Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

When Washington, D.C. architects Will Teass and his wife Liz Dixon created a home for themselves and their family they managed to realize three priorities with it: sustainability, comfort and beauty.

It has exceeded our expectations. Its such a pleasant space to live in, Teass says.

When he bought the original brick townhouse, in the spring of 2020, he did so sight unseen. Wed always wanted to take on a project of this scale, and, in our minds eye, we knew some of the programmatic elements we wanted.

NetZeroRowHouse is a dramatic renovation centred on sustainability. The idea with Net Zero is for the house to produce as much energy as it uses. Teass says the most important elements of going for this was decoupling it from the gas grid.

"We weren't required to keep the front faade, but we figured it was the right move, because it's one of eight units that are all the same front," says Teass. (Kate Wichlinski)

The renovation of the 2,900-square-foot home involved keeping the front faade and pushing back the rear wall. This enlarged the living spaces on all four floors. The lower basement level was excavated to accommodate a rental apartment. The kitchen, dining and living areas on the first floor open out to a deck. There are two bedrooms and a kids den on the second floor.

A third floor was added. It holds the main suite and the home office. Set back from the roof line, it also creates a private roof deck. We were able to create a space right off a studio home office, with the ability to just open a glass door and walk out there and really take advantage of the city scape. Its probably our personal favourite.

The home was completed in Jan 2022.

Teass, of the firm of Teass Warren Architect, in Washington, D.C., explains how his project came together:

The deck off the office on the third floor is the couple's favourite place to enjoy a morning coffee or evening drink. (Kate Wichlinski)

Click to expand

What were the priorities for sustainability? Decoupling the home from the gas grid, so all of our appliances, heating and cooling and hot water are all produced by electricity and not natural gas or oil (was the first). The second thing was figuring out how to produce as much electricity on site by, in this case, solar panels. The third thing is making sure youre designing a very energy-efficient structure, youre using a high efficiency heating and cooling system, high quality doors and windows that minimize air leakage, insulating the walls and ceiling to, at least, code value, if not above, then minimizing your electrical load to the maximum extent possible.

A skylight and a staircase with an open rise maximize sunlight within the home. (Kate Wichlinski)

What were the challenges? The first was building in the middle of the pandemic. Other challenges were working on a small urban site, a relatively tight space, so youre trying to do a lot of things in a very small area.

At the rear of the house, large windows on the second and third floors and a large door on first floor bring sunlight into the home. (Kate Wichlinski)

Is it difficult to design a house when youre an architect and youre going to be living in it? Youre always critical. Youre constantly thinking about things you would have done differently. My wife is an architect, so there was a great collaboration of the two of us to work on the project, (and) were happy with this. As architects we think, OK, the next time, were going to make this little change.

A large, glass, bifold door opens to a rear deck, covered by a shade, which leads into the rear garden. (This doubles as a parking area.) (Kate Wichlinski)

Do you feel a responsibility to design sustainable homes? I think it is our responsibility to help educate our clients about what the responsibilities are. We do have a responsibility to point out design elements and to understand what energy footprints are, really think about employing sustainable strategies and do so whenever we can.

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This row house is designed to produce as much energy as it uses - Toronto Star

Two Dutch Architects Take Center Stage with the New Kunstwerf in Groningen | Architectural Record This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Two Dutch Architects Take Center Stage with the New Kunstwerf in ... - Architectural Record

BENTONVILLE, Ark.

HFA is excited to announce its upcoming webinar, "Designing for Future Flexibility: A+E Best Practices for Industrial Development," taking place on May 17th, 2023, at 11 am CST. The hourlong webinar will provide valuable insights and expert guidance on the most recent industry trends and best practices for designing logistics projects that can cater to a diverse range of potential occupants.

The webinar will be presented by Marc Jennings, R.A., VP of Logistics, and Garrett Small, P.E., Civil + Landscape Lead, who together bring decades of architecture and engineering experience.

