Archinect - News

Gensler works on new hybrid timber data centers for Microsoft

2024-11-04T18:48:00-05:00

A Gensler and Thornton Tomasetti-led data center project that highlights the enormous potential for similar environmentally-minded hybrid mass timber designs in the booming typology is on its way toward completion in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.

The firm is working with Microsoft to deliver a pair of new centers made using CLT materials. Microsoft says their presence will reduce the buildings’ overall carbon footprint by 35% compared to conventional steel construction, and another 65% compared to those made from precast concrete—an important step as such projects gain priority in the new data-driven economy.

Video courtesy of Microsoft

Microsoft has previously committed to becoming fully 'carbon-negative' in its construction footprint by decade’s end, developing a plan that has since seen setbacks due to the volume and pace of expansion and a subsequently high rate of 'indirect emissions' skyrocketing by 30.9% over just three years.

Another innovation meant to combat this i...

Meta announces investment in low-carbon concrete production plants

2024-10-29T17:47:00-04:00

Last month, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) announced its plans to invest in the California-based concrete manufacturer CarbonBuilt on a new line of low-carbon products called Reversa.

The product is said to offer carbon footprint reductions of up to 70% compared to the current industrial baseline. Data centers will ultimately become the recipients of the product innovations. This comes as the technology giant is in the midst of a year in which it anticipates spending $37 billion on the booming building typology.

Meta's Head of Clean Technology Innovation John DeAngelis said: “Meta is prioritizing a multifaceted approach to accelerating decarbonization in hard-to-abate sectors like concrete. Our collaboration with CarbonBuilt will help them to deliver a step change reduction in emissions with a clear near-term path to scale. Accelerating the deployment of these types of solutions is critical for driving deep decarbonization and we hope this collaboration can help pave the path fo...

Can the 'first carbon-positive hotel in the U.S.' claims of the Studio Gang-designed Populus be validated?

2024-09-30T10:28:00-04:00

Populus goes one step further in its boast of being 'carbon positive', not just offsetting the hotel’s carbon footprint but actually taking out far more carbon than it puts in – a promise few businesses would dare to make, for both financial and publicity reasons. As a term, however, 'carbon positive' can be linguistically confusing [...] and with no clear definition of what 'carbon positive' means, there are no metrics by which to determine its validity.

The project, first announced in February 2021, has since garnered skepticism amidst its developer Urban Villages' claims of being a first-of-its-kind carbon-positive American design in the typology. The true sustainability of the firm’s 2009 Aqua Tower in Chicago has been scrutinized in the past by online commenters.

The 265-room Populus, with its blinking 'lids' fenestration, opens for the first time on October 15th.

Handcrafted quality and a reverence for the Canadian wilderness makes this Kariouk Architects-designed family retreat stand out

2024-07-19T16:55:00-04:00

Ottawa-based architecture firm Kariouk Architects has designed a family retreat defined by its open spaces and close relationship to the landscape in a remote Ontarian forest.

Photo: Scott Norsworthy

The home was designed for a large family who wanted a large space for summer and winter holidays that would allow visitors to be comfortable in a remote area for long stays. The clients also wanted the project to promote and be aligned with the surrounding environment. The architects honored this through the house’s visual and material harmonization with its surroundings, responsible material sourcing and site adaptation, and energy-saving systems. Most notably, almost all of the natural habitat of the 100-acre property was preserved.

Photo: Scott Norsworthy

A primary objective of the retreat’s design was to achieve a contemporary approach to warmth and the avoidance of modernist box-like forms. This is evident in the continuous space of the home, where only bedrooms and bathrooms are cl...

University of Maryland researchers develop 'cooling glass' that can redirect a building's heat into space

2023-11-17T11:54:00-05:00

Researchers aiming to combat rising global temperatures have developed a new 'cooling glass' that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. The new technology, a microporous glass coating, can lower the temperature of the material beneath it by 3.5 degrees Celsius at noon, and has the potential to reduce a mid-rise apartment building's yearly carbon emissions by 10 percent.

