AIA 2030 Commitment

The AIA 2030 Commitment program is the AIA’s cornerstone effort to demonstrate the progress AIA members are making toward reducing the operational energy use of their designs, while encouraging other architects to do the same. The program is a voluntary call for action for member firms to join and demonstrate progress toward the industry’s widely adopted 2030 targets in both how the firms operate and how they design. To date, more than 170 firms (including map-lab) have made the commitment, ranging in size from the sole practitioner to the multi-national practice.

The first annual report has been released and it measures the industry's progress towards the 2030 Commitment. You can download the report here.

ResilienCity: Boston's Innovation District 2035

The International Living Future Institute launched the Living City Design Competition in 2010, seeking designs for our cities in the year 2035. map-lab's submission was ResilienCity. ResilienCity seeks to set the vision for the future of Boston’s Innovation District, a new neighborhood built on greyfield and brownfield sites that will provide residences and workplaces for over 300,000 people. We have reached the tipping point where we need to think of the whole, not the self. We have arrived at a time when we need to stop behaving selfishly and begin to explore how we can all come together as a community to create environments that are culturally enriching, healthier, and equitable. We come back to nature to do this.

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Structures for Inclusion Conference

The Structures For Inclusion conference looked towards those that are ensuring that the other 98% (those who can’t afford to hire an architect) of the world have the opportunity to live in socially, economically and environmentally healthy communities.

These goals are parallel to the mission of UNDA and the projects presented were a testament to the direction that we hope to achieve with our future projects. The most inspiring examples were those that articulated their vested interest in community involvement. Everyone interacts with space and it is the role of the architect to facilitate a design that meets needs.

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Committed Sustainable Practice: Part 1

Lets start with something simple: map lab believes global climate change IS happening. We believe that human activity is a major contributor to this. We believe it is our charge to integrate solutions in our daily operations, professional practice, and personal behavior. Let us also say that architects hold a unique responsibility to weigh all measures of the carbon and, more importantly, the energy issues now and in an immediate and uncertain future. While we advocate for the integrations of various forms of alternative energies through sustainable fuels and technologies, all alternative energy forms are heavily dependent on a rapidly depleting fossil fuel driven infrastructure. Building efficiencies and progressive urban design and planning strategies will be of utmost importance going forward. In another way, electric cars are cool, but it doesn't change the miserable commute or an open window may be the best and most energy efficient air conditioning and even selecting the SUN versus choosing one light fixture over another - the issues are complex but the solutions may be very simple (and cost effective).

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Environmental Health Clinic: Boston Field Office

In its efforts to collaborate with other agents of change, map-lab has been working with Artists In Context and renowned artist, engineer and activist Natalie Jeremijenko to bring her Environmental Health Clinic to Boston as a field office. The results here are the initial designs that will be prototyped over the upcoming months in anticipation of a spring farmers market launch.

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Role of an Architect in Hybrid Design: Part 2

Looking back on a computer programming class in my high school days, I remember a difficult problem which I could not easily solve.  Frustrated, I told my instructor “I quit, I am going to be an architect; I do not need to know computer programming.”

...man was I wrong!

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Gloucester Marine Innovation Center

map-lab and collaborator Mary Beth Vogel recently finished a submission for the City of Gloucester's I4-C2 waterfront parcel. Our submission is titled "Bridging Gloucester: Marine Innovation Center @ Harbor Commons". Our proposal is all about maximizing connections between Gloucester's greatest assets to help steer the City into a sustainable future.

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Pecha Kucha Chicago UNDA Presentation

David and Abby recently returned from the Design in Action 2010 Conference in Chicago. While there, Abby presented map-lab's Urban Neighborhood Design Alliance during Pecha Kucha Chicago. 

Role of the Architect in Hybrid Design: Part 1

We posed the question, what is the role of the architect doing hybrid design? Gadi Amit writes that hybrid design dispenses with theory and relies on nimble, multi-faceted teams of experts to tackle the complexities of a design challenge.  We will share our thoughts on hybrid design in a series of short blog postings.  In the first of the series, Dan discusses how the role of the architect is evolving as technology advances.

Augmented reality is an expanding technology, which layers digital, computer generated information over a physical, real-world environment. It "augments" one's view of reality.

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Sustainability and Energy Audits

A team consisting of Chapman Construction, RDK Engineers, & map-lab, performed a hybrid of a typical energy audit for an industry leader that recognized the connection between sustainability and health/wellness is critical to growth and long-term success - both internally and externally. There was a clear initiative to build on top of an already strong perception of the company’s commitment to sustainability from employees, outside investors and partners in their industry. 

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City/Build Boston

Abby Gordon of map-lab is the program coordinator for City/Build, a curriculum enrichment program for Boston high school students that focuses on the fields of design, development, and construction. The program is intended to generate career motivation and opportunities for Boston youth as well as interest in their urban community through interactive lessons on current development sites. From 1989-2004, City/Build served over 1,400 Students.

