Archinect - News

AIA calls for donations in wake of Hawaiian wildfires

2023-08-16T11:51:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is soliciting a call for donations in response to the devastating wildfires that have claimed more than 100 lives and damaged countless structures in Maui.

The AIA shares: "The AIA family is deeply saddened by these recent wildfires and is working in close coordination with AIA Hawaii as recovery efforts get underway. Our 97,000 members and extensive resources are being activated to support Hawaii’s health, safety, and welfare in the weeks, months, and years ahead. AIA’s past experience with disasters of this magnitude tells us that the recovery process is a long, arduous road that architects can, and must help navigate, to make communities whole once again. We cannot bring back what has been lost, but together we can help find a new way forward."

This summer has seen a spate of natural disasters across the West, including the record heatwaves in Arizona and other wildfires in Colorado and the Mojave Desert. The concerted effort of archite...

Devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria

2023-02-06T18:25:00-05:00

Reactions are pouring in following the devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria early Monday morning.

There are no estimates available yet as to the number of structures either collapsed or damaged across the region, but a minimum of 3,400 lives have been lost as a result of the quake and a wave of very powerful aftershocks as concerns grow about both governments' ability to organize civil response efforts in the most impacted regions.

Building collapses have been reported in almost every community near the epicenter. Infrastructure damage appears to be significant as well.

Seismologists say the tremors that rocked Turkey and Syria are likely to be some of the deadliest this decade. Here is what scientists say happened beneath the earth's surface and what to expect in the aftermath https://t.co/vf37HkXHxQ pic.twitter.com/Tu3Kl76wxG
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 6, 2023

Turkey’s largest professional organization for architects and engineers, Türk Mü...

Tsunami Towers are about to spring up along the Pacific Northwest shorelines

2022-02-08T12:37:00-05:00

“The fact of the matter is that if a tsunami occurs tomorrow, we are going to lose all of our children,” said Andrew Kelly, the superintendent of the North Beach School District, which includes Ocean Shores. Mr. Kelly is one of a growing number of local officials who are calling for a network of elevated buildings and platforms along the Northwest coast that could provide an escape for thousands of people who might otherwise be doomed in the event of a tsunami.

Voters in the Washington state community of Ocean Shores will decide today on a measure that would install a pair of tsunami towers that can hold up to 800 people. Residents in the immediate shoreline region would have only ten minutes to escape potentially 100-foot waves propelled by a quake in the shallow offshore Cascadia subduction zone. The state estimates that around 70,000 people would be trapped in low-lying areas that have no bluffs or tall buildings which can be used as an escape.

The elevated steel platforms can be placed on top of parking garages, schools, and other structures to achieve a safe vertical distance from the inundation, although many such buildings in the area are not sufficiently seismic-ready to withstand magnitude 9.0 tremors. Washington has proposed 58 such towers, which cost around $3 million each to construct. To date, only two structures have been completed: one at a facility operated by Oregon State University, and the other, at Ocosta Elementary Sc...

NYC considers converting Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to temporary medical facility

2020-03-21T13:39:00-04:00

[Gov. Andrew Cuomo] has requested four field hospitals of 250 beds each from the federal government, for a total of 1,000 beds. He is looking at Javits for all of those. He's also asked for four Army Corps of Engineers temporary hospitals. For those, he's looking at the Javits Center; SUNY Stony Brook; SUNY Old Westbury; and the Westchester County Center, another events venue.

German military to build 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital in Berlin

2020-03-19T15:38:00-04:00

The Berlin government said on Tuesday it would create a new hospital to cope with a likely huge increase in coronavirus cases. The facility, which will house up to 1,000 patients, will be set up in the Berlin Messe trade fair exhibition grounds in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of the German capital. The hospital will be built with the help of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr.

As the coronavirus outbreak rapidly expands also in Germany, officials in Berlin hope to prevent potential bottlenecks in the capital's hospital system with a new medical facility specifically for COVID-19 patients. The country now has more than 10,000 confirmed cases — the third highest in Europe after Italy and Spain.

