An upbeat article in a 2008 architectural magazine featured chirpy stories of enterprising young architects who, unable to find positions in their chosen profession turned to alternative professions.  Now, twenty months on, it’s doubtful they’ll ever come back. Many economists predict a slow, plodding recovery beginning in the third quarter of 2011. Others are less sanguine. In either case, the durability of the present recession will elongate the period in which young graduate architects leave the profession and inevitably reduce the number of young people choosing an architectural education in the first place. One has to ask, how will this influence the practice of architecture?

The breathtaking rapidity of the 2008 economic deceleration and the collapse of credit distinguish it from its predecessors in a ways that have made an even greater impact on architects than previous recessions. The job board Simplyhired.com tracked the loss of architecture jobs when the recession hit, logging a sharp decrease of 11% from March 2007 to September 2008. Architecture firms had staffs totaling about 221,000 people that summer, which by the summer of 2010 had dropped to 167,000.  Naturally, such statistic hits recent graduates hardest.  

In the current downturn, national unemployment hovers just below 10%, yet in April 2009 the Boston Society of Architects estimated an unemployment rate among local architects of between 30% and 50%. To put it in stark terms, the unemployment rate among architects in Boston is as much as twice the national level during the Great Depression and likely to get worse. The same is true in other cities. One obvious reason for the wildly disproportionate impact upon architects this time is the dependence of building on financing, the machinery of which has seized.

Just as the long recession of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s decimated an age cohort in the practice of architecture, we should anticipate an absence of working architects in graduating classes of 2008 through 2010 and probably beyond.  This one will be even longer.  The reduction in the number of new architects entering – and working architects leaving – the field will be exacerbated by the increased difficulty and expense of becoming licensed to practice architecture and the burdens of maintaining licensure that did not exist in the 1970s and were only beginning in the 1990s. Read more…

Timepiece by Carrie Meinberg Burke and Kevin Burke, Photo: Prakash Patel

Kevin Burke is an architect. Carrie Meinberg Burke is an architect and industrial designer. Together, they have been the Esherick Associate Visiting Professors of Architecture at UC Berkeley for the semester that is wrapping up this month.

Her design methodology integrates an analysis/synthesis process to generate unique built form that spans the range of scales, all informed by ongoing research into ecology, light, health, human factors, and thermodynamics. Carrie’s MArch is from Yale and she has 28 years of design/build experience.

He spent 16 years at the international design firm of William McDonough + Partners in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was partner and practice director. He directed the studio and served as lead designer on a number of the firm’s pioneering projects, including 901 Cherry offices for Gap (now home to YouTube), Oberlin College’s Adam Joseph Lewis Center, and NASA’s Sustainability Base at the Ames Research Center. Kevin guided the firm’s efforts to integrate Cradle to Cradle design strategies within building and community designs.

On October 27, they spoke at UC Berkeley about their approach to theory and practice. Afterwards, I talked to them about that approach and the firm they have founded together this year.

Kira Gould: The work that both of you have done independently, as well as together on the house, seems to engage light and climate in very direct ways, but also translate that very directly to the human experience. How do you describe this kind of “human-centered sustainable design”?

Burke &Meinberg Burke: “Human-centered” design is a great way to characterize our work and the focus of our practice. We are most interested in creating architecture that focuses on human and ecological health and well-being, through a heightened awareness and connectivity with nature and a deeper understanding of the “givens” of architecture. Our focus is on the design of the human experience in response to natural forces; the form of the object follows. Architecture derived from this design approach has an inherent capacity to improve the quality of life. Read more…

In an age when public schools are constantly weighing the importance of subjects and programs against each other, one New York school is getting the ultimate hands-on lesson in sustainability and science. This summer and fall, New York Sun Works constructed a greenhouse atop PS 333, hopefully one of many similar projects. The new greenhouse is a large step from growing seedlings in Dixie Cups on classroom window sills. Read more…

As mediators between the built and natural environments, landscape architects have come to play a critical role in creating vibrant, sustainable public spaces. Recent successes like the High Line Park and the Brooklyn Bridge Park have put the spotlight on landscape architecture, and leading practitioners like Michael Van Valkenburgh have come to enjoy a certain celebrity. But while I know that there’s more to landscape design than pretty plantings, it is often tough for a non-initiate to get into the more technical aspects of what landscape architects do. Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes, a new online exhibition by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), is both an attempt to take stock at this moment in the profession, and to create a better understanding of the challenges landscape designers face. Read more…

Back to school shopping is serious business. From backpacks to binders, sneakers to stationery, parents drop a lot of cash to keep their kids happy in the classroom. This year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is suggesting that they spend that money wisely – and sustainably – by buying from stores that have earned an Energy Star. The EPA works with nearly 150 retail companies nation-wide, helping them optimize their energy use and make significant cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. So buying your kids’ school supplies from an Energy Star labeled store does make a difference, because those stores are rated among the top 25% in the country, in terms of energy performance. Of course, even the EPA cannot deny that the really sustainable solution is to just get parents to buy less, and to discourage a throw-away culture. But choosing a greener store is a good start in the right direction.

