The Elizabeth line will link London and the South East from Reading to Heathrow with 10 new stations and upgrades to 30 existing stations. Currently Europe's largest infrastructure project the £14.8 billion scheme began in Canary Wharf in 2009 and is now 75% complete. Services will begin in... View full entry
A six-percent upfront investment reduced energy consumption by 19% — and carbon emissions by 34% — in a pair of 100-year-old brick buildings. Add solar panels and those numbers drop to 39% and 65%.These are among the findings of an ongoing experiment conducted by students, faculty and staff... View full entry
That an apple can travel over 11,500 miles from where it was grown (spending over a year in shipment and in toxic, low-oxygen storage to suspend its maturation) is the perfect object lesson of our global agricultural system’s failures. [...]
And with the advent of natural-resource scarcity, flattening yields, loss of biodiversity, changing climates, environmental degradation, and booming urban populations, we’re hurtling toward its natural limit.
— Near Future
"What if we could build a different world? One in which anyone could farm anywhere, not just on land devastated by disaster, but in basements, skyscrapers, and abandoned subway tunnels? Or in classrooms, rooftops, and old factories?"In this article by Caleb Harper, the Director of the Open... View full entry
Gov. Jerry Brown [...] laid out a revised game plan for dealing with California’s persistent drought, making some conservation rules permanent while also moving to give communities more of a say in deciding how much water they must save.
Brown issued an executive order enshrining a conservation ethic in state regulations — banning permanently some wasteful water practices and ordering regulators to develop new water-efficiency standards designed to drive down long-term urban use.
— latimes.com
Previous Archinect stories covering the drought crisis in California and the Southwest U.S.:Have these heavy rains alleviated the California drought?Gov. Brown issues order to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissionsHow is water used in California?"Grassroots Cactivism," 1st place winner in... View full entry
Cancer survivor Lord Norman Foster gave HRH Duchess of Cornwall a tour of his newly completed Maggie's Center in his hometown of Manchester at the cancer facility's official opening April 27th, showing her a design that emphasizes natural light and a connection to nature. This has lead to numerous... View full entry
The UAE is currently in the first stage of a man-made mountain development project as the country mulls different approaches to maximising rainfall.
Experts from the US-based University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are in the “detailed modelling study” phase, as per NCAR scientist and lead researcher Roelof Bruintjes.
— Abu Dhabi 2
For more attempts to geoengineer our way out of eco-trouble, check out some past articles:New satellite images show progress in China's island-building projectScientists Propose Using Lasers to Fight Global WarmingCan cloud-seeding clear Singapore's skies?Could scientists engineer... View full entry
Sea level forecasts by a coalition of scientists show that the Silicon Valley bases for Facebook, Google and Cisco are at risk of being cut off or even flooded, even under optimistic scenarios where rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions avoid the most severe sea level increases.
Without significant adaptation, Facebook’s new campus appears most at risk.
— the Guardian
San Francisco to mandate solar panels for new constructionsWhile the Frank Gehry-designed campus was elevated to prevent flooding, even a 1.6 ft rise – on the low end of predictions – will "inundate" the campus. Google is a little better off but will also be swamped if the Antarctic ice sheet... View full entry
In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and drainage systems.
One of those grants, $48 million for Isle de Jean Charles, is something new: the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the impacts of climate change.
— the New York Times
"The divisions the effort has exposed and the logistical and moral dilemmas it has presented point up in microcosm the massive problems the world could face in the coming decades as it confronts a new category of displaced people who have become known as climate refugees."Precisely determining who... View full entry
Walking up to the Cricket Shelter—a new tent-like structure sitting on a dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard—it might not immediately be obvious that it's full of bugs. But inside pods lining the walls, the prototype is raising 22,000 crickets. Why? To eat, of course. — Fast Company
Terreform ONE has been working on combining food and shelter to solve the United Nations challenge on world hunger. View full entry
When [Lake Suwa] freezes over, daily temperature changes cause the ice to expand and contract, cracking the surface and forcing it upward into a ridge [...] Every year since at least 1443, the priests who live at the shrine on the edge of Lake Suwa have carefully recorded the date the ridge appears.
In 1693, on the other side of the world, a Finnish merchant named Olof Ahlbom started recording the date and time of the spring ice breakup on the Torne River [...]
— National Geographic
"When scientists want to glimpse the climate of the ancient past, they almost always have to use indirect evidence—changes in tree rings, ice-core layers, or pollen deposits. But the ice records from Japan and Finland, which are the longest of their kind, give us a more direct look at the... View full entry
If you want evidence that London’s renters are being taken advantage of, look no further than a new social media campaign. Launched Monday, the #rantyourrent hashtag encourages London’s overcharged and poorly housed tenants to visually detail the bad conditions they’re expected to put up with in return for large sums of monthly rent.
The results, detailed in a new Tumblr called Vent Your Rent, make for sobering viewing.
— citylab.com
More articles on London and the housing crisis here:The root of London's housing crisis lies beyond its bordersLondon's housing crisis is creating a chasm between the rich and poorLondon's Bleak Housing View full entry
Just in time for Earth Day, the AIA and the Committee on the Environment (COTE) revealed a new set of Top Ten Green Projects for 2016. Over the last two decades, the annual awards program is considered to be the profession's most rigorous awards program for sustainable design excellence throughout the U.S.
The jury chose the projects that best convey a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology.
— Bustler
Here's a peek of the winners:Rene Cazenave Apartments; San Francisco by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and Saida + Sullivan Design Partners, Associated ArchitectH-E-B at Mueller; Austin, TX by Lake|Flato Architects, H-E-B Design + Construction, Selser Schaefer ArchitectsThe J. Craig Venter... View full entry
Banfield’s dedication to environmental issues was born by chance in 2000, when she moved with her husband and three children to Clayton...Together with Carlos Varela, her legal-minded neighbor, Banfield created a community association to defend the rainforest. She remained on the front lines for years, sacrificed her architectural career and eventually began public campaigns for a variety of environmental causes. — Ozy
Although the Harvard GSD formed the Office for Urbanization recently to study the effects of sea rise and climate change, Vice Mayor of Panama City Raisa Banfield has taken a more direct approach, physically halting flood-prone projects during construction and connecting with like-minded... View full entry
Residents of just four American metropolitan areas have had regular access to healthy air in recent years. Those four places — Burlington-South Burlington, Vt.; Honolulu; Elmira-Corning, N.Y.; and Salinas, Calif. — had the pleasure of breathing air consistently free of unhealthy ozone, short-term particle and year-round particle pollution from 2012 to 2014,according to a new national air quality report card from the American Lung Association.
The air everywhere else was less consistently clean.
— Washington Post
Actually, air quality has significantly improved in American cities since the passing of the 1970 Clean Air Act and subsequent legislation. This year marked the lowest particle pollution levels in 16 years for all but four of the top 20 most-polluted cities.Still, things remain pretty grim: more... View full entry
The solar power industry is about to get a big boost in San Francisco. On April 19, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to become the first major US metropolitan area requiring that new buildings install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on their roofs.
California already mandates that new buildings with 10 floors or less designate at least 15% of their rooftop area (pdf, p8) as being ready for solar panel installation.
— Quartz
"The city of San Francisco now requires that builders actually install solar panels in these areas (at a minimum) starting in 2017. Larger buildings are exempt for now."Curious about other efforts to make American cities reduce their carbon footprint through harvesting solar energy?... View full entry
