After 2020, Designing For Indoor Air Quality Will Never Be the Same
In a year marked by airborne pathogens and wildfires, how should HVAC systems evolve to protect us from dangers lurking both inside and out?
Audrey Gray
Audrey Gray is a Brooklyn-based multimedia journalist specializing in architecture and social design. She has—just very occasionally—rung the doorbells of midcentury modern masterpieces unannounced.
Articles
Lighting's Dark Secret: Embodied Carbon in the LED Industry
Energy-efficient LEDs have a fat carbon footprint. The Lighting industry is beginning to grapple with the amount of embodied carbon in its materials.
With a Major Retrofit of Their New York Office, IWBI Walks the Walk
The administrators of the WELL Building Standard filled their office with plants and standing desks to achieve WELL Platinum.
Sustainability Tools Up: 3 Promising Tech Innovations to Help Architects Reduce Their Carbon Impact
A recent slew of open-source and open-access tools equip practitioners with the data they need to make more informed material and design choices.
A Great Carbon Reckoning Comes to Architecture
Architects have finally begun taking a more nuanced approach to the carbon emitted by new buildings. Are they too late?
Can Psychology Help Combat Anxiety in Crafting Welcoming Hospitality Spaces?
The growing field of environmental psychology examines what makes people feel comfortable. Now it's up to designers to harness its findings.
Facing a Limited Budget, This Community College Still Built a Net-Zero Facility
The design-build project—with architects BNIM and builders Level 10—features extensive passive ventilation driven by thermal chimneys.
Why the Building Sector May Be Humanity’s Best Hope for Averting Catastrophic Climate Change
Architects have enormous sway in specifying building materials and modes of operation; they also understand the political, budget, and client-education barriers to executing zero-carbon designs better than anyone.
5 Leading Experts and Advocates on How Architects Can Fight Climate Change
Metropolis speaks with Michael Sorkin, The Architecture Lobby, Kate Orff, Jesse M. Keenan, and Tom Jacobs on the Green New Deal, Architecture 2030, political activism, and more.
The Lighting Research Center Is Making Exciting Connections Between Light, Color, and Well-Being
The Lighting Research Center (LRC) is doubling down on efforts to educate designers and manufacturers about the potential impact light has on human health.
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Sustainable Building Standards
Metropolis spoke to leading sustainable design firms, both large and small, about pursuing an array of ever-evolving “green” certifications.
Can You Teach Good Design on a Social Media Network?
Professors at Parsons, Princeton, Yale, and MIT are using a platform called Are.na to help students collaborate without judgment and create in the public eye.
Can We Build a Safer World? Bill Gates and the World Bank Call for More Rapid Climate Adaptation
The Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and other global development influencers launch a Commission to address ecological disasters already at hand.
Researchers and Designers Are Totally Reinventing the Building Facade
From algae walls to circadian rhythm–savvy films and thermally-activated bimetal shades, a dramatic range of technologies could change the architectural envelope.
The House at Cornell Tech Is the World's Tallest Certified Passive House
The building’s developers and architects want the House to be a tangible example of eco-conscious living.
Remembering Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright's Prolific Archivist
Scholars remember the man who devoted over six decades to one, meaningful mission—keeping alive the Wright legacy for generations to come.
How New Wellness Standards Are Reshaping Architecture
This year, a new set of sustainability codes and standards addressed an often-overlooked ecosystem: the human body.
RIT's Metaproject Immerses Students in Real-World Design Challenges
The Rochester Institute of Technology’s senior studio Metaproject is a lesson and exercise in market reality.
This Nonprofit Empowers Natural Disaster Survivors Through Makerspaces
International aid organization Communitere proposes an alternative model for disaster relief by linking communities with vital tools and technology.
"Auralization," the Technology That Lets You Listen to a Room Before It’s Built
Noise can cripple an environment, so acousticians are using immersive sound technology to more accurately predict and prevent a barrage of distractions.
AIA Urges Senate to Watch Its Language in New Energy Bill
Legislative advocates oppose the repeal of targets to reduce carbon emissions in federal buildings—and that’s not their only concern.
Straight for the Gut: MOLD Positions Food as the Next Design Frontier
With ambitions to tackle the global food crisis, the new design pub isn't your typical feel-good foodie mag.
Designing for the Moment Refugees Become Neighbors
Seattle architect Rania Qawasma has created an award-winning guide for refugees navigating day-to-day life in American cities.
Frank Lloyd Wright on American Democracy's Potential for "Mobocracy"
A new book, edited by Kenneth Frampton, collects Wright's prolific writings, including various political musings on the potential for Americans to lose their freedoms.
A Photographic Tour of Taliesin West Today
Photographer Brian Guido takes us on an in-depth tour around Frank Lloyd Wright's ever-evolving "camp for adults," capturing everything from its petroglyph-inscribed boulders to its unique bright blue chairs.
The Protégé's Turn: Unearthing the Work of a Frank Lloyd Wright Student Who Helped Design Usonia
New exhibit celebrates the work of Taliesin Fellow Kaneji Domoto, a Japanese-American architect and landscape designer who helped fashion Usonia.
Rediscovering Wright, the Product Designer
Not enough has been made of Frank Lloyd Wright's artful home furnishings and designs. New Wright-inspired lines may just change all that.
Philosophy on Exhibit: How Wright Brought His Biggest Ideas to the World
A new book chronicles the 100 exhibits Wright designed throughout his career. This excerpt introduces us to some of the giant ideas America’s first real starchitect wanted his public to embrace.
