Archinect - News

Snøhetta launches national park regeneration project in Japan

2024-04-26T11:57:00-04:00

Snøhetta has announced a new regeneration project with the Japanese private environmental agency BOND. The scheme for a yet-unnamed national park has several planned outcomes aimed a different social and environmental issues in Japan, which is experiencing a crisis of aging and still recovering from damages caused by seismic events in January and throughout the course of the last decade.

In a social media post, Snøhetta says: “Our masterplan will strengthen the relationship between earth, people, and nature, while beginning to heal and restore the scarred landscape to its original state of biodiversity and natural richness. Eco-concepts for health, wellness, and educational facilities are woven together with active public spaces spread across the park. This ecotourism development is the first step in furthering BOND’s vision of linking top stakeholders, government agencies, and locals to offer sustainable solutions for some of the long-term challenges facing the country.”

The firm h...

AECOM to provide ‘environmental restoration and compliance services’ for NASA

2024-04-11T13:16:00-04:00

Architecture and infrastructure consulting firm AECOM is to provide environmental restoration and compliance services to NASA facilities across the U.S. The five-year contract will see AECOM deliver environmental sampling, contaminants investigations, and human, health, and ecological risk assessments to NASA’s U.S. facilities.

“We are proud to continue building on our 60-year history of successfully serving NASA by leveraging our environmental restoration and compliance expertise, actively advancing our purpose to deliver a better world for the next generation,” said Frank Sweet, chief executive of AECOM’s global Environment business, in a statement. “The management and remediation of hazardous materials, such as PFAS and other substances, continues to be a key priority for our teams and our clients, and we look forward to our continued partnership with NASA on this shared mission.”

AECOM provided architecture and engineering services for the Integrated Engineering Services Buildin...

Snøhetta unveils new urban farm design in Hong Kong

2022-12-21T18:26:00-05:00

Snøhetta is nearing completion on a trio of clubhouse designs set in the densely populated center of Hong Kong’s Pavilia Farm residential development in Tai Wai.

As a space for social interaction and shared experiences, the project serves residents of Pavilia with a vital piece of communal infrastructure while also providing urban farming capabilities and a contemplative connection to nature in what can otherwise be considered a hyper-urban environment.

Image: New World Development

“Pavilia Farm is a project that highlights the importance of creating new green, urban neighborhoods. More people live in cities than ever before — and that trend is likely to continue to increase in the future — so we need to build in a way that can make it sustainable — both environmentally and socially,” Robert Greenwood, the Managing Director of Snøhetta Asia said in a press release.

Image: New World Development

“The Pavilia Farm and the clubhouses are small but perfect examples of how that can be don...

Sasaki is moving to NYC after acquiring Brooklyn's DLANDstudio

2022-05-03T13:44:00-04:00

Sasaki Associates will be branching out and adding a new component after an announcement this week that they are acquiring Brooklyn-based DLANDstudio and opening a new office in New York City for the first time.

The 70-year-old firm has traditionally operated out of offices in Denver, Shanghai, and Watertown, Massachusetts, where it is headquartered, and boasts an impressive and well-known international portfolio which includes the Chicago Riverwalk, Xuhui Runway Park, and soon-to-be remade Boston City Hall plaza.

Sasaki says the new addition will help bolster its ability to address core issues such as climate adaptation, biodiversity loss, environmental justice, and social equity in keeping with its founder’s visionary pursuit of ecologically-minded architecture and design.

Related Archinect Feature: Meet the Architects Designing Software to Fight Climate Change

Speaking in a press release, DLANDstudio founder and principal Susannah Drake, FASLA, FAIA said: “Environmental justice wa...

Birdproof glass technology is getting better — but its popularity still hasn't taken off

2022-01-05T18:02:00-05:00

Architects have known how to prevent their buildings from becoming bird killers for more than a decade: Patterned glass, exterior screens and turning the lights off at night can all significantly reduce bird deaths. But those standards clash with the big glass and big views that clients associate with big money.

