USGBC FOUNDER RICK FEDRIZZI Rick, what does sustainability mean to you personally? To me, the definition of "sustainable" is simple: It means living my life today in a way that ensures my children, their children, and their children will be able to live as well as I did. — Published 2012.1003
	A BRIEF HISTORY OF PREFAB After the Second World War there was a regular prefabricated housing boom in the United States. Some 70 companies were active in this market segment in the post-war era, ultimately leading to the construction of roughly 200,000 prefabricated houses. However, companies such as Vultee, Lustron, and the Spartan Aircraft Company, which offered buildings built on the basis of steel frames or clad in sheet metal, were still not able to survive. — Published 2012.1003
	GTEAM CLOUD COLLABORATION TOOL A new A/E/C-centric collaboration and communication hub from Gehry Technologies has promise to put your project team on cloud power, whatever the size of your A/E/C firm. — Published 2012.0822
	SMART GEOMETRY UPDATE The nature of architecture and the performance of materials are deeply linked. The nature of material is the nature of the stuff that surrounds us, and architecture is concerned with the arrangement of this "stuff." As computational power increases, architects are able to consider larger and larger data sets. One way to focus those computing resources is to consider increasingly small building components. — Published 2012.0808
	GREEN TOP TEN - BUILDINGS FOR EDUCATION In Newberg, Oregon, southwest of Portland, the first building has been built on a new 15-acre (6-hectare) campus for Portland Community College (PCC). The structure's distinctive forms provide a visual clue about the strategies — including passive cooling and extensive daylighting — that were used to achieve its goal of zero net energy use. — Published 2012.0516
	BASICS - THE SKYSCRAPER TODAY When it comes to buildings, size matters — more so today than ever before. Look up in the heart of any of the world's major cities and your eyes will likely alight upon a towering, glass-walled structure — if not literally scraping the sky, then certainly pointing in that direction. — Published 2012.0502
	EAST HAMPTON TOWN HALL - ROBERT A.M. STERN ARCHITECTS There are many approaches to sustainable architecture, and one of the most efficient and effective is the reuse of old buildings. Often, adaptive reuse is not as sexy as designing a high-tech green building from scratch, with its full complement of the latest gizmos. But reconceptualizing a building that already exists is often the most sustainable choice, because such structures contain embodied energy — the energy that was invested in their original design and construction. — Published 2012.0418
	THE ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL: MAYBECK AND AALTO The San Francisco-based magazine Architectural News ceased publication in 1891 after only three issues, so there is no way of knowing what the specific contents of a planned future issue, a translation of Gottfried Semper's Der Stil by Bernard Maybeck, might have been. There is no evidence that the translation was ever made, of what sections he would have chosen, or what Semper's influence on Maybeck's work might be. — Published 2012.0404
	CREATIVE CONCRETE When we think of sustainability, images of solar panels, thick insulation, and rainwater cisterns might come to mind. But Canadian architect and researcher Mark West is rethinking the bones of concrete structures to find ways to make them as efficient as possible. West is director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (CAST), where the research revolves around fabric-formed concrete. The process uses pliable fabric to make innovative, efficient structural shapes. — Published 2012.0328
	AIA NATIONAL DESIGN AWARDS Viewed at a distance from the southwest, 8 House looks almost like a strange landform: two vegetated roofs form a massive green "V" reaching from the ground-floor roof all the way to the top of the building, nine stories above. The logic of this mixed-use building is better understood from a bird's-eye view. In concept, the plan is a 230-meter- (750-foot-) long loop that has been twisted to form a giant, angular figure eight. — Published 2012.0215

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