The technology was developed by a research team at the University of Maryland, led by Distinguished University Professor Liangbing Hu in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The coating functions by reflecting up to 99% of solar radiation to prevent buildings from absorbing heat. It emits heat in the form of longwave infrared radiation into space. The phenomenon is known as radiative cooling, in which space serves as a heat sink for the buildings.

According to the research team, their glass is more environmentally stable than previous attempts at cooling coatings. The glass can be applied to a variety of surfaces, such as tile, brick, and metal, which makes it scalable and available for wide use. The researchers envision the new material as a key contributor to the solution to climate change due to its potential to reduce a structure’s energy usage and carbon footprint. The team is now working to further test the glass and understand its practical applications.

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MVRDV reveals 'ecology-first' master plan for health and technology campus

2023-04-18T08:00:00-04:00

MVRDV has designed what the firm describes as a “pointillist” master plan for a health and technology campus in the Dutch city of Nijmegen.

The project aims to reimagine the Noviotech Campus by unifying the currently disjointed campus buildings and adding new buildings in the empty spaces between them while merging the site into the surrounding city. The design team says it's taking an “ecology-first” approach by transforming the campus into a nature-inclusive landscape that connects the neighboring Goffertpark, one of the city’s largest green spaces, and the adjacent Jonkerbos War Cemetery to designated green corridors nearby.

Image © MVRDV

The master plan preserves six of the seven pre-existing large buildings on the site, including one that will be renovated. The buildings will serve as a grid into which new buildings are added over time over three phases of development. The campus aims to eventually expand to approximately three million square feet of leasable space.

A green sp...

New timber building by Haz Arquitectura employs a range of sustainable features to reduce its carbon footprint

2022-05-27T14:50:00-04:00

A new multi-use complex made nearly entirely of wood has been introduced to Barcelona’s Trinitat Vella district.

Called the Center for Community Life, the new public building will form part of a community facility hub for the districts of San Andreu and Nou Barris set to be built in the coming years. It will house various social services and bodies, including a Women’s Information and Attention Point, along with community housing and homes for young people and the elderly. The facility is the work of architects Manuel Sánchez-Villanueva and Carol Beuter of Haz Arquitectura, a studio with expertise in the construction of public and private spaces in the health, cultural, and social sectors, as well as offices and sports amenities.

Image Copyright José Hevia

Because this is the first building in the future complex, the firm wanted to avoid creating a major contrast with the upcoming projects. Therefore, they opted for a simple, abstract outer design that opens up to a future plaza tha...

Is carbon offsetting a misleading tool of the building industry?

2022-05-16T15:16:00-04:00

Six months after the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, columnist Kunle Barker wrote in the UK Architects' Journal to take a stand against the industry’s oneiric focus on “lofty ideals of zero-carbon and on soundbites” and towards a more considered system of new project evaluation, advocating for the “need to develop a viability methodology that is independent, objective and focused on carbon impact versus social need.”

“Let’s rid ourselves of these conceited phrases and instead focus on the real issues,” he wrote, arguing that need will always push architects into costly demolition efforts and away from restoring structures that may, in many cases, be better suited for adaptive reuse. “Offsetting is not sustainable. In fact, it's not even close to being sustainable, and most worrying of all, it is allowing lazy, ego-driven designs to be accepted by us all. We must find an objective and fair way to assess if (and how) a building should be constructed. This is the only way the built en...

Developer Fabrix employs urban mining to cut carbon footprint in its projects

2022-02-01T17:46:00-05:00

When old office blocks are demolished, their steel frames are typically smelted down to be recycled, emitting thousands of tonnes of carbon in the process. But at One Broadgate, the steel beams that once framed the London headquarters of inter-dealer broker TP Icap Plc will instead be salvaged from the site and recycled by developer Fabrix. Chief Executive Officer Clive Nichol says the example proves it’s possible to “apply the circular economy to structural elements of buildings.”