The problem stems from the way glass reflects green spaces surrounding them. Recent advancements in data and social media tracking have combined with architectural studies have been able to successfully produce guidelines which recommend a wide array of interventions like ceramic frits, visual dot patterns and solar shades that have been successfully demonstrated in retrofit projects such as the Javits Center.

Annual bird deaths are currently estimated to be between 100 million and 1 billion globally. Initiatives from Ennead and others have been instrumental in protecting avian annihilation, though animal rights activists continue to argue that the preventative measures are not nearly widespread enough — especially in large cities like New York.

“Every project we work on, guess what? There’s a giant plate of glass, and the client says, we want some landscape here,” SCAPE founder Kate Orff told Bloombeg. “Over the past decade, Manhattan has been remade as a giant bird killer.”

...

Nine architecture firms are currently hiring landscape architects, environmental impact specialists, and other sustainability focused positions

2021-07-15T14:03:00-04:00

Increased climate change issues have greatly influenced changes in architecture and design approaches. So how can homes, commercial buildings, and land exude better sustainability practices?

This week Archinect highlights nine firms that specialize in sustainable design measures to help improve land use and commercial and residential design projects. Whether you are a landscape architect, environmental impact specialist, or sustainability coordinator, don't miss these employment opportunities below.

*If you want to stay up to date with the latest job listings featured each day, be sure to visit the Archinect Job board. Interested in finding the latest job listings? Follow Archinect Job's Facebook, Twitter, and Architect Jobs Instagram for new job opportunities posted with 150 architecture jobs posted every week.

Chengdu Tianfu City Landscape. Image courtesy of Sasaki

Sasaki seeks a Sustainability Coordinator
Location: Boston, MA

Description: Sasaki's ange of projects with ambitious e...

A 19th century passive house in Chicago is a model for sustainable retrofitting

2021-04-22T12:53:00-04:00

On the subject of architecture and construction’s contribution to climate change, our existing building stock is coming under increasing scrutiny. While the United Kingdom recently announced a review into embodied carbon in buildings, thanks in part to the Architect Journal’s RetroFirst campaign, U.S. President Joe Biden has promised tens of billions of dollars in investment to retrofit four million buildings across the country.

Although new buildings, and the regulations surrounding them, are achieving ever-higher accolades for sustainability, 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built – many of which fall below the environmental performance standards needed to address the climate crisis. On Earth Day, we look at one example of how retrofitting old houses can offer benefits to inhabitants, streetscapes, and the environment.

The Yannell PHIUS+ House. Image: Christopher Barrett / HPZS

In the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, among the familiar two-story...

UCLA researchers receive $2.9M grant from Department of Energy to transform CO2 into concrete

2020-07-28T12:51:00-04:00

A UCLA research team led by Gaurav Sant, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of material science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a two-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The award supports the development of a process that can convert carbon dioxide emissions into construction materials, as described in UCLA's press release.

An additional $905,000 from UCLA discretionary funds and industry partners has also been allotted to the research. According to UCLA, the technology captured carbon dioxide from raw flue gas as it exits power plants, cement plants and other producers of carbon dioxide. Sant says the resulting product will have a carbon footprint 50% to 70% lower than regular concrete used in construction.

Denver Art Museum delves into the "Serious Play" behind Mid-Century Modernism

2019-07-09T11:00:00-04:00

Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America, an exhibition currently on view at the Denver Art Museum (DAM), delves into some of the more joyful aspects of 20th Century design.

Highlighting works by Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Henry P. Glass, Herbert Bayer, Eva Zeisel, and Alexander Girard, among others, the colorful and whimsical exhibition seeks to position play as a primary "catalyst for creativity and innovation," according to a press release.

Armchair for Braniff International by Alexander Girard. Image courtesy of Wright.

The exhibition, co-organized with the Milwaukee Art Museum, is co-curated by Christoph Heinrich, director of DAM, Darrin Alfred, curator of architecture and design at DAM, and Monica Obniski, curator of 20th and 21st Century design at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Presenting over 200 design objects, including drawings, models, textiles, ceramics, playground equipment, and furniture, the exhibition argues that during the Mid-Century era, material innova...

