Archinect - News

Summer's here in Antarctica — let's build!

2024-12-02T15:50:00-05:00

As the Northern Hemisphere approaches the winter season, construction activity on our southernmost continent has kicked into overdrive: More favorable summer temps have opened up a brief six-month window at the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera research station and operations hub, allowing for completion of the new 'Discovery Building' purpose-built scientific support facility.

Work at the Rothera site has brought together expertise from BAM, Ramboll, Sweco, GA Barnies, Turner and Townsend, and Hugh Broughton Architects.

The British Antarctic Survey's website describes the modernization efforts in more detail.

Previously on Archinect: Construction season begins for UK's largest Antarctic research hub

Caltech's new Resnick Sustainability Center gets scientific from the outside in

2024-11-13T16:58:00-05:00

Caltech’s new Resnick Sustainability Center (RSC) has opened after the completion of an 80,000-square-foot design produced by the LA-based Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign.

The project, which had been marketed as an interdisciplinary and cohesive "makerspace" for Caltech scientists and engineering students, stands out thanks to an innovative building envelope shaped by an "undulating glass skim" that's noticeably distinct from other academic buildings on campus.

Image courtesy of Cannon Design

A language of diagonal sunscreen frits covering a low-E coated glass curtain wall and its supporting mass timber "gridshell" in the facade contribute to the building's impugned profile against the presence of the aforementioned older structures. The use of timber as a structural and aesthetic component also blends the atrium and walkways with a concrete shell core housing suites of research laboratories and academic spaces to make an elaborate yet wholly scientific composition from the outside i...

China is planning the world’s largest particle collider to rival CERN

2024-06-26T17:18:00-04:00

China’s plan to construct what would be the world’s new largest particle collider, pending major funding hurdles, is becoming more clear after a technical design report was submitted for the estimated $5.2 billion project. The 100-kilometer Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) is meant to rival CERN’s plans for the Future Circular Collider (FCC) in Europe and would require only three years to complete following its potential commencement in 2027.

Scientific American informs us: “Many of the components that are planned for China’s mega machine are already being tested at other facilities in the country [...] Given that China is already home to a collider that is similar to the CEPC — the Beijing Electron Positron Collider — [and] IHEP might now have more expertise in this area than does CERN.”

Renzo Piano completes CERN's new Science Gateway project in Geneva

2023-10-13T15:13:00-04:00

Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has shared photos following the inauguration of its new CERN Science Gateway project in Geneva, Switzerland.

The project for clients at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (or CERN) was realized in collaboration with the local studio Brodbeck Roulet Architectes Associés and offers the agency room for an expanded education and outreach program capable of handling between 300,000 and 500,000 visitors annually.

Image © CERN

The project’s design is inspired by the tubing integral to CERN’s famed Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator and houses two new laboratories, three small exhibition areas, a 900-seat auditorium, shop, and restaurant in a footprint totaling just over 75,000 square feet. A bridge suspended 20 feet above the ground connects the five separate spaces. RPBW says it also establishes a central metaphor as the “link between science and society.”

Image © CERN

More than 400 trees were planted in order ...

Construction season begins for UK's largest Antarctic research hub

2022-12-12T20:50:00-05:00

A six month construction season is set to begin at the United Kingdom’s largest Antarctic research and operations hub. Called the Rothera Research Station, it supports leading researchers in frontier science in the region.

This marks the start of the next phase of the British Antarctic Survey’s Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization Program (AIMP), which is part of the UK’s long-term plan to modernize its research facilities in the poles. Through a collaboration with construction services company BAM, engineering and design company Ramboll, and architecture firm Sweco, the project aims to provide polar science infrastructure that will enable the UK to deliver climate, biodiversity and ocean research, and innovation to Antarctica.

According to BAM, this season is expected to be the busiest and most challenging since the program began in 2017. This is especially pertinent given the small window that construction can take place in the region in order to avoid its harsh and dark winte...

