rethinking the hospital in doha

led by reinier de graaf, OMA introduces its al daayan health district, which will be realized in doha, qatar. the team seeks to reimagine the hospital, a feat which is an urgent priority in the context of rapidly advancing medical innovation. located on an untouched, 1.3 million square-meter site between qatar university and the new lusail city, the al daayan health district presents the perfect opportunity the architects note that it offers the possibility for a new symbiosis between architecture and medical science.

all images HMC

led by reinier de graaf, the team at OMA presents its al daayan health district with a threefold program a tertiary teaching hospital, a womens and childrens hospital and an ambulatory diagnostics center. the project will have a total capacity of 1,400 beds, all joined into a single structure. clinical facilities occupy the first floor while bed wards are located on the ground floor, reducing the dependency on elevators and allowing patients to enjoy the complexs generous gardens healing spaces with a long history in islamic medical architecture.

OMAs doha health district will be made up of cross-shaped modular units, prefabricated onsite. these modules can be reconfigured and expanded with minimal disruption to ongoing processes, significantly lowering the cost of future adaptations. 3D-printing allows for endless variations in the design of the facades, reintroducing ornament to the hospital a type of architecture usually characterized by austerity.

a high-tech farm supplies food and medical plants for the local production of medicine. all supporting facilities are connected to the hospitals by an automated underground circulation system. a dedicated logistics center and solar farm enable the district to function autonomously.

More here:
OMA's 'al daayan' health district in doha reimagines the future of hospitals - Designboom

WEST LAFAYETTE Contractors working on the West Lafayette Public Library asked the Board of Trustees to close access to the library during interior construction.

The request came during the Oct. 13 board meeting, when trustees voted to close the library fromNov. 15 to Nov. 30.

There will be some significant interior remodeling work in the Library going on and our contractor has asked that we not open it to the public at that time, so we can maintain the proper safety protocols, said Nick Schenkel, director of the West Lafayette Public Library.

In 2019, the West Lafayette City Council issued $11 million in bonds to pay for the renovation and expansion of the library. Construction began in 2021 and is expected to be finished by February of 2022.

At this months meeting, Scott Senefeld, landscape architect and owner's representative for The Veridus Group, outlined the progress of the project to the board.

The Veridus Group is one of the major contractors working on this project. The other two major contractors being krM Architects and Wilhelm Construction. All three contractors are based in Indianapolis.

Earlier this week, contractors finished placing three new air handling units on top of the library. They are expected to finish the installation of these units next week.

Constructors are almost finished completing the storm line on the south side of the library.

Regarding interior renovations, contractors reportedly have completed 90% of the framing and drywall on the second floor and have started renovation on a portion of the first floor.

Other West Lafayette business:

Outside of the library, roads are congested with construction. On Oct. 6, during a Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, the City of West Lafayette Engineering Department requested the closure of the alley on the Northside of the West Lafayette Public Library. They requested that the alley be closed for the entire week of Oct. 11, or longer if work was delayed by the weather.

Contractors have also been working with Indiana American Water, which is currently replacing drainage on the south side of the library along Columbia Street. Indiana American Water is expected to finish its project by the end of November.

We originally asked if they could push back the startup to Nov. 15 when the library was going to be closed, but because of their structure and funding they have to be complete by the end of November, said Senefeld.

The project is currently expected to be completed on schedule.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitterat1NoePadilla.

Read the original here:
West Lafayette Public Library to be closed in November for construction - Journal & Courier

For years, you could always start a conversation with The Earthquake and expect a lively exchange of anecdotes, second-hand tall tales, and even a juicy conspiracy theory or two. It was a great ice-breaker and a dependable shortcut to entertainment.

These days, however, evoking the Loma Prieta earthquake has lost much of its magic. If you dont read the room properly, you might very well feel like Granpappy nattering on about World War I, especially when youre reminded that the smart, sophisticated, very much adult person youre chatting with literally did not exist at the time.

That number your brain is laboring to calculate right now is 32. Thats how many years its been since a dramatic earthquake, epicentered in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos, changed the cultural and geological history of two bay areas, Monterey and San Francisco, on this date.

