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Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any... View full entry
the greater L.A. area sees more additional heat than any other region, in part because of how urbanized it is. [...]
Solutions include planting more trees and bushes, painting roofs white so they don’t absorb as much heat and using lighter colored concrete on streets and sidewalks.
— scpr.org
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any... View full entry
Portlanders apparently upset with the direction of the local housing market are slapping "no Californians" stickers on For Sale signs in the city, real estate agents say. — Oregon Live
Portland, Oregon denizens are apparently worried that a tightening real estate market is partly the fault of monied Californians, who allegedly start bidding wars and make already scarce housing inventory even more expensive. This fear is manifesting in the appearance of a wordless, red and black... View full entry
Urban Swales: Subterranean Reservoir Network for Los Angeles, by Geofutures @ Rensselaer School of Architecture / Muhammad Ahmad Khan (student); Chris Perry (program director), Ted Ngai, Fleet Hower, Kelly Winn, Lydia Xynogala (program faculty). Acknowledgements: Evan Douglis, Dean of the... View full entry
Grassroots Cactivism, by Ali Chen California is entering the fourth year of an epic drought. Urban households have reduced water usage by 25%. However, legislation does not apply to farmers, while 80% of the state's water usage goes towards agricultural production. A large percentage of that... View full entry
Recharge City, by Barry LehrmanRecharge City evaluates pragmatic options for recharging the groundwater in Los Angeles County by recycling the 502 million gallons of water that is dumped by Hyperion Treatment Plant and the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant into the Pacific each day. This is... View full entry
What if the Valley could have multiple wells placed around the city in contingent locations for maximum water replenishment back into the Aquifer?Liquifying Aquifers, by Lujac DesautelThe story of water in the San Fernando Valley is the by-product of the American frontier to the West and the... View full entry
Every drop countsLiquid Bank, by Juan SaezLiquid Bank confronts California’s drought from both a local and global perspective. The project addresses the relationship between domestic water consumption and the global water crisis with the development of water related infrastructure in emerging... View full entry
even given that the Hyperloop whitepaper was a rough sketch, the most important elements of the plan—its speed and price—have been vastly oversold. [...]
But there’s a final reason to be skeptical, not just of the technical details of the Hyperloop, but of the supposedly utopian motives behind it: It may not even be Musk’s idea.
— fortune.com
More on the much hyped (and griped) world of Hyperloop:Elon Musk launches Hyperloop Pod Competition to university students and engineersLA's Arts District now home to Hyperloop World HeadquartersThe town that Hyperloop builtDon't write off Elon Musk's Hyperloop yet...Designing the Hyperspace: UCLA... View full entry
San Diego may be known as "America's Finest City," but — at least this week — it's also the epicenter of the desalination and water reuse movement. [...]
The area had one of the first desalination plants — opened in Point Loma in 1961 — and will soon see a $1-billion facility open in Carlsbad. [...]
a sustainable water future depends on two things: "political leadership and public engagement, whether it's desalination or reuse."
— latimes.com
Desalination is just one large-scale technology for treating potable water, but it's attracted recent attention in places like Santa Barbara and San Diego as the California cities ramp up their water-conservation efforts and learn how to market the large upfront costs of desalination as long-term... View full entry
Mountain lions, bobcats and other wildlife would have less chance of becoming roadkill if [California] adopts a plan to build a [165-foot-wide, 200-foot-long] landscaped bridge over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills...Urbanization has taken a toll on Southern California’s mountain lion population, spurring battles over shrinking territory and a depletion of genetic diversity because of inbreeding. — Los Angeles Times
Related on Archinect: 33-story endangered species picture showFancy $48M animal terminal to open in JFK Airport next yearChinese sinkhole develops its own eco-systemOur infrastructure is expanding to include animalsHummingbird Drones and other Bio-inspired Robotics View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year! Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any... View full entry
Peter Zellner comes to Archinect's Dry Futures jury with a diverse architectural background, having worked for large, infrastructurally-minded firms like AECOM, while previously designing smaller-scale art spaces under his own firm, ZELLNERPLUS. In September of 2015, Peter will launch ZNc... View full entry
Geoff Manaugh is a design and architecture writer, contributing to publications such as Dwell, New Scientist and The New Yorker, as well as authoring several books and the long-running design and architecture site, BLDGBLOG.Manaugh’s perspective on the drought focuses on the ripe opportunities... View full entry