In today's constantly evolving industrial landscape, its crucial for developers to invest in facilities that can remain relevant and adaptable in the face of emerging technologies and market demands. In this webinar, attendees will gain valuable insights and practical advice on designing flexible spaces that can adapt to changing conditions and evolving tech. The event will also highlight the latest trends and changes in the industrial sector, with a specific focus on automation and robotics, and the distinct challenges and opportunities they present.

This webinar is also an opportunity to talk about infrastructure planning, and how you design for end-user needs that change over time, said Jennings said. Prioritizing flexible design practices is crucial to maximizing the potential of investments in new construction or adaptive re-use and ensuring the broadest range of future tenants can be accommodated.

Join our hosts as they explore a range of topics, including:

The webinar is open to anyone interested in learning more about the future of flexibility in industrial design. Registration is free and can be completed at the following link: https://www.hfa-ae.com/events/webinar-future-flexibility-design.

###

HFA is a nationwide architecture and engineering firm with offices in Bentonville, AR, Fort Worth, TX, Franklin, MA, and Mexico City. With over 30 years of experience, HFA has become a trusted partner for a diverse range of clients, providing comprehensive services that combine design innovation and project delivery excellence. The studio's portfolio includes commercial projects inretail, industrial, mixed-use/office, restaurants, hospitality and entertainment spaces. To learn more about HFA and their work, visit their website at https://www.hfa-ae.com/.

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May 17 Webinar by HFA Architects and Engineers Explores Design ... - Supply Chain Dive

Minerva Parker Nichols, Frank Wallace Munn Residence, 189091, Philadelphia. Photo: Elizabeth Felicella.

IN A STRIKING BREAK from its typical Manhattan-centric provincialism (even more pronounced, in those days, than it is now), the New York Times gave over an entire two-and-a-half columns in the Style section of the March 10, 1977, edition to some very local news out of Philadelphia. Written, of all people, by Anna Quindlenstill twenty-five years before her Pulitzerthe story details the presumed final luncheon of the New Century Club, once a fixture of high society in the City of Brotherly Love and a force for womens rights nationwide. The occasion coincided, ironically, with the hundredth anniversary of the groups founding. Quindlen relates with characteristic bathos how the club lost all but its air of gentility, having already given up its longtime home for the ballroom of a tatty hotel. It is not like our old club, laments one dowager. I wish you could have seen our old clubhouse.

Surprisingly unmentioned is the name of the woman who designed that old clubhousealthough for Minerva Parker Nichols, such omissions have mostly been the norm. Born in 1862 in rural Illinois, the future architect bounced around the Midwest following her fathers death in the Civil War, eventually moving to Philadelphia with her mother. Obliged by straitened circumstances to seek employment, Parker Nichols worked menial jobs while pursuing technical training, leading to a position with a prominent local builder from whom she learned the trade firsthand. Her talent, as well as her ambition, quickly became obvious: In 1889, she took the extraordinary step of opening her own office, becoming the second woman in American history (after Louise Blanchard Bethune, who cofounded a practice with her husband in Buffalo, New York, in 1881) to do so. Over the ensuing six decades, she designed more than eighty buildings, including private homes, houses of worship, meeting halls, and tony protofeminist headquarters.

Minerva Parker Nichols, The New Century Club, ca. 1894, Philadelphia. Photo: West Philadelphia Collaborative History/Bryn Mawr College.

How that remarkable career unfoldedand what happened in the years after, as its significance proceeded to slip from architectures collective memoryis the subject of Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect, an ongoing exhibition at the University of Pennsylvanias Harvey & Irwin Kroiz Gallery. Its an appropriate setting: The building in which the gallery is located is the Fisher Fine Arts Library, originally Penns main library and designed in 1881 by Frank Furness. The most celebrated public project by the citys most celebrated nineteenth-century architect, the structure gets extra local-cred points for its connection with another hometown hero, Robert Venturi, who helped launch a successful campaign to save the building from demolition in the mid-1960s. Drawing on material from the universitys extensive architectural archives, the show allows Parker Nichols to return home at last, assuming her rightful place in the architectural history of the nations first capital.

