CENTRIA Offers AIA-Certified Continuing Education Program
Design Build Network
CENTRIA, in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects (AIA), has developed a continuing education program for architects and designers about the use of metal walls in building envelope systems. "As a leader in the architectural metal wall and roof industry, CENTRIA is excited and honored to provide architects and designers with up-to-date information and real-world examples on the benefits of building wall systems with metal," said Jim Flanagan, product manager, CENTRIA. Learning objectives of the presentation include informing architects and designers about why they should use metal, analyzing the superior performance of metal, explaining how metal supports sustainable design and determining when metal may be the best solution for a project. CENTRIA is a registered provider with the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Systems. Credit earned on completion of the program is reported to continuing education systems records for AIA members. Certificates of completion for non-AIA members are available upon request. As a registered program for AIA/CES for continuing education, the presentation does not include any content that may be deemed as an endorsement of any building material or product.
Tom Dyckhoff's Picks for the London Festival of Architecture
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
While the London Festival of Architecture finishes up its planning to have its big kick-off celebrations this Friday before its month-long run, Tom Dyckhoff over at the Times in the UK has a few pieces of advice to share. While the critic thinks the LFA, like most architecture celebrations, has sort of a negative going in ("buildings don't do festive very well") and not really being able to admire what architecture really "is" very directly, instead focusing more on the plans and what could be and who is behind it, Dyckhoff does pick out from nice bits from the fest and it should provide a nice peek at the event, should you be planning to attend, or something of a little online tour for those of us stuck several thousand miles away.
A Guided Tour of Renzo Piano's Art Institute Plans
mediabistro.com: UnBeige
A nice little sneak peek we caught the other day over at the Chicago Tribune, showing off starchitect Renzo Piano's plans for the Art Institute of Chicago's new wing, which is set to open next May. But not only does the video tour with Piano himself serve as a good feature for you architecture buffs, it also serves a purpose by giving we Chicagoans a link to send to our friends visiting from out of town who ask why the hell the biggest, most famous art museum in the city has had all of its most famous pieces moved out of it. The reason, we will tell them, is because of Renzo and his hard-hatted pal.
Town of Babylon to Provide Funds to Make 65,000 Homes Energy Efficient!
Preston D K in Jetson Green
In an innovative move, the Town of Babylon has set up an extensive program to work with citizens to pay for energy efficiency upgrades for every home in the town. The basic premise of the program is that the town wants to help residents use less energy, so here's what they plan to do. They're going to loan up to $12,000 at the super low interest rate of 3% to pay directly for renovation costs. Under the program, residents get home energy audits that include recommended actions for renovations, including adding more insulation, changing out the HVAC system, etc. The town pays for the renovations and the homeowner then makes payments to the town based roughly on the reduction in payments caused by having a more efficient home. So it's quite the innovative system.
Welcome Home, Perkins+Will: You're No. 1! (In Chicago)
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
The Architectural Record has published the 2008 edition of its annual survey the top 150 U.S. architectural firms ranked by 2007 revenue. And while storm clouds are gathering - AR's ABI (architectural billings index) showed a nearly 27% decline from last December of 07 to March of 08, 2007 seems to have at least given firms a chance to gather their rose buds from a rather prosperous year, with revenues jumping 20% from 2006. In Chicago, the largest firm listed is again Perkins+Will, coming off several years of exile where AR classified it as an Atlanta-based company. It's $330.5 million in revenues represented a rise of over 23%. The firm dropped from 5th to 6th in the listings, right ahead of New York based, Chicago behemoth Skidmore, Owings and Merrill ($310.9 million, up 23.8%). Perkins+Wills new Holland Michigan headquarters for the Haworth company designed by Ralph Johnson and Eva Maddox, is getting rave reviews from everyone from the Trib's Blair Kamin to Metropolis Magazine.
A Beauty in Bolzano
Michelle Linden in Atelier A+D
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano Italy has recently opened their new building by Krüger Schuberth Vandreike... I imagine the simple form allows the artwork to take center stage, even though I don't see any artwork in these photos!
