Archinect - News

AI-induced creativity and the novelty dilemma looming over architectural design

2024-08-08T12:23:00-04:00

The impact of Generative AI on human creativity is one of the most observed and debated knock-on effects of users adapting to ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other large language models (LLMs). Now, a new study has shown a "social dilemma" that occurs when creatives are given a choice between AI-assisted prompts, which resulted in better-scoring work that was nevertheless plagued by the question of novelty.

In the views of authors Anil R. Doshi and Oliver P. Hauser from the University of Exeter and University College London (UCL), this dilemma "point[s] to an increase in individual creativity at the risk of losing collective novelty."

What can be gleaned from this study in an architectural sense calls into question many of the basic precepts for augmentation, namely that it affords designers a greater range of ingenuity in terms of form, program, scale, and functional spaces without significant drawbacks. Recently there has been a shift in the zeitgeist that had previously considered the ...

Princeton University researchers develop tougher cement inspired by shells

2024-06-13T14:48:00-04:00

Engineers at Princeton University have developed a new cement composite, inspired by the material found within certain shells, that is 17 times more crack-resistant than standard cement and 19 times more able to stretch and deform without breaking.

The research team was led by Reza Moini, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. In a recently published article in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the team reported that creating alternating layers of tabulated cement paste and thin polymer can significantly increase the material’s durability.

Often looking towards biology for inspiration in their work on building materials, the researchers were drawn to a natural material called nacre, also known as mother of pearl. The material is produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer, and it is also the material that pearls are made of. According to the researchers, nacre consists of a hard mineral called aragonite, which are glued together by a soft bio...

62% of A&E firms report using artificial intelligence increased efficiency, according to new Deltek study

2024-05-10T18:28:00-04:00

Statistics revealed in the latest Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Industry Study have indicated wide optimism about the use of AI technology, even as most firms struggle to determine where and how to apply emerging trends in the face of prevailing economic headwinds.

According to the 45th annual report, 62% of all 650 surveyed A&E respondents across the United States and Canada have successfully begun using AI to augment their daily operations. Only 20% of firms now report at least three-quarters of their project leadership teams as possessing the proper project management training to best utilize such tools, with another 44% reporting insufficient time to invest in skill-based learning. Other leading challenges include prioritizing applicable trends and the cost of technology.

The findings add to a body of recent valuable industry trends reporting, including last month’s Autodesk study which stated that 76% of all AEC professionals now feel confident about incorporating ...

University of Maryland researchers develop 'cooling glass' that can redirect a building's heat into space

2023-11-17T11:54:00-05:00

Researchers aiming to combat rising global temperatures have developed a new 'cooling glass' that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. The new technology, a microporous glass coating, can lower the temperature of the material beneath it by 3.5 degrees Celsius at noon, and has the potential to reduce a mid-rise apartment building's yearly carbon emissions by 10 percent.

The technology was developed by a research team at the University of Maryland, led by Distinguished University Professor Liangbing Hu in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The coating functions by reflecting up to 99% of solar radiation to prevent buildings from absorbing heat. It emits heat in the form of longwave infrared radiation into space. The phenomenon is known as radiative cooling, in which space serves as a heat sink for the buildings.

According to the research team, their glass is more environmentally stable than previous attempts at cooling coatings. The glass can be applied to a variety of surfaces, such as tile, brick, and metal, which makes it scalable and available for wide use. The researchers envision the new material as a key contributor to the solution to climate change due to its potential to reduce a structure’s energy usage and carbon footprint. The team is now working to further test the glass and understand its practical applications.

...

Coffee grounds can make concrete a little stronger, too, according to a new RMIT study

2023-08-28T11:58:00-04:00

Engineers in Australia have found a way of making stronger concrete with roasted used-coffee grounds, to give the drink-additive a "double shot" at life and reduce waste going to landfills. [...] Published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, the study by RMIT engineers is the first to prove that waste coffee grounds can be used to improve concrete.

