The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill–led investigation into building a lunar habitat will land at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale this year. The design proposal, which won an honorable mention in ARCHITECT's 2019 R+D Awards and was developed in partnership with the European Space Agency, the MIT Media Lab, and the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will take the form of an exhibition dubbed Life Beyond Earth. The exhibition will lay out the "proposal for a new type of space architecture—a sustainable ecosystem that will support a human presence on the Moon in the decades to come," and open to the public on May 22, according to an SOM press release.
Aiming to answer the 2021 Biennale's theme "How will we live together?", the exhibition "offers a powerful message for a world still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic—a reaffirmation of the importance of space and its benefits for all societies," states the same release. "At the same time, it illuminates how space habitation research provides insights into human coexistence and resource utilization that can also be applied to problems on earth." [SOM]
EVolo magazine has selected three winners and 20 honorable mentions for its 2021 Skyscraper Competition. The competition, which began in 2006, evaluated 492 submissions based on "the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations; along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution," according to an eVolo press release. This year's first-place project, by a team from Ukraine, proposes a towering structure made from genetically modified trees that grow into a living, habitable skyscraper. [eVolo]
After entering Afghanistan in 2001, the U.S. military constructed a heavily fortified compound that came to be known as the Green Zone in its capital, Kabul.. Although the Green Zone itself remains a mystery to many Afghani residents, its towering blast-proof walls and mass have shaped daily life, dramatically changing Kabul's urban architecture. Working with Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist Lorenzo Tugnoli, The Washington Post's art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott investigates how the Green Zone has forced an urban life that is "improvised in the shadow of blast walls." You can listen to Kennicott and Tugnoli talk about their project in a recent episode of Washington Post's daily podcast, "Post Reports." [Washington Post]
A team of MIT researchers has developed a novel material that changes color and patterns in response to a flash of ultraviolet light. The ChromoUpdate system uses light-activated dyes whose properties are altered when exposed to a UV light projector, revealing alternative colors and patterns in minutes. Although the researchers have their sights on translating the research into a form of programmable textile, the current ChromoUpdate system has the potential to speed manufacturing by reducing the need to produce prototypes in a range of different colors and styles. [MIT]
Two words: balloon wall. https://t.co/g7dFvNNRf4
— Google (@Google) April 30, 2021
With more people worldwide receiving COVID-19 vaccinations, how can employers redesign offices to accommodate employees used to working from home? Google will have to answer sooner rather than later. With employees scheduled to begin returning to its offices in the fall, the tech giant will test out experimental office layouts for 10% of its global office space, experimenting with flexible formats that integrate remote workers with in-office employees and embrace the popularity of outdoor working. The New York Times dives into Google's experiment, highlighting some of the more innovative approaches—think office tents and inflatable partitions. [The New York Times]
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the winners of its annual Solar Decathlon, selecting collegiate winners that "[challenge] the next generation of building professionals to design and construct high-performance, low-carbon buildings powered by renewable energy," according to a DOE press release. This year's competition included 72 teams representing 12 countries. Nine of the winning projects were constructed and displayed on the National Mall in Washington as part of DOE's first Solar Decathalon Virtual Village. [DOE]
Autodesk has achieved net-zero energy by powering its offices and cloud services with renewable energy. Read more about the global software's achievement and other climate action goals in the recently released report "A better world designed and made for all." [ARCHITECT]
