Author: Megan Schires | ArchDaily

6 Schools That Defined Their Own Architectural Styles

Megan Schires — Sat, 01 Apr 2023 05:30:00 +0000

Architectural education has always been fundamentally influenced by whichever styles are popular at a given time, but that relationship flows in the opposite direction as well. All styles must originate somewhere, after all, and revolutionary schools throughout centuries past have functioned as the influencers and generators of their own architectural movements. These schools, progressive in their times, are often founded by discontented experimental minds, looking for something not previously nor currently offered in architectural output or education. Instead, they forge their own way and bring their students along with them. As those students graduate and continue on to practice or become teachers themselves, the school’s influence spreads and a new movement is born.

How (and Why) to Let Weather Into Your Buildings: 6 Projects that Bring Nature Inside

Megan Schires — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 07:30:00 +0000

Bringing the weather inside is usually the opposite of what you want from a building envelope. However, new research from the University of Oregon, described in an article by The Washington Post, aims to show the physical and psychological benefits of letting nature inside. Signs of nature and change are both beneficial to our well-being, yet we don’t always have access to them when inside buildings—and humans are now spending 90% of our lives inside. But even in an urban setting, where nature may be hard to come by, there’s no escaping the weather. When researchers found ways to bring things like wind and dappled reflections of the sun inside, they found that exposure to these natural movements lowered heart rates, while being less distracting than similar artificially generated movements.

Hempcrete: Creating Holistic Sustainability With Plant-Based Building Materials

Megan Schires — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Hemp is one of the oldest crops domesticated by humans. With its wide variety of uses and applications, it’s easy to understand why it’s been a desirable product throughout history. Hemp seeds and flowers are used in health foods, medicines, and organic beauty products; the fibers and stalks of the hemp plant are used in clothing, paper, and biofuel. Today even a waste product of hemp fiber processing, so-called hemp shives, is being utilized to create sustainable building materials like hempcrete.

Hempcrete is a bio-aggregate concrete, where the hemp shives - small pieces of wood from the stalk of the plant - are mixed with either a lime or mud cement to create a durable, eco-friendly building material. Hempcrete is lightweight and non-structural, but can instead be integrated with traditional building construction systems. Similar to traditional concrete, it can be either cast-in-place or prefabricated into building components like blocks or sheets.

Conserve Resources and Plan for Demolition With Digital Construction

Megan Schires — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 04:30:00 +0000

The construction industry is traditionally one of the most resource-intensive sectors, but with rigorous planning and digital tools, the construction process can instead make an active contribution to environmental protection. Energy, resources, and materials can be intentionally saved during the construction process to widen the conversation from simply sustainable buildings as an end product, but sustainable construction as a process. Digital solutions can play a decisive role, yet the industry has so far made too little use of the numerous possibilities that are available. Below, the experts from the Nemetschek Group present some of the opportunities they provide.

The New Cool in Parking Garage Design

Megan Schires — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 04:30:00 +0000

Parking garages present an aesthetic challenge to even the most creative design minds. Their vast scale and monotonous appearance are necessitated by function, but result in the difficulty of making the garages visually interesting instead of simply overbearing. Cladding a parking garage in a unique material can add visual interest and texture to achieve a more human connection. However, this in turn creates concerns about still bringing light and air into the garage.

The Future of Multifamily Housing and the Associated Security Challenges

Megan Schires — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 04:30:00 +0000

Multifamily housing in urban environments provides social, economic, and environmental benefits to both individual residents and cities as a whole. Kicked into overdrive after the 2008 financial crisis, demand for multifamily housing has since continued to rise and remains strong today. Generations Y and Z are the youngest urbanized group of adults and these young professionals are fueling much of the demand for compact living in city centers. Though the younger generations are the ones driving the changes, the result is expected to be more secure, convenient living for everyone.

Final Call: Submit Your Design for the A' Design Awards 2021

Megan Schires — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 04:30:00 +0000

If you've been debating whether to submit your work to the 2021 A’ Design Award Competition, now is the time! This is your last chance to enter your design, because the final call for entries ends February 28th, 2021. The international A' Design Awards give designers an opportunity to showcase their work to a global audience, whether you're a designer, architect, or an innovator from any other design field. Among other design competitions and awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale with over 100 design categories.

Last Chance: Enter Your Work in the A' Design Awards

Megan Schires — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 04:30:00 +0000

If you’ve been procrastinating, now is your last chance to enter your design for an A’ Design Award before the deadline on February 28. The international competition was "born out of the desire to underline the best designs and well-designed products" of designers, architects, and innovators from all design fields. Among other design competitions and awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale with over 100 design categories.

Pipe and Fittings: a Modular Kit to Shape Structures for Social Distancing

Megan Schires — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 04:30:00 +0000

The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to adapt quickly to new ways of living: new ways of working, communicating, buying groceries, and so much more. That adaptability is the key to navigating our changing world. Modular and flexible building systems can help us adapt our physical spaces to the new realities of social distancing or even to the need for rapidly deploying field hospitals.

A' Design Awards Announce World Design Rankings 2020

Megan Schires — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 04:30:00 +0000

The A’ Design Award is an international award whose aim is to provide designers, architects, and innovators from all design fields with a competitive platform to showcase their work and products to a global audience. Among the design world's many awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale and breadth, including over 100 award categories and having honored over 12,000 designers with an award over its 11-year lifetime.

