Archinect - News

Pratt students build structures to visualize the impacts and building potential of plastic waste

2022-01-06T10:45:00-05:00

In an effort to represent the toll plastic waste has on the environment, a group of undergraduate architecture students from the Pratt Institute have constructed a series of inflatable structures that put into physical form the research they say simultaneously demonstrates the potential for its reduction and reuse as a building material.

The project was completed through Pratt’s d.r.a. Lab, which is overseen by professors Duks Koschitz and Robert Lee Brackett III. Together with their instructors, the 5-person team worked to test out different techniques useful in the development of walls, tubes, and domes that can be used in a variety of self-supporting structures. The students were then able to install the structures outside of Pratt’s library in order to display the distinctive role of each design.

The Plastic Confusion. Image courtesy Robert Lee Brackett III.

The first design, titled “Super Maxi” organized a network of portals into a unique viewing platform that offers different ...

Carleton University announces the new Hobin Prize in Architecture and City Building

2019-12-23T16:03:00-05:00

The Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University has announced a new student architecture prize fund that will go toward supporting the work of fourth-year undergraduate students enrolled in the school's housing and community building-focused studio.

The Hobin Prize, which will consist of several monetary prizes set to be awarded to students from the design, urbanism, and conservation focuses offered at the school, is endowed by Barry Hobin, founder of Ottawa, Canadia-based Hobin Architecture. Hobin, who graduated from Carleton University's school of architecture in 1974, explains his inspiration for the prize via press release: "Architecture has a more complex role than it ever has in the past. It’s not just about buildings. It’s about building places and trying to respond to things like the LRT (light-rail transit) and how we plan to live around it.”

The studio projects the prizes will support typically delve into topics that include housing affordability, n...

Take a look at Cal Poly's nine-acre collection of experimental structures, aka "The Architecture Graveyard"

2017-11-07T15:37:00-05:00

Tucked away in the hills of San Louis Obispo sits a nine-acre collection of experimental structures. The mishmash of unconventional architecture, around 15 projects in total, has become known as the Architecture Graveyard and is a popular hiking area of the Poly Canyon.

The site's actual name is the Experimental Structures Facility and it has been used from 1963 to 2009 by the nearby California Polytechnic State University, San Louis Obispo, to invite architectural, engineering, and design students to build large-scale structures ranging from a chimneyed greenhouse to a geodesic dome. It is also home to the prestigious annual Design Village competition, in which teams of first-year students build and inhabit temporary structures in the canyon for the entirety of a weekend.

↑ This structure was built in 1964 as an experimental house with a steel frame and wood infill. The name comes from the fact that the building is on an eight by eight module vertically and horizontally in order ...

Two-family house designed and built by Yale students opens in New Haven

2017-09-29T15:33:00-04:00

This year’s house marks the 50th project built by first-year students in the Yale School of Architecture’s professional degree program. Since it started in 1967, the building project has produced structures for communities around New Haven, including the Bridgeport band shell, pavilions in East Rock Park and Lighthouse Point Park, and since 1989, affordable housing units for over 30 families.

First-year graduate students at Yale School of Architecture and Design have built a family house in New Haven. The two units are separated by a walkway but under the same roof. The project was realized in collaboration with Columbus House, a New Haven-based homelessness services provider. Most of the house was prefabricated on Yale campus.

Pickathon Festival stage, designed by PSU students, will be turned into transitional housing when the music stops

2017-08-04T20:10:00-04:00

Launched in 1999, the inaugural Pickathon Music Festival was not so much a festival, but rather a small fundraiser for KBOO—a non-profit community radio station. Held in the woods nearby Portland, Oregon, the now annual summer event has grown into a sellout affair with lineups including Beach House, Angel Olsen, and Mac DeMarco. Though the festival has grown, the three-day event nicknamed "Portland's littlest big festival" has maintained its grassroots nature and continues to set itself apart from its festival competitors.

For starters, rather than only booking acts that have a big draw, the festival runners make a point of introducing their audience to new acts like Israeli pop star group A-WA or soul icon Charles Bradley. In addition, all artists at the festival play at least twice so audiences have multiple chances to see their acts. The festival has largely foregone corporate sponsorship with exceptions for companies like Kleen Kanteen, a reusable water bottle company, that fit ...

Students design disaster relief structure that takes 2 hours to assemble

2016-06-29T13:08:00-04:00

“AbleNook is a modular disaster relief dwelling that you can put together without tools in under two hours,” Verdecia said.

While Shigeru Ban has become the de facto expert in designing quick yet elegant solutions for disaster relief housing, he may have some competition in the form of two University of South Florida architecture students whose "AbleNook" can be assembled in under 120 minutes without any tools.

Sean Verdecia and Jason Ross, the students behind the design, constructed their 20' x 13' x 10' module out of aircraft grade aluminum with insulated panels that "you can just click together without any tools,” Verdecia said.

Not only can the unit be constructed without tools, but its modularity allows for easy expansion into larger structures. Here's the video backstory behind the Cade Museum People's Choice Award-winning design:

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:

ASCA Launches "#IMadeThat" Campaign For Architectural Students and Schools

2015-05-20T13:32:00-04:00

As part of a larger communications outreach campaign, The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture has launched a new online sharing portal called IMadeThat.com. A kind of HootSuite for architectural students and faculty, the portal collects all Vine, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter posts tagged #imadethat about academic architectural projects into one place.

The campaign hopes to form connections between existing and potential students, as well as provide a more detailed understanding of what, exactly, constitutes the study of architecture. Like the vast majority of social media undertakings, the scope of the project would not have been feasible or at least easily accomplished without the aid of technology. The real-time, public postings will enable commentary on sketches, works-in-progress, and completed thesis projects from a much larger community than an in-room crit panel or roving professor. While still in its formative stages, the site also has launched a blog secti...