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California wildfire
Living with Wildfire
Uncontainable wildfires, especially in California, are becoming unavoidable. And, according to an MIT Technology Review article, it’s time to learn how to live with wildfire. One way of doing this is designing residential and commercial buildings that are easy to evacuate and easy to protect from fires. From 1990 to 2010, wildfires grew in size, along with the populations living in fire-prone areas.
Experts say communities need to find new ways of handling wildfires. “We have to get over this idea that it’s always the best thing to actually evacuate,” Crystal Kolden, a professor at the University of California, Merced, told MIT Technology Review. “We used to have community bomb shelters, right? These are functionally community fire shelters. Those are the sort of conversations that we haven’t had. And if we really want to build fire-resilient communities, we have to have those going forward.”
Designing fire-planned communities should also be top of mind, although they can be expensive to build compared to conventional-built homes that don’t prioritize fire safety features. The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a nonprofit that conducts research on building safety, says it costs about 4% to 13% more to build a fire-safe house—that includes features such as fire-resistant decks and debris-free yards. [MIT]
Uncovering 2,000 Years of History with Photogrammetry
Nick Hedley, a geography professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, calls himself an “unconventional spatial data scientist.” He studies archaic art, markings, and murals to collect historical, archaeological, and geographical data for academic research. His latest jaunt found him—and his colleague, archaeologist Sabrina Higgins—in southern Egypt at the Temple of Isis, a set of structures dedicated to primeval Egyptian gods Isis, Osiris, and Horus. There he used photogrammetry to carry out new research at the 2,000-year-old historical site, according to an Artnet News article. Cameras and computer software, commonly used in photogrammetry, extracted data from the temples’ wall markings, or graffiti, then builds 3D computer models that his team can use to uncover new information about ancient Egypt.
The team first used photogrammetry to collect data on the Mammisis, a Coptic word for a chapel dedicated to the nativity of a god. “My spatial reality capture work will produce the new definitive set of digital wall plans for the figural graffiti on the Mammisi,” Nick Hedley said in the article. “In due course, I will also present the new 3D model of the Mammisi, from which point it will be used to drive multiple fundamentally new types of archaeological spatial analysis.” [Artnet News]
Sustainable Air Traffic Control Tower Design
The Federal Aviation Administration has selected a new design for its air traffic control towers that will be built at regional and municipal airports throughout the U.S. New York–based firm Practice for Architecture and Urbanism created the design that will replace older towers at more than 100 regional airports. The new design, which can be built at three variable heights, is inspired by I.M. Pei’s iconic Midcentury buildings and range from 63- to 119-feet-tall. The façade will be cast in concrete and cross-laminated timber—materials suitable for a range of climate and seismic zones. The towers will also include eco-friendly features such as geothermal heating and cooling, low embodied carbon materials, efficient water fixtures, and all-electric building systems. [ARCHITECT]
The EPA’s Plan to Eliminate Carbon Emissions from Vehicles
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Electric cars charging
Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new standards that could help significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light- and medium-duty motor vehicles. According to the EPA’s proposal, by 2032, 67% of light-duty vehicles—comprising passenger cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs—and medium-duty vehicles—including cargo trucks weighing 19,501 to 33,000 pounds—must be electric in order to comply to the new rules. The EPA wants the automotive industry and the general public to adopt electric motors starting with the 2027 vehicle model year. The agency believes adhering to these new standards may help eliminate up to 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles between 2027 and 2055. [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]
Segregation by Design
WEB Dubois was a pioneer in the fields of sociology and civil rights activism. Dubois was also highly influential in the nascent field of data visualization, along with others such as F. Nightingale and CJ Minard. You can see many of Dubois' graphics here:https://t.co/SNwAWKM6aT pic.twitter.com/Wmi57kp2qf
— Segregation_by_Design (@SegByDesign) April 17, 2023
Segregation By Design, a project from the New York–based architectural designer Adam Paul Susaneck, aims to “document the destruction of communities of color due to red-lining, ‘urban renewal,’ and freeway construction,” according to its website. The project—which was highlighted in ARCHITECT’s Gamechangers Issue—is using a series of colorful infographics created by W.E.B. Dubois—the prolific Black American author, sociologist, and civil rights activist—on Black populations in America to show the affects of racism in the built environment throughout the 1700s and 1800s. A few infographics on the project’s Twitter page—with more available from the Library of Congress—show Dubois’s influential data visualizations that depict the socio-economic realities of Black Americans in 18th- and 19th-century America. [U.S. Library of Congress]
The World’s Longest Cycling Tunnel Opens
Iver Daaland Åse / Bybanen Utbygging
Murals in the 1.8-mile-long Fyllingsdalstunnelen in Norway
After nearly four years of construction and $29 million, Fyllingsdalstunnelen, the world’s longest 1.8-mile-long pedestrian tunnel has opened in Bergen, Norway. Designed to shorten walkers’ and cyclists’ commute times, the tunnel connects the Bergen city center with Fyllingsdalen, a nearby residential neighborhood. The new tunnel features separate lanes for walkers and cyclists, withblue rubber flooring designating the walking path, which takes about 40 minutes to walk from end to end. Cyclists, rolling on concrete, can get through the tunnel in approximately 10 minutes. While there aren’t any windows,, artful murals and colorful lighting keep pedestrians inspired in what would otherwise be a dark cavern. [Smithsonian Magazine]
Racial Inequities in Housing
Adobe Stock / Blue Planet Studio
According to real-estate tech company Zillow, Black, Latino, Asian American, and Pacific Islander renters pay 45% higher rental application fees and are nearly twice as likely to submit more applications than white renters in the U.S. In the Zillow’s recent Consumer Housing Trends Report, the company also found that renters of color pay higher security deposits when securing rentals.
“Monthly rent prices are nearly the highest they’ve ever been, and, unfortunately for so many people, finding a place to rent comes at an even higher cost,” said Manny Garcia, a population scientist at Zillow. “We so often hear about the benefits of renting and the flexibility it offers, but disparities persist, and many renters of color aren’t granted the same mobility as others because of higher upfront costs.” [Multifamily Executive]
Designing Better Cities
Framlab, an architecture studio based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Bergen, Norway, believes that conventional urban planning methods need to be overhauled to be more inclusive, regenerative, and adaptive. Founder Andreas Tjeldflaat has been researching micro- and macro-level issues in the built environment to address urban crises such as mental health challenges relating to isolation and human-driven climate change. In a YouTube video, Tjeldflaat offers ideas on how to design a better future for cities. [Engadget]
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