Author: mhickman

If you were to glimpse inside Building 20 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (née the New York Naval Shipyard) some 150 years ago, you would have witnessed a spectacle of mechanical brawn and mind-boggling ingenuity unfolding within a machine shop that ranked as the most ultra-modern of its kind in the late 19th century. Completed

Concrete.ai, a Los Angeles–based data science startup describing itself as being “on a mission to avoid 500 million tons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere annually,” announced last week the beta launch of a new software platform developed to reduce the cost and embodied carbon intensity in concrete construction. As detailed by the company, the

Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) and Milan-based architect Italo Rota have joined forces with Rome-headquartered global energy behemoth Eni to explore the carbon-free potential of magnetic confinement fusion energy at a pop-up exhibition installed at this year’s just-concluded Maker Fair Rome. The spherical pavilion is realized as an ersatz tokamak fusion reactor within Gazometro Ostiense, a

Lake|Flato Architects, a Lone Star State firm lauded for its enthusiastic embrace of sustainable design practices and emerging building technologies, is going full-on modular in partnership with a just-announced prefab homebuilding venture named HiFAB. Launched by Dallas-based real estate development and investment firm Oaxaca Interests, HiFAB recently debuted its studio and manufacturing… Read More… The

HANNAH, an Architectural League Prize–winning experimental design and research studio led by Cornell University assistant professors of architecture Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic, has announced that construction work is underway in Houston on a story-story, 4,000-square-foot single-family home that, when completed, will stand as the first 3D-printed multistory structure in the United States. Serving as

SoFi Stadium, host venue of Super Bowl LVI and anchoring site of the 2028 Summer Olympics, is getting a flashy new neighbor at Hollywood Park, the burgeoning behemoth of an entertainment complex-slash-mixed-use development located at the old Hollywood Park racetrack near Los Angeles International Airport in Inglewood, California. As recently announced, Cosm, a global experiential

Montana, the first state to debut a luge track and send a woman to Congress, can now claim a new and somewhat unexpected first: the first state to give broad regulatory approval to the use of 3D-printed walls in new construction in lieu of concrete masonry units (CMUs) or standard cored concrete blocks. As reported

Following early morning news that the sale of the James R. Thompson Center was nearly finalized, Google has revealed itself as the future new tenant of the iconic, Helmut Jahn–designed office building in the heart of Chicago’s Loop. As Karen Sauder, head of Google’s Chicago office and president of Global Client and Agency Solutions, explained…

This past August, Texas-based robotics and advanced materials startup ICON garnered headlines when it revealed what was then the largest completed project to date employing the company’s patented 3D-printed construction technology: a single-story barracks on the grounds of the Camp Swift Training Center in Bastrop, Texas. Created for the Texas Military Department, that structure, measuring

Robotics and advanced materials construction startup ICON has revealed its first completed home in its Exploration Series, which per the Texas-based company, sets out to “develop new design languages and architectural vernaculars” with collaborating architects “based on the opportunities created by construction-scale 3D printing.” First announced last May, the roughly 2,000-square-foot East Austin abode melds

The Dubai Future Foundation’s long-awaited Museum of the Future, a “new global centre for future thinking, technologies, and innovation” housed within a 252-foot-tall toroidal structure, is finally open in the heart of the city’s Financial District. Rising seven stories above Dubai’s skyscraper-lined main artery, the Paul Bunyan-sized ring with sheik-penned quotes inscribed into its metallic,

What do a video game designer, a conservation photographer, a reliability engineer, a fire scientist, a dancer-slash-roboticist, an astrophysicist, a digital archaeologist, a bat conservationist, and the CEO of an aquarium of all have in common? They are among the 100-plus women of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) who will be descending in statue form

For those on the ground at Expo 2020 Dubai looking to transport themselves to a far-flung tropical locale without leaving a once-barren expanse of desert abutting the Persian Gulf, the Brazil Pavilion has got you covered. Just don’t forget to bring aquatic footwear. Located in the Sustainability District between the Sweden Pavilion and the Azerbaijan

Earlier this week, additive construction company Alquist and Habitat for Humanity formally handed over the keys to the new owner of an otherwise ordinary-looking three-bedroom single-family home in Williamsburg, Virginia. Despite appearances, however, that building was recently completed as the first Habitat project on the East Coast to be constructed with the aid of a

Nabr, a consumer-first housing startup that aims to bring a tech-driven, bespoke home designing and financing to the masses, has formally launched with the news that its first apartment building will debut in the summer of 2023 at 415 South 3rd Street in San Jose’s buzzy arts and culture quarter, the SoFA (South of First

