New renderings for Google’s $280 million redevelopment of the Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center in Chicago have been released by the company ahead of the start of construction activities early next year. The announcement was made via Google’s The Keyword blog and appears to show... View full entry
If approved in its current form, the deal struck on Thursday night will also force member states to put solar panels on more buildings, starting with new public buildings and offices and expanding to include new homes by 2030. [...]
It is a compromise on the European Commission’s original proposals to renovate the leakiest homes, which member states had fought fiercely.
— The Guardian
The EU’s pledge mandates that all new buildings will have zero emissions from fossil fuels in that timeframe, with heating systems derived from fossil fuels phased out by 2040. The expansion of heat pump subsidies will be a decisive factor, along with the mandatory installation of solar panels... View full entry
ETH Zurich has published details of new research into lightweight building components produced using 3D printing. Led by doctoral architecture researcher Patrick Bedarf, the Airlements project centers on cement-free mineral foams derived from recycled industrial waste. Working within the... View full entry
It will soon become nearly impossible to install fossil-fueled appliances to heat new homes and businesses in Washington. [...]
The codes will require new homes and buildings to meet the same total energy performance as those built with electric heat pumps while allowing builders flexibility to choose appliances. Basically, if builders choose gas appliances, they will need to make up the efficiency losses elsewhere in the construction.
— Seattle Times
The state’s building code update puts them in league with California, Maryland, and major cities New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to have adopted similar policies. The new amendments offer a “watered-down” alternative to a proposed electric heat pump mandate that was abandoned in the... View full entry
Japan-based Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP has offered a look inside their recently completed Library of the Earth. Situated in the Japanese city of Kisarazu, and completed in April 2022, the library is described by the firm as “the library for the farmers, plowing the fields on sunny days and reading... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects today announced the appointment of a nine-member delegation that will represent the professional body at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) ahead of its commencement this Thursday in Dubai. In a separate announcement today, AIA says... View full entry
The proposed new stadium venue for the New York City Football Club (NYCFC) by HOK will be all-electric in addition to incorporating a number of sustainability strategies included in a press announcement that was made last week by the team. The 25,000-seat stadium forms the center of a larger... View full entry
Researchers aiming to combat rising global temperatures have developed a new 'cooling glass' that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. The new technology, a microporous glass coating, can lower the temperature of the material beneath it by 3.5 degrees Celsius at noon, and has the potential to reduce a mid-rise apartment building's yearly carbon emissions by 10 percent. — Science Daily
The technology was developed by a research team at the University of Maryland, led by Distinguished University Professor Liangbing Hu in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The coating functions by reflecting up to 99% of solar radiation to prevent buildings from absorbing heat... View full entry
Local leaders near Phoenix are placing limits on where new homes can be built, with the goal of protecting long-term access to water. But there's a significant loophole. [...]
Policymakers may try again, and the governor has set up a task force on the issue. Ferris says the strength of Arizona's water law is that it links building decisions with water decisions. No other Western state requires cities to look a hundred years into the future.
— NPR
Permitting of new subdivision construction has been curtailed in the Phoenix area over water scarcity, though a loophole over multifamily construction has led to a recent boom there as developers are still free to open state taps when needed in search of a requisite 100-year groundwater... View full entry
Compared to the Summer 2020 survey, the latest Archinect community mental health survey results show a moderate recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic, "although 34.1% still rate theirs at 5 or below". For instance, h0wl works for "a pretty progressive company" and they still "feel burnt out"... View full entry
The Biden Administration has announced a new investment of $2 billion into 150 different federal building projects meant to minimize carbon emissions in 39 states. The funding will be dispersed through the U.S. General Services Administration and used to purchase low embodied carbon... View full entry
Austin on Thursday became the largest city in the country to stop requiring new developments to have a set amount of parking — a move aimed at both fighting climate change and spurring more housing construction amid the city’s affordability crisis. The Austin City Council voted 8-2 Thursday to wipe out minimum parking requirements for virtually every kind of property citywide. That includes single-family homes, apartment buildings, offices and shopping malls. — The Texas Tribune
As noted by The Texas Tribune, housing advocates, developers, and climate activists have increasingly advocated for the erasure of parking requirements, which have been found to drive up housing costs and fuels a dependency on cars. Cities across the country in recent years, including Portland... View full entry
3XN has unveiled its design for a new destination at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, holding a mixture of retail, hospitality, and public amenities located in a “market hall environment.” The scheme draws inspiration from the sails dotting the city’s waterfront, with an architectural language... View full entry
SGA has unveiled details of its proposed mass timber life sciences building, which seeks to demonstrate the potential of the construction method in future research buildings. Taking an urban site in one of Boston’s leading life sciences clusters as a test case, the team believes their concept... View full entry
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have unveiled a “first-of-its-kind AI model” that can help policymakers identify and prioritize houses for retrofitting and other decarbonizing measures. The deep learning model, trained by researchers from the university’s Department of... View full entry
