Outgoing NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has released a new $90 billion dollar resiliency plan that will expand on an existing pilot program using the city’s own climate-based design guidelines as a precept. The plan calls for a total of 40 new projects overseen by 23 different capital agencies within... View full entry
Architects, officials, and villagers confirm the trend: People are discarding traditional materials, mostly mud, in favor of concrete, as soon as they can afford it. As living standards increase making concrete more accessible, some of the world’s hottest, poorest landscapes are rapidly morphing from brown to cinder block grey. — National Geographic
Architects like Francis Kéré have been attempting to buck the trend of using concrete by experimenting with upgraded versions of terrestrial materials like mud bricks that simultaneously provide tools for community-building in developing countries like Burkina Faso. Facade detail of Kéré... View full entry
As part of the AEC sector’s effort to decarbonize in light of the industry’s contribution to climate change, architects, engineers, and researchers are increasingly devoting efforts not only to the design of space but to the composition of materials, structural systems, and façades. In the... View full entry
MASS Design Group will be honored alongside the city of Minneapolis by the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design in a public celebration held at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy this evening. The Boston-based firm will receive the prestigious Kanter Tritsch Medal... View full entry
A floating solar farm that’s equivalent to about 70 soccer fields in size has begun generating power in Thailand, reflecting the country’s push to achieve carbon neutral status by 2050. — Bloomberg
Located at the Sirindhorn Dam, which is about 410 miles east of Bangkok, the facility is the world’s largest hybrid solar-hydropower system. It combines two methods of electricity generation, with 145,000 solar panels generating power from the sun during that day, while three turbines convert... View full entry
In Meerstad, a neighborhood in the Dutch city of Groningen, De Zwarte Hond is designing a multi-use supermarket made entirely of wood. Called the SuperHub, the project is labeled as a sustainable and flexible building that is also a host to a variety of social functions. Meerstad... View full entry
The ending of this year’s COP26 conference has left many architects to ponder how effective the mostly non-representative group of negotiators were in addressing the skepticism and high expectations coming into the meeting that is meant to address what is undoubtedly the greatest moral issue of... View full entry
An architect who creates just three typical buildings over their career will be responsible for carbon emissions equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 162 typical Americans, the COP26 summit in Glasgow has been told — The Architects' Journal
During a talk on “Adaptive Transformation” at the Danish Pavilion at COP26, Enlai Hooi, who works as the Head of Innovation at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in Copenhagen, said that professionals in the building industry carry a far greater responsibility for the world’s health than other... View full entry
With COP26 entering its final day in Glasgow, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have used the event to unveil their vision to transform the built environment into a network for absorbing carbon. Titled 'Urban Sequoia,' the project is centered on the concept of “forests” of buildings which sequester... View full entry
The UK government has rejected the Foster + Partners-designed Tulip Tower, bringing an end to years of uncertainty over the project’s future. The scheme’s rejection by Housing Secretary Michael Gove and housing minister Christopher Pincher comes only one month after speculation within the... View full entry
U.S. solar and wind deployments are on track to hit new records in 2022 as momentum behind the energy transition grows, according to a new report from S&P Global Market Intelligence. — CNBC
The firm forecasts that as much as 44 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and 27 gigawatts of wind will come online next year. For solar, this is nearly double 2021’s estimated 23 gigawatts of new capacity. As reported by CNBC, the factors behind this upswing include the expansion of state-level... View full entry
As part of a program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design, a cohort of students retrofitted twelve shipping containers to serve as private housing for homeless people during the pandemic. The project, located at Kansas’ Lawrence Community Shelter, is called... View full entry
Far from Glasgow and COP26, Ithaca, New York, just made an unprecedented move to tackle climate change and the city’s carbon footprint. In a unanimous vote on Wednesday night, Ithaca’s city council approved the full decarbonization of its buildings. — CNBC
This is the first US city to begin work on a 100% decarbonization plan. It secured $100 million in private financing from private equity partner Alturus to support the effort, a move that may be more effective in tackling emissions than federal and state efforts. Ithaca’s energy efficiency... View full entry
A professor of architectural engineering at Penn State by the name of James Freihaut has been recognized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Sustainable Energy for his work in improving sustainability and safety in buildings. During the committee’s 30th... View full entry
The World Green Building Council has published a free interactive report setting out the economic and social benefits of constructing sustainable buildings. The 114-page “Beyond the Business Case” report was launched at COP26 and may serve as a valuable tool for architects to communicate... View full entry
