Eighty-two buildings have failed a new fire safety test set up in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, ministers say.
The test examines the safety of building cladding and insulation in combination.
It comes as an independent review of building regulations and fire safety has also been announced by the government.
It will look at current building regulations and fire safety, focusing on high-rise residential buildings.
— BBC
"The new fire safety test is the first of a wave of more comprehensive assessments, which come after previous tests were carried out on hundreds of cladding samples in recent months - many of these failed standards for flammability," the BBC reports and outlines key examination goals of the... View full entry
This week is full of things to do entertain the next generation, including workshops and summer schools to keep them occupied during the day. If you are of drinking age, make sure not to miss a rare Tate Britain late on Friday, which looks at the history of fashion and self-expression through... View full entry
With focus on works of the twentieth century, the Getty Foundation's Keeping it Modern program awards buildings of architectural and cultural significance funding for conservation and preservation. Grants focus on the creation of conservation management plans that guide long-term maintenance and... View full entry
For the 6th consecutive year in a row, Gensler has topped Architectural Record's list of Top 300 firms. Companies are ranked by the total revenue for architectural services performed in 2016—for companies that offer other services as well, such as planning or engineering, earnings acquired... View full entry
Housing scarcity is nothing new, and the dire issue persists today in cities around the world. How have architects and inhabitants addressed these issues in the past and today? Currently at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, “Together! The New Architecture of the... View full entry
Architecture grad students Luis Alvarez, Wai Kan Chan, and Di Wang from McGill University had the winning proposal for the “Growing our Community” student design competition, which is part of Canada's 150th anniversary celebration. The Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC)... View full entry
As City—Michael Heizer’s vast Land Art installation in the Nevada desert—nears completion, the fate of the federally protected land surrounding it could soon be decided. Ryan Zinke, the US Interior Secretary, visited the state on Sunday, 30 July, as part of a review of 27 national monuments ordered by President Donald Trump, which could result in some of these lands being reopened to development. — theartnewspaper.com
"A number of museums banded together to call for the site’s preservation," The Art Newspaper explains the background of City's current surroundings (previously also on Archinect), "and in 2015, Obama created the Basin and Range National Monument, which covers 704,000 acres in southern Nevada’s... View full entry
After three years of planning and design, the College of Arts and Architecture has launched a public, searchable photo archive of images from within the college. The online photo archive, Arts and Architecture Resource Collaborative (AARC), is the product of a partnership among the College of Arts and Architecture Alumni and Communications Office, the Visual Resources Centre (VRC), and Arts and Architecture Information Technology (AAIT). — Penn State News
"AARC features images provided by multiple photographers with search criteria customized for the college, including department names, keywords, proper names and dates. Through a series of focus groups with key users and uploaders, the AARC team built a robust metadata structure, providing easy... View full entry
The manufacturing site of the first London bus in E17 has been converted to celebrate London’s maker culture in SIDESHOW, an installation with interactive, family friendly elements opening mid-August. The project was undertaken by U+I and Blackhorse Workshop, the latter a ‘pioneer in the... View full entry
For architects, complying with building codes means navigating labyrinthine layers of regulations that vary between municipalities. Sorting through different codes and keeping track of updates is a daunting task and, in a worst-case scenario, a mistake can cost thousands or even millions of dollars to tear out and fix. Firms that can afford it hire building code consultants, but a startup called UpCodes wants to make code compliance easier for all builders. — Tech Crunch
Started by two brothers—one, an architect and the other, a software engineer—UpCodes provides an accessible platform for construction codes and works to consolidate building regulations into a single searchable database. Beyond making codes and regulations easier to navigate, the... View full entry
What had the land done to deserve being fissured? Local residents protested that they were traumatized enough by the killer’s passage among them not to suffer a daily reminder of it, thronged by tourists. Some families of victims refused the use of their loved ones’ names, which are already enshrined on a modest monument—a suspended silver ring, in the woods—on Utøya. Last month, Norway officially canceled the project. — The New Yorker
Memory Wound, a bold proposal by the Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg, won a government competition for a memorial dedicated to the seventy-seven victims of a massacre committed by Andres Breivik on July 22, 2011. The artist's design called for cutting a channel across the... View full entry
With the advent of GPS, and sonar and automatic navigation, lighthouses have foregone their once-crucial role in shipping and security. Having lost their original significance, many of these towers have been abandoned and left for ruin. To this end, a number of projects, both... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
Global practice 10 DESIGN had the winning scheme for the Jinwan Aviation City Research and Development Center in Zhuhai, China. Located on a prominent, waterfront site in the Jinwan Aviation District, the 55,000m2 campus will serve as an incubation platform for start-up... View full entry
Today in Washington D.C. the AIA strongly voiced its support of bipartisan legislation that makes permanent a key energy efficiency tax incentive for owners and designers of energy efficient buildings and that expands its benefits to designers of hospitals, schools, tribal community facilities and... View full entry
