In this issue:
· AIA National Convention: Preview
· A Call to Action: Fit City 5
· “Sunny Memories” Illuminates the Future of Solar Energy

Courtesy AIA

Looking toward the 2010 AIA Convention: Design for the New Decade, in Miami, 06.10-12.10. Here is a list of events that may be of interest to AIANY members:

Thurs, 06.10.10

Keynote Presentation, 8:15am-10am. “Building Design for the New Decade: The Role of Right-Brain Thinking in a Modern Economy.”
Providers: AIA; McGraw-Hill Construction
Speakers: Daniel Pink; Susan Szenasy (moderator)

TH021, 2pm-3:30pm. “Sustainable Design for the New Decade: Deep Dive on Issues and the Role of Design.”
Speaker: Susan Szenasy

TH054, 4pm-5pm. “Creating Sustainable Communities Now and In the Future: Lessons Learned from the AIA Honors and Awards Recipients.”
Provider: AIA

7-9pm. AIANYS Party sponsored by IBEX. Sunset Lounge of the Mondrian South Beach, 1100 West Avenue. RSVP here.

Fri, 06.11.10

FR005, 7am-8am. “Design Vanguard: Finding the Leading Edge in Architecture.”
Provider: McGraw-Hill Construction
Speakers: Paul Lewis; Clifford Pearson

Keynote Presentation, 8:15am-9:45am. “Community Design for the New Decade: Consumerism and Responsibility.”
Providers: AIA; McGraw-Hill Construction
Speaker: Chris Jordan; Ted Landsmark, Assoc. AIA (moderator)

FR026, 10:15am-11:45am. “Sustainable Justice: Designing a Green System.”
Provider: AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice
Speakers: Frank Greene, FAIA; Susan K. Oldroyd, FAIA, LEED AP; Beverly Prior, FAIA, LEED AP; Kenneth Ricci, FAIA

FR028, 10:15am-11:45am. “The New York Times Building: A Tool for Evidence Based Design — The Role of Research and Energy-Related System Databases in Informing the Design Process.”
Provider: AIA New York Chapter
Speakers: Bruce Fowle, FAIA, LEED AP; Glenn Hughes; William Maiman

Friday Investiture Ceremony, 4pm-6pm.

FR065, 4pm-5:30pm. “Design Your Network of Mentors: Connect with Diverse Women in Design.”
Provider: AIANY Women in Architecture Committee
Speakers: Lori Apfel Cardeli, Assoc. AIA; Angelina Pinto; Diane T. Tien, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB

FR068, 4pm-5:30pm. AIA Institute Honor Awards
Provider: AIA Committee on Design
Speaker: Carol Bentel, FAIA, LEED AP

FR082, 6pm-7pm. “Sustainable Suburbs: Preserving Planned Communities in Queens — Douglas Manor and Sunnyside Gardens.”
Provider: AIA Queens
Speakers: Laura Heim, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB; Kevin Wolfe, AIA

FR083, 6pm-7pm. “Next Generation Airports and Opportunities for High-Performance: Achieving High-Performance and Environmentally Beneficial Infrastructure Projects.”
Providers: Atelier Ten; Grimshaw-Architects
Speakers: Jim Keen; Benjamin Shepherd, LEED AP

FR088, 6pm-7pm. “Engineered Transparency: ETFE Systems and Skin Physics — The Design Development of Sustainable Transparency.”
Provider: Thornton Tomasetti

EV058, 7pm-9pm, $150. “Convention Party: Sand in Your Shoes — Deco Style.”

Sat, 06.12.10

SA003, 7am-8am. “Economic Recessions: How Forensic Architects Can Help Designers.”
Provider: Erwin Lobo Bielinski
Speakers: Ronald Bielinski, AIA; Sharon A. Lobo, AIA, NCARB

SA010, 7am-8am. “Transformative Sustainable Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings: Precedents, Preservation, and Adaptive Reuse Strategies for Blending Sustainability and Design Excellence.”
Provider: Kliment Halsband Architects
Speakers: Alex Diez, AIA, LEED AP; Michael A. Nieminen, AIA

SA041, 1pm-2:30pm. “Four By Four Forum: 4 Architects/4 Regions/4 Visions/4 the Future.”
Provider: AIA New York Chapter
Speakers: Michael Damore, AIA; Elizabeth del Monte, AIA; Mark E. Strauss, FAIA, AICP, LEED AP; Martha Lampkin Welborne, FAIA

Keynote Presentation, 3pm-4:30pm. “Global Design for the New Decade: A Discussion with the 2010 Gold Medalist and Architecture Firm Award Recipients.”
Provider: AIA College of Fellows; McGraw-Hill Construction
Speaker: Robert A. Ivy, Jr., FAIA (moderator)

