After a series of acclaimed installations around the world, Munro will be bringing his Fields of Light back to the project’s birthplace at Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the heart of the Australian red desert in 2013. The installation will be his largest to date, and it will be powered entirely by solar energy. — Inhabitat

"Despite potential increases in new construction, most of the houses that seniors will release in coming years were built when energy was inexpensive, nuclear families were the rule, incomes were increasing for most Americans, and mortgages were generally predictable and easy to obtain. …the next 20 to 30 years to depart from this historic picture, with more expensive energy, growing diversity in race, ethnicity and in household structure, and more intense international economic competition." — scribd.com

The self supporting wooden sphere stands 15 meters tall, 35.2 meters long, and 14.4 meters wide. Units were built as ‘cartridges’ off-site and assembled into a self supporting grid. All wood is sustainably harvested. The timber strand beams and stained plywood skin is gridded with large windows throughout. Set to the solar south the structure is evenly daylit and illuminated by LED lighting at night. A separately supported floor is entered though an elevated bridge. — eVolo

For generations, government policies have been geared toward creating endless landscapes of strip malls... In the process we have gutted our traditional downtowns. We have eaten up farmland and forest. We have, as Nate Berg reported this week, endangered the lives of our senior citizens. We have engineered a world where children cannot walk or bike to school without risking their lives. We have created countless places devoid of any real social value. — theatlanticcities.com

The folks in Alabama have just passed a law that says quite clearly that they don’t want anything to do with sustainability. Though they might not have any problem with clean air and water and all that, it seems to be the planning for it that is the problem. Because planning, after all, is apparently what communists do. — triplepundit.com

A developing focus on chemicals of concern in the LEED rating systems could make federal buildings less energy-efficient, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC). — www2.buildinggreen.com

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge just announced that the Living Building Challenge is the official winner of this year's competition. The LBC sets the world’s highest ecological standard for building thoughtful, sustainable buildings, but it's much more than that - it’s also a philosophy, an advocacy tool and a support network. — Inhabitat

Orhan Ayyüce penned Review: Carlson-Reges House, RoTo Architects. In it Orhan described how Carlson-Reges House has grown out of logistics and a "story within a story". Steven Ward waxed nostalgic about the fact that he had an "opportunity to visit this house with mr rotondi in 2003. stunning - and completely unique. there really could never be anything else like it. and the brewery is a magic little 'neighborhood'."

Developed in Europe in the 1990s, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is among the latest in a long line of “engineered” wood products that are strong and rigid enough to replace steel and concrete as structural elements in bigger buildings. Already popular in Europe, CLT is only beginning to catch on in North America, where proponents say buildings made with the panels could be a cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative to structures made with those other materials. — New York Times

So, to re-pose the question: what is the radical aesthetic consequence of the cultural desire for sustainable performance? Is it something that expresses itself in a set of formal rules, like the Modern response to the development of the steel frame? Or is it something — because it is essentially about performance — requiring entirely different means to fruition? Well, as with uncharted territory: here there be dragons. — Places Journal

A bunch of bees is inspiring what seems to escape so many people in Buffalo: waterfront development.

With the help of a group of University at Buffalo architecture students, a local entrepreneur hopes to build on a giant bee hive he discovered in an abandoned office and turn a portion of Buffalo's historic waterfront into a design campus where manufacturers, architects and others will collaborate and mastermind new ways to use locally made materials — Buffalo News

In December 2009, at the "SportAccord" marketing trade show held in Denver, a pair of young Qataris walked up to the Albert Speer & Partners booth, flipped through the brochures and soon realized that the Frankfurt-based firm specialized in very large-scale projects with a focus on sustainability. — Der Spiegel

Neft Dashlari, an artificial settlement off the coast of Azerbaijan, was constructed by the Soviets after World War II, when the state was facing a major oil shortage. (Image by Jon Björgvinsson) — Der Spiegel

“This project presents a novel approach to U.S. locomotive development, looking to technologies of the past to inspire solutions for today’s sustainability challenges."
- Sustainable Rail International President Davidson Ward, 2010 School of Architecture graduate from the College of Design at the University of Minnesota — UMNews