By Mark Palmer I was more than a little nervous. I was nervous because I was about to present in front of some of the best and brightest colleagues I have at RTKL. I was nervous because the presentation included a handful of ideas that were critical of the way we operate as a design […]
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By Nora Nilsen I have recently returned from my diagonal trip across the US, where I started in California and ended up in Vermont. My itinerary was formed by Gallup’s Well-Being Index, and I chose to visit cities that were either at the top or bottom of the happiness list. I still have a lot of […]
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By Heather Nelson Looking at the “world’s most airtight house,” I have to ask—how did we get here? If this shed of a building with two windows is what we are holding up as an example of sustainable design, aren’t we missing something? Let’s back track. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, shelter is one of […]
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This month, I had the distinct privilege of presenting to RTKL’s corporate officers about ways design technology is reshaping our practice. The concept is not a new one, I’ll give you that, but sometimes our strict adherence to old methods can hinder our process. I had the attention of the room, and now was my […]
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Last month, a select group of RTKL-ers traveled to London to participate in the 2013 Design Conference. This long-standing tradition brings together RTKL’s up-and-coming designers from around the globe and gives them a chance to network and engage beyond their own offices. At the conference, they participate in thought-provoking lectures, discussions, and tours that relate […]
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From “Material Justice”: As I wrote eight years ago (“The Ethics of Brick,” Metropolis, June, 2005), sustainability is defined as the intersection of social, economic, and environmental value — the “triple bottom line” — but often the social dimension gets lost: “Green standards tend to focus more on end users than on producers of buildings, […]
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In Chinese cities these days, you would be hard-pressed to find urban enclaves that express how people in China once lived. If you walk the streets, particularly in areas that developed quickly, you’ll find the cities as a whole are soulless. This is largely because our new districts or cities started with huge over-engineered roads […]
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In Part 1 of this series, Monica Qing revealed how poorly planned roads are contributing to the disintegration of China’s cities. In this blog entry, she explores the reason these mistakes are made—and how to keep them from happening in the future.
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In a recent article for Metropolis Magazine, Susan S. Szenasy wrote about the sense of “malaise” that many “mature” architecture firms are experiencing today. She notes that these firms tend to write-off their lack of creativity and perceived passion for design to the likes of the economy, unwilling clients, a shift to fast-track design, and […]
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These past few weeks have been a roller coaster. Seeing how PDD is becoming more of an integrated approach within our projects, I have slowly been building a bit of anxiety to push this research to be fruitful as soon as possible. However, getting married, project deadlines and out-of-country travels tend to get in the […]
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