Those of us who were around for the quake instinctively can recite the numbers: Oct. 17, 1989. 5:04 p.m. 6.9 magnitude, 63 dead, six in Santa Cruz County. Downtown Santa Cruz and Watsonville were clobbered, in many areas reduced to ruin.

The rubble across from the Cooper House.

(Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History)

Thousands of lives were uprooted and disrupted, hundreds of homes destroyed. Highway 17 was closed for a month. Lines outside supermarkets to get food and basic supplies were breathtaking, making recent pandemic queues look like childs play by comparison.

Red tags that marked unsafe structures fluttered around town like autumn leaves in New England. Many of the signature buildings in the area, buildings that gave Santa Cruz its personality, didnt survive the quake most painfully the grand old Cooper House, the dominant landmark of downtown.

At the time, and during the long rebuilding period, the quake felt like a stark demarcation line in local history, that life in Santa Cruz County might forever be marked as BQ or AQ.

The Pacific Garden Mall snaked its way up Pacific Avenue.

(Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History )

Perhaps the most prominent BQ feature of the local landscape was the Pacific Garden Mall, the leafy, pedestrian-friendly design overlaid onto Pacific Avenue 20 years before the quake.

The mall snaked through downtown mimicking a river, with lots of trees and vegetation to suggest a country village out of a Grimm fairy tale, the vision of photographer Chuck Abbott (after whom Abbott Square is named) and local landscape architect Roy Rydell. It was a tangible expression of the sensual, Dionysian, back-to-nature aesthetic that characterized the hippie movement of the late 1960s.

The mall cast its spell on Santa Cruz and before long it became an inviting venue for everything from street performers to Hare Krishnas. But as the 1970s morphed into the 80s, many locals felt the mall had become a bit too colorful, even unsafe, attracting, in the terminology of the time, undesirable transient elements.

By 89, many locals felt that the mall was a design out of fashion, aging about as well as drawstring bell-bottoms, and some began avoiding downtown altogether.

By 89, many locals felt that the mall was a design out of fashion, aging about as well as drawstring bell-bottoms, and some began avoiding downtown altogether.

Which brings us to a fascinating what-if, 32 years later. However much trauma and pain Loma Prieta brought about, its clear that the quake gave Santa Cruz a timely opportunity to redesign its downtown, and given the chance, the city quickly changed course away from Roy Rydells urban Eden. In its place came the wide sidewalks, clear sight lines, and geometric purity of Pacific Avenue as we all know and love it (or not) today.

If the 89 earthquake had never happened, would the city have ever taken on the hassle and expense to replace the mall design with a more sleek and modern downtown? Would it have opted instead for piecemeal, patchwork changes? Or would always-inventive Santa Cruzans just have learned to adapt to their endearingly weird drawstring bell-bottoms?

The Cooper House would have continued to get older, as would many of the downtown spaces and buildings wiped out by the quake. If architecture is subject to the dynamics of fashion or technology or pop music, maybe the painfully dated aesthetic would have eventually ripened into retro-chic, and Santa Cruz would be celebrated today for its throwback vibe.

Pre-earthquake downtown Santa Cruz.

(Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History)

Maybe the Cooper House would have been refurbished in some smart, elegant way, or some clumsy Frankenstein way. Maybe it would today be sitting behind a chain-link fence, forlorn and forgotten like the former Caffe Pergolesi building on Cedar Street.

If the quake had never happened, stalwart local businesses that endured an expensive but ultimately transformative move into new spaces Bookshop Santa Cruz, Atlantis Fantasyworld, Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co., the Museum of Art & History, many others might still be struggling with ol,d decrepit buildings. What kind of effect would an unchanged Santa Cruz County have on traffic, economy, housing, or demographics?

It would be crass and disrespectful to the loss of life and property to think of the 89 quake as a blessing in any way. It certainly didnt feel like that at the time. But, for better or worse, it delivered the downtown Santa Cruz we have today. We cant know what alternative reality exists in the parallel universe of a quake-less Santa Cruz, or what fundamental differences the butterfly-wing nature of time would have brought about in countless individual lives.