This year, the EPA also signed up 36 schools in New England for a Community Energy Challenge that aimed to reduce their energy use by at least ten percent. As part of the challenge, schools improved their insulation; installed new boilers, temperature controls, and carbon dioxide fan controls; looked into water conservation methods; and even hired an energy manager. The results are already showing, with up to 30% savings on energy bills. And by centering the challenge on community, the EPA has encouraged the schools to see themselves as part of a local network, and to build partnerships with regional utilities, other non-profits, and local businesses, to keep them on track with their green goals. All 36 schools earned an Energy Star before the start of this school year. Read more…

In her monthly “Letter from Baltimore,” Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson writes about architecture, culture, and urbanism in a city more often associated with violent crime than with good design. Click here to read her previous posts. For more by Dickinson, visit her blog, Urban Palimpsest.

The ripple effect of the stalled housing market has impacted countless industries—including the purveyors of those storage pods that pop up on the curb when someone needs to move. A few months back, Charley MacKenzie, the owner of the Maryland-based SmartBox USA, told his friend Gregory Pitts about his company’s overstock of plywood storage boxes, each about the size of a walk-in closet. Pitts, a designer with the furniture company David Edward, had an idea. What if the pods could themselves become home? Read more…

This year’s Metropolis Conference at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, in New York, featured a cast of “design entrepreneurs” who are reinventing their practices through creative approaches to the new economy. Even if you couldn’t make it to the daylong conference, you’re still in luck: video of the complete event is now available. Watch the one-minute teaser above for a quick look at a few of the speakers’ presentations, and keep scrolling for the conference schedule with links to all of the videos. Read more…

Considering that we’ve seen some of the century’s worst catastrophes in the past few years, it is only natural that design for disaster has been on all our minds. I’ve seen reconstruction plans and pre-fab shelter designs galore, but a recent event in New York takes the cake for bizarre inventiveness.  Last Thursday the Urban Assembly School for Design and Construction (UASDC) hosted an “Iron Designer” fundraiser—yes, like Iron Chef, only for design—challenging contestants to build a full-size emergency shelter in three hours. Read more…

The race for the ultimate classroom computer has been on for a while. One Laptop Per Child was the celebrity frontrunner, of course, but its creators ran into some trouble and had to scrap their dual-screen OLPC XO-2 design. Meanwhile, Intel has had its eye on classrooms in emerging markets since 2007 with its low-cost Classmate PC series. And now a new kid has joined the class, at this month’s Wall Street Journal D8 conference in California. Everybody, say hi to Kno.

Kno (left) is a dual-screen e-reader textbook replacement that also allows students to take notes, access multimedia content, and generally interact with their study material in ways that are impossible with the outmoded paper textbook. The device has two 14-inch screens, each about half an inch thick, that are large enough to allow students to view full textbook pages without scrolling. At 5.5 pounds, it is much heavier than two iPads, but it will also be cheaper (less than $1,000). I’m particularly charmed by one little design detail: the borders around the screens are asymmetrical, so the Kno actually has inner margins and outer margins, just like a textbook. Plus, it carefully avoids the kiddie colors and oversize rounded edges that have become the hallmark of classroom computers. Read more…

The Fashion Institute of Technology is an old name in interior design education–its highly reputed undergraduate program has been setting standards for the profession for more than 50 years. Now FIT’s School of Graduate Studies is offering a new master’s program in Sustainable Interior Environments that promises to respond to the changing demands on interior design.

The program addresses the challenge of designing interior environments for the “triple bottom line,” supporting practices that are environmentally, socially, and economically sound. It will accept students with a related undergraduate degree and at least three years’ professional experience. Graduates will become sustainability experts and consultants, researchers, and leading sustainable-design professionals. But interested parties had better think fast: the deadline for fall 2010 applications is June 24. For more information contact Grazyna Pilatowicz, assistant professor of interior design, at grazyna_pilatowicz@fitnyc.edu.

Previously: Graduate Programs in Sustainability Catching On
.