Archinect - News

Record high temperatures are making European cities look elsewhere for future heat mitigation plans

2022-07-20T15:16:00-04:00

Cities across Europe are scrambling to implement public infrastructure upgrades to combat rising temperatures. As a result, many areas are "melting" under the strain of heatwaves that have already claimed more than 1,900 lives in Spain and Portugal alone. Not to mention the record high temperatures in England this week, where the area reached 40°C (104 F) for the first time.

According to new projections from the United Nations, the effects of heatwaves are expected to continue in frequency until at least the 2060s. As a result, nascent Heat Actions Plans in cities like Paris (where only 35% of Metro cars have air-conditioning) are planning for tests that will likely be further exacerbated by an expected influx of climate refugees from some of the most-affected regions during that same timeframe. As news continues to break, architects and urban designers try to face the worsening impacts of climate change's increasingly moribund demands.

For example, efforts to alleviate the heat is...

EU seeks to become world’s first carbon neutral continent with new “European Green Deal”

2021-07-16T14:28:00-04:00

The European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Union, has unveiled details of the “European Green Deal,” with the ambitious aim of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this, all 27 EU Member States will pledge to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

The portfolio of measures set out by the European Union contain many prevalent to the architecture and construction industries. For example, the public sector of each country will be required to renovate 3% of its buildings each year to drive a culture of renovation. The EU estimates that this could lead to 35 million buildings being renovated by 2030, with the creation of 160,000 green jobs in the construction sector.

In addition, the EU has set a benchmark for each Member State to achieve 49% renewable energy use in buildings in 2030, as well as increasing the use of renewable energy in heating and cooling by 1.1 percentage points each year by 2030. Meanwhile...

AIA applauds U.S. recommitting to Paris Agreement

2021-01-20T21:09:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has issued its first statement on a policy decision by newly inaugurated U.S. President, Joe Biden. Publicly sworn in on Capitol Hill earlier today, Biden spent the afternoon signing executive orders, many of which will reinstate environmental regulations reversed under the Trump administration.

One of the key orders signed today recommits the United States to the Paris Agreement, an international climate treaty adopted in 2015 during the Obama administration. Then President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement two years later.

AIA President Peter Exley, FAIA issued this statement today in response to Biden's recommitment:

"We are deeply encouraged by this Administration’s swift and decisive action on climate change. Re-establishing the United States’ commitment to the Paris climate accord sends a strong message to our nation and the world that we will pursue meaningful changes that can save our planet. As architects, we stand ready...

Scientists push back against "Trillion Trees" initiatives

2020-02-14T12:29:00-05:00

Perhaps the biggest risk is that the appeal of natural-sounding solutions can delude us into thinking we’re taking more meaningful action than we really are. It “invites people to view tree planting as a substitute” for the sweeping changes required to prevent greenhouse-gas emissions from reaching the atmosphere in the first place, says Jane Flegal, a member of the adjunct faculty at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

James Temple, writing in the MIT Technology Review outlines the argument against viewing tree-planting as a climate crisis silver bullet. While planting trees might seem like a quick and easy way of helping to abate the climate crisis, Temple explains, increasingly, researchers are finding that estimates touting the potential tree-planting efforts might have for absorbing and sequestering carbon are likely overstated. "We can’t rely on trees as a stand-in for the separate monumental task of cutting emissions from our energy, transportation, and agricultural systems," Temple argues.

As the uptick in forest fires worldwide—from California to the Amazon to Australia— show, trees can quickly go up in smoke. Arizona State University adjunct faculty Jane Flegal tells the MIT Technology Review that “just shifting the stock of CO2 from the atmosphere to the land biosphere is not a permanent sequestration of emissions. Carbon sinks can become carbon sources very quickly.”

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A battle over Eucalyptus—and over what constitutes an invasive species—erupts in California

2019-12-16T13:47:00-05:00

Fragile and flammable, Eucalypti have been implicated in worsening wildfires across the world. But there's little consensus over their culpability, value, or future in California's landscape. Defenders and opponents each say that science and history are on their side.

A long-simmering battle over the current and future status of California's Eucalyptus trees is close to bubbling over again, as the increasingly present risk of catastrophic fire events pits Eucalyptus lovers against native plant enthusiasts who would like to see the tinder-producing groves replaced with native plant species.

Susie Cagle has created an insightful illustrated article for The Guardian that highlights the competing arguments for and against Eucalyptus preservation.

