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August 2013

Lego Architecture Studio designed by architects

  A Monochrome Lego Set To Teach Tomorrow’s Architects – six architectural firms contributed to the 268-page books that accompanies Lego Architecture Studio, a completely white set of Lego bricks designed to highlight major architectural principles.  Each of the firms – REX Architecture, Sou Fujimoto, SOM, MAD Architects, Tham & Videgård, and Safdie Architects – gets up to …

Azure 2013 Awards of Merit

Announcing the AZ Awards of Merit – annual design awards in residential architecture (shown here), furniture design, residential interiors, temporary architecture, furniture systems, commercial architecture over and under 1,000 square meters, landscape architecture, commercial interiors, concepts, and student work.  Images for all the finalists are here.

EPA’s map of renewable energy potential

    RE-Powering Mapper – the U.S. EPA recently updated its RE-Powering Mapper, a map-based tool showing renewable energy potential on 66,000 contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites across the country. Features include: Screening results for over 66,000 sites for solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal energy Search options by renewable energy …

Sustainable construction in the UK

      Best Practices for Sustainable Construction – post on SustainableCitiesCollective has good links, especially for those working in the UK.   Increased flood risk, increased risk of drought and more severe storms means making greater use of sustainable drainage systems such as: green roofs; rainwater harvesting; permeable pavements; infiltration …

Light pollution and the decline of starry nights

    Opinion: Bright Nights, Big Problems – recent opinion piece in National Geographic on the growing rarity of true darkness, due primarily to our unthinking use of artificial light.   Because of the rapid growth of light pollution over recent decades, most Americans under 40 have never known real …