The U.K. is home to some of the world’s oldest — and most prestigious — universities. And while these may be centers of excellence for learning, many institutions’ buildings were built centuries ago and are in need of refurbishment or, in some instances, total...
A $26 million Chicago office building will be one of the first in the country to boast features designed to address COVID-19 safety concerns. The 90,000-square-foot Fulton East, which was under construction when the outbreak hit, has been engineered for maximum social...
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a white paper in June calling on jurisdictions globally to explore mandatory building energy performance standards to meet long-term climate goals, energy savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission...
The software the student teams use in the competition is provided by Bentley Systems (https://www.bentley.com/en). It represents the best design tool suite available to architects and engineering professionals worldwide. OpenBuildings Designer enables the teams to be...
COVID-19 has created building and facility use challenges. Design requirements that solve the physical or social distancing requirements are going to dominate design thinking for years to come. The Bentley software used in the SMART Competition will enable student...
One of the first questions we’re typically asked by teams planning to register for the SMART Competition is “What is the competition schedule?”. The normal answer is that the competition begins in August/September and the final judging is in April/May. We include...
Buildings generate nearly 40% of the world’s CO2 emissions—and since two-thirds of the buildings that exist today will still be around by the middle of the century, architects need to rethink their design now to have a chance of meeting goals for a net-zero economy. ...
A significant amount of greenery is headed to inner-city Dallas, Texas, in the form of a new high-rise that will boast North America's tallest living wall. Located at 1899 McKinney Avenue, the building will rise to a height of 320 ft (97.5 m) and feature 40,000 plants...
A project in southern California will put onsite fabrication to the test against other construction modes. California’s chronic shortage of affordable housing has been well documented. Conor Dougherty, an economics reporter for the New York Times, states, in his new...
The Royal Society is running a project to study how digital technologies can best protect our planet’s environment and ultimately help achieve help achieve net zero carbon emissions. The ambitious question it is asking is: How can digital technologies be harnessed to...
The current pandemic is an opportunity for architects and engineers to rethink facility design issues. One of the key design questions to consider: “What changes can an architect or engineering professional make when factors like biohazards or viruses must be included...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many schools all over the to close their doors and consider different remote education options. According to Mark Schneider, one of the competition organizers, “Since the SMART Competition is offered in a 100% virtual environment, the...