Edited By Jan Cigliano Hartman | The Women Who Changed Architecture | Princeton Architectural Press | $50.00

Edited by Marcia F. Feuerstein, Paola Zellner Bassett, and Jodi La Coe | Expanding Field of Architecture: Women in Practice Across the Globe | Lund Humphries | $99.99

At the time of this writing, the future for women in the United States looks grim. The U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade doesnt just mean that women in at least 20 and up to 30 states wont be able to choose when and if they endure pregnancy and childbirth. It also means that some of them wont be able to, for example, leave a bad job because they need the money to raise the child they didnt want to have. It means they wont be able to leave a relationship they dont want to be in anymore because they need to split child-care duties. It means they might die if their pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, the treatment for which is dilation and curettage, the same as a late-term abortion. It means that, in approximately half of this country, women dont have full control over their own fates.

Contemporary politics is a deeply unfair frame through which to review two recently published books about women in architectureThe Women Who Changed Architecture and Expanding Field of Architecturebut doing so offers an opportunity to remark about how to best understand and support womens struggles today.

The first volume (The Women) is a collection of short profiles of more than 144 architects who are women. It takes a consciously revisionist stance; editor Jan Cigliano Hartman claims in her preface that it will change the history of architecture, bringing female architects into the central narrative.

The second (Expanded Field) is not a collection of people but of projects; the editors state up front that they envisioned that this book would be a collection of 40 projects that happen to be designed by women. The desire for this shared trait to appear as a coincidence when it was in fact a deliberate choice reflects a discomfort with the category of woman architect, a clue that there is something not quite right with establishing this category and holding it up as relevant. This discomfort is present in both volumes; in The Women, it appears as a repeated conjuring of Dorte Mandrups proclamation that she is not a female architect but rather, simply, an architect. Instead of interrogating this discomfort, both volumes barrel right through it.

The results are, in the case of The Women, an unfortunately tone-deaf and reductive near-fairytale about the accomplishments of women architects and their contributions to the field of architecture. For its part, Expanding Field is a bland collection of nicely photographed projects from around the world; its only uniting thread is the fact that they were all designed by womenhardly an elucidating metric.

The Women divides its subjects into six chapters, each corresponding to a different generation and featuring an introduction that glosses over the material context in which these women practiced. Some of the essays provide salient historical tidbitsa profile of Joan Forrester Sprague, for example, mentions the economic and housing crisis that influenced her practicebut, relegated to short biographies barely a thousand words long, they hardly constitute enough of a picture for readers to get a real sense of the worlds in which these women worked. Even if a particularly smart reader could piece things together, its hard to believe Hartmans claim that The Women could change the history of architecture when the book dedicates at most two spreads to the full careers of architects with enormous bodies of work. I learned about women architects from The Women, but I also came away with the dreadful feelingwhich increased each time I turned the page and saw a new black-and-white portrait of a woman cropped into a circlethat these women were being tokenized to prove a point.

Expanding Field takes up a similar charge, claiming to contribute to the global effort of normalizing women in leadership roles in the expanding field of architecture. The book focuses more built work than on biography; its objects of study are buildings instead of architects themselves.

Seeing both books together made me ask two questions: First, what points are these books trying to prove? That women have been architects all along? Any fairly smart reader of architectural history (and of history in general, for that matter) already knows this. Or was it their goal to properly recognize womens contributions to the field of architecture? It would take a lot more than a few hundred pages to do that. It will take, namely, changing the collective imaginary and shared references of people in the field, something which can only happen slowly, over time. And second: Who is the intended audience for this? I find it hard to imagine a woman architect whose primary struggle is not seeing enough women in the field. Shed likely be better served by exchanging tips on how to deal with sexism at work.

Mandrup is right that the women featured in these books are architects. The reason they made buildingsthe reason they contributed to the fieldis that theyre architects. The fact of their gender is incidental. If I were them (and any of them are welcome to disagree with me), Id want my work to be recognized for its own merits, held up next to the work of anyone else, not set aside into its own volume, crammed together into a rapid revisionist history or a global survey.

In terms of understanding the impact of women on architecture, Id be more interested in, for example, a history of womens organizations in architecture and design (Why did they get together and how did they do it? What problems did they cite and have any of them improved?) or a survey of the design of spaces used predominantly by women (nurseries, domestic violence shelters, single-sex schools, and gyms, to name a few). The majority of women who interact with buildings are not architects; there is more to be gleaned about the role of architecture in womens livesand about the impact of women on architectureby looking at their experience.

While the books offer interesting historic information and nice images, I dont think we need either to improve the cause of women as an oppressed class in our society. What is the point of making more room for women at the top when really what we need is more roomand more freedomfor women at the bottom? What is the point of celebrating women in positions of leadership as an accomplishment for our gender when our rights are being stripped away?

I am, of course, not saying that people featured in these volumes should not be celebrated as individuals. Many of them overcame personal adversity and societal sexism to achieve professional success. That is laudable. But we should not fall into the trap of believing that individual women gaining power under a deeply unjust system is good for all women. To conflate personal achievement with collective progress is naive at best, cynical at worst, and harmful in all cases.