Researchers create ultra-white paint that could cool buildings

2021-04-16T17:54:00-04:00

Scientists in the US have developed a paint significantly "whiter than the whitest paint currently available". Tests carried out by researchers at Purdue University on their "ultra-white" paint showed it reflected more than 98% of sunlight. That suggests, the scientists say, that it could help save energy and fight climate change.

The paint's whiteness opens up a range of cooling features that, applied at an industrial scale, could limit the built environment's contributing effect to global warming and its dependency on traditional air conditioning.

"If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet, we estimate that you could get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses," predicts Xiulin Ruan, the Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, who led the research.

An infrared camera shows how a sample of the whitest white paint (the dark purple square in the middle) actually cools the board below ambient temperature. Credit: Purdue University/Joseph Peoples.

"Using high-accuracy temperature reading equipment called thermocouples, the researchers demonstrated outdoors that the paint can keep surfaces 19 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient surroundings at night," claims the study. "It can also cool surfaces 8 d...

Brief summer season allows construction on British Antarctic Survey's new Discovery Building

2021-01-14T13:53:00-05:00

The next stage of building a scientific support facility in Antarctica begins this week [...] A 20 person-plus team from BAS construction partners BAM, Ramboll and Sweco is working on the second season of building the cutting-edge science and operations building. Construction can only take place during a short window during the Antarctic summer months, avoiding the harsh, dark winter.

Recycled concrete performs as well as conventional concrete, new study finds

2020-12-09T13:04:00-05:00

Results of a new five-year study of recycled concrete show that it performs as well, and in several cases even better, than conventional concrete. Researchers conducted side-by-side comparisons of recycled and conventional concrete within two common applications -- a building foundation and a municipal sidewalk. They found that the recycled concrete had comparable strength and durability after five years of being in service.

Find the complete study Recycled aggregate concrete from large-scale production to sustainable field application by University of British Columbia Okanagan researchers here.

New research study indicates chitin could be a suitable building material for Mars habitation

2020-09-30T13:08:00-04:00

A study conducted by Javier Fernandez and colleagues from Singapore University of Technology and Design provides research that the bioinspired material, chitin, would be a viable building material for Mars inhabitation and tool production.

Fernandez shares with Universe Today that by reverse-engineering chitin production and combining it with an analog of Martian soil, new chitinous material was created. This material called biolith has presented itself to be highly useful in creating rigid structures using minimal energy output.

“The technology was originally developed to create circular ecosystems in urban environments, but due to its efficiency, it is also the most efficient and scalable method to produce materials in a closed artificial ecosystem in the extremely scarce environment of a lifeless planet or satellite,” explains Fernandez.

New research shows potential in storing energy in red bricks

2020-08-12T21:41:00-04:00

Imagine plugging in to your brick house.

Red bricks — some of the world’s cheapest and most familiar building materials — can be converted into energy storage units that can be charged to hold electricity, like a battery, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Brick has been used in walls and buildings for thousands of years, but rarely has been found fit for any other use. Now, chemists in Arts & Sciences have developed a method to make or modify “smart bricks” that can store energy until required for powering devices. A proof-of-concept published Aug. 11 in Nature Communications (and pictured above) shows a brick directly powering a green LED light.

“Our method works with regular brick or recycled bricks, and we can make our own bricks as well,” said Julio D’Arcy, assistant professor of chemistry. “As a matter of fact, the work that we have published in Nature Communications stems from bricks that we bought at Home Depot right here in Brentwood (Missour...

World's biggest nuclear fusion project completes civil engineering work on Tokamak Building

2019-11-13T15:29:00-05:00

A Vinci-led consortium [...] completed civil engineering works on the high-spec building that will house the world’s largest fusion machine, called a “tokamak”, which scientists hope will start replicating the sun’s energy by the middle of the next decade. [...] The 73-metre-high, 120-metre-wide structure required highly specific concretes. Teams developed about 10 formulations to shield staff and the environment from fusion-generated radiation.

