Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Metal. Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to... View full entry
More than 80 people had to be evacuated after a major fire broke out in east London early Monday, fire officials said. The blaze brought back painful memories of the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people in the city in 2017.
The Dagenham building had “a number of fire safety issues” officials said. Notably, the mixed-use building had “noncompliant cladding,” according to a 2023 application for construction work.
— The New York Times
Responding to the Dagenham fire, the Times reported Grenfell United as saying, "This highlights the painfully slow progress of remediation across the country, and a lack of urgency for building safety as a whole." In a truly painful precursor, the yearslong criminal inquiry into the deadly... View full entry
Just under one in four high-rise UK residential structures in need of cladding remediation have had the necessary labor performed despite a previous increase in efforts in the wake of the ongoing inquiry into the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, according to a new report from the government office... View full entry
Valencia is reeling from a fatal fire at an apartment complex in the Spanish city. The incident began on the night of Thursday, February 22nd, and though the cause has not been definitively established, early reporting has suggested that the building’s cladding may have played a part in the... View full entry
These kinds of guidelines cite “sustainability,” but miss a larger point about housing in Minneapolis. While it’s true that some types of texture and massing look “cheaper” than others, there are legitimate questions about whether or not newer types of building materials — EIFS, metal cladding, and the like — are more climate friendly and affordable than other materials that seem more traditional. — MinnPost
EIFS (aka “synthetic stucco” or “Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems”) are but one material in the proposed bans put forth by city planning officials in Minneapolis recently in an attempt to formalize a set of 2014 guidelines. EIFS capabilities have advanced beyond a widely-known... View full entry
Lake Tahoe is the project site of Laney LA's unbuilt residential design project titled the SQ Residence. The Hermosa Beach-based architecture and design firm share model images and drawings of a residential project proposal aimed to resemble a mountain cave that "acts as a fortress within a... View full entry
This post is brought to you by CupaPizarras. CupaClad, a leading provider of innovative and sustainable building solutions, has launched a new product that promises to improve the world of architectural cladding with its Natural Slate Rainscreen Cladding System. A system that offers provides... View full entry
England's housing developers have been given an ultimatum - commit to repairing unsafe buildings or be banned from operating in the market.
Developers now have six weeks to sign a government contract to fix their unsafe buildings from the past 30 years.
According to the government's new plan, homeowners living in buildings whose construction poses a potential fire risk will be reimbursed, and building companies who installed the unsafe cladding must pay to replace it with a safer material.
— BBC
Speaking to the press on Sunday, UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove admitted “faulty” guidance was to blame for the Grenfell Tower tragedy, stating his opinion that the building industry had gone underregulated for years. Cladding manufacturers like Celotex and Kingspan were not included in the... View full entry
Nowhere is the gulf between digital promise and physical fact more spectacularly evident than at the new Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in California [...]
Almost a generation in the making, it feels like the final death rattle of a bygone age, the last gasp of an era preoccupied with novel form for form’s sake. Perhaps it is fitting that this flimsy, paper-thin architecture is held together with tape.
— The Guardian
The Guardian critic paid a visit to the new museum building to offer a thoroughly dejecting assessment based on what he observed to be a disorienting entrance, confounding wayfinding system, atrium configuration, and defective cladding panels made necessary by a “performative shell” that... View full entry
The close of the 300-day-long inquiry into the devastating 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London saw attorneys for the victims pinning the “primary responsibility” on the building's designer, Studio E Architects, adding that a “rogue's gallery” comprised of Arconic Architectural Products and... View full entry
A massive fire was reported in the early hours of Monday morning at the 8 Boulevard Walk Tower in Downtown Dubai.
Located near the Burj Khalifa, the 35-storey tower was ablaze and was extinguished just before 4am. The building seems to have extensive fire damage on the façade spanning through all floors.
— Arabian Business
The cause of the fire is unknown but appears to have been affected by the structure’s cladding, which residents told The Daily Mail was supposed to be replaced following a New Year’s Eve blaze in 2015 that caused significant damage to the nearby Address Downtown Dubai hotel. 1/ #Dubai The... View full entry
London-based architecture studio Bureau de Change and Lulu Harrison, a postgraduate student in Central Saint Martins' Material Futures program, have collaborated to create a series of cladding tiles made from glass using mussel shells. Their work explores alternatives to the processed and... View full entry
A large chunk of aluminum cladding fell off the Hancock building earlier this week, frightening neighbors. The piece of cladding fell about 3 p.m. Wednesday, landing atop a planter on the building’s south side off Chestnut Street. No one was injured. — Block Club Chicago
The incident is eerily reminiscent of the tragic 2019 death of architect Erica Tishman in Manhattan, which has resulted in recent criminal charges in addition to a host of lawsuits brought against the property developers and city by the architect’s family and Department of Buildings. ... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Metal. Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to... View full entry
Executives who sold combustible insulation for use on Grenfell Tower perpetrated a “fraud on the market” by rigging a fire test and making “misleading” claims about it, a public inquiry has heard.
Celotex, a subsidiary of the French construction materials company Saint-Gobain, behaved in a “completely unethical” way, admitted Jonathan Roper, a former assistant product manager.
— The Guardian