After reading both books, I detect in each a hope that women will see themselves represented and know it is possible for them to achieve what the women in their pages have done. I find it hard to imagine such a woman. Women dont need books about women architects to understand that they can be anything they want, that they can do anything they want. On that playing field, feminism has already succeeded. Women know that they are capable. We just need basic human rights.

Marianela DAprile is a writer in Brooklyn.

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To advance in today's world, women architects need more than books - The Architect's Newspaper

Remote working arrangements continue to be a popular feature among the openings listed on Archinect Jobs, as many architecture and design firms in need of new team members seek to attract talented applicants regardless of geographic proximity, according to the feedback we received from this Archinect employment survey.

In today's curated job picks, we are highlighting a number of exciting remote working opportunitiesat hiring firms around the country.

To show only positions designated as "remote" on Archinect Jobs, use this direct link or select "Remote" under the "browse by state/country" region selector.

To look up specific job titles from the architectural profession, consult Archinect's Guide to Job Titles series. Also, follow our Archinect Tips series to improve your portfolio, resume, interviewing skills, and increase your overall chances of getting that next job.

OFFICEUNTITLED (OU) seeks three Regional Design Strategy Managers: Bay Area, APAC, and EMEA - Germany and/or India"We are seeking a Regional Design Strategy Manager to partner with our clients talented global real estate design and development organization. The role focuses on the strategic planning and design management of our clients workplace hospitality-forward amenity programs. Working as contributors to the clients real estate organization, the Regional Design Strategy Manager is responsible for the holistic execution and implementation of the strategic vision for the companys hospitality-forward amenity programs at specific sites."

OFFICEUNTITLED (OU) is also currently hiring a Regional Design Strategy Manager (LA/NY) and Interior Designer in Culver City, California.

HUTS seeks a Designer/Project Coordinator, Senior Designer/Project Lead, Architectural Draftsperson, and Customer Success Coordinator - Studio"HUTS in on the hunt for excellent architectural designers with demonstrated production, organizational and communication skills that are ready to make an immediate impact on our residential design and development projects. [...] Familiarity in residential design, building codes, construction techniques, detailing, permit process, producing CD sets, and building technologies."

Carbon Leadership Forum, University of Washington seeks three Embodied Carbon Researchers"The Carbon Leadership Forum, a research organization based out of the University of Washington's College of Built Environment, is seeking a collaborativeResearcherto help execute our mission to accelerate the decarbonization of the building sector through eliminating the embodied carbon in building materials and construction through collective action."

Perkins&Will seeks a Digital Content Manager"Perkins&Will is seeking a self-motivated, detail-oriented, and highly collaborative Digital Content Manager to oversee the creation and distribution of compelling, high-impact digital content. This highly strategic leadership role is responsible for enhancing public perception of the firms global brand by ensuring excellence in communication on the firms website, microsites, social media channels, e-newsletters, and other multimedia platforms."

SFJones Architects, Inc. seeks a Project Architect/Job Captain"SFJones Architects is an established boutique architectural/interior design firm specializing in restaurants and commercial projects. [...] The position is for an Project Architect/Job Captain who is capable of running a project and creating working drawings either independently or with other team members. The candidate will work directly with the principal on the project designs and with other team members and a BIM manager using our templates."

Neme Design Studio, Inc seeks a Facade Designer/Project Architect"We are Faade Design Consultants and Digital Fabrication Specialists based in Los Angeles, California. [...] The candidates role is a Facade Designer working under a Senior Facade Designer to design, model and document facade systems."

Omgivning Architecture / Interior Design seeks a Job Captain "Were looking for a Job Captain that is excited to learn and get in the trenches of all scales and scopes, from large adaptive reuse to small scale TI projects. [...] 5-6 years of applicable, professional work experience for Job Captain (2+ for Designer level)"

Check out also Omgivning's opportunity for a Senior Interior Designer/Senior Interior Architect III in Los Angeles.

Arktura LLC seeks an Industrial Designer"Arktura LLC, a global technology and design manufacturer of Architectural Systems is searching for a Industrial Designer who has a refined design sensibility, enthusiasm, anda passion for making things. You will join a collaborative multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers, software developers, scientists, and sales, and marketing experts in our state of the art Los Angeles Manufacturing Headquarters, where we will design the future of the built environment."

If you don't already, follow Archinect's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, or the dedicated Archinect Jobs Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.

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Work from anywhere: 15 featured remote job opportunities for architects and designers - Archinect

The Portland Museum of Art, which plans an expansion in coming years, has come up with a short list of architects.

Earlier this year, the museumannounced plans for an $85 million expansionat 142 Free St. that would incorporate the former home of the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine.

To find an architecture team for its "campus unification and expansion" plan, the museum worked with New York City-based Dovetail Design Strategists.

On Aug. 11, the museum named four teams in the runningfor the project. They are:

The PMA has committed itself to a mission of art for all, and said principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as sustainability, will guide the selection process.

