United States

Text description provided by the architects. This "L-shaped" energy smart house by the Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT), dubbed Ecohabit, won second place in the architecture category and fourth overall in this year's Solar Decathlon competition. The L-concept divides the house into two modules, "wet" and "dry". Read the team's description to learn why:

Construction begins in late October on the approximately 16,000 square foot new wing and building renovation of the Tacoma Art Museum. The new wing will provide a home for the Haub Family Collection of Western American Art, double the museum’s gallery space, provide greater art experiences for visitors, and increase the museum’s role in downtown Tacoma. Award-winning architects Olson Kundig Architects will design the expansion and renovation.

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All too often when it comes to the issue of women disappearing from the architecture profession, the question is: why? But perhaps we really should be asking: how?  How can we keep women in the profession? How can more women advance to positions of power? And how can women start earning the money they deserve? 

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A team of Austrian students from Vienna University of Technology (Team Austria) has won top honors for “designing, building, and operating the most cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive solar-powered house” at the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon. The net-positive home, known as “LISI – Living inspired by sustainable innovation,” prides itself for being a simple, smart house that is capable of adapting to a variety of lifestyles and climate zones.

Prior to being crowned as winner, LISI competed against eighteen other student-built, solar-powered homes over the course of ten days in Irvine, California. This was the first time an Austrian university has participated in the U.S. Solar Decathlon. Learn more about the winning design by reading the team’s project description after the break.

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In response to a growing company's request for office space, Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates developed a master plan that would allow the incremental addition of floor space over time. The initial design included nine identical buildings arranged in a parallelogram, totaling 1.2 million square feet. Only three of the buildings were constructed in the initial phase, and the expansion plan was never fulfilled. The trio is known as "The Pyramids" for their simple geometry and slanting glass facades.

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Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo established their own practice in 1966, after heading the firm of Eero Saarinen for several years. The Ford Foundation Headquarters is regarded as the pair's first major success, a combination of Roche's unique ideals and Dinkeloo's innovative structural solutions. They introduced an office typology in which employee interaction extended beyond departments and levels, reaching even to the public.

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The cultural, political and social context that produced - 30 years ago - Storefront for Art and Architecture has radically changed, yet the need to produce alternatives to the contemporary forces that shape public life are still as vital as ever.

Since Now From Then is a conference that takes the form of a day-long conversation on the first and next 30 years of Storefront for Art and Architecture and its role addressing contemporary questions in a broader cultural context. The program brings together prominent figures from both inside and outside the organization’s past history to discuss three of the foundations at the core of the institution’s mission: Experiments, Alternatives, and Public.

Participants include Carson Chan, Michael Young, Florian Idenburg, Jing Liu, Hitoshi Abe, Craig Buckley, Joseph Grima, Sarah Herda, Snarkitecture, Chus Martinez, Steven Madoff, Betarice Galilee, Pedro Gadanho, Beatriz Colomina, Andres Jaque, Francisca Benitez, Cristina Goberna, Amale Andraos, Jimenez Lai, Claudia Gould, Minsuk Cho, Kyong Park, Victoria Bugge Oye, Shirin Neshat and Eva Franch i Gilabert.

More information after the break.

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Journey through a three-dimensional landscape of striking architecture in this career-spanning exhibition of Moshe Safdie’s work. Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie surveys the renowned architect’s career from his formative period in the 1960s and early 1970s to his recent projects around the world, exploring his aesthetic language of transcendent light, powerful geometry, and iconic forms.

Architect Preston Scott Cohen, Professor and Chair of Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, speaks about projects in Asia and his design for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s celebrated Lightfall with architect, educator and National Academician Stan Allen. The event will take place October 23, from 6:30pm till 8:00pm at the National Academy Museum. For tickets, please click here.

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Videos

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‘Colombia: Transformed/Architecture=Politics’ is an exhibition currently taking place at the Center for Architecture. In relation to the exhibition, Colombian architect Giancarlo Mazzanti will be giving a lecture on architecture for social inclusion, Friday, October 11 at 8:30am.

More information after the break.