Archinect - News

Buro Happold and Dialog unveil new urban thermal comfort study for Toronto

2024-01-22T18:45:00-05:00

The City of Toronto recently completed a groundbreaking study of its ‘thermal comfort’ done by Buro Happold and Dialog. The work will provide valuable lessons to urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders as the country’s largest metropolitan area prepares a strategy to suitably mitigate the growing number of extreme heat days it faces in a given year.

The study will go a long way in informing Toronto’s response to heat and climate, leading eventually to the creation and implementation of new comfort guidelines included as part of a broader Heat Relief Strategy that was debuted two years ago. Toronto's City Planning Division contracted Buro Happold and Dialog to lead the study based on the former’s extensive experience with similar plans for large metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.

“These are significant new kinds of guidance that city leaders everywhere need to help protect their citizens and support public health in an era of rapid climate change,...

President Biden lays out workplace heat safety plan to protect workers

2023-07-31T17:06:00-04:00

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to increase protections for workers facing extreme heat, as temperatures across the U.S. soar and large swaths of the country face heat advisories.

The President’s announcement comes as close to 40% of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service. The country currently has no federal standards on workplace heat safety, and there has been no timeline for the finalization of one. As reported by HR Dive, heat has become the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S.

Previously on Archinect: Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

Biden directed the U.S. Department of Labor to issue hazard alerts notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from extreme heat. The Department will also increase its inspections of at-risk workplaces such as farms and construction sites and heighten its enforcement of heat safety violations. The Biden administration aims to invest $7 million to develop more accurate weather predictions and $152 million to improve drinking water infrastructure in California, C...

U.N. global chief heat officer warns of the acute dangers of rising temperatures in cities

2023-07-31T15:40:00-04:00

Rising temperatures and increasingly frequent heat waves driven by climate change are turning many Mediterranean cities into dangerous places, especially for vulnerable groups. “We are not focusing enough on how extreme temperatures affect urban environments,” says Eleni Myrivili, who has spent years studying this issue in her hometown of Athens, which is one of the cities hardest hit by rising temperatures.

Amid devastating wildfires and record-breaking numbers of heat-related casualties throughout the Mediterranean region, Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS sits down with Eleni Myrivili, chief heat officer of Athens (Europe's first such municipal appointment) and also global chief heat officer to U.N. Habitat, to learn which concrete design and policy strategies can improve urban live in cities and help protect especially the most vulnerable groups.

Myrivili isn't holding back harsh criticism when she comments on an example of public urban design she deems inadequate for today's challenges — Madrid's Puerta del Sol square — saying, "Today, It is criminal to build squares without shade or cooling elements, because they create higher temperatures in the city, put people’s lives at risk and keep people away from public space."

Speaking also to The Guardian recently, Myrivili remarked on the increasing challenges of heat in cities and the built environment: "People are just starting to realize th...

MIT team tests open-source cooling chamber using 75% less energy than refrigerated cold rooms

2023-07-27T11:18:00-04:00

MIT researchers have published details of a new open-source forced-air evaporative cooling chamber. Described as being less expensive than refrigerated cold rooms, the chamber is intended to offer accessible cold storage for smallholder farmers, as well as significantly reduce post-harvest waste in hot and dry climates.

The chamber, which can be housed in a used shipping container and powered by either grid electricity or solar panels, has a capacity of 168 produce crates. The design uses industrial fans to draw in hot, dry air, which is passed through a porous wet pad. This creates cool, humid air that is directed through crates of produce, allowing rapid cooling. The air is then directed through the raised floor and to a channel between the insulation and the exterior container wall, where it flows to the exhaust holes near the top of the side walls.

The project was led by MIT Professor Leon Glicksman of the Building Technology Program within the Department of Architecture and Res...

Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

2023-07-20T15:01:00-04:00

With record-high temperatures impacting millions around the world, a spotlight has been cast on the workplace conditions of construction workers, who currently aren’t protected by any strict standard regarding extreme heat. According to a heat tracker by The New York Times, approximately 27% of the U.S. population live in areas where heat levels could reach dangerous levels this week. This comes following the world’s hottest week on record during the first week of July. According to Gary Orr, a health scientist with OSHA, there is no timeline for the finalization of a heat standard.

As reported by Zachary Phillips of Construction Dive, OSHA conducted 1,827 federal heat inspections between April 2022 and June 20, 2023, with 47% of them being in construction. Many of the inspections were not programmed, with 567 occurring due to complaints and 58 due to fatality or catastrophe. "For construction workers, the sweltering conditions mean an additional jobsite hazard. But there is no enfo...

