Archinect - News

AIA announces energy-efficient redesign scheme for its Brutalist D.C. headquarters

2022-04-20T19:09:00-04:00

In an effort to bring the organization closer to its own self-stated goals on sustainability, equity, and collaboration, the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has today unveiled plans for a comprehensive new upgrade to its aging Washington, D.C. National headquarters.

San Francisco-based EHDD will lead the overhaul of the nearly 50-year-old Brutalist structure using the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence to author a host of efficiency upgrades that are expected to save some 58% of the building’s pre-Covid energy use levels.

Renderings courtesy AIA

“[The] AIA’s headquarters should serve as an expression of the value architects provide and align with the values we uphold as a profession,” President Dan Hart explained. “We have a responsibility to redesign this iconic building to the highest standards in sustainability, resilience, and equity. By demonstrating the powerful role design can play in improving our communities, we can...

Can the architecture industry deliver a carbon-neutral building revolution?

2022-04-15T18:40:00-04:00

There’s ever-growing panoply of efficiency measures — better insulation, improved heating and air-conditioning, less-polluting appliances — that could help the building sector rapidly decarbonize. By 2030, almost all new buildings could consume zero net energy — net meaning there’s some give and take from the grid to equal zero use. That’s a big deal, especially with a corollary switch to electrified forms of transportation.

The list of new green technologies is long and includes innovations like low-carbon concrete, cross-laminated timber, and living wall systems that have all developed into scalable products over the past ten years.

So far, big-name firms like Gensler, Lake|Flato, and KieranTimberlake have been among their many evangalizers, with high-profile projects like the White Arkitekter-designed Sara Cultural Centre, Arup's recently completed HAUT residential building, or the Sonoma Academy Janet Durgin Guild & Commons by WRNS Studio serving as the new standard-bearers in an industry seemingly reluctant to adopt its own rhetoric as to the need for systematic change.

The residential sector is another key area of focus if the 2030 ambit mentioned above is to ever truly become a reality. There is quite a bit of reason for hope in this area, too, with more and more governments providing fundin...

Doing creative work when we are obsessed with checking our phones

2019-08-07T21:00:00-04:00

According to author Brian Solis, digital distractions are taking a significant toll on businesses, with 36-percent of Millennials and Gen Z workers reporting to spend two hours or more each workday "looking at their phones for personal activities." And while distractions can negatively influence creativity, they can also help propel forward the creative process.

"...leaky attention may underlie both costs and benefits of creative cognition; noise and other environmental stimuli can serve as distractors for creative people, and lead them to make errors on some tasks. At the same time, leaky attention may help people integrate ideas that are outside the focus of attention into their current information processing, leading to creative thinking,” Solis quotes from a research study on the topic.

He contends is that we should "embrace the desire to check notifications, read various media, or even watch videos." That scheduling short breaks where we allow ourselves to indulge in these imp...

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky invented the modern kitchen

2019-05-08T12:37:00-04:00

Following World War I, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897–2000) was tasked with the design of standard kitchens for a new housing project by city planner and architect Ernst May. The Great War left rubble and a desperate housing shortage in its wake, but it also opened the way for new ideas and new designs.

Prior to World War II, the only homes to have complete kitchen spaces also typically had servants to make use of them, while apartments and tenement housing rarely had space for a room purely dedicated to cooking. The kitchen, in other words, was a luxury before a plan to make it more standard and efficient was conceived by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, the first Austrian women to qualify as an architect.

Plan of the Frankfurt Kitchen indicating its labor saving features. Drawn in 1927.

Schütte-Lihotzky's invention, known as the Frankfurt Kitchen, was compact enough to fit into apartment buildings and boasted ingenious features including, according to Sarah Archer, "an electric stove, a window over the sink, and lots of ingenious built-in storage including custom aluminum bins with a spout at one end." Its compact layout was determined by the typical cooking/cleaning sequences of the time, significantly reducing the time one spent in the space. Its efficient use of space not only made...

Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects design efficient spaces for Los Angeles density

2018-08-22T13:05:00-04:00

O’Herlihy’s “same old stuff” is, in actuality, bringing plenty of fresh thinking to the issue of density at a time in which Los Angeles is building up instead of out — a time when changes in zoning, especially along transit lines, is adding more condos and apartments to the skyline, transforming the landscape of single family homes for which the city is known. Over the last 15 years, LOHA has made a name for itself by working on projects that make innovative use of tight urban spaces.

Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA) has been designing spaces for 24 years with an array of projects ranging from residential complexes to bus stations. Rather than creating luxury living, the firm has chosen to focus on affordable housing, dormitory, and non profit projects.

Dormitory building for UC Santa Barbara by LOHA. Image: Bruce Damonte/LOHA.

Currently LOHA is working on a project in Los Angeles' Exposition Park to house homeless individuals. As Los Angeles becomes denser, more and more efficient projects like LOHA's are needed to save on space and costs. The firm aims to create affordable housing and public spaces that don't compromise on high quality work.

Extra: Read our interview with Lorcan Read our interview with Lorcan about his approach to architecture and urban design in la and detroit.

Efficiency-enhancing drones could dramatically reduce construction costs

2016-09-27T13:32:00-04:00

According to this Fortune article, it's estimated that the construction industry wastes billions of dollars annually in poorly organized and distributed materials, a practice that could be eliminated with omnipresent flying drones. The trick is to create software that can process what the drones see on each construction site into data that humans can quickly comprehend and efficiently implement. Autodesk is investing in developing software and hardware that can convey this information, which may dramatically cut construction costs (and perhaps make architects rethink how they bill for projects).

For more on drones:

An architectural twin study

2016-05-11T15:09:00-04:00

A six-percent upfront investment reduced energy consumption by 19% — and carbon emissions by 34% — in a pair of 100-year-old brick buildings. Add solar panels and those numbers drop to 39% and 65%.

These are among the findings of an ongoing experiment conducted by students, faculty and staff at Washington University in St. Louis. The architectural equivalent of a twin study, the project centered on the gut-renovation and subsequent energy monitoring of two university-owned, World’s Fair-era apartment buildings.

“This was a rare opportunity,” says Phil Valko, assistant vice chancellor for sustainability, who led the project with Don Koster, senior lecturer in architecture in the university’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

“Both buildings have the same square footage, the same number of apartments, the same floor plans and the same sun exposure,” Valko explains. “That gave us a unique opportunity to design, implement and test real-world strategies for energy-efficient rehab.”

Tho...

Tooshlights aim to be the traffic lights for public restrooms, cutting wait time up to 50%

2014-07-16T14:43:00-04:00

It’s a simple yet elegant solution to the bane of concert, theater and sports event attendees everywhere. A light above each restroom stall glows green when the stall door is open and turns red when the door is locked, instantly showing which stalls are available. Allen Klevens, co-founder and CEO of Tooshlights, an L.A.-based startup, says that the technology could potentially cut wait times by up to 50 percent.

The Tiny Transforming Apartment That Packs Eight Rooms into 420 Square Feet

2013-01-28T14:02:00-05:00

When you walk in, you encounter what is, at first glance, a small studio apartment. Within that cube are actually 8 functional spaces. The living room and office become the bedroom with a tug of a bookshelf. Open one of the closets and you'll find 10 stackable chairs that go around a telescopic dining table for large dinner parties. An entire guest room with bunk-beds and a closet is revealed behind a wall that slides out on tracks. And of course, a well-equipped kitchen and bathroom await.

AC DC rocking the energy world

2011-11-18T14:15:15-05:00

Nextek Power Systems... has developed a system for delivering power via DC to lights and motion sensors through a building’s metal frame, instead of through wires. Paul Savage, chief executive of Nextek... said the current was not enough to electrocute anyone. “If you licked your fingers you might get a little bubbly feeling, like if you put a nine-volt battery on your tongue, but it is not noticeable if you’re in a non-wet environment,” he said.

A 6 to 17% gain in transmission efficiency is pretty significant! Plus you eliminate the third wire.

The big squeeze

2011-09-30T17:44:42-04:00

Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture’s reorganisation of a 44 sq m studio apartment in New York in 2009 shows how architects in the Big Apple are designing better, smaller homes. The practice transformed an untidy, student-style pad in Manhattan’s East Village into “a live/work sculpture for a grown up” for its owner, Michael Pozner, head of retail development at American Apparel.