April 17, 2018
Nighttime view of Western Europe: England (top right), Paris (bright city near the middle of the image) and Belgium and the Netherlands (middle-right of frame). Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center
Satellite images of Earth at night make for fascinating, beautiful pictures. But they also confront us with a growing form of pollution. Why do we waste so much energy to light outer space when we only need light on the ground? High-resolution satellite data can now deliver detailed insights into how humans have shaped the night, and these earth observation systems are about to reform our urban planning. They can become an integral part of project development and control, as many strange ecological, political and social phenomena become apparent with a closer look at the night-time imagery of our planet.
May 28, 2019
BIM is bringing 3D information technology to the work of floor-planning. Many 3D models rendered on traditional floor-plan platforms don t show the same level of detail and complexity as ones that incorporate BIM technology. For this, it is necessary to develop configurations that allow for the creation of an expressive and detailed floor plan that gives the best possible view of a project.
In this article, you will find an architectural file from Revit that features a series of configured
View Templates. Made especially for architects who are newcomers to Revit and BIM methodologies, this file will allow you to incorporate
January 04, 2020
Concrete is the most carbon-intensive material found in the built environment, and rammed earth is a viable alternative at least for projects of a certain scale. The San Antonio–based architecture firm Lake|Flato has opted for rammed earth on two of its residential projects, such as this one in West Texas.Courtesy Kyle Melgaard/Pilgrim Building Company
Practitioners have finally begun taking a more nuanced approach to the carbon emitted by new buildings. Are they too late?
I’ve started calling them come-to-carbon moments the inner alarm bells that sound as you begin to register the devastating ecological costs of every man-made surface around you. Every sidewalk you’ve ever walked on, every building you’ve ever walked into, and every material inside those buildings, too. It’s the kind of thing you can’t un-see once you’ve started looking, the kind of knowledge that can transform a worldview, or a practice.
Earlier today in Shenzhen the
6th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (UABB) opened its doors to public. Under the overall theme Re-Living the City, curators Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner of Urban Think Tank headed up the Radical Urbanism exhibit in the main venue. Brillembourg and Klumpner invited the exhibition participants to show how we can learn from ad-hoc and bottom-up initiatives for alternative urban solutions. In the following essay - originally printed in the UABB 2015 catalogue - the curators call for us to rethink how we can operate within the city, learn from its emerging intelligence and shap[e] its outcomes to radical and tactical ends.