Maybe the Loma Prieta earthquake was just a speed bump in Santa Cruzs history with little influence on what this city has become, or what it imagines itself to be. But I suspect thats a very BQ way of thinking.

Link:
WALLACE BAINE: On the anniversary of the '89 quake, imagining a Santa Cruz where it never happened - Lookout Santa Cruz

Were only a couple of weeks away from the 2021 Golf Inc. Summit. Weve already shared whats in store for the public track, so heres what the investor track can look forward to Oct. 26-28 at the La Quinta Resort in California.

Learning from the past year: how to leverage the surge

Jonathan Last, Founder & President, Sports and Leisure Research

Larry Hirsh, President, Golf Property Analysts

Ron Stepanek, Business Dev. Executive, BrightView Golf Maintenance

Real estate strategies for private clubs

Peter Nanula, CEO and Chairman, Concert Golf Partners

Eric Mott, Board Treasurer, The Ranch Country Club

Eric Ackerson, Board Member, The Ranch Country Club

Navigating the effects of droughts

Bradley Herrema, Shareholder, Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck

Dave Loomis, Vice President, Poppy Bank

Cole Thompson, Assistant Director, Green Section Research

Buy & sell: market assessment 2021

Jeff Woolson, Exec. VP, CBRE Golf & Resort Properties

Bobby Silva, Sr. VP, Escalante Golf

Andy Crosson, Exec. VP, Arcis Equity Partners

Jimmy Han, Principal, Century Golf

Meet the top buyers

Randolph D. Addison, Partner, Addison Law

Tom Bennison, Chief Development Officer, ClubCorp

Randy Jones, COO, C-Bons Golf International

Doug Howe, COO, Century Golf Partners

An owners perspective on whats next

Don Rea, Owner/Operator, Augusta Ranch Golf Club

Tony Martinez, Board of Director, PGA

Cathy Harbin, President and CEO, On Course Operations

Ty Martinez, Associate, PGA

What innovations will define the next generation of courses?

Forrest Richardson, Principal, Richardson | Danner Golf Course Architects

Erik Peterson, President, PHX Architecture

Ken Alperstein, Golfcourse and Landscape Architect, Pinnacle Design Company

Ted Simons, Founder/Chief Developments Officer, Synergy Group Consulting

Continue reading here:
Presenting the Investor Track for the 2021 Golf Inc Summit - Golf Inc.

"I'm Convinced that Good Architecture Creates the Good Life": In Conversation with Dorte Mandrup

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"Architecture encompassed my interest in reality and societal issues," says architect Dorte Mandrup, in an extensive conversation with Louisiana Channel, in which the founder and creative director of Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter reflects on formative years and the values of her architecture practice. Four years in the making, the film takes viewers on a journey through Dorte Mandrup's architecture, with compelling footage telling the story of designs such as the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, Jaegersborg Water tower, or Ama'r Children's Culture House. Through the portrait film, the architect touches on numerous topics such as sustainability and climate change, the relationship of the built environment with the landscape, and as well as the profession itself and its present transformations and challenges.

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From Greenland's landscapes to the urban environment of Copenhagen and the model workshop of Dorte Mnasdrup Arktekter, Louisiana Channel's latest film is a journey through space and time building to an extensive exploration of Mandrup's work and design process. Throughout the various interviews, the architect talks about her admiration for the work of Henning Larsen, as well as the challenges of pushing for architectural quality when the profession is perceived less in terms of added social value and more as a judge of style. At the same time, Mandrup details her interest in adaptive reuse and design of children spaces while she expresses her view of architecture as a sensory experience and a means of communication.

"I think it took me a long time to realize that the knowledge you have that isn't articulated with words is as important as the written or spoken argument. There is a path to us, a form of communication that doesn't involve words. So acknowledging that there exists a different kind of knowledge and a different argument was a huge relief to me." -Dorte Mandrup

Dorte Mandrup founded the eponymous practice in 1999, and the Copenhagen-based studio is now known for creating contextually relevant spaces that foster social interaction across multiple scales and programs. Mandrup is the recipient of numerous accolades, having been named Architect of the Year at ICONIC Awards 2021, Chairwoman of Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019 and a Member of the RIBA Honours Committee in 2021.

