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Six months after the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, columnist Kunle Barker wrote in the UK Architects' Journal to take a stand against the industry’s oneiric focus on “lofty ideals of zero-carbon and on soundbites” and towards a more considered system of new project evaluation, advocating... View full entry
A new draft plan by the California Air Resources Board was released on Tuesday that lays out an ambitious roadmap for achieving carbon neutrality in the state by 2045. Called the 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan, the guide highlights the necessity for a comprehensive shift away from fossil... View full entry
eVolo Magazine has revealed the 2022 winners of their annual Skyscraper Competition. Chosen from a pool of 427 projects, the three winners and twenty honorable mentions offer visionary ideas for the future of vertical architecture, shaped by novel approaches to technology, materials, function, and... View full entry
Oki, a qualified architect at global construction company Mace, has been chosen by an informal collective of early-career architects, students and architectural activists keen to shake-up the institute and move it beyond ‘empty slogans and self-serving initiatives’. — Architect's Journal
The campaigning collective behind Muyiwa Oki’s nomination includes grassroots organization Future Architects Front (FAF), past and current RIBA Council members, and RIBA’s Future Architects members. As previously reported by Archinect, the group announced in March its intentions to put... View full entry
To coincide with the recent Earth Day celebrations, the Chicago Architecture Center has opened up its archives for a look inside the revolution that could restore the city, traditionally thought to be a mecca for the seminal works of 19th- and 20th-century architectural pioneers, to the top... View full entry
The Biden administration on April 19 restored key regulations in the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires review of federal projects to assess their likely impacts on climate change and nearby communities. The changes to the NEPA rules will go into effect in late May, and could mean proposed infrastructure like highways, pipelines and railways take more time to get approved. — Construction Dive
This move reverses changes made by the Trump administration, which loosened the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 2020 in order to accelerate projects by shortening the time used to gather environmental information and community input. According to Construction Dive, construction... View full entry
Further details have been revealed for the design of OCEANIX Busan, described as the “world’s first sustainable floating city.” Designed by lead architects BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and SAMOO (Samsung), the project will be constructed in the South Korean city of Busan by advanced maritime... View full entry
Here’s a sobering fact: The building sector is dragging down global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. [...]
The good news is that, according to the report, up to 61% of building emissions could be cut by 2050, and we have all the solutions at our disposal today, from passive cooling technologies and denser multifamily homes to retrofits. All we need to do is implement them—or better yet, introduce regulations and policies to will them into implementation.
— Fast Company
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that emissions from buildings doubled between 1990 and 2019 despite the widespread adaptation of environmentally-friendly construction methods and materials like recycled concrete. Increases in population and the total... View full entry
A surprising number of new British construction projects are not in line with the country’s supposedly stringent sustainability mandates, according to a new industry poll published by the product information platform NBS. The survey revealed that just 14% of respondents worked on projects... View full entry
The AIA has announced the winners of the 2022 Upjohn Research Initiative, an annual grant which awards funding to research projects advancing sustainability in architecture. The 2022 edition sees up to $30,000 awarded to five research projects, with topics ranging from biodegradable... View full entry
The White House has announced the establishment of a task force to enhance the sustainability credentials of federally-funded buildings. The Buy Clean Task Force will promote the use of construction materials with lower embodied carbon emissions and pollutants across their lifecycle, including at... View full entry
Sales of cars powered solely by batteries surged in the United States, Europe and China last year, while deliveries of fossil fuel vehicles were stagnant. Demand for electric cars is so strong that manufacturers are requiring buyers to put down deposits months in advance. And some models are effectively sold out for the next two years. — The New York Times
As noted by The New York Times, the rise of electric vehicles represents the largest shift in the auto industry since the introduction of Henry Ford’s Model T. Their sales account for nearly 9 percent of new cars sold last year, which is up from 2.5 percent in 2019, according to the... View full entry
The World Economic Forum has published a briefing paper setting out its recommendations for sustainable building development. Titled Accelerating the Decarbonization of Buildings: The Net-Zero Carbon Cities Building Value Framework,” the document sets to establish a series of practical steps at... View full entry
Black communities will be disproportionately saddled with billions of dollars of losses because of climate change as flooding risks grow in the coming decades, according to research published Monday. — NBC News
According to U.S. and U.K.-based researchers in a new study within the journal Nature Climate Change, not only will the annual cost of flooding across the U.S. reach $40 billion by 2050, but predominantly Black communities will be the most impacted. The findings were obtained by modeling flood... View full entry
Sustainability startup ByFusion has developed what they describe as “the first construction-grade building material made entirely of recycled, and often un-recyclable, plastic waste.” Named ByBlock, the interlocking blocks use the same principles as LEGO with protrusions on the top surface... View full entry
