FORUM is the annual meeting of the AIAS and the global gathering of the architecture and design students. The event provides students with the opportunity to learn about important issues facing architectural education and the profession, to meet students, educators, and professionals with common interests, and to interact with some of today's leading architects through keynote addresses, tours, workshops and seminars.
This year's theme is energy, imagine that. Denver green architecture for students, I like it. More information to come - also, this video may cause seizures.
FORUM 2008 will be held in Denver, CO on December 29, 2008-January 1, 2009.
Book now, deadline is 6/11. Anyone wanna sponsor me?
Boulder locals Monika Wittig and Luis E. Fraguada with James Coleman and Shane Salisbury recently won the DIA/DOCA Emerging Artist Program competition with their entry [Wind]ow Seat. As a result of the commission, the group is setting up a traveling seminar called LaN-IN-FLIGHT which will depart from Denver to LA, then to NYC, Boston then back to Denver from July 9th-18th. The seminar will focus on digital fabrication and the output will be published and presented in August at the LaN's [Wind]ow Seat exhibition. 10 days of traveling to cutting edge design firms and industry leaders including Ball-Nogues Studio, Contour Crafting, SCI-ARC, Commonwealth, REX, and others, looks like a lot of Rhino sessions in airport lounges.
This is a great concept and I'm sure will help inform the final exhibition, but why no seminars or visits in Denver itself? From their site - "A Live Architecture Network is under the direction of 4 designers who landed in Barcelona to pursue postgraduate studies in Digital Tectonics at IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) and following have taken-off on the path of DIGITAL FABRICATION as a means to forwarding composite processes /collaborations driving architectural development. LaN recognizes the power of digital fabrication, not merely as a toolset of of a high technical caliber, but as the driver of particular groupings of resources–an organization of human, economic, and material assets–varying widely based on project circumstances. LaN’s mode of operation is parametric in nature, and seeks to with re-associate architecture with a flexible, non-authoritative, temporal, & data-rich practice of spatial design." Photo Credit from LaB ,the Live Architecture Network's Blogsite.
"Developer Continuum Partners decided instead to reduce their impact by recycling most of the content of the former Villa Italia Mall on the site and incorporating an array of sustainable strategies, including a 1.7 Mw solar array and a small-scale urban wind farm." On the parking lot lampposts! great idea. "To reduce the ecological strain that results from the development’s annual energy use, Belmar is currently in the process of installing an array of 8,370 photovoltaic panels. The panels will be installed on three parking garages, including the natural foods store, and will measure 125,000 square feet total."
Also, check out the Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, "part museum, part public forum". They will reopen on May 22 for a new exhibit called "Silent Films and Bedroom Paintings". Lakewood is getting hot! Another great video from Charles Carpenter below.
Photo by Greg Henshall On May 4, 2007, Greensburg, Kansas was leveled by an EF5 tornado, one of the strongest in American history. In that storm, 11 people lost their lives as the tornado tore through the town of about 1500. Within days of the disaster, the people of Greensburg decided not only to rebuild their town, but to rebuild it "green". Today marks the 1 year anniversary of this event.
Treehugger has several different perspectives from the townspeople of Greensburg with interviews from the Mayor, a Resident, the Principle and a Student from Greensburg, KS High School. Green ArchiTEXT picks up on an Architectural Record article stating that the master planning for the town is aiming to be LEED Certified Platinum.
There are also many current and upcoming Web and TV shows devoted to the town and it's plan to become "green". Including "The Good Fight" on the Sundance Channel.com, which you can watch now on their website. The Discovery Channel had a show called "Blown Away : Greensburg, Kansas" which you can view in the video segment below. Also, be on the lookout for the Discovery Channel's Planet Green network, starting on June 4th, who will host a 13 part documentary series called "Greensburg" which "follows the rebirth of a rural town in Middle America into a model for the future. With more than 1,500 people displaced by the tornado and waiting to return to their homes, Greensburg documents the story of a community coming together and facing the enormous task of greening a small city. From climate impact to architecture, building and design, to the personal stories of those affected by the disaster, Greensburg is an inspiring look into the human spirit."
Several relief organizations such as the Greensburg Future Fund and the Greensburg GreenTown are out there to collect money for the rebuilding, so go out and support them in this noble cause if you can.
"Geos is an innovative master planned community that emphasizes the importance of neighborhood and utilizes technologies that are right for our time. It is Colorado’s first sustainable, integrated community where energy from the Earth and the Sun replaces all fossil fuels." ( from their website) In Arvada, Colorado, close to Golden and Denver, the location is next to the West Woods Golf Club and borders on the Ralston Creek Trail which is part of the Denver Regional Bike Trail System. The development is going to be arranged in four sections and will provide different housing options, as well as access to common areas, parks, plazas, businesses and playgrounds , the four Geos neighborhoods will connect a diversity of people and lifestyles.
Eco Features - Solar and Geothermal from their website: "Over 300 sunny Colorado days per year and a constant temperature of the Earth at five to seven feet below ground level are the power sources of Geos, the first fossil fuel free community in the United States. Homes that incorporate passive solar, super insulated building shells, high thermal mass and mobile window insulation provide for optimal solar energy gain and retention. A heat recovery ventilation system provides clean and filtered fresh air and conserves internally generated heat. On hot summer days, an Earth tube chills incoming air to 60°F to cool the home. A district ground source heat pump, which also serves as a back-up heat source for extended cold spells, provides domestic hot water.
The entire climate conditioning system and all household electrical equipment are powered by a photovoltaic system tied to the utility grid for net metering. Excess power generation, particularly on hot summer days, is delivered to the grid for storage and to compensate for nights or cloudy daytime needs when electricity is drawn from the grid. Space conditions are thermostat controlled and an energy monitoring system keeps Geos homeowners informed of their specific energy uses. This technology has been used in Europe for many years and is proven, simple and low maintenance. Be part of the first community in Colorado to live a life free of fossil fuels." Also see the Denver Post's Geothermal article for more information about this technology.
The master plan has been approved and in May of 2008 the infrastructure construction will begin, which will include the roads, sewers, and utilities. The public opening of the pre-sale release occurred last week on Earth Day, April 22, and the those who sign up will have access to the June 2 pre-sale release. The crew from Yert.com visited with some of the key members of this project last November and this video gives good insight to the current nature of sustainable design in Colorado.
Also a recent article from the Boulder County Business Report.
Pictured is Torre Agbar built in 2003 and open in 2005 in Barcelona, Spain. "A unique feature of the building is its nocturnal illumination. It has 4,500 LED luminous devices that allow generation of luminous images in the facade. In addition, it has temperature sensors in the outside of the tower that regulate the opening and closing of the glass blinds of the facade of the building, reducing the consumption of energy for air conditioning."
In my opinion, the greatest filmmaker of all time passed away on Monday at age 94. I'll never forget watching his films in Hancock Hall between studio time in architecture school, and retrospectively the impact he and Fellini had on my design sensibility. Restonella pace, Michelangelo Antonioni, vivrete per sempreneimieiocchi.
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