To see more architecture videos, check ArchDaily's full coverage of Louisiana Channel's series of interviews.

News Via Louisiana Channel.

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"I'm Convinced that Good Architecture Creates the Good Life": In Conversation with Dorte Mandrup - ArchDaily

Two years after tech giant Amazon ended its search for a second headquarters site and settled on Arlington, Virginia (after plans for a Queens offshoot fell through), more information on the second phase of its new campus, and centerpiece The Helix tower, has finally been released.

In an About Amazon blog post released earlier this morning, the company announced it had teamed with frequent collaborator NBBJ, who also designed the companys bulbous Spheres in Seattle, a greenhouse adjoined to their original headquarters, for this East Coast project. Phase one of Amazons HQ2 campus was first revealed in May of 2019 (Metropolitan Park), with a more restrained pair of buildings, totaling 2.1 million square feet, from ZGF Architects complemented by a Field Operations-designed landscape.

Phase two of the campus, which will ultimately hold up to 25,000 Amazon employees, is decidedly more ostentatious. NBBJ has unveiled a 22-story, 350-foot-tall glass spiral that decidedly references both DNA and conical mollusk shells to anchor its PenPlace site (as the press release calls out the biophilic design influence specifically), as well as two other buildings of the same height. Altogether, 2.8 million square feet of office space will be shared between three towers and Amazon expects them all to hit LEED Platinum certification.

The Helix itself will span 370,000 square feet and feature two hiking paths along its planted exterior, which Amazon claims will be planted with native flora from Virginias Blue Ridge Mountains. The trail, and The Helix itself, will be opened to the public a few weekends a month, according to the company. Besides office space and its greened exterior, The Helix will feature an interior garden, a 1,500-person meeting space, and Amazon is starting an artist-in-residence program for the tower.

SCAPE has been tapped to handle PenPlaces landscaping, which includes 2.5 acres of plazas and open space at The Helixs base, which, from the renderings, are intended to seamlessly flow into the tower and conjoin the other two buildings on site. A dog run, 250-seat public amphitheater, lawns, green spaces, hilly planted areas, and 100,000 square feet of retail space across 12 storefronts are all planned, with farmers markets, concerts, and outdoor movies screenings all proposed. Joining the plaza will be a childcare center and a 20,000-square-foot community center that Amazon expects will be used for classes and science and technology education.

The biking and pedestrian experience was also, according to Amazon, at the top of their site planning criteria, and as such a quarter-mile of new bike lanes will be added and all vehicle traffic to and from PenPlace will be underground.

Amazon is expecting to break ground on the PenPlace section of its $2.5 billion campus in 2022, with the towers expected to open in 2025. Whiting-Turner is serving as the project contractor.

Original post:
NBBJ's spiraling glass Helix will anchor Amazon's HQ2 in Arlington - The Architect's Newspaper

In 2013, Friends of The Underline founder Meg Daly had a bike accident and broke both of her arms. Unable to drive herself to physical therapy, she began taking the Miami Metrorail, an often overlooked means of transportation. But switching up her routine and taking on Miamis limited metro system wasnt the only new thing Daly encountered. Nestled under the train tracks sat a chunk of neglected land.

Mindfully designed green spaces are rare in Miami. Its a city where beach became a word almost synonymous with park for guests and residents alike. What was lacking was quite obvious to Daly, a sales and marketing veteran: an interactive green space that would provide safety, culture, technology, wellness, and lets face it, shade. What were seeing are cities everywhere looking to revitalize public space in their urban fabric, says James Corner, CEO and founder of Field Operations, the urban design and landscape architecture firm commissioned to bring Dalys vision to life. Cities are getting denser, he continues, and theres a desperate need for open space. The solution? The Underline, a 10-mile linear park connecting some of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Miami.