Nearly a third of the lead firms, or 30%, were founded or are owned by people of color; 16% were founded or are owned by women.

We are deeply moved by the diversity of experience and records of innovation represented in these submissions, said Mark H.C. Bessire, the Judy and Leonard Lauder Director of the Portland Museum of Art.

Our aspirations as a cultural institution are far greater than simply building a building, and when we launched the competition, we were curious to see if our colleagues in the architectural world were equally interested in the paradigm shift we were imagining. Turns out, they were.

The museum said it hopes to create centers of belonging and foster social change.

File Photo / Tim Greenway

Mark Bessire, director of the Portland Museum of Art

It was vital to us as jurors to ensure our unique character as a region was considered in thesubmissions, said PMA board member Kyo Bannai.

Portland and Maine are international destinations and proudly welcome visitors from around the world, yet this is due to a recognizable, evolving, and renowned cultural landscape that must be elevated and sustained through this new landmark building and competition.

The present museum has been virtually unchanged for the past four decades. The museum said it has made no increases in the number of galleries, visitor amenities or capacity.

InFebruary, the museum committed to an agreement to conduct and manage a design competition for the Campus Reunification Project for a contracted cost of $250,000 plus reimbursable expenses, according to its annual report.

The Campus Reunification Project seeks to unify the museums downtown Portland campus through construction at 142 Free St., which is the former Childrens Museum & Theatre of Maine. The PMA paid $2.1 million for the building in 2019.

With the expansion, the museum expects to add 60,000 square feet of flexible space with gallery and community space.

The museum collection includes some 18,000 objects. Its principal structure is the Charles Shipman Payson building, which was designed by I.M. Pei & Partners and opened in 1983. The PMA also owns the McLellan House, Charles Quincy Clapp House andL.D.M. Sweat Memorial Galleries, as well as the historic Winslow Home Studio on Prouts Neck in Scarborough.

Through Jan. 31, the museum had assets of $80.9 million. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, it had expenses of $8.6 million, according to its annual report.

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Portland museum gets closer to expansion with short list of potential architects - Mainebiz

The artistry of Frank Lloyd Wright is front and center when it comes to Prairie School architecture. But other architects made enduring impacts. A new group turns the spotlight on George Washington Maher, an under-recognized designer of buildings throughout the Midwest.

Marc Vitali: At the corner of Pleasant Street and Home Avenue in Oak Park stands Pleasant Home also known as the John Farson House.

The early Prairie-style residence was completed in 1897 and is a National Historic Landmark.

Kevin Brown, Pleasant Home Foundation: A lot of Prairie School design, early Prairie School especially, was pretty devoid of extraneous ornamentation. If you look at Pleasant Home especially, theres a lot of pretty elaborate motifs that are woven into those designs and corbels and other accents, and that was not typical for what people think of for Prairie School work by Frank Lloyd Wright, for example.

Vitali: Pleasant Home was designed by a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, George Washington Maher.

Brown: Pleasant Home was really his first foray into Prairie School architecture and one of the earliest examples of Prairie School design. When it was designed and built in 1897, it was highly borrowed from or copied, especially across the Midwest from other architects because it was groundbreaking, not just the exterior look of it, the Prairie School forms, but also the interior design, the open-flowing spaces which obviously he and Wright have that in common as well.

Vitali: Maher buildings are all over the region.

This limestone mansion is in East Garfield Park.

This brick home is one of several in Beverly.

And theres a group of his residences in the Buena Park neighborhood each one filled with fine craftsmanship and incredible details.

George Maher designed his own family home in Kenilworth in 1893. Its on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of his work borrowed from the English Arts and Crafts movement.

Other buildings had a symmetry uncommon to the Prairie School or decorative touches that show the influence of Louis Sullivan.

Brown: Hed take geometric shapes and natural motifs like flowers and plants, and he would use those throughout the design to create a sort of design harmony.

He gets lumped in with the Prairie School of architects and for a lot of his career he definitely did design Prairie houses or Prairie-leaning houses, but a lot of the elements that he incorporated were European, and he was always into European architecture and design.

I think thats one of the major differences between him and Wright. Similarly, they advocated for an indigenous American architecture, and they practiced to develop an indigenous American architecture, but its very obvious the borrowing from Maher of European designs, and youll see that as his career evolved.

Vitali: The Pleasant Home Foundation just launched the George Maher Society, whose mission is to document Maher designs and preserve his legacy.

Kevin Brown started the Society he also lives in a George Maher House that hes currently renovating in Blue Island.

Brown: Were one of the lucky handful of people that get to live in one of his designs and for me its like living in a work of art. Youre kind of a shepherd, a steward of a work of art.

Vitali: Maher also did institutional design the Bathing Beach Aquatorium still stands Gary, Indiana.

Some designs havent survived like Patten Gymnasium on the campus of Northwestern. More recently, Mahers Chicago Town and Tennis Center was demolished in June 2020.

Brown: Theres a lot of buildings and houses that people walk by in their everyday life that they dont know the history of, or they dont the significance of them. We want to shine a light on some of these communities, see where theyve been, where theyre at, and where theyre going.

