Situated within a rural Vermont landscape, amongst white pines and maple trees, this Olson Kundig-designed cabin seeks to bring a family into closer connection with one another and the surrounding forests. "This is an intentionally straightforward and economical cabin where the family can come... View full entry
As part of an ambition to transform Merwede in southwest Utrecht, an urban plan design, led by Marco.Broekman has been underway since 2016 with a definitive design endeavor under development this year. Simply called Merwede, the new neighborhood includes 6,000 dwellings, high-quality public... 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
The shortlisted architects for the inaugural MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice and the 2020 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture were announced today. Both prizes are part of the Architects' Journal / Architectural Record's W Awards, formerly known as the Women in Architecture... View full entry
Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan's first-ever female architect, was named the 2020 recipient of the Jane Drew Prize, the Architects' Journal announced today. The 79-year-old Lari was honored with the lifetime achievement prize for raising the profile of women practicing in architecture and design through... View full entry
The US has become terrible at building big things, and negligent in even maintaining our existing infrastructure. [...]
That all bodes terribly for our ability to grapple with the coming dangers of climate change, because it is fundamentally an infrastructure problem.
— MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review senior editor, James Temple, penned an urgent plea for a renewed, but sustainable, American public works boom that could significantly speed up the painfully slow infrastructure planning process in the face of rapidly changing climate conditions. "To prepare for the climate... View full entry
After a somewhat bumpy spring and summer, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) closed out the year on a positive note with three consecutive months of modest growth. A strong winter Architecture Billings Index Score for December: 52.5Project inquiries index: 58.7Design contracts index: 53.4 A new... View full entry
According to Architect's Journal (AJ), in a letter published in The Times, Norman Foster – writing as Lord Foster and president of the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust – said the ‘power of architecture’ should be used ‘to express our political and economic ambitions’. It comes in... View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2020 It's a new year and a new school term, so that means it's time for Archinect's latest edition of Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the... View full entry
two-dimensional materials will be the linchpin of the internet of everything. They will be “painted” on bridges and form the sensors to watch for strain and cracks. They will cover windows with transparent layers that become visible only when information is displayed. And if his team’s radio wave-absorber succeeds, it will power those ever-present electronics. Increasingly, the future looks flat. — The New York Times
Amos Zeeberg of The New York Times takes a look at the wide world of super-thin materials, a growing class of substances that have the potential to reshape humanity's technological capabilities. The materials include graphene, an incredibly strong and conductive "2-D form of carbon"... 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