The Underline follows the path of an existing but seldom used light rail system in Miami.

Were all strangers to each other, Daly says of Miamis individualistic nature. The only time we get to know each other is when theres a hurricane and we need to ask our neighbors for icethen when the storm passes, we go back to being strangers. What began as a relatively simple ideaa linear neighborhood parkhas grown into a project that could transform the trajectory of Miami. From free health and wellness programs and vast trails for biking, walking or running to cultural events and an art gallery spanning the entire project, The Underline aims to enrich the day-to-day lives of Miamis residents.

With equality in mind, Daly and her team (funded both privately and publicly) set out to secure a representative audience of each neighborhood The Underline passes through. Currently, the corridor feels like what separates neighborhoods, says Isabel Castilla, a principal architect at Field Operations. After extensive community outreacharound 27 meetings for each zoneit became clear that each neighborhood desired different amenities, and some even craved basic features. Wi-Fi, a luxury often forgotten, will be available throughout The Underline, providing free access and a new kind of workspace for children and adults alike. Brickell will be the first neighborhood to experience everything this project promises to be. After some major construction setbacks due to COVID-19, Brickells section of the corridor is set to open within the next few months. As for the rest of the project, only time, and patience, will tell.

The newly minted public space will be used not only for exercise, but also for cultural and educational purposes.

Programming and amenities aside, The Underline will help tackle an issue at the forefront of Miamis identity: climate change. All of the planting weve selected is native to Florida, Castilla explains. We wont be using irrigationeverything is drought-tolerant. In addition to the permeability of The Underlines ground, all rainfall (a Miami staple often leading to flooding increased by fast-rising oceans) will be directed into the planting beds. And while the project has placed notable emphasis on sustainability and environmental consciousness, one can only hope that the citizens of Miami will follow suit.

The Underline has been designed so that all rainfall in the area will be directed into the new planting beds.

Built on the fundamental layers of safety, wellness, and resilience through alternative transportation, The Underline will act as a disruptor to a city where transportation has almost exclusively meant automobiles. There will be a renaissance of how we experience our county, Daly notes proudly of the project. I hope The Underline is a catalyst in that.

See the article here:
How an Unlikely Plot of Land Will Transform Miami - Architectural Digest

The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has approved a $304-million (250 million euro) plan to transform the citys famed Champs-lyses into a pedestrian-friendly public space by 2030.

The ambitious restoration project, proposed by the local community and first unveiled in 2019, will overhaul the 1.2-mile-long central street in the French capital that connects the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde into what Hidalgo refers to as an extraordinary garden in Le Journal du Dimanche.

Frustrated by the alienating effect that the luxury stores and expensive restaurants had on the locals, the Champs-lyses committee has been campaigning for the redesign since 2018 and proposed the now approved project in 2019. The scheme was designed by PCA-Stream, a French architectural firm based in Paris. PCA-Stream principal and founder Philippe Chiambaretta stated that his goal was to convert the boulevard into a space that would be ecological, desirable and inclusive.

Lately, the worlds most beautiful avenue, as its sometimes known, has fallen on hard times and hosted several consecutive crises thanks to its prominent location in the heart of the French capital: After the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) protests, strikes, and high-end retail gentrification over the last 30 years, the scheme looks to return the street to local residents. The committee, headed by Jean-Noel Reinhardt welcomed the mayors good news.

PCA-Streams scheme seeks to close half of the streets eight lanes to cars and insert pockets of greenery or planted living rooms. According to Chiabaretta, this will improve the air quality of a street that sees up to an average of 3,000 cars per hour. The revitalization will also introduce food kiosks and meeting spaces in an attempt to attract locals back into the area and return it to a space closer to its original purpose of fostering open-air comingling.

The avenue was originally conceived by Andr Le Ntre, King Louis XIVs landscape architect, in 1667 as an extension to the gardens at the Tuileries Palace to the southeast on the bank of the River Seine. In 1709, the finished boulevard took its name from the Greek Elysian Fields, an outdoor paradise for the righteous to frolic in for all eternity. The new renovation be delivered in two stages; the work at the Place de la Concorde, Pariss largest public square, will be completed before the Olympic games in 2024 with the rest following, with a completion date set for 2030.

