How Prefabricated Green Buildings Are Shaping Climate-Resilient Cities

A climate-resilient city can predict, withstand and recover from climate-related hazards — storms, heatwaves, floods — while maintaining its essential functions and keeping its population safe.  Key attributes include a robust infrastructure, renewable energy integration, natural buffers like parks and wetlands, and proactive city planning. These are some of the factors that cities use to anticipate, … Read more

Going for Zero: “Building Reuse Is Climate Action”

Carl Elefante’s Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future broadens the horizon about how architecture can move toward a carbon-free future and achieve it.  Elefante, who served as the 2018 National AIA president, writes about the valuable lessons that our built heritage can teach us. He is concerned … Read more

BIOTOPIA: Propagative Structures

What if architecture didn’t just exist in nature, but behaved like it? That’s the provocation behind BIOTOPIA: Propagative Structures, the visionary installation by The Why Factory and artist Federico Díaz at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The project imagines a future in which biology becomes the basis of design, and our cities are not just … Read more

Creative Ideas for Accessory Dwelling Units

As the price of home ownership and even traditional rental units continues to skyrocket in many areas across the country, more and more people are turning to alternative solutions. Things like tiny homes, shipping containers, and even granny flats are becoming increasingly common. In many cases, these smaller homes can be found on the same … Read more

Earthen Architecture Can Fight Natural Disasters

Ellen Snortland and her husband have now lost a home to fire, another to flooding and another to a mudslide — and they’re tired of fighting the elements. “We are going to have to deal with extreme weather for the rest of our lives. To pretend otherwise is really folly,” she said. “I don’t see … Read more