The study found that three different coffee ground samples each increased their concrete pour’s compressive strengths by up to 30% once their organic compounds were broken down through pyrolysis. The discovery could go a long way in combatting issues such as food waste and the carbon impact of concrete’s still rampant use as a construction material worldwide. RMIT will follow up with additional mechanical and durability tests on the same samples.

"Our research is in the early stages, but these exciting findings offer an innovative way to greatly reduce the amount of organic waste that goes to landfill," the paper’s co-lead author, Dr. Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, explained. Discarded PPE may also have a stirring second life in construction, according to a separate study the same team of researchers published last year.

Retrofits could add $42 billion to the UK’s economy, report shows

2023-03-06T14:34:00-05:00

Retrofitting the UK’s historical buildings, from Georgian townhouses to the mills and factories that kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, could generate £35bn of economic output a year, create jobs and play a crucial role in achieving climate targets, research has found. The organisations behind the report are calling on the government to work with industry to [...] advice into a national retrofit strategy, as the UK only has half the skilled workers needed to retrofit all old buildings.

The report from a consortium that includes the National Trust, Historic England, and property group Grosvenor also outlined Britain’s need for 105,000 additional skilled workers to help meet the country’s lagging 2050 net zero decarbonization goals. By that time, the retrofitting market is anticipated to have a value of between £3.5 and £6.5 billion per year (equal to $4.2 and $7.8 billion in USD).

The UK has an underused levy for work programs to help meet the goals. Currently, there are an estimated 6.2 million homes in the country which are considered historic, with another one-third of all commercial buildings carrying the same designation.

A new study sheds light on pigeons' apparent disdain for modern architecture

2023-01-22T08:00:00-05:00

The abundance of feral pigeons [...] is mostly affected by the presence of modern buildings with low abundance of pigeons found in areas where there is a preponderance of modern buildings. The study confirms the results of international studies which indicate that the densest populations of feral pigeons occur in historic town centres, as the old buildings provide ample nesting sites, while the high human population density of both locals and tourists in historic towns provides constant food

According to the authors, the Maltese study “lays the ground for further research on feral pigeon populations and their ecology in urban environments as well as contributing information for management programmes that are tailor-made to the local situation and circumstances.”

Rat populations are also barometers of recent changes to the built environment, such as outdoor dining and the increase in brownfield sites in some countries. Pigeons' risky lifestyles may nevertheless be a useful educational resource for children.

More in line with human activity, however, the study found that birds also apparently view parks as a source of “feeding opportunities and less stress.”

Researchers have found ways to use mushrooms to decarbonize construction waste

2022-10-21T14:59:00-04:00

Megadeveloper Lendlease is one of the entities behind a new study into the use of mushrooms as a means of decarbonizing construction waste through their application on discarded asphalt roofing shingles.

The company teamed with Rubicon Technologies, Mycocycle, and Rockwood Sustainable Solutions to complete a pilot project at the latter’s facility in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Image courtesy Mycocycle

Shingles removed from a total of 214 homes following a recent re-roofing project at the U.S. Army’s Fort Campbell installation in nearby Kentucky were then broken down thanks to an infused mix of three different strains of fungi in a process called mycoremediation.

"Every asphalt shingle from those 214 homes would have gone to a landfill," Sara Neff, Head of Sustainability at Lendlease Americas, said of the 11 to 13 million tons of the product the EPA estimates winds up in landfills annually.

Image courtesy Mycocycle

"There was simply no viable use for them," she continued. "We understand the i...

New CTBUH study on tall mass timber gives us a look at the impacts of the material industry-wide

2022-05-26T13:37:00-04:00

A new study from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has revealed important statistics that provide a clearer picture of the present state of tall mass timber construction across the globe.

There are now a total of 66 completed mass timber projects worldwide totaling of least 8 stories or higher. Nearly two-thirds (64% or 54 buildings) of all projects are residential, while office buildings account for 19% (16 buildings), and the mixed-use typology currently makes up 14% (12 buildings). Including projects that are currently under construction or proposed, there were 139 total projects matching the audit’s criteria.

