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    Friday
    12Feb2010

    Stretch Code and Green Communities

    DateFriday, February 12, 2010 at 10:37AM

    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.

    Click to read more ...

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    Monday
    14Dec2009

    SHIFTperception: An Urban Revisioning of Washington Street

    DateMonday, December 14, 2009 at 2:36PM

    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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    Monday
    23Nov2009

    Picnic Pavilion Design Proposal

    DateMonday, November 23, 2009 at 4:44PM

    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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    Tuesday
    17Nov2009

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

    DateTuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:25PM

    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!

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    Thursday
    01Oct2009

    map-lab's Solution for Stalled Developments in Boston

    DateThursday, October 1, 2009 at 9:47AM

    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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    Tuesday
    29Sep2009

    Urban Border Conflict from the Eyes of Google Maps

    DateTuesday, September 29, 2009 at 7:45PM

    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. 

    Click to read more ...

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    Tuesday
    29Sep2009

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

    DateTuesday, September 29, 2009 at 12:07PM

    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

     
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    Friday
    18Sep2009

    Recycling: To the extreme

    DateFriday, September 18, 2009 at 1:46PM

    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….

    Click to read more ...

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    Thursday
    10Sep2009

    Artificial Turf, is it "green"?

    DateThursday, September 10, 2009 at 8:03AM

    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)

    Click to read more ...

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    Thursday
    10Sep2009

    Termites could be the answer to fossil fuels....really!

    DateThursday, September 10, 2009 at 8:03AM

    Apparently there is a lot we can learn from these little buggers.  In the quest to replace fossil fuels the U.S. Department of Energy is researching the lowly termite.  According to the US DOE one termite can produce two liters of hydrogen by consuming and fermenting just one sheet of paper.  The termites use enzymes, which produce hydrogen as a byproduct, to break down the wood they ingest into pulb.  The hydrogen byprouct is then coupled with simple sugars to create the energy the termite needs to survive. 

    The DOE is trying to understand which enzymes the termite uses for this process, and how to scale this up to a commercial scale, replacing the current fossil fuel intensive method of hydrogen creation. 

    -Dan

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    Thursday
    10Sep2009

    David and Stephen @ Solar Decathalon

    DateThursday, September 10, 2009 at 7:59AM

    Medford, Mass --- (July 25th 2009) Solar Decathalon Alumni Build-day was held on Saturday July 25th, and David Silverman and Stephen Moore were among many that included BAC and Tufts alums that stopped by to meet the team and wield various tools to help the team meet its goal of showcasing their fully operational, energy-efficient, marketable, solar-powered home to the public on the National Mall in Washington, D.C starting in October 2009. Tours of the house were given by Michelle Stadelman, who is the BAC Project Director & Construction Project Manager of Team Boston Solar Decathlon 2009

    Goals for the weekend were: Install the roof insulation and roof, begin siding, finish the landscape planters and build plant boxes and possibly some plumbing rough-in.

    Visit their website for more information about the project. Photos of the progress are located here, as well as at map-lab's flickr page.

    (photo credit: Allison Fisk)

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