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An aging financial relic in London’s Canary Wharf is about to become the capital city’s next high-profile retrofit project thanks to a new plan from WilkinsonEyre. Architects’ Journal UK is reporting that the firm will lead a massive retrofit of the 21-year-old structure after the... View full entry
Energiesprong (which translates to “energy jump”), a nonprofit that the Dutch government helped launch a decade ago, is coordinating a system of mass retrofits. “We thought, okay, let’s make home retrofits into a scalable solution,” says Christian Richter, who works in the organization’s market development team in Germany. — Fast Company
The Netherlands has pursued an aggressive agenda which has meant a spate of net-zero residential conversions. Now groups are looking for ways to apply lessons from the program outside the country in the hopes of matching increased demands with advancements that have produced certain types of... View full entry
The maddening hum of safety slats on the pedestrian handrails of the Golden Gate Bridge will finally be silenced under a recently released proposal by the Bridge District.
The fix — devised and tested by bridge engineers in consultation with aerodynamic and acoustic experts — calls for attaching U-shaped clips containing a thin rubber sleeve to all 12,000 vertical slats on the railings.
— The San Francisco Chronicle
The haunting acoustic hum is the direct result of a $12 million wind retrofit project authored by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. A few enterprising locals have made the most of the deafening din, although the majority of drivers in the Bay Area were vocally against it... View full entry
Researchers at the University of Plymouth in the UK have published a study which found that overlaying living walls on existing buildings can improve thermal performance by 31%. The findings arose from a live experiment on a campus building, where researchers added a living wall system to an... View full entry
An architect who creates just three typical buildings over their career will be responsible for carbon emissions equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 162 typical Americans, the COP26 summit in Glasgow has been told — The Architects' Journal
During a talk on “Adaptive Transformation” at the Danish Pavilion at COP26, Enlai Hooi, who works as the Head of Innovation at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in Copenhagen, said that professionals in the building industry carry a far greater responsibility for the world’s health than other... View full entry
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced two major changes that will help it restructure and rebound following recent economic losses. The institute will shed staff and sell its surplus property as it looks to redevelop its 66 Portland Place headquarters according to reports... View full entry
The European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Union, has unveiled details of the “European Green Deal,” with the ambitious aim of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this, all 27 EU Member States will pledge to reduce emissions by at least 55% by... 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
Atlanta's State Farm Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team, is being converted into a massive polling site to help the state of Georgia make voting more accessible to its residents. CNN reports that the 17,000-seat arena will open as a polling center for the... View full entry
MVRDV has completed Villa Stardust, a private home that began as a former commercial building. Inspired by the traditional Moroccan riad, the interior living spaces of the villa are oriented around a central patio space and courtyard. Designed as an outdoor "living room," the... View full entry
As part of an effort to help guide the transition to "new lifestyle norms" in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has published a collection of tools that spell out strategies for re-occupying and retrofitting existing spaces. The tools, an... View full entry
Los Angeles-based SPF:architects has completed a 5,000-square-foot renovation of a 1970s-era beachfront California modernist home designed by notable mid-century architect Jerrold E. Lomax. SPF:a's renovations for the home, which is located in Malibu, California among a tightly clustered... View full entry
This week, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that work on the plan to convert the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan into a 2,500-bed temporary hospital has been completed. The temporary hospital facility is one of four sites currently under construction... View full entry
Over the course of six years, OPEN Architecture transformed five decommissioned aviation fuel tanks into a vibrant contemporary art center and public park. Overlooking the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the art center has attracted hoards of visitors and large cultural events since opening in... View full entry
The rise of online shopping has drastically reduced the need for shopping malls across America. However, in Providence, Rhode Island, the Westminster Arcade, America's first shopping mall, has found a way to turn this supposed "retail apocalypse" into an opportunity to build more housing. ... View full entry