The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Monday announced $74 million for 63 selected projects to research, develop, and test energy-efficient and flexible building technologies, systems, and construction practices to improve the energy performance of our Nation’s buildings and electric grid. Awardees include National Laboratories, universities, small businesses, and industry partners.
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Z Modular has commissioned robotics in its new automated manufacturing facility in Killeen, Texas, about 70 miles north of Austin. The specially developed robotics, never before used in the construction industry, ensure greater precision and accelerate production, stated the company. It is one of four Z Modular manufacturing facilities and part of a broader Z Modular® Network of factories building with the open-source Z Modular Building Ecosystem, enabling a total annual production capacity of 10 million sq. ft.
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Zaha Hadid Architects (UK) working with Esplan (Estonia) have been awarded first place in the design competition for the new terminal, a planned 870 km electrified railway from Tallinn in Estonia to the Lithuanian-Polish border. Incorporating a modular structural system built in phases to enable ongoing operations on the rail lines throughout construction, the station has been designed and planned to BREEAM benchmarks and guidelines.
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Studio One Eleven has unveiled its design for a four-story transitional housing development using modular construction in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood. Watts Works, at 9502 S. Compton Avenue, uses stacked shipping containers to create 24 320-square-foot, studio apartments for low-income residents and one 480-square-foot manager’s apartment. The project also offers bike storage and multiple community spaces.
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Metsä Wood, a Finnish engineered wood product company, has awarded the Estonian start-up Team 99 for its innovative design of a module that can be used to construct buildings of different sizes and shapes, at the same time reducing their overall carbon footprint. The module has been completely designed using LVL (laminated veneer lumber) products.
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Amongst the Future Project Shortlist in the twelfth edition of the World Architecture Festival are a number of schemes designed to play a major role in creating a more sustainable future. These include a tower which uses algae to produce clean air, to tackle the vast dust cloud which plagues Beijing; repurposed oil tanks creating a new eco-park to restore destroyed habitats in Brooklyn; affordable modular water dwellings for Bergen in response to growing risks of flooding; a surge protection system to counter rising sea levels in Houston; the first energy positive airport city in the world for Oslo; and a residential community incorporating a large forest ecosystem reconnecting people with nature in Samutprakarn.
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KTGY Architecture + Planning announced that the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) has named its five finalists for its 2019 Innovation Challenge competition, with KTGY receiving two finalist honors. This year’s challenge sought solutions for reducing the construction costs or time to bend the cost curve of housing production as a way to address the nation’s housing affordability crisis.
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Hope on Alvarado, in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood (166 S. Alvarado Street), is created by HBG Construction Corp, KTGY Architecture + Planning and Aedis Real Estate Group. The project, with wrap-around supportive services for homeless individuals, is the first of a series of superior-quality Hope On developments in Los Angeles using an advanced, new modular design.
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Contributing author Lanny Flynn, Principal, Buildings Engineering at Stantec, takes a comprehensive look at the use of mass timber as a design element and as an advanced building material in the construction of medical facilities. Flynn shares his expertise citing research on positive health outcomes; the types and key elements of mass timber; benefits including infection control and ease of mass timber construction; safety concerns; and future changes in the International Building Code which will introduce three new construction types enabling the consideration of mass timber for larger facilities.
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Ashley Eusey, PE, LEED AP, GGP, is Hoefer Wysocki’s lead professional engineer and sustainability manager. In the article “Resiliency: Future-Proof Building Design,” Eusey provides a comprehensive look at three pillars of resilient design in the built environment: integrated design, flexibility and education.
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