Tuesday, October 6, 2009


Trends in Sustainable Design and Construction

Who: Howard Steinberg of Onion Flats

When: Monday, October 26 6:30pm - 8pm

Where: Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St. Philadelphia

Today, buzz words such as 'sustainable' or 'green' design are used to describe much of the architecture and design processes being done in the industry.  This emphasis on the environmental impacts of buildings has brought many great innovations and benefits to the built world and the profession.  However, it also raises the question: is there a choice to be sustainable in good design, or is it all really just a part of good design.  There is at least one firm out there that looks forward to the day when we can all drop the buzz words of 'Green design' or 'Sustainable design' and just call it good design.  That firm is Onion Flats, and they are right here in Philadelphia.  Onion Flats has been practicing environmental strategies in their design-build projects long before 'green' became a household name.

Join Onion Flats Principal Howard Steinberg as part of the Associate AIA TECH Series as he speaks on the in's-and-out's and the truths of green roof technology and Philadelphia's green roof legislation, rainwater harvesting and its practicality, and sustainable modular construction.  The lecture will go over different systems and their benefits while demonstrating the work of Onion Flats to showcase their integration into architectural design.  Come learn how these technologies are integrated in new construction and how they can work with the existing building stock of Philadelphia.


Howard Steinberg, AIA, LEED® AP is a Principal of Onion Flats. He is a Registered Architect in the State of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. In 1987, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Design from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA and in 1990 and 1991 respectively, he received Masters Degrees in Architecture and Construction Management, both from Washington University, Saint Louis, MO.. In 2005, Howard joined the Onion Flats team and created the architecture firm of Plumbob, LLC and JIG, Inc., a General Contracting /Construction Management and certified Green Roof design and installation company allowing the Onion Flats Collective to provide full design-build services for both clients and their own developments.


For more information on Onion Flats visit:

http://www.onionflats.com/

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Green Pieces

by Todd Woodward

when: August 5th, 2009 6:30pm-8:00pm
where: Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St. Philadelphia

Sustainable design and high performance building technologies and systems are increasing in availability and complexity. Architects are being challenged to both understand appropriate applications of these strategies and to integrate them successfully into their projects. For expediency, designers often simply attach green elements to an otherwise “standard” building, without giving much thought to the appropriateness of the architectural and environmental response. I believe that this approach is evidence of a troubling tendency: many proponents of sustainable design currently undervalue the architect’s role in the integrated design of a building, favoring instead the application of easily quantifiable green techniques. This is the “design by checklist” approach that may produce a LEED certified building, but will be much less likely to produce a truly sustainable one.

Architecture, though, has always been more than a technical practice. This lecture will focus on the incorporation of “green technologies” into a more complete architectural expression. A range of strategies and technologies will be discussed, including biological wastewater treatment, sustainable stormwater management, and solar energy options. The integration of these green pieces into a thoughtful architectural expression is a task that too few architects are embracing. When thought of as part of a larger whole, green design elements may make a significant contribution to our everyday experience of architecture and have great potential to teach us about our environment.

(Description by Todd Woodward.)


Todd Woodward is an architect and Principal at SMP Architects. He is a graduate of the Penn State Architecture Program where he was awarded the Faculty Thesis Prize for his thesis on the relationship between technology and society. Todd recieved the 2003 Young Architect Award from the AIA Philadelphia for his excellence in design and numerous contributions to the profession. As an active member of the design community, Todd has been involved with the Community Design Collaborative of Philadelphia since 1998 and has sat as Co-Chair of the board in 2003 and again in 2004. Todd is also an adjunct faculty of the Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Architecture Program where he advises students in their thesis year.

As a LEED AP and a Licensed Architect, his work emphasizes a sensitivity to the environment and its resources. The Cusano Environmental Education Center that Todd worked on was named an AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project. The project brings together sustainability, preservation of nature, and education. Of its technologies are a Living Machine, Permeable paving, rain collection, geo-thermal heating and cooling, and a super efficient envelope.


To Learn More Visit:

http://smparchitects.com/




Monday, May 11, 2009

Something Borrowed: Defining an Emerging Covenant between Architecture and Materials


Image: Firefly, a sustainable woodland shelter at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education [photo by Nami Yamamoto]

Lecture by Rashida Ng.

When: 6.16.09 6:30-8Pm.

Where: Center for Architecture 1218 Arch st. Philadelphia, Pa.

