The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. — U.S. Department of Energy
Students from around the world will bring their designs for solar-powered houses to Irvine, California this October, as part of the 2013 Solar Decathlon. First held in 2002, the Solar Decathlon is a biannual student competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Decathlon will take... View full entry
After an evening aboard the USS North Carolina, the Raleigh architect took home AIA NC’s highest honor as well as four awards for his firm’s completed projects. September 19, 2013 (Raleigh, NC) -- After what turned out to be a very big night for his small, Raleigh-based firm... View full entry
Well-designed places can promote health, and design professionals can create them. Health depends... on wholesome places, not just for individuals, but across entire communities, and health professionals can recognize and support them.
Accordingly, two worlds need to come together: the world of design, in which architects, planners and their colleagues create places; and the world of health, in which doctors, public-health officials and their colleagues fight injury, illness and disability.
— seattletimes.com
Howard Frumkin, dean of University of Washington’s School of Public Health, and Daniel Friedman, Ph.D., architect and former dean of the UW College of Built Environments, discuss the importance of architects and health specialists working together to create healthier spaces. View full entry
In planning for the organization’s further growth, Sinclair and Stohr are transitioning out of their roles to push the advancement of Architecture for Humanity, while also enabling the founders to explore new ventures.
“It’s great to see something you started evolve into an institution. We are excited about the future of the organization and plan to continue lending support in whatever ways we can,” says Kate Stohr, Co-Founder, Architecture for Humanity.
— architectureforhumanity.org
Full press release... Architecture for Humanity Launches 5 Year Strategic Plan and Fund To Offer Expanded Design Services to Build Resilient and Healthy Communities. After 15 years of Leadership co-founders, Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr to Transition from Organization and Launch Fund to... View full entry
Almost a dozen major architecture contests are underway. By calling in the pros, city and federal officials are casting a wide net for fixes.
“We don’t have all the good ideas, and I don’t care who does have them,” Mayor Bloomberg said recently.
— New York Daily News
New York City and the feds are turning to design luminaries from the city and around the globe to help the five boroughs rebuild. But are the designers up to the task of saving the city from the next disaster? And will anyone actually follow their advice? View full entry
The ecosystem will consist of several different microbes, each of which plays a role in nutrient recycling and population control. The result is a closed ecosystem that will sustain itself with the addition of just light [...]
The result will be a stable, closed, microbial ecosystem that glows in the dark.
— RocketHub
Undergraduate researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, are developing a sustainable bacterial ecosystem that will be able to produce light. The "Biobulb" will use a lab-neutered version of the E. Coli bacteria (totally harmless) that has been encoded with the gene for... View full entry
[It] is the same technology as we use in Holland. It’s made up of concrete caisson, boxes, a shoebox of concrete. We fill them with styrofoam. So with [these] you get unthinkable floating foundations [...]
The house itself is the same as a normal house, the same material. Then you want to figure out how to get water and electricity and remove sewage and use the same technology as cruise ships."
- Koen Olthuis
— The Atlantic Cities
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis sees the future of architecture floating out to sea -- quite literally. Responding to undeniable ecological shifts of rising sea levels and seasonal flooding, Olthuis has proposed floatable-projects all along the social spectrum, designing prefabricated multi-use... View full entry
Reforming parking policy is an urgent imperative which could have significant positive effects on the natural environment, our cities, the economy, and our society. For many issues, from affordable housing to carbon emissions, it is an obvious solution that has remained hidden in plain sight for too long. — Graphing Parking
Architect Seth Goodman has taken it upon himself to expose how dramatically parking plays a role in planning, through a series of nifty infographics that show just how much parking space is allotted for a given institution or destination. Inspired by Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free... View full entry
In the latest edition of the Student Works feature, Building Soft takes on the L.A. River's infrastructure, students from SWA’s Summer Student Program presented projects such as; Topo-Infrastructure for Health, Stairway to the Hill, or Performative Punk Playground. NewsJustine Testado... View full entry
It appears we are destined to be a generation of new-age nomads as a result of technology, constant career changes and unprecedented mobility. Is a constant search for how best to return to nature an inevitable side effect of modern life? [...]
[Justin Gargasz's] designs are created not only to shelter the wearer physically but as a play on the need to escape psychologically from a world filled with distractions.
— Core 77
Justin Gargasz's Sans Shelter line of wearable shelters offers three distinct designs of impromptu-tent jackets, in sleek nylon and waxed canvas models. Using methods of folding and wrapping he picked up while traveling in Northern India, the rather fashionable coats can be unpacked into tents... View full entry
Created by Smith|Allen Studio, an Oakland based architecture firm, the 10ft x 10ft x 8ft form adds a decidedly artificial element to the otherwise organic forest it calls home. However, despite its appearance, the Echoviren is quite environmentally friendly. Printed from a PLA bioplastic, the structure will naturally decompose back into the forest in 30-50 years. According to Smith|Allen “"As [Echoviren] weathers it will become a micro-habitat for insects, moss, and birds." — engineering.com
Instead of having parks, the whole city is a park...Like aluminum extrusions the whole building is extruded and then it is cut by laser beams, then inserted into a structure by machine. - Jacque Fresco — BBC News
Paul Kerley explores the 97-year old architect's vision of the future. For the Venus Project, the goal is a radically different society. One replete with monorails and retro-Modernist architecture à la Disney's Epcot, where everything from nations to jobs are no longer... View full entry
The days of rummaging frantically for the card that gets us onto public transit may be over.
A team of engineers from MIT has created the 3D-printed "Sesame Ring," which has an embedded RFID tag that lets you tap it to a RFID-based fare reader and hop on.
— The Atlantic Cities
Syncing public transit and wearable technology, the waterproof Sesame Ring can be used in place of the Charlie Card, Boston's mass transit smart card. Available in customizable colors and sizes, the first batch of $17 rings have already sold out, but their Kickstarter campaign will ensure that... View full entry
“The problem is we’re still building the city of the past,” says Jacob. “The people of the 1880s couldn’t build a city for the year 2000—of course not. And we cannot build a year-2100 city now. But we should not build a city now that we know will not function in 2100. There are opportunities to renew our infrastructure. It’s not all bad news. We just have to grasp those opportunities.” — dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com
The pre-fabricated, flatpack homes of Pritzker laureate Richard Rogers are a centerpiece for his 50-year retrospective, “Richard Rogers: Inside Out”, currently at London's Royal Academy of Arts until Oct. 13. The homes, which are an adaptation of his 2007 Oxley Woods housing... View full entry