What color are your office walls? How color and lighting shapes mood and productivity in the office

2019-01-10T15:27:00-05:00

The office is where the general public will spend 1/3 of their life. Unless you've jumped on the "working remotely" craze, many work in office buildings/complexes that haven't changed since 1999. The common color palette of an office is usually a mixture of neutral tones like beige and subdued grays. Although, with the appearance of trending communal workspaces and open floor office concepts, the general public still identifies office settings to resemble sets seen in The Office or Office Space. However, an office's color palette and lighting may be more important than you think. Architects and designers are designing offices that not only look better but interact with the senses to evoke happier and more productive staff.

Office Space (1999) Image © Twentieth Century Fox

Cubical Hallway Image © Great Beyond

Now don't get me wrong, many companies have given their office spaces a facelift over the years by implementing an assortment of "trending" office interior upgrades. Glass wall di...

Air conditioning's challenge for the built environment

2018-08-16T16:14:00-04:00

The US expends more energy on air conditioning, for example, than the whole of Africa does on everything. Then again, it expends even more energy on hot water, which doesn’t get the same rap. The question then is not whether to condition climate, but how. As long ago as the 1940s the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy demonstrated, with his village of New Gourna near Luxor, how traditional techniques of orientation, ventilation, screening and shading could be revived.

Rowan Moore dives into the history of air conditioning and how the development of this technology shaped architectural design over the years. Rather than condemn its use, Moore advocates for optimizing both old and new techniques for sustainable cooling with the current challenge to scale up for rapidly expanding cities.

Sidewalk Labs' Toronto waterfront smart city raises dystopian concerns

2018-08-10T14:40:00-04:00

Sidewalk’s vision for Quayside — as a place populated by self-driving vehicles and robotic garbage collectors, where the urban fabric is embedded with cameras and sensors capable of gleaning information from the phone in your pocket — certainly sounds Orwellian. Yet the company contends that the data gathered from fully wired urban infrastructure is needed to refine inefficient urban systems and achieve ambitious innovations like zero-emission energy grids.

Last fall Sidewalk Labs, a Google-affiliated company, announced plans to build a new smart city model on 12 acres of the Toronto waterfront named Quayside. The design would include infrastructure with sensors and data analytics with the claim of building an overall more streamlined, economical, and green urban space. Sidewalk Labs' partnership with Canada is the beginning of an urban model they hope to expand globally.

While the goal may look utopian, many see an ominous future where governance is under threat rather than the projected promise of urban innovation. Concerns center around tech monopolies, the collection and commodification of city data, and a democratic process of decision making for our environments.

Liverpool aims to be world's first climate-positive city with blockchain technology

2018-07-26T16:20:00-04:00

Liverpool City Council (LCC) has announced a new partnership with a blockchain platform company to offset more than 110% of its carbon emissions, with the city announcing its bid to become the world's first climate-positive city by the end of 2020. LCC will conduct a year-long trial with the Poseidon Foundation to use a blockchain platform to offset the carbon impact of all products and services in the city by supporting global forest conversation projects.

Liverpool's ambition to become the world's first climate-positive city by 2020 has been announced with the city's blockchain technology partnership. Committing to a year-long trial of this sustainable technology, Liverpool City Council strives to reduce its carbon impact by installing more than 15,000 energy saving LED streetlights across 2,000 streets to reduce streetlight energy consumption by 82%.

The Poseidon’s Foundation, Laszlo Giricz stated, “This is a ground-breaking partnership not just for Poseidon and Liverpool, but globally. For the first time, a city will use blockchain technology to go beyond rebalancing its carbon footprint – leading the way in the fight against climate change."

