Archinect - News

Stanford research explores using plastic waste in construction

2023-07-28T14:20:00-04:00

Stanford University has published new research exploring the use of plastic waste in constructing roads and buildings. The research project, funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), identified that recycled glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite – a tensile plastic used extensively in car, boat, and plane parts – shows potential for repurposing in building applications.

The team, led by Stanford engineers Zhiye Li and Michael Lepech, incorporated computer modeling, scientific research, field data, and stakeholder interviews in their research, which was recently published in a white paper. They studied real-world applications such as the utilization of plastic waste for façade panels in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and pavement in a California Department of Transportation road project.

The research highlighted significant challenges in existing p...

Studio Gang to design new sustainability commons at Stanford

2023-06-06T16:50:00-04:00

A new project led by Studio Gang will deliver Stanford University a home for the recently-established Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, called Stanford Sustainability Commons, at a site located on the western half of the school’s Palo Alto, California campus.

New York-based practices SCAPE and atelier ten will join the firm for the design of the Commons, which aims to help consolidate a group of interrelated academic disciplines in the hopes of enabling a “thriving habitat supporting the region’s larger network of living things.”

Jeanne Gang says: “The climate crisis is the most urgent challenge facing our world today. We are going to be working with Stanford to design a home for the Doerr School of Sustainability that can support the cross-disciplinary collaboration needed for generating climate solutions in all industries. At the same time, we are excited to model ways for the built environment to address this challenge head-on.”

An aerial view of campus courtesy of Flickr ...

Stanford University engineers develop a 3D printing method that allows quicker printing with multiple resin types

2022-10-25T09:10:00-04:00

Research engineers at Stanford University have developed a 3D printing method that is "five to ten times faster than the quickest high-resolution printer currently available and is capable of using multiple types of resin in a single object." The team's design research and findings were recently published in Science Advances on September 28, 2022. This work allows for the potential use of thicker resins with "better mechanical and electrical properties," reports Laura Castañón of Stanford News.

This breakthrough is a major step forward from the current limitations of the 3D printing process, which can be timely and requires specific materials that can mainly only be used once at a time.

Figure shows print scrips for multimaterial iCLIP. Figure 6. via research article, "Injection continuous liquid interface production of 3D objects," published in Science Advances on September 28, 2022.

"This new technology will help to fully realize the potential of 3D printing," said Joseph DeSimone...

It turns out seawalls might not be the most thought-out way to address sea level rise

2021-07-20T17:08:00-04:00

As the world heats up and sea levels rise, communities in the U.S. could spend more than $400 billion on seawalls to try to hold the ocean back over the next couple of decades. But there’s a catch: Building a seawall in one area can often mean that flooding gets even worse in another neighborhood or city nearby.

A new paper from The Natural Capital Project at Stanford University that examines how seawalls might impact California's Bay Area was published this spring, adding to a slate of similar scholarship surrounding seawalls that have cropped up in recent years. Other efforts have seen a vigorous public pushback where proposed.

Cities like New York and Copenhagen have mulled plans for expensive sea walls that may in the end be inadequate. Some have pointed to the damaging effects on beaches as potential non-starters.

Fast Company has more on the encroaching issue here.

Cities don't see much economic gain from sports stadiums, says Stanford economist

2015-07-31T13:47:00-04:00

When an NFL team wants to build a new stadium, it often argues that the facility would boost the local economy. But that is not true, says Roger Noll, a Stanford professor emeritus in economics. [...] "NFL stadiums do not generate significant local economic growth, and the incremental tax revenue is not sufficient to cover any significant financial contribution by the city," said Noll, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

Stanford now offers free tuition for families making less than $125,000 per year

2015-04-02T15:29:00-04:00

If a student's parents make less than $125,000 per year, and if they have assets of less than $300,000, excluding retirement accounts, the parents won't be expected to pay anything toward their children's Stanford tuition. Families with incomes lower than $65,000 won't have to contribute to room and board, either. [...] there's something that every college could emulate about Stanford's policy: it's incredibly simple and straightforward.

Related (among a gazillion other references here on Archinect): The State of Debt and the Price of Architecture, Part 1 & 2.