Data suggests that most cities with 2020 emission reduction targets have not hit them yet

2019-12-11T15:24:00-05:00

For nations and cities across the world, 2020 was set to be a milestone year in their fight against climate change. It’s the first in a series of globally earmarked emission-reduction waypoints—2020, 2030, 2050—with 2020 planned as an initial benchmarking moment, a time to see progress towards meeting targets aimed at limiting global warming. Now, the year is nearly here, and early signs of overall progress should signal concern.

Quartz looked at the environmental data of selected cities that had set emission reduction targets for 2020 and analyzed the progress made thus far. According to the outlet, "only 20% of those targets have completed or are more than half-way towards their goal."

Among the high-achieving cities regarding their 2020 goals are Toronto, Cape Town, Barcelona, Moscow, Boston, and Bangkok. Very little or no progress in reducing emissions was made in Reykjavik, Dubai, Vancouver, Milan, and Montreal.

Air conditioning the outdoors? Qatar is doing it

2019-10-21T13:50:00-04:00

To survive the summer heat, Qatar not only air-conditions its soccer stadiums, but also the outdoors — in markets, along sidewalks, even at outdoor malls so people can window shop with a cool breeze. “If you turn off air conditioners, it will be unbearable. You cannot function effectively,” says Yousef al-Horr, founder of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development.

Want to see the future of climate change? Take a look at Qatar, where average temperatures have already risen by more than 2-degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times.

View of the Al Wakrah Sports Club, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Image courtesy of Hufton + Crow.

The Washington Post takes a look at how the country is helping its residents real with the stifling heat as preparations get underway for the 2020 World Cup. The story highlights the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Al Wakrah Stadium, a structure that pumps cooled air across spectators' ankles via stylized grilles.

The report also highlight's the nation's ever-growing collection of indoor malls, outdoor air conditioned zones, and other mechanically cooled spaces.

Greenland is melting

2019-08-02T14:52:00-04:00

More than 11 billion tons of ice was lost to the oceans by surface melt on Wednesday alone, creating a net mass ice loss of some 217 billion tons from Greenland in July. The scope of Wednesday’s ice melt is a number difficult to grasp. To understand just how much ice is being lost, a mere 1 billion tons—or 1 gigaton—of ice loss is equivalent to about 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the Danish Meteorological Institute said.

The Associated Press reports that a summer heatwave that recently scorched Europe has moved north to Greenland, where the elevated temperatures have produced record glacial melt.

While 82-percent of Greenland is covered in ice, nearly 60-percent of the island's total ice sheet is showing signs of melting, a record high, the Danish Meteorological Institute tells The Associated Press.

According to the institute's Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist, global sea levels are due to rise .01-inch for every 110 billion tons of ice melt that occurs on the continent.

Is Greenland melting before our eyes? It looks like yes.

Is it time to ban all-glass skyscrapers?

2019-07-31T19:02:00-04:00

“If you’re building a greenhouse in a climate emergency, it’s a pretty odd thing to do to say the least,” said Simon Sturgis, an adviser to the government and the Greater London Authority, as well as chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects sustainability group. “If you’re using standard glass facades you need a lot of energy to cool them down, and using a lot of energy equates to a lot of carbon emissions.”

As the global community continues to mobilize against the rising threat of climate collapse, cities and other entities are moving toward banning or limiting the future development of all-glass skyscrapers due to the buildings' high energy demands, according to a report in The Guardian.

For decades, designers have relied on technological approaches like double- and triple-glazing facade units to maximize the energy performance of these designs, but as the limited lifespan of these systems comes under question, it has become clear that more drastic efforts are needed.

Simon Sturgis, chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects sustainability group, told The Guardian, “To mitigate the amount of energy used to cool these buildings, you have to produce a really complicated façade, which is usually triple glazed.”

Sturgis added, “But double glazed units and laminated glass don’t last very long – 40 years or so. So you have to replace your facade every 40 years, that’s also not...

Australian architects declare climate and biodiversity emergency

2019-07-31T16:30:00-04:00

For everyone working in the construction industry, meeting the needs of our society without breaching the earth’s ecological boundaries will demand a paradigm shift in our behaviour. Together with our clients, we will need to commission and design buildings, cities and infrastructures as indivisible components of a larger, constantly regenerating and self-sustaining system.

Australian architects are joining an international declaration recognizing the existence of a global environmental and biodiversity climate emergency.

