Our 2012 holiday card featured diagrams of green roofs surveyed in our Green Roof Vegetation Study. Kira Gould offers her perspective on the Metropolis POV Blog.

The first external deployment of our Wireless Sensor Network on an existing project took place in an exposed masonry building in Philadelphia, Ortlieb's Bottling House, which is presently being transformed into a new studio for KieranTimberlake. Given the building's historic significance, one of the critical questions this research sought to address was whether to add perimeter insulation or to retain the exposed terra cotta tile that gives the interior its distinctive character.

The American Institute of Architects has selected Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale University to receive a 2013 Institute Honor Award, its highest professional award for architecture, urban design, and interior design. This project was one of 11 awarded for architecture, including the Barnes Foundation and the New York Public Library. From over 700 total submissions, 28 works located throughout the world were selected.

Spencer de Grey, Head of Design at Foster + Partners and Chairman, The Building Centre Trust, and Professor Michael Stacey, Chair in Architecture and Director of Architecture at the University of Nottingham, made opening remarks at the London debut of the Prototyping Architecture exhibition last week.

The KieranTimberlake Research Group undertook a survey of the green roof located atop a new residence hall on the western edge of the University of California, San Diego, campus as part of a larger study of green roofs at six of our university buildings.

Designed in partnership with Gantt Huberman Architects, Center City Building received an Honor Award from AIA North Carolina. The jury called the building “very striking from the exterior,” saying they liked “the boldness of the scheme.” The building represents the university's first urban campus.

Ideal Choice Homes is both a product and a process by which homes may be mass produced through a managed supply chain in India. This project leverages established knowledge of precast concrete to satisfy a market for “pukka” (permanent) construction. Ideal Choice Homes appears solid to sight and touch, similar to other permanent houses in India. But it is a clear departure from traditional Indian construction in that it is engineered for off-site manufacture, delivery, and on-site assembly. 
 
As the concept for Ideal Choice Homes developed, it became clear that housing components needed to be lightweight enough to ensure that they could be lifted by laborers while still meeting the cultural preference for construction that looks and feels solid and achieving performance goals. It was necessary to determine how materials readily available on a manufacturing scale in India could reduce the weight of precast components. Aggregates like expanded clay and perlite are widely available, so we conducted a series of casting studies to evaluate and identify best practices in working with them.

Partners Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake have announced their purchase of the Henry F. Ortlieb Company Bottling House in Philadelphia's dynamic Northern Liberties neighborhood. KieranTimberlake will renovate the Bottling House beginning in 2013, and relocate their current studio in the Art Museum neighborhood to the new space at the corner of North American and Poplar Streets by early 2014. 
 
Built in 1948, the two-story, approximately 60,000-square foot building is part of the campus of buildings developed by the Ortlieb Company beginning in 1869 through the 1940s, during its reign as one of the most important brewers in Philadelphia.

In a ceremony this week, the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion its highest honor: a Gold Medal for Design Excellence.