Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has released a statement explaining his reasoning behind the decision to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last week. In the statement, Ingels, founder and creative partner at the multi-national architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), explains... View full entry
Global pop star Akon and Senegalese government officials are readying to break ground on a new ground-up 2,000-acre sustainable tourism city near the country's capital, Dakar. Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future... View full entry
With the new year already in full swing, it's time to take a look at some of the upcoming high-profile museum projects and anticipated expansions of major cultural institutions that are scheduled to open, or re-open, in 2020. The Art Newspaper has published an insightful overview of... View full entry
Gruen Associates Partner Debra Gerod has been inaugurated as the AIA California 2020 President. According to the AIA California website, Gerod aims to focus on expanding the group's efforts to push the state to adopt proposed Zero Code measures that would mandate emissions-free buildings... View full entry
As preparation for the MEXTRÓPOLI 2020 Architecture and City Festival taking place in March gets underway, the festival organizers have announced the winners of a pavilion contest held in conjunction with the event. The international competition, led by Arquine, called for architects and... View full entry
U.S. homebuilding surged to a 13-year high in December as activity increased across the board, suggesting the housing market recovery was back on track amid low mortgage rates, and could help support the longest economic expansion on record.
Housing starts jumped 16.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.608 million units last month, the highest level since December 2006.
— CNBC
A report from CNBC highlights the rising fortunes of the American housing market, which saw homebuilding activities increase to record levels in December 2019. According to the report, the number of housing units started in 2019—1.290 million homes in total, including 916,000 single-family... View full entry
The Fair Housing Act [...] prohibits not only intentional segregation, but also policies and practices whose effect is to discriminate for no defensible reason, even if there is no evidence of a racial motive. Lawyers describe such actions as having a “disparate impact” on minorities.
Now, however, the Trump administration is about to put into effect procedures to make it virtually impossible to prove disparate impact, no matter how egregious a discriminatory policy or practice may be.
— The New York Times
Richard Rothstein, author of the influential book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, presents an opinion piece in The New York Times highlighting the latest multi-pronged efforts on the part of the United States Department of Housing and Urban... View full entry
Dream Builder: The Story of Architect Philip Freelon is a new children's book published by Lee & Low Books that highlights the life and work of the late architect Phil Freelon. Written by Kelly Starling Lyons and illustrated by Laura Freeman, the 40-page picture book "celebrates a... View full entry
Calling all architects and designers that love to ski or board! Archinect's Paul Petrunia and Designer Pages' Jacob Slevin have blocked several rooms at the Cliff Lodge at heavily reduced rates for Thursday, February 27 to Sunday, March 1 (reduced rates may also be applied to the night of February... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects' 67-hectare “Unicorn Island” masterplan in Chengdu is slowly beginning to take shape with the near-completion of its first building, a start-up exhibition and conference center. The masterplan's catchy name “Unicorn Island” might make it sound like some sort of... View full entry
Architects Gabellini Sheppard Associates and developers Tishman Speyer have unveiled a series of substantial changes for the outdoor public realm areas associated with the Rockefeller Center complex in New York City. The proposal, presented to the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission... View full entry
Grain elevators were once an icon of Canada’s west: often painted a bright boxcar red, they stood in towns across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. [...]
In the 1930s there were nearly 6,000 towers; now fewer than a thousand remain. The destruction, in many ways, mirrors the broader decline of rural communities in western Canada.
— The Guardian
For The Guardian, journalist Leyland Cecco on the struggle of small agricultural communities in Canada's prairie provinces to preserve their aging, wooden grain elevators as cultural heritage monuments. Restored Alberta Wheat Pool elevators at the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre in... View full entry
The key binding ingredient in concrete is cement, which has a massive carbon footprint. [...] So Sant and his team set to work on a greener approach that starts with a compound called portlandite instead of traditional Portland cement.
The production of portlandite also releases CO2. But its unique chemistry allows it to absorb CO2 later in the process, when the concrete cures and hardens into precast blocks and other shapes.
— The Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the University of California, Los Angeles-based Carbon Upcycling team's efforts to bring CO2Concrete, a carbon-sequestering cement product, to the market. The team is vying for the Carbon XPRIZE, a $7.5 million prize competition aimed at monetizing carbon... View full entry
One Thousand Museum, first-and-only residential tower designed by the late Zaha Hadid in the Western Hemisphere, makes its debut in Miami's Museum Park this week. The residential tower stands prominently alongside neighboring condo towers and other notable Miami structures like the... View full entry
The Center for Architecture in New York City is currently presenting a collection of "superior public building projects" via a wide-ranging exhibition created in collaboration with the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) that seeks to celebrate some of the city's most... View full entry
