Archinect - News

British AEC groups urge government action on embodied carbon regulations

2024-01-31T19:21:00-05:00

A group of 11 AEC industry groups in the United Kingdom, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Chartered Institute of Building, and UK Green Building Council, have joined together in urging the government toward taking action on restricting embodied carbon emissions in the built environment ahead of an important national election that’s expected for November.

Their call endorses an amalgam of existing policy pushes while espousing lawmakers to include at least a portion of its findings into their respective manifestos with benchmarks for specific mandates and enforcements set for the end of this year, 2026, and 2028, respectively.

RIBA President Muyiwa Oki said: “Our message is clear — embodied carbon regulation is critical to reaching net zero. As built environment professionals, we understand our duty to reduce emissions and have been leading the charge. We now need urgent action from the next government to deliver a greener future that we deserve.”

Related ...

New RIBA manifesto urges lawmakers' action for better practices in the built environment

2023-10-04T16:54:00-04:00

A new "Manifesto for a Better Built Environment" has been published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), calling on the country’s policymakers to make more urgent priority of the need for better safety, quality, and sustainability in the design and construction of buildings throughout the UK.

The publication was made in advance of the country’s political party conference season, saying that improved regulations, job training, and environmental standards are needed to help boost the national housing stock and achieve other benchmarks governing the whole-life carbon footprint of construction projects and retention of highly-qualified staff in local planning offices.

New RIBA President Muyiwa Oki said: "Well-designed buildings and places enrich our lives, positively impact the environment, and strengthen our communities. Our manifesto highlights the need for conscious and concerted policy action to deliver a built environment that meets peoples’ needs, both now and in t...

The University of Toronto announces new Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment backed by key industry leaders

2023-01-18T19:17:00-05:00

The University of Toronto’s School of Engineering has announced a new research center that will, together with its industry partners, work to find a viable solution to the growing need for public infrastructure that is in tune with the push for sustainability and concerns over climate change.

The school’s Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment is supported by KPMB Architects, ZGF, Arup, and eight other AEC firms whose future successes lie critically on the findings of a team of researchers that will be led by the Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure, Shoshanna Saxe.

According to the University: “The Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment brings together seven researchers from across U of T, as well as a dozen companies in construction and related industries. The goal is to identify strategies that will lower the environmental footprint of new infrastructure across the board by reimagining how they are designed, where they are built and even what materials ...

AIA New York pushes for actionables against racism within criminal justice system

2020-10-02T15:22:00-04:00

AIA New York released a statement showing initiative towards impactful reform. The letter urges to create actionable steps to dismantling racial and social injustice issues sustained by the criminal justice system. The Chapter addressed they will no longer "reward or highlight work that perpetuates harmful and unjust systems, including criminal justice facilities in the current US context."

Below is an excerpt from their Criminal Justice Facilities Statement:

For too long, architects have been complicit in upholding intrinsic racism within the American criminal justice system. While many architects have attempted to mitigate injustice by applying their professional skills to associated built structures, ultimately, it is beyond the role of design professionals to alleviate an inherently unjust system. Until more comprehensive policy changes are made on a national scale, good design alone is not enough to remove or overcome the racism inherent within the criminal justice system. It ...

Architecture and Japanese anime shine in the release of a new book by Les Jardins des Pilotes

2020-04-27T09:26:00-04:00

Futuristic megacities and out-of-this-world cityscapes created for Japanese animated films have influenced video games, films, as well as architects and designers. Similar to the work of Syd Mead and his highly influential artwork, Japanese anime has developed a special relationship with how fictional built environments can look and feel. From beautifully hand-drawn sketches, storyboards, and paintings, anime artists and creators have expanded the worlds of Japan's "ultramodern animated films."

AKIRA - Final production background. Image courtesy of Anime Architecture/Les Jardins des Pilotes

The non-profit organization, Les Jardins des Pilotes, has dedicated their time gathering and showcasing the influential worlds of these fictional spaces in their latest book Anime Architecture. Author and curator Stefan Riekeles showcases the work of famous Japanese artists and their iconic cityscapes found in animated films like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Metropolis, 2001, to name a few.

Metr...

The Crumple and the Scrape: Two Archi-Textures in the Mode of Queer Gender

2020-03-05T20:59:00-05:00

Texture is the condition of possibility through which our bodies meet environments; like gender in its relationality, texture is palpable only in becoming. So did the blue carpet in my childhood bedroom enmesh gender between my toes? And if we alter texture — including how we talk about it — might we transform gender in both minute and brash ways?

Whether or not they realize it, architecture critics generally build a body into their writings. And we must allow ourselves, and others, to write bodies other than cis, straight, white, able ones into the affect of our analyses. Changing words — say, crafting new architectural metaphors for trans and queer embodiments — can alter our perceptions of bodies and buildings alike.

Lucas Crawford, the latest recipient of the Arcus/Places Prize for innovative public scholarship on gender, sexuality, and the built environment, explores how the language of architectural criticism influences the ways that we discuss the design of built space.

The Arcus/Places Prize is an ongoing collaboration between Places Journal and the Diversity Platforms Committee of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley.

SAH Archipedia aims to chronicle America's built environment

2019-07-03T14:07:00-04:00

The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has unveiled a new "archipedia" website focused on extensively cataloging a wide range of structures and other facets of the built environment.

Dubbed SAH Archipedia, the online encyclopedia was developed by SAH and the University of Virginia Press. The site contains detailed historical information, interactive maps, photographs, and drawings for over 20,000 structures and places. To aid in research efforts, the database is tagged by subject, and includes indexes organized by architectural style, demographic and cultural information, location, and historical period.