Gehry On Campus and In the News
Jimmy Stamp in Life Without Buildings
Two Frank Gehry buildings—one existing and one proposed—have found their way into the news lately…and not for good reasons. ITEM 1: In NPR’s coverage of the Iowa floods, they took a look at the University of Iowa’s Advanced Technology Building, designed by Frank Gehry. Despite surrounding the signature, metal-clad building with sandbags, water has crept up to the door handles and faculty members have had to move sensitive equipment from the lower floors of the lab. Some incredibly powerful and all-too-familiar photographs accompany their report.
Global Winners Chosen for Sustainable Cities Award
Andrew Williams in Green Options
Nine ‘outstanding’ programs from around the world have been chosen as winners at the first ever Sustainable Cities Awards. According to sponsors, the Urban Land Institute and the Financial Times, the awards honour worldwide examples of initiatives that showcase new ideas and perspectives for best practice in sustainable land use. Each of the winners is incorporating initiatives that are making significant contributions in highlighting the concept of sustainability in real estate. I can’t help but be a little confused by these awards though. On the one hand, they showcase some truly inspiring projects from around the world. On the other, it seems a little suspicious that at least two of the winners are projects with high-level involvement from companies represented on the awards panel. There is also a heavy emphasis on large-scale American projects, with at least seven of the nine winners coming from the U.S. Is this simply an indication of where the main centre’s of sustainability excellence really are, or did the panel gloss over worthy candidates from elsewhere?'
The Landscape House Illustrates Smart Green Design
Preston D K in Jetson Green
This is The Landscape House, a concept designed by Maul Dwellings that won the AIA's 2006 Committee on Design competition to design "A House for an Ecologist." Although the concept was originally planned as field residence for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it's also an example of the smart integration of design, technology, and sustainability. The Landscape House features a double roof to enhance natural air circulation, operable louvered shutters that harvest energy, a Water Pod that houses all the efficient plumbing systems, and a solar dehumidifier unit that captures moisture from the air to produce distilled drinking water.
Walter Netsch Dies at 88
Lynn Becker in ArchitectureChicago PLUS
Blair Kamin on his Skyline blog reports that the great Chicago architect Walter Netsch died on Sunday at his home. Netsch joined Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1947, and his designs over his long career there include the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the University of Illinois "Circle" campus in Chicago, and the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. Netsch developed the design strategem he called the Field Theory, in which square forms containing core services were rotated into structural extensions of increasing geometric complexity.
Ernst & Young Headquarters, Amsterdam / Foster + Partners
David Basulto in Arch Daily
Foster + Partners just finished the first tower in Amsterdam, at the Vivaldi-park area of the new Zuidas district, south of the city. The 24-storey building is divided into two twelve metre-wide column free towers with open, flexible floor plates. The blocks are staggered in plan to admit as much natural light as possible, helping this tower to be ten per cent more efficient than the target Dutch environmental standards. Plus, it has a very nice looking lobby.
Digital Beijing Building,
Design Build Network
It might seem unusual to create a façade that graphically represents digital technology, but with the Digital Beijing Building, the Beijing-based firm Studio Pei-Zhu has done so in several ways. "Beijing's electronic ambitions extend beyond the Games." In this 57m-high structure, which will provide communication and information services during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the northern and southern sides represent barcodes. Meanwhile, the western and eastern façades replicate the look of an integrated circuit board. When vertical grooves in those facades take a diagonal jog before straightening out again, they resemble the routing of wires on a circuit board. DIGITAL BEIJING DESIGN COMPETITION To develop the building concept and win a design competition in which seven other internationally renowned firms participated, start-up design firm Studio Pei-Zhu considered the role of architecture in the information age.
greensburg 547 art center, studio804
lavardera in materialicious
This community art center in Kansas is the product of Studio804 of the University of Kansas School of Architecture. It was built with the same prefab technique as several of Studio804’s affordable dwellings. It came to the site as small lateral sections that line up to create the linear building. Its interesting to note that this differs from the modular industry which typically builds in long truck trailer length sections that are limited in width by roadway rules. Studio 804 by passes this dimensional limitation by using smaller lateral sections which allows you to make space as wide as a trailer can be long - more than enough for most small scale buildings and residences. Its an interesting twist on unitized building.
Juan Herreros (from former Abalos & Herreros) won the 2nd place on the international competition for the new builings of the CEA Cadarache Research Center. Long buildings reduce the impact of the construction in order to keep the forest density.