Minerva Parker Nichols, ca. 1893. Photo: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

It is, admittedly, a funny place to be. The cradle of the countrys independence is not, in the general view, the cradle of the countrys design independence. That honor has always been reserved for Chicago, where American architecture is usually considered to have become truly American, and from whence it spread to pretty much everywhere else. And yet Philly occupies a special place in the on the map of American modernism: Furness was the mentor of Louis Sullivan, who would subsequently relocate to the Midwest, perfect the skyscraper, and then take on his own apprentice, Frank Lloyd Wright, cementing Chicagos reputation as primus inter pares of architectural innovation. On the other side of two world wars, Philadelphia emerges again, thanks to the arrival there (by way of Estonia) of Louis Kahn, who helped turn Penn into a hotbed for a new and heterodox brand of late modernismultimately to receive the prefix of post-, thanks in large measure to the efforts of Venturi. Funny accents notwithstanding, the Sons of the Schuylkill have definitely left their mark.

Of course, in that version of history, they are all sonsand therein lies the problem. As should surprise no one by now, the contributions of women architects have been systematically discounted, undervalued, or effaced altogether from the evolutionary record of modern design. The above roll call demonstrates the phenomenon in full swing: Denise Scott Brown was no less important in the formation of postmodernism (or in the preservation of the Furness library, for that matter) than Venturi, her husband, yet she has always been given short shrift, most famously by the Pritzker committee; Kahns earliest and most consequential projects relied heavily on the work of his associate Anne Tyng, a fact deliberately concealed along with their yearslong romantic involvement; and as for Wright, among his many offenses against womankind, the saddest may be his effective eclipse of his first-ever hire, Marion Mahony Griffin, perhaps the most brilliant draftsperson of her generation and a key influence on the Prairie School. Based on research by historian Molly Lester with a curatorial team led by the archives William Whitaker, the Parker Nichols show forges another link in a lengthy and still incomplete chain of scholarship, slowly pulling these and other submerged histories out of the depths.

Minerva Parker Nichols, New Century Club of Wilmington, 189293 Wilmington. Photo: Elizabeth Felicell.

Displaying images in vitrines, on walls, and on racks featuring recent photographs by Elizabeth Felicella, the Penn exhibition reveals an artistic trajectory running both with and against the grain of nineteenth-century American life. In the brief interval before she married the Unitarian minister William Nichols in 1891, the architect worked feverishly, realizing twenty-odd residential projects in her first solo year; even after her wedding, she continued to take on commissions, including what would have been her highest-profile one yet, a pavilion for the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893. That project ended up being bumped for another, completed by a different woman, Sophia Hayden. When the latter ran afoul of fair organizers, the Philadelphian showed both her intellectual and personal mettle by publishing an article in defense of Hayden and women architects everywhere. Writing and speaking were always central to Parker Nicholss practice, continuing after shed moved to Brooklyn with her husband, in 1896. The move had been for his work, not hers, and from that point until her death, in 1949, her only clients were her children and grandchildren. Addressing the New York Architectural League five years later, the architect encouraged women to enter the field, albeit on very particular grounds. It will be especially as builders of homes that women architects will excel, she told her audience. For who can plan so well the little convenient arrangements which make it easiest for the homemaker?

This is not the only instance in which the subject of Lester and Whitakers show (whom they have the unfortunate habit of referring to throughout as Minerva) affords a less-than-convenient vehicle for a feminist rewrite of twentieth-century architecture. The problem is remarkably common: Many of architectures most important female practitioners make imperfect proxy fighters in this regard, owing either to other political commitmentssee for instance Lina Bo Bardi, pioneering Brazilian modernist and stubbornly antifeminist Marxistor to having achieved success at the expense of other prioritiessee Zaha Hadid, undoubted genius and serial courtier to patriarchal petrocrats. In the case of Minerva, her conservatism might of course have been camouflage, cover for some other, more innovative agenda embedded in her work. One way to figure that out might be to actually look at her buildings, though here again the show again proves a little frustrating. What, exactly, makes a Minerva Parker Nichols design a Minerva Park Nichols design? The curators never quite say.