Vitali: George Mahers career was cut short when he took his own life in 1926 after his health declined.

His son took over the business and had a successful career as an architect.

Brown: Family was very important to him. The client was important to him -- their tastes, the way they lived, their everyday lives was very important to him.

He wanted to create a democratic architecture, an architecture for the people.

More on this story: Find out more about the newly formed George Washington Maher Society and Pleasant Home.

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Big Houses on the Prairie: the Chicago Area Homes of Architect George Maher - WTTW News

Pappageorge Haymes Partners David Haymes, HP Architectures Jim Plunkard and BKL Architectures Thomas Patrick Kerwin (Pappageorge Haymes, HP Architecture, BKL Architecture, Illustration by Priyanka Modi for The Real Deal with Getty)

Pencils down: Chicagos busiest architecture firms are bKL Architecture and Pappageorge Haymes Partners, which filed 28 major project permits each in a five-year stretch and cite strong residential demand.

High-rise residential buildings made up many of the larger projects. The Real Deal combed city permit data to find which architects were named for the most major projects in each of the last five years.

TRD pulled permit data from Chicagos open data portal and looked at all new construction permits reviewed. Click here to see a map of every permit approved since 2017.Those projects include new construction of buildings higher than 80 feet, non-residential projects exceeding 150,000 square feet, residential projects with 50 or more units, schools more than 60,000 square feet and projects with two or more basement levels.

Remote and hybrid work schedules dont seem to have affected someones desire to live near the downtown core.

Tom Kerwin, founding principal of bKL Architecture, said his projects during those years totaled $1.65 billion in hard construction costs. Among bKLs most notable ones is the $150 million Cascade Chicago, a luxury apartment building at 455 East Waterside Drive Lakeshore East that was the citys priciest.

Kerwin said most projects are going ahead, even after costs rose because of supply-chain issues. Demand kept up with escalation, he said.

The Loop is the hub of the firms business, and Kerwin is seeing more permits in the West Loop for major structures. He noted that the 2020 census showed a slight uptick in Chicagos population, which he said indicates that people still want to move to the city.

Remote and hybrid work schedules dont seem to have affected someones desire to live near the downtown core, Kerwin said.

Tim Kent, a partner at Pappageorge Haymes Partners, said projects slowed in 2020 and picked back up as the pandemic eased.

A lot of those projects came roaring back, he said. Chicago has shown that its pretty resilient.

Two of the firms most notable recent projects are a 444-unit high-rise at 465 North Park Drive and Wolf Point East, which brings almost 700 units to the convergence of the north and south branches of the Chicago River. The city has had significant development along transportation corridors, something city leadership is pushing for, and in Fulton Market.

Theres been a huge amount of work going on in Fulton Market, Kent said. Thats a seismic shift in the development pattern of Chicago, and well see whether that has a long-term effect on other developed areas, whether the Loop itself or River North.

More people are living in the Loop as well.

If you go back 20 to 25 years, the Loop wasnt a residential neighborhood, he said.Still, he said his firm is looking for opportunities on the South side where he said Mayor Lori Lightfoots Invest South/West initiative will help spur development.

Jim Plunkards Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture came in third, with 27 major project permits. Its designing the mixed-use megaproject that Onni Group is bringing to Goose Island.

Joe Antunovich of Antunovich Associates, who was named on 23 major project permits from 2017 to 2021, described absorption of apartments in Chicago as bottomless and said work has been busy downtown and in the West Loop. He attributed that to corporations with headquarters located there and young people wanting to live near where they work.

Who wouldve known the West Loop wouldve grown incredibly as it has. I dont think anyone saw that coming, he said. Companies like Google and McDonalds made that happen.

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Here are architects with Chicagos most big projects - The Real Deal

APPLETON - The architect and construction manager of the new $40 million Appleton Public Library have doubled down on value engineering in attempt to keep the project within budget in a time of high inflation.

The extra work has caused severaldelays in bidding the project. Under the latest schedule, the bids are dueAug. 31, and the completion of the project is targeted for spring 2024.

"We don't know what will happen on bid day," library project manager Dean Gazza told the Common Council. "No one can predict that, but I can tell you that we put ourselves in the best possible position to bid and hit our target."

Representatives of architectSkidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) of Chicago and construction managerThe Boldt Co. of Appleton recently summarized their diligence for the council.

Paul Coenen, vice president at Boldt, saidhigh inflation and shortages in materials and labor have complicated the renovation and expansion project. He described the current market as "unprecedented economic times."

"In my 40 years in the construction industry, I don't think I've ever dealt with this much volatility in pricing, supply-chain issues and even hiring employees," he said.

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SOM and Boldt, in conjunction with the city, have examined about 170 modifications indesign or materials to lower costs, sometimes only to have market conditions change again, requiring another examination.

"This team has worked really hard to get where we are today," Coenen said. "I think that we've responded well to these challenges. The proof will be in the pudding when the bids come in, of course."

