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Last year's devastating wildfires in California and Hawaii once again came into focus as part of a New York Times exposé on the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (I.B.H.S.)-led movement towards the “biggest overhaul of building standards in more than 30 years.” Burn... View full entry
The latest survey of landscape architects released Wednesday by the American Society of Landscape Architects includes updated information on incumbent design trends and project valuations, indicating a further shift in priorities nationwide under the looming threat of climate change. According to... View full entry
A new collaborative project between Shigeru Ban, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture, and Hawaii Off-Grid Architecture and Engineering has been constructed in Maui, providing residents of the community with much-needed temporary accommodations following the aftermath... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is soliciting a call for donations in response to the devastating wildfires that have claimed more than 100 lives and damaged countless structures in Maui. The AIA shares: "The AIA family is deeply saddened by these recent wildfires and is working in... View full entry
Canadian wildfire smoke continues to blow over much of the U.S., raising air pollution to harmful levels for construction workers. Now, the impact of the fires is likely to raise U.S. lumber prices, too. — Construction Dive
As reported by Construction Dive, Canada’s devastating wildfire season, which has been felt across North America through declined air quality, has impacted the largest amount of land ever recorded in a single year. As a result, lumber prices are expected to rise as Canada supplies approximately... View full entry
Each home was considered to be built to shelter-in-place standards, with ignition-resistant construction and materials—a cutting-edge approach for the time, though the standards have since been adopted into state and local codes. They are little fortresses of tile roofs, stucco walls, hardscape patios, and covered eaves. [The] heavy fortification gives the communities—both the structures and the people who shelter in them—an extra chance to survive. — MIT Technology Review
The state is in a bind caused by its dire need to quickly enact affordable housing and the movement of populations into liminal wildland-urban interface zones, both of which are placing more people in the fight or flight predicament that’s leading to more innovations in residential design... View full entry
I’ve seen miracles happen. I’ve seen ordinary people do the most heroic things. When you’ve had the privilege of knowing so many great fighters and resisters, you can’t lay down the sword, even if things seem objectively hopeless. — The Guardian
The terminally-ill City of Quartz author sat down recently with The Guardian to discuss his waning health and look back at prescient early warnings of the state’s slow-motion social and ecological demise that has taken three decades to manifest. True to form, Davis was critical of... View full entry
As Spain, France, Greece, and Germany grapple with a spate of historic wildfires that have gripped the region in recent weeks, a group of researchers in the American West is now advocating for fairly extreme shifts in development trends there which would buck others currently favored by the... View full entry
It’s been a rough couple of years for timber. As we have previously reported, lumber prices across the United States saw a 90% increase in May 2021 on the previous 12 months, adding an extra $36,000 onto the cost of constructing a new home. In a relief for clients and contractors alike, that... View full entry
Wildfires are becoming an increasing threat to American homeowners with the acceleration of climate change, and now a new tool from the nonprofit First Street Foundation will allow them to access probability-based data about the potential risk their property may face over the next 30 years. ... View full entry
Lumber prices have seen dramatic rises and falls during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021, prices saw a 90% increase on the previous 12 months, adding an extra $36,000 onto the cost of constructing a new home in the United States. The record-high in May was followed a 40% decline in prices in... View full entry
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service announced a $50 billion plan to fight wildfires. The goal is, in fact, to reduce wildfires. But one of the side effects may be a huge infusion of ecologically harvested wood into the supply chain for building materials. For architects, this firefighting tool could also be a new source of carbon-sequestering wood for sustainable building projects. — Fast Company
The timber industry is currently under tremendous strain to meet demands as suppliers face labor shortages that have triggered high prices for their clients, who are increasingly looking to build bigger and taller buildings using what is considered to be a more sustainable material. The... View full entry
A new computer program powered by artificial intelligence takes mere minutes to determine whether homes and buildings have been destroyed by wildfires once the smoke has cleared.
Developed by scientists at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Stanford University, DamageMap evaluates the destruction by scrutinizing post-wildfire aerial and satellite images.
— Santa Cruz Sentinel
The team worked to fix a major flaw in existing modeling systems that required exact lighting and photographic angles in order to produce an accurate survey of structural damage in a specific area. 50,000 images from various fires across California were used as a baseline for the software, which... View full entry
Jennifer Diamond, a spokeswoman for the team fighting the Caldor Fire, wasn’t sure who wrapped the Phillips Tract cabin but said she’s helped cover a historic backcountry building with foil in the past. Aside from historic buildings, firefighters might choose to wrap a remote cabin where property owners have already cut back vegetation, cut down overhanging trees and cleared roofs and gutters of debris. — The San Francisco Chronicle
The cabin was among many in the South Lake Tahoe region to adapt a temporary version of an adaptability approach that has become increasingly popular during a year that has already seen over a million acres scorched in California alone. The ongoing Caldor Fire has destroyed more than 700 homes as... View full entry
Europe’s summer of natural disasters has included increasingly frequent extreme weather events [...]
Ms. Myrivili’s appointment is a recognition of that new reality. But it is also a foreboding sign that having someone to grapple with suffocating temperatures may be a mainstay of the municipal cityscape, as necessary and unremarkable as a transportation, sanitation or police commissioner.
— The New York Times
Other cities like Miami have retained administrators with similar titles. Athens is leading the way in terms of a loss of residents who are in large part moving to escape the heat. The country itself is expected to lose 8 million people in the next four years. Myrivili earned a PhD from... View full entry