Event: Fit City 5: Promoting Physical Activity through Design
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.18.10
Keynote Speaker: William Bird, MBE — Natural England (UK)
Speakers: Thomas Farley, MD, MPH — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; David Burney, FAIA — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Design + Construction; Janette Sadik-Khan — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Transportation; Amanda Burden, FAICP, Hon. AIANY — Chair NYC Dept. of City Planning; Adrian Benepe — Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation; Fatma Amer, PE — Deputy Commissioner, NYC Dept. of Buildings; Matthew Sapolin — Commissioner, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; Thomas Balsley, Hon. AIA, FASLA — Principal, Thomas Balsley Associates; Rick Bell, FAIA — Executive Director, AIANY; Les Bluestone — Blue Sea Development; Vincent Chang, AIA — Principal, Grimshaw Architects; Craig Dykers, AIA — Co-Founder, Snøhetta; Robin Guenther, FAIA — Principal, Perkins + Will; Ernie Hutton, FAICP, Assoc. AIA — President, Hutton Associates; Robyne Kassen, Assoc. AIA — Owner, Urban Movement Design; Karen Lee, MD, MHSc — Director, Built Environment, NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; Thom Mayne, FAIA — Principal, Morphosis; George Miller, FAIA — 2010 President, AIA; Jonathan Rose — President, Rose Companies; Anthony Schirripa, FAIA, IIDA — 2010 President, AIANY; Lynn Silver, MD, MPH, FAAP — NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene; Susan Szenasy — Editor-in-Chief, Metropolis Magazine; Katie Winter — Principal, Katie Winter Architecture
Organizers: AIA New York Chapter; NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Courtesy of AIANY

We think of New York as being a fast-paced, walking city. Yet obesity, and with it type 2 diabetes, has reached epidemic levels in NYC. Whereas infectious diseases were once the greatest risk, the largest killers of our time are chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, cancers, and diabetes. At “Fit City 5,” panelists considered the many possibilities detailed in the new Active Design Guidelines — Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design (ADG), released January 2010. It presents strategies for designing neighborhoods, streets, buildings, and outdoor spaces that encourage activity, and provides us with a plan to turn New York from a “fat city” into a “fit city.”

By appearing together on one panel at the Fit City 5 conference, nine representatives from varying city agencies demonstrated their solidarity in a mission to create whole, healthy, safe neighborhoods throughout the city. Ideally, neighborhoods should be pedestrian friendly — with amenities close to home so people can walk or bike to mass transit, work, parks, and waterfronts. It’s one of the reasons the city has built miles of new dedicated bike paths and lanes; turned school playgrounds into parks during off hours; designed parks to engage the public, including those with physical or mental disabilities; and encouraged exercise with park furniture that can be used as both exercise equipment and for relaxing.

Buildings themselves provide an opportunity to promote physical activity. Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Take the stairs instead of the elevator — a practice that has been encouraged for years at the Center for Architecture. Many new buildings, including 41 Cooper Square by Morphosis and Gruzen Samton, have installed skip-stop elevators and designed stairways people want to use. Other approaches include locating building entrances and attractive gathering places to encourage walking; encouraging biking with secure bike storage; and designing building exteriors and massing that make walking a pleasure for passersby.

Craig Dykers, AIA, of Snøhetta, who used to live in Norway, walks to work, owns two bikes, and yet he has gained weight since living in NYC. He reasoned that he hasn’t found a single restaurant in Manhattan that doesn’t use preprocessed food. To remedy the situation, both Snøhetta offices have a kitchen, and the Norwegians even have a chef preparing wholesome meals.

Brian Tolman, AIA, LEED AP, managing principal of STUDIOS Architecture, said his clients are requesting designs that actively engage employees. His proposed ingredients are: communication, sustainability, and activity. One example is the firm’s Dow Jones Offices (recipient of a 2010 AIANY Merit Award in Interiors), where the newsroom acts as a hub to the offices and employees interact as they traverse the interior stairs.

Environmental design strategies (daylight, fresh air, sanitation) were used in the 19th century to fight infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, and yellow fever, NYC agencies are combining forces to combat obesity in the 21st-century. The NYC Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Design + Construction (DDC), Transportation (DOT), and City Planning have partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget and the AIA New York Chapter, as well as members of the academic and design communities, to publish the ADG. The Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability; the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; the School Construction Authority; the Departments of Parks & Recreation, Housing Preservation and Development, and Aging also contributed to the ADG.

“My theme this year is Architect as Leader,” said 2010 AIANY President Tony Schirripa, FAIA, IIDA, “and what better way to exemplify that principle than to facilitate this discussion. Architects can lead the way by designing buildings that are not just sustainable but can also help maintain good health by design.”

