Archinect - News

NYC public school students are pushing the city for greener school buildings

2024-01-09T13:48:00-05:00

New York City teens have launched an initiative, born out of a 2019 citywide climate walkout, to urge Mayor Adams to "speed up plans to retrofit school buildings to make them safer, healthier, and more climate-friendly."

The student-led environmental coalition named, TREEage is "asking peers across the city to post videos to social media about why their schools urgently need green energy upgrades. The group is also asking students to grade how green their school is from A to F," reports Jessica Gould of the Gothamist.

Over the years, they have gained significant concessions from the Adams administration, including a pledge to make all new public school building constructions all-electric by 2030.

Their advocacy for the city’s Green New Deal is bolstered by an understanding of the correlation between healthier environments and better learning outcomes.

TREEage is now preparing a social media campaign that will kick off next month using the hashtags #MayorAdamsFixMySchoo and #Gree...

LA mandates all new buildings be all-electric in major milestone

2022-12-15T16:42:00-05:00

[The] Los Angeles City Council put an end to the expansion of local natural gas infrastructure on December 7th when they unanimously approved an ordinance requiring that all new buildings within city limits be constructed all-electric. With this vote, Los Angeles became the largest city in the state and the second largest city in the country to mandate a definitive shift away from fossil fuels in new construction.

LA City Hall had previously adopted a similar ordinance for all its municipal buildings in 2020 and passed a ban on gas appliances along with a mandate for emissions-free new constructions at the end of spring. The new building code changes are set to go into effect with the new year. A test run for a fleet of driverless EV taxis is also set to hit the streets soon in what could be a complicated counterbalance to the impact of car culture in the city.

The move now gives 70 California cities some form of an all-electric requirement, prompting speculation that a statewide code update might come in 2025.

Boston may soon become the next major American city to ban fossil fuels in new buildings

2022-08-19T17:46:00-04:00

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has announced an ambitious new city-wide plan that would eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new developments and major renovations in an effort to take "every possible step to climate action."

If passed, the Home Rule Petition to the state’s new Bill H.5060 would make Boston the next large city to adopt such measures, following New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, and Berkeley which have all codified similar mandates into local construction laws in recent years.

Furthermore, the city has announced the formation of a special advisory committee made up of local architects, environmental and public health experts, real estate developers, and other stakeholders who will all be tasked with creating guidelines that will later be recommended by Wu as ordinance to the City Council.

In a press statement, Councilor Kendra Lara said: "Implementing meaningful e...

Aviation firm plans commercial flight powered by hydrogen for 2024

2021-10-28T16:41:00-04:00

Plans to operate commercial hydrogen-electric flights between London and Rotterdam have been announced, with those behind the project hoping it will take to the skies in 2024. In a statement Wednesday, aviation firm ZeroAvia said it was developing a 19-seater aircraft that would “fly entirely on hydrogen.”

ZeroAvia, Dutch airport management company Royal Schiphol Group, Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport Foundation, and Rotterdam the Hague Airport have announced a partnership to develop the project. The initiative sets a timeline for potentially the first international zero-emission commercial passenger flight. ZeroAvia’s research and development is focused on powering electric motors using hydrogen fuel cells.

According to ZeroAvia’s press release, it and Royal Schiphol Group are in advanced partnership talks with airlines to agree on an operator for the planned route between the UK and the Netherlands. The pair will collaborate on testing and demonstrating hydrogen supply chain refueling operations and how this system will be integrated at airports. They will also plan a regulatory framework and gauge industry and public sentiments on hydrogen-powered aircraft.

Debra Gerod takes the helm of AIA California

2020-01-21T20:05:00-05:00

Gruen Associates Partner Debra Gerod has been inaugurated as the AIA California 2020 President.

According to the AIA California website, Gerod aims to focus on expanding the group's efforts to push the state to adopt proposed Zero Code measures that would mandate emissions-free buildings across the state.

According to the AIA California website, Gerod made the following statement at her inauguration: “This is a pivotal time where architects are in a position to show leadership in the climate action arena. I wanted to be part of an influential conduit such as the AIA CA. I can think of no better group to work with.”

Gerod succeeds AIA California 2019 President Ben Kasdan of the firm KTGY.

Voicing support for Gerod as she embarks on her year-long journey at the top of the state's AIA group, Kasdan stated, "Debra Gerod, FAIA, represents AIA California and the architectural profession in such a quintessential way. She leads by example with tactful wisdom, seemingly effortless grace,...

Neste wants to help you build a sustainable cabin

2019-10-30T14:00:00-04:00

The Nolla Cabin is a sustainable summer cottage developed by Neste and envisioned by designer Robin Falck. The project is a part of Neste's Journey to Zero initiative that aims to push the world closer to a carbon-neutral existence. The A-frame prototype of the cabin was built in 2018 on Vallisaari island in Finland, utilizing only local materials.

In an effort to "have as small an environmental impact as possible," the cabin's energy supply came from entirely renewable sources: electricity is generated by solar panels, and the Wallas stove, used for cooking and heating, runs on a renewable diesel fuel. Nests's objective "was to prove that modern luxury experiences do not have to take a toll on the environment."

To build on this ideal, Neste is currently "organizing a competition that will allow 12 people to build their own Nolla cabins," according Sirba Tuomi, the Marketing Director at the company. Since the organization's design ethos takes into consideration the sustainable imp...

MIT researchers experiment with emission-free cement

2019-10-02T18:42:00-04:00

It’s well known that the production of cement—the world’s leading construction material—is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about 8 percent of all such releases...A team of researchers at MIT has come up with a new way of manufacturing the material that could eliminate these emissions altogether, and could even make some other useful products in the process.

The research team is exploring the "idea of using an electrochemical process to replace the current fossil-fuel-dependent system" that relies on coal-fired ovens to convert limestone, clay, and sand to Portland cement. Through the new process, the need to burn coal will be avoided and the emitted carbon dioxide will be captured and "used for applications such as oil recovery or even carbonated beverages and dry ice," MIT suggests.

Werner Sobek believes we could live in entirely renewable-energy-powered cities by 2020

2015-10-07T15:02:00-04:00

After building 2014's Aktivhaus B10, a house that generates twice as much energy as it uses for its own needs via renewable sources, architect Werner Sobek believes that we have all the technology we need to live in entirely emissions-free cities in only five years. He also understands that to make this shift, he will need the full support of the construction and automotive industries.

“The automotive industry is driving forward the creation of ever more powerful, longer-lasting batteries," Sobek said. "At the same time, the construction industry is working on such solutions as a retrofittable building automation system that can noticeably reduce the energy consumption of existing buildings in a very short amount of time.”

Sobek believes that the efficient city model could be brought into being via a "Sisterhood Principle" of data sharing, whereby multiple houses, even city districts, exchange information about what energy they are using, storing, and generating, and correspondingly ...