Archinect - News

Autodesk donates $5 million to help fund Howard University's Design and Make lab

2024-06-18T12:58:00-04:00

This month, Autodesk announced a record-setting $5 million donation to the College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA) at Howard University, a gift it says is meant to ensure the school's new state-of-the-art Design and Make lab will be operated with the most cutting-edge software and other technology the industry has to offer.

What is now the largest such gift in the CEA's history precedes the launch of a new lab within the CEA this fall. Howard says the lab is intended to encourage K-12 learners towards careers in the STEM fields and will be augmented with the integration of the hands-on A World in Motion® (AWIM) PreK-12 STEM program sponsored by the SAE Foundation.

“Howard is a leader in graduating Black engineers, and this gift will expand our ability to provide our students with the best and latest resources throughout the course of their education here. This is increasingly important to us as competition for entry-level jobs continues to increase and as the need for tech and...

AIA President Kimberly Dowdell outlines the need for better K-12 outreach to strengthen the architecture profession

2024-05-31T14:43:00-04:00

Reflecting upon her activities during the recently passed Architecture Week in Detroit, AIA President Kimberly Dowdell outlined the need to engage with the key K-12 demographic in order to cultivate and better prepare the next generation of American architects to match the challenges they and the country will face tomorrow.

"If we want to engage the best young talent to help us grow our profession in the future, we must start now. Kindergarten through 12th grade engagement provides a wonderful opportunity to educate and excite students about the amazing field of architecture," Dowdell stated, also relating her experience as a young student in the city public school system.

Outlining her vision for institutional change in a new five-point agenda, Dowdell (also currently a trustee of her alma mater Cornell University) said better youth engagement can be achieved by further connecting the AIA’s K-12 nationwide resources; increasing support for the Architects Foundation’s scholarship pr...

Kéré Architecture breaks ground on new timber childcare center at the Technical University of Munich

2024-04-24T15:45:00-04:00

Kéré Architecture has broken ground on a new all-wood childcare facility at the Technical University Munich (TUM). The design of the Ingeborg Pohl Kinderoase an der TUM is 700 square meters (7,500 square feet) in total and will hold space for 60 children in service to faculty members and their families.

Image copyright Kéré Architecture

The building, made possible through a donation from philanthropist Ingeborg Pohl, is defined by its playful interior, which incorporates a variety of scales and unique circulatory features, such as slides that connect each of its five floors.

Image copyright Kéré Architecture

Administrative suites are placed at the ground level, with three floors dedicated to children and divided by age group. A green roof play area called the Himmelswiese (German for “field of the heavens”) completes the program above. The firm has emphasized its use of timber throughout is meant to “take the sustainability of the building to the extreme.”

Image copyright Kéré Archi...

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...

MVRDV and Van Boven Architecten complete high school alma mater renovation in the Netherlands

2023-09-29T14:56:00-04:00

MVRDV has announced the completion of their Van Boven Architecten co-designed Gymnasium Beekvliet renovation project in the Netherlands.

The alma mater of both Winy Maas and Theobert van Boven was once the nation’s leading catholic seminary and was later used as an internment camp for political prisoners of the occupying Nazi regime during Worl War II before being modernized into a new grammar school in the early 1970s.

“I went to school at Beekvliet myself, as did one of my children, and my wife is also a teacher there. These connections strongly motivate me to design a unique and special building that does justice to the school’s rich history,” van Boven said in a preview last year.

Image: © Daria Scagliola/MVRDV

Located in the village of Sint-Michielsgestel near Eindhoven, the school now features a unifying new auditorium addition at the center of the school that’s meant to improve circulation. An existing classroom building and plaza area were also renovated. Ian Kirkpatrick, a C...

A new Kharkiv School of Architecture student project delivers valuable design solutions for rebuilding schools in Ukraine

2023-09-06T18:43:00-04:00

A new project aimed at improving the educational experience of Ukrainian schoolchildren is helping students at the Kharkiv School of Architecture participate in their country’s concerted response to an infrastructure crisis that began in February 2022 and has seen the destruction of an estimated 331 educational institutions nationwide, thus far.

