All Posts by Linda White

The idea of art in commercial buildings to make a lobby or courtyard more interesting is not a new idea. However, most times, the art works chosen seem to be a mere afterthought. Usually permanent artworks disappear or fad into the background with the palm trees.

Some commercial apartments like the one Lower Manhattan has taken art in lobbies to a new level. An apartment block on Maiden Lane, also commonly known as Water Street Plaza, has used o its art displays, rotating exhibits. These have been organised by an internal curator. He recruits artists and organises all the openings in the typical fashion it would be done in a gallery space. The building has a rectangular lobby and it is transformed by many sculpture installations. A separate high-ceiling fountain also serves as more extended art exhibition space.

Time Equities has owned the building since 1999. They own 18.1 million square feet of property just in the United States and Canada alone.

Francis J. Greenburger, the founder and chairman of Time Equities, established the idea of the company’s Art in Buildings program in early 2000. It has evolved since then and the company now employs a full-time curator to handle the growth.

The art exhibits are becoming part of that building’s identity now and that has helped attract many arts and culture-oriented buyers. Since last year, Time Equities began converting leased space to for-sale office condos and it has been up until this point, a great success.

This is something many more buildings in New York could adopt to help the growing interest in these kinds of unique exhibitions.

Open space, nonresidential land uses, and barrier buildings could be organized to protect residential areas or other noise-sensitive activities from sound, and homes could be oriented away from the sound.

Acoustical architectural design incorporates sound-reducing concepts from the details of individual buildings.

Acoustical construction requires the use of construction materials and methods to decrease noise transmission through walls, doors, windows, ceilings, and flooring. This area includes lots of new and conventional “soundproofing” theories.

Noise barriers can be erected between sound sources and noise-sensitive places. Barrier types include berms made from sloping mounds of ground, walls and fences constructed of an assortment of substances, thick plantings of trees and shrubs, and combinations of these substances.

These physiological techniques vary widely in their noise reduction characteristics, their expenses, and notably, in their applicability to particular locations and conditions. This section isn’t designed to give complete criteria for choosing a solution to specific noise issues and isn’t intended as a substitute for acoustical design. Instead, its goal is to illustrate the broad range of possible alternatives that may be considered from the architectural and engineering planning procedure.

Knowledgeable municipal officials can provide invaluable aid to designers, developers, and contractors who might not be knowledgeable about sound attenuation methods which are most relevant locally.

What are the newest modern building materials?

The much anticipated and expected revolution in building is gaining momentum. However, it does not stop here! Researchers and various institutes are taking technology to another level. Development in concrete and several other construction materials has been competitive and intense.

As a result of that, the building industry has managed to provide a compelling response to the burning question of how contemporary building materials could look like in the not too distant future.

Translucent wood as a building material

We now have translucent wood which may be used to produce windows and solar panels. It’s made by first, removing the liner in the timber veneer and then through nanoscale tailoring. The subsequent effect creates translucent wood, which has various application in the building industry.

Hydro ceramic can decrease the indoor temperatures by up to 6 degrees Celsius.

Its cooling effect comes from the existence of hydrogen in its structure that absorbs water, up to 500 times its weight. The absorbed water is discharged to decrease the temperature during warm days.

Adding an advanced cooling system in the present building structure has made Hydroceramics into one of the trendiest building materials to revolutionize construction. More progress in this direction, may make home air conditioners obsolete and add yet another element on the list of those substances which are required for building a home.

Cigarette Butts

Many different materials are necessary for building a home, but who’d expect that cigarette butts will be among them.

The effect on the environment is enormous — elements like arsenic, nickel, chromium, and cadmium input the soil and damage character.

To be able to lessen the effect of cigarette butts on the environment, researchers at RMIT developed lighter and more energy-efficient bricks made from cigarette butts. In a nutshell, innovatively using waste in a more eco-friendly method.

The building of New York’s Empire State Building is frequently viewed as the figurative and literal pinnacle of building efficiency, increasing 1,250 ft and 102 stories in the floor to its rooftop spire in just over 13 weeks. Compared to many other buildings its height, it took only five lives. Indeed, most of the current construction jobs are lucky to come close to that level of speed, whatever the building’s dimensions. While the building industry traditionally has been slow to change the way it functions, many new technologies are poised to usher in a new era of faster and more automatic construction practices.

Three-dimensional (3D) prints are one of the key technologies which are expected to alter the way structures are built in the future, as building contractors and engineers seek methods for finishing buildings faster, more effectively, and, frequently, with more considerable attention paid to sustainability. Large printers that could print construction materials like foam or concrete to specific shapes can radically accelerate the production of walls, decorative or ornamental pieces, as well as specific structural components. Moreover, in certain scenarios, custom-built or individual items can be made onsite or in a factory, at a far lower cost than by using conventional, one-off casting methods.