Stating that "the research and technology exist for us to begin that transformation now, but what has been lacking is collective will," the architects seek to "advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative design practices," "establish climate and biodiversity mitigation principles as the key measure of our industry’s success," and "upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition," among other goals.

The founding signatories include: ARM Architecture, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Taylor and Hinds Architects, and Woods Bagot.

The Australian rally comes as the Royal Institute of British Architects also joins the international declaration. In June, the American Institute of Architects passed its own resolution calling for "urgent and sustained climate action."

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In a watery future, will islands build themselves?

2019-07-12T10:22:00-04:00

MIT’s Self Assembly Lab and Maldives-based Invena have unveiled Growing Islands, a provocative underwater structural system that redirects wave energy and sand accumulation flows to build new islands and help rebuild existing beaches ravaged by rising sea levels.

Diagram showcasing the basic conceptual approach behind the approach. Image courtesy of Self-Assembly Lab, MIT Sarah Yasmin Dole, Hassan Maahee Ahmed Maniku.

The decidedly low-tech scheme deploys a series of submerged concrete ramps to create turbulent eddies along the ocean floor that can generate the conditions necessary for sediment deposit. Over time, the designers argue, sediment will build up enough to potentially offset some of the effects of rising sea levels on island and coastal environments.

In a statement announcing the project, MIT researchers said, "We are designing, building, and deploying, submersible devices that, based simply on their geometry and orientation, can function as adaptable artificial reefs."...

Bill de Blasio proposes Manhattan shoreline extension to combat projected sea level rise

2019-03-18T14:40:00-04:00

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a $10 billion plan to push out the lower Manhattan coastline as much as 500 feet, or two city blocks, to protect from flooding that’s expected to become more frequent as global temperatures rise. [...] Portions of the extended land would be at 20 feet above sea level. The city can’t build flood protection on the existing land because it’s too crowded with utilities, sewers and subway lines, he said.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has unveiled the city's comprehensive plan to increase resilience in Lower Manhattan, a low-lying, highly critical area that has proven to be vulnerable to storm surges and flooding. The newly published Lower Manhattan Climate Resilience Study recommends extending the Manhattan shoreline into the East River to better protect the Seaport and the Financial District.

Lower Manhattan 100-Year Floodplains. Image: NYC Mayor’s Office

“Hurricane Sandy showed us how vulnerable areas like Lower Manhattan are to climate change,” said de Blasio in his public announcement. “That’s why we not only have to reduce emissions to prevent the most cataclysmic potential effects of global warming, we have to prepare for the ones that are already inevitable. Our actions will protect Lower Manhattan into the next century. We need the federal government to stand behind cities like New York to meet this crisis head on.”

Click image above to access the Lower Manhattan Climate Resi...

Why is Florida's coastal real estate still booming despite rising levels?

2019-02-20T13:49:00-05:00

In Florida, you will see a bewildering mix of optimism, opportunism and denial in the real estate market: luxury condominiums going up in flood-prone South Beach, and property values rising in the vulnerable Keys, post-Hurricane Irma. And though the House of Representatives passed a bill to require real estate agents to disclose flood risks, the Senate has not reviewed it, and a culture of “systemic, fraudulent nondisclosure” persists in high flood risk areas.

As part of her Climate Changed series for The Guardian, Megan Mayhew Bergman investigates the reluctance of Florida's condominium boom (and the wealthy investors behind it) to cool it a bit on new developments in the face of projected climate change-related devastation.

"Humans tend to respond to immediate threats and financial consequences – and coastal real estate, especially in Florida, may be on the cusp of delivering that harsh wake-up call," writes Mayhew Bergman. "The peninsula has outsized exposure: nearly 2 million people live in coastal cities. On the list of the 20 urban areas in America that will suffer the most from rising seas, Florida has five: St Petersburg, Tampa, Miami, Miami Beach and Panama City. In 2016, Zillow predicted that one out of eight homes in Florida would be underwater by 2100, a loss of $413bn in property."

Earth, water, wind & fire: making homes disaster-proof

2018-10-10T14:25:00-04:00

Some of the world's most scenic locations for luxury homes — beachfronts, forests, mountains — are also prone to disaster: hurricanes and floods, wildfires and earthquakes. Architects and designers are increasingly tasked with creating gorgeous homes that are also able to stand up to nature's whims.

