Wood is inherently imprecise. Its grain reverses and swirls. Trauma and disease manifest in scars and knots. Instead of viewing these natural tendencies as liabilities, Achim Menges, an architect and professor at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, sees them as wood’s greatest assets. Menges and his team at the Institute for Computational Design and … Read more
Los Panchos in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, is a housing complex catering to surfers and beach lovers. The organic shell of the building features curved walls and fluid arches. Los Panchos maximizes views, solar orientation, and ventilation. Construction employs sustainable methods and locally sourced materials like wood, stone, and clay, emphasizing energy efficiency, and incorporating green building … Read more
The School of Constructive Arts is a field school teaching regenerative design, building, and ecology through direct observation, participation, and experimentation. Their approach integrates ancestral knowledge of natural materials and energy with advancing technology and contemporary building techniques to derive sustainable models of living for our time. They are building a campus in the Big … Read more
Thermal mass is the ability of a material to absorb, store, and release heat. It can be used to moderate building temperatures by reducing fluctuations. Materials with relatively high thermal mass, such as stone, rammed earth, and brick, can absorb significant heat during the day and release it slowly when temperatures drop at night, reducing … Read more
Straw has a long history as a building material, finding application in thatch roofs, as a binding agent in adobe bricks and cob, as insulation, and in straw bale construction. Straw, a renewable, recyclable, regionally available, and low-cost material, offers a climate-friendly alternative to conventional building materials. Indeed, straw provides a viable solution to decarbonizing … Read more
“People can’t find homes, they’re very expensive. We also have an aging population … so there’s less and less people who are electricians, plumbers, or builders,” says Habib Dagher, the executive director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC). They recently unveiled what may be the world’s largest polymer 3D printer. … Read more