Illustration courtesy of CTBUH

In terms of height, 12 of the 20 tallest structures are located in Europe. Scandinavia had 4 of those, while the UK and Australia had 3 and 5 apiece, respectively. Additionally, the height of the world’s tallest timber building, now officially the soon-to-be-completed 25-story Ascent tower in Milwaukee, has tripled in jus...

New AIA report investigates bias in the architecture profession

2021-12-08T17:29:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has partnered with the University of California Hastings College of the Law to release a new report that details the impacts of bias in architecture.

The study covers the experiences, perceptions, and opinions of women, people of color, and other historically underrepresented demographic groups in the field. It examines how bias plays out in architecture, how it impacts workplace processes, and how it affects outcome measures. As stated in the institute's announcement: “AIA’s goal in conducting the study is to build awareness in firms of bias to help architects recognize and address issues that may be occurring in firms.”

The report also offers strategies and resources that can help firms address bias in the workplace. These tools, as detailed by the AIA, are the same ones that businesses use to solve any major problem: evidence, goals, and metrics. Specifically, the AIA calls on the implementation of “Bias Interrupters,” which are adjustments ...

Ohio State researchers discover new method for designing soundproof spaces

2021-08-12T13:07:00-04:00

A new study by researchers out of The Ohio State University investigates a different kind of design for absorbing vibrations that could better soundproof materials.

Ryan Harne, senior author of the paper and former associate professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State, along with former Ohio State doctoral student Sih-Ling Yeh, tested how well built-in resonators handled vibrations under a variety of scenarios. Resonators are devices that use spring-like oscillation to control and change vibrations. Some absorb and neutralize them, and others amplify and direct them to specific places. They’re present in some vehicles, which use them to limit the sound emitted from a car’s muffler. Bridges and buildings also utilize them to limit noise and movement.

Contrary to previous studies relating to resonators, which focused on adding one to an existing structure or vehicle part, Harne and Yeh considered embedding resonators directly into a material, rather than adding it later.

Ryan ...

UPenn study uses biometric data to identify unsafe urban infrastructure

2021-07-21T17:08:00-04:00

A new study published in Accident Analysis & Prevention shows how biometric data can be used to find potentially challenging and dangerous areas of urban infrastructure before a crash occurs. Lead author Megan Ryerson led a team of researchers in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering and Applied Science in collecting and analyzing eye-tracking data from cyclists navigating Philadelphia’s streets.

As explained in a piece by Penn Today, current federal rules for making safe transportation interventions require the notation of crashes. This reactive approach relies on previous human cost before new considerations are made. Seeking to minimize harmful events altogether, Ryerson and her team sought to capture data on human behavior to better understand what factors make an area unsafe rather than previous data.

The team developed a quantitative methodology to evaluate cognitive workload, a measure of mental effort put forth by someone in response to certain tasks, in cyclists when faced with various infrastructure designs.

One of the main findings was a correlation between locations with disproportionately high numbers of crashes and consistent biometric responses that indicated increased cognitive workload. While high cognitive workload doesn’t mean a person will definitely crash, it can be inferred that one is less effective in processing new information, which could lead to d...

AIA survey shows increased demand for multi-generational housing

2020-12-16T13:58:00-05:00

Results from a fourth-quarter Home Design Trends Survey from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) showed a decline in homeowner demand for infill and higher-density development with increased demand for multi-generational housing accommodations.

"The uneven impact of the pandemic on specific construction sectors is nowhere more apparent than in custom residential," said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, Ph.D., Hon. AIA in a statement. "Though the initial impact of the pandemic hit residential architects hard, a stay-at-home lifestyle and the desire for more space and less density has increased homeowners’ desires to modify their accommodations."

The report also found:

Front/side porches increased in popularity;
Durability/low maintenance remained a popular choice for home exteriors; and
Fire-resistant materials continued to increase in popularity.

Boston is America's most congested city (again)

2020-03-10T19:52:00-04:00

Boston continues to hold the dubious distinction of having the worst traffic in the United States, fending off the likes of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago to top traffic data analyst INRIX’s list of congested cities for the second year in a row. [...] Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., round out the worst five U.S. cities for congestion. Wichita, Kansas, tops the study for least congestion.