Senior designer Jason Fisher of SOMsaid thevalue engineering hasn't changed the vision or scope of the library as a community center.

"It's not a sacrifice of the space or of the quality," Fisher said. "It's more just trying to find creative ways to bring costs back in line."

Some elements of the design, like the library's geothermal system, have withstood the additional scrutiny and remain integral to the project. Others, like the $445,000 for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, have been cut.

"We already have all of the LEED strategies," architect Martin Rauber said,"so it's an easy savings, to forego the certification process itself, because the library is already following the LEEDframework."

Gazza said the results of the bids will be presented to the Finance Committee on Sept. 12 and to the council on Sept. 21.

The existing library at 225 N. Oneida St. dates to 1981 and is considered outdated, inefficient and, at 86,600 square feet, undersized. The new library will total 107,380 square feet.

The library closed its doors in April in anticipation of construction. It isoperating at a temporary sitein the former Best Buy storeat 2411 S. Kensington Drive.

The budget for the library project totals $40.4 million. The amount consists of $26.4 million in city property taxes, $2 million inAmerican Rescue Plan Act funds and $12 million in private donations.

The private money willbe raised by thenonprofit organization Friends of Appleton Public Library. It is contacting leaddonorsin what's known as the silent phase of the fundraising campaign. The public phase of the campaign will begin once the group has reached 80% of its goal.

Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com.Follow him on Twitter at@DukeBehnke.

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Architects strive to keep $40 million Appleton library within budget - Post-Crescent

In April, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Working Group IIIs Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. The reports contents strengthened the case made by the previous two segments of IPCCs Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) for extensive, accelerated action against greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. These prior reports established the basic science and found that climate changes so far appear at the high end of previous estimates. The Mitigation report explores what societal actors canand mustdo to slow the pace of global warming.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres minced no words in introducing the report, charging high emitters with not just turning a blind eye [but] adding fuel to the flames. [] Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels. Earth is on a fast track to climate disaster, with a projected average temperature that is double that of the 2015 Paris Agreements goal of 2.7 F, or 1.5 C, above preindustrial levels, he noted. Only an end to fossil-fuel subsidies, a triple-speed shift to renewables, and protection of forests and other ecosystem resources will stave off tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate impacts.

The Mitigation report challenges built-environment professionals to act: The ninth of its 17 chapters concerns buildings, which contribute 21 percent of global GHGs as of 2019, and places architecture and construction in a pivotal position as the shift from fossil fuels to renewables and other sustainable practices is arguably both technically and economically feasible. By 2050, the buildings chapter envisions a global mitigation potential of at least 8.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to a 61 percent reduction of our baseline scenario in some studies.

Vanesa Castan Broto, professor at the University of Sheffield (U.K.) and one of the authors of Working Group IIs Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, emphasized that adaptation and mitigation are synergistic and must occur simultaneously. We know that the best way to adapt is to do mitigation, because any degree of temperature that increases reduces the capacity to adapt, she told AN. One of the things that we understand in this report that we didnt understand before, Castan Broto added, was that these impacts cannot be treated in isolation, but have to be treated as a series of interlocking events. Effective adaptive and mitigative responses are context-specific and include vulnerable populations perspectives, she emphasized, because climate impacts and vulnerability [are] linked to inequality, to marginalization, to the processes of impoverishment.

For many architects, the latest report is an additional rallying cry for change. The evidence is clear, Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, commented. The title of the IPCC press release says it all: We can halve emissions by 2030. This is especially true in the built environment and power sectorbuildings, construction, infrastructure, and electricity generation. With gains in renewable electricity generation and growing awareness of decarbonization, for Mazria the question is Can we transform the built environment and power sector fast enough to reach the 50 percent emissions reduction target by 2030? He was hopeful that this goal is feasible. If we do this, I have no doubt we will then decarbonize the entire sector by 2040; the sheer inertia of the transformation will carry us forward.

Mike Henchen, principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute, observes a gap between whats been achieved and the scale or pace thats needed to meet the challenge. Most U.S. buildings still use fossil fuels for general heating and water heating, while designing new buildings for full electrification and heat pump technologies remains a novelty, though policy is moving in that direction. Our progress to date is not enough by itself, but even the fact that weve held the direct emissions from buildings constant for decades, even while the building stock has grown substantially, is a real marker of the effects of energy efficiency. Henchen said that while weve seen acceleration and deployment, we need to increase that 10-fold or 100-fold over the next years and decades in order to hold to a climate threshold that we can manage.

Architects, said Daniel A. Barber, professor of architecture at the University of Technology Sydney, are the canaries in the coal mine, given how much the field is dependent upon capital. In the absence of the socioeconomic disruptions and public-policy changes that would constitute an effective response, theres very little incentive for an architect to plant their flag [and say] Im only going to do renovations or Im only going to build projects that are net zero. The AR6 reports overall strike him as not necessarily pessimistic, but frightening, yet the Mitigation report, from an architectural perspective, offers some reason for hope.

