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SOLID GREEN PRACTICE
Given the urgency of our response to climate change and other environmental needs, is it really okay to keep building new non-green buildings?
Here are nine U.S. firms that took sustainability to heart and made green design a centerpiece of their work, and have now taken the next logical step: they have committed to create only green buildings, from here on out. — Published 2009.0506
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ADAPTIVE REUSE OF CLAY-TILE ARCHED FLOORS
This article about antiquated structural systems is the second in a series aimed at structural engineers involved in the repair, restoration, or adaptive reuse of older buildings for which no drawings exist. —Editor
Concrete and steel-framed floors constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s often included hollow clay-tile arches that spanned between beams and girders. The arches were typically covered with a concrete topping and often had plaster applied directly to the soffit of the exposed tiles. — Published 2009.0513
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COLIN ST. JOHN WILSON - TWO HOUSES
British architect Colin St. John "Sandy" Wilson (1922-2007) is best known for designing the British Library (1997) in London, a fraught but ultimately successful project begun in 1962. In Colin St John Wilson: Buildings and Projects, Roger Stonehouse reviews many of Wilson's works, including the Grantchester Road houses and Spring House. In an introduction to the book, drawn from a 1992 essay, Wilson reflects on the state of modernism in the early 1960s. —Editor — Published 2009.0304
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PICTOU LANDING HEALTH CENTER
The new medical clinic and community center in the Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia recalls a longhouse, the traditional winter lodge of the Mi'kmaq.
Sustainably harvested spruce poles, six to eight inches (15 to 20 centimeters) in diameter, are bent and lashed together at the tops. Like a giant wooden model of a whale's ribcage, clad with rows of oversized spruce shingles, the peaked frame is an adaptation of traditional Native bent-wood construction. — Published 2009.0114
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GLENN MURCUTT GOLD MEDAL
In locations from the far reaches of the Northern Territory to suburban New South Wales, Australian architect Glenn Murcutt has created modernist houses remarkable for their supreme sensitivity to climate, surroundings, and environment.
A true sole practitioner, Murcutt chooses mostly to design single-family dwellings, and only in Australia. The resulting structures attest to the depth of attention he affords each project. — Published 2009.0114
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STIRLING PRIZE FOR ACCORDIA HOUSING
Pairing sensitively designed housing with generous open space, the architects of Accordia created an enduring residential development in Cambridge, United Kingdom, that embodies the inherent sustainability of livable communities.
Their careful efforts have earned Accordia the Stirling Prize for 2008. Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios designed the project with Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects. This is the first residential project to receive the prestigious prize, now in its 13th year. — Published 2008.1015
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OSLO OPERA
The new Oslo Opera House is a monumental architectural statement for Norway, providing a glamorous new home for the National Opera and Ballet and a striking public plaza overlooking the Oslofjord.
Instantly shedding opera's snooty, high-art image, the new building by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta slopes down from the roof to the water's edge. The gleaming-white marble threshold between land and water welcomes hundreds of people on a sunny day. — Published 2008.1008
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HOUSES FOR VICTORIANS
Underlying the almost infinite variety of Victorian houses were a few basic structural forms, repeated millions of times over by builders following well established principles.
The Masonry House — Published 2008.0910
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YOUNG VIC RENEWAL
The redesigned Young Vic Theatre by London architects Haworth Tompkins is more than just the extension and renovation of a local theater in Lambeth, South London. It is a radical, minimally designed new facility that celebrates the history of the place and highlights the ambitions of the local arts community. — Published 2008.0709
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KIERANTIMBERLAKE FIRM AWARD
The partners of KieranTimberlake Associates LLP approach design as a holistic process that benefits from the collective intelligence of architect, client, and others. The American Institute of Architects has selected KieranTimberlake to receive the 2008 AIA Architecture Firm Award, recognizing the firm's approach to complex challenges, its elegant buildings, its commitment to sustainable design, and its extensive research. — Published 2008.0206
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