

An open steel rack superstructure hosts the carefully selected slate of 150 different (mostly native) plant species while provi...

Snøhetta's green, mixed-use AIRSIDE development opens in Hong Kong

2023-11-11T11:21:00-05:00

Snøhetta’s AIRSIDE, a LEED Platinum-certified, mixed-use development in Hong Kong, has officially opened.

Located at the site of the former Kai Tak Airport district, the approximately 1,912,424-square-foot project merges into the surrounding urban landscape by creating direct access between pedestrian transit areas, retail spaces, and elevated landscapes. The development comprises an approximately 699-foot-tall tower with a second tower and its base in a continuous form.

The building mass comprises five interconnected volumes that gradually step up from the Kai Tak River, which lends the 699-foot-tall tower an inviting presence at ground level. The building’s sculpted forms create a series of human-scale urban spaces at this level, in addition to rooftop gardens. Landscaped plazas contribute to further integrating the development into the surroundings and creating an engaging pedestrian realm.

An expansive elevated garden sits atop the podium containing the building’s central atr...

The ancient ventilation method that’s still keeping Chinese homes cool

2023-07-17T11:46:00-04:00

When asked about why skywells have caught more attention of modern Chinese people, Wang [Zhengfeng] says that the courtyard is also designed to serve as a gathering space for families or communities, and comes with ritual meanings. "Perhaps changes in the way of life could also trigger vernacular nostalgia among people living in concrete and glass forests.” "It won't be easy to be sustainable by learning from the past without reflecting on our current behaviours."

Lightwells are of course, a common passive cooling method in modern Western designs, but in China, their popularity is partly driven by a budding “vernacular nostalgia” for traditional features and concepts. The government’s push towards greener building standards and a 2060 net zero carbon emissions target is also inspiring the renaissance in the face of skyrocketing energy consumption at a critical time. A 2018 report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted 85% of all homes in the country will have at least one air conditioning unit by 2030.

Team of UBC students builds one of Canada's first near-zero embodied carbon campus spaces

2023-04-21T12:33:00-04:00

A team of students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) has built a near-zero embodied carbon building on campus using hempcrete, wood, and steel as primary materials.

Called the Third Space Commons, the project was led by Third Quadrant Design, UBC’s first green building design team. The group is comprised of 60 students from the Faculty of Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business. The building is a wooden structure spanning 2,400 square feet, made from the adaptive reuse of an existing single-family home on the campus. Every aspect of the project, from the materials to the building methods, were chosen to decrease and capture carbon emissions.

The building’s thermal insulation is made of hempcrete, a concrete substitute made of lime and hemp fibers that is effective in carbon sequestration. Its foundation was constructed with reusable steel piles, and, for most of the project, the team used light wood framing instead of engineered wood, which contains fossil fuel-derived adhesives. The team also reused many materials from other construction sites in Vancouver, including the building’s windows, solar panels, appliances, and lumber, whic...

2023 could see a rise in green building policies centered on embodied carbon

2023-01-30T20:27:00-05:00

For much of its recent history in mitigating climate change, Denver has concentrated on buildings’ operational energy — the energy needed to run basics like heating, air conditioning, lighting and hot water. That will shift in May, when Denver’s newly adopted green code takes effect, said Christy Collins, green communities specialist with the local government.

Denver’s new green code will make it so a building’s embodied carbon is considered. It will provide minimum requirements for the siting, design, construction, and plans for the operation of projects. Commercial projects in Denver are now required by law to choose around 10% of the green code to follow. According to Smart Cities Dive, similar policies that address embodied carbon alongside the electrification of buildings and other decarbonization efforts are set to grow this year.

Additionally, there has also been a rise in policies designed to foster a circular economy, such as salvaging materials and deconstructing buildings rather than demolishing them. This expansion of green policies can be attributed to the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $1 billion in grants to help states deliver new residential and commercial building codes.

Inflation Reduction Act is ready to make climate impact on building sector

2022-08-15T12:37:00-04:00

Industry groups are applauding lawmakers after the passage of the Biden Administration’s recently proposed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, pointing to its more than $5 billion in provisions they say are “critical” to enacting climate change-related policies and modernizing transportation infrastructure across the United States.

Once implemented, the bill, officially titled H.R. 5376, will help incentivize the use and development of low-carbon building materials in government buildings as well as provide grants and other forms of funding that will aid in the country’s effort to match CO2 emissions mandates outlined in the Paris Agreement from 2015.

In a statement, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) president Peter Templeton commented that “the Inflation Reduction Act would put in place the most critical and consequential climate policies we have ever seen, and it would do so while reducing energy costs for American families and businesses and shoring up our energy security with a ...

