In the 1970s, Brutalist-style architecture and the use of concrete in its purest, raw form were the name of the game. It was a demonstration of innovation, cost effectiveness and service to the public…
Making reuse and circularity repeatable, scalable and efficient is not without its challenges. Especially in an economic model and an industry like the built environment, that was set up to move…
Let's travel back to the late 1800s to Tombstone, Arizona––a boomtown where gunslinging, gambling, saloon brawls and shootouts like the Gunfight at the OK Corral were the norm. Where outlaws,…
Welcome to Vali Mews, a four-home urban development in the heart of Phoenix that was designed as somewhat of an experiment. Several years ago, the duo behind this ambitious project, Austin Trautman…
Thirty years ago, out on the Carrizo Plain just east of San Luis Obispo in central California, 30 or so natural-building enthusiasts met at a deserted motel to explore the formation of a California…
After a wildfire destroyed their half-century-old family home in Sonoma County, architects David Arkin and Anni Tilt (Arkin Tilt Architects) set out on the journey of rebuilding. Rather than focusing…
On a November morning in 2023, more than 60 individuals across the bio-based construction value chain descended upon the MASS Design Group office in Boston to address one question: How can we begin to…
Writer, photographer, filmmaker, grassroots organizer…Joel Caldwell dons many titles, but at the heart of it, he is a storyteller––and a powerful one at that. An avid outdoors person, Joel grew up in…
In talking about the embodied carbon and waste burden of the built environment, much of the focus has traditionally been on the structure and enclosure––or the core and shell––of the building. But in…
For a material as seemingly straightforward and simple as wood, it has a very complex, layered and often opaque supply chain. While certifications like FSC, SFI and PEFC may tell you the wood came…
