Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) revealed its winning design for an international design competition for the Jinmao Nanjing South Hexi Yuzui Financial District in China. Spanning more than 9 million square feet, the development will include a 1,600-foot-tall tower that will harvest rainwater to reduce water consumption by approximately 55%, according to the firm. AS+GG aims to reduce the building's overall energy consumption through a reduced cooling load, a high-performance façade, and low-E insulated curtain-wall system to minimize solar heat gain. “The sustainable design of the tower was shaped through a variety of studies and models,” said AS+GG managing partner Robert Forest, FAIA, in a press release. “Performance is the catalyst for the design of the form, expression, and functionality of the buildings. The towers are designed and positioned to take advantage of the winds, the sun, and even the rain in Nanjing.” [AS+GG]
Yale School of Architecture associate dean and Autodesk fellow Phil Bernstein, FAIA, envisions a digitally integrated, transparent process for project delivery in the AECO sector that could operate as efficiently as the internet. [ARCHITECT]
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed a new 3D printing technique called multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing (MM3D), which uses high-speed pressure valves with up to eight different ink materials to create complex shapes in a fraction of the time it usually takes to print objects. "MM3D’s combination of multinozzle arrays with the ability to switch between multiple inks rapidly effectively eliminates the time lost to switching printheads and helps get the scaling law down from cubic to linear, so you can print multimaterial, periodic 3D objects much more quickly," said researcher Mark Skylar-Scott in a press release. [Harvard University]
Mountain View, Calif.–based robotics company Nuro has chosen Houston, as its testing ground for its autonomous delivery vehicles. According to a recent report in the Washington Post, Nuro was drawn to the city "for the complexity of its metropolitan environment, a puzzle of independent communities, each with its own road conditions, zoning ordinances, parking rules and traffic laws." [Washington Post]
NBBJ returns to a 1989 Seattle project and creates a tectonic wall through a combination of parametric design and cardboard models. [ARCHITECT]
Autodesk is funding a grant program for the Associated General Contractors of America to provide the organization with 300 better-fitting safety harnesses specifically for women. "The construction industry agrees safety must be everyone's priority, but we also need to recognize when safety needs aren't being met for some workers," said Autodesk Construction Solutions director Allison Scott in a press release. "The industry needs more people, and women must feel safe and welcome on jobsites if we want them to choose a career in construction. Ultimately, when we address safety for women, we improve safety for everyone." [Autodesk]
Kansas City, Mo.–based BNIM ranked first in ARCHITECT's 2019 Architect 50: Top 50 Firms in Sustainability. After years of tracking performance to see how its models stood up to real-life scenarios, BNIM standardized its measurements in 2018 by incorporating ARC, a digital platform for tracking building performance, and Energy Star Portfolio Manager into some of its post-occupancy services. [ARCHITECT]
