Green ArchiTEXT

Design Futures Council Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design in Boston, Oct. 9-11

Nine years ago on Nantucket Island, the Design Futures Council initiated the first Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design. At that three-day session, the Nantucket Principles were developed, providing a philosophical, strategic, and tactical path toward sustainable design. Today, thousands of professionals and industry leaders are using the tools and the networks of the Leadership Summit to make a profound difference. But we must do more.

There are unprecedented opportunities ahead. We are not waiting for an economic upturn or new regulations. We are not waiting for someone else to lead. We will act. We will make sustainability and economic health real.

Join this transformation at the 10th Annual Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design. This important gathering will inspire you to reorder your leadership priorities and establish a new game plan. It will rekindle a world-class network of friendships and alliances, providing a new platform for leadership. We invite you to engage and challenge today’s limiting beliefs.

Speakers & Agenda

• NATALIA ALLEN, Founder, Design Futurist
• BOB BERKEBILE, Principal, BNIM
• TIM FERGUSON, Founder, Chair, & Managing Partner, Next Street
• MICHAEL GRAVES, Founder and Principal, Michael Graves & Associates
• WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA, New York Times Best-Selling Author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
• TED LANDSMARK, President, Boston Architectural College
• TOM LOLLINI, Associate Vice Chancellor & Campus Architect, University of California, Merced
• JOHN OCHSENDORF, MacArthur Fellow & Associate Professor, Building Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

FOR MORE INFORMATION >>

via www.di.net

Sustainable Urbanism in the Bay Area? Peter Calthorpe, May 25

May 25

 

How should the climate imperative change community design? What is sustainable urbanism? Will the federal and state governments make long-term investments in public mobility when they are in such dire fiscal straits? What are China and other countries doing to build smarter cities from the beginning? Join us for a conversation with one of the fathers of new urbanism. 

 

Peter Calthorpe, Founder, Calthorpe Associates; Author, Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change

Time: 9:30 a.m. check-in, 10:00-11:00 a.m. program

 

Networking Break: 11:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. 

 

What are cities in the Bay Area and beyond doing to focus growth around existing downtowns and transit? How will California’s new land use law (SB 375) change incentives for land development? Will walkable cities really become reality? How does the federal preference for highway funding impact California’s vision for low-carbon communities? What turf battles prevent greater regional collaboration among various Bay Area agencies? Join us for a conversation about land and mobility in a carbon-constrained world. 

 

Stuart Cohen, Executive Director, TransForm 

Mike Ghielmetti, President, Signature Development Group

Ezra Rapport, Executive Director, Association of Bay Area Governments

Time: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.program

 

Location: The Commonwealth Club, SF Office

Cost: $45 members, $65 non-members, $15 students (with valid ID). This price includes all morning sessions.

via www.climate-one.org

Intelligent Life: People Meet In Architecture

By Beatrice Perry and Benjamin Barfield Marks

There is something distinctly mercantile about the Architecture Biennale in Venice. Walking down the long waterfront of the Arsenale, or around the shaded paths of the Giardini, national and independent pavilions roll out their wares to court the visitor’s attention. The sheer scale of the event goads participants to extraordinary lengths to stand out. The result is engaging and often entertaining. As much a social event as creative forum, the biennale's theme this year is apt: People meet in architecture.

The brainchild of by Kazuyo Sejima, a Japanese architect and the biennale's first female president, the theme has inspired participants to not only showcase projects but also create experiential environments. The prize for best national pavilion has rightfully gone to the Kingdom of Bahrain, which has come with a project that addresses its rapidly changing coastline. The pavilion, curated by Noura Al-Sayeh and Fuad Al-Ansari, features three former fishermen huts that have been transformed into public coastal living-rooms, designed to be used as versatile meeting spaces along the country's receding shoreline. The result is a thoughtful mix of cultural appropriation, environmental conscientiousness and structural recycling—the main themes of this biennale.