The "First-Aid Spatial Kit" initiative is being taught as part of the school’s first-year construction practice curriculum and allows students to develop copyable designs for various interventions (furniture, pavilions, play spaces, etc.), which, in turn, can be implemented using readily-available materials by affected school districts looking for “self-help” solutions in rebuilding.

Photo: Zlatoslava Kryshtafovych & Oleksandr Holovashkin, courtesy Kharkiv School of Architecture

Over the course of four weeks, students developed a suite of six solutions that were also marked by a consideration for accessibility and universal design. Each of t...

New York’s School Construction Authority is preparing for a school building boom

2023-08-25T17:41:00-04:00

The body in charge of K-12 planning and construction in New York City was recently profiled by the AIA New York as it prepares for a surge in student enrollment that’s expected over the next decade.

The New York School Construction Authority (or SCA) is a specialty city agency that employs 1,100 people and is tasked with the delivery and maintenance of school buildings in the New York City Public Schools arsenal, a charge which makes it directly responsible for the well-being, safety, and learning environments of more than 1.1 million students.

With a staff that currently includes 170 architects, Stephen Zacks for the AIANY writes the SCA has a unique talent when it comes to the delivery of high-quality structures within challenging construction schedules and have become national examples of the implementation of efficient project management at...

New 'Architecture for kids' podcast shares resources on the best engagement practices for children

2023-08-22T15:20:00-04:00

A new podcast series aimed at enhancing educators’ ability to teach architecture to school children is now available thanks to a collaboration between the UK's Built Environment Trust, Thornton Education Trust, and the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University.

Hosted by Architecture for kids CIC founder Antonio Capelao, the ten-episode series engages with various practitioners, academics, and other experts in design education who are working at the field's leading edges with the long-term goal of encouraging wider participation in the built environment from a young age.

The producers share: "These short and to-the-point podcasts hope to improve the interplay between the fields of the built environment and education as we share knowledge between the practitioner, the creative, and the primary school teacher. Exploring how to prepare children and young people for economic, environmental, and societal challenges, and for their professional lives according to today’s needs an...

Architects and builders detail Europe's first 3D printed school in Lviv, Ukraine

2023-08-07T14:45:00-04:00

The enormous effort of rebuilding civilian infrastructure in war-torn Ukraine has spurred a landmark example of the design and delivery of 3D printed architecture with the completion of Danish 3DCP Group‘s new Lviv School No. 23 project in the country’s internally-deluged western stronghold.

Their humanitarian design for clients Team4UA foundation was completed earlier this spring using a COBOD BOD2 printer and is now the title holder for the world’s largest 3D printed educational structure, simultaneously helping to bolster a key area of need in a community beleaguered by over 16 months of conflict and displacement.

Ukraine as a whole has lost some 277 schools since the latest phase of the Russian military invasion began last February, according to its Ministry of Education and Science. Jean-Christophe Bonis, a French-born entrepreneur who has resided in the country since 2019, took it as his charge to redirect his business activities towards the war effort, leading to the creation...

How schools are adapting their architecture for enhanced student safety amid lack of gun control

2023-03-22T19:57:00-04:00

But now, instead of calling for fortified entrances and security features that can put students on edge, experts are calling for a more holistic approach – where architecture serves as a conduit for both physical security and for supporting students' mental health to prevent violence in the first place.

Responsive elements like magnet-locking classroom doors, “shadow zones”, and even bulletproof storm shelters have been popular design solutions for school districts such as Fruitport, Michigan, which just spent $48 million on a new building based on those and other, less visible concerns.

Architects must consider not only the immediate physical prevention of violence but also the positive impact on the psychological development of pupils their designs can have. This means the K-12 sector may be undergoing its largest change since the 1970s, when the movement towards large classrooms and open spaces engendered many of the challenges safety upgrade projects are tying to mitigate.

Earlier on Archinect: Designing around gun violence

"They have these hallways and lockers, but there's no place to hang out, no place to socialize," architect Rene Berndt, who sits on the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) board of directors, explained to NPR. "And so, we're trying our b...

