Toronto builders have a challenging task ahead of them, and with a rapidly approaching deadline: constructing all new buildings with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. — Storeys
This goal falls under Toronto’s TransformTO Net Zero Strategy initiative, which aims to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions in the city to net zero by 2040. The building mandate targets the sizable portion of carbon emissions that buildings account for. As reported by Storeys, data... View full entry
A team from Princeton University and the IE School of Architecture and Design are constructing a vaulted pavilion with the aid of artificial intelligence, holograms, and augmented reality at IE University’s campus in Segovia, Spain. The team, comprised of architects, engineers, craftspeople, and... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects' 2030 commitment program aims to transform building design to address climate change by setting standards and goals. AIA Honolulu member firms AEPAC, AHL, Ferraro Choi, KYA Design Group, MASON and WRNS Studio signed onto the commitment in honor of Earth Day. — Hawai’i Public Radio
The AIA 2030 Commitment program requires participating firms to report the predicted energy performance of all projects in their portfolios each year. Energy by fuel source, renewable energy, post-occupancy energy use, and embodied carbon are also tracked. The program has mapped out energy... View full entry
A new 400,000-square-foot climate campus scheme for New York City’s Governors Island has been unveiled by SOM and Mayor Eric Adams at the close of a two-year competitive bids process for a project that is expected to support cutting-edge environmental research while creating green jobs and... View full entry
For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world’s first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues — all men — at MIT. — PBS
The Hungarian-born scientist developed more than 20 patents in her lifetime and aided Eleanor Raymond on the development of the Dover Sun House in 1948. View this post on Instagram A post shared by American Experience (@americanexperiencepbs) "[She] knew you can’t just wait for society to be... View full entry
A team of students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) has built a near-zero embodied carbon building on campus using hempcrete, wood, and steel as primary materials. — Construction Canada
Called the Third Space Commons, the project was led by Third Quadrant Design, UBC’s first green building design team. The group is comprised of 60 students from the Faculty of Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business. The building is a wooden structure spanning 2,400 square feet, made... View full entry
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced its selection of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) for a new sustainable air-traffic control tower prototype that will initially deliver 31 highly-adaptable facilities at small regional and municipal airports throughout the United... View full entry
Chipotle Mexican Grill has unveiled a new fully electric restaurant design that aims to utilize 100% renewable energy and maximize energy efficiency in its equipment and systems. The chain has recently opened restaurants with these new features in Gloucester, Virginia and Jacksonville... View full entry
MVRDV has designed what the firm describes as a “pointillist” master plan for a health and technology campus in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. The project aims to reimagine the Noviotech Campus by unifying the currently disjointed campus buildings and adding new buildings in the empty spaces... View full entry
MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas has been selected as curator for the Van Gogh Homeland Biennale. Set to launch in 2025, the event will draw attention to the Brabant landscapes in the Netherlands which featured in many Vincent Van Gogh paintings more than a hundred years ago and are now under... View full entry
New York City has pledged to reach 1,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2030 — enough energy to power 250,000 homes, according to the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Justice. But state data shows that its current pace of installation will land short of that goal, leaving officials and advocates looking for ways to break down barriers to installation. — Gothamist
As Gothamist reported, 90% of the city’s energy grid is derived from fossil fuels. The effort to counteract this with rooftop photovoltaics is being stymied by the building codes and cost of installation, despite remarkable gains in solar capacity overall. A proposed new program called... View full entry
Nearly one year after breaking ground in Pasadena, construction is in full swing for the Resnick Sustainability Center on the Caltech campus. [...]
When completed, the new complex will serve as the physical hub of the Resnick Sustainability Institute, which has existing at Caltech since 2009.
— Urbanize Los Angeles
Following a $750 million donation from The Wonderful Company owners Lynda and Stewart Resnick in 2019 to Caltech, plans to construct a new 80,000-square-foot research facility were put in motion. Designed by Yazdani Studio, the Resnick Sustainability Resource Center broke ground in May 2022 and is... View full entry
New research from MIT has found that adding sodium bicarbonate, otherwise known as baking soda, to concrete mixtures may make a significant dent in the material’s carbon footprint. The findings, published recently in the journal PNAS Nexus, also suggest that the addition of sodium bicarbonate... View full entry
Portland/Los Angeles-based LEVER Architecture has published a new report in collaboration with engineering firm Atelier Ten addressing what the authors call “common myths about mass timber construction.” The report, in which the firms describe and debunk four myths related to mass timber... View full entry
A new startup born out of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning has developed a green roof concept aimed at improving the quality of life of Parisians while addressing a host of environmental and urban health concerns for the ancient city of 2.1 million. Roofscapes is the brainchild of... View full entry