MIT's mass timber longhouse is more sustainable than concrete

2018-07-23T15:15:00-04:00

Changing the mindset behind short-term wooden constructions is MIT. A group of researchers at the university are leading an initiative to investigate new mass timber designs- wood-based buildings designed to be more efficient and cheaper than, yet just as durable as, concrete and steel buildings. The team proposes building mass timber longhouses - large wooden engineered houses built from massive pieces of timber.

Mass Timber Design, MIT's architecture workshop exploring sustainable building design at the intersection of architecture and technology, has developed a Longhouse prototype. Mass timber, a wood-based building design and construction technology, has continued to be explored for its sustainability over other materials such as concrete.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Workshop. Image: MIT.

A major environmental concern, concrete production accounts for about 5 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions alone.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Workshop. Image: MIT.

The Longhouse draws on its historical background serving as a multi-functional building designed for shared communal space.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Workshop. Image: MIT.

The structure consists of a series of timber laminated veneer lumber (LVL) arches spanning across the building’s shorter dimension.

The Longhouse prototype by MIT's Mass Timber Design Wo...

The master plan for Australia's Shipwreck Coast begins with McGregor Coxall

2018-03-05T19:19:00-05:00

McGregor Coxall will participate in developing phase one of the master plan for the Shipwreck Coast site in Victoria, Australia. Drawing millions of visitors per year, Shipwreck Coast is home to monumental limestone formations where approximately 638 shipwrecks are believed to have occurred.

12 Apostles lookout rendering by McGregor Coxall.

The $9.8m project aims to protect the region's natural landscape while providing an enhanced visitor experience.

Shipwreck Coast master plan map.

The master plan will extend approximately 17 miles along the coastline following the Great Ocean Road including the Port Campbell National Park and Bay of Islands Coastal Park.

Shipwreck Coast master plan by McGregor Coxall. Image: McGregor Coxall.

Lookout facilities will be built at the iconic 12 Apostles and Loch Ard precincts locations in addition to a pedestrian bridge over Port Campbell Creek. Working with the natural environment, each site is considered for its unique characteristics.

Shipwreck C...

Social housing goes green with another urban forest designed by Stefano Boeri

2018-01-11T14:15:00-05:00

A social housing project in the Netherlands plans to adopt a Vertical Forest designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti. Now Eindhoven will join the list of Vertical Forest cities Milan, Nanjing, Utrecht, Tirana, Lausanne, and Paris.

The client, Sint-Trudo, has instigated the first Vertical Forest project to be used by low-income social groups—tackling climate change and housing shortages in one project. The building will have 125 social housing units within 19 floors of apartments, which will be rented out at affordable rates and include balconies with hundreds of trees and plants.

Promoting sustainable architecture worldwide, the firm is committed to improving city environments for both the climate and its inhabitants.

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?

Flemish government's new home and largest passive office building in Brussels completes

2017-09-27T12:35:00-04:00

The city of Brussels has experienced an energy revolution in the last ten years, transforming the Belgian capital into a model for the passive house movement. As a result of the regional government’s 2009 decision to fully embrace passive constructions, the city has become one the most 'passive' cities in Europe and a leader in building energy performance.

In keeping with their environmental standards, the Flemish Government has just moved into their new home and Belgium's largest passive office building. Designed by the Dutch-firm Neutelings Riedijk Architects, the 66,500 square meter building will house the Flemish government's 2,600 employees. Equipped with 2,000 m² of solar panels capable of producing enough energy for 100 families, the building is the most energy efficient of any building used by Flemish Civil servants and will save the Flemish Government 8.8 million euro/annum in rent.

Located on the Tour & Taxis site, the new office—clad in ove...

UK researchers create solar generating glass bricks

2017-08-18T15:28:00-04:00

Facades using the product, called Solar Squared, will be able to generate electricity while allowing greater amounts of daylight. The blocks also provide improved thermal insulation, developers say. Solar Squared’s design consists of an array of optical elements that focus sunlight on small-sized solar cells. These are incorporated within the glass bricks during manufacture and they collect diffuse components of sunlight, making it useful for capturing solar energy in urban areas.