From the architect´s description:
The project consists of five pieces of architecture located in a forest rich in biological activity. We have con-
cluded of our visit to the site, that the best option is to inhabit the forest without exceeding their height, making architecture as a new species that respects, protects and enhances the forest, until create a new balanced system in which buildings and trees are sharing rights and obligations. With this we will not competing with the size nor the presence of a large reactor or reduce the value of the ecosystem of a wooded garden at the foot of the buildings.
Our deployment strategy is compromised to build without altering the conditions of the forest, to inhabit the forest without violence creating a symbiotic architecture with its microclimate and its density. To do so, we are disclaiming to open large breaks on the continuity of natural cycles and are proposing to build linear buildings of optimum and constant width that occupies corridors from which have been lifted only the required trees, allowing the maximum proximity of the remaining facades. The original density of the forest will always be present and architecture appears filtered through the foliage.
International Private Competition: Second Place
Client: C.E.A.
Architect: Juan Herreros Arquitectos
Project Director: Juan Herreros Guerra, Jens Richter
Collaborators: Verónica Meléndez, Paola Simone Structure: INTECSA-INARSA S.A, INGENIERIE STUDIO S.A.S Sustainability: CENER (Florencio Manteca) Graphics: Jens Richter Constructed Area: 23,410 sqm
Hopefully you're eating good, hanging out with friends and family, and enjoying this day that we celebrate. Keep it real, keep it careful, and we'll be back with you as always tomorrow morning.
Architects: 3LHD
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
Project team: Saša Begović, Marko Dabrović, Silvije Novak, Tatjana Grozdanić Begović, Irena Mažer, Marin Mikelić
Collaborators: Paula Kukuljica, Lucija Staničić, Marija Babojelić
Project: 2004
Construction: 2005-2007
Site area: 687 sqm
Gross floor area: 396 sqm
Footprint: 159 sqm
This family house for a couple with children is located in the green residential part of the city of Zagreb. The former family house was built in the 1950s on a steep hill slope and did not fully use all the advantages of the site nor did it meet the requirements of contemporary living standards. The beautiful view to the city and large garden was not valued appropriately.
On both sides the site is bordered by a street and a high building. These contextual facts determined the concept and the shape of the new project. The “L” layout with closed fronts “protect” the house from the street and the neighbouring building. At the same time the garden has been redesigned with all the main rooms in the house oriented towards it.
The living room, dining room and kitchen form a unique space and together with a swimming pool are built into the ground. In this way, being at the same level and separated from each other by a glass wall they bring the garden into the house. The house entrance is above, at street level, together with garage, storages, closet-space and studio. The family area is above the entrance space along with the living and dining rooms.
The materials used for the façades correspond to the spatial organisation of facilities. The living and dining spaces are separated by glass walls which completely open the living space to the outside; on the other hand, the bedroom walls are alternatively panelled by wooden boards.
Forget the fact that I lived in Japan and absolutely love its culture, I didn't know that Toyota had a homes unit. And they've been in the business of making homes for over twenty years! The company adapts automobile manufacturing technology to build stylish, earthquake-resistant homes for sale within Japan. The Toyota Homes unit accounts for only .5% of the company's $262 billion in annual sales, and Toyota would like to beef that up a little bit. Plus, with the roll-out of the plug-in hybrid beginning in 2010 (remember all that discussion here about solar homes and plug-in hybrids replacing gas stations?), Toyota would like to do more with their environmentally-friendly, prefabricated homes.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota Homes are built from six or more modules in under 45 days. They have a conservative home model called the Smart Stage that sells for $200k. It's about a 1000 sf, two-story home. There's also a more expensive, custom-built 2600 sf home that sells for around $800k. Toyota Homes are strong and guaranteed for about 60 years, which is twice the average lifespan of a home in Japan.
As you might imagine, homeowners are also Toyota car owners.
The company sold 5000 homes in 2006 and 4600 homes in 2007 (due to the housing slump). But what's interesting about that number is that it shows how effectively homes can be manufactured using the same techniques that are used in the auto industry. And the Toyota Homes unit is profitable, too. That's some pretty incredible scale, if you ask me.
Plus, imagine the purposeful relationship of a plug-in Prius, Toyota Home with solar panels, and technology that charges the car during off-peak hours. If you can do this, you're not only going to stick it to the oil man, but you're going to stick it to the coal man, too. I like those odds.
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