‘Building Tomorrow’ presents the contemporary trends in building design and the global forces driving them forward using Architizer’s annual A+AWARDS submissions as the benchmark. The data is creatively visualized to provide valuable insights for designers, retailers, and any industry working to create experiential designs. Download the full report for free at www.psfk.com/report/building-tomorrow.
Exceptional efficiency is the new normal. New research conducted on trends in architecture by PSFK and Architizer — now available as a free-to-download guide — shows that many architects are taking the next step in sustainable solutions by creating spaces with less embodied energy and increasingly low-impact mechanical and electrical systems. The adoption of new materials — in combination with thoughtful design and construction techniques — is reducing the amount of resources needed to maintain a building in a wide variety of environments.
“As city planners and architects, we need to design more self-sustainable cities with more public transport on alternative energy,” asserts Winka Dubbeldam, Principal of Archi-Tectonics. Meanwhile, Greg Lindsay — Senior Fellow at the New Cities Foundation — speculates that innovative technologies that extend the realms of architecture could very well transform the urban landscape in the long term: “Will the combination of individual solar/wind generation, home-based storage — such as Tesla PowerWall — and electric vehicles lead to a new flourishing of micro-grid suburbia? Maybe!”
A prime example of this new paradigm in sustainable architecture can be found in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Energy Positive Relocatable Classroom — designed by Anderson Anderson Architecture as a prototype for schools in Hawaii — is an incredibly efficient prefabricated structure that utilizes solar energy, wind power, and rainwater collection.
Designed to conserve and collect energy, the building is also an educational experiment, as the guide explains: “Natural forces and resources are highlighted and exposed throughout the structure, and all systems and performance criteria are monitored and broadcast to the web. In this way, the building acts as a learning tool for occupants, other schools, and the public.”
Back on the mainland, Lake|Flato Architects was tasked with creating the first “Living Building” project in Texas for the Dixon Water Foundation. The 5,400-square-foot Josey Pavilion — a flexible space designed as an education, meeting, and demonstration center — is designed to adapt to climatic conditions year-round by capturing cool breezes in summer and blocking cold winds in winter.
Like Anderson Anderson Architecture’s classroom in Hawaii, Lake|Flato’s pavilion aims to produce more than it consumes: “The project represents the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment: 100% of wastewater is treated onsite and returned to the natural water cycle, and at least 100% of the energy used is produced by solar panels.”
Finally, The Living challenged our preconceptions about the embodied energy of building materials with a radical rethink of bricks in Queens, New York. Hy-Fi, commissioned by MoMa PS1, is a pavilion built from organic bricks that were ‘grown’ using a combination of corn stalk waste and living mushrooms.
The passive power of the project becomes all the more apparent after its life has ended; when the pavilion is deconstructed, the bricks are composted and the resulting soil is used by local community gardens. The experimental structure offers a tantalizing glimpse of how temporary buildings can be made infinitely more sustainable than conventional models and is a perfect illustration of how architects are breaking the mold in their search for truly eco-conscious architecture.