Building a tokamak machine to exploit fusion energy similar to our sun is no simple engineering feat: the building will house reactions that happen at extremely high temperatures, around 150 million degrees Celsius, fusing hydrogen nuclei when they reach the plasma state, thus releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process.

ITER, the international organization tasked with operating and subsequently dismantling the experimental facility, hopes to maintain its ambitious First Plasma target in 2025.

Image via VINCI/Twitter

"Some parts of the Tokamak Building also called for steel reinforcement density rarely used on projects on this scale (up to 10 times the density of an apartment building wall)," explains a statement released by French contracting giant VINCI.

"[...] access to the heart of the Tokamak Building required customized production of 46 heavy nuclear doors. Each 70-tonne door is manufactured in Germany, brought to the site, filled with concrete and assembled in the hea...

R&D facilities begin to see shift in design approach

2019-07-30T20:09:00-04:00

The focus on innovation and an increasing war for talent is causing a significant shift in the design of R&D facilities. Attracting the best talent requires expression of purpose both in the culture and the physical workplace. In the highly competitive research landscape centered around New Jersey, biopharmaceutical companies are aligning these values by moving the laboratory front and center, and putting their science on display.

Laboratory scientists are now moving from "back-of-house areas" to more visible zones where the intricacies of lab work can be better appreciated and embraced by building users. This presents "a whole new set of design opportunities and challenges," writes Gensler Sciences Leader, Brenda Nyce-Taylor.

The firm has recently completed an exciting science co-working space in collaboration with Princeton University and Biolabs that "supports entrepreneurial start-up scientists" by "putting innovation at the center with labs visible upon entry." It will be interesting to see how this new shift in design trend will impact the R&D industry in the coming years.

Hawaii allows Thirty Meter Telescope to start construction on disputed Mauna Kea peak

2019-06-21T14:20:00-04:00

After years of protests and legal battles, Hawaii officials announced Thursday that a massive telescope which will allow scientists to peer into the most distant reaches of our early universe will be built on a volcano that some consider sacred. The state has issued a “notice to proceed” for the Thirty Meter Telescope project, Gov. David Ige said at a news conference. In October, a state Supreme Court’s 4-1 ruling upheld the project’s permits for the $1.4 billion instrument.

Meanwhile protests continue by a group of native Hawaiians who see the telescope's site on top of Mount Mauna Kea as sacred ground and have been trying for years to block the project at this location.

This new 'acoustic metamaterial' can cancel the sounds of anything—without blocking airflow

2019-03-11T14:16:00-04:00

A team of Boston University researchers recently stuck a loudspeaker into one end of a PVC pipe. They cranked it up loud. What did they hear? Nothing. How was this possible? Did they block the other end of the pipe with noise canceling foams or a chunk of concrete? No, nothing of the sort. The pipe was actually left open save for a small, 3D-printed ring placed around the rim. That ring cut 94% of the sound blasting from the speaker, enough to make it inaudible to the human ear.

"The mathematically designed, 3D-printed acoustic metamaterial is shaped in such a way that it sends incoming sounds back to where they came from," explain the Boston University researchers behind the discovery: Xin Zhang, a professor at the College of Engineering, and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "Inside the outer ring, a helical pattern interferes with sounds, blocking them from transmitting through the open center while preserving air's ability to flow through."

Precisely this capacity of maintaining airflow and enabling light to shine through while muting nearly all of the noise opens up a vast field of practical applications, including architectural.

Hawaiian Supreme Court green-lights construction of $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope

2018-11-02T13:46:00-04:00

Hawaii's Supreme Court has sided with scientists in a battle to build one of the world's largest telescopes, rejecting efforts by native Hawaiians to block its construction atop what some consider a sacred volcano. In 2015, a construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, to be built on Mauna Kea, was invalidated amid protests and court appeals, claiming the dormant volcano is sacred land that would be violated in the building process.