Anyhow, her houses are exquisite: Toned-down versions of the decorative Eastlake type, hints here and there of the Shingle Style, theyre just how she says they ought to be in one of her own essaysfrom the clean cemented cellar to the smoke-wreathed chimney, there shall be nothing which does not yield its share of comfort, utility, and beauty. The public projects, like the New Century Club, are exactly the kind of assured, de-froofed Victorian that makes any walk through Philadelphias streets such a pleasure, full of little ornamental surprises and an oddly homey sense of grandeur. The old club was replaced with a parking structure after the ladies moved out, and various others of Parker Nicholss projects have been lost or threatened since then. If the show does nothing else, it should serve to put the architect on the preservationist map, and to make everyone a little more mindful of the invaluable heritage represented by her time and place. Its the least we owe her.

Ian Volner

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A Progressive-era architect gets her due - Artforum

Urbahn ArchitectsEmployer:New York, NY, USLocation:Tue, May 2 '23Posted on:$70,000 - $115,000annuallyPay:

Sr. Architect / Construction Administrator

About Urbahn:

Urbahn Architects is a full-service architectural and interior design firm headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. A focus on design value and community benefit guides us in all of our primary markets, including education, science + technology, justice + public safety, healthcare, hospitality + residential, and civic infrastructure. With a fascinating history from 8 decades of continual practice, Urbahn was built upon the tenet that the practice of architecture thrives in an environment of thoughtful collaboration and extraordinary client service. Our organizational structure, rigorous processes, continual cultivation of talent, use of technologies, commitment to sustainability, and public engagement are all employed to serve the greater community. Urbahns principals are accessible and involved in all of the firms projects, providing guidance and support while encouraging self-determination, development, and civic participation.

Urbahn is seeking talented and dedicated individuals with growth potential for a range of ongoing and upcoming projects. Projects currently on the boards include healthcare, educational, justice, transit facilities, and exterior envelope renovations. Candidates should anticipate positive interaction with diverse and multigenerational teams.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Credentials and Capabilities:

Compensation & Benefits:

Salary range of $70,000 to $115,000 based on experience, accomplishment and licensing status. Benefits include hybrid in-office/remote work schedule, flexible hours, healthcare plans, 401K plan with employer contribution, pre-tax TransitCheks, and respect for employees personal time outside of work.

No phone calls or emails.

To apply, please submit your resume and portfolio to careers@urbahn.com

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Urbahn Architects is hiring a Sr. Architect/ Construction Administrator ... - Archinect

Danvers, MA Gienapp Architects announced that Frederick Gavriel has joined the firm as Project Manager/Architect.

Gavriel has over 37 years of design and construction experience including feasibility studies, programming, code reviews, schematic design, design development, construction bid/build documents, specifications, construction administration and project management.

Prior to joining Gienapp, Gavriel was a Senior Project Manager and Project Architect with extensive field experience at several well-known firms working on a wide range of projects, including ones for the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Harvard University, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Massachusetts Port Authority and Massachusetts Highway Department.

He is a registered architect in Massachusetts, a licensed Massachusetts Construction Supervisor, a Massachusetts Certified Public Purchasing Official (Public Contracting and Design & Construction Contracting) and is OSHA 10-Hour certified. Fred has a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently resides in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

As a Project Manager/Architect, my role ranges from project oversight and design development to construction administration. I find it personally satisfying to see my projects go from an idea to being built, and to be able to say to my children, I designed that one. I look forward to continuing building my legacy at Gienapp and to contributing to their continued success, said Gavriel.

All of us are glad to have Fred joining the team. His knowledge and background bring a valuable additional dimension to our projects, said Gienapp Architects Principal Dale Gienapp, AIA.

