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The National Building Museum announced today that it will present its 2021 Honor Award to global design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). For the first time in 36 years, and inspired by this year’s honoree, the Museum will transform the annual Honor Award into a Climate Change Call to Action, including weeks of provocative, expert-led online programming open to the public. — National Building Museum
On June 17, the National Building Museum will present the award to SOM at a dynamic virtual event. The firm will be celebrated for its leadership and commitment to combating the climate crisis by advocating for a seismic shift in the way we design, build, and do business. Starting on May 19th, the... View full entry
Researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA) have unveiled a structure aimed at tackling the global issue of water shortages. The cost-effective technique uses a floating module and highly efficient solar evaporation to extract freshwater from contaminated or sea water, potentially... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the winners of this year’s Upjohn Research Initiative, providing up to $30,000 to four research projects advancing sustainable architecture and design. The four projects demonstrate a variety of approaches to tackling climate change, from... View full entry
On the subject of architecture and construction’s contribution to climate change, our existing building stock is coming under increasing scrutiny. While the United Kingdom recently announced a review into embodied carbon in buildings, thanks in part to the Architect Journal’s RetroFirst... View full entry
Scientists in the US have developed a paint significantly "whiter than the whitest paint currently available".
Tests carried out by researchers at Purdue University on their "ultra-white" paint showed it reflected more than 98% of sunlight.
That suggests, the scientists say, that it could help save energy and fight climate change.
— BBC
The paint's whiteness opens up a range of cooling features that, applied at an industrial scale, could limit the built environment's contributing effect to global warming and its dependency on traditional air conditioning. "If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square... View full entry
The Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (maat) launched in October 2016 as an international design institution championing discourse and creative practice to "inspire new understandings of the historical present and an empowering engagement with the common future." The riverfront... View full entry
It’s easy to imagine CLT becoming the next luxury building trend to invade the skylines of rapidly gentrifying cities, giving an eco-friendly excuse for remaking the city in service of maximized profit. [...]
In order for mass timber to truly engage with the regenerative power of forests to help alleviate our current climate predicament, it must be linked to a greater movement towards ecological reformation at all scales.
— Failed Architecture
In his latest piece for Failed Architecture, writer and architect Alexander Hadley takes a critical look at the future economical and environmental impact of the accelerating cross-laminated timber boom. "Building from regenerative materials like trees instead of intensively extracted substances... View full entry
Petaluma, California, has voted to outlaw new gas stations, the first of what climate activists hope will be numerous cities and counties to do so. [...]
The Petaluma effort inspired groups like the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations — or CONGAS — which seeks to ban gas stations in Sonoma County, California.
— Axios
The ordinance will not shut down Petaluma's 16 operational gas stations but prevents them from adding more pumps and prohibits the construction of new gas stations. It is expected that the move will inspire more municipalities to follow the example, similar to Berkeley's 2019 ban on natural gas... View full entry
This week's list of featured online events from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide includes lectures, presentations, discussions, a conference, an award presentation, and a symposium. Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit... View full entry
An immersive installation that visualises the bleak effects of climate change by the US artist and environmental activist Maya Lin, which was slated to open in June last year, will open at Madison Square Park in New York this spring. — The Art Newspaper
Originally scheduled to open in 2020 but ultimately postponed due to the escalating pandemic, Maya Lin's site-responsive installation Ghost Forest will now be on view from May 10 through November 14, 2021. "Ghost Forest will take the form of a towering grove of spectral cedar trees, all... View full entry
It is no exaggeration to say that our present is the future that Dorothea Lange’s images foretold. The crisis of agriculture in the face of toxic capitalism and climatic disaster that is at the center of her famous photographs might also have served to focus and sharpen "Countryside: The Future," where it is occasionally a subject but more often merely an unstated subtext. — Places Journal
In "Countryside: The Future and the Past," Deborah Gans reviews Countryside: The Future, at the Guggenheim Museum, the multimedia culmination of years of interdisciplinary, globe-spanning research led by OMA's Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, director of its think tank, AMO... View full entry
Now in its third edition, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University announce the winners of this year's 2021 Course Development Prize in Architecture, Climate... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects has issued its first statement on a policy decision by newly inaugurated U.S. President, Joe Biden. Publicly sworn in on Capitol Hill earlier today, Biden spent the afternoon signing executive orders, many of which will reinstate environmental regulations... View full entry
While the news cycle in October was mostly dominated by the upcoming elections and ongoing pandemic, other aspects of life continued. In the world of architecture, these were the stories that captured our collective attention... The Challenges of Academia Lesley Lokko resigns as Dean of CCNY's... View full entry
One of the UK’s most famous architects has withdrawn from an environmental coalition in a dispute about the destructive role of aviation in the escalating climate crisis. [...]
The decision follows a row over Foster and Partners’ work on airports around the world – seen by critics as incompatible with tackling the climate and ecological emergency.
— The Guardian
Airport designs have been key projects in Foster + Partners' portfolio for years, with prominent recent commissions and competition entries in Saudi Arabia, Marseille, Chicago, Mexico City, and Beijing. Following Foster's decision to withdraw from his initial commitment, Architects Declare issued... View full entry
