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A team of students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) has built a near-zero embodied carbon building on campus using hempcrete, wood, and steel as primary materials. — Construction Canada
Called the Third Space Commons, the project was led by Third Quadrant Design, UBC’s first green building design team. The group is comprised of 60 students from the Faculty of Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business. The building is a wooden structure spanning 2,400 square feet, made... View full entry
For much of its recent history in mitigating climate change, Denver has concentrated on buildings’ operational energy — the energy needed to run basics like heating, air conditioning, lighting and hot water. That will shift in May, when Denver’s newly adopted green code takes effect, said Christy Collins, green communities specialist with the local government. — Smart Cities Dive
Denver’s new green code will make it so a building’s embodied carbon is considered. It will provide minimum requirements for the siting, design, construction, and plans for the operation of projects. Commercial projects in Denver are now required by law to choose around 10% of the green code... View full entry
Industry groups are applauding lawmakers after the passage of the Biden Administration’s recently proposed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, pointing to its more than $5 billion in provisions they say are “critical” to enacting climate change-related policies and modernizing... View full entry
While most of these buildings are constructed out of more traditional materials like cement, brick, drywall, and plywood, forward-thinking architects and members of the construction industry have increasingly been turning to natural materials as an alternative for the future. Due to its ability to sequester carbon, hemp has landed itself at the forefront of the conversation about natural building. — Topic A
Hemp’s high tensile strength, pliability, and strength-to-weight ratio are increasingly valuable in the manufacture and design of products like fiberboard and even a new concrete alternative. The recent COP26 conference in Glasgow featured the speculative 'Urban Sequoia' design from SOM... View full entry
There’s ever-growing panoply of efficiency measures — better insulation, improved heating and air-conditioning, less-polluting appliances — that could help the building sector rapidly decarbonize. By 2030, almost all new buildings could consume zero net energy — net meaning there’s some give and take from the grid to equal zero use. That’s a big deal, especially with a corollary switch to electrified forms of transportation. — Bloomberg
The list of new green technologies is long and includes innovations like low-carbon concrete, cross-laminated timber, and living wall systems that have all developed into scalable products over the past ten years. So far, big-name firms like Gensler, Lake|Flato, and KieranTimberlake have... View full entry
WRNS Studio has announced a milestone sustainability achievement for their Janet Durgin Guild & Commons, designed for the Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California. The scheme has become the first project to achieve both Petal and Zero Carbon Certification by the International Living Future... View full entry
Cement is everywhere, but few notice the impact it has on the environment. A standard building material used everywhere, it is often confused with concrete. Cement is a key component in making concrete. By burning limestone at extremely high temperatures, this process turns the stone into a... View full entry
Starbucks has announced that the company plans to create 10,000 eco-friendly stores globally by 2025. The news follows other sustainability focused initiatives taken on by the coffee giant such as eliminating single-use plastic straws by 2020 and its partnership with McDonald's to create a... View full entry
The trend for “green” eco-fantasy buildings is sweeping the world of architecture, with designers now integrating gardens, terraces and all manner of vertical planting in their specifications for office blocks, apartment buildings and even skyscrapers. “Starchitects” [...] who a few years ago would have scoffed at the idea that their sleek and shiny building might incorporate something as embarrassingly domestic and “unmodern” as a garden, are now getting in on the act. — telegraph.co.uk
We have all seen many plant covered architectural renderings of firms getting in on the green building movement. While green buildings and sustainability are not new concepts, they are now a widespread trend being commercialized on a whole different scale. From the vast number of these green... View full entry
Permissive building codes, industry inertia, and market demands — like clients clamoring for floor-to-ceiling views — have widened the discrepancy between the kind of buildings cities say they want and what they actually allow. So while the industry inches towards better environmental performance, buildings in Boston and other cities still fall short of the sustainability goals that everyone claims to embrace. — The Boston Globe
Courtney Humphries of Boston Globe argues that the current trend for extensive use of glass in buildings contradicts today's strive for sustainability and "green building." When New York started tracking energy use by skyscrapers, the gleaming 7 World Trade Center — one of that city’s more... View full entry
Designed by LEVER Architecture, Framework Building aims at promoting sustainable building practices and economic opportunity for a sustainable urban-rural ecology.To receive the permit the 12-story building has completed a series of fire, acoustic and structural tests which have proven that mass... View full entry
Built to serve Saint-Laurent's diverse community in Montreal, the Bibliothèque du Boisé has collected another honorable accolade. Today, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada awarded the public library with its 2017 Green Building Award. The award will be presented during the RAIC/OAA... View full entry
On a small and skinny lot wedged behind its historic city hall, Santa Monica is trying to accomplish something that has never been done before in California. By 2020, the city hopes to construct a 50,000-square-foot city services building that will meet the requirements of the International Living Future Institute’s “Living Building Challenge” — the most stringent environmental building standard in the world. — latimes.com
"Should the city succeed it will prove that net-zero water is possible in our arid climate, even in a drought — and that if we’re serious about staving off the effects of drought and climate change, we should settle for no less. It will also familiarize code officials with new innovations... View full entry
“Right now (the industry is) setting targets of 30 to 40 per cent reduction in energy savings from the current business as usual. I think that’s just not enough. I am for net zero,” he says. [...]
“The time scale between what we know can be done and should be done, and when the technology and processes become the norm, needs to be shortened. Currently it takes about 10 to 15 years.”
— eco-business.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Masdar abandons its dream of becoming the first zero-carbon cityFrance Mandates "Green Roofs" for all new buildings2015 Solar Decathlon winner Stevens Institute of Technology addresses post-Sandy resiliency with the SURE HOUSEAlso, don't miss Deans List... View full entry
Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Make It Right honored the winners of their Innovation Challenge on Nov. 15 at the Innovation Celebration in New York City. The challenge was established in 2012 as a chance for innovators to reinvent and respond to the issues on how building products are designed, manufactured, and consumed. — bustler.net
Starting from 144 applicants to 10 finalists, the jury chose four winners:1st place: bioMASON biobrick2nd place: Ecovative Mushroom Insulation3rd place tie: ECOR Universal Construction Panels and ROMA Domus Mineral PaintsEcovative is also the winner of the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. View full entry
