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AIA: The Latest Architecture and News

Win a FREE Full Pass to the 2016 AIA National Convention from reThink Wood

Next month, the AIA National Convention is heading to Philadelphia! As the premier architecture and design conference of the year, this is a can’t-miss event for those involved with the industry. If you haven’t yet purchased your pass, we’re offering a chance to attend free of charge!

reThink Wood is offering a full pre-paid pass to the 2016 AIA National Convention ($1,050 value) to one lucky ArchDaily reader. The winner will have the chance to meet with architects, engineers, academics and developers that are passionate about innovative design with wood.

To win, just answer the following question in the comments section before Friday, April 22 at 12:00 p.m. ET: Which mass timber building in the U.S. has most inspired you? 

AIA Celebrates National Architecture Week

The AIA has kicked off National Architecture week, which will run from April 10-April 16. The week aims to "elevate the public's appreciation of design," while also recognizing those architects who have impacted local communities through design and collaboration. In support of the celebration, the AIA will reveal the winners of the AIA/ALA Library Building Awards on April 12.

AIA Names 10 Best US Houses of 2016

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected ten recipients for the 2016 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards program, now in its 16th year, was established to recognize "the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life."

The 2016 AIA Housing Award recipients include:

AIA Convention 2016

AIA Convention 2016 is the architecture and design event of the year.

A provocative lineup of celebrity speakers. An awe-inspiring array of tours, parties, exhibitors, seminars, and more. All happening in a legendary American city known for attitude, passion and perspective.

Living Small: Ideas for Living in the City

As Seattle grows, how can housing design keep pace with the evolving ways we are living in cities? Is small housing a viable option? Can smaller spaces make for better living? This exhibit by 2015 Emerging Professionals Travel Scholarship Recipient Garrett Reynolds, explores micro-living spaces in dense urban environments in Copenhagen, New York, Stockholm, and Tokyo.

Urban Housing Forum: Room for Growth

The Urban Housing Forum will examine how housing design and policy can serve as catalyst for livability and quality of place in an increasingly dense city. The full day program will include presentations on innovative projects, regulatory and development strategies and an investigation into housing’s unique and significant role in shaping individual lives, a sense of community and the overall design of a city as well as a panel on “What Will Make Seattle a Model City?”. In addition, our keynote speaker will be David Baker FAIA, LEED AP of David Baker Architects.

AIA Awards 4 US Projects Research Grants

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected four projects for its Upjohn Research Initiative, a joint program of the College of Fellows and the Board Knowledge Committee to support knowledge sharing between practitioners and academicians. "The purpose of this grant, now in its ninth year, is to provide base funds for applied research projects that advance professional knowledge and practice," says the AIA. "The 18-month long project grant qualifies recipients to have their findings and outcomes published both electronically and in a nationally distributed publication." Read on for more on each project. 

AIA Releases Diversity Survey Results

The AIA has released the results of a survey on diversity in the workplace. Taken by more than 7,500 professionals in the industry, the purpose of the survey was to investigate the careers of architects and observe how firm culture affects career paths, depending on race, ethnicity, and gender.

Some of the key findings included representations of gender and race, challenges to career advancement, work-life balance and its impact on women, factors impacting the representation of minorities, reasons for leaving the architecture field, and job satisfaction levels.

12 Architects to Receive AIA Young Architects Award

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected 12 recipients for the 2016 AIA Young Architects Award. The award, now in its 23rd year, recognizes architects who have been licensed for 10 years or fewer. These young architects have shown exceptional leadership and have made significant contributions to the profession. The recipients will be honored at the 2016 AIA National Convention in Philadelphia. Click here to see the winners and their profiles.

Call for Entries: AIA UK Excellence in Design Awards

For over 20 years the American Institute of Architects UK Chapter 'Excellence in Design Awards' programme has proven highly valued by architects as they confer trans-Atlantic recognition for design excellence. Professional entries are sought from architects, industrial designers, urban planners, landscape architects and interior designers based in Britain, and from around the world for completed projects in the UK.