Henning Larsen's latest K-12 design provides a lesson in bio-based construction

2023-03-08T12:34:00-05:00

Henning Larsen has released details of its newest K-12 project in the Danish village of Rønde.

The project worked to add an ultragreen extension to the village’s existing Feldballe School that offers carbon sequestering while incorporating plans for its future disassembly and reuse as components in other constructions.

Photography by Rasmus Hjortshøj - COAST

Using straw, seagrass, and locally-sourced timber as its base palette of materials, the design will eventually have a carbon output equivalent to -3kg of CO2e per square meter per year following Danish standards.

Photography by Rasmus Hjortshøj - COAST

A passive ventilation system helps to further reduce the consumption of energy on a daily basis. Solar panels have been installed on the timber roof, adding a further capacity for carbon independence. Compressed straw panels contained by wooden cassettes form the exterior of the walls, which are then completed with a clay plaster support coatin...

The NY Times' Michael Kimmelman reviews Adjaye Associates' Bronx 'DREAM'

2023-02-20T12:31:00-05:00

In this case, architecture is the issue and the engine of renewal. With its triple-height library and exalting, barrel-vaulted classrooms with huge punched windows overlooking Manhattan, the redesigned ice plant becomes one of the most spectacular school buildings in the city. [...] the historical arc of 20 Bruckner, as the building is called, is instructive and tells a larger tale about the Bronx, change and renewal.

The NY Times critic gets off the sixth train to explore Adjaye Associates' first American K-12 project in Mott Haven, The Bronx. Kimmelman mentioned his two best-known New York projects – 130 William Street and Sugar Hill Mixed-Use Development – in addition to D.C’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for context and said its well-placed lightwells and other design features place a “premium on architecture [that] makes an obvious statement about the value of Dream’s students.”

He went on to add what seems like a heartfelt note on the tragic deaths of three immigrant construction workers on the site between 2019 and 2021. “I didn’t begin this column with that information because Assemblywoman Septimo is right," he wrote. "Stories about the South Bronx invariably start with trauma, casting the community as victim. For students, the new DREAM school is a place of hope and opportunity — a new chapter and good news for the neighborhood.”

It seems like a critic trying...

AIA President-elect Emily Grandstaff-Rice joins Perkins&Will's staff in Boston

2022-12-05T09:00:00-05:00

Perkins&Will has announced the recent addition of AIA President-elect Emily Grandstaff-Rice to their Boston studio in order to help further its EDI, decarbonization, and research pursuits across the industry.

The organization’s soon-to-be 99th President comes to the position with a breadth of K-12 and higher-education experience around Massachusetts, including recent projects for the UMass Lowell and Boston Children’s Museum.

Grandstaff-Rice pointed to the firm’s “unparalleled” focus on climate action and social equity causes as the principal factors that led her decision, adding: “I envision this next stage of my career as one in which I collaborate with interdisciplinary teams in support of creating safer, healthier, and more responsive architecture.”

“Emily’s experience in the education market will beautifully complement our Boston studio’s K-12 and higher-ed practic...

Underfunded public schools are looking to solar upgrades as a source of much-needed cost savings

2022-09-20T09:00:00-04:00

As solar energy gains traction across the country, one beneficiary have been schools, particularly those in cash-strapped districts contending with dwindling tax bases. The savings in electric bills from schools with solar panels often topped millions in each district, and many have been able to adopt the technology without shouldering any costs up front.

According to White House statistics, energy costs rank second to only teachers' salaries on a list of the largest expenses the approximately 130,000 public schools across the country are faced with annually. Their emissions are equivalent to the CO2 output of about 16 coal-fired power plants, making K-12 solar upgrades one of the more salient provisions included in the recent Federal Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Acts.

Some districts that have already installed solar panels are seeing immediate savings as a result of the rising energy costs related to inflation and the war in Ukraine. At least 30 states have some of the basic framework that allows for the third-party ownership agreements often necessary for their installations to be enacted. Advocates say it isn’t nearly enough, but the 8,400 schools that do have solar installations offer a dramatic tri-fold increase when compared to statistics from 2014.