The latest annual Global Traffic Scorecard published by transportation analytics company INRIX calculated that the average Boston commuter lost 149 hours — that's more than six days — per year due to traffic congestion, amounting to $2,205 per driver in time lost. Boston ranked as the nation's most congested city for the second consecutive year, followed by Chicago (145 hours), Philadelphia (142 hours), New York City (140 hours), and Washington D.C. (124 hours).

The American average was 99 hours lost per year due to congestion, costing the United States nearly $88 billion in 2019.

Boston also managed to claim a top ten spot on the global list of traffic-choked cities, coming in at number 9, followed by Chicago at 10. Dominating the international field in 2019 were the rapidly growing Latin American cities Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and São Paulo, with a few European old-school offenders sprinkled in the mix, such as Istanbul, Rome, Paris, and London.

California cities have nation's highest density of homes worth over $1M

2018-07-03T14:19:00-04:00

Perhaps it’s not a surprise in a city where residential prices can reach into the stratosphere, but in Los Angeles, more than 17 percent of all homes are valued at over $1 million. What may be more shocking is that L.A. doesn’t have the highest share of million-dollar homes. [...] San Jose and San Francisco were No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. In San Jose, homes valued over $1 million made up 53 percent of the market. San Francisco’s million-dollar-share was at 40 percent.

Other major cities ranked in the new LendingTree survey are New York (4th place with 12 percent market share), Miami (9th, 4 percent), and Chicago (18th, 1.3 percent).

9 graphic posters inspired by Bjarke Ingels Group projects and syntax in architecture

2018-05-09T13:47:00-04:00

Giuseppe Gallo, a PhD candidate in Architecture at the University of Palermo, has created a series of posters inspired by 9 Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) projects. Gallo is the creative director of Mirabilia, a communication design studio based in Palermo, with a background in graphic design.

Reflecting on syntax in architecture, Gallo was inspired by the firm's response to functional problems as a method of generating new formal solutions. Take a look at these 9 projects next to their graphic interpretation:

Serpentine Pavilion 2016 – London, UK

Serpentine Pavilion 2016 rendering by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Image: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

Serpentine Pavilion 2016 poster design by Giuseppe Gallo. Image: Giuseppe Gallo.

Kistefos Museum – Scandinavia

Kistefos Museum rendering by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Image: Bjarke Ingels Group.

Kistefos Museum poster design by Giuseppe Gallo. Image: Giuseppe Gallo.

Amager Resource Center – Copenhagen, Denmark

Amager Resource Center rendering by Bjar...

Los Angeles has worst traffic congestion (again)

2018-02-06T12:17:00-05:00

The Los Angeles region once again topped the list of areas with the worst traffic congestion for the sixth year in a row, according to a report by INRIX, a company that specializes in car services and transportation analytics. Drivers in and around Los Angeles spent 102 hours battling traffic congestion during peak hours in 2017, INRIX's said. By contrast, New York City motorists spent 91 hours battling peak-hour congestion. New York was No. 3 on the INRIX list. No. 2 was Moscow.

Congrats L.A. — you lived up to your reputation as America's most congested city once again!

Among the metro areas surveyed, "the U.S. accounted for 10 of the top 25 cities worldwide with the worst traffic congestion in the INRIX study," the LA Times reports.

Help us Elon, or we'll start taking public transportation.

AIA study reveals architects want material manufacturers to step up their digital game

2017-01-03T17:24:00-05:00

As any architect who has spent precious time trying to identify a chrome versus silver nickel plated kitchen faucet for a client can attest, outdated websites and their corresponding vague specifications from building products and materials manufacturers makes life unnecessarily tedious. This specifications fatigue has been backed up by a study conducted by the AIA, in which architects hope that in addition to digital upgrades, manufacturers will make it easier for them to earn continuing education credits while they toil away in search of specifics. Here are the five main conclusions from the AIA study, as quoted in a press release:

Improved websites. Architects want product websites that are clear, concise, up-to-date, and easy to navigate. They also want easy access (no sign-up to view product information) and access to detailed information, including building information models and objects.
Focus on education. Architects are required to take continuing education courses in order t...

