Design & Architecture

urban design foes?

 

Designing trees as stormwater infrastructure is a great example of why landscape architects and engineers also need each other. Successful design requires a collaborative, holistic approach that can satisfy both specialties.[read more]

New York grid

I have spent the last few days looking up and considering the architectural impact of the New York City grid-plan layout, taking a particular interest in the domestic scale elements that help to service the city and punctuate the rigidity.[read more]

Konza Technology City, Kenya

A recent lecture questions how many of the latest master-planning proposals for rapidly developing African cities are at best fictional renderings of false utopias, and at worst artifacts of a new type of exploitation.[read more]

Bullitt Center in Seattle

The Bullitt Center intends to pass the “Living Building Challenge,” in which it must perform much like an organic system: generating as much energy as it uses, producing no waste, and being water-efficient.[read more]

LEED relevant in Africa?

Sustainable building in disadvantaged, rural communities cannot be limited to architecture. Project success must be considered at a larger scale to include community involvement, building techniques, and development.[read more]

net-zero stadium?

Designed by a Brazilian-Germanic team, the £250 million showpiece combines recycled materials with 2.5MW of solar power. Brazil aims to make its Estádio Nacional the world’s first net zero-energy stadium.[read more]

 

Cloud Gate, Millennium Park

 

Chicago's Millennium Park represents the kind of success that results from effective leadership and a strong public/private partnership.[read more]

The city of Lincoln, Nebraska has become a hub of new and innovative designs within the last couple of years. Through the revitalization of an otherwise flood plain, an efficient use of space has been developed.[read more]

rethinking public housing

The nuclear family no longer represents the most common and typical family formation. The change in family formation should be adequately addressed through social housing by means of architecture design and construction.[read more]

vacant office building

The importance of bottom-up initiatives aka public engagement is feeding into the debates about what the the ever so smart ‘smart city‘ actually is.[read more]

San Francisco's new stadium

The concept for the stadium, released in February, is quite an ambitious project. With a 66-year lease on the piers, the new stadium and entertainment center will leave a lasting impact on the image of San Francisco’s waterfront.[read more]

designing microcommunities

Pitched within the rising popularity of the term “microcommunity” the project plan includes 15 residential homes all built on the same block and within a quick walk to buses and the commuter rail.[read more]