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I’ve mentioned the following story to so many people, I thought I might as well put up a quick post about it. There are strong Kristian Birkeland vibes with this—and, of course, anything involving an entire mountain transformed into a kind of passive-cosmic megamachine is bound to get my attention. [Image: Watercolor by Karl Lemström, … Continue reading "The Landscape Architecture of Auroras on Demand"
I was in Maastricht, Netherlands, for a couple nights last week, mostly as a way to break-up my trip across the Atlantic and thus help get over jet-lag before attending an archaeology conference (where I currently type this). I went specifically to Maastricht, however, because it’s home to an astonishing number of subterranean sites, from … Continue reading "Star Forts, Mines, and Other Maastricht Subterranea"
I recently had the pleasure of attending a press preview of the new documentary Architecton, directed by Victor Kossakovsky and released last week by A24. Surreally, the screening I attended was held inside a Cedars-Sinai medical-imaging center in west Los Angeles. Seeing this particular film, with its intensely granular focus on the geological underpinnings of … Continue reading "Mineral Hurricane"
Recently, I’ve been looking back at a collaborative project with John Becker of WROT Studio. The “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis” (2014) was a fictional design project we originally set in the vast limestone province of Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. [Image: A rock-acid drip-irrigation hub for the “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis,” a collaboration between BLDGBLOG and WROT … Continue reading "Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis"
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One extra home can change the rules, the costs, and who can afford to build.
The AIA has released its latest 2030 Commitment By the Numbers report. The initiative tracks the architecture and design industry’s progress toward carbon-neutral buildings by 2030. Based on performance data from 2025, the report found that 67% of whole-building projects submitted through the program were energy modeled, indicating continued adoption of building performance analysis among participating firms. However, reported reductions in energy use declined compared with previous results. Related on Archinect: 10 standout sustainable projects honored at AIA COTE Top Ten Award 2026. Marlboro Music Reich Hall by HGA. Image credit: Albert Vecerka/Esto According to the AIA, the decline partly reflects changes in how energy performance is measured. Energy-modeled projects use baselines determined by individual firms rather than values from the 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, which the organization says may provide more realistic comparisons of building performanc...
The internet and AI haven't killed the classroom. Instead, they’ve changed what university buildings can and should be used for.
How college life created quiet logistical constraints against clutter
I really intended to post this when it was the correct week (I don’t remember the day)…four weeks ago…but in any case last month marks the 50th anniversary of me starting to commute by subway, in 7th grade. At first it was simply the 7 train to Grand Central for school in east Midtown; the […]
