The V&A Dundee in Dundee, Scotland, has unveiled a new installation by Gramazio Kohler Research and students of the MAS Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich to highlight collaboration between humans and robots. Called Up-Sticks, the architectural commission features more than 2,000 spruce planks and beech dowels that the team designed and assembled using computational strategies and robotic technologies. "Up-Sticks is an informal turn of phrase to express leaving your home in haste," said V&A Dundee project curator Mhairi Maxwell in a press release. "It is thought to originate from the rough cut, unseasoned timber frame architecture of the Scottish croft designed for temporary occupation, which would literally be taken with the household from place to place. The commission shows how contemporary knowledge in computation and digital fabrication technology can be combined with traditional knowledge to innovate the construction sector, at a time when resources are increasingly limited.” The commission is on display next to another new exhibition, "Hello, Robot. Design Between Human and Machine," which opened Nov. 2. [V&A Dundee]
The U.S. Green Building Council has certified and registered more than 100,000 commercial LEED projects. [ARCHITECT]
Rotterdam, Netherlands–based nonprofit startup Ocean Cleanup has unveiled its latest innovation to fight pollution in the planet's water sources. Called the Interceptor, this river-specific system is anchored to a riverbed, catching floating plastic and debris from the natural flow of a river. According to Ocean Cleanup, the solar-powered Interceptor can collect up to 110 tons of plastic per day. Ocean Cleanup is also responsible for System 001, a U-shaped waste collection system that underwent testing last year in the Pacific Ocean. “To truly rid the oceans of plastic, we need to both clean up the legacy and close the tap, preventing more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place," said Ocean Cleanup CEO and founder Boyan Slat in a press release. "Combining our ocean cleanup technology with the Interceptor, the solutions now exist to address both sides of the equation.” [Ocean Cleanup]
Swedish construction company Skanska announced that it has completed construction of the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Tech, in Atlanta. The 47,000-square-foot structure is the first academic and research building to pursue Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification in the Southeast. "Skanska has a great deal of experience in constructing sustainable buildings in challenging climates such as we have here in Atlanta," said Skanska executive vice president Scott Cannon in a press release. "Projects like this are a catalyst to reshape how people think about the built environment and its interaction with its immediate surroundings.” [Skanska]
Architecture critic Fred A. Bernstein calls on journalists to ask about embodied carbon as designers try to spin their projects as sustainable. [ARCHITECT]
Plans for Google-owned Sidewalk Labs's Quayside project in Toronto have been scaled back from a proposed 190 acres of redevelopment to 12 acres following a Waterfront Toronto vote on Oct. 31. According to a New York Times report, this restrictive acreage is largely due to security concerns over plans for installing ubiquitous sensor and camera technology. [The New York Times]
Can principles of the uncanny valley—that is, an aberration in how humans respond to humanoid robots—be applied to materials? Blaine Brownell, AIA, explores. [ARCHITECT]
The constitutional documents of architecture school accreditation are up for grabs, but only until Nov. 22. ARCHITECT editor-in-chief Ned Cramer, Assoc. AIA, asks that you read the drafts and comment on them, please. [ARCHITECT]
