Archinect - News

Scotland will mandate passive house standards for all new social housing starts by 2024

2022-12-29T09:00:00-05:00

New legislation aimed at enacting a countrywide mandate for the use of passive house design standards in all new housing developments is gaining traction in Scotland after Labour MSP Alex Rowley’s bill was endorsed by the national government earlier this month.

The new Domestic Building Environmental Standards (Scotland) Bill will now be fast-tracked through secondary legislation in order to be fully enacted by the end of 2024, according to a letter sent to Rowley by Scotland’s Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings Patrick Harvie.

In a statement, the UK’s Passivhaus Trust said: “It is a truly forward-thinking approach by the Scottish government and a positive response to the 2021 Scottish Climate Assembly recommendations. They are to be applauded for taking this crucial step towards meeting their net zero/climate emergency goals. Now we must ensure that the bill is well developed and implemented to deliver the greatest impact on the actual performance of new homes in Scotland.”

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Can the pace of San Francisco's affordable housing development help it pass state hurdles?

2022-04-08T12:59:00-04:00

San Francisco’s housing element, which will be before the planning commission for a hearing Thursday, must meet a tall order. Not only must it plan for 82,000 units but it also must create a blueprint for “fair housing.” That means that a significant amount of the new residential development must occur in “well-resourced” neighborhoods where discrimination and zoning rules have historically combined to keep out newcomers and new buildings.

The city’s compliance with the recommendations in the state-manded RHNA (or Regional Housing Needs Assessment) plan would mean tripling its current housing stock by the year 2031. It would also change the socio-economic fabric of the shifting neighborhood schematic, as a total of 85% of all new developments have gone into just seven of San Francisco’s 36 official districts since Gavin Newsome’s first year as mayor in 2005.

“This is the first plan that is treating housing as a right, as a foundation for health and the economy,” planning director Miriam Chion boasted. “We have produced substantial housing around downtown. Now there is a different demand, a different ask, a different requirement, which is to create a different housing footprint of mid-sized and small multi-family housing throughout high-resource neighborhoods.”

Previously on Archinect: California demands Los Angeles County rezone for 255,000 new housing units... by mid-October

The draft report is due to the California D...

Does the US need a government issued BIM mandate?

2019-12-12T15:01:00-05:00

In May 2011, the UK Government issued a mandate stating that all centrally-procured government projects must utilize "fully collaborative 3D BIM," which produced a ripple effect in industry adoption of the technology across the region.

Some wonder if the US will follow a similar pattern by introducing nationwide regulations that mandate the use of BIM technology. Construction Dive writer Jenn Goodman tackled this in a recent article looking at the already large adoption of BIM solutions across the US.

Goodman cites remarks from Steve Jones, Senior Director of Industry Insights Research at Dodge Data & Analytics. He says, "Theoretically, Congress could pass a law requiring BIM on all federally funded projects, but our research suggests that in the U.S., we are past the point in BIM maturity where we’d see a big gain from a federal mandate."

Goodman also covers the initiatives put forth by buildingSMART alliance with the National BIM Standard-United States (NBIMS-US), which aims to p...