Mapping how LA's expanding Metro network fuels gentrification (or not)

2016-09-09T14:01:00-04:00

Researchers from the Urban Displacement project, a joint UCLA and UC Berkeley effort, recently released a gentrification map of Los Angeles. They examined the city from 1990 to 2000 and up to 2015, focusing on neighborhoods near transit stops. The goal was to see if these areas saw higher rents and more displacement than other areas. The answer? Yes — with some exceptions.

Some of the UCLA researchers' key findings for Los Angeles Country (via the project's website, urbandisplacement.org):

Our analysis found that areas around transit stations are changing and that many of the changes are in direction of neighborhood upscaling and gentrification.
Examining the changes from 2000 to 2013, we find that relative to non-transit areas, transit neighborhoods are more associated with higher increases in whites, college educated, higher income households and greater increases in the cost of rent. Conversely, transit neighborhoods are associated with greater losses in disadvantaged populations including individuals with less than a high school diploma and lower income households.
The impacts of changes vary across locations but the biggest impacts seem to be around the Downtown areas where transit-oriented development interacts with other interventions aiming to revitalize the urban form.

Click here for the interactive LA map. — Looking for the SF Bay Area map inste...

New study finds ride-sharing apps like Lyft and Uber have no effect on drunk-driving fatalities

2016-08-02T17:43:00-04:00

The introduction of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft hasn't had any impact on the number of fatalities related to drunken driving, a newly published study finds. Researchers at the University of Southern California and Oxford University looked at the 100 most populated metropolitan areas, analyzing data from before and after the introduction of Uber and its competitors, and found that access to ride-sharing apps had no effect on traffic fatalities related to drinking alcohol.

Uber has claimed previously that its services help decrease instances of drunk-driving, by providing an easy alternative to inebriated drivers. Uber cites a study it did with MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, that found "anecdotal evidence" in line with this popular belief, as well as a report by Temple University that pointed to "a correlation between decreased alcohol-related driving fatalities and the introduction of Uber services in California."

Temple University's report didn't control for other variables that could have affected the rate of drunk-driving fatalities, and was focused in California. The takeaway from the USC/Oxford study seems to be that ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft do not necessarily help curb drunk-driving incidents any more than taxis, when all such services are just as accessible.

Penn State announces new endowment for student study abroad

2016-06-02T15:37:00-04:00

In the early 1960s, [Penn State's] international studies were confined mainly to books and photos — until George Ehringer and his classmates organized a semester in London, the department’s first official study abroad trip. Ehringer, who earned his bachelor of science in architecture from Penn State in 1964, recently made a $25,000 gift to create the George D. Ehringer, Class of 1964, Award for Study Abroad in the Department Architecture...

According to this warmhearted account, from unwittingly meeting Buckminster Fuller ("He was never introduced. It was only later we learned it was Buckminster Fuller!”) to developing relationships that lasted for decades, studying abroad in London ultimately benefitted the 1964 Penn State architecture students in ways they could not have anticipated. Anyone who wants to donate to the newly created endowment can do so either via snail mail (Penn State to the A&A Development office, 107 Borland Building, University Park, PA 16802) or online.

For more on the benefits of travel in architectural education:

Hudson Yards could generate nearly $19B for New York City, study claims

2016-05-04T17:53:00-04:00

A study commissioned by the developer indicated that total economic output of the companies projected to occupy Hudson Yards will contribute $18.9 billion to the city's gross domestic product. [...] Many projections in the report are also contingent on a host of economic indicators in the city, including demand for Class A office space. Out of the 10.4 million square feet Related will have to lease up, so far it has locked in commitments from tenants for 4 million square feet.

The Hudson Yards project previously in the Archinect news:

Steven Holl working on master plan study for Williams College

2016-04-07T14:08:00-04:00

Who better to master plan the campus of the The Williams College Department of Art and Museum of Art than daily watercolorist (and architect) Steven Holl? In addition to expanding William College's art presence in the region, the study's goals include shaping the campus space to connect interior to exterior as well as making "architecture in complementary relation to the picturesque campus" according to a press release.