More here:
Paris's Champs-lyses will get a pedestrian-friendly green overhaul - The Architect's Newspaper

Sustainable architecture: innovative and inspiring building design

From amazing abodes to centres of care and hard-working offices, we chart some of the worlds best examples of sustainable architecture, buildings that not only look good but also do good

Photography: Spaceshift Studio

Elephant Worlds architecture nods to both human and elephant needs, showcasing a strong sense of social sustainability but a respect to the environment too. The Wallpaper* DesignAwards 2021Best Sanctuarywinner is a design by Thai architect Boonserm Premthada and his practice,Bangkok Project Studio. Premthada worked with local labour and materials to create a complex dedicated to the wellbeing of humans and animals, including an observation tower, a museum and a multifunctional event space. The design blends with the landscape and uses natural materials. For example, the bricks used for the museum were created on site by local workers using loam found in the area.

This ultra-sustainable workspaceis abuilding that actuallycreatesmore energy than it will consume over its entire lifespan. Architecture studioSnhetta,together with collaborators R8 Property, Skanska and Asplan Viak, has recently completed the project, Powerhouse Telemark, the fourth energy-positive building in its Powerhouse portfolio.Located in the city of Porsgrunn, the project creates much needed office space. Itfeaturessolar panels on its roof; natural shading is promoted, while plentiful insulation ensures heat is retained where possible;and heat is stored in the building elements, to be released slowly, while a geothermal well supports heating and cooling. As a result, Powerhouse Telemarkwas awarded a BREEAM Excellentcertification.

German architect Anna HeringersAnandaloy project in rural Bangladesh is asuccessful example of sustainable architecture, both in terms of social and environmental responsibility. Thecommunity centre and textile workshop in rural Bangladeshcontains a therapy hub for people with disabilities on the ground floor anda fair-trade textile manufacturing workshop for local women on the first floor. Made out of rammed earth and bamboo, the structure explores age-old local building techniques and materials in soft curves and textures that connect with its place and the regionsvernacular.The building recentlyscoopedthe prestigiousObel Award for 2020.

Photography: Nic Lehoux

USarchitect Tom Kundig, of Seattle practice Olson Kundig, is behind thissustainable teak holiday house in Costa Rica.Called the Treehouse, the private home isbuilt predominantly out of locally harvested teak, and is open to the elements. This makes sense for Kundigs clients for two reasons: as avid surfers, it gives them a chic version of a basic surfers hut; and as environmentalists, their new home ticks a number ofsustainabilityboxes. Spanning three floors, thebuilding is designed to operate passively, and slatted panels keep it open to the outdoors. Our aim was to create a home that is very leaky to the view and light and air, says architect Tom Kundig. The structure also has itsown rainwater collection system.

Egyptian architect Sarah El Battouty, head of local studioECOnsult, ledthe sustainable design of Bahareya Village, an eco-friendly compound for farm workers in the countrysWestern Desert. Created to be home to the farming community engaged by organic tea producer Royal Herbs, the complex uses gravel manufactured from recycled construction waste for the base of itsminimalist concrete structures. Cacti scattered throughout the campus offer splashes of greenery without compromising on a commitment to water efficiency.And atechnique El Battouty borrowed from desert communities raisingthe foundations of the buildings to create distance between the floor and therefore the rising heat from the land reduces indoor temperatures by eight to ten degrees.

Photography: Richard Barnes

This minimalist and highlyeco-friendly house overlooking the Hudson River Valley is the country home of New York-based Alloys principal,architect and developer Jared Della Valle. NamedCold Spring Residence, the house sits on the land as lightly as possible.Della Valle worked with passive housesustainability standards to create his retreat, including solar panels foryear-round energy, awell-insulated building envelopeand careful management of the sites water resources. The building is also partly sunken and cannot be seen from the street, aligning with its creators desire for a a degree of modesty, so that the architecture doesnt compete with the striking surrounding natural landscape.