“We are standing at the threshold of the next generation of buildings: buildings… which are extremely ecological in their behavior through the intelligent use of functionally adaptive materials, products, and constructions…”


As affirmed in the quote above by Alex Ritter, emerging material technologies promise a future architecture typified by adaptive phenomenological and performative behaviors. Modern advancements in material science have introduced an innumerable range of new materials that will continue to redefine the built environment. This lecture will interrogate the shifting relationship between architecture and materials as instigated by these material science advancements. Beyond a synopsis of new materials and technologies, it will scrutinize the possibilities that are proposed by the importation of material developments from disparate disciplines, such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and defense. What opportunities are made possible through the re-appropriation of material resources borrowed from another context? Of equal importance, what inadvertent consequences may arise from the transfer of these material technologies?

As designers, we are inspired by the high-performance characteristics, responsive behaviors, and ecological sophistication of the numerous nascent materials currently entering the global marketplace. Examples of such materials will be presented with the aim of revealing the potential for research-based design and material innovation within architecture.


Alex Ritter, Smart Materials in Architecture, Interior Architecture and Design, (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2007), preface.

Rashida Ng holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Rashida's research, teaching and professional work are based in material studies and innovations as related to architecture. She is the Founder of RNG design, and the co-founder and president of SEAM-Lab a non-profit collaborative think tank dedicated to research and dissemination of design-based knowledge focused on materiality within the built environment. She is currently a professor at Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Architecture program. Her studio's are conducted with a focus on emerging materials and system innovations. In collaboration with Nami Yamamoto, Max Lent, and Greg Charnock, Rashida has recently completed the construction of FireFly, the groups entry into the Gimme Shelter competition conducted by the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. FireFly was one of 6 structures to be constructed. Currently she is working on "ReD", a funded research project to develop a prototype of a responsive daylighting panel integrating phase change material.


Some of her achievements:

-Pennsylvania Green Building Alliance Product Innovation Grant for “ReD: a Responsive Daylighting Panel Integrating Phase Change Material,” 2008.

-AIA Medal, First Prize, University of Pennsylvania, 2001.

Publications

-KieranTimberlake: refabricating ARCHITECTURE, ARCC / EAAE 2006 International Conference Proceedings, 2007.

Exhibitions:

-Curator of Fused, Artemide Showroom, Philadelphia, PA, April 28 – May 2, 2008.
-Co-curator, with Sneha Patel and Jack Fanning of Reality of the Unbuilt, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, November 2007.


For more information visit:

http://www.temple.edu/architecture

http://www.schuylkillcenter.org/

Friday, March 27, 2009

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

(Re)Appropriation: Procedural Modeling in Architectural Investigations


Bob Trempe

of: Architecture Department, Tyler School of Art, Temple University

when: lecture to be held april 15th, 2009, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

where: center for architecture, 1218 arch street, philadelphia, pa,

event brief by bob trempe:

Architects have a long history of adapting industrial technologies from outside their discipline as tools for innovative design and research. From the work of the Eames with Naval glue technologies to Greg Lynn’s use of cinematic software as a methodology for articulating time-based design, the modern era of architecture has witnessed countless examples of the appropriation and re-appropriation of “foreign” practices in an attempt to push our profession forward.

This lecture will briefly examine the history of technological appropriation within modern Architecture as a basis for understanding one of the more recent movements in computational design: Procedural Modeling. Used in the Computer Graphics industry for over 20 years, Procedural Modeling has come into vogue with Architects in recent years both as a tool for investigational understanding as well as formal experimentation and articulation. Unlike more traditional modes of computational design, Procedural Modeling results are generated through the construction of hierarchical networks, whereby the effect of change within one “node” of the network causes adjustments to the network result as a whole, meaning changes to the actual computer model. For the conceptualist this means the ability to quickly visualize changes of states within compositions through the testing of simple parametric data. For the formalist, the network allows for quick and precise modeling of spatial models with the ability to wholeheartedly change micro and macro elements of the design while simultaneously updating other effected elements of the network. Procedural Modeling can be thought of as “reliant modeling,” whereby information constrained to the network adapts to the seemingly smallest of changes.


Examples of both conceptual and formal techniques in Procedural Modeling will be demonstrated through the use of SideFX’s “Houdini” modeling and animation package as well as “Grasshopper,” the Procedural Modeling Interface for McNeel’s “Rhinoceros” NURBS Modeling Software.


Bob Trempe holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a co-founder of Verspoor + Trempe Design and founder of Dis section Architectural and Media Design (DAMD). He has taught digital media in the architecture departments of Philadelphia University and University of Pennsylvania’s graduate program. Currently, Bob teaches at the architecture department of Temple University, Tyler School of Art. Both his work and teaching focus on instructional logic and information visualization through the output of repetitious systems. Bob Trempe is continually active in the Philadelphia design community, both professional and educational, through his work, teaching, lectures, writings and exhibits.

For more information:

http://www.dis-section.com/
http://http//www.temple.edu/architecture/4_0_people/trempe.html
http://slip.dis-section.com/
http://macrotel.dis-section.com/
http://uni.dis-section.com/