Earlier this year, the impromptu construction efforts in Wuhan, China made headlines when two emergency specialty field hospitals with a combined capacity of 2,300 beds were erected in a matter of only days. The round-the-clock endeavor was streamed live by Chinese state media and attracted a huge audience of citizens that had been ordered not to go outside for several weeks.

Gov. Newsom releases executive order that allows California to commandeer hotels and medical facilities

2020-03-12T18:02:00-04:00

California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a sweeping executive order on Thursday that allows the state to commandeer hotels and medical facilities to treat coronavirus patients and permits government officials to hold teleconferences in private without violating open meeting laws. Newsom issued the order hours after he called for the cancellation of gatherings of 250 or more people, marking the first time he has applied so-called social distancing practices to the entire state of California.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the governor said 198 people tested positive for COVID-19 in California and that the executive order will enhance the state's ability to fight the pandemic going forward. Additionally, the order also granted a 60-day extension for people or businesses to file state taxes if they are unable to do so due to the outbreak, the Los Angeles Times reports.

While Wuhan is racing to build two new coronavirus hospitals within days, millions watch the construction streamed live

2020-01-29T15:27:00-05:00

Medics in Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the virus originated, have described overcrowded hospitals and a shortage of test kits, protective gear, and other medical equipment. To alleviate this pressure, city authorities last Friday announced plans to build a new hospital from scratch in just six days, to be used beginning February 3.

Chinese officials are under increasing pressure to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus which has already claimed the lives of at least 130 people and is quickly spreading around the world.

The epidemic originated in Wuhan, the most populous city in Central China and home to more than 11 million, where authorities have begun erecting two large emergency hospitals that are set to be commissioned on February 3 (Huoshenshan Hospital with a 1,000-bed capacity) and February 5 (Leishenshan Hospital, 1,300 beds), respectively.

Live stream, click the play button to view. Via CCTV

Chinese state media has been live-streaming the round-the-clock construction efforts, and huge audiences have been closely following — a mild boredom relief for millions of people that have been advised not to go outside to limit the chances of contagion.

Still from the construction live-stream on January 30 (local time). Source: CCTV

Shanghai Daily reports that "netizens have been carefully scrut...

Elevator plunges 85 stories in former John Hancock Center after cable breaks

2018-11-20T13:15:00-05:00

Six people, including a pregnant woman, have plummeted 84 floors in an elevator inside one of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers, only learning afterwards how far they had fallen. [...] One of several cables holding the elevator broke and the car fell rapidly, landing somewhere near the 11th floor.

Everyone's worst nightmare became a near fatal reality for six people trapped inside an elevator after falling 85 stories inside Chicago's iconic 875 North Michigan Avenue tower, formerly known as the John Hancock Center.

According to the Chicago Fire Department, the rescue operation inside the nearly 50-year-old skyscraper was unusually difficult: "It was a pretty precarious situation where the cables that broke were on top of the elevator. We couldn’t do an elevator-to-elevator rescue. We had to breach a wall on the 11th floor of the parking garage in order to open up the elevator doors."

Thankfully no serious injuries were reported.

Prepare your emergency survival kit with inspiration from some of the Dry Futures competition prize packages

2015-08-27T16:40:00-04:00

Whether you're venturing out into nature doing long-term research for a project or you're preparing for the next natural disaster that may strike your city, it's always a good idea to have a survival kit ready if things go awry and an emergency arises. If you haven't prepared a kit and need some starter suggestions on what to pack, Archinect hand-picked a selection of survival products that were kindly provided by a group of reputable brands for our Dry Futures design competition. The top three prizes in each category will include these custom survival kits.

Naturally, staying as healthy as possible is crucial in any survival situation. Devoted to creating durable everyday products equipped with life-saving capabilities, Life Gear's "Wings of Life" and "Grab and Go" Survival Packs include lightweight water-resistant backpacks to carry their accompanying essentials, including: 3-day supply of food and water for one person, poncho/thermal blanket, tarp, personal hygiene and first-aid...

