This Revit plugin helps architects pick materials with less embodied carbon

A new plugin for Revit offers architects the opportunity to make informed material choices for building designs that put carbon reduction at front of mind. Tally Climate Action Tool, or tallyCAT for short, is a free open-access digital tool launched by nonprofit organization Building Transparency, Perkins&Will, and C-Change Labs. Work on Tally began in the

NASA awards ICON contract to continue research on lunar habitation

Just weeks after ICON, the 3D printing technology company, broke ground on what is slated to be the largest 3D printed neighborhood, the Texas-based company is using its expertise and construction systems on an even larger project: lunar habitation. Yesterday, NASA, through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program dolled out a nearly $60 million

Hood Design Studio creates an inhabitable landscape for NVIDIA’s campus

In California, the ideal of indoor-outdoor living has never loosened its hold. Even with ever-pressing environmental issues and ballooning population growth, the dream of a seamless integration between inside and out continues to captivate designers and clients alike. Three recent landscape projects in the Bay Area demonstrate this fact, while also illustrating the particularities of

CLT shines in Rogers Partners’ renovation of a former shipbuilding factory

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

ICON and BIG break ground on the world’s largest 3D-printed community

Texas-based 3D technology company ICON,  has broken ground on what will become the world’s largest 3D-printed community. The neighborhood located North of Austin in Georgetown, Texas will consist of 100 3D-printed homes codesigned by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and implemented by Lennar, a large construction company based out of Florida, was first announced in 2021.

TECH+ returns to NYC on October 21

On Friday October 21, The Architect’s Newspaper presents TECH+ NYC. This forum celebrates the quantum leap of technology transforming the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries. The full-day event is a continuation of our national Tech+ conference series, featuring case studies and firms from across the country. Back in person for the first time since

Carlo Ratti Associati inserts a mock tokamak reactor into a gasholder

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

The 2022 ACADIA conference will explore new modes of practice

After two years of completely virtual events, the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) is returning to in-person proceedings for the first time since the onset of the Covid pandemic. While it was fitting that architecture’s technology caucus hosted online conferences that skirted Zoom fatigue with an interesting interface and meaningful content, there

Can Liv-Connected crack the modular housing code?

Liv-Connected, a modular construction company, is hard at work trying to solve the country’s housing crisis. Their solution? A customizable, prefabricated home that can be assembled on-site in four hours. The company was founded in 2019 by physician Herbert Rogove—an early proponent of telemedicine—and his son Jordan Rogove, cofounder of the New York City–based architecture

Graphisoft turns 40 and expands product offerings, support

In the warm night sky above Budapest, a fleet of drones spelled “GRAPHISOFT” as the software company celebrated its 40th anniversary. At Graphisoft Park—the company’s headquarters in Buda—attendees gathered outside with Aperol spritzes before CEO Huw Roberts took the stage. Roberts was joined by founder Gábor Bojár and chairman of the board and former CEO

Lake|Flato announced launches modular home company HiFAB

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

In Houston, work gets underway on a 3D-printed two-story home

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

An immersive LED entertainment venue coming soon to Hollywood Park

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 becomes first state to approve 3D-printed walls in construction

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

Elden Ring has a lot to teach architects about immersive digital space

To play through Elden Ring is to take on a grave and foolish challenge. It took 135 hours of my life to finish the admired action role-playing video game directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with narrative content from Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. I didn’t beat it just for the bragging rights, but for

Space Perspective unveils balloon-like spaceship for outer space tourism

Launching in late 2024, Space Perspective, a space tourism company, will bring thrill-seeking travelers and wannabe astronauts alike to the “edge of space.” In its recently released renderings the company shared the design for the exterior of the orbiting capsule, Spaceship Neptune, which features a bulbous shape with panoramic windows. The space shuttle is being

Google will occupy Chicago’s Thompson Center beginning in 2026

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…

BIG’s metaverse headquarters for Vice Media disappoints on every level

Whenever I search for toothpaste at the grocery store, I am reminded of browsing the projects on Bjarke Ingels Group’s (BIG) website. Each bright and sparkly box looks unique to fit a variety of specific needs: fresh breath, tartar control, sensitivity, whitening, etc. But upon further examination of each tube, they all claim to do

ICON’s U.S. Army barracks among the largest 3D-printed structures yet

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

Morpholio launches real-world daylight modeling with Shadow Maker

Software company Morpholio, which blends virtual hand drafting with virtual reality features in its Trace programs, launched Shadow Maker on March 22. A new feature for the iPhone and iPad app Morpholio Trace, Shadow Maker can place models in their real-world solar conditions. Trace is just one part of the company’s app suite and is

Formulations pulls back the curtain on the inextricable link between math and architecture

A new book by Andrew Witt provides an in-depth, refreshing look at the historical applications of mathematics within architecture. Formulations: Architecture, Mathematics, Culture, published by MIT Press as part of the Writing Architecture Series by Anyone Corporation (the publisher of the popular architecture journal Log), explores the methods of mathematical and scientific analysis as proto-computational

Tom Wiscombe Architecture’s Dark Chalet touches down on Powder Mountain

Summit Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah, is an ultra-exclusive community for billionaires with good taste. The mountain resort is a preserve for refined, and in some cases adventurous, residential architecture by the likes of Olson Kundig, MacKay-Lyons, and Studio Ma. The most ambitious and beguiling design comes from the Los Angeles–based office Tom Wiscombe Architecture

Op-Ed: The office was once a vital technology, but its time may be over

Medieval and early-modern workers did not have to go to work. Nor did they work from home; they just worked where they lived, or lived where they worked. Double-entry bookkeeping was invented at the end of the Middle Ages, but for centuries before the industrial age all offices were, literally, home offices; special buildings entirely

ICON and Lake|Flato put a 3D-printed spin on the mid-century rambler

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

Virgin Hyperloop lays off half its staff as it pivots to cargo

Despite the flashy promises of supersonic rail travel through vacuum-sealed tubes and six years of work by Bjarke Ingels to envision rapid intercity transportation systems, Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop is reportedly struggling. The company has reportedly laid off 111 employees, about half of its staff, and will drop the passenger side of the business to

A decade in the making, Dubai’s Museum of the Future opens to visitors

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,