Monthly Archive for June, 2011

Slought Foundation Exec Director, Aaron Levy, to speak in Chicago

Published on June 30, 2011 in Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Aaron Levy is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Slought Foundation, and lectures in the English and History of Arts Departments at the University of Pennsylvania. He will present a plenary session at the Second International Conference on the Constructed Environment, 29-30 October 2011 in Chicago, USA.

He recently completed a PhD at the University of Leeds on the cultural politics of display at the Venice Architecture Biennale, where he co-curated the exhibition “Into the Open” for the US Pavilion (2008) and then co-edited “Architecture on Display: On the living history of the Venice Architecture Biennale”for the Architectural Association (2010). His current activities at Slought Foundation have developed reflexively in response to local and global conditions, and are situated at the intersection of art, social theory, and advocacy. More…

Erik Hemingway, Associate Professor at UIUC and principal at hemingway+a/studio, to speak at Constructed Environment Conference, Chicago

Published on June 30, 2011 in Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Erik M. Hemingway is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and principal/artist at hemingway+a/studio, based in Chicago. He will be presenting a plenary presentation at the Second International Conference on the Constructed Environment, 29-30 October 2011 in Chicago, USA.

Erik M Hemingway’s projects have been internationally recognized with awards over the last two decades in such publications as architecture, Architectural Record, Global Architecture and *surface in addition to recent inclusion to the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture. Previous to establishing his critical practice, he worked in the offices of Arquitectonica and the Pritzker Laureate Zaha M. Hadid. hemingway+a/studio is now based in Chicago located in a Mies van der Rohe tower that serves as a space for his current design research. He also teaches design in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign where he was the 2006 Faculty Excellence Hire. More…

A Feat of Engineering That Doubles as a Home

Published on June 22, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Henry Fountain, The New York Times

I live in a nice clapboard house and work in a gleaming steel-and-glass skyscraper, but after reading “Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer and Build” I feel cheated. I’ll never get to enjoy the comforts of the nest of a long-tailed tit.

As Peter Goodfellow, the book’s author, points out, the dome-shaped nest is one of the most beautiful and skillful constructions in the animal kingdom. The average one contains a couple of hundred sprigs of moss and several thousand lichen flakes, woven together with purloined spider silk and lined with feathers. A nice place for a nap, if you are six inches long.

“It’s an amazing creation,” Mr. Goodfellow, who has had the pleasure of watching long-tailed tits nest in his garden in Plymouth, England, said in a telephone interview. “What’s doubly astonishing is that they use it just once.”

Mr. Goodfellow is a retired teacher of English language and literature and a lifelong bird-watcher, although he takes his bird-watching only so far. “I’ve never actually gotten into the work of the scientist, who might well watch for a whole day or week while a bird makes a nest,” he said. “I’ve never had that deep science bent that’s made me sit down to do that sort of thing. I enjoy the reading and the writing.” More…

A Piece Of Nature At The Airport

Published on June 21, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Joop De Boer at The Pop-Up City

With the idea of trying to ease this strife, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport just opened their brand new Airport Park, a park-themed area for travelers to relax, work, eat or simply hang around, enjoying some fresh-air before departure. Once beyond passport control, passengers will now be able to spend their time at the airport in a surprising area. Travelers can even step outside to enjoy the sunshine on the terrace. The park is a collection of different spots, indoor and outdoor. Between the green colors, plants and sitting elements all kinds of natural elements are brought in such as ivy plants and tree trunks, of which one of them is even 130 years old. The park feeling comes to life through mixed reality. With projections of butterflies, sounds of animals and cyclists, you feel like being in a lively urban park. There are pictures on the walls of famous parks in the world. As in those parks, Airport Park will be a beacon of peace in a noisy environment. More…

Barnacre Equilibrium Tanks by Ian Simpson Architects

Published on June 13, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Dezeen…

Exciting plans for the conversion of redundant utility buildings into an exemplar, low-carbon family home will be submitted later this week by Bishopsrock Properties.

As winners of a design competition, Ian Simpson Architects developed proposals for the conversion of two disused, adjacent water reservoir tanks located on an elevated site in Barnacre-with-bonds, near Garstang in North Lancashire.

The project will see a large former water tank converted to provide a stunning, contemporary interpretation of the country home containing 6 bedrooms, whilst a smaller tank will be converted to form a 2-bedroom holiday cottage, aiming to stimulate tourism and the local economy.

The views out from the site are breathtaking with the sea and the AONB highlight of Nicky Nook both being clearly visible. Daylight will flood into the main building via a series of roof lights and new glazed areas which frame inspiring views towards the sea and surrounding pastures. More…

Ryan E. Smith of the Integrated Technology in Architecture Center (ITAC) to speak in Chicago

Published on June 11, 2011 in Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Ryan E. Smith is an Associate Professor and Director of an interdisciplinary research group dedicated to lean and sustainable design and construction inquiry called the Integrated Technology in Architecture Center (ITAC). He will be presenting his plenary presentation titled ‘Constructed Economies and Ecologies’ at the Second International Conference on the Constructed Environment, 29-30 October 2011 in Chicago, USA.

He is a researcher, educator, author and speaker on the integration paradigm and building technology. He is author of Prefab Architecture: a guide to modular design and construction (Wiley, 2010) and co-editor of Building Systems: design technology & society (Routledge, 2012). He serves as the educational chair on the AIA Center for Integrated Practice Leadership Group, and is a member of the Lean Construction Institute. He is currently President of the Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES), an academic group of building technology and building science educators. More…

The Constructed Environment Journal Recently Published

Published on June 3, 2011 in Journal. 0 Comments

constructed_frontRecently published papers in the The International Journal of the Constructed Environment include: