A new three-year partnership between the Royal College of Art (RCA), nonprofit Community Jameel, and the London-based former Turner Prize nominees Cooking Sections has been announced by the institution in the hopes of using architecture as a tool to advance our knowledge of agriculture-related... View full entry
Past Aga Khan Award winner and 2021 Soane Medalist Marina Tabassum was recently featured in a short CNN profile of her ongoing Khudi Bari project in the coastal region of her native Bangladesh. The concept, which seeks to deliver mobile two-level residential structures to a largely landless... View full entry
Snøhetta has collaborated with Norwegian manufacturer Asak Miljøstein on the design of an outdoor surface to aid water management. Named Asak Flyt, the permeable concrete paver system consists of three hexagonal interlocking unit types that can be combined to “provide landscape architects with... View full entry
Nexii Building Solutions Inc. has become the first construction manufacturing company in North America to achieve the Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) Gold Certification for Zero Waste for its Squamish Manufacturing Plant in British Columbia, Canada. Administered by Green Business... View full entry
Zurich-based firm Appels Architekten has designed an open, simplistic family home in Bavaria, Germany, composed of wooden cubes. Called “House by the Lake,” the home balances privacy and spaces for gathering. As detailed by the architects, this configuration allows residents to retreat... View full entry
New York City firm Studio Link-Arc has created an installation in Shenzhen formed from 400 hanging mushroom bricks. Titled 'Mushroom Brick Pyramids,' the project was created for the 2022 Shenzhen Biennale, which adopted the theme ‘More than Human Adventure.’ Photo credit: Yu Bai Seeking to... View full entry
Researchers from the University of Michigan’s Taubman College have unveiled details of their latest innovation in 3D printing, which the team claims creates “ultra-lightweight, waste-free concrete.” Led by architect Aghaei Meibodi and researchers Alireza Bayramvand and Yuxin Lin of the... View full entry
A new prototype multilayered fluid window system devised by researchers at the University of Toronto may have the potential to be an effective tool in the push toward greater sustainability in the building industry, according to their research published in the national academy of sciences journal... View full entry
Designer and director Joshua A. Dawson has published his latest short film which strikes a cautionary note on the confluences of climate change, architecture, and capitalism. Titled Spa Sybarite, the three-minute-long film is set in a futuristic wellness spa in which users are offered treatments... View full entry
The Biden Administration announced a plan to help decarbonize the industrial manufacturing sector through a new $6 billion investment it says will eventually help lower emissions while signaling a newfound demand in the “marketplace for clean products.” As part of the government’s... View full entry
Ultimately, removing containers from the circular economy by retrofitting them into usable spaces could put a strain on the industry and result in the need to use more iron ore, causing even more harm to the environment.
Even as the tiny house movement continues to gain popularity and shipping containers are beloved both for their aesthetic appeal and supposed sustainability, it’s worth asking if they’re the right material for this purpose.
— Fast Company
While shipping containers do generally keep project costs down owing to labor hours saved, the fit-out of their interiors can add between $20,000 and $150,000 to each construction. Materials such as spray-on foam insulation used in making a container design habitable are rarely among the... View full entry
Copenhagen-based 3XN has been included in Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2023 list. The 50-company-strong list is described by Fast Company as the “definitive chronicle of the novel ideas transforming business and society,” ranging from ChatGPT creator OpenAI to the art collective... View full entry
Multidisciplinary designer Jozeph Forakis has unveiled the concept for a luxury superyacht, christened Pegasus, that he described as “invisible both in design and in her environmental impact.” When completed in 2030, the futuristic 288-foot ship will become the world’s first 3D-printed sea vessel that produces zero emissions and can cruise with near-infinite range. — Artnet News
Forakis says the inspiration behind the yacht is Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Blur Building, a pavilion that sat above Lake Neuchâtelin in the Swiss municipality of Yverdon-les-Bains during Swiss Expo 2002. The structure was concealed by a mass of fog that was formed by pumped lake water and... View full entry
In preparation for the Fall 2023 academic term, Brown University shares details of its new Deborah Berke Partners-designed Brook Street Residence Halls. Located at the southeastern edge of the University’s 143-acre historic urban campus, the 125,00-square-foot development has room for... View full entry
The material is essentially free, or at least locally available for a fraction of the cost of concrete...Mud construction contributes little to global warming. And concrete tends to be a gateway, once people can afford it, to another fossil-fuel-guzzling invention: air-conditioning. — National Geographic
Peter Schwartzstein explores the work of folks such as Clara Sawadogo, Francis Kéré and Salima Naji who are trying to rekindle an interest in materials and methods that have a long tradition in Africa and the Middle East. View full entry