Research from Northwestern University finds the drastic effects of 'underground climate change' in downtown Chicago

2023-07-18T11:44:00-04:00

“Underground climate change is a silent hazard,” he said. “The ground is deforming as a result of temperature variations, and no existing civil structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these variations.”

NBC Chicago reports on research from Northwestern University Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Alessandro Rotta Loria and his findings on the effect of density and subterranean heat in the city’s downtown Loop, where temperatures have been shown to be 10 degrees Celsius higher than in Grant Park and another 25 compared to outlying areas.

Loria called the phenomenon “subsurface heat islands.” Chicago’s clay underpinnings are wilting under the change, causing a sink of up to 8 millimeters, or more than four times the 1 to 2mm sink found by researchers in Manhattan recently (Chicago also has a deeper bedrock). Preventative thermal upgrades must be enacted, and mitigating the effort will also require the use of heat recovery technologies, according to the study.

Planting trees could lead to fewer heat-related deaths in urban areas, according to a new study

2023-02-03T17:32:00-05:00

A new scientific study has shown the positive correlations between public health and tree planting in urban areas.

In a report published recently by The Lancet medical science journal, a team of European researchers shared data on mortality rates in 93 cities in the summer of 2015 that showed how premature deaths caused by urban heat islands can be mitigated through increased greening strategies.

The study found 6,700 premature deaths in that period related to the phenomenon. One-third of those deaths, according to the authors, could have been prevented by adding 30% more trees in the urban environments of each city. The data supports established notions that particularly low-income communities can benefit from resiliency measures, adding to a growing chorus of scholarship at a time when climate change is becoming a moribund issue for cities worldwide at an accelerated pace.

Ci...

The ASLA calls on members to support new congressional funding for heat mitigation effort nationwide

2022-10-24T16:06:00-04:00

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is now soliciting support for a new congressional effort aimed at bolstering heat mitigation strategies in vulnerable communities across the country.

The bill, formally titled H.R. 7534, was introduced by Democratic Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego and would enhance the ability of landscape professionals to design solutions that will mitigate the effects of heat on urban areas across through the establishment of a new grant program to be administered by HUD and the EPA.

Project types that will be eligible for funding after the establishment of the new act include pavement cooling, shade structures, cooling centers, green roofs, drought-tolerant vegetation planting, and other techniques.

Earlier on Archinect: Op-Ed: A Unique Moment for Landscape Architects

Further technical assistance will be provided to communities that meet the criteria outlined in the bill’s Environmental Justice rider, with each applicant required to produce doc...

Chief Heat Officer Eugenia Kargbo discusses extreme heat mitigation in Freetown, Sierra Leone

2022-08-09T14:30:00-04:00

Kargbo grew up to become a banker, but she has spent the last several years working in the administration of Freetown mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, a noted climate activist. Before becoming the city’s chief heat officer, she headed up the city’s sanitation department [...] Kargbo says her work is to keep climate change on the agenda, however many other things are tugging the world’s attention away.

A former aide to the noted climate activist Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Eugenia Kargbo is one of five official Chief Heat Officers (CHOs) in the world. After being appointed in 2021, she joins fellow CHOs from Athens, Miami, Santiago, Chile, and Monterrey, Mexico in a program sponsored by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock).

Arsht-Rock, along with the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance (EHRA), developed and piloted the role of CHOs to have officials "charged with unifying the response to the challenge of heat to reduce risks and impacts of extreme heat for their residents and constituents."

For these officers appointed by local officials in their cities, much of the work entails attempting to consolidate their communities' disparate (and sometimes madcap) efforts to address climate issues that are too often spread between conflicting bureaucratic hierarchies.

Meet the current Chief Heat Officers. Image courtesy of Adr...

The UK's new Part O regulations are being implemented at the right time

2022-07-25T09:00:00-04:00

New regulations, called Part O, took effect in England in June, requiring that new homes are built with some measures to combat overheating. The regulations aim to reduce solar gain — the increase in room temperature caused by sunlight — ensuring the safety of occupants, even if it may remain uncomfortable.

Hundreds of UK residents died in this week’s “heat apocalypse” that posed particular challenges to those living in the country’s many recently-converted office buildings and council housing. Brick masonry remains the predominant residential construction material, though Low Energy Architectural Practice Principal Mark Siddall says the regulations will “help designers, architects and engineers make more informed decisions so that the risk of overheating can be reduced in new properties.”

