BAY Arc by SOM - Winning entry

When driving between SFO Airport and San Francisco on the edge of the Bay Area, I have always wondered what would happen when the sea level starts to rise.

Recently, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) organized an ideas competition (open to any professionals, not just architects) to address the sea level rise in the Bay Area, looking for innovative and creative  solutions to bring forward a  vision of a future estuarine shoreline applicable to the San Francisco Bay and beyond. 130 entries from 18 countries were submitted.

Six teams were announced as the winners, splitting a cash prize of $25,000. Among these entries we find interesting ideas, such as Faulders Studio’s laser light barrier that measures the sea level, powered by tidal energy,  Kuth Ranieri Architects’s ventilated levee to balance the sea/bay water levels, or SOM’s smart membrane under the golden gate bridge.

But, as usual in some competitions, the honorable mentions bring more disruptive ideas, embracing a vision on a post-flood city instead of preventing it. There’s also humor among the honorable mentions, “Failure: Bring your boots” or “About Rising Tides: It´s the Delta, you stupid”.

Will our future be amphibious?

All the awarded entries after the break:
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Dubai based X-Architects recently unveiled the Urban Oasis, their latest sustainable master plan for Al Ain.  The 12-hectare urban development was conceived as a “micro-specific, compact, and passive sustainable urban oasis.”  Inspired by the existing natural environment and the traditional dense urban fabric of Islamic cities, the master plan develops an “environmental synergy between landscape and urbanity.”
More about the master plan after the break. read more »

ECDM Architects recently designed another housing project (we just shared their Student Housing Project earlier on AD) in the Issy les moulineaux, France.  Entitled ZAC bords de seine the project features retail and mixed service areas in addition to several gardens that create “an intelligent living space that turns to its surrounding environment and weather elements for assistance.”

More about the project after the break.

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Greeen! Architects shared their competition proposal for a new library and office building for the University Duisburg-Essen, in Germany.  The young architectural practice specifically  focuses on ecological and sustainable design approaches.  For their proposal, a large ecological complex intends to “create a place where city and university are woven together.”

More about the proposal after the break. read more »

We have shared architects’ different approaches to addressing the pressing food issue, from the highly conceptual designs to the more classical ideas.  It seems that more competitions and clients require architects to implement gardens for harvesting food, or create an available food solution to accompany the structure. Statistics estimate that more than 80% of the population will live in cities by 2050 and the oil transportation needed to ship food from rural areas will only become more expensive.  Soon, adding alternative farming methods won’t be an option; it will be a necessity if food for cities is to remain cost-efficient.

Plantagon, a Swedish-American company, has recently created their take on the vertical farm idea: a geodesic dome containing an urban Plantagon® greenhouse.  The farm “will dramatically change the way we produce organic and functional food. It allows us to produce ecological with clean air and water inside urban environments, even major cities, cutting costs and environmental damage by eliminating transportation and deliver directly to consumers,” explained Plantagon.

More about the dome after the break. read more »

For three weeks in October 2009, 20 teams of college and university students will compete in the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.  The competition provides the teams with an opportunity to “design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.”  Organized in three stages, (building, moving to the solar village in the National Mall in Washington D.C., and the actual competition) the Solar Decathlon aims to raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency, help solar energy technologies enter the marketplace faster, foster collaboration among students from different academic disciplines, and educate the student participants.  “The Solar Decathlon brings attention to one of the biggest challenges we face-an ever-increasing need for energy. As an internationally recognized event, it offers powerful solutions-using energy more efficiently and using energy from renewable sources.”

Santa Clara University, known for their excellence in engineering/business got the third place at the 2007 competition, and for this year’s competition they teamed with CCA, dedicated to architecture, art and design, to create a 100 student team to participate in the Solar Decathlon.  The team is the only undergraduate-led team participating in the competition (most are filled with Ph. D programs), combing “youth and process, [they] set the standard in green living”.  The young team of future architects, engineers, construction managers, graphic designers and interior designers have created a proposal, entitled Refract House, that is dedicated to promoting the idea of “Living Light: harnessing sunlight to power our energy needs, lightening our carbon footprint upon the earth, and enlightening today’s consumers and the next generation of concerned, responsible citizens about the possibilities of sustainable living.”  “We want the project to have a lasting impact as both a case study for green design and as an exhibit of technology. We already know it’s going to have an impact on all of us,” explained Allison Kopf, an SCU Engineering Physics student.

More about the winning Refract House after the break. read more »

Designed by ThreefoldArchitects, the Ladderstile House, an eco-friendly large residence in Richmond Park, London, is arranged around an internally landscape courtyard.  The home’s volumes open to external areas creating a unified residence with the exterior and interior complimenting each other.

More images and more about the residence after the break. read more »

1:1 Architects shared their design idea for retro fitting high-rise buildings in Melbourne with a modular system of independent green roof structures. The new roof is designed to be installed, modified or even dismantled quite easily.  “Our green roof concept is a flexible modular system, designed to adapt to varying scale rooftops and respond to differing site conditions and functional requirements,” explained the architects.  The roof provides a new atmosphere for the existing buildings where a variety of activities, such as an informal meeting or a simple lunch break, can be held.

More about the roof after the break. read more »

HyBrid Architecture + Assembly‘s building system, coined “Cargotecture”, offers a sustainable, modular and affordable alternative to traditional construction methods.  The Seattle-based architecture and general contracting firm recently created the first cargo container buildings for Seattle in the design district of the Georgetown area.

More images and more about the cargo buildings after the break.  read more »

Standard Architecture‘s conceptual design, Co-Op Canyon, has recently received an honorable mention for the Re:Vision Dallas competition.  The competition provided participants with the opportunity to create an innovative and sustainable prototype for an urban community. Standard’s radical approach focused on how the residents could potentially gain equity through participation in construction, agricultural, maintenance, education and conservation programs central to the sustenance of the community. 