Related

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Gienapp Architects Announces Addition to Design Team - Boston Real Estate Times

ORANGE, Ohio -- Bialosky & Partners Architects of Cleveland has been selected to perform design services for renovations and additions to Village Hall.

On Wednesday (May 3), Village Council authorized Mayor Kathy U. Mulcahy to enter into an agreement with Bialosky to perform the services at a cost not to exceed $48,500.

Village Law Director Stephen Byron said Mulcahy recommended the firm based on good work it has done in the past in the village and other area municipalities, including Pepper Pike.

He noted that Bialosky performed the design services for the villages service department facility, which opened in 2013, and did the police, fire and service building renovations for Pepper Pike.

In a letter to Mulcahy from Paul Deutsch, principal and chief operating officer of Bialosky, he said the renovations and additions are being done to accommodate the current and future growth needs of the villages administrative, police and fire departments.

Orange Village has experienced dramatic growth and development since the Village Hall facility was completed in 1995, Deutsch said in his letter. The primary goals of this planning and conceptual design phase are to help unlock the potential of this 28-year-old facility and prepare it for its next generation of service.

The total budget for the project has been estimated at $5.5 million, which includes soft costs, Deutsch said in his letter. The remaining costs for hard construction are estimated at $4.1 million to $4.4 million, he said.

The design process is expected to take about eight weeks, the letter indicated.

Mulcahy has said the village needs more space at its municipal center for police officers and firefighters due to the limitations of Village Hall.

The village has been expanding its police force since last year, partly due to a significant increase in violent crime in the villages commercial district on Orange Place since early 2020.

The needs of the fire department also have changed greatly since 1995, resulting in the need for more space for firefighters as well, Mulcahy has said.

The villages administration had been considering placing a safety forces levy -- which would have helped defray the costs of the renovations -- on the Nov. 7 ballot. But Mulcahy said in April that it has been determined thats not possible, for various reasons.

In January, Mulcahy noted that the village has about $2 million in the general fund that will be moved into a capital improvement fund dedicated to future upgrades of Village Hall.

Firefighter appointed

In other action, council confirmed the appointment of Mitchell Tikkanen as a part-time firefighter/paramedic.

Assistant Fire Chief Larry Genova introduced Tikkanen, who was then administered the oath of office by Mulcahy.

Tikkanen, who grew up in the Youngstown area, earned a bachelors degree in biology from John Carroll University in University Heights in 2019.

He attended the Cuyahoga Community College Fire Training Academy and completed his paramedic training through University Hospitals. He currently works as a paramedic at a UH facility in Lakewood in the emergency department.

Tikkanen, a Berea resident, was accompanied during his swearing-in ceremony by his fiance, Paige Bidinotto. They plan to be married in May of next year, he said.

New Bedford Municipal Court judge

Also on Wednesday, Mulcahy noted that the likely election of Nick Papa as a Bedford Municipal Court judge could have an interesting impact on the village.

Papa, of Solon, defeated Solon Councilman Robert Pelunis in the Democratic primary election for that office Tuesday (May 2).

According to final, unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Papa received 2,536 votes (69.2 percent) to Pelunis 1,128 votes (30.8 percent).

There was no Republican primary in this race, so Papa advances to the Nov. 7 election with no opposition.

Bedford Municipal Court oversees cases from 14 municipalities, including Orange.

Papa would replace incumbent Bedford Municipal Court Judge Brian Melling, who cannot run again due to mandatory age requirements. Judges in Ohio are not permitted to seek re-election after they have reached their 70th birthday.

Its interesting to us in Orange Village because our prosecutor (Blair Melling) is the brother of the judge who Nick Papa will be replacing, Mulcahy said. I dont know if its going to change anything for the police department, but we can now go to both judges.

Its just different than what its been for a long time.