Extreme summer temperatures seen this week are expected to occur more regularly by century's end. At the other end of the spectrum, certain antiquated home designs can’t be kept warm enough in winter, prompting RIBA to call for an expansive £38 billion ($51.5 billion) upgrade plan.

Record high temperatures are making European cities look elsewhere for future heat mitigation plans

2022-07-20T15:16:00-04:00

Cities across Europe are scrambling to implement public infrastructure upgrades to combat rising temperatures. As a result, many areas are "melting" under the strain of heatwaves that have already claimed more than 1,900 lives in Spain and Portugal alone. Not to mention the record high temperatures in England this week, where the area reached 40°C (104 F) for the first time.

According to new projections from the United Nations, the effects of heatwaves are expected to continue in frequency until at least the 2060s. As a result, nascent Heat Actions Plans in cities like Paris (where only 35% of Metro cars have air-conditioning) are planning for tests that will likely be further exacerbated by an expected influx of climate refugees from some of the most-affected regions during that same timeframe. As news continues to break, architects and urban designers try to face the worsening impacts of climate change's increasingly moribund demands.

For example, efforts to alleviate the heat is...

Monterrey, Mexico is the latest city to employ a full-time Chief Heat Officer

2022-06-17T14:45:00-04:00

In time for the start of summer, the global fraternity of Chief Heat Officers has grown as cities decide to commit themselves to full-time professionals from the subfield of public design in the face of mounting challenges caused by climate change.

The city of Monterrey, in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, recently announced architect and urban planner Surella Segú as the first-ever head of its new civic office, which is being funded through a partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock).

Surella Segú. Image courtesy Harvard University.

The 2018 Harvard Loeb Fellow is the principal and co-founder of EL CIELO, an 18-year-old practice with a focus on housing and urban renewal, and the former head of the Urban Development at the country’s Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers.

A graduate of the Columbia University GSAPP and the ITESM, she now holds the fifth official CHO title under the Council's new City Cha...

This recently sold home in Arizona beats the desert heat by being entirely underground

2022-03-28T18:31:00-04:00

This house on the real estate market in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $2.1 million is throwing some serious shade — in the coolest way possible. How? The “one-of-a-kind” property is basically all underground, but not in “bunker” fashion.

The 3,300-square-foot, five-bedroom, four-bathroom home is described as an “earth-sheltered subterranean home” designed “to create highly efficient living.” According to its listing on real-estate marketplace Zillow, the residence was built in the 1970s, designed in response to high costs and the energy crises at the time.

The home's interior courtyard. Image: Zillow

It features a central courtyard that provides natural light and air to almost every room, a four-foot corridor along its perimeter that creates storage space, 10-foot ceilings, and solar panels. (The home is also fitted with HVAC.)

Image: Zillow

According to its listing, the property sold earlier this month, closing at a little over $2.3 million. More images of this unique underground dwelling can be seen on Zillow, here.

Athens has hired a new 'Chief Heat Officer' to help the city combat climate change

2021-08-26T16:45:00-04:00

Europe’s summer of natural disasters has included increasingly frequent extreme weather events [...] Ms. Myrivili’s appointment is a recognition of that new reality. But it is also a foreboding sign that having someone to grapple with suffocating temperatures may be a mainstay of the municipal cityscape, as necessary and unremarkable as a transportation, sanitation or police commissioner.

Other cities like Miami have retained administrators with similar titles. Athens is leading the way in terms of a loss of residents who are in large part moving to escape the heat. The country itself is expected to lose 8 million people in the next four years. Myrivili earned a PhD from Columbia University in 2004 and served as Athens' Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature, Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation from 2017 to 2019.

A scorching mid-summer heatwave combined with wildfires has forced the closure of several important cultural sites around the city.

The New York Times has a profile of Athens' newest city administrator here.

The Acropolis is closing amidst wildfire concerns

2021-08-05T17:32:00-04:00

Across southern Europe, large wildfires have so far killed eight people and caused mass evacuations while also threatening to damage ancient cultural sites. In Greece, authorities have partially closed the Acropolis and other major archaeological sites while battling with dozens of conflagrations around Athens.

Greece is currently in the midst of its worst heatwave in over thirty years, and the capital region has been squarely in the crosshairs as the heat has combined with encroaching wildfires to create an emergency situation in Athens. The UNESCO World Heritage Site has recently been the center of public debate as planned renovations have prompted a debate of the Acropolis' "correct appearance."

NBA champion Giannis Antetokounmpo may have been one of the last visitors before its closure. The Observer has more on the threats to archaeological sites around the city here.