It shouldn't have to take another reminder from the United Nations that a lot more climate change-related extreme weather scenarios will be heading our way in the coming decades to finally take disaster preparedness into consideration when designing homes.

Google's Environmental Insights Explorer tracks carbon pollution on a local level

2018-10-05T18:35:00-04:00

Google has started estimating greenhouse-gas emissions for individual cities, part of what it recently described as an ambitious new plan to deploy its hoard of geographic information on the side of climate-concerned local leaders.

Google has launched a new online tool, the Environmental Insights Explorer, which tracks emissions inventory on a city scale. The program is still in beta mode and currently only provides data for five cities (Pittsburgh, PA; Mountain View, CA; Victoria, BC; Melbourne, AU; Buenos Aires, AR) but could eventually turn into an enormously helpful planning tool for municipalities—especially while the consensus on man-made global warming can be frustratingly murky on the state and federal level.

'Deep adaptation' in the face of planetary climate catastrophe

2018-10-02T18:36:00-04:00

In the language of climate change, “adaptation” refers to ways to blunt the immediate effects of extreme weather, such as building seawalls, conserving drinking water, updating building codes, and helping more people get disaster insurance. [...] But some researchers are going further, calling for what some call the “deep adaptation agenda.”

Bloomberg's Climate & Environment Reporter, Christopher Flavelle, lays out a range of climate change projections—from the general consensus to the more pessimistic—and how an array of 'deep adaptation' measures could help to mitigate the damage. "Rather than simply asking people to water their lawns less often [...]," Flavelle writes, "governments need to consider large-scale, decades-long infrastructure projects, such as transporting water to increasingly arid regions and moving cities away from the ocean."

As permafrost thaws, Nunavut's capital city is racing against time to save its sinking homes

2018-05-10T20:36:00-04:00

It’s difficult to build new houses on thawing permafrost, and many existing houses have huge cracks in the foundations. It is also extremely expensive to ship materials in the Arctic, so the houses that are repaired and built must be planned very carefully. [...] Permafrost thaw is not a new problem; urban planners, architects, and builders have taken its volatility into account for decades in the Arctic. But climate change exacerbates existing permafrost issues—and it does so rapidly.

In this piece by Melody Schreiber, the Nunavut capital of Iqaluit isn't only dealing with scarce housing and soaring prices, many of the town's homes are sinking — or are at high risk — as the permafrost beneath them rapidly melts.

As officials turn to new solutions like thermosyphons, with climate change transforming the entire Arctic landscape, they're also planning for a future to only build on bedrock.

Trump revoked Obama's executive order on higher standards for flood protection two weeks before Hurricane Harvey

2017-08-28T14:10:00-04:00

Hurricane Harvey has been battering the Gulf Coast for days bringing in record floodwaters devastating much of southeast Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated that 30,000 people are in need of emergency shelter and more than 450,000 will need the help of federal aid for recovery after the devastation. The catastrophic flooding, which officials are calling the worst in the state's history, has already lead to at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.

Two weeks before the storm, President Trump revoked an executive order signed by former president Barack Obama in 2015 that aimed to make infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change. The Obama-era regulation meant that roads, building and other infrastructure projects needed to be built to withstand the effects of climate change such as stronger downpours, rising sea levels, and flooding. However, as part of Trump's executive order signed several weeks ago, he rolled back the Federal Flood Ri...

Fighting urban heat with cool pavement in Los Angeles

2017-08-21T13:33:00-04:00

It’s known as the “urban heat island effect,” and it refers to the pockets of intense heat captured by the concrete, asphalt, dark roofs and the dearth of foliage that define many American cityscapes. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wants to reduce the city’s average temperature by 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 20 years.

Los Angeles is the first U.S. city to test cool pavement to fight urban heat, coating streets in a special gray paint known as CoolSeal, that can lower the temperature as much as 10 degrees. The officials say that the hope is that cooler streets will lead to cooler neighborhoods, less air conditioning use and fewer heat-related deaths.

Los Angeles is one of the only cities in the nation that experiences heat-related deaths in the winter, a phenomenon expected to worsen alongside temperatures. “Not everyone has the resources to use air conditioning, so there’s concern that some low-income families will suffer,” says Alan Barreca, an environmental science professor at the UCLA. “That bothers me on a moral dimension. The pavement would provide benefits to everyone. “It can protect people who have to be outdoors,” he added.

