Modern buildings are often clad in multi-layer insulated glass units (IGU) to enhance views and daylight. Since glass facades are often the most prominent part of a building, the optical qualities of the glass and its coatings impart a defining aesthetic. Most glass aesthetics are largely defined by the low-emissivity (or low-e) coatings that are applied to the glass. These coatings prevent solar radiation from passing through the front of the glass and radiant heat from escaping the building by reflecting it on the back side of the glass. Low-e coatings often give glass facades an undesirable mirror-like appearance; however, they are necessary since glass is a poor insulator. Therefore, the need for thermal performance and the desire for a non-reflective aesthetic are in direct conflict with one another.

Toronto's The Globe and Mail interviewed Partner Stephen Kieran recently about KieranTimberlake's quest to transform architecture via off-site fabrication. He and Partner James Timberlake envision factory-building complex, custom modules, then shipping them to site for assembly—similar to the process used to manufacture a car. Two prototypes—Loblolly House and Cellophane House—have already been successfully constructed, and an environmentally friendly concept house for India is currently in development.  
 
Kieran compared the process to the evolution of the early automobile: “Henry Ford transformed the economics of a whole industry...With a $400 car, you were into a whole new model to change the world. But it took him a lot of prototypes. The Model T is called that because it's the 19th letter in the alphabet, and he had 18 failures.” This evening, January 27, Kieran will deliver the keynote lecture for the ar.chi.tect* symposium (titled "Redefining the Profession") at Toronto's Ryerson University. He will also participate in the symposium tomorrow, January 28, at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

For a renovation project at Tulane University's School of Architecture, KieranTimberlake recently installed temperature sensors at more than 150 points within the building. This monitoring exercise will allow us to gain a nuanced understanding of the building's thermal performance within the predominantly hot, humid climate of New Orleans. Measurements will be used to analyze how temperatures vary within the building, which will inform the design of new passive and active heating and cooling systems. The goal is to the generate a design that responds to the unique thermal context of the building, creating the most comfortable environment possible while using the least amount of energy.  
 
The design team devised a package of temperature monitoring equipment for deployment at several locations on the third and fourth floors of Richardson Memorial Hall, home to the architecture school. The third and fourth floors contain studio spaces in the north and south wings of the building. On the fourth floor, the ceilings are double-height, with a pitched roof rising more than 30 feet. Nearly all of the windows in the building are uninsulated. The sensor deployment is focused on creating rich data sets for ambient temperature distribution as well as thermal stratification (change in temperature from one zone to another) within the building. This is coupled with envelope monitoring on both the interior and exterior walls.

We are pleased to announce that the Quaker Meeting House and Arts Center at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has won an Institute Honor Award for 2014 from the American Institute of Architects. The 26 winning projects were selected from more than 500 submissions. 

Project description from the AIA press release

With a minimum of means, this project transforms a non-descript 1950s gymnasium into a Quaker Meeting House and Arts Center serving the entire middle and upper school community at Sidwell Friends School. The building program includes a worship space, visual art and music rooms, and exhibition areas. The essence of Quaker Meeting, and thus the Meeting House itself, is silence and light. Architecturally this is achieved by filtering light and sound through architecture, landscape, structure, and systems arranged in successive concentric layers around a central source of illumination, both literal and spiritual.

Jury comments

A beautiful project that is very well detailed and imagined. A remarkable transformation. 
 
The obsolete building is thankfully lost in the new one; the new one is open, bright, and engaging. 
 
The exterior is masterfully handled with subtle gestures that give it interest and shape. The architect manages to create a landmark building on the site while simultaneously transforming the interior spaces into an effective worship space. 
 
Fascinating use of light and molding of space. Beautiful reinterpretation with a sensitive vernacular touch. 
 
Great sustainability strategies and results.

Tally™ Empowers Architects to Leverage Life Cycle Data at the Speed of Design

Tally™, a new Revit application for calculating the environmental impact of building materials during the design process, is available free through Autodesk Labs and the Tally website. The free trial version expires on March 1, 2014.

Stone Hall is the first of Harvard's venerable Houses to undergo renovation as part of the House Renewal program. Recently, correspondent Colin Manning reported in the Harvard Gazette that students living at Stone Hall since work was completed last summer have "explored and utilized the new academic, social, and study spaces in creative ways." His article includes a video released by the university that describes the importance of reinvigorating Harvard Houses and provides a glimpse inside the pilot project. 
 
Watch the video

In a recent issue of the Journal of Architectural Education, Research Director Billie Faircloth asks a simple question: How is knowledge of the environment acquired?  

Excerpt from "Pardon Me, May I Borrow Your Umbrella?"

Journal of Architectural Education, Volume 67, Issue 2, 2013 

The fully considered response to "How is knowledge of the environment acquired?" is not one solely based on synthesis of data collected by a device—a weather station, temperature sensor, or suite of sensors. Nor is it one solely based on a methodology which compresses many years of weather data into one "typical" annual data set. The answer to this question requires us to engage the pursuit of a more thorough epistemic interrogation as it may be hypothesized that for some of us numerical values collected from the environment—irradiance, sky cover, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed and wind direction—are a proxy for our lived-out bodily experiences of the environment. We hypothesize that the more we get to know the metrics of a particular micro or macro climate, the more we may advantageously inhabit it with our bodies and buildings. And this is precisely the hypothesis that should leave us wondering, "What if?"

 
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Many Philadelphians remember reform-minded mayor Richardson Dilworth, the namesake of Dilworth Plaza to the west of City Hall. But the layers of history that underlie this site begin much farther back, with the planning of the city by William Penn in 1683. Since then, it has been a public space under continual transformation—as a public park, a race course, a military campground, the locale of the nation's first urban water works, and starting in the late nineteenth century, the site of City Hall.  
 
William Penn's Plan for Philadelphia (1683) included a centrally located square, called Centre Square, for public buildings. The plan was crafted with surveyor Thomas Holme and used to advertise the city to prospective immigrants in Europe.

Environmental researchers Stephanie Carlisle and Max Piana recently presented green roof research findings at the 11th annual Cities Alive Conference in San Francisco, attended by international green roof professionals, designers, and researchers. The theme of this year's conference was resilience, with presentations and research exploring the many ways in which green roofs and walls contribute to social, environmental, and economic resiliency within our cities. The role of green roofs in urban water management and the potential for agriculturally-based green roofs were topics of particular interest.  

Growing Resilience: Long Term Plant Dynamics and Green Roof Performance

Focusing on studies of two mature green roofs, one intensive and the other extensive, Stephanie and Max discussed changes in green roof vegetation, challenging the audience to consider the long-term dynamics and transformations of these living systems. Questions under consideration included:  

• How does green roof vegetation change over time?
• How does vegetation performance relate to building and site context?
• How do the growth trajectories of an extensive and intensive green roof compare?