Following nearly two years of review, New York's +Pool has gotten a home in Lower Manhattan's Two Bridges neighborhood. The self-filtering, floating pool—developed by Dong-Ping Wong and Oana Stănescu of Family New York, and Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeffrey Franklin of PlayLab, Inc.—has a patented filtration system treating water from New York's East River until it reaches an "acceptable microbiological standard for swimming," per a press email from +Pool. The project has used water quality–modeling software from the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program to determine whether +POOL’s water quality could be safe enough for swimming "without the use of chemical disinfectants." In the coming months, +Pool will host a public demonstration of the project, gathering data that the designers will present to permit authorities. [+Pool]
In 2017, the Los Angeles–based firm EC3 completed True North in Detroit's Core City neighborhood, winning awards for the multifamily Quonset Hut project, which uses off-the-shelf materials. Following the project's success, its developer, the Detroit-based Prince Concepts, embraced the potential of readily available products, creating what Prince Concepts founder Philip Kafka called "Home Depot architecture" in an interview with Fast Company. For his latest project, dubbed "The Caterpillar," Kafka returned to prefabricated Quonset huts, transforming the utilitarian structures into housing with rents 30% lower than its peers. [Fast Company]
Well-timed with the Friends reunion episode on the horizon, LEGO has released a 2,048-piece set that replicates the iconic New York apartments of the sitcom, which ran from 1994 to 2004. LEGO The Friends Apartments set features both Rachel and Monica’s and Joey and Chandler’s apartments, along with seven LEGO figurines of the show's main or recurring characters: Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross, Joey, and Janice. Alongside details including memorable outfits and props from the show, the LEGO includes set lights and the ability to detach the apartments to give fans a better sense of the show's filming studio. LEGO's The Friends Apartments set will be be available beginning June 1 for $149. [LEGO]
Researchers from Dartmouth University's School of Engineering have found that integrating renewable energy into the power grid would actually increase the grid's resilience—that is, we can have a "highly resilient and decarbonized energy system," according to a Dartmouth press release. Using a new hetero-functional graph theory, the researchers investigated 175,000-plus energy resources in the United States, tracking the capabilities of power plants, substations, and transmission lines. "We concluded that there are no structural trade-offs between grid sustainability and resilience enhancements, meaning these strategic goals can be pursued simultaneously," said principal investigator and engineering professor Amro Farid in the same release. [Dartmouth]
The Biden Administration has given the green light to the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Although the wind farm, sited 12 miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, still leaves the U.S. behind peer countries in terms of renewable energy production—and far from Biden's goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030—it "should open the door for what the White House has said could become a $12 billion domestic industry around the manufacture and installation of offshore wind turbines," according to Quartz. [Quartz]
Located in a former gravel quarry in the Scottish village of Crathie, the new showcase studio for Moxon Architects features a centerpiece screen wall of locally sourced Douglas fir timbers. Read more about the design and construction of the timber detail in ARCHITECT. [ARCHITECT]
MIT has announced a new climate crisis action plan, committing to "marshaling all of MIT’s capabilities toward decarbonization" and reaching net-zero by 2026, according to an MIT press release. The plan includes new programs and initiatives to both reduce the institution's emissions and investigating "the essential dynamics of global warming and its impacts, increasing efforts toward more precise predictions, and advocating for science-based climate policies and increased funding for climate research." [MIT]
ARCHITECT has extended the deadline for its 15th annual R+D Awards to Wednesday, May 26. This year, June Grant, design principal at Blink!Lab Architecture, Mónica Ponce de León, AIA, dean and professor at Princeton University School of Architecture and founding principal of MPdL Studio, and Brad Prestbo, FAIA, director of operations for Placetailor will serve as jurors. [ARCHITECT]
This post has been updated to reflect that Prince Concepts in based only in Detroit, not in New York and Detroit.
