A Symposium About Green Building

At a recent symposium, ​ Bakar Labs for Energy and Materials convened experts from industry, academia and government to discuss the true carbon cost of construction.  A common thread throughout the symposium was that humanity can rise to the challenge of creating sustainable buildings. Bruce King — founder of BuildWell.site, a nonprofit drawing awareness to … Read more

A Unique Waldorf School in a Nairobi Forest

This project was commissioned by a Waldorf school in Nairobi. The buildings needed to be constructed quickly, cost-effectively (achieving a cost of $250/m² or $23/sf), and with a temporary lifespan, as the plot lease was set to expire in 10 years. The concept was to create a small village for children nestled within the woods, … Read more

Creating Home Frame Components with Recycled Plastic

Engineers at MIT are using recycled plastic to 3D-print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structural components that could eventually provide lighter, modular, and more sustainable alternatives to conventional wood-based framing. They have printed four long trusses from recycled plastic, assembled them into a conventional plywood-topped floor frame, and evaluated the structure’s load-bearing capabilities. The printed … Read more

Great Mosque of Djenné in Africa

The Great Mosque of Djenné, located in Mali, exists thanks to a delicate balance between mass, geometry and continuous human intervention. Rebuilt in its current form in 1907 on older foundations, the mosque occupies a roughly square floor plan, approximately 75 meters (246 ft.) on each side, forming a compact volume that dominates the flat … Read more

A French Natural Homestead

In 2021, Mathieu Munsch walked away from the “normal” script— rent, bills, loans, a regular job— and headed for a sloping meadow in northeast France to build something radically simple: a small home made from the earth under his feet, wood from nearby, and straw bales from local farmers. He kept it to 50 m² … Read more