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The UK government has rejected the Foster + Partners-designed Tulip Tower, bringing an end to years of uncertainty over the project’s future. The scheme’s rejection by Housing Secretary Michael Gove and housing minister Christopher Pincher comes only one month after speculation within the... View full entry
Far from Glasgow and COP26, Ithaca, New York, just made an unprecedented move to tackle climate change and the city’s carbon footprint. In a unanimous vote on Wednesday night, Ithaca’s city council approved the full decarbonization of its buildings. — CNBC
This is the first US city to begin work on a 100% decarbonization plan. It secured $100 million in private financing from private equity partner Alturus to support the effort, a move that may be more effective in tackling emissions than federal and state efforts. Ithaca’s energy efficiency... View full entry
The National Building Museum has announced the upcoming launch of its new program series, Climate ABC (Action/Building/Community). Commencing on November 16, the series will offer programs designed to both educate the public about climate action and to push for significant solutions in the... View full entry
Plans to operate commercial hydrogen-electric flights between London and Rotterdam have been announced, with those behind the project hoping it will take to the skies in 2024. In a statement Wednesday, aviation firm ZeroAvia said it was developing a 19-seater aircraft that would “fly entirely on hydrogen.” — CNBC
ZeroAvia, Dutch airport management company Royal Schiphol Group, Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport Foundation, and Rotterdam the Hague Airport have announced a partnership to develop the project. The initiative sets a timeline for potentially the first international zero-emission commercial... View full entry
On 31st October, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) will begin in Glasgow, Scotland. Among the events across the two-week conference is Built Environment Day: the first time a dedicated day at COP will be given to addressing carbon emissions from buildings. The dedicated... View full entry
The Great Lakes are often called the nation’s third coast, and the past five years in the region have been the wettest on record. While the lakes don’t exactly correlate to rising sea levels, Chicago now sits in just as precarious a position as oceanfront cities. Heavier rainfall and more frequent droughts are now causing extreme swings in the water levels of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, wreaking havoc on the city and prompting urgent action to find a fix. — CNBC
Climate change is having an increasingly marked effect on Chicago, which sits right along Lake Michigan and is dissected by the Chicago River. CNBC highlights the growing risks the city faces as one that is so vulnerable to its surrounding water bodies. In the winter of 2020, Lake Michigan reached... View full entry
TECLA, the world’s first raw earth house constructed using 3D printing, is to be exhibited as one of 17 projects in the Build Better Now virtual exhibition at COP26. As we previously reported, the exhibition will also feature a sustainability-focused 360-degree virtual pavilion designed by Make... View full entry
The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) announced that forty of the world’s leading cement and concrete manufacturers have come together to commit to cut carbon dioxide emissions by a quarter by 2030. This is a major statement in the association’s race to produce carbon-neutral... View full entry
The Duke of Cambridge appeared in apt attire last night as he announced the first slate of winners of his newly-launched Earthshot Prize celebrating innovations in the ongoing fight against climate change. The city of Milan was among the five inaugural winners of the prize, which is the brainchild... View full entry
Researchers from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Architecture have developed a promising new kind of concrete that has the potential to reduce emissions from the construction industry. Approximately 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions come from the manufacture and use of... View full entry
This post is brought to you by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis Climate change, COVID-19, the fight for social justice. In disruptive times, how can architecture help to chart new paths and implement far-reaching solutions? That’s the... View full entry
It is a case of “adapt or die”, said the Environment Agency’s chair, Emma Howard Boyd, warning that deadly events such as the flooding in Germany this summer would hit the UK if the country did not make itself resilient to the more violent weather the climate emergency was bringing. — The Guardian
With some big-name resiliency projects planned in Miami and New York for the next few years, the UK now faces a renewed push to invest in its flood-adverse communities before they suffer irreversible damage due to climate change. Sea walls are still a popular infrastructure solution to the crisis... View full entry
Construction will be an engine of global economic growth in the decade to 2030, with output expected to be 35% higher than in the ten years to 2020, according to a new global forecast. — Global Construction Review
The report, titled Future of Construction, by Oxford Economics and Marsh McLennan subsidiaries March and Guy Carpenter projects that growth in construction output will average 3.6% per year from now until 2030, outpacing that of the manufacturing and services sectors. According to the study, this... View full entry
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in partnership with Architects Declare, has announced the program for the Built Environment Summit 2021, a two-day, partially in-person conference taking place on October 28 and 29, 2021. The event comes following the publication of RIBA and... View full entry
The director and speculative architect Liam Young has launched a new project, speculating on the future of urbanism within the context of climate change and urban sprawl. The project, titled Planet City, presents a future world in which urban sprawl is reversed, and humanity retreats to one... View full entry