The embattled TMT astronomical observatory project on Mauna Kea previously in the Archinect news:

Scientists build world's tiniest house using nanorobotic assembly

2018-05-22T13:39:00-04:00

In order to demonstrate the capabilities of a new nanorobotic system, French scientists have built a "microhouse" that sits on the cleaved end of an optical fiber. The diminutive home was built by a team from the Femto-ST Institute in Besançon, France, using the new μRobotex nanofactory system. That setup utilizes a robotically-controlled ion gun and a gas injection system, operating within a large vacuum chamber, to assemble microstructures on the tips of optical fibers with extreme accuracy.

The 'Tiny Houses' trend is so passé—Micro Houses are all the rage now. This charming nanobungalow built by the French Femto-ST Institute sits on a plot measuring only 300 by 300 micrometers.

Credit: FEMTO-ST Institute

All you need to get started on your own fun projects is a large vacuum chamber, some ion guns, thin membranes of silica, with a little robotic piloting for the nanoassembly sprinkled on top.

To learn how it really works, visit the full paper in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A.

Tinkering connections between architecture and neuroscience

2017-06-06T15:54:00-04:00

The importance of urban design goes far beyond feel-good aesthetics. A number of studies have shown that growing up in a city doubles the chances of someone developing schizophrenia, and increases the risk for other mental disorders such as depression and chronic anxiety.

While it might appear as common intuitive knowledge, humans are strongly influenced by their context. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in studies on the connection between neuroscience and architecture.

Last month, London's Conscious Cities Conference brought together architects, designers, engineers, neuroscientists and psychologists to encourage more multidisciplinary engagement. Some of the recent psychological studies focus on defining a stimulating space through the use of wearable devices that monitor skin conductance, various apps, VR and EEG headsets for either visualizing or measuring brain's activity and mental states. Other findings include data on the impact of building facades on our moods, green space on our health, and urban environments on our social interactions.

Analyzing the ways in which the built environment affects our brains through evidence-based research can grant architects the insight needed for making healthier and more socially-consc...

A team of scientists have made graphene—the strongest material in the world—into a building material

2017-01-09T12:47:00-05:00

The space elevator—a theoretical mode of transportation where transport modules move up and down a long cable that connects Earth to space—has long been the stuff of futuristic fantasy...Now, a team of MIT scientists has designed one of the strongest lightweight materials in existence, taking us one step closer to realizing that sci-fi dream—and creating a formula for a material that could revolutionize architecture and infrastructure right here on Earth, too.

The material in question is called graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon. At just one atom thick, graphene has so far proven to be inoperable as a building material, even though it's the strongest material we know about. But the team of MIT invented a process that could change that. Using heat and pressure, they were able to create 3D geometries that proved to be ten times stronger than steel, but 5% less dense.

According to the researchers behind the projects, the move from 2D to 3D is similar to rolling up a piece of paper, in the process creating a tube, which is a strong architectural form. Apparently, the material has other possible benefits for architecture. For example, because graphene is porous, it could act as a filter for water and air. And its strength could make buildings more resilient to extreme weather patterns.

At the moment, graphene is too expensive to be readily adapted to building purposes. But the 3D geometry invented by the MIT team could be used with mater...

British Antarctic Survey announces construction partner to modernize UK polar research facilities

2017-01-05T14:42:00-05:00

Construction expert BAM has been chosen to partner with British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to modernise UK Antarctic and other research facilities, enabling British scientists to continue delivering world class research into some of the most important issues facing our planet. [...] Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), this long-term UK partnership will last between 7-10 years and is worth an estimated £100m.

Construction near the South Pole comes with its own set of challenges which the winning bidder, BAM International, along with its UK arm, BAM Nuttall, promises to master with years of expertise in working in remote parts of the world.

The British Antarctic Survey's announcement yesterday went on to say:

"The Antarctic construction projects will present unique challenges given the continent is the highest, driest, coldest and windiest on Earth, and most construction work will need to be completed during the four month window of the Antarctic summer. Construction workers will live and work alongside science teams in harsh and remote environments, sometimes in sub-zero temperatures."