Mulcahy explained that since the Mellings are brothers, Blair Melling was not permitted to represent the village in the Bedford Municipal courtroom of Judge Brian Melling. Those cases had to be tried before Judge Michelle Paris, the other Bedford Municipal Court judge.

Byron reminded Mulcahy that Papa will not take office until January, if as expected he is elected in November. He would serve a six-year term.

Brian Melling, a Solon resident, has served on the bench of the Bedford Municipal Court since 2000.

Papa, 56, was a longtime registered Republican before switching parties. He is an attorney with 30 years experience practicing law, including 17 years as a part-time magistrate on the court. He is also a substitute acting judge.

Pelunis, 49, has served as Solon City Councils Ward 2 councilman for 21 years and has been an attorney for 24 years. He has his own law practice.

Upcoming events

Mulcahy also spoke about some upcoming events in the village.

The annual Community-wide Garage Sale will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 24-25. Its open to all village residents, and the sale takes place at homes in Orange. Residents may participate one or both days. There is no fee.

The deadline for registration is June 14. Registration can be done via the village website, orangevillage.com, or by calling Village Hall at 440-498-4400.

Music at the Amphitheater, sponsored by the Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce, is slated for June 27. The villages second annual Party in the Park will be July 22.

Both of these events will be at Community Park.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.

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Bialosky & Partners Architects to design renovations for Orange Village Hall - cleveland.com

8 Products Designed by Architects for Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile 2023

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Milan Design Week is an annual festival that returned to Milan this April, with as a main event, The Salone del Mobile, which runs from April 18 to 23, 2023, at the Fiera Milano exhibition venue. Over 370,000 people attended the furniture fair this year, while thousands of design studios presented furniture, lighting, appliances, kitchen, bathroom, outdoor and workstation products. To highlight furniture and object design and the broader context of Milanese architecture and culture, many architectural offices collaborated with various businesses to make architect-designed items and construct architectural installations.

Reputable architects participated in the week-long event as they do every year, using products, furniture, and installations to share their expertise, address some of the most pressing issues facing the field, and demonstrate how their work can benefit the environment and society. Many firmly established architecture studios, from Foster + Partners, Mario Cucinella, and Hassell, designed various products. Furthermore, architects such as The New Raw, Snhetta, and Studio Etienne Bastormagi have designed products focusing on efficient and sustainable systems that can inform future decision-making.

+ 8

Read on to discover 8 products designed by architects for Milan Design Week, with a description from the architects.

Knotty a collection of playful benches with a bold and tactile texture. Inspired by knitting techniques, the project treats plastic waste as a continuous thread of material that folds, twists, and loops to create an intriguing tactile surface that resembles textiles and invites users to touch it. The sculpted material texture, consisting of thick and seemingly soft knots, creates a tactile, permeable, and load-bearing surface for outdoor and indoor furniture or other architectural applications. Knitted patterns that increase functionality by allowing water drainage and avoiding internal structures can be upscaled and become ornaments and building units that embody a new digitally crafted materiality.

Social is designed for the Norwegian ergonomic-focused furniture manufacturer Varier and is a dining chair informed by movement and interaction. The role and purpose of our homes have drastically changed during the last few years, and the kitchen and dining tables have become places where every aspect of life happens. Social adapts to this ever-changing context by facilitating movements for more natural interactions in work, play, creation, and social settings.

The structures single unitary shell, reminiscent of an upturned architectural cupola, houses the upholstered part of the seat and backrest, to which two further cushions are added by way of ensuring correct ergonomic support. The 3D printing technology already tested for the inhabitable space is now employed to create the furniture version of Tecla using recycled plastic. All processing and finishing stages are environmentally sound.Tecla represents a new generation of chair design, not only through the innovative technologies and sustainably sourced materials used in its production but in the way it evokes the idea of a self-contained carved-out space. It is an inherently architectural approach to furniture design.