When It Comes to Sustainable Design, Architects Still Don't Get It

In the face of global doomsday predictions, sustainability has become one of the most crucial aspects of the 21st century, now playing a huge role in everything from politics to the way you dispose of your trash. Fortunately, most architects understand sustainability implicitly, and have adopted it into their lives and work. Or have they? In this article, originally published on Common Edge as "Why Architects Don't Get It," green building expert Lance Hosey highlights the failures of the architecture community in reaching their stated sustainability goals, and argues for a new conception of architecture in which good design and sustainable design are integrated.

A few years ago, the American Institute of Architects, the self-declared “voice of the architecture profession,” announced that "AIA members will no longer need to complete the sustainable design requirement to fulfill their AIA continuing education." Why? Because “sustainable design practices have become a mainstream design intention.” Hooray! If sustainability is “mainstream” now, and knowledge about it is no longer necessary “to maintain competency” and “to advance and improve the profession”—the purpose of continuing education, according to the AIA—then the profession must have met its environmental goals, and there’s nothing left to improve. Mission accomplished.

If only.

AIA Survey Shows that Non-Residential and Sustainable Construction Are Increasing

A set of reports by the AIA show an expected increase in spending on non-residential design for 2016 and 2017, as well as an emergence of more sustainable building technologies.

“Emerging technologies are becoming the dominant force in how buildings are being designed,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “Buildings in their own right are becoming far more energy efficient, and certain technologies are increasing both the efficiency of the people using the buildings and the project delivery methods in which buildings are being designed and constructed.”

Call for Entries: 'Re-Defining Home: Home Today, Home Tomorrow Design Challenge'

We know people overwhelmingly want to stay living in their homes and communities for as long as possible. But, livability isn’t about ageing. It is about comfort, convenience, safety and options throughout one’s life. Yet, people tend to buy or live in homes based on their present-day circumstances. We can start to change that… one home design at a time.
To that end, this competition challenges architects, designers and allied professionals to create new standards in housing concepts so people can stay in their home as they travel through various life stages. Help alter the paradigm and re-imagine Home so it changes with a person’s needs, as they evolve in life. That’s what Re-defining Home: Home Today, Home Tomorrow is all about, and why it is so important.

AIA Brooklyn and Queens Chapter Launch the Brooklyn & Queens Design Awards

With the growth of new development and renovation in our two boroughs in the past five years, our professional associations are excited to collaborate on this event to celebrate the contributions of the design professions to the urban environment we all share.

In its inaugural year, the Brooklyn + Queens Design Awards (BQDA) program has been established to encourage excellence in architectural design, to raise public awareness of the built environment and to honor the architects, owners and builders of significant projects within the two boroughs. It is the goal and collaboration of the AIA Brooklyn and AIA Queens Chapters to promote chapter members and affiliates through the display of their design and service accomplishments.

US ABI Drops Slightly in January

Continuing its up-and-down trajectory from the end of 2015, the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Architectural Billings Index (ABI) for January 2016 dropped once again below 50 - to 49.6 - representing a slight decrease in billings. It also showed a reduction in the Projects Inquiries Index, which fell to 55.3 after its strong showing of 60.2 in December.

Rem Koolhaas, Neri Oxman and Kevin Spacey to Speak at AIA National Convention 2016

Update: In addition to the previous announcement of Neri Oxman and Kevin Spacey as keynote speakers, the AIA has now announced Rem Koolhaas as the headline speaker for day three of this year's convention in Philadelphia. Koolhaas' speech will be titled "Delirious Philadelphia," a playful twist on his seminal book Delirious New York. The following article was originally published on February 11th.

AIA Elevates 149 Members to College of Fellows

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2016 Jury of Fellows has elevated 149 AIA members and eight international architects to its prestigious College of fellows, an honor awarded to members who have made significant contributions to the profession.

“The Fellowship program was developed to elevate those architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession. Election to fellowship not only recognizes the achievements of architects as individuals, but also their significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.”

Some of the elevated members are:

Marlon Blackwell on the Importance of Small Projects

In this video by the AIA, Marlon Blackwell, one of Arkansas’ foremost architects, speaks on the importance of small projects in an architect's career. “I only really worked on small projects at the beginning…that was doing everything…The scale of the site, the scale of the model, the scale of the hand…the beauty of the small project is that you can work at all of those many scales," says Blackwell. “The smaller projects are the beginning of the development of a language in architecture. I see it not as a benign or banal thing but as the beginning of taking yourself from where you are to where you want to be.”