Academics from the Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Science department of England's University of Exter have developed a solar power technology that fits into glass bricks. Its modular design is scalable, allowing for flexible structural integration. We now have the capability to build integrated, affordable, efficient, and attractive solar technologies as part of the building's architecture, in places where energy demand is highest, whilst having minimal impact on the landscape and on quality of life.

The team is currently looking for test sites to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of Solar Squared and seeking investment for their new start up. For more information visit Build Solar's website.

Tinkering connections between architecture and neuroscience

2017-06-06T15:54:00-04:00

The importance of urban design goes far beyond feel-good aesthetics. A number of studies have shown that growing up in a city doubles the chances of someone developing schizophrenia, and increases the risk for other mental disorders such as depression and chronic anxiety.

While it might appear as common intuitive knowledge, humans are strongly influenced by their context. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in studies on the connection between neuroscience and architecture.

Last month, London's Conscious Cities Conference brought together architects, designers, engineers, neuroscientists and psychologists to encourage more multidisciplinary engagement. Some of the recent psychological studies focus on defining a stimulating space through the use of wearable devices that monitor skin conductance, various apps, VR and EEG headsets for either visualizing or measuring brain's activity and mental states. Other findings include data on the impact of building facades on our moods, green space on our health, and urban environments on our social interactions.

Analyzing the ways in which the built environment affects our brains through evidence-based research can grant architects the insight needed for making healthier and more socially-consc...

Maximum sustainability in Harvard GSD and Snøhetta's "HouseZero"

2017-05-23T19:20:00-04:00

How can you transform a not particularly sustainable 1940s building into a leading example of pioneering environmental design? First, get the Harvard GSD Center for Green Building and Cities team focused on green building techniques, and secondly, hire Snøhetta. The result? This press release from Harvard says it all:

The Harvard Center for Green Buildings (CGBC) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, in collaboration with Snøhetta and Skanska Technology, are retrofitting CGBC’s headquarters in a pre-1940s timber-framed building to become one of the world’s most ambitious sustainable buildings. As a first-of-its-kind research project, HouseZero demonstrates how to transform a challenging building stock into a prototype for ultra-efficiency, rapidly reducing the level of reliance on energy-intensive technology while simultaneously creating comfortable indoor environments.

HouseZero attempts to address the global environmental challenge of climate change by focusing on exi...

Make it rain as you sit on rocking chairs inside the Cloud House

2017-03-21T21:09:00-04:00

Not far from the hustle and bustle of Farmers Park in Springfield, Missouri, the Cloud House is a getaway spot where anyone can sit and enjoy a few moments of peace and relaxation as you listen to the (somewhat simulated) sound of a gentle rain, as if you were sitting on the porch of a rural farm away from it all.

Designer Matthew Mazzotta developed the idea for the Cloud House during a two-month artist residency at Farmers Park. Mazzotta and his project team built the house from reclaimed barnwood and tin obtained from a nearby abandoned Amish farm, and its gutter system is modeled after the natural water cycle. During rainy days, the house collects rainwater as it hits the tin roof and into the storage tank underneath.

Diagram via Matthew Mazzotta.

Sitting in the rocking chairs inside the house triggers a pump that brings the rainwater up into the cloud, which will then release the water onto the tin roof and produce that pleasant pitter-pattering sound of rain hitting the roof.

The...

"Our architecture works harder than your architecture": Inside the city of Arcosanti

2016-10-06T13:03:00-04:00

Can cities be built not only to be harmonious with their environment, but to outperform traditional architecture? The residents of Arcosanti, Arizona, which is profiled in this video excerpt from the Atlantic, seem to think so. Part campus, part permanent dwelling, Arcosanti embraces the concept of "arcology," or the blending of ecology and architecture, to create a holistic, tightly engineered mini-metropolis:

The City of the Future

Monumental land art emerges in Montana's new Tippet Rise Art Center

2016-08-12T13:36:00-04:00

"They have strong architectural properties: they create space, they provide shelter and shade, they change the thermal and acoustical properties of the surrounding context and thus they enable new activities and programs to take place. But also, they can live empty without looking like empty buildings...”

