Following our previous visit to nARCHITECTS, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series to New York City this week to explore the work of Michael K. Chen Architecture. Led by Michael K. Chen, the firm describes its mission as to provide “innovative and superbly crafted... View full entry
In 2021, the Google Research Africa team launched Open Buildings, an open-source dataset of building footprints across the Global South produced using AI and high-resolution satellite imagery. The team had a simple vision: to fill a major gap in data for population and density in the developing world. Now in its third version, their dataset contains polygons for 1.8 billion buildings over an area of 58 million km² in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. — Google
The data is useful in determining population size and other factors to solve urban density problems. Google's Research product manager Olivia Graham says: "About 2.5 billion more people could move to cities by 2050, most of them in the Global South — this could be a real step... View full entry
In hermetically sealed buildings, less fresh air gets in. [...] Eventually, this polluted indoor air – which is making more than a third of the planet sick – is expelled into the surrounding environment. This raises the question of how buildings pollute the air around them, what pollutants they produce, and whether this expelled air is sufficiently diluted once outdoors. — The Conversation
As the article mentions, the World Health Organization had previously pointed to a "lack of monitoring of air pollution levels, sources and consequences on public health" as a present danger for cities. To fix it, authors César Martín-Gómez and Arturo H. Ariño of the Universidad de Navarra... View full entry
The design details for RIOS, Kerry Hill Architects, and Foster + Partners’ upcoming One Beverly Hills development have been updated in Los Angeles What are going to be the two tallest structures in the neighborhood (at 32 and 26 stories apiece) will be joined by a new two-story conference... View full entry
Snøhetta will follow up on its recent Joslyn Art Museum project with the design for the new Omaha Children's Museum in Nebraska. The project was updated this week and includes a 175-seat performance room, a cafe, and a play-workshop. Rubberized mounds placed in its forecourt will... View full entry
A unique new residential skyscraper in Dubai from RCR Arquitectes will be built to the width of just a single 22.5 meter (almost 74 feet) apartment unit in what could come as a shock to even the most ardent fans of contemporary luxury high-rise design. The fifth collaboration between the... View full entry
The latest addition to Airbnb’s icon series is now offering guests the unique chance to sleep in a replica of the Maitland home from Tim Burton's recent update to the 1988 classic Beetlejuice. The fictional future stay isn’t too far away from the real-life literary haunt of West Cornwall... View full entry
Here’s a brief construction update on the BIG-led new KING Toronto development with Diamond Schmitt Architects. The design pays homage to the definitive modularity of Moshe Safdie’s seminal Habitat 67, with 514 units rotated on a 45-degree angle and arranged as through a canyon overlooking the... View full entry
Several local New York outlets have reported an update on the financial dispute between the Chrysler Building’s owner-operator RFR and The Cooper Union, which has held the land use rights to its lot since 1902. The Austrian-based developer purchased William Van Alen’s landmarked design for... View full entry
Preliminary construction work on the mind-boggling Mukaab tower scheme has been reported in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The cube-like structure, whose volume is equivalent to 64 million cubic meters (more than 2.2 billion cubic feet), is apparently large enough to contain 20 Empire State Buildings. It... View full entry
The embattled owner of Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Price Tower in Bartlesville Oklahoma has filed suit against The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in order to void liens which have been placed on the property, the New York Times is reporting. The nonprofit had previously taken action... View full entry
Meier Partners has shared the latest images of their completed Sorol Art Museum project in Gangneung, South Korea. The update follows the February debut of the 336,500-square-foot museum, which is dedicated to Korean artists and designed to elicit the aesthetic tenets of Confucian philosophy. The... View full entry
HOK’s Anica Landreneau, the chair of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Steering Committee, has sat down for an in-house interview published by the firm in a preview of the changes contained in the LEED v5 update. The new changes align with the Paris Agreement, AIA 2030, MEP 2040, SE... View full entry
The State of California has announced a new wave of grants through its Earthquake Soft-Story (ESS) program that will offer homeowners small $13,000 grants to be used in seismic retrofits. The grants apply to qualified homeowners in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles and could be a... View full entry
A new study funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) using climate data to predict the cost of maintenance for military facilities threatened by extreme weather events has outlined new approaches for estimating condition loss and reduction of services. The findings, which can be applied to... View full entry