Construction workers are battling the heat in unexpected regions

2021-07-24T09:00:00-04:00

Late last month, however, the Pacific Northwest saw the temperature skyrocket and break multiple records. The thermometer soared to 115 in Portland and 108 in Seattle. The heatwave caused up to 100 deaths in Oregon [...]. The usual regional temperature in June is in the high 80s. For outdoor construction work, the heat posed an unusual challenge in the region.

The potential for disruptions due to extreme weather comes as the industry was beginning to pull away from materials shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Oregon has joined several other states in adopting protective labor laws. An updated OSHA protection rule is expected soon.

Construction Drive has more on the industry's response attempts to beat the heat here.

UAE is making artificial rainstorms to mitigate intense heat

2021-07-23T17:55:00-04:00

With temperatures in Dubai regularly surpassing 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the government has decided to take control of the scorching weather. Scientists in the United Arab Emirates are making it rain — artificially — using electrical charges from drones to manipulate the weather and force rainfall across the desert nation. Meteorological officials released video footage this week showing a downpour over Ras al Khaimah, as well as several other regions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by المركز الوطني للأرصاد (@officialuaeweather)

Called cloud seeding, this is a weather-modification technique that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds by artificially adding substances, called condensation nuclei, to the atmosphere. Given dwindling water sources, increasing temperatures, and a rising population, the United Arab Emirates hopes to regularly use this method to increase rainfall.

Based on research at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, scientists created the storms using drones, which jolted clouds with electricity, causing droplets in the clouds to clump together. The larger raindrops are then able to fall to the ground, instead of evaporating midair, which is what occurs to smaller droplets in such a hot climate.

In 2017, the researchers at the university received $1.5 million for use over three years from the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Scien...

Workplace protections falter as climate change makes outdoor work more hazardous

2020-01-23T12:30:00-05:00

In 2018, 60 workers died due to temperature extremes, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data on workplace fatalities. Though the climate crisis is creating conditions where workers are facing hotter temperatures on a more frequent basis, there are no federal safety protections for workers in extreme temperatures, and only three states, California, Washington and Minnesota, have heat stress workplace protection standards.

The Guardian's Michael Sainato takes a look at the increasingly dangerous nature of outdoor work as climate change makes extreme heat a greater danger for people who labor outside.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 783 workers in the United States died and more than 69,000 workers were injured due to heat exposure while on the job between 1992 and 2016, though the actual figures are likely higher due under-reporting.

According to Sainato's report, federal oversight over workplace safety, especially for outdoor workers, has decreased sharply under the administration of President Donald Trump despite the fact that global temperatures are going up and the number of "dangerous heat days" is expected to double over the next 30 years.

A fine-grained look at America's urban "heatscapes"

2019-08-13T18:37:00-04:00

As the United States suffers through a summer of record-breaking heat, new research shows that temperatures on a scorching summer day can vary as much as 20 degrees across different parts of the same city, with poor or minority neighborhoods often bearing the brunt of that heat.

Using a series of dramatic, color-coded maps, The New York Times highlights the growing disparity between exactly which neighborhoods in America feel the ever-increasing urban heat island effect. The report details stark temperature differences between the neighborhoods of several major cities, where temperatures can vary by as much as 20-degrees, depending on layout, urban design, and topography.

In Baltimore, for example, temperatures can range from 87-degrees in the city's wealthy suburban districts, where tree-lined streets and yards help to mitigate the heat island effect, to upwards of 101-degrees in the city's working class inner core neighborhoods, where tightly-clustered row houses and surface parking lots amplify the sun's power.

In Portland, Oregon, the temperature discrepancy between the city's leafy, park-adjacent westside and the industrial areas surrounding the airport in the northeast follows a similar trajectory. The city's massive Forest Park produces, according ...

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...

How cool can paint really be? UNStudio collaborates with Monopol Colors to develop a paint that helps buildings fight solar radiation and elemental weathering

2019-02-27T20:16:00-05:00

UNStudio is known for their groundbreaking work in solution driven designs relating to the ever-changing urban environment. Climate is changing, which leaves architects and designers taking steps towards designing buildings and structures that can accommodate to the overheated urban environment. Intense heating and other weather conditions like rain and dust generate a lot of stress and strain on the exteriors of many buildings. Thirty to forty years ago, these types of conditions were not necessarily a priority. However, with the environmental conditions of today firms like UNStudio are taking a different approach to future building design. According to the studio's principal and founder Ben van Berkel, "designing with the future in mind also means buildings last longer in the face of environmental change. That they are more resilient to change and they endure environmental strain."

