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Constructing Lessons from China

Remember just a few years ago when the price of concrete was growing astronomically, in part because of China's demand for it? There are lessons to be learned from that. Caroline Hanson and Max Perelman's The Green Media Project includes a film that addresses this and other issues such as China's paradoxical sustainability problems and advantages. The film was researched during a nine-week tour of as many cities in China.
With China now a major world power and only continuing to grow, the American building and design industry (especially those who aren't practicing in that country) should take note of its sustainability and infrastructure practices. We don't always learn from those who are above us or on par. Sometimes we learn from seemingly disparate sources. For example, China is committed to reduce energy consumption by 20% of its GDP by next year. How does that relate to the AIA's 2010 and 2030 plans? How does it relate to Obama's plans?
China has asked the filmmakers to make a series of films about some of China's and other countries' leading sustainability projects that will be used educate Chinese mayors on what needs to be and what can be done.
Read more or listen to a brief interview about Harrison and the project at Architect Magazine online.

Butter those bricks, boys!

Some masons still find craft-- and fun-- in their work. Yet, while some builders are turning to brick veneers, why shouldn't masons still be proud? Some have the ability to drive along Washington, DC's streets and effortlessly find flaws in the craftsmanship of the city's buildings. So says Melvin Moore, whose family has some 175 years of bricklaying experience. Moore's masonry work can be seen at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and buildings at nearly all the major universities in Washington, D.C. He's also helping new masons at the International Masonry Institute, sometimes termed the Harvard of Bricklaying, learn the craft through construction training institutes, which really began to gain interest and credit during the recent building boom.
"There's something about brick that says... stability," says Chrysanthe B. Broikos, curator at the National Building Museum in DC.
Listen to the story on NPR's All Things Considered podcast.

Invincible Cities, a Study of the Ghetto

"I realized early on that buildings tell stories very clearly and each of them tells it differently,"

says Camilo Jose Vergara, a photographer who captures the changing face of American ghettos like Harlem; Richmond, Cali.; and Camden, NJ, on InvincibleCities.com.
Check out the web site he co-produced with Howard Gillette, a historian at Rutgers Univ. Vergara has been photographing these and other poor, minority city areas since the 1970s and had published six books.

Architects as Activists, Makers & Shakers

It's mroe than a suitable time and seemingly not kitschy for the AIA and the University of Miami School of Architecture to jointly host Redefining the Architect's Role: Architects as Agents for Social Chance, a 3-day conference in Miami from 5-7 March.
The conference "will focus on how architects and urban designers can advocate for, and achieve, the effective public policy changes needed to create more sustainable and livable communities," according to the conference site. Presenters include Cameron Sinclair, executive director & founder of Architects for Humanity; and John Peterson, AIA, founder & president of Public Architecture.
Why now? People all across the industry and its periphery are asking how the shelter industry will change as a result of the real estate boom and the current economic crisis; Metropolis recently released its book Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism; and the whole country is awaiting to see how much of Obama's economic stimulus plan, taking into consideration foreclosures, urban planning, infrastructure, and green/sustainable practices will become a part of our national fabric.

Learn more and/or sign up.

Booming Town Veers from Strip Mall Central

It's almost a surprise that people don't bear bumper stickers reading, "Buckeye, AZ, native" or that its municipal leaders don't hand out stickers reading, "Where the Hell Is Buckeye, AZ?" After all, situated smack dab in the nation's fastest growing county (Maricopa County, AZ grew by 700,000 residents between 2000 and 2006), it's expected to expand to 400g people by the 2030s.
The questions are how do you properly control urban planning in such explosive times? And how do you keep the town sustainable, not like the pit stop it used to be nor a bloated town that can't quite call itself a city? How does it grow to have more benefits of proper urban design (we're trying not to lean too heavily on implying that it should necessarily be New Urbanist) but steer well clear of being another ode to strip malls and redundant subdivisions?
While an exurb may contain within its definition an area where predominantly wealthy people live, in this case, Buckeye grew out of the need for more affordable residences beyond Phoenix.
Fun facts:
22 master planned communities were approved in Buckeye as of June, 2008
they will/would house more than 400g people;
its total planning area comes to almost 600 miles;
it issued half dozen building permits/month in 2000; almost 380/month during the real estate bubble in 2005; just over 240 monthly in 2007.
This info taken from ArchitectMagazine.com. Read Bradford Mckee's full, fascinating article.
This isn't a case of "If you built it, they will come." It's a matter of "You better build it fast, 'cuz they're a comin'." Why are there images of Yosemite Sam floating in this editor's head?

Read a related article on Arizona real estate, from a recent Urban Land Institute conference. Buy land now, cuz it's only gonna get more expensive, one journalist reports.