The report uses the French non-governmental organization negaWatts Sufficiency/Efficiency/Renewable framework. The steps laid out as sufficiency interventions, Barber said, move beyond the constraints of sustainable design. Most of our so-called green buildings over the last few decades, broadly speaking, have focused on efficiency; the report emphasizes how those gains in efficiency have been more or less met, if not in fact overwhelmed, by simple demands for more: more space, more square footage per occupant or per worker. Prioritizing sufficiency over efficiency implies encouraging less demand for HVAC through bioclimatic design measures, retrofitting existing buildings, and designing projects conducive to changing lifestyle expectations rather than simply improving the performance of HVAC systems. We know the science and the technology, Barber said, but we just dont have a regulatory or cultural incentive to build differently.

Michelle Addington, dean of the University of Texas School of Architecture and a mechanical/nuclear engineer as well as an architect, views some widespread mitigation strategies with skepticism. Density might stand in for other desirable metrics like car usage, for example. Dense cities can exacerbate the heat-island effect, and, according to an analysis by one of her doctoral students that considered affordable housing in 42 cities, actually encourage more income inequality. It can push low-income people out so far that they no longer have access to public transportation, which doesnt make a dent in car usage, Addington shared. Envelope-integrated photovoltaics also strike her as one of the heroic solutions whose track record doesnt live up to expectations.

Addington has long advocated for the importance of not energy per square foot, but energy per capita. She said the scariest takeaway is that the recognition that the increasing spatial size of buildings is a major problem. For GHG emissions to drop, she contended, the U.S. and China must both reverse the trend toward larger spaces with more conditioned air. With both spatial growth and new construction rising in countries with hot climates, climatically specific strategies are essential. Im actually a huge fan of the appropriate use of thermal mass, she said, and its highly problematic to use in anything but a high-pressure climate or a low-water climate. Passivhaus design and other strategies developed in Western Europe still overprivilege heating. Heating is actually easy; cooling is what nature does not want to do.

Insisting that smaller spaces are essential, Addington often encounters pushback grounded in claims that peoples happiness and productivity correlate with spatial scale. We can go smaller in many ways, she suggested, noting that some of the cheapest solutions to implement are counterintuitively effective: avoiding lavish corridors and lobbies and using sophisticated lighting, acoustics, and contrast to create a sense of spaciousness, reducing the stunningly ineffective and inefficient reliance on overhead light. We spend too much time worrying about trying to decarbonize the grid, she said, and not enough time in our field thinking about How do I eliminate an electrical use?

Kiel Moe, visiting professor at MIT, finds AR6 bracingly realistic, as it encourages the consideration of buildings not as performative objects, but as a terrestrial system. He said, This IPCC report helps architects build a case for why they need to be changing their practices, changing their contracts, [and] including construction ecology work as part of their contracted design deliverables.

Moe also noted that the conceit that were going to resolve this issue on a building-by-building basis, [or] that the boutique design of individual buildings will have the scale of impact thats commensurate with whats happening in the climate is misguided. Much of what passes for environmental responsibility, he emphasized, amounts to greenwashing: Programs like LEED are, in my mind, just enablers of neoliberal development. LEED has evolved, he conceded, but added that other certification programs like the Living Building Challenge are more thorough and thoughtful, but theyre more difficult to achieve. The well-intended Green New Deal, in his view, is a template for an incredible surge in carbon emissions in order to produce this so-called clean energy infrastructure.

Studio-based, Beaux-Artsderived architectural education, in Moes assessment, has disconnected design from earth science. Schools of architecture are still structured forms of climate-change denial. [They] are not doing nearly enough to address these issues and prepare another generation of architects to contend with the issues, to identify them, be literate about them, to have the technical and design capacities to address them.

Citing Alabamas Rural Studio as one model for integrating community design projects and practical research, Moe urged architects to rethink the definition of the profession. Architects exist in the United States legally to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. [The IPCC report is] clear evidence that architects have not been meeting that basic mandate.

Noting different nations widely varying contributions to emissions through industrialization, Lance Jay Brown, distinguished professor at CCNY and cofounder of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU), said that if you want the world to achieve some level of balance, those who have [emitted heavily] are going to have to contribute to those who havent. They will look to even the score. Weve got a monumental inequity happening that cannot be resolved on its own.

Aliye Celik, cofounder of CSU, pointed to the ongoing quarrel in the UN between the Group of 77which are the developing countries [now numbering 134]and Western countries. Consumption levels are very high in the West and very low in the rest of the world, so the West should pay for the damage that they have done so far [while] not limiting what the developing countries need to come to that level of development. Celik advised that there should be more emphasis on the carrots and sticks. For example, there could be incentive credits or changing interest rates for those who do the right thing and controls like building codes, zoning, and professional standards for those who are motivated by punishment.