Fabrix has purchased 139 tons of steel from the contractor behind the demolition of One Broadgate and plans to use it on other projects in London. The process, known as urban mining, recovers and resells raw materials from waste products.

As reported by Bloomberg Green, engineering consultant AKT II estimates that reused steel could reduce the carbon impact of a building by up to 80%. The U.K. is attempting to encourage this practice, in which construction materials with large carbon footprints would be resold through a marketplace. This move comes at a time of ballooned steel prices in the U.K.

Study finds higher greenhouse gas emissions from high-income homes

2020-07-23T19:35:00-04:00

The homes of wealthy Americans are responsible for about 25% more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than low-income households, according to a new study released Monday by University of Michigan researchers.

The study, writes Smart Cities Dive's Jason Plautz, found the GHG impact of U.S. homes is lowest in Western states and highest in Central states, and the carbon footprint of wealthy neighborhoods can be as much as 15 times higher than lower-income areas. CoreLogic, a database of tax assessor records was used to analyze the carbon footprint of roughly 93 million homes, Smart Cities Dive reports.

Europe considers imposing "carbon tariffs" on climate dawdling nations

2019-12-13T19:14:00-05:00

Potential carbon tariffs have been an active topic at the United Nations climate conference that wraps up this weekend in Madrid, where nearly 200 nations have been at odds over how to counter the continued global rise of greenhouse gas emissions. And some diplomats say it’s inevitable that governments will turn to trade barriers in the effort to fight climate change.

Politico reports that as international cooperation toward achieving global carbon reduction goals falters in the face of a climate change-denying American presidential administration, European countries are considering implementing carbon tariffs on imported goods to force a change.

The United States recently moved to exit the landmark Paris Agreement.

Speaking to climate-denying countries in a statement to Politico, European Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans struck a combative tone, saying, "If you take the same, or comparable, measures there will be no need to correct anything at the border," adding, “If you don’t, then of course, at some point we will have to protect our industries.”

Skanska USA introduces new carbon footprint calculator

2019-10-07T11:11:00-04:00

Skanska USA has introduced a new open-source database tool, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (“EC3”), which estimates and evaluates the carbon emissions contained within a variety of construction materials...The searchable database is based on environmental product declaration (EPD) data and has a list of more than 16,000 materials...categorized by performance requirements, design specification, project location, and global warming potential.

The new technology enables owners, contractors, and designers to calculate a project's carbon footprint, reports Construction Dive. Currently in pilot testing, the tool "has helped participating projects to achieve embodied carbon reductions of up to 30% with little to no cost impact.

A new tool could make "carbon-aware" material specifications a reality

2019-09-23T18:30:00-04:00

The Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), a coalition made up of over 30 building industry leaders that includes the American Institute of Architects, Perkins and Will architects, Autodesk, the American Institute of Steel Construction, and the American Concrete Institute Foundation, among others, has unveiled a new tool that could help designers better understand the carbon footprints of the building materials they specify.

The so-called EC3 tool is developed as an open-source technology that allows users to see the embodied carbon impacts of materials before they are specified, according to a news release.

The tool is fully customizable and allows for a variety of materials to be highlighted in carbon calculations. Image courtesy of Building Transparency / Carbon Leadership Forum.

According to the Building Transparency website, the tool allows designers to visualize different material scenarios using the embodied carbon emissions of a variety of structural approaches, interior and exteri...

Move over air conditioners, bioclimatic design is beating the heat when it comes to regulating building temperatures

2019-07-19T13:39:00-04:00

...an approach known as bioclimatic design: using the environment around a building to passively manage the temperature and light inside, rather than mechanically heat and cool a space. Structures designed that way are energy efficient, which leaves them with a smaller carbon footprint.

Cities across the U.S. are experiencing heat waves. However, designing cities and structures for hot climates is nothing new. Early architects have developed design solutions for regulating temperatures. Yet, with this progression, a reliance has grown towards cooling systems like air conditioners creating a dependency that affects users and the environment.

In an article written by the Daily Beast, Nicole Wetsman chats with architect, professor, and sustainable design leader Pablo La Roche. As faculty at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona and sustainability consultant for CallisonRTKL, La Roche has dedicated much of his work exploring passive cooling systems, carbon-neutral architecture, and affordable housing. In his conversation with Wetsman, La Roche shares, "The building becomes the air conditioner [...] It's about understanding the mechanisms."

From improved insulation to better building facade designs, Westman goes on to elaborate on these methods of practice...

Deborah Berke Partners completes new $19M residence hall for Dickinson College

2018-08-23T18:06:00-04:00

Ahead of the new academic year, Dickinson College has opened a new $19 million residence hall that will house 130 students. The High Street Residence Hall, the Carlisle liberal arts college's first new residence hall since 1973, is part of a $46 million campus investment plan that began in 2012. Officials said demand for on-campus housing exceeded available space, prompting the start of construction on the new residence hall last year.

Deborah Berke Partners' new dormitory for Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA is now open for the upcoming academic school year.

The 40,500 square foot building is currently targeted to be LEED Platinum, making it the first college residence hall in Pennsylvania to achieve this level if approved. The dorm features an upgraded stormwater management system with four rain gardens.

The residence hall was designed with an energy efficient roof, exterior walls, and windows. The facility connects with the colleges' central energy plant to reduce carbon emissions.

Collaborating Firms
Deborah Berke Partners – Architect and Interior Designer
Andropogon – Landscape Architect
Kohler Ronan – MEP Engineer
Steven Winter Associates – LEED/Environmental Consultant
PHT Lighting – Lighting...

American firms aren't doing enough to reduce their carbon footprint, according to new report

2016-10-05T13:38:00-04:00

“We are simply not making significant strides in crucial metrics that predict building performance,” states Greg Mella, FAIA, Director of Sustainable Design at SmithGroupJJR and co-chair of the AIA 2030 Working Group, in a new report that gauges the progress made by firms voluntarily committing to reduce the carbon emissions produced by their buildings. “These findings should serve as a wake-up call to architects that there needs to be greater urgency to drive improved energy efficiency across their project portfolios if we are going to reach our ultimate carbon reduction goals.”

While a total of 152 firms submitted data, amounting to a 9% increase from 2014, the reports aren’t terribly impressive. A scant 4% of the total gross square feet (GSF) represented met the target of reducing carbon emissions by 70%. And just 10% of total GSF met the previous target—a 60% carbon reduction—representing a decrease of 4% since the last report. That being said, 614 design projects met the 60% tar...

Future sustainable cities will be built with... bone?

2016-06-28T13:28:00-04:00

In bone, the proportions of protein and mineral are roughly equal – the mineral gives bone stiffness and hardness, while the protein gives it toughness or resistance to fracture. While bones can break, it is relatively rare, and they have the benefit of being self-healing [...] “All of our existing building standards have been designed with concrete and steel in mind. Constructing buildings out of entirely new materials would mean completely rethinking the whole industry."

Bioengineer Dr. Michelle Oyen of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering and her lab are working on ways to build artificial compounds that mimic bone and eggshell. Eventually, once scaled up, the compounds could be used as building materials.

When the mineral compounds are "templated" onto the naturally occurring animal protein of collagen, Oyen believes that the two materials could make a "lattice-type structure," stronger than the bone itself. Because this combination takes far less energy to produce than say steel or concrete, it could be used as a more energy efficient building material.

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New study suggests consumers, not producers, should bear responsibility for environmental impact

2016-02-29T19:14:00-05:00

We might think that most of the carbon emission come from the industrial sector and livestock, but a new study suggests that the real environmental problem is represented by the things we buy. [...] “We all like to put the blame on someone else, the government, or businesses ... But between 60–80 per cent of the impacts on the planet come from household consumption. If we change our consumption habits, this would have a drastic effect on our environmental footprint as well”.

You can read the full report, "Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption", published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, here.