Hemp is about to take an outsized role in the building industry's push to go green

2022-07-19T17:40:00-04:00

While most of these buildings are constructed out of more traditional materials like cement, brick, drywall, and plywood, forward-thinking architects and members of the construction industry have increasingly been turning to natural materials as an alternative for the future. Due to its ability to sequester carbon, hemp has landed itself at the forefront of the conversation about natural building.

Hemp’s high tensile strength, pliability, and strength-to-weight ratio are increasingly valuable in the manufacture and design of products like fiberboard and even a new concrete alternative. The recent COP26 conference in Glasgow featured the speculative 'Urban Sequoia' design from SOM that combined hempcrete with other green materials like algae and bio-bricks to create a high-rise tower capable of sequestering 1,000 tons of CO2 per year.

One industry executive says it’s going to change the way we build, and that this is only the beginning in terms of what we’ll see coming onto the marketplace in the next few decades. “We’ve made blueprints for hemp villages,” Jayeson Hendyrsan, CEO of Hempcrete Natural Building Ltd., told the AIA’s Topic A blog. “We want families to live in these carbon neutral homes for generations. While we’re a way off from that being widespread, we...

Can the architecture industry deliver a carbon-neutral building revolution?

2022-04-15T18:40:00-04:00

There’s ever-growing panoply of efficiency measures — better insulation, improved heating and air-conditioning, less-polluting appliances — that could help the building sector rapidly decarbonize. By 2030, almost all new buildings could consume zero net energy — net meaning there’s some give and take from the grid to equal zero use. That’s a big deal, especially with a corollary switch to electrified forms of transportation.

The list of new green technologies is long and includes innovations like low-carbon concrete, cross-laminated timber, and living wall systems that have all developed into scalable products over the past ten years.

So far, big-name firms like Gensler, Lake|Flato, and KieranTimberlake have been among their many evangalizers, with high-profile projects like the White Arkitekter-designed Sara Cultural Centre, Arup's recently completed HAUT residential building, or the Sonoma Academy Janet Durgin Guild & Commons by WRNS Studio serving as the new standard-bearers in an industry seemingly reluctant to adopt its own rhetoric as to the need for systematic change.

The residential sector is another key area of focus if the 2030 ambit mentioned above is to ever truly become a reality. There is quite a bit of reason for hope in this area, too, with more and more governments providing fundin...

WRNS Studio school sets new milestones for sustainability

2021-05-04T09:16:00-04:00

WRNS Studio has announced a milestone sustainability achievement for their Janet Durgin Guild & Commons, designed for the Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California. The scheme has become the first project to achieve both Petal and Zero Carbon Certification by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), as well as being the first project in California to receive Zero Carbon Certification, and the fourth in the State to receive Petal Certification.

Image: Michael David Rose

The project, previously detailed on Archinect here, takes the form of a Y-shaped mass nestled into the hillside overlooking Santa Rosa. At two stories, the scheme uses the site’s slope to form clear programmatic levels, supported by a landscape of pathways and habitats flowing over and around the terraced learning environment.

Image: Michael David Rose

Engagement, wellness, inclusivity, and sustainability formed core pillars of WRNS Studio’s approach. The Commons area features generous operable windows that ...

How much pollution does cement really produce? Is there a cleaner solution?

2019-06-28T19:06:00-04:00

Cement is everywhere, but few notice the impact it has on the environment. A standard building material used everywhere, it is often confused with concrete. Cement is a key component in making concrete. By burning limestone at extremely high temperatures, this process turns the stone into a fine powder that's then mixed with clay and other minerals. This powder material, called clinker, is mixed together with other materials to create concrete. Despite its inexpensive and readily available supply, cement production is responsible for high levels of carbon dioxide emissions surpassing the emissions produced from trucks.

Image © Bloomberg

Huelva Cultura & Leisure Center in Andulusia is constructed with Larfarge Holcim's Agilia® ready-mix concrete. Image © LafargeHolcim

Thanks to Vanessa Dezem's Bloomberg piece, we learn why cement is so hazardous to the environment and what solutions have been made by manufacturers to help alleviate its hazardous output. The science behind cement and wh...

Starbucks commits to move towards more sustainable stores by 2025

2018-09-19T14:09:00-04:00

Starbucks has announced that the company plans to create 10,000 eco-friendly stores globally by 2025. The news follows other sustainability focused initiatives taken on by the coffee giant such as eliminating single-use plastic straws by 2020 and its partnership with McDonald's to create a compostable coffee cup.

“Simply put, sustainable coffee, served sustainably is our aspiration,” said the company's CEO Kevin Johnson. "We know that designing and building green stores is not only responsible, it is cost effective as well. The energy and passion of our green apron partners has inspired us to find ways to operate a greener store that will generate even greater cost savings while reducing impact.”

To do so, Starbucks has developed a six-part framework, coined The Greener Stores Framework, based on the LEED certification program and other sustainable operations. The framework offers a comprehensive model, laying out six key standards ranging from waste management tactics to design upg...

Are planted building renderings a real solution or just for show?

2017-12-18T15:10:00-05:00

The trend for “green” eco-fantasy buildings is sweeping the world of architecture, with designers now integrating gardens, terraces and all manner of vertical planting in their specifications for office blocks, apartment buildings and even skyscrapers. “Starchitects” [...] who a few years ago would have scoffed at the idea that their sleek and shiny building might incorporate something as embarrassingly domestic and “unmodern” as a garden, are now getting in on the act.

We have all seen many plant covered architectural renderings of firms getting in on the green building movement. While green buildings and sustainability are not new concepts, they are now a widespread trend being commercialized on a whole different scale. From the vast number of these green projects we must now distinguish between the quality of these designs and their overall effectiveness on the environment. Now we must ask: is there a difference between putting trees on buildings and real environmental change?

How glass buildings are making fighting climate change harder

2017-07-18T13:26:00-04:00

Permissive building codes, industry inertia, and market demands — like clients clamoring for floor-to-ceiling views — have widened the discrepancy between the kind of buildings cities say they want and what they actually allow. So while the industry inches towards better environmental performance, buildings in Boston and other cities still fall short of the sustainability goals that everyone claims to embrace.

Courtney Humphries of Boston Globe argues that the current trend for extensive use of glass in buildings contradicts today's strive for sustainability and "green building." When New York started tracking energy use by skyscrapers, the gleaming 7 World Trade Center — one of that city’s more efficient glass towers — scored worse than the 1930s-era Empire State Building."

Taking a lot of energy to heat and cool, glass buildings do not fit well with most climates. "Unlike opaque walls, glass allows heat to pass in and out easily. A 2014 report from the Urban Green Council in New York found that glass buildings have insulation values equivalent to medieval half-timber houses." As the author adds, "Transparent walls also limit privacy, and sunlight can create glare. Reflections on glass buildings can also be a problem; one London skyscraper infamously melted cars parked outside. The Urban Green Council has found that occupants of glass buildings often cover their views with shades and cur...

First mass timber high-rise building to be permitted in the US is coming to Portland

2017-06-08T18:33:00-04:00

Designed by LEVER Architecture, Framework Building aims at promoting sustainable building practices and economic opportunity for a sustainable urban-rural ecology.

To receive the permit the 12-story building has completed a series of fire, acoustic and structural tests which have proven that mass timber construction performs to fire and life safety requirements, in some cases even exceeding the current standards.

"The mixed-use project combines retail and public exhibition on the ground level, with five levels of office and 60-units of affordable housing. Framework’s commercial tenants will be B corporations—businesses certified to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. The housing component of the project accommodates residents earning less than 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI).

Framework is part of a mutually beneficial cycle between natural resources, the rural timber industries that rely on these resources, and the citi...

RAIC distinguishes Montreal's Bibliothèque du Boisé with 2017 Green Building Award

2017-04-11T20:20:00-04:00

Built to serve Saint-Laurent's diverse community in Montreal, the Bibliothèque du Boisé has collected another honorable accolade. Today, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada awarded the public library with its 2017 Green Building Award. The award will be presented during the RAIC/OAA Festival of Architecture in Ottawa on May 24 to 27.

After winning the City of Montreal's design competition, the Cardinal Hardy + Labonté Marcil + Eric Pelletier architecte consortium designed the 6,000 square-meter LEED-Platinum library, which was inaugurated in 2013. (Eric Pelletier architecte and Cardinal Hardy merged with Lemay in 2013 and 2014, respectively.)

Photos © Doublespace Photography

With ample natural lighting and warm touches of wood, the building comprises various cultural and community spaces: the library, administration, exhibit space, museum archives, meeting rooms, youth areas, and a cafe.

Photo © Yien Chao.

Photos © Doublespace Photography.

As for sustainability strategies, the bu...

Santa Monica's 'impossibly green' building dreams: the challenging path to Living Building certification

2016-11-30T14:57:00-05:00

On a small and skinny lot wedged behind its historic city hall, Santa Monica is trying to accomplish something that has never been done before in California. By 2020, the city hopes to construct a 50,000-square-foot city services building that will meet the requirements of the International Living Future Institute’s “Living Building Challenge” — the most stringent environmental building standard in the world.

"Should the city succeed it will prove that net-zero water is possible in our arid climate, even in a drought — and that if we’re serious about staving off the effects of drought and climate change, we should settle for no less. It will also familiarize code officials with new innovations, making it easier for developers to build sustainably."

Architecture Dean Poh says reduction in energy savings is not enough: "I am for net zero."

2016-08-29T17:11:00-04:00

“Right now (the industry is) setting targets of 30 to 40 per cent reduction in energy savings from the current business as usual. I think that’s just not enough. I am for net zero,” he says. [...] “The time scale between what we know can be done and should be done, and when the technology and processes become the norm, needs to be shortened. Currently it takes about 10 to 15 years.”