The ability to regulate fossil-fuel productions in the United States suffered dual setbacks this summer, first when the United States Supreme Court invalidated the Environmental Protection Agencys ability to regulate power-plant emissions and then when West Virginia senator Joe Manchin backed away from negotiations with congressional leaders over investment in climate mitigation and adaptation. In charting how this will affect architects, the American Institute of Architects chief economist, Kermit Baker, put the onus on economic solutions instead of legislative ones, encouraging architects to do a better analysis of the full life cycle cost of a buildingon every buildingand make a convincing case to owners. Still, in a rare moment of political commentary, the AIA released a statement criticizing the ruling in West Virginia v. EPA. The climate crisis is a crisis of global dimensions, there are no sidelines, the text begins. Given the stakes, its time for architects to get in the game and play ball.

*Editors note: In the time since this article was written, West Virginias Joe Manchin returned to negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York after initially pulling the plug on ongoing tax and climate in July. The resultant health care and climate bill stemming from the latest negotiations, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, has been touted as the most consequential piece of climate legislation in U.S. history, investing a total of $369 billion in energy security and the fight against climate change. It narrowly passed the Senate this weekend with no support from Republican members.

Bill Millard is a regular contributor to AN.

Excerpt from:
After the latest report on climate change architects weigh in on next steps - The Architect's Newspaper

Extended Townscape Residences / T2P Architects Office

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Lead Architects : Tomonori Miura, Shikwan Yang, Tatsuhito Ono

Text description provided by the architects. In the town of Nishinari-ku, Osaka, where old row houses (Nagaya) remain despite the town undergoing renewal, we propose a new type of accommodation that we named Shared Residence.

It will combine separate units that ensure privacy, with shared spaces that encourage exchange and dialogue between residents. Some of those spaces will be open to neighbors as well.

In a town where large and small buildings are intermingled, we aim for an appearance that blends in with the town by making effective use of the land.

Shared residence is a high-density, low-rise building, with a combination of small architectural units that melt the imposing volume seamlessly to fit the micro-scale of its old neighborhood.

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Extended Townscape Residences / T2P Architects Office - ArchDaily

To play through Elden Ring is to take on a grave and foolish challenge. It took 135 hours of my life to finish the admired action role-playing video game directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with narrative content from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. I didnt beat it just for the bragging rights, but for the architecture community to learn about the vanguard of immersive digital space. At first, it doesnt sound like a game many would enjoy: you are a wretched creature with little aptitude who must work your way through an immense open world filled with horrifying monsters, all without respite. There are few directions, hints, or clues as to what to do, how to learn powers, where to find safety, or how to gain levels. If that wasnt enough, you are famously maidenless. Elden Rings environment fits Hobbes description of life before the social contract better than anything else Ive endured; a world famously illustrated as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. And yet, it has outsold popular titles like Call of Duty and is a lock for Game of the Year in 2022. So how could this torment be so well received?

For one, it has a complex and rewarding combat system with a large variety of gameplay mechanics to engage. But more importantly, there is a tone to it which doesnt adhere to contemporary gamings tendency to constantly barrage the player with incomplete tasks and alerts. Instead, Elden Ring presents an environment of indifference. This allows the landscape itself to take over, and the landscape is gorgeousfilled to the brim with architecture that is beyond dope.

Elden Ring is an open world game presented as a struggle for space and territory. As with other video games Ive reviewed for AN, such as Control, the environment can be thought of as the main protagonist, a protagonist which defies our understanding of the real-world. The demands on architecture here shift to include three things in particular: The ability to project itself as a symbol, create meaningful relationships with the surrounding ecology, and be organized in a self-referential way that affords discovery and exploration. We can see how this functions in three of the games built environments: Shacks, Elphael, and Raya Lucaria Academy.

The humble shack provides a morsel of solace from the barbarous wilds. Unlike most of the games architecture, no matter where it is in the worlda sweltering bog in Caelid, a frozen river near Castle Sol, or on a windy cliffside in Limgraveeach shack is approximately the same. It is a simple stone box with a large crumbling hole on one side completed by a poorly crafted wooden structure grafted into it and an even smaller dont talk to me or my son ever again shed on the side. When a 3D model is used repeatedly in digital space it is referred to as a reused asset, establishing a theoretical relationship between asset design and architectures preference to typology rather than direct programs. This allows the player to read the architecture, which signals safety amid a distressed environment. Architecture, or digital buildings, provide a more refined symbolic alternative to the otherwise cantankerous whizzing and blinking navigational tools typically encountered in digital space.

Dilapidation is not limited to the shacks. All buildings in Elden Ring show devastation, age, or an otherwise planned relationship to their particular ecologies whether economic, natural, or political. Fort Faroth is near a fetid swamp with steaming toxic gas, but set up high and dry, far from the poison below. What of Leyndell, the city holding the seat of power in an oppressive and remorseless world? It is filled with detail, shimmering gold, and so outrageously scaled it could be a graduate project from the mid-19th century Ecole des Beaux Arts. You can imagine each of these areas as simple storytelling, or you can open the case for immersive digital architectures particular need to master a relationship with an environment. It helps ground the place when it is obvious time has passed in the context surrounding it so that it is natural, reciprocal, and alive.

