New York City will require all new and existing buildings to meet stricter energy efficiency requirements under a new energy code approved by the city council and passed by Mayor Bill de Blasio last week. The 2020 NYC Energy Conservation Code is part of the city’s implementation of its Green New Deal. — Smart Cities Dive
According to Construction Dive, the new code will require builders to improve the building thermal envelope with modified walls and windows to limit heat loss in addition to air leakage mitigation. Heating and cooling systems will also have stricter requirements. View full entry
The Indonesian government is involving three international consulting firms in developing the masterplan of the country’s new capital city, which is to be located in East Kalimantan.
[...] American engineering company AECOM, consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Japanese architectural and engineering firm Nikken Sekkei would design the city, which is to feature the latest technology and be environmentally friendly at the same time.
— The Jakarta Post
In August 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo had announced the selection of a 450,000-acre site in East Kalimantan province on Borneo Island where the nation's new capital would be relocated to. Jakarta, the current capital on Java Island, is traffic-choked, increasingly prone to floods, and... View full entry
Rather than protecting communities and making it easy for homeowners to restructure bad mortgages or repair their credit after succumbing to predatory loans, the government facilitated the transfer of wealth from people to private-equity firms. — The New York Times
A compelling long-read from Francesca Mari in T Magazine highlights the incredible transformation taking place within single-family housing market, where large investment firms like Blackstone Group have created a new investment vehicle by turning detached homes into rental properties. ... View full entry
In a comprehensive summary of recent studies and statistics, FlexJobs, the tech company that connects job seekers with remote work opportunities, has laid out the hard numbers regarding remote work trends in our culture today. Everything from productivity, employee morale, reduced stress, to... View full entry
Announced today by La Biennale Di Venezia, the 2020 Venice Biennale will be held from Saturday August 29th through Sunday November 29th, instead of from May 23rd through November 29th, as previously announced. In its announcement, the Biennale states: The new dates for the Biennale... View full entry
In a sense, Fujimoto’s is the conceptual art of contemporary architecture, born out of a relentless desire to interrogate, in building after building, variations on the same set of ideas. To spend time with him is to dwell in a discursive world constructed entirely of tensely opposing categories — inside and outside, individual and society, private and public, the natural world and the urban environment — out of which emerges this serene, unruffled but somehow dynamic architecture. — T Magazine
Writing in The New York Times' T Magazine, Nikil Saval takes an indepth and nuanced look at the work and trajectory of Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. In the thought-provoking profile, Saval works to uncover and convey the dualities that drive Fujimoto's design work, including "Fujimoto’s... View full entry
Ready to take the next step forward in your architectural career? The most recent Employer of the Day featured firms have active job openings that might be a good fit for you. Take a look below. MASS Design Group is currently hiring a Business Development Associate in Boston to support the growth... View full entry
For the month of March, Archinect is focusing its Spotlight on Boston, the largest city in Massachusetts and the northernmost node of America's Northeast megalopolis. The focus on Boston follows our recent Spotlight on Miami theme from the month of February. Boston, of course, has a... View full entry
On Saturday February 29th, over 2,000 community residents, business owners, and artists came together to attend Destination Crenshaw's groundbreaking for the 1.3-mile-long "cultural experience" to celebrate Black Los Angeles along Crenshaw Blvd. The project will transform sidewalks, storefronts... View full entry
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects have been awarded the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Dubbed as the "Nobel Prize" of architecture, the prize is considered the industry's highest honor. Loreto Community School, photo courtesy of Ros Kavanagh. In a press... View full entry
The Architecture Lobby (TAL) is endorsing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Party primary contest. In a statement published to the group's website, TAL writes, "With this endorsement, we invite architectural workers to rise in the vision of a movement." Previously on... View full entry
The list of participants for the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice have been announced by Paolo Baratta, President of La Biennale di Venezia, and Hashim Sarkis, curator of the Biennale. In total, the event will bring together 114 designers and architecture firms whose work will be... View full entry
Five months after holding a ceremonial groundbreaking, the first signs of vertical construction are now visible at the new home of OCMA at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts. [...]
The approximately $73-million project expands OCMA's square footage by approximately 50 percent when compared to the museum's former home.
— Urbanize Los Angeles
Designed by Morphosis Architects, the Orange County Museum of Art's new home at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Calif. appears to be making progress, according to a new construction photo published by Urbanized LA. The new 52,000-square-foot building will nearly double OCMA's... View full entry
On a plot of land rented from a rural village on the Malaysian side of the island of Borneo, the group has proved it at small scale. Every six to 12 months, a farmer shaves off one foot of growth from these nickel-hyper-accumulating plants and either burns or squeezes the metal out. After a short purification, farmers could hold in their hands roughly 500 pounds of nickel citrate, potentially worth thousands of dollars on international markets. — The New York Times
A thought-provoking report from Ian Morse of The New York Times highlights a burgeoning approach for harvesting necessary (and toxic) metals like nickel from soil through "hyper-accumulating" plants. Morse checks in researchers from the University of Melbourne who are farming... View full entry
A 360-year-old passageway once used by British monarchs has been rediscovered inside Parliament, revealing a piece of history that was thought to have been permanently covered up after World War II.
[...] access to the passage had remained hidden in plain sight for about 70 years.
— The New York Times
As the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom undergo a $5 billion renovation and restoration project by architecture studio BDP, an archival team has rediscovered a hidden passageway once used by British monarchs, members of Parliament, and dignitaries like Benjamin Franklin that dates to the... View full entry
