Redshift Ι Oct. 2, 2017 In the fragmented building industry, “every single building is a prototype,” says Dustin Hartsuiker, manager of Technology Solutions for the California-based Swinerton Builders. Devoid of standardization and often assembled from custom-made components, buildings are unforgiving and inefficient experiments in fabrication, given to levels of risk and uncertainty unheard of in the… Continue reading Machine Learning Eases Construction Project Management—and Prevents Catastrophes
Category: Articles
From Filth to Fun: Big Designs for the Chicago River
CityLab Ι Sept. 29. 2017 Until its direction was reversed in 1900, the Chicago River was such a receptacle for effluent and filth that it poisoned Chicagoans’ beloved Lake Michigan (from which they drew their drinking water). Then it was channelized and entombed in concrete. The river has long been the city’s forgotten waterfront. But that’s… Continue reading From Filth to Fun: Big Designs for the Chicago River
Could the Humble Heat Pump be a Decarbonization Hero?
Doggerel Ι Sept. 6. 2017 Buildings are responsible for a bit fewer than half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Break this figure down further and you’ll find that building heating, in particular, accounts for about a fifth of all US greenhouse gas emissions. Building heating and hot water are a part of the… Continue reading Could the Humble Heat Pump be a Decarbonization Hero?
Fire Tests Enable New Timber Typologies
Doggerel Ι August 23, 2017 After a long time lost in the woods, architects and engineers are rediscovering timber. Wood has been a default building material for millennia. Historically, one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep buildings standing upright was to fell large trees and shape them into load-bearing beams and columns. This… Continue reading Fire Tests Enable New Timber Typologies
Office Visit: Craighton Berman
Doggerel Ι June 29, 2017 For Microsoft, illustrator and industrial designer Craighton Berman created a primer on artificial intelligence. Over a few dozen pages, his breezy little booklet used talking dogs and clunky retro-robots to explain the basics of a technology that’s fueled sci-fi dystopias and utopian TED talks alike. It was a zine in the… Continue reading Office Visit: Craighton Berman
The Final Hill
Landscape Architecture Magazine Ι October 2017 The first thing you notice is all the cars. The are a strange landscape divided by Jersey barriers and concrete retaining walls that carve up the site’s topography. Endless rows of cars are parked along its curving streets and in front of 62 three- and four-story barracks-style buildings that plod… Continue reading The Final Hill
The Houston Cistern: Interiors Awards 2017
Contract Design Magazine Ι January/February 2017 The Cistern Designer: Page Client: Buffalo Bayou Partnership Location: Houston “This memorable space makes a statement that interior design is not just about furnishings and decoration; it is about creating interesting spaces. This forward-thinking design is emotional, intellectual, beautiful, and pure. It promotes conversation.” —Jury A disused drinking water reservoir… Continue reading The Houston Cistern: Interiors Awards 2017
Is Beige the New Black in Architecture?
CityLab Ι Sept. 22, 2017 One of the most emotionally resonant exhibits in the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial is a quiet one: a set of tan-glazed tile arches in a hallway. The arches form a colonnade of sorts, which better defines a space that’s too wide for a hallway but too narrow for a gallery. For… Continue reading Is Beige the New Black in Architecture?
UIC’s Instagrammable Moment
Architect Magazine Ι Aug. 31, 2017 The piñatas that hang over a wide, terraced stairwell are distinctly biomorphic but don’t resemble any earthly species of fauna. There are bulbous limbs and neon colors, but these David Cronenbergian monstrosities are rendered in papier-maché. Antonio Torres, the architecture professor whose studio created them, says the project was… Continue reading UIC’s Instagrammable Moment
Chicago Works: Amanda Williams at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Architectural Record Ι July 21, 2017 Color(ed) Theory, a series of photographs of abandoned houses on Chicago’s South Side painted bright colors, was one of the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s most persistent viral images. Chicago Works: Amanda Williams—its sequel of sorts—constitutes a passing of the torch. The show, which opened this week at the Museum of Contemporary… Continue reading Chicago Works: Amanda Williams at the Museum of Contemporary Art