Made from sustainably sourced ash timber, the lightweight chair is solid and enduring. SETA, a stackable and armless timber chair, brings together an honesty of materiality with a deep understanding of CNC technology to create a unique piece of furniture Each surface is machined and curved to define its form. SETA offers solutions for various settings, from office and commercial to domestic uses. Well-being in the workplace has come into sharper focus as the desire for warmer, more tactile furniture.

The MA range is defined by the pure volumetric geometry of various primary elements - basins, baths, storage cabinets, or mirrors - interconnected by fine stainless-steel stems. By deconstructing its constituent elements and distilling the essence of a bathroom down to the minimum, MA creates a flexible architectural framework onto which different elements can be added and reconfigured to suit a range of living spaces. Water is transported through an adaptable system of brushed steel stems, which can also serve as a stand for an illuminated mirror or a place to hang clothes or a towel. The timber storage elements have an efficient and tightly defined form. Drawers can be mounted on the front or sides, and the internal configuration can be flexibly planned according to personal preference. Other complementary elements, including a choice of mirrors and platforms, complete the range.

Named after its distinctive x-shaped timber or aluminum post that forms the primary structure, the X shelving units can reconfigure any workspace, producing open partitions that allow clear lines of sight. The timber shelves bring warmth and tactility to any space, while the aluminum version has a clean, contemporary aesthetic. The Y Table is a lightweight, reconfigurable system that uses minimum material while offering maximum support. Its Y-shaped steel legs can be easily reconfigured to accommodate different seating arrangements and removed entirely for transportation or storage.

Cast Poems is an exploration, a tactile journey between a material aluminum- and all its potential. It is a reference to the melting point, which becomes the starting point of the conceptual approach of the collection. The objects presented include several lamps and a mirror, entirely made of metal. These large, folded metal sheets offer multiple proposals and a technical challenge to defy gravity and maintain the desired weightlessness. Stainless steel is used as structural elements rods and cables supporting aluminum casting made from CNC router molds.

The ALE.01 pendant light exemplifies sustainability throughout its life cycle, both recyclable and made from recycled materials. The shell is made of a biocomposite material containing 30% natural wood fibers, mixed with a base of recycled polymers. The design salvages and reuses FSC-certified wood waste from the production of bottle stoppers for the spirits industry, reducing waste and use of natural resources while offering an environmentally conscious material replacement for plastic.

We invite you to check out ArchDaily's coverage of Milan Design Week 2023.

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8 Products Designed by Architects for Milan Design Week and ... - ArchDaily

The May 2023 issue of The Architects Newspaper is out today. In addition to architecture news and reviews from across North America, the issue includes features about ecology and a Focus section on facades. The following Editors Note fromANs Executive Editor Jack Murphy introduces the issue with a reflection on the recent symposium The World Around.

At the outset of her recent Aga Khan Program Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Tosin Oshinowo defined the term aas the power that makes things happen and produces change. The word, also the title of the architects presentation, comes from the Yoruba religion. (Oshinowo, from Nigeria, is Yoruba.) She related this force to the intention or contextuality of material in architecture and shared how the close study of environmental context is important in her work.

Oshinowo told the story of designing new structures for a village in northeast Nigeria whose residents had been displaced in 2015 after being attacked by Boko Haram. (AN covered the project last summer.) Educated as an architect in London, Oshinowo worked there for SOM and in Rotterdam for OMA before returning to Lagos and eventually founding her practice, cmDesign Atelier, in 2012. For this project, she had to apply her skills to a new cultural context, as she had never been to northeast Nigeria. The architect set to work understanding the familial structures, weaving practices, and traditional compound-house layouts of the Kanuri people. That research, joined with an attention to cost and the speed of construction, shaped the complexs architecture.

The effort captures two ideas that are central to contemporary architectural practice: a close attention to local environments and users, and the deployment of design in response to crises. These ideas are valid everywhere; see, as one example, this issues Studio Visit with Duvall Decker.