Chronicled sites include Frank Lloyd Wright's Arizona Biltmore Hotel, the architecture and historical sites of Alaska, California's Spanish missions, breweries across the United States, and many others.

A view of the Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Image courtesy of Paul J. Jakubovich, Wisconsin Historical Society, and SAH Archipedia.

The bulk of the information is dra...

Meet Platform, a new digital venue centered on buildings, spaces, and landscapes

2019-07-02T21:54:00-04:00

Platform, a new website dedicated to hosting conversations, writings, and perspectives on the built environment, has taken off.

The venture, billed as an "open digital venue for exchanging ideas about working with, researching, teaching, and writing about buildings, spaces, and landscapes," is being launched by a collection of scholars, architects, and researchers that includes University of California, Santa Barbara professor Swati Chattopadhyay, City College of New York professor Marta Gutman, Newcastle University lecturer Zeynep Kezer, and Hunter College faculty member Matthew Lasner.

Platform will publish "timely short-form essays and digital content that engage with contemporary culture and politics" online, according to a welcome announcement published by the group.

The publication's initial explorations cover a variety of provocative topics, including an essay covering American efforts to intervene in Global South housing markets by Nancy Kwak, a collection of photographs d...

NYC's 10 largest property owners controlling the city landscape

2018-09-17T14:53:00-04:00

Earlier this month, The Real Deal put out a monster analysis looking at the biggest property owners across the city based on square footage, along with their annual net operating income. Their thorough analysis is definitely worth a read, but right here we’re going to give you a breakdown of the top 10 biggest property owners in the city, and some of the projects you might recognize them for.

Curbed New York has put together a list of the top real estate players in NYC along with some of their notable projects in the city. Below are the top 10 property owners controlling NYC's built environment:

1. The City of New York
2. Vornado Realty Trust
3. SL Green Realty
4. Tishman Speyer
5. Blackstone Group
6. Related Companies
7. Columbia University
8. Brookfield Property Partners
9. RXR Realty
10. New York University

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.

Global heatwave is symptom of early stage cycle of civilisational collapse

2018-08-13T18:59:00-04:00

This summer’s extreme weather has hit home some stark realities. Climate disaster is not slated to happen in some far-flung theoretical future. It’s here, and now.

Penned by Nafeez Ahmed, investigative journalist, recovering academic, tracking the Crisis of Civilization, the article points to a more urgent than urgent times in terms of civilisation and not merely the climate change.

Also an urgent quote from a friend internalizing the article for architecture, "I am surprised that with contemporary conditions that require a radical re-orientation and re-conceptualization of discipline and profession, architecture professors continue to talk about elements, tectonic, "Fundamentals", context, composition, scale, poche, sustainability... Bla,bla... Let's build a new ontology..."

-Alex Santander, Architect. Tijuana, Mexico

UNStudio's new tech start up, UNSense, launches with smart city and solar brick innovations

2018-03-14T19:50:00-04:00

UNSense, a new arch tech startup based in Amsterdam, is being launched by UNStudio. Operating as an independent sister company to UNStudio, the company will explore and develop new integrated tech solutions specifically designed for the built environment.

UNSense explores new technologies related to the built environment. Image: UNSense.

The new tech innovation boasts a wide range of collaboration with data analysts, algorithmists, neuroscientists, policy makers, students, municipalities, sociologists, economists, data architects, business case modellers, financial specialists, architects and more.

CitySense will collect data through sensory digital infrastructure. Image: UNSense.

Initial technology solutions include CitySense and Solar Brick. CitySense collects data through sensory digital infrastructure in order to design experiences improving life in the city. Trials are currently running in South East Amsterdam and a number of other Dutch cities.

Solar Brick allows for massive ...

All-star line-up revealed for Vision 2017: UNStudio, Zaha Hadid Architects, Gensler, Foster + Partners and more

2017-05-17T06:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Vision 2017.

Vision 2017 has announced its programme, including some of the biggest names across the built environment industry, alongside the brightest start-ups and world-renowned experts. A series of talks, debates and presentations will address the main issues facing the profession, both in the UK and in a global context. New technologies, materials, products and approaches will be explored across five lecture theatres on the 6-7 June, with Vision as the official trade partner of the London Festival of Architecture. The event is also affiliated to other key industry partners, such as the RIBA, New London Architecture, the Museum of Architecture and BRE.

Alongside the extensive programme, Vision has also partnered with various international trade authorities, including Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Latvia and the Czech Republic, represented at the event through a number of pavilions, each housing multiple participants.

As al...

AIA awards $100,000 to five intriguing Upjohn Research Initiative projects

2017-04-25T12:46:00-04:00

From a Circadian Daylight Metric and Design Assist Tool to Trashwalls, the AIA has announced the five projects it has selected for its 10th annual Upjohn Research Initiative grants, and they're all fairly promising. Speaking broadly, the projects each propose investigating a particular aspect of the built environment in an effort to try and improve the quality of life of that structure's likely daily inhabitants. For example, the Trashwalls from a team of researchers from Washington State University are "fabricated using materials harvested from the local solid waste stream, are designed to reduce heat loss from rented apartments, improve the comfort of those spaces during hot or cold weather, and save renters money on their utility bills, while reducing pollution. The purpose of this project is to design, construct, and examine prototypes of interior insulating walls that are attractive, have an R-value of R-10 (US) or greater, cost less than ten cents per square foot, are built fr...

How do humans perceive the built environment in outer space?

2014-07-10T14:43:00-04:00

I put out a call via twitter and facebook for quick drawings of the ISS from memory. Asking my social media friends for sketches wasn't some kind of contest about accuracy or skill, it was more an investigation into what sorts of visual responses come up when people think about the space station. The (totally unscientific) results reveal much about how we see and understand the built environment in outer space.