In case of fire, use elevators

2015-03-20T13:12:00-04:00

The Fire, Buildings and City Planning Departments are writing rules to govern what are called occupant-evacuation elevators — cars that can, in special circumstances, be used to move people down in an emergency. [...] Experts who have spent years studying building evacuations believe that approach has become outmoded and is in itself potentially dangerous as extremely tall skyscrapers increasingly pierce the New York skyline.

The troubles of evacuating one of the world's tallest residential buildings during a fire

2015-02-24T13:49:00-05:00

Residents affected by the fire that broke out in The Torch tower in Dubai Marina at the weekend have been moved to a nearby hotel while the extent of the damage is assessed. [...] More than 1,000 people fled after a fire broke out at around 2am on Saturday in one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. [...] The exact cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

The Anatomy of Emergency

2014-12-10T14:33:00-05:00

Of all the roles of government, emergency response may be the least controversial. When disaster hits, we expect our fire, police, and other public services to provide immediate relief. But as James McConnell, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Data at the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM), reminds us, tactical effectiveness in a crisis requires more than boots on the ground, ready at a moment’s notice.

Two window washers trapped on scaffolding at 1 WTC

2014-11-12T14:06:00-05:00

Two window washers' lives are literally hanging in the balance - they're stuck on scaffolding at 1 World Trade Center, officials said Wednesday afternoon. The shaky scaffolding, which is suspended around the 69th floor, was seen dangling at an unstable angle, according to images that surfaced of the scene. The workers are dangling at a 65-degree angle, according to NYPD counterterrorism czar John Miller.

An App to Crowd-Source Urban Disruptions

2014-06-11T17:06:00-04:00

Maa2too3a, or ‘Happin’ in English, is a free app that uses news and crowd-sourced information to geo-tag disruptive events in the city as they occur, allowing users to mitigate risks or simply save time by avoiding them. Launched in May 2013, the app now has over 100,000 users, according to the developer, Mohammed Taha. “It’s a tool to keep people safe,” he says. And on calmer days, it can be used to simply avoid traffic jams or other routine problems.

Our hearts are with the families at Sandy Hook Elementary School

2012-12-14T15:25:00-05:00

I'm sorry for using this platform for a personal, off-topic, message. It's been a while since I have. But, today's tragedy in Connecticut is about as sad as it gets. This isn't an issue of politics or civil rights. This is an issue about humanity, and good vs. evil. I hope that if anything positive comes out of today's event, it's that the gun control debate will end in this country.

coded buildings

2012-11-08T11:33:00-05:00

The X-code is a marking left by the Urban Search and Rescue teams, coordinated by FEMA. It was first developed after the 1985 Mexico earthquake, when many people died in later building collapses, trying to rescue people who were already trapped. As each building is searched for survivors, it is marked first with a slash, and then when the search is finished, an X. Then, the quadrants of the X are marked with a code to define who made the search, when, and what they might have found.

MTA Video Release: Hurricane Sandy - South Ferry and Whitehall St Station Damage

2012-10-30T20:50:00-04:00

MTA Video Release: Hurricane Sandy - South Ferry and Whitehall St Station Damage.

when i was in the earthquake and radiation

2011-04-13T15:03:52-04:00

at the same time,cecil balmond+roland snooks studio from university of pennsylvania was presenting their agent-based works just down stairs in the big studio.suddently,we ve felt something like earthquake that we thought it should be normal as we are in tokyo,japan.but it didnt soon stopped as usual and was going on shaking,wont stop!!!we started to run asap to 1st ground from 2nd studio in the persistent shakes.there is nothing in my mind at that time but run

Archinect School Blogger, Zhao, shares his first-hand experiences with the Japan quake while in classes at the University of Tokyo

UVA students house Haitians

2011-04-05T18:53:35-04:00

Earlier this year, a UVA architecture program took top prize in an international housing competition sponsored by ARCHIVE (Architecture for Health in Vulnerable Environments).

Contestants developed sustainable and affordable homes that could offer attainable relief to a portion of the estimated 1 million Haitians left homeless after a massive earthquake devastated the region in January 2010. The UVA program, Initiate reCOVER, beat out 146 teams and received a $60,000 budget to construct its “Breathe House” in St. Marc, Haiti.