Days later, Oshinowo was the leadoff presenter at The World Around, a one-day symposium in New York on Earth Day. Those two aforementioned ideas were on full display during the afternoons presentations, organized by curator Beatrice Galilee, about architectures now, near, and next, which had a consistent focus on the climate crisis. Additionally, winners of the groups Young Climate Prize Awards were recognized. There were friendly New York faces, including Andres Jaque (whose Reggio School won ANs Project of the Year last year and was reviewed in ANs previous issue), Dominic Leong (whose firm, Leong Leong, was named one of AN Interiors Top 50 Architects and Designers in 2022), and Vishaan Chakrabarti (whose office, PAU, remains a part of shaping the fate of Penn Station.

Other international speakers were less familiar to me: Ana Maria Gutierrez presented a new bamboo building realized at Organizmo, a center for regenerative training and the exchange of intercultural knowledge in Colombia; Deema Assaf, of TAYYUN, is attempting to rewild Amman, Jordan, through the planting of new forests; Fernando Laposse, a designer based in Mexico City, is researching avocados, a conflict commodity as their production in the Mexican state of Michoacan is largely controlled by drug cartels; and Joseph Zeal-Henry, from London, shared Sound Advice, a platform for exploring spatial inequality, ahead of its curation of the British Pavilion at the fast-approaching Venice Architecture Biennale.

I was inspired by the days sessions. They made me think about the venues entanglement with larger issues. We were gathered on the Upper East Side in the basement auditorium of the Guggenheim Museum, an institution that has faced criticism for its handling of race and, earlier, the working conditions at the construction site of a new outpost in Abu Dhabi. Inspired by the days lessons and fatigued by their pace, my mind drifted upward into the museums rotunda. With ecology on the brain, I thought of how Frank Lloyd Wrights spiraled void summoned less the image of the Tower of Babel or a concrete funnelas Lewis Mumford wrote in 1959and more that of an open-pit mine, the kind of excavation from which the Guggenheim family extracted their fortune in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ecological concern also powers this issues features and in part the Focus section about facades. Facade design matters because it largely establishes a buildings thermal performance and is often layered in specialized assemblies sourced from around the world. Continued innovation within this part of the construction industry will aid efforts to reduce architectures carbon emissions.

Planetary relations are top of mind as I prepare for this months Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Lesley Lokko with the theme of Africa as a laboratory of the future. AN will, of course, provide thorough coverage of the main exhibition and assorted national pavilions. (As a teaser, see my interview with the curators of the American pavilion). AN will also host an event on May 18 at Carlo Scarpas Fondazione Querini Stampalia to celebrate the life of William Menking and mark the importance of architectural criticism through a symposium with five critics: Erandi de Silva, Mohamed Elshahed, Davide Tommaso Ferrando, Inga Saffron, and Oliver Wainwright. Please join us if you will be in Venice this year.

One voice almost missing from the action is that of Aaron Seward, who departed his role as ANs editor in chief last month. We at AN wish him continued success. But AN readers arent fully bereft of Sewards wisdom: His swan song, which appears in this issue, will be published online later this month.

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The May 2023 issue of The Architect's Newspaper is out today - The Architect's Newspaper

Architect Rob Zoelle has joined the ranks at OHara-based PWCampbells full-service firm, Studio 109 Designs, LLC.

Zoelle has LEED AP credentials, meaning he has advanced knowledge in green building principles. He has won awards for his projects, including those from the AIA Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Construction Award and from Pittsburgh Magazine for Best Renovated Home.

He is a resident of the citys South Side and earned a Masters in Architecture from Kent State University in Ohio.

He has more than 10 years experience in the design and construction industry, most recently working for Margittai Architects as director of operations.

Our design-build clients will value the award-winning creative skills and all-encompassing collaborative approach he brings, said Jim Caliendo, President and CEO.

PWCampbell, headquartered along Zeta Drive in RIDC Park, was founded in 1910 as a general contracting company building verandas throughout Pittsburgh.

Tawnya Panizzi is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tawnya by email at tpanizzi@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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LEED AP architect joins PWCampbell in O'Hara - TribLIVE