Theatre de Stoep in Spijkenisse, Image courtesy of UNStudio

Beyond the design process, materials play...

France is cooling their streets with pavers made with shellfish waste

2018-12-05T17:27:00-05:00

In the main axis of the new multimodal hub in the French city of Nice, for the first time in Europe, a large expanse of urban cooling paving is being installed.

It corresponds to the areas of most intense pedestrian presence (bus stops, pavements, etc.) and represents an attempt to improve the thermal conditions of the urban space in a hot climate such as that of Nice.

It consists of an underground irrigation system controlled by exterior sensors that cool special breathable pavers, manufactured experimentally using mollusc shells.

Via

Record heatwave is revealing hidden historic sites across Britain

2018-07-30T15:15:00-04:00

Southern England has been particularly parched, enjoying the driest June on record, but the hot weather has lead to an array of unlikely discoveries across the British Isles. Outlines of ancient and historic sites are being revealed – some of which haven’t been seen in living memory.

"As the grass and crops dry out in the fields, the remains of wood and stone features are being spotted. The effect is caused by soil building up above the foreign material left in the ground over centuries in a way that makes the live material react to the conditions at a different rate to that found within regular soil," The Telegraph explains the phenomenon of 'ghost gardens' which have been appearing across Britain during the country's most extreme heatwave in decades.

The increased prevalence of drone and aerial photography has made it much easier to spot them than during previous heatwaves.

Fighting urban heat with cool pavement in Los Angeles

2017-08-21T13:33:00-04:00

It’s known as the “urban heat island effect,” and it refers to the pockets of intense heat captured by the concrete, asphalt, dark roofs and the dearth of foliage that define many American cityscapes. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wants to reduce the city’s average temperature by 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 20 years.

Los Angeles is the first U.S. city to test cool pavement to fight urban heat, coating streets in a special gray paint known as CoolSeal, that can lower the temperature as much as 10 degrees. The officials say that the hope is that cooler streets will lead to cooler neighborhoods, less air conditioning use and fewer heat-related deaths.

Los Angeles is one of the only cities in the nation that experiences heat-related deaths in the winter, a phenomenon expected to worsen alongside temperatures. “Not everyone has the resources to use air conditioning, so there’s concern that some low-income families will suffer,” says Alan Barreca, an environmental science professor at the UCLA. “That bothers me on a moral dimension. The pavement would provide benefits to everyone. “It can protect people who have to be outdoors,” he added.

The coating costs about $40,000 per mile and lasts seven years, officials said. To determine whether CoolSeal is cost-effective and how it influences drivers, Spot...

Want to live in Thom Mayne's iconic Sixth Street House?

2017-05-10T19:38:00-04:00

Then we have good news for you, that is, if you have $7,600 a month to spare on rent. The LA-based architect's Santa Monica home has been put up for lease following his recent re-location to Cheviot Hills. Two years ago, Thom Mayne and his wife, Blythe Mayne, bought beloved science-fiction author Ray Brabury's old home and have since, spent the past two years rebuilding on the site. Now that they have made the move, their old residence is up for grabs.

Some might recognize the home from its prominent role in Michael Mann's 1995 crime movie, Heat, in which Al Pacino famously rants about the "dead-tech post-modernistic bullshit house." Quick aside: the restaurant Kate Mantilini, also designed by his firm Morphosis, makes an appearance in the film as well.

Beyond its legacy in Hollywood, the home has received plenty of acclaim in the world of architecture. It was the recipient of the 1987 AIA Los Angeles Honor Award and the architectural drawings of the home have been displayed at MOMA.

Y...

To pour concrete in mid-summer Phoenix, wait until the moon comes out

2016-06-29T12:59:00-04:00

A team of construction workers is pouring concrete onto the frame of a structure that will eventually become a wastewater treatment plant. It's 1 a.m. on a clear night in the suburbs of Phoenix. The temperature is still in the high 80s. But that's way down from the area's recent record high temperatures, up to 118 degrees. [...] "We try to pour and place and finish concrete when it's below 90 degrees," says Daniel Ward, the construction company's project director.

MIT researchers have created a new material that stores and releases solar energy

2016-01-11T13:53:00-05:00

According to a team of researchers at MIT, both scenarios may be possible before long, thanks to a new material that can store solar energy during the day and release it later as heat, whenever it’s needed. This transparent polymer film could be applied to many different surfaces, such as window glass or clothing. [...] the new finding could provide a highly efficient method for storing the sun’s energy through a chemical reaction and releasing it later as heat.