The coating costs about $40,000 per mile and lasts seven years, officials said. To determine whether CoolSeal is cost-effective and how it influences drivers, Spot...

Trump to reverse Obama’s Federal Flood Risk Management Standard aimed at planning for climate change

2017-08-16T13:17:00-04:00

The White House confirmed that the order issued Tuesday would revoke an earlier executive order by former President Barack Obama that required recipients of federal funds to strongly consider risk-management standards when building in flood zones, including measures such as elevating structures from the reach of rising water.

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would streamline the approval process for building infrastructure such as roads, bridges and offices by eliminating a planning step related to climate change and flood dangers.

Trump's new order will weaken environmental standards that guard against flood risk, saddling the federal government with the burden of paying for flood damage in the future. The executive order also promised “one Federal decision” for major infrastructure projects and setting a two-year goal for completion of permitting processes. Trump said every project would be assigned to a lead agency that would be held “accountable” for it.

“This order will put people throughout the country at risk by allowing developers to ignore potential hazards while muzzling the public’s ability to weigh in on potentially harmful projects near their homes,” Alex Taurel, deputy legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement.

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Leaked government draft report finds that U.S. is already impacted by climate change

2017-08-09T14:30:00-04:00

A draft government report on climate says the U.S. is already experiencing the consequences of global warming. The findings sharply contrast with statements by President Trump and some members of his Cabinet, who have sought to downplay the changing climate. The document, which was leaked ahead of publication and reported by The New York Times on Tuesday, says Americans are seeing more heat waves and rainfall as a result of climate change.

The draft report confirms previous assessments that global warming, as observed over the past decades, is indeed caused by human activity, and climate change is already showing affects on the United States' weather and economy.

"That statement is directly at odds with statements from Trump and key Cabinet members," NPR reports. "The head of Trump's Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has said there is "tremendous disagreement" on the impact humans have had on the climate. And in June, Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from so-called Paris agreement on climate change, which is the main international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Click here to read the draft of the climate change report in full.

Norwegian government dedicates $4.4M to upgrade Arctic seed vault

2017-06-14T12:06:00-04:00

The Global Seed Vault, built in the Arctic as an impregnable deep freeze for the world’s most precious food seeds, is to undergo a multi-million dollar upgrade after water from melting permafrost flooded its access tunnel. No seeds were damaged but the incident undermined the original belief that the vault would be a “failsafe” facility, securing the world’s food supply forever. Now the Norwegian government, which owns the vault, has committed $4.4m (NOK37m) to improvements.

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Releases a Statement Affirming its Responsibility to Combat Climate Change

2017-06-06T13:43:00-04:00

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) proclaimed yesterday its commitment to enforcing measures of sustainability within the Canadian architecture community. The statement was released in support of a letter published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the United States plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement initiated to curb climate change.

The RAIC’s statement reads:

“The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) affirms the continued commitment of the Canadian architecture community to designing a more sustainable world and making the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement a reality.

‘Each of us has a responsibility in our work and with our everyday choices to ensure a sustainable future,’ says RAIC President-Elect Michael Cox, FRAIC. ‘The RAIC applauds and whole-heartedly endorses the American Institute of Architects’ commitment to continue to exercise that responsibility.’

The RAIC join...

The US is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement — here's the AIA's response

2017-06-01T18:12:00-04:00

Just a few hours ago, President Donald Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the non-binding Paris Agreement intended to mitigate climate change. The President of the American Institute of Architects Thomas Vonier, FAIA has issued a statement in response, reaffirming its commitment to reducing the (vast) contributions of the built environment to global warming.

Here it is in full:

"The United States must remain a leader in the battle to cease harmful and needless practices that damage the planet and its climate, acting out of both environmental concerns and national economic interests. Instead of helping our economy, as the Administration contends, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement will put us behind our major global competitors.

The AIA will not retreat from its long-established efforts to conserve energy and to deploy renewable resources in buildings. We will continue to lead in efforts to curb the use of fuels and technologies that needlessly pollute our atmos...

Global warming has caused meltwater to penetrate the Global Seed Vault in the Arctic

2017-05-22T12:39:00-04:00

It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.

Containing almost one million packets of seeds, the Global Seed Vault is intended to serve as something of a biological back-up in the era of mass, man-made environmental destruction. It's buried under permafrost, which was thought to ensure that the structure would remain impregnable for thousands of years. But already global warming has threatened this archive of living matter.

