Re:Construct Competition Launched

The Re:Construct competition has officially launched. Submit your ideas for the city block of the future; entries are due September 15th, 2008. As you can see, I am one of the advisors for the competition (and have been from the beginning).

From the site:

What are you made of? Do you have what it takes to make a difference? Are you willing and able to rebuild a sustainable foundation for the future? It’s time for a change in the way we see things, in the way we do things. It’s time for what we build to reflect who we are and what we’re made of. It’s time to Re:Construct the ideas and realities of sustainable building.

While you're at their site, check out the winners of the past competitions:
RE:VOLT
RE:ROUTE
RE:STORE
RE:CONNECT

HousingZone interview with Urban Re:Vision

HousingZone has a wonderful interview with Urban Re:Vision founder Stacey Frost. An excerpt:

When we started Urban Re:Vision, we created a very basic platform from which to pursue our goals. We asked ourselves the question, “What If?” What if we could live in an environment that is toxin-free, works sustainably and provides a direct connection between residents and their community? We are posing that question to both design professionals and concerned citizens through our six-part international competition that deals with a variety of key issues facing our urban communities. We have been rewarded with consistently innovative, intelligent and inspiring proposals.

The design competitions from Urban Re:Vision have already generated some incredible ideas and innovations. Enter your own ideas at Urban Re:Vision.

via HousingZone

Tomorrowland: A design competition for eco-smart city-living aims to turn “what if” into “what is”

The innovative and forward thinking Urban Re:Vision is featured in a cover story in via Common Ground Magazine this month. As one of the advisors on this wonderful project, I have been amazed at the caliber of the entries.

An excerpt:
Imagine a city where energy is renewably generated from helium-filled “solar balloons” floating hundreds of feet above the rooftops. Imagine a city where public transportation doesn’t follow regular routes, but is instead efficiently directed on the fly, on demand — via cell phone and GPS technology. A city where residential structures designed to keep people apart — like walls and fences — are replaced with facilities that bring neighbors together, like shared kitchen gardens or childcare centers. A city where commercial systems are designed to generate social capital, as well as cold hard cash.

Those are a small sampling of the ideas already received by the design competitions, with the promise of much more to come.

I encourage you to submit your own ideas, but in the in the meantime, read the story:
via Common Ground Magazine

Inhabitat Holiday Party Photos

The lovely ladies of Inhabitat: Piper Kujac, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton

One of my favorite blogs, Inhabitat, shares office space with my favorite community organization, Architecture For Humanity, and my favorite design competition, Urban Re:Vision. Friday night was their collective holiday party.

This is why I love San Francisco: here you can find a room filled with the greatest people doing the most interesting things on the planet. In attendance: Michelle Kaufman, Allison Arrief, Cameron Sinclair, Sarah Rich, Jill Fehrenbacher, Emily Pilloton, Stacey Frost, Willem Maas, Bill Cahan, the gang from Ecolect, the gang from Branch and the gang from Worldchanging... plus so many friends and interesting people. (Google any names you don't recognize!)

Perhaps the most interesting thing is how connected these various groups have become. They're all friends, all working to change the world and all full of hope for our future. Hard to believe that the truly most influential people in design today are a handful of young, hip bloggers (like those pictured). Women seem to be leading the charge. There are noticably more women than men in this group. I don't know what this indicates, but it's something to consider.

Full story via Inhabitat

Flickr gallery of photos from the event

SCU wins Third Place in Solar Decathalon!

For those of you that might not have heard of it, the Solar Decathalon is a competition for college students to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. It is so competitive and such hard work that it's only offered every two years.

In the last Solar Decathlon in 2005, I was one of the advisors to the Architecture Department at Cal Poly. The students placed an impressive third.


This year, I was one of the advisors to Santa Clara University. Countless hours, debates, discussions and meetings later, and I am proud to announce the results. After two years of preparation and a week of competition, the final scores and standings are in for the 2007 competition.


Third Place: Santa Clara University
This team wanted to build a sustainable solar house that is functional, elegant, and innovative—and they did just that. The Communications Jury lauded their friendly, enthusiastic house tour, which was informative, entertaining, and very much "on target" for public audiences. They were one of five teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Hot Water contest and one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Energy Balance contest. Their house almost didn't make it to the Solar Decathlon, because their transport truck broke an axle and delayed them by three days.

Congratulations to the students! They were a fun group and they deserve it!

The next one will be in 2009.

A NOTE TO OTHER ARCHITECTURE PROGRAMS: If you're looking to enter the 2009 competition, contact me and invite me to be an advisor. I seem to have a track record of helping you place at least third! ;)

MORE INFO ON: Santa Clara University's Entry
MORE INFO ON: 2007 Solar Decathalon
MORE INFO ON: SCU Solar Decathalon Site

Winners of the 2007 National Design Awards

The winners of the 2007 National Design Awards has been released by the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York.

Francis Ching was given a special award. As any Architecture student will tell you, Ching's books were required reading.

organicAWARDS for 2007

The beginning of the year is always a busy time. Project deadlines and new clients always seem to come at this time of year. With all of this going on, I forgot to mention we have annouced our organicAWARDS winners for 2007.

The organicAWARDS are presented each January to recognize other leaders in the design industry who have adopted an innovative and green approach to their work. Since these are things we discover over the course of the year through our own research, none of the winners know they were even in the running. I like surprising people with good news!

Our award selections this year demonstrate the tremendous innovation and interest in being green coming out of the design industry.

Another mention of the awards is here.

organicAWARDS Official Site

Urban Revision on TreeHugger

I am on the Advisory Board of a wonderfully innovative design competition, called Urban Revision that I mentioned here.

Today they were mentioned on TreeHugger, which in the nerdy green world is like being on CNN.

Visionary Design Competitions Announced

I have been working with the amazing team at Archiventure to produce Re:Vision. A series of design competitions, Re:Vision seeks to encourage innovative, visionary and, most importantly, deployable solutions to the problems in our cities.

The first four competitions, found here, are themed based on energy, economy, transportation, and community. These are prelude to the large, final competition.

Entries for the first competition, Re:Volt, seeking visionary energy solutions are due April 1st.

Their wonderful tagline, "To ask big WHAT IFS..." says it all.

As a member of their Advisory Board, I am hoping this will foster in a wave of brilliant solutions.