What you'll find below and on the next four pages is an archive of our daily real-time news feed for the week of September 14. For the latest news, check out our main News Roundup.

September 18, 2015

The DOE Defines Net Zero   Project teams seeking to build new or retrofit existing buildings to “net zero energy” or “zero net energy” have long faced a major challenge—determining what, exactly, counts as net-zero. Earlier this month, the Department of Energy offered some clarity with its release of “A Common Definition for Zero Energy Buildings,” a document that outlines the nomenclature, metrics, and measurement guidelines for net-zero buildings as well as for campuses, portfolios, and communities that seek to produce, at minimum, the same amount of energy they consume. According to the new guidelines, a zero-energy building is “an energy-efficient building where, on a source energy basis, the actual annual delivered energy is less than or equal to the on-site renewable exported energy.” [U.S. Department of Energy

Greenbuild is Coming   We’re now two months out from the USGBC's 14th-annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, held from Nov. 18 to Nov. 20 this year in our hometown of Washington, D.C. [ARCHITECT]

A Religious Experience for OMA in LA   OMA will design an addition to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, which will be both the firm's first commission from a religious institution and its first cultural building in California. [ARCHITECT]

Trace Architecture Office: Hua Li for Beijing Meijingtiancheng Investment Co., Ltd.; Forest Building exterior, 2015.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Trace Architecture Office: Hua Li for Beijing Meijingtiancheng Investment Co., Ltd.; Forest Building exterior, 2015.

In the Eye of the Beholder   Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is set to host "Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial." Opening in 2016, the exhibition will feature more than 250 works, including furniture, wallpaper, clothing, jewelry, interactive games, and more. [ARCHITECT]

Diversify Your Firm's Services   We ask architects to suggest strategies for how you can  break out of niche practice areas and expand your firm's offerings to make you more stable and competitive. Here are three. [ARCHITECT]

Sea Chair
Studio Swine Sea Chair

DIY Architecture from Nose to Tail  The do-it-yourself movement, increasingly popularized over the past couple of decades, gets more intense all the time. Now, Blaine Brownell, AIA, writes, designers are dipping into the intricacies of making everything, not merely a new design but making their own materials as well. Some examples are StoneCylcling, which repurposes masonry from demolished structures, Sea Chair, made from plastic waste found washed up on beaches, and FiDU technology, which use thin slices of metal that are welded together to make lightweight inflated structures. [ARCHITECT]

Awards: Enter Now!

The AIA, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and the Architects Foundation's Design & Health Research Consortium is adding up to six new member organizations. Application materials are available on the AIA's website. Deadline is Oct. 16.

The 63rd annual Progressive Architecture Awards program is now accepting submissions. The winners of our annual program honoring unbuilt designs are published in the February issue. Regular deadline is on Oct. 30, with the late deadline (and extra $50 per entry) on Nov. 4. Enter now!

The Graham Foundation's Carter Manny Award recognizes doctoral students working on dissertation topics in architecture. Applications will be available online starting Sept. 15 and due Nov. 15.

Bathroom products manufacturer Victoria + Albert is challenging designers to create a space that uses its products. Entry is free and submissions are due Dec. 20.

AIA|DC is accepting entries for the Sarah Booth Conroy Prize for Journalism and Architectural Criticism to reward excellent reporting of architecture and urbanism in Washington, D.C. The annual prize is $5,000. Deadline is Dec. 31.

For more news and views, sign up for the ARCHITECT Newswire, the best daily newsletter on architecture and architects.

Click "next" to read past days of the News Roundup.

ARCHITECT Staff