“This is supposed to last for eternity,” stated Åsmund Asdal at the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre, which operates the seed vault. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case.

The AIA releases 8 new principles responding to climate change

2017-04-17T12:25:00-04:00

"Architecture and design can mitigate climate impact while simultaneously reducing operating costs for building owners," says AIA President Thomas Vonier, FAIA, in a recently-released press statement issued in conjunction with Earth Day. ”We need the federal government to keep and even expand incentives that are already producing major advances in energy efficient design and cutting the carbon footprint of buildings."

The statement continues with eight principles geared towards how architects can mitigate the worst effects of climate change. It urges government bodies to act to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. It also notes the huge expansion of jobs (2.1 million from 2011-2014) and economic growth (more than $167 billion in GDP from 2011-2014) that’s already accompanied energy-conscious construction:

The principles are:

The United States must lead the fight against climate change. The federal government must maintain America’s global leadership in the design and constructi...

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry nominated as Secretary of U.S. Department of Energy

2016-12-15T12:29:00-05:00

President-elect Donald Trump has added another name to his cabinet: former Texas Governor Rick Perry will head the U.S. Department of Energy. The announcement has drawn mixed responses. The oil and gas industry, on the one hand, welcomed the fossil fuel industry-friendly climate change skeptic, and immediately requested that he support increases in natural gas exports. On the other hand, environmentalists and others concerned with accelerating global warming found the choice worrisome, to say the least. A few years ago, Perry proposed abolishing the department altogether, although he also forgot its name once during a debate in a notorious gaffe.

The nomination is the latest addition of an oil industry-friendly climate change skeptic to the cabinet, following the selection of Exxon Mobil Corp’s CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a major opponent of climate change mitigation efforts, as head of the EPA.

Besides managing energy-related re...

American firms aren't doing enough to reduce their carbon footprint, according to new report

2016-10-05T13:38:00-04:00

“We are simply not making significant strides in crucial metrics that predict building performance,” states Greg Mella, FAIA, Director of Sustainable Design at SmithGroupJJR and co-chair of the AIA 2030 Working Group, in a new report that gauges the progress made by firms voluntarily committing to reduce the carbon emissions produced by their buildings. “These findings should serve as a wake-up call to architects that there needs to be greater urgency to drive improved energy efficiency across their project portfolios if we are going to reach our ultimate carbon reduction goals.”

While a total of 152 firms submitted data, amounting to a 9% increase from 2014, the reports aren’t terribly impressive. A scant 4% of the total gross square feet (GSF) represented met the target of reducing carbon emissions by 70%. And just 10% of total GSF met the previous target—a 60% carbon reduction—representing a decrease of 4% since the last report. That being said, 614 design projects met the 60% tar...

Architects call for action on climate change

2016-08-30T14:10:00-04:00

The building sector has a uniquely intimate relationship to global warming. One the one hand, cities consume 78% of the world’s energy and are responsible for more than 60% of global carbon emissions; building maintenance accounts for nearly 50% of energy usage and construction is one of the most environmentally destructive of human activities. On the other, better design represents one of humanity’s best—and most feasible—opportunities to reduce global carbon emissions and help prepare for inevitable changes to our environment.

It’s therefore highly appropriate that a group of Chicago-based architects have recently launched an online initiative calling for action on climate change. Following five weeks of grassroots outreach, sixty-six architecture firms and six design industry-related companies have joined the public outreach campaign, dubbed Architects Advocate: Action on Climate Change. Now they plan to rapidly expand to the rest of the United States.

Supporters of the campaign ar...

Alaskan village voting on whether to relocate because of sea level rise

2016-08-17T13:35:00-04:00

The residents of the northern Alaskan village of Shishmaref are currently voting to decide whether or not to relocate their village. As global warming brings up temperatures, the sea ice that once protected the village has begun to melt. Now the town, which is built on a barrier island in the Chukchi sea, faces inundation.

The village, with its 650 residents, mostly members of the Inupiat Inuit tribe, would be the first in the United States to relocate because of global warming-induced sea level rise. The effects of climate change on the island are considered among the most dramatic in the world. Already, the village has lost 2,500 to 3,500 feet of land to coastal erosion and the entire island could be gone within the next couple decades.

While barricades have been erected to protect the village, their effect has been minimal. The town is built on permafrost, which is melting and causing the shore to become even more vulnerable to crashing waves.

If the vote goes through, the cost of...