Steven Holl Architects has interviewed museum staff, students, and faculty members to get an idea of how they interact with the current campus, and what they'd like to see in a new plan. The stakeholder-intensive process has already apparently inspired notions for possible new building sites on the college's 223-year-old grounds. Holl is no stranger to academic design, having already completed projects for Columbia University, MIT, and the Glasgow School of Art (pictured below in its 19th-century setting), among others.

As Steven Holl noted, "Historically one of the mo...

Scientists create first detailed map of Earth's hidden groundwater

2015-11-24T12:07:00-05:00

A new study has, for the first time, estimated the total volume of groundwater present on the Earth. The results show that we're using up the water supply quicker than it can be naturally replaced, while future research will seek to determine exactly how long it will be until modern groundwater runs dry. Groundwater is an extremely precious resource, being a key source of sustenance for humanity and the ecosystems we inhabit.

(Ground)water-related articles on Archinect:

Sorry L.A., but the nation's worst traffic is in D.C.

2015-08-27T13:11:00-04:00

For those who assume Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the United States: Not so fast. Drivers in Southern California spent a whopping 80 hours sitting in traffic in 2014, according to a new report by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and the traffic data company Inrix. But the city with the dubious distinction of most time lost behind the wheel is Washington, D.C., researchers say, where commuters clocked 82 hours of delays in a single year.

Other metro areas snatching top spots according to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard report:

San Francisco-Oakland CA (78 hours)
New York-Newark NY-NJ-CT (74 hours)
San Jose CA (67 hours)
Boston MA-NH-RI (64 hours)

Turns out the U.S. has more museums than the combined number of Starbucks and McDonalds

2015-03-26T13:27:00-04:00

There are roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the United States, and about 14,000 McDonald's restaurants. But combined, the two chains don't come close to the number of museums in the U.S., which stands at a whopping 35,000. So says the latest data release from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent government agency that tallies the number and type of museums in this country. [...] the 35,000 active museums represent a doubling from the number estimated in the 1990s.

New study finds that Los Angeles is actually the nation's least sprawling metro

2015-02-17T15:37:00-05:00

A new study by Thomas Laidley, a sociology doctoral student at NYU [...], uses satellite images to develop a new and improved “Sprawl Index,” which he links to a wide range of outcome measures. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that L.A. ranks as the least sprawling metro in the country, ahead of New York and San Francisco.

Previously:

All those new museums? Now, the facts…

2014-11-13T15:07:00-05:00

In 2010, the Fondazione di Venezia—a well-endowed and entrepreneurial foundation with its historic roots in Italy’s regional banking system—launched an architectural competition for a cluster of buildings in the centre of Mestre, one of the mainland urban areas of Venice. [...] The three accompanying essays, by Marco De Michelis, Aaron Betsky and M9 architect Matthias Sauerbruch, are less granular. They provide an overview of and perspectives on the museum-building boom [...].

Gentrification and the Persistence of Poor Minority Neighborhoods

2014-08-07T13:26:00-04:00

When we talk about why some places gentrify and others don't, there's often a pressing, underlying question at stake: To what degree is gentrification bound up with and shaped by race? This is the subject of a path-breaking new study by Harvard doctoral student Jackelyn Hwang and urban sociologist Robert Sampson published in the August issue of the American Sociological Review.

Five teams selected to participate in the Re-Envisioning Branch Libraries Design Study in New York

2014-07-14T18:23:00-04:00

Although anyone with Internet access can do a quick search online, nothing replaces a brick-and-mortar public library for quality resources and info — yet these centers are consistently overlooked by city policymakers. After setting up an RFQ for the Re-Envisioning Branch Libraries Design Study in New York, the Architectural League and the Center for an Urban Future selected five interdisciplinary teams out of 45 submissions.

They are:

Andrew Berman Architect | Library Development Solutions  | Neil Donnelly | AEA Consulting | Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
Marble Fairbanks with James Lima Planning + Development and Special Project Office
MASS Design Group
SITU Studio
UNION

To find out more, head over to Bustler.