The Evolution of BIM: The Case of the Morin BIM Configurator

Megan Schires — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 04:30:00 +0000

Over the past decade, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been widely adopted and become integrated to varying degrees into every aspect of the design, construction, and maintenance of buildings. But this isn’t where BIM stops, the future of BIM incorporates altered/virtual reality (AR/VR) and has the potential to go as far as automated and intelligent lifecycle management of assets. The concept of creating a “digital twin” to a physical building or system with the aim of making that real-world entity safer, more efficient, and more resilient begins by making our way towards fully-integrated BIM.

The Importance of Fire Doors for Creating Safe Buildings

Megan Schires — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 04:30:00 +0000

Building design today, and throughout the 20th century, has been significantly shaped by fire safety considerations. Architects today are familiar with the wide range of code requirements for a building to be compliant, from materials, to fire extinguisher locations, to fire-rated walls and doors. As buildings have become better-equipped to withstand fire emergencies, however, modern life has simultaneously increased the amount of fire hazards we live with.

Architectural Wire Mesh Provides Versatile Shading Solutions

Megan Schires — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 04:30:00 +0000

Now that we’re all spending much more time inside due to the pandemic, we’ve had a chance to truly understand and appreciate the significant impact that windows can have on a space. Views, sun angles, and orientation of windows are all important considerations when designing a new building - and as pleasant as it is to have a connection to the outdoors, windows can also cause issues like glare and heat gain. Of course no one wants a building with windows only on one side or to have the blinds shut constantly to be able to see their computer screen, so one versatile architectural solution is to shade windows using architectural wire mesh.

How Do Insulated Panels Work? Technical Diagrams on Sustainable Building Envelopes

Megan Schires — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 04:30:00 +0000

A building’s envelope is the first thing you notice - its defining feature, before even setting foot inside. While indisputably important, there’s much more going on than just aesthetics when designing one. There are unseen aspects and qualities that make the interior of the building safe and comfortable, which architects are constantly balancing with the visual appearance of the exterior.

Beyond Face Value of Face Brick: Thin Brick, Fire Resistance, and Aesthetics

Megan Schires — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 04:30:00 +0000

You probably see brick on a daily basis, whether it’s structuring a building, paving the road, or perhaps serving as a fireplace or chimney. But do all these applications use the same type of brick? How are the bricks supporting or being supported? What are these bricks actually made of? Brick’s versatility and ubiquitous nature mean there’s more than one answer to these questions. Even among brick’s most common applications as a building facade and/or structural wall material, there are a variety of types and construction methods employed.

The Many Faces of Award-Winning Architectural Design

Megan Schires — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 04:30:00 +0000

The international A' Design Award competition was "born out of the desire to underline the best designs and well-designed products" of designers, architects, and innovators from all design fields. Entries each year are judged by A' Design Award's jury of hundreds of experts from around the globe including scholars, professionals, and media members. If you are selected as a winner, you'll receive a host of prizes and benefits, in addition to international prestige and recognition. Entries are being accepted now until February 28th, 2021 and a selection of winners will be featured in a post on ArchDaily after they're announced on April 15th, so register your design today for a chance to be included.

Among other design competitions and awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale with over 100 design categories. In addition to these main categories, designs are also sorted into super-categories: Good Industrial Design, Good Product Design, Good Communication Design, Good Service Design, Good Fashion Design, and finally Good Architectural Design. Each super-category includes multiple individual design categories that meet its criteria, entries from any of which are eligible for the title. The Good Architectural Design title is given to spatial design projects which demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach, including the categories: Architecture, Building and Structure Design; Interior Space and Exhibition Design; Landscape Planning and Garden Design; Urban Planning and Urban Design; and Engineering, Construction and Infrastructure Design. Here is a selection of projects that demonstrates the wide range of Good Architectural Design.

Beyond Photorealism: Conveying Emotion and Sense of Place Through Rendering

Megan Schires — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 04:30:00 +0000

Photorealistic renderings today are the standard. They can be done quickly, cheaply, and clients expect them. But are these renderings truly accomplishing what they set out to do? Those on the forefront of new 3D design techniques argue that, as an industry, we’ve gotten stuck on conveying information, when what we should really bring to the table is emotion. Now that the playing field has evened in terms of technological capability and hyper-realism, what’s the next step? By introducing an emotional layer and creating a sense of place, renderings can provide even more value to a project, firm, client, and community.

Brick Ceilings Create New Architectural Possibilities

Megan Schires — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 03:30:00 +0000

Cuisine, culture, sightseeing, and engaging with the locals are all reasons people like to travel. The common factor that draws us to explore new places, however, is simply the chance to experience cities and landscapes unlike our own familiar surroundings. For example, when Chinese tourists can again visit Copenhagen, they may admire the waterside capital’s winding bike paths, lush green parks, and the Scandinavian brick traditions on display in Nyhavn. Likewise, a Danish tourist would surely be blown away by the breathtaking scale of Beijing, with it’s 9 million+ bicycles and the display of ancient Chinese culture juxtaposed with modern society.