Land art installations stand majestically against the pristine Montana landscape at the Tippet Rise Art Center, a working sheep ranch turned art destination that opened in June about an hour away from Billings and 2.5 hours north of Yellowstone. Ensamble Studio principals Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa briefly talk about the collaborative design process behind the Center's masterplan and the landscape works they created.

Tour Norway's "Doomsday" seed vault, deep within the Arctic Circle

2016-06-15T13:24:00-04:00

What is the architecture of forward-thinking climate change? One example is the Svalbard Seed Vault, which when full will house roughly 3 million different species of plants in anticipation of a future that may be hotter, drier, or simply climatically different than the one we inhabit now.

This video offers a rare tour of the three-vault, minus 5 degrees Celsius interior storage facility, which is located within a mountain in Norway in anticipation of rising global sea levels:

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...

Why hypoallergenic landscaping needs more priority in urban planning

2015-08-28T13:50:00-04:00

[Botany professor Paloma Cariñanos] found it surprising that the design of these green spaces thought about landscaping, climate, and fashion criteria, but didn't think about pollen problems. [She] says that in the future, urban green spaces 'will become 'comfort islands' inside 'urban heat islands.''...Cariñanos and her team stress that their research is a tool for planning and prevention. They hope that other cities will be able to use their methods to prevent high allergen levels.

You can read more of Cariñanos' team's research in the Journal of Environmental Quality.

Pope Francis calls for "morally driven" city design in his climate-change encyclical

2015-06-19T15:07:00-04:00

Collectively, the encyclical affirms how important it is to make the moral case for city design. Too often, developers, urban planners and city leaders seem to think that it is obvious or implied why the decisions they make are in the best interest of the public. But there is no shortcut to articulating why our planning choices speak to the fundamental human dignity of the communities we’re working in.

"Given the interrelationship between living space and human behaviour, those who design buildings, neighbourhoods, public spaces and cities, ought to draw on the various disciplines which help us to understand people’s thought processes, symbolic language and ways of acting. It is not enough to seek the beauty of design. More precious still is the service we offer to another kind of beauty: people’s quality of life, their adaptation to the environment, encounter and mutual assistance. Here too, we see how important it is that urban planning always take into consideration the views of those who will live in these areas."

Pope Francis tells it like it is in his latest 184-page encyclical, in response to humanity's "principal challenge" of global climate change.

Vatican's Renovated Public Restrooms Provides Showers, Haircuts for the Homeless

Kate Orff to emphasize "climate dynamics" as new Director of Columbia GSAPP's Urban Design Program

2015-04-06T15:24:00-04:00

SCAPE founder and Columbia GSAPP Associate Professor Katherine Orff will succeed leading urban housing authority Professor Richard Plunz as the new GSAPP Director of the Urban Design Program starting this June. As a longtime GSAPP and Urban Design Program faculty member and landscape architect, Orff is best known for her eco-sensitive and resilient approach in her projects that integrate urban design, landscape design, and architecture.

Strongly reflecting SCAPE's design philosophy, Orff plans to expand the Program with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research and engagement in dealing with timely issues of climate change and social topics. "My goal is to magnify the social and humanitarian ethos that the Program is well known for, and bring it together with themes of infrastructure, urbanism and climate dynamics," Orff said in a statement.

Evidently, Orff's work throughout her time in Columbia is heavy in collaboration. In the past, she has led various multi-disciplinary collaborat...

An Urban Treehouse That Absorbs Pollution

2015-03-16T19:22:00-04:00

It's a special building because it lives, grows, breathes and changes over time. Its terraces are dotted with 150 tall trees which together with 50 plants in the court produce about 150,000 liters per hour of oxygen, at night absorbing about 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide per hour. Also slashing particulate matter caused by cars, protecting from noise, following the natural cycle of the seasons, growing day by day, creating an ideal microclimate.

^ Translated from Italian. Check the source for more photos.