What do a cloned ferret, a Bakelite baby monitor, biodegradable burial pods, genderless voice assistants, a century-old artificial limb, and a deli case stuffed with fake meat all have in common? They’re all among the dizzying assemblage of innovations past and speculative designs imagining a cleaner, greener, and more inclusive tomorrow showcased at the new

NEST, an ever-evolving experimental structure that serves as a testbed for emerging construction and energy technologies, has gained its eighth and newest temporary building module. The eclectic agglomerate sits on the shared campus of Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) and Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) in the

In addition to the core exhibitions and dozen-plus commissioned architectural interventions now on view and activated at predominately city-owned vacant lots during the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, over 100 civic, educational, and cultural partners have launched a range of events—exhibitions, installations, lectures, tours, and more—to coincide with the central festival programming. Among these complementary festival

A freestanding, unreinforced pedestrian bridge built from 53 3D-printed concrete blocks is now open for leisurely foot traffic in Venice. Although Striatus doesn’t carry pedestrians over one of the city’s famed canals, this first-of-its-kind structure is now open for park-bound traversing at the leafy Giardino della Marinaressa during the run of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. The roughly 40-by-52-foot arched footbridge was

Just days before billionaire Jeff Bezos is due to be blasted into the cosmos (or close to it) aboard a suborbital space vehicle with an all-civilian crew, the Amazon founder and former CEO again emphasized his passion for all things astronautic with a $200 million donation to the Smithsonian Institution. The money will solely be

Just weeks after it announced a partnership with the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech to design, build, and study America’s first 3D-printed, private-public partnership grant-funded single-family home in Richmond, Alquist has revealed another unprecedented project underway in Williamsburg, Virginia. This time, it’s the East Coast’s first 3D-printed Habitat for Humanity dwelling. The project, spearheaded by additive construction company Alquist with Habitat for

In Arizona, the state with the fourth most dire affordable housing shortage according to National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)’s recently released Gap report, the Central Arizona chapter of global nonprofit Habitat for Humanity is looking to pave the way for new modes of sustainable, scalable low-cost housing across the Grand Canyon State. How? With the aid of ample local largesse and a

Additive construction company Alquist and the Virginia Center for Housing Research (VCHR) at Virginia Tech have partnered to design, build, and study a 3D-printed single-family home that’s the first of its kind in the United States: funded by a private-public partnership grant. Work on the three-bedroom, 1,550-square-foot home broke ground earlier this week at 217 Carnation Street in Richmond’s Midlothian neighborhood.

ICON, the Texas-based robotics and advanced materials construction company with lunar ambitions, has announced a new series of (earthbound) 3D-printed homes designed in collaboration with a slew of top architects. San Antonio- and Austin-based Lake|Flato Architects is the first to be tapped for the so-called Exploration Series, which according to ICON, will “develop new design languages and architectural vernaculars” with collaborating architects

Bologna- and Milan-based Mario Cucinella Architects (MC A) and leading Italian 3D printing company WASP have revealed a newly-completed TECLA, a high-performance prototype dome house that marries primordial materials and advanced construction technology. Built from locally sourced clay using Crane WASP, a newly developed modular 3D-printing system, the deeply sustainable two-room dwelling is the first 3D-printed structure to be realized using indigenous

BQE Software, a cloud-based staple of architecture and engineering firms, has announced that it has secured a significant investment from Serent Capital, a growth-focused private equity firm headquartered in San Francisco. Founded in 1995 by Shafat Qazi, an engineer by trade, and currently headquartered in the coastal Los Angeles County city of Torrance, BQE’s signature product is all-in-one accounting and

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has announced that it will colead the design of a community gathering place/small business incubator/“eco-food hub” in Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. TnS Studio, a self-described “Black-owned, Woman-powered” Chicago architecture firm headed by Taylor Staten and Courtney Harris, will spearhead the design of the space—dubbed Englewood Connect—alongside SOM as part

Just a year after Austin, Texas–based construction technology startup ICON first unveiled a half-dozen 3D-printed homes at a 51-acre community established to provide affordable, permanent housing for formerly homeless residents of the city, the fast-growing (and Bjarke Ingels Group–backed) company has announced, in partnership with Kansas City, Missouri–based real estate developer 3Strands, the arrival of a new development in East Austin populated by two-to-four-bedroom homes that

The organizers of Exhibit Columbus 2020-2021, the third cycle of the nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation’s keystone program, have announced the second major public event for the annual celebration of art, design, and community centered around the famously modernist architecture-rich Indiana city. Scheduled for March 19 and 26, the four-session Design Presentations event will give the public the opportunity to preview and