Photography: courtesy of Amager Resource Center

The Amager Resource Center in Copenhagen, also known as Copenhill, is one of the citys latest initiatives that put climate action to the forefront. Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the building is essentially a rubbish burner; yet its also so much more than that. The structure housesan artificial ski slope, recreational hiking area and climbing wall on top of the waste-to-energyplant. Built using aluminium blocks, this piece of infrastructureaims to treat 400,000 tonnes of waste annually. The result issupplying150,000 Danish households with district heating and 70,000 with electricity from non-recyclable waste.

Photography: Edmund Sumner

Created byarchitect Martand Khosla for aDelhi-based family of four, thisweekend retreat in Indias Dharamshala isrooted in traditionalmaterials and techniques.Set between farmland and a lush forest on the Dhauladhar mountain ranges of the Himalayas, Flying Househas been built using local resources stone, stabilised mud brick, slate and pine.A lot of the earth and stone dug out from the site during the foundation excavation went back into the construction. Building site wastage was minimised and a lot was recycled, making this house quite literally of its place. The construction uses stabilised mud brick, a method localworkers were taught, usingequipment from Development Alternatives (a social enterprise for sustainable solutions in India). This way, not only would the local stonemasons be able to build this particular house, but they would be able to master the craft and continue using it in the future.

See the rest here:
Sustainable architecture: innovative and inspiring building design - Wallpaper*

Nadia Holden knows what she wants: to become a mother. For several years, the 2005 South Side High School graduate and her husband have been ready to start a family, but so far, luck has not been on their side. After three preterm losses during pregnancy, they decided to take a different route and are hoping to adopt a baby.

The decision did not come easy, but was made with a lot of consideration. Holden, 33, acknowledged that the process of adoption wont be easy and could be emotionally painful, but she has been dealing with heartache for some time. Four years ago, she lost a baby a boy when she was seven months pregnant. The pregnancy had been smooth up until that point, she said.

My water broke, and when I went to the hospital, Holden recalled, we learned he didnt have a heartbeat.

It was devastating, but the couple tried again. The second pregnancy ended after four months, and the third, last January, was lost at three months. Between the pregnancies, she said, she visited a lot of doctors and underwent numerous testing. But the third loss was too much.

It was too much on my body, she said. We decided it was time to look into other options.

The decision to adopt was made in the summer of 2020. At first, Holden said, she thought that adoption agencies were the only way to move forward. But they hired an adoption attorney, who informed them that independent private adoptions are another option. We felt that this will give us more independence, she said. Id rather invest in the process myself than just hand my money over to an agency and let them take control.

Adopting a child is a difficult process, and she said they felt that agencies put too much stress on the things that could go wrong. The independent route just feels more hopeful, she said, adding, We know there could be risks for both sides as it is an emotional process, but we have to have a little bit of blind faith.

As tough as their journey has been thus far, Holden, a science writer for the National Cancer Institute, said she believes she and her husband, Jon Holden, a 34-year-old landscape architect, have both grown from the experience.

Weve been doing a lot of grieving, a lot of healing and weve learned how to reach out for support, she said. This is setting us up to be more compassionate and understanding parents.

Furthermore, she said, it has opened them up to deeper conversations and forced them to learn more about each other. Its made us think about why we want to be parents, how we want to raise our kids and what we want for them in this world, she said. And we also know that, no matter what happens, we will be together and put each other first.

They made the announcement about their decision at the end of the year, after creating a website detailing their story which they revealed to friends and family in late December while also posting on Instagram and Facebook.

Were hoping that by sharing it, it might help us connect with someone looking to place their baby, Holden said.

The couple lives in Northport with their two dogs, in a yard with chickens and an organic garden.

We feel like we have a lot to give we have a lot of love, a lot to share, a lot of shared values, she said. We care about the environment, the Earth, and most importantly, we love and support each other.

Go to nadiajonadopt.com to learn more about their story.

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Couple creates website, hoping to adopt - liherald