Elphael, an entire city built within the root system of a massive tree called the Haligtree, is an example of this kind of success. You begin the area alone, thousands of feet in the air along gargantuan branches spotted with rust-colored fungi. Through the limbs you move, jumping dangerously from one to the other, while the misty horizon of the ground below stretches as far as the eye can see. As you progress along the massive bifurcating limbs, you are confronted by enemies, including giant ants which made me feel like I was in Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Closer to the trunk, there are branches and roots intertwined through an ornately decorated set of warm, glowing, Rivendellesque buildings forming a treacherous path to the center of the rootstock.

At the center of the Haligtree is a noticeably cool, mossy space shot through with beams of sunlight which find their way to your armor through creases in the walls made of giant bent roots. Fungus spores in the room float through the light to form a surreal and synergistic site for the adventures most difficult boss fight: Malenia. She is a terrifying and powerful warrior who eventually sprouts wings that infect her prey with scarlet rot, confirming her as the source of the mycelium infection that plagues the entire tree. The fight synergizes space, place, character, and architecture to create a truly exemplary boss chamber. The Haligtree roots enrich the narrative quest storyline and the complex origins of Malenia herself, the details of which I shall spare in case you, dear reader, fancy a go.

Digitally immersive environments are well suited to urbanism that rewards exploration. The Academy of Raya Lucaria is a treacherous and dense city of interwoven libraries and churches filled with magical scholarly foes. The dramatic verticality and inter-relationships between spaces remind me of exploring lAbbaye du Mont Saint-Michel. These relationships help to steer through an environment with little to no navigational aid. I was constantly peeking in and out of windows and through damaged walls to catch a glimpse of the adjacent spaces, recognizable only if I consider them from my new angle. This navigational architecture is typical of Souls games, with the cheeky final result often being that you end up making your way back to where you started.

If you consider the entire games environment a single architectural experience, Crumbling Farum Azula is the final crescendo. This is the end of the world. It is a collapsing architectural space remarkably held together by wind, lighting, and gravity. There are untold dangers and resplendent treasure swirling around big chunks of ancient construction whose meaning and purpose are lost to time. The mystery of the place is deep, and the environment reflects that mystery. Under, over, and around one must climb seemingly without a directional path or goal. The game even requires a player to jump off a cliff onto the edge of fragmented pediments just to keep going. Crumbling Farum Azula combines all of the successful qualities of space weve discussed so far into a complete package that is arresting, bewitching, and without equal.

While it is a single-player game, Elden Ring connects you with other players. Bloodstains on the ground activate a ghostly window into another players game, playing you a clip of that persons demise which can serve as a warning. White glowing stones reveal small notes left by other players, offering clues to aid the journey: Beware of left or, Hidden path ahead. Some include crass community inside jokes, like a Try Jumping note left along the edge of a steep cliff, or the infamous Try fingers but hole notes left nearby characters who are bending over.

This is the most important aspect of the game: while Elden Ring is a single-player game it is a collective spatial experience. There are hundreds of forums, websites, streams, and videos to catalog and customize your specific journey, share in the success of others, and uncover hidden secrets. This masterpiece of digital architecture provides a solid answer to a burning question of contemporary design: What digital space will people choose to occupy? Currently, multiple Metaverses and online sociocultural 3D environments are formed with the goal of coercing microtransactions, further surveilling social life, or mining personal data. Companies like Meta (Facebook) are sinking a billion dollars a month to keep the investment alive. Instead of reconstructing our current worlds awful shopping malls, tennis courts, or, heaven forbid, Walmart, Elden Ring asks us to explore, engage our imagination, and to take our time doing so. We dont just want escape, we want to remind ourselves that new worlds are possible.

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Elden Ring has a lot to teach architects about immersive digital space - The Architect's Newspaper

CLEVELAND, Ohio After a two-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Sand Fest sand castle and sculpture competition sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is returning to Edgewater Beach.

On Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., competing teams from local architecture and engineering firms will dig in, so to speak, at the citys premier lakefront park, 7600 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway.

In addition to professional contestants, Sand Fest this year includes a community sand pile, supported by Near West Family Network, that will be open to sand castle builders of all ages and abilities.

Beachgoers are invited to oversee the works in progress. Food trucks provided by Swensons, Barrio, and Cleveland Acai will provide food and refreshments.

The event aims to raise money for the ACE Mentor Program, which stands for Architecture Construction Engineering, and which provides educational and mentorship opportunities for Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school students, and college scholarships. Sand Fest raised nearly $8,000 for the program in 2019, according to a media release.

Sand Fest is supported this year by Independence Excavating, along with Sunbelt Rentals, the nonprofit Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Turner Construction, Kalwall Corporation, Stantec Architecture, Ubiquitous Design, Bowen, GPD Group, AECOM, Cleveland Metroparks, and others, the release said.

The event includes a day-long volleyball tournament involving 14 teams monitored by professional referees.

The sand castle competition will be judged by a panel that includes Ward 15 Councilwoman Jenny Spencer, and a surprise guest from the Cleveland Cavaliers. All teams are eligible to win a peoples choice award, known as Best of the Beach.

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Sand Castle competition organized by American Institute of Architects Cleveland chapter returns Saturday to - cleveland.com