More images and information after the break. read more »

Architects: Jorge Hernandez de la Garza
Location: Coyoacan, Mexico
Design Team: Rodrigo Ambriz, Michael Smith, Erik Cosio
Project Year: 2009
Images: Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

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The Zuidkas, an experimental project commissioned by the Government Building Agency, challenges architects with an imaginary office building of over 11,000 square meters in Amsterdam that demands innovative solutions.  The main objective of the Zuidkas project is to achieve the highest possible score with regard to the fulfillment of environmental objectives.

Architect Paul de Ruiter and his team focused on nine aspects of sustainability, ranging from carbon reduction to energy savings. With these elements in mind, de Ruiter created a kind of miniature city that works as one building.

More about de Ruiter’s design after the break.

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Amidst financial buildings and high-rise apartments, Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has redefined the conventional skyscraper. His 132 story complex for the south edge of Roosevelt Island addresses the pressing need for environmental and ecological sustainability. This conceptual design focuses on creating a completely self-sustaining organism that not only utilizes solar, wind, and water energies, but also addresses the pending food shortage problem.

More after the break.
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Romses Architects has designed “Harvest Green Project-02′ as a part of Vancouver ‘The 2030 Challenge’. Harvest Green Project is rooted in a concept that challenges the status quo of how energy and food is produced, delivered and sustained in our city, neighbourhoods, and individual single-family homes.

Taking cues from the citys eco-density charter, and in particular, it’s new laneway housing initiatives, the Harvest Green Project proposes to overlay a new ‘green energy and food web’ across the numerous residential neighborhoods and laneways within the city as these communities address future increased densification. The city’s laneways will be transformed into green energy and food conduits, or ‘green streets’, where energy and food is ‘harvested’ via proposed micro laneway live-work homes.

Seen at designboom. More images after the break. read more »

The ‘Harvest Green Project’ by Romses Architects was a winning entry in a recent competition held by the city of Vancouver: ‘The 2030 Challenge’ to address climate change plans and to guide greener and denser development, reducing carbon emissions for the future.

The concept of ‘harvest’ is explored in the project through the vertical farming of vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish, egg laying chickens, and a boutique goat and sheep dairy facility. In addition, renewable energy will be harvested via green building design elements harnessing geothermal, wind and solar power. The buildings have photovoltaic glazing and incorporate small and large-scale wind turbines to turn the structure into solar and wind-farm infrastructure. In addition, vertical farming potentially adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals. Furthermore, a large rainwater cistern terminates the top of the ‘harvest tower’ providing on-site irrigation for the numerous indoor and outdoor crops and roof gardens.

Seen at designboom. More images after the break. read more »

Dutch practice, Sponge Architects sent us their latest residencial project: Villa Panorama, where you can “enjoy the country life in a home where your dream landscape reveals itself before your own eyes”, as they say.

See some more images and drawings after the break.

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The Goethe-Institut New York presents What Is Green Architecture?, a series of conversations, lectures, and events exploring the cutting-edge developments in the field and their impact on contemporary life as well as implications for the future. The series continues with a talk by noted architect Prof. Manfred Hegger, followed by a discussion moderated by Matthias Hollwich.

Manfred Hegger, the recipient of numerous national and international awards, is a professor at the Technical University Darmstadt, Energy Efficient Building Design Unit, and is a founding member/CEO of HHS Planer + Architekten AG in Kassel. He is a member of the Bund Deutscher Achitekten (the German Architects Foundation), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (the German Society for Sustainable Construction), among others, and was the director of the UIA International Work Program for Sustainable Architecture of the Future from 1999-2008. He will also be a featured speaker at the 1st German-American Energy Efficiency Conference on April 28.

Moderator Matthias Hollwich is the cofounder of HollwichKushner, LLC, and has worked in several internationally acclaimed architectural firms and urban design studios. He is currently visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and is co-editor along with Rainer Weissbach of the book Bauhaus: UmBauhaus – Updating Modernism.

The event will take place April 30 at the Goethe-Institut New York Wyoming Building, New York. Free admission.

One of the most discussed parts of the stimulus plan by the architectural community, has been the proposed green boost for federal buildings. This $6 billion plan is a good way to provide jobs for the AEC industry, by modernizing old federal buildings and making them energy efficient.

But also this plan has a challenge: spending that money wisely in a tight time frame, following recommendations by the  High-Performance Building Congressional Caucus Coalition Executive Committee, who released their final document today.

An interesting section of these recommendations is data standards, such as the role of BIM during the life cycle of the building. Also, it addresses the problem with the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) losing authority, due to lack of funding in times “when energy  was not a priority”.

Full recommendations after the break. You can see the original PDF file here.

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Los Angeles is often portrayed as the example of the car-friendly city. The traditional image of the town is an endless pattern of single family dwellings, interconnected by traffic-clogged freeways, where transit is undeveloped and the air is choked with smog.

However, Los Angeles is changing. The city’s Transport Authority has planned in the last years a series of measures aiming to improve quality of life through improving transit and walking and providing alternative to car commuting.

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The model #1: Napoli, quartieri Spagnoli (image: flickr)

If the mainstream view on the slums describes them as places to escape from and as to destroy as soon as possible, more and more people look at slums in a different way.

The first glances at slums were from some of the architects involved in urban renewal projects, who started to integrate in their projects some elements of the slums. Some of the recurrent features are:

• narrow courtyards and alleys
• division of the building into small blocks
• use of different colors and materials within the same building.

(part 1/2)

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