AI concrete startup AICrete has announced that it has raised $4 million in seed funding led by venture capital firms CLEAR Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures, along with Cortical Ventures. AICrete is a recipe-as-a-service platform that optimizes materials for cleaner and more cost-efficient... View full entry
Nearly five months have passed since the tumultuous March 25 Basecamp panel discussion and the wave of controversies that came after. While the LA-based architecture school has slowly faded from heavy media reporting, the team at Archinect has kept an eye out for any updates and changes... View full entry
The disappearance of such affordable homes is central to the American housing crisis. The nation has a deepening shortage of housing. But, more specifically, there isn’t enough of this housing: small, no-frills homes that would give a family new to the country or a young couple with student debt a foothold to build equity. [...]
At the root is the math problem of putting — or keeping — a low-cost home on increasingly pricey land.
— The New York Times
America has a long history of gradually siphoning away architecture made for predominantly middle-class people (think pre-war buildings in Manhattan or Levittown tract housing on Long Island) and is now simply under-delivering what could otherwise be an equalizing force as a result of prevailing... View full entry
Poundbury, Paisley and Perspectives all ultimately failed to conquer the complex commercial and political challenges they faced. Their royal patron’s attempts to create human-centred townscapes have led to car-dominated suburbs. His efforts to uplift grand historic buildings have carved them into dreary flats. Our King is someone who sees the right problems but, ensconced in the very establishment that prevents meaningful solutions, he can only meddle around the edges of effecting real change. — The Guardian
The new British King is memorably the originator of the panned Poundbury estate that has failed to fall in line with its stated goals towards sustainability and car-free pedestrian orientation, according to Phineas Harper. He thinks the scion is hemmed in by a stolid commercial banking system and... View full entry
A change has come to one of the industry’s oldest professional associations after The Architectural League of New York's Executive Director Rosalie Genevro announced on September 22 that she will be stepping down from the organization after more than 37 years in her post. Genevro says she will... View full entry
Some of Northern Europe’s leading architecture firms have signed an open letter lamenting the lack of “serious development” laden in Autodesk’s proprietary design software, an aging suite of tools the authors claim is asking usurious prices despite neglecting years of industry-wide... View full entry
California’s state legislature has passed a bill sponsored by the American Institute of Architects California (AIACA) that will limit public access to copyrighted architectural drawings for the first time. The recently-signed SB 1214 concerns drawings that were submitted to local and state... View full entry
The Biden Administration has unveiled the first set of recommendations under its Federal Buy Clean Initiative, an undertaking that aims to drive the development of American-made, low-carbon construction materials, while also supporting job growth. During a visit to the Cleveland-Cliffs Direct... View full entry
Now that the "dust has settled" Niall Patrick Walsh caught up with "three firms in differing parts of the U.S. to hear their reflections on how the profession fared during the pandemic, and where it goes next". Plus, for a broader perspective, he spoke with AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker... View full entry
The Getty Foundation together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced the commitment of $3.1 million in the form of institutional grants to individuals and organizations that are working to preserve the legacy of historic... View full entry
The Partnership for New York City has surveyed more than 160 major Manhattan office employers over the past two weeks to get a sense of the number of employees that have returned to office work or are still working remotely. They found that 49% of workers were at their office workplace... View full entry
According to a new study by storage space marketplace StorageCafe, four of the top five most active downtown areas for new apartment construction are in the South, with Atlanta, Georgia ranking first for built downtown apartments over the past ten years. The city yielded over... View full entry
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has announced the theme and Artistic Directors for its upcoming fifth edition. Under the title This is a Rehearsal, local artist collective Floating Museum will be tasked with explaining how "contemporary environmental, political, and economic issues are... View full entry
According to a new report by the New York State Comptroller’s Office, 89% of the visited active construction sites across New York City had safety issues, highlighting the need for the improvement of the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) oversight of construction sites. Between June... View full entry
I’ve seen miracles happen. I’ve seen ordinary people do the most heroic things. When you’ve had the privilege of knowing so many great fighters and resisters, you can’t lay down the sword, even if things seem objectively hopeless. — The Guardian
The terminally-ill City of Quartz author sat down recently with The Guardian to discuss his waning health and look back at prescient early warnings of the state’s slow-motion social and ecological demise that has taken three decades to manifest. True to form, Davis was critical of... View full entry