Archinect - News

Gensler sets the record as the first-ever architecture firm to reach 3,000 employees globally

2023-01-23T14:45:00-05:00

Gensler has set a new record for firm size after the 2023 Building Design WA100 survey listed its total design staff at just over 3,000 for the first time in history.

After losing its founder in May of 2021, Gensler grew by 14% over the last year to breach the 3,000-employee threshold. The company now employs some 3,069 architects globally, according to the UK-based publication.

That figure makes the international giant more than twice the size of HDR, whose architectural staff was listed at 1,404 globally. Aecom, Sweco, and Japan’s Nikken Sekkei were the only other companies with totals numbering over 1,000. Perkins Eastman, which has acquired three smaller firms since the beginning of 2021, ranked behind them with 832 architects.

The survey also noted firms’ reluctance to commit to downsizing efforts in spite of the assumed recession. Overall, half of...

One Northern California designer is replenishing housing stock in the region with new, fire-resistant prefabs

2021-08-06T15:03:00-04:00

A Chico-based general contractor with a degree in architecture is attempting to use pre-fabricated, non-combustible, eco-friendly and customizable home packages to help rebuild homes in Paradise and other areas of California where replacement homes due to natural disasters still must be built.

The city of Chico was in the crosshairs of the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed over 18,000 homes in and around Butte County over a 17-day span. This week, an entire town in Plumas County was razed by the Dixie Fire. Steelmaster has more on Vern Sneed's Q Cabin Kit here.

Related Reading: UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design has been at the forefront of fire-related building resiliency since launching the FireCity and FireLAnd initiatives last year. Read our recent interview with Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba and Professor Hitoshi Abe here.

The Architect of the Year Awards 2014 shortlist

2014-11-06T18:23:00-05:00

The 2014 shortlist for the Architect of the Year Awards is out. Established in the UK back in 2004 and organized by BD, the awards celebrate top-notch architectural works in 13 categories. This also includes the Young Architect of the Year Award that is open to young architects practicing in the European Union for 12 years or less. Category winners will be revealed during a fancy evening awards ceremony at The Brewery in London on December 2.

It's industrial chic galore with this year's batch. Here's a few of the shortlisted projects.

↓ Sports & Leisure Architect of the Year nominee: LA Architects

↓ Interiors Architect of the Year nominee: Spacelab

↓ Housing Architect of the Year nominee: Proctor and Matthews

↓ Refurbishment Architect of the Year nominee: Haworth Tompkins
Related: Haworth Tompkins’ Everyman Theatre wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2014

↓ Public Building Architect of the Year nominee: Ryder Architects

↓ Education Architect of the Year nominee: Design Engine

↓ Young Architect of the Year nominee: MXSI

You can find plenty more of the shortlisted projects over at Bustler.

Architecture start-up's software models steel skeletons of any surface

2013-12-05T20:15:00-05:00

Using digital fabrication and some clever tricks we're able to manufacture beautiful, low cost structures which easily bolt together. You design for it like it's a big imaginary 3D printer then you and your friends get together and bolt your house together! [...] It works like a techno version of a barn raising.

Architecture start-up Arcology Now wants to provide an alternative to 3D printing building technologies, focusing on reliable materials and elbow grease. The Phoenix, Arizona group has developed a digital fabrication software that generates a framework for any 3D surface out of steel tubes and bolts. For example, if you scanned an igloo, the software would model something like one of those geodesic dome playground structures. The software also produces manufacturing and building instructions, that is then coded directly onto the individual steel bars during manufacturing.

The entire structure is then built in modules, so many people can work in parallel following the instructions on the physical materials. Arcology Now's eventual plan is to produce entire communities in this way, and is working on methods to insulate and install power distribution systems.