Cradle to Cradle Innovation Challenge 2013 Winners reinvent safe, sustainable building products

2013-11-18T13:59:00-05:00

Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Make It Right honored the winners of their Innovation Challenge on Nov. 15 at the Innovation Celebration in New York City. The challenge was established in 2012 as a chance for innovators to reinvent and respond to the issues on how building products are designed, manufactured, and consumed.

Starting from 144 applicants to 10 finalists, the jury chose four winners:

1st place: bioMASON biobrick
2nd place: Ecovative Mushroom Insulation
3rd place tie: ECOR Universal Construction Panels and ROMA Domus Mineral Paints

Ecovative is also the winner of the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

Seaweed-Clad House in Denmark Combines Natural Materials With 21st Century Building Techniques

2013-07-12T18:17:00-04:00

Danish non-profit organization Realdania Byg commissioned Vandkunsten architecture studio to design a holiday house that combines the most up-to-date construction techniques with local traditional materials. The architects designed and built a traditional house clad in seaweed—a material that was once used in hundreds of homes on then Danish island of Læsø, of which only 20 remain today.

Ed Mazria announces his 2030 Palette design tool

2013-05-16T14:35:00-04:00

The 2030 Palette is an interactive online tool that puts the principles behind low-carbon and resilient built environments at the fingertips of architects, planners and designers worldwide. Our goal is to inform the planning and design process at the point of inspiration. By curating the best information... highly complex ideas are made intuitive and accessible. Guiding principles are presented as individual “Swatches”, which together make up the larger fabric of sustainable built environments.

The site - www.2030palette.org - looks like a very useful resource. Could be useful for designers but even more so for client to get by in when trying "new" strategies.

Ideas and Inspiration from Ancient Rome

2013-04-30T11:12:00-04:00

In Australia, we tend to think of green building as ‘high tech’ and ‘high spec.’ However, if we take a look at ancient Roman structures, it is clear that green building was on display even then, and without all of the high tech innovations we have available to us in the 21st century.

Piezoelectric Energy-Generating “Scene Sensor” Wins the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative Competition for Freshkills Park

2012-10-25T20:22:00-04:00

The Land Art Generator Initiative just announced the winner of its 2012 design competition moments ago in New York City. "Scene Sensor", designed by artists James Murray and Shota Vashakmadze, is a striking piezoelectric energy-generating art project designed to be installed above and below the surface of the Staten Island park.

Africa's First Plastic Bottle House Rises in Nigeria

2011-11-07T15:07:21-05:00

The Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) – an NGO based in Nigeria – is almost finished with an incredible two-bedroom bungalow entirely out of plastic bottles. Although many in Kaduna were dubious when the project began construction in June this year, the nearly-complete home is bullet and fireproof, earthquake resistant, and maintains a comfortable interior temperature of 64 degrees fahrenheit year round.

Empire State Building Achieves LEED Gold Certification

2011-09-14T13:44:58-04:00

It’s official — the Empire State Building has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Thanks to a massive green overhaul that took more than two years, the landmark is now the tallest building in the United States to receive LEED certification.

SNEAK PEEK: 20 Energy-Efficient Homes in the 2011 Solar Decathlon

2011-09-13T14:48:27-04:00

The 2011 Solar Decathlon is heating up as 20 teams of students from around the world construct stunning, energy-efficient homes at the National Mall’s West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The competition officially opens on September 23rd, but Inhabitat offers a first look at each of this year's solar-powered homes.

Passivhaus Institute Ends Relationship With Passive House Institute US

2011-08-17T15:55:49-04:00

The founder of Passivhaus and director of Passivhaus Institute PHI, Dr. Wolfgang Fiest, has just sent word that the Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) will no longer be able to provide building certifications, and will no longer be considered a partner of the program.

Renzo Piano Unveils Green-Roofed Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center for Athens

2011-07-06T14:52:00-04:00

Renzo Piano recently unveiled plans for a new waterfront cultural center and urban park in Athens that includes a massive opera house and a library that is directly connected to the park by a sloping green roof. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center will also incorporate several sustainable technologies with the hope of attaining LEED Platinum certification.

Diawa Lease Unveils Solar-Powered Transforming EDV-01 Prefab

2011-06-23T15:44:47-04:00

Diawa Lease just sent Inhabitat the first photos of their new transforming EDV-1 shelter, which can be set on any terrain, doubles in size with the flick of a switch, and can sustain itself without any outside resources for up to a month by catching and reusing water and generating electricity with a huge built-in solar array.

Diawa Lease just unveiled its solar-powered EDV-1 emergency shelter, which doubles in size with the flick of a switch and features a luminous LED facade.