Copenhagen, Denmark–based practice Henning Larsen has been selected to design the city's first all-timber neighborhood. Named Fælledby, the new community will be modeled like a rural village, featuring three "mini-villages" connected by green space for local wildlife, such as like turtles, songbirds, and deer. “Like the traditional rural village, the Fælledby master plan stands for itself within an open, natural landscape," said Henning Larsen partner Signe Kongebro in a press release. "This gives an opportunity to create an entirely unique setting and one that is especially sensitive to sustainable and natural priorities. We see a potential to build a new city that speaks to the sustainable sensibilities of the younger generations, to create a home for people seeking a solution on how to live in better harmony with nature. For us, Fælledby is a proof of concept that this can indeed be done." [Henning Larsen]
Architecture must quickly kick its carbon habit and minimize the threat of climate change. ARCHITECT's January issue, edited in partnership with the nonprofit Architecture 2030 and its founder and CEO, Edward Mazria, FAIA, is meant to help architects get CO2 out of their systems, for the health, safety, and welfare of us all. [ARCHITECT]
Researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU Boulder0 have developed an experimental "live" building material that grows and regenerates through bacteria. Made of a combination of cyanobacteria, sand, and gelatin, the material binds together into a brick, with bacteria colonies remaining alive for more than 30 days. "Though this technology is at its beginning, looking forward, living building materials could be used to improve the efficiency and sustainability of building material production and could allow materials to sense and interact with their environment," said the study's lead author and former CU Boulder postdoctoral research assistant Chelsea Heveran in a press release. [CU Boulder]
A team that includes materials science researchers at North Carolina State University has successfully created a semiconductor diode laser that can operate at a deep ultraviolet shade, a color rendering that had previously been impossible to attain. The laser can attain 271.8 nanometers, more than 40 nanometers deeper into the ultraviolet range than other diodes. According to the team, the technology will initially be used in bio-sensing and sterilization. [IEEE Spectrum]
Dallas-based TestFit, a building configuration software startup leveraging practical generative design, has secured $2 million in seed funding from Parkway Venture Capital. TestFit plans to expand its multifamily housing customer base into the architectural, real estate developer, and general contractor markets. [ARCHITECT]
Turin, Italy–based Carlo Ratti Associati has partnered with Milan-based transportation-planning firm Mobility in Chain (MIC) to redesign the waterfront of Lugano, Switzerland, into a reconfigurable community amenity. The proposal features a floating garden island in Lake Lugano accessible by a new water navigation system as well as a new road system that can be converted from pedestrian areas to a road with one or two lanes based on traffic needs. The team also plans to install "a system of smart signage, responsive street furniture, infrastructure that produces clean energy from heat absorption, and a series of mobility hubs where people can select their preferred, shared mode of transport," according to a MIC press release. [MIC]