Many of the national pavilions exhibit design solutions to regional problems. Switzerland's pavilion, for example, is dedicated to bridges—the feats of engineering and design that have allowed the country to solve the problem of meeting in mountains. Japan's pavilion, meanwhile, is dedicated to Tokyo’s fluid physiognomy. Called "The Metabolising City", this exhibition considers the way the city's architects have designed buildings and public spaces that are flexible enough to withstand a very fast pace of change. The presentation is dynamic, immersive and theatrical. READ MORE >>

via moreintelligentlife.com

New Exhibition @ NYC's Center for Architecture: "Innovate : Integrate - Building Better Together"

Innovation in construction materials and methods has, in the past, evolved incrementally. Today, however, a surge in technological breakthroughs, shifting expectations, and a demand for high-performance materials and systems has compelled the design and construction industry to reinvent the way it creates buildings. The traditional phasing of projects and the sequential development of construction documents are no longer adequate to manage the enormous data associated with complex architectural forms, new materials, and computer-controlled fabrication. The industry has responded by adopting a nonlinear, genuinely collaborative approach enabled by powerful three-dimensional parametric design tools and Building Information Modeling (BIM) programs that generate and manage data through design, construction, commissioning, and life-cycle performance. No longer "master builder," the architect is part of a "master team," where information is shared across disciplines.

Innovate : Integrate presents the finalists of the AIA New York Chapter's "Open Call for Innovative Curtain-Wall Design" alongside a selection of projects that demonstrate the latest construction methodologies. The first section of the exhibition, Innovate, highlights three priorities in building technology: material performance, energy harvesting, and daylight optimization. The second part of the exhibition, Integrate, looks behind-the-scenes of project delivery at three related topics: construction technologies, construction management, and construction logistics.

via cfa.aiany.org

Liquid Wall Prototype for Innovate:Integrate Exhibition from arbuckle industries on Vimeo.

TreeLife: An Exhibition of Modern Eco Tree Houses

IMAGE: The Cool Hunter

The Cool Hunter presents "TreeLife", a new interactive exhibition of modern eco tree houses designed by the world's top artists, designers and architects – coming to London's Green Park in 2011.

The world's first major public exhibition of 'green design' treehouses, TreeLife will bring the biggest names in international architecture, design and art into the one public place for the first time, showcasing cutting edge green and sustainable design.

via www.access-agency.net

Happy World Green Building Week

In 2009, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) dedicated September 23 to green building awareness by proclaiming it World Green Building Day. This year the WorldGBC is expanding its celebration and today marks the start of the first ever World Green Building Week.

via www.mnn.com

’Ecology.Design.Synergy’: Sustainability for Architecture and Life

Ecology.Design.Synergy redefines the term “sustainability” by examining how people inhabit their built environments. This exhibition showcases the innovative design approach of Behnisch Architekten and Transsolar ClimateEngineering as illustrated by a roster of international projects and ongoing collaborations.

via www.archinnovations.com

Classrooms of the Future: Opening symposium on green school design

Classrooms of the Future: Opening symposium on green school design - Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Join SPUR for opening night of Classrooms of the Future, an exhibit produced by Architecture for Humanity, on view at the SPUR Urban Center through Feb. 26. The exhibit features winners of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge, an international design competition for sustainable classrooms. Moderated by Kate Stohr, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, a panel discussion will explore the potential of good design to enhance the learning process in schools around the world.

via www.spur.org

Hope in the Built Environment

The title for this upcoming conference in the U.K. is as intriguing as any I’ve seen: Hope in the Built Environment? To be held November 18-20 at the Cumberland Lodge, a 17th century house/conference center near London, the conference has been designed for an interdisciplinary audience of architects, planners, developers and builders to explore themes such as “Buildings and Society”, “Sustainability and Wellbeing”, and “Shaping Space for Life”.

Ultimately, delegates will address the conference’s core question, “In a time of climate change, financial uncertainty and social anxiety, how can architecture and the built environment make a difference?”

Among the plenary sessions and presenters:

• “Shaping better cities” – Charles Landry, Director, Comedia (author of The Art of City Making and The Creative City: A Toolkit for urban innovators)
• “The built environment and climate change: precepts and policies” – Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chairman, The Environment Agency
• “Buildings for health and wellness” – Simon Henley, Buschow Henley Architects (whose practice includes adaptive reuse, regeneration and urban design disciplines)
• “Homes and towns” – Camilla Sheldon, Eco-towns Programme, DCLG
• “Spaces across the life course” – Spencer de Grey, Foster + Partners (whose work includes the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt)

For a complete list of presenters and more information about Hope in the Built Environment?, check out the conference site.

The Age of Stupid: Playing Everywhere