In his keynote, Dr. William Bird, MBE, a British medical doctor who has set up strategies to promote good health and encourage people in the UK to exercise. “Good design is about making people want to exercise,” he said. As the strategic health advisor for Natural England, he feels using the environment as a major health resource is a moral obligation. Every doctor at the conference, from Commissioner Thomas Farley, MD, MPH, to Built Environment Director Karen Lee, MD, MHSc, both of the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, stressed the urgency of the obesity epidemic.

There is definitely a synergy, as well as cost effectiveness, between active design and local, national, and international initiatives like LEED and PlaNYC. The tenets of the ADG, however, address the ways that architectural, landscape, and urban design can meet people’s varying needs. In a combined statement in the introduction to the ADG, AIANY Executive Director Rick Bell, FAIA, and 2009 AIANY President Sherida Paulsen, FAIA, wrote: “The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is dedicated to design excellence, professional development, and public outreach. The City’s Active Design Guidelines combine these three goals in a well-written document that should be used by all architects, designers, and building owners as a reference and resource.”

Linda G. Miller is a NYC-based freelance writer and publicist, and a contributing editor to e-Oculus and OCULUS.

Event: The Future of Solar Energy in Design panel discussion; “Sunny Memories” exhibition opening
Location: Center for Architecture, 05.16.10
Speakers: Nicolas Henchoz — Director, EPFL+ECAL Lab; Paul Thompson — Rector, the Royal College of Art; Yves Béhar — fuseproject; Anna Dyson — Director, MATERIALAB at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Moderator: Laetitia Wolff — Founding Director, futureflair
Panel Organizers: futureflair; Center for Architecture
Exhibition Organizers: EPFL+ECAL Lab; Center for Architecture
Sponsors: Lombard Odier; swissnex San Francisco; Swiss Arts Council; Pro Helvetia; Consulate General of Switzerland in New York; Y-Water

Floating Chair, Diana Chang — CCA.

©2009, Tonatiuh Ambrosetti & Daniela Droz

Can you imagine a hat that generates electricity? How about a power-producing towel or fruit bowl? Design students in Europe and the U.S. have conceived these items, using a new dye-based solar cell that has the potential to significantly diversify the possibilities of solar power. Prototypes of these projects, along with 26 others, are currently on display in “Sunny Memories,” an exhibition at the Center for Architecture until 06.05.10.

Professor Michael Grätzel of the Swiss engineering school Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) conceived the solar cells. Inspired by photosynthesis, he began to experiment with molecules of colorant that react with sunlight. It has taken 15 years to develop the pigmentation and achieve a stable electrical current. Though the technology still needs perfecting, the first cells are now appearing on the market. While they produce less power than traditional photovoltaics, these “dye-sensitive” cells are translucent, lightweight, and more effective in low light, making them useful for a wider range of potential applications.

Which is where the students come in. EPFL+ECAL Lab, a joint initiative of EPFL and the art and design university Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL), asked students at four universities — the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, ECAL in Switzerland, and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in Paris — to design useful applications for the solar panels. They responded with projects that fall under three categories of market-readiness — ready for production in one year, three years, or 10 — in a balance of practical with “blue-sky” thinking.

In addition to the hat-and-towel set and “fruit bowl” (actually a recharging station for electrical devices), the exhibition also displays models of more futuristic proposals, such as a translucent park bench that collects sunlight during the day and becomes a glowing beacon at night. Grouped by school of origin, the prototypes also suggest something of their respective cultures: projects from London’s RCA, including a solar-powered light that attracts bugs to a Venus Flytrap plant, suggest a “macabre, black sense of English humor,” said Paul Thompson, a rector at RCA, half-jokingly. Solarwall, an American design, and one of the most immediately useful, doubles as a partition wall and solar-power generator that works even within deep office floor plates.

A panel discussion after the exhibition opening focused on the value of interdisciplinary design for solving problems and bringing new technologies and concepts to market — though Yves Béhar asked his CCA students not to think of marketability, but to conceive of the lifestyle they want to live, and to let that inspire their design. Anna Dyson, the director of MATERIALAB at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, described the ideal of “autonomous objects” that function in a closed loop separate from the energy grid.

Both “Sunny Memories” and EPFL+ECAL Lab, said director Nicolas Henchoz, try to reconcile the very different mindsets of engineering and design: where the former emphasizes performance, the latter focuses on usability. For innovations to gain wide acceptance, he said, it is important that designers think like a hypothetical consumer: “I don’t want to buy technical performance; I want to buy a new user experience.”

Carl Yost is the marketing and publicity coordinator for Gabellini Sheppard Associates. He has written for Forbes.com, Architectural Record, and The Architect’s Newspaper, among other publications.