 

In 2010 City/Build was reinstated in Boston’s urban education system. City/Build is operating a pilot program at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science in Roxbury. The 20 students in Mr. Munsey’s 9th and 10th grade honors geometry class are fortunate to be sponsored by Turner Construction’s Genzyme Phase Two project.

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Stretch Code and Green Communities

On February 24th, 2010 a seminar will be held in Cambridge, MA to discuss the effects of the implementation of the new Massachusetts "Stretch Code".

As some of you may remember, the adoption of the Massachusetts Green Communities Act of 2008 marked a step forward for sustainability for the Commonwealth. The Green Communities Act requires Massachusetts to adopt each new International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) edition within one year of its publication. Through an amendment process, the Massachusetts Building Code, 7th Edition, has been updated on January 1, 2010 to ensure it agrees with the 2009 IECC requirements. The changes will affect both residential and commercial construction.

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SHIFTperception: An Urban Revisioning of Washington Street

With the recent news of Boston's Downtown Crossing seeking to become a new Business Improvement District, as well as the ongoing problems of the stalled development at the old Filene's Building and a growing number of empty storefronts in the area, map-lab decided to take a more in depth look at possible solutions.

To understand where Boston's future should be, obviously we must first examine its past. As with many cities in the post-WWII era, Boston adopted the super block mentality for spurring development. In the case of Downtown Crossing, it destroyed a viable & beautiful building fabric and streets themselves to make way for large-scale suburban-esque retail approaches. With them came more knockdowns to make way for the parking structures thought to be needed to draw suburbanites to the urban centers for their shopping. We learned that it fails over time due to the eradication of smaller businesses  and the “turning of the back” to the residents themselves.

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Picnic Pavilion Design Proposal

map-lab's proposal for a Picnic Pavilion located within a local recreation area sought to create a space that is in balance with its surroundings through an understanding of the site on which it sits and what opportunities that brings us. Through site and environmental analysis, we determined that the existing landscape was the culprit of costly erosion of a nearby beach. Rather than simply design a pavilion, as requested in the original scope of work, we promoted the idea that the site issues of drainage present an opportunity to create  a beautiful "room" that extends beyond the pavilion but does not feel apart from it.

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Think Beyond: map-lab is going mobile @ Build Boston

From Wednesday October, 18th thru Friday, October 20th map-lab will relocate to the floor of the Build Boston Conference at the Seaport World Trade Center. We come to the conference not as salespeople, but as collaborators looking to meet fellow building industry professionals and learn from them as well as share our ideas.

We invite you to stop by to meet us and have a chat. Throughout the 3 days we will be presenting our thoughts and hosting presenters who are willing to share their knowledge with the greater community.  We will be constantly posting from the field, so be sure to follow @maplab on Twitter to stay up to date.

We look forward to meeting with all of you!

map-lab's Solution for Stalled Developments in Boston

map-lab, inc. proposed a temporary, modular "sampler" of the Downtown Crossing neighborhood restaurants to temporarily occupy the stalled development project where the Filene's Building once stood. The idea would be to bring a single menu item from each of the existing restaurants in the Downtown Crossing neighborhood to provide a place for people to gather in the center of the stalled project.

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Urban Border Conflict from the Eyes of Google Maps

While creating a map of map-lab's massive collection of snow-globes from around the word (which can be viewed here), I came across an interesting shot above the border between San Diego, CA and Tijuana, Mexico.  Even without the graphical line, it is easy to see the border between the two countries.  

I'm not sure of the significance of this (it is just an observation from Google Maps) but here is a look at retail, housing, and recreation from a few square miles along the Mexico - United States border. 

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A Green Way to Dump Low Tech Electronics (NY Times)

In an on-going discussion, here is an article from the New York Times this past Tuesday that gets to the heart of one facet of the closed-loop (cradle-to-cradle) systems that will become of the utmost importance going forward.  Businesses that "make" goods eventually will be required to build into their business plans what happens to their goods when their useful lives are complete. Some companies such as Apple, Herman Miller, and Milken Carpets are already working at honing this responsibility.

- Stephen

 

Recycling: To the extreme

As long as I’ve lived in Boston, I have always recycled and had learned to not have to think twice about whether this milk jug I’m holding goes in the trash or the blue bin. Then, I moved, and because I was living in a condominium complex, we couldn’t recycle unless we brought the items to the recycling center. This quickly (and embarrassingly) became a nuisance and led to us slacking in the recycling effort. For those that have found themselves in my shoes at one time or another, take a look at the project this couple has set up for themselves, and maybe you can find a few tips on how to make up for any recycling demons that may be haunting you….

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Artificial Turf, is it "green"?

Earlier this year I undertook a small research project to determine a position on artificial turf that was being advocated for a local private school. The answers I found were not a clear cut opinion forming as I thought they might be...

The Artificial Turf Sustainability Issues
WATER: No water is required for irrigation, but the field still requires water for cooling surface on extremely hot days.

HEAT ISLAND EFFECT/AIR QUALITY: With surface temperatures can be 20-40 degrees higher than natural grass playing fields, not only is the HIE very high but the effects on the participants is dangerous, raising the risk of heat related injuries (i.e. heat stroke)

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