The International Living Future Institute’s latest program considers all stages of a product’s lifecycle. Industrial goods made with processes that are socially beneficial and environmentally sound might sound unattainable. But this is the aim of the Living Product Challenge. It is the latest program developed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), a nonprofit best known for its role in administering the demanding green building certification system, the Living Building Challenge (LBC). To qualify for certification under the new standard, launched as a pilot program in April, products must be safe for human exposure at all stages of their lifecycle—from
For the first time, the Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded the honor to a woman of her own right. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) named London-based architect Zaha Hadid as the winner of its 2016 Royal Gold Medal. Awarded annually since 1848 to individuals and groups who have had significant influence on the advancement of architecture, past recipients include Sir George Gilbert Scott (1859), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941), and Frank Gehry (2000). Hadid is the first woman to win the Royal Gold Medal independent of a partner in the history of the award.“We now see more
Dattner Architects and WXY teamed up on an angular, seven-story building in Manhattan's TriBeCa neighborhood designed to hold 5,000 tons of salt. The creation of miles of parkland along the west side of Manhattan hasn’t come cheap; to make way for benches and bike lanes, the city has had to relocate Sanitation Department facilities that had faced the Hudson River. That decades-long task has now resulted in an architectural gem: a municipal salt shed in the form of a shapely concrete container that is winning rave reviews — even from people who have no idea what it’s for. (Honestly, a
A new PBS documentary explores Frank Lloyd Wright’s little-known architectural photographer. The best architecture photographers use light and perspective to elevate what could be static images into single-frame movies, documenting places as organisms full of verve, mystery, and life. Ezra Stoller might be the first name in the architectural photography conversation, but PBS’ American Masters series makes a strong case that it should be Pedro E. Guerrero. The inspiring, albeit limited, 60-minute documentary profile Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey, which aired Friday, September 18 and can be viewed online at PBS.org, introduces us to a photographer who deserves far
Chicago’s Architecture Biennial, kicking off October 3, will showcase a broad range of work. Artist Bryony Roberts will enlist a drill team to perform at Mies van der Rohe’s Federal Center. With more than 100 projects from every inhabitable continent descending on Chicago for the city’s first architecture biennial, the work on display might seem to be grounded in a placeless globalist ether rather than the dozen represented countries. At least nine of the participating practices are located in two or more places at once, with one partner splitting time in two locations, or two partners based thousands of miles
A slew of airportment improvements—some controversial—are headed for New York City over the next several years. Image courtesy Beyer Blinder Belle The only rendering of the proposed TWA Flight Center Hotel, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, shows very little of the future structure except two six-story volumes behind Saarinen’s winglike forms. New York will see a slew of airport improvements in the next few years and, surprisingly, the only one not causing controversy is a $48 million terminal for animals known as the Ark. The same can’t be said for the other two projects—a $4 billion reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport
Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo will lead the renovation of the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue and the Mid-Manhattan Library on 40th Street.
ZHA and Nikken Sekkei team could not secure a construction company. Two months after Zaha Hadid’s $2 billion design for the 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo was scrapped, the architect announced her firm will no longer participate in the competition for a new design. “It is disappointing,” Zaha Hadid Architects wrote in a statement released today, “that the two years of work and investment in the existing design for a new National Stadium for Japan cannot be further developed to meet the new brief through the new design competition.”Earlier this month, Hadid’s firm partnered with Japanese architecture and engineering firm
On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, Architectural Record will hold its annual Innovation Conference on design and technology, bringing together key figures from the field for a day of professional crosspollination.