Free 3D planning tool launched to help schools teach architecture

2021-09-30T16:17:00-04:00

Planner 5D, a digital design tool, has created a free educational version to help schools teach architecture and design. The tool, which allows users to generate 3D home designs, is offering its free educational licenses to “encourage students to foster their creativity in a digital realm while learning design principles.” The tool is available to teachers worldwide, who can download up to 100 free educational licenses for use by students.

The initiative has been launched to facilitate the teaching of STEM subjects to school kids, including focuses on art, architecture, engineering, and interior design. The app is centered on “problem based learning”, which invites students to develop computational skills by studying and solving home design challenges using a library of 6000 objects.

“With this free educational version for schools, we not only provide students across the globe with access to the platform but also help teachers to encourage them to foster their creativity while l...

Leading national architectural organizations collaborate to provide guides to help students and teachers explore careers in architecture

2021-04-16T10:25:00-04:00

Two new resource guides have been made available to help students and educators explore careers in architecture. “Your Guide to a Career in Architecture” is designed for high school students interested in joining the architectural community, while “Your Guide to Helping Students Consider a Career in Architecture” is intended for school counselors and educators to advise students through the process.

The guidelines are the result of a collaboration between the AIA, the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). As well as providing additional information for K-12 students already interested in an architectural career, the reports strive to broaden the base of students who may not have considered a pathway in architecture, but whose imagi...

SOM team reimagines the portable classroom building

2020-09-28T15:53:00-04:00

School/House was designed in response to COVID-19 as schools across the globe are struggling to meet the spatial demands of social distancing. According to the School/House website, SOM's architects and engineers worked closely together to create an alternative to existing modular classrooms on the market that schools will want to keep. The minimalistic characteristics of the modules give them a light and airy feel, much different from their bulky, more heavy counterparts. This, the SOM team believes, contributes to a more desirable and inspirational learning experience.

School/House is rapidly deployable, providing a space with ceilings, ample daylight, views to the outside, enhanced airflow systems, and easily sanitized finishes. One School.House module consists of 7 foldable, flat-packed panels, for quick assembly. And unlike traiditional modular classrooms, School/Houses can be deployed and assembles on roofs and terraces of urban schools.

Each module comes in and 36 feet x 42 f...

New high school incorporates design elements meant to hinder active shooters

2019-08-23T15:30:00-04:00

With school shootings becoming a point of concern for many across the country, K-12 design methodologies are beginning to address the issue as well.

Fruitport High School in Fruitport, Michigan, for example, is undergoing a $48 million renovation project aimed at incorporating some of these design approaches. The new work "will add curved hallways to reduce a gunman’s range, jutting barriers to provide cover and egress, and meticulously spaced classrooms that can lock on demand and hide students in the corner, out of a killer’s sight," reports The Washington Post.

Speaking with The Washington Post, Matt Sagle of TowerPinkster, and an architect on the project, illustrated the project's "shadow zones," designed areas for students to hide in that are obstructed from a shooter's sight lines. TowerPinkster also designs prisons; Regarding the project, The Washington Post writes that Sagle "wanted to strike a balance between security and creating a welcoming presence without the pendulum ...

Alberti Program introduces kids to power, potential of architecture

2016-09-26T18:44:00-04:00

Architecture shapes our environment. But studying architecture shapes how we see, understand and interpret the world. A building, a neighborhood, a city — each is the result of particular priorities, circumstances and choices.

It’s a startling realization, especially for young people, but also inspiring. Our surroundings are not merely the way they are — they are the way that people have made them to be.

Over the last 10 years, Washington University in St. Louis’ Alberti Program has introduced hundreds of kids, ranging from 8 to 15 years old, to the power and potential of architecture and design. Led by students and faculty in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts — with major support from PGAV Destinations — the tuition-free program operates year-round: as a day camp in June and on Saturday afternoons throughout the fall and spring semesters.

“Alberti adopts a way of learning by doing,” said Bruce Lindsey, dean of the Sam Fox School’s College of Architecture and Graduate School o...