SOLAR DECATHLON 2009 In mid-October 2009, twenty teams of engineering and architecture students erected houses on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the biennial Solar Decathlon green building contest. After spending two years designing and building cutting-edge solar houses, the teams — mostly from North America — sought the designation of "most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient" for their structures. — Published 2009.1028
	AIA SMALL PROJECT AWARDS When Nanette and Jerry Stump bought a wooded property in Evansville, Indiana, to build an accessible retirement home, they turned to a young architect fresh out of school: their son. — Published 2009.0812
	AIA SMALL PROJECTS 2008 Housing for art lovers, homeless people, flood-zone dwellers, and hobbits. Chandeliers, bus stops, and a synagogue entrance. An expandable bathroom. These are not massive landmarks, but rather the AIA's annual exemplars of design executed with limited financial and programmatic means: the American Institute of Architects 2008 Small Project Awards recipients. — Published 2008.0827
	VIÑOLY AT WAGENINGEN Sometimes a building is so well suited to its use, to the client, and to the site that it is hard to imagine it designed any other way. The Atlas Building at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, designed by New York City-based Rafael Viñoly Architects, is such a building — once you get to know it. — Published 2008.0625
	APPALACHIAN SUNCATCHER Nestled into a hillside near Asheville, North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center is projected to use 75 percent less energy than a comparable conventionally designed facility. Trombe walls, a planted roof, bioswales, daylighting, a high-efficiency mechanical energy-recovery system, and other "green" features add up to make this National Park Service facility a contender for LEED Gold certification. — Published 2008.0521
	AIA HOUSING AWARDS 2008 Urban Infill 02 is a prototype for affordable single-family housing designed by Johnsen Schmaling Architects for a small urban lot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Two interlocking modular forms compose the house: a two-story wood-clad cube and a bar-shaped, single-story concrete block. — Published 2008.0326
	EMBEDDED LAB The new Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS) building designed by Culver City-based Studio Pali Fekete Architects (SPF:a), is unlike the red brick edifices that grace most of the University of California, Los Angeles campus. Surrounded on all sides by 1960s buildings and occupying a formerly neglected courtyard, the glass and steel structure is like a diamond in the rough. — Published 2007.0117
	SAROFIM RESEARCH BUILDING The firms of BNIM Architects and Burt Hill have partnered to design a new facility at the Texas Medical Center. The six-story Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building is now home for the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM). The building's elegant design is, in several ways, a departure from that of conventional research facilities. — Published 2006.0913
	METAL STUD PRECAST Although precast concrete is an outstanding architectural material, its heavy weight can limit where and how it's used. A recently completed project demonstrates how a relatively new type of lighter-weight hybrid wall system combining cold-formed metal studs and precast concrete can expand opportunities to apply precast technologies. — Published 2006.0712
	ENERGY CONCERNS MAINSTREAM In March 2006, architect and planner Bob Berkebile, FAIA addressed an overflow audience at the Building Energy '06 conference in Boston. He gave a stirring call to arms, saying that this was a powerful moment in human history. — Published 2006.0419

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