Architecture Studies

BuildingGreen has announced this years top 10 green building products. The list and further information is available at http://www.buildinggreen.com/press/topten2006/index.cfm One product that seems especially interesting is a way of turning concrete into a source of renewable energy credits!

The top products were selected by the editors of Environmental Building News.

The Libraries subscribes to BuildingGreen Suite which includes Environmental Building News and GreenSpec, the product directory. [Go to http://www.library.unlv.edu/search/databases/index.html#B and scroll down for the title.]

Federal Computer Week fcw.com reports in a November 20 article by Michael Hardy that the U.S. "General Services Administration has mandated that new buildings designed through its Public Buildings Service use building information modeling in the design stage." For GSA, even in this initial application, BIM has the advantage of allowing simplified checking of energy efficiencies and other data-based components.

The potential power of BIM (Building Information Modelling) beyond the design stage is touched upon in this short article.

Just a reminder that you can "manage" your bibliographies through a tool the Libraries purchased called RefWorks.

You search in the library catalog or in a database, you find a citation to an item you may wish to add to your bibliography, you transfer the citation to RefWorks. Once in RefWorks you can specify the citation style (does your teacher want MLA? no problem!). You can also organize your citations into folders for multiple papers, and create the bibliography in RefWorks.

For more on how to access and use RefWorks go to the Architecture Studies Library "Finding Resources" Module10 on Bibliographic Citations http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/instr/mod010_refworks.html

The Architecture Studies Library reference section has a title of interest to anyone hunting for a program in sustainable design. The title is Ecological Design and Building Schools, and the author is Sandra Leibowitz Earley [Oakland: New Village Press, 2005]. Call number NA2108 E27 2005. Both continuing education and academic degree programs are covered, as well as programs not affiliated with colleges and universities. The book also includes a history of sustainability education initiatives which makes very interesting reading.

Unfortunately no programs are listed for Nevada, although a few online courses are included.

Staff member Jason Aubin has compiled a list of the top 10 DVD/video titles in the Architecture Studies Library, as determined by the number of times they have been checked out for viewing.
If you want to view what lots of other folks are viewing, have a look at these titles:

My architect
NA737.K32 M8 2004

Architectures 1, 2, & 3
NA958 .A747… 200…

A constructive madness: wherein Frank Gehry & Peter Lewis spend a fortune and a decade, end up with nothing and change the world
NA737.G44 C65 2003

Mixed feelings: San Diego/Tijuana
HT384.M6 M58 2003

Las Vegas: An Unconventional history
F849.L35 L228 2005

Jane Jacobs: Urban Wisdom
HT166 .J35 2003

Le Corbusier
NA1053.J4 L4 2002

Lagos/Koolhaas
HB2126.7.L33 L33 2003

Sketches of Frank Gehry
NA737.G44 A35 2006

The next industrial revolution: William McDonough, Michael Braungart & the birth of the sustainable economy
HC79.E5 N46 2001b

WorldChanging blog [out of the WorldChanging site at http://www.worldchanging.com] has a Nov. 8 posting by Hana Loftus on the potential uses of Google Earth combined with their recently acquired design tool SketchUp. Read the article and comments at http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005273.html

The Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change is must reading. The summary of conclusions is at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/8A8/C1/Summary_of_Conclusions.pdf

The full report can be read at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm

This report from the British government strongly states that although it will cost us to make necessary changes to reduce greenhouse emissions, the costs are much less than the cost will be to deal with the consequences of unabated climate change. They estimate that if we [and by "we" they mean everyone -- it IS a global problem] don't act soon and forcefully the world will be facing a major upheaval on the scale of a world war or the great depression.

The full report is in six sections:

Climate change: our approach
Impacts of climate change on growth and development
Economics of stabilisation
Policy responses for mitigation
Policy responses for adaptation
International collective action

The first speaker in the Klai Juba Lecture Series "The 2030 Challenge: Environmental Design in the Face of Climate Change" was Ed Mazria. The posting in this blog on the 2010 Imperative relates highlights from his lecture. The tape of his presentation is in the Architecture Studies Library. More on Ed Mazria and his accomplishments is at http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/events/lectures/edwardmazria.html

Pliny Fisk spoke at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Architecture on October 20. The tape of his presentation is now available in the Architecture Studies Library. The announcement of his lecture http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/events/lectures/plinyfiskIII.html, the 2nd in this fall's Klai Juba Lecture Series, includes a brief summary of Fisk's work in sustainable design. More can be found on the web pages of his non-profit organization The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems http://www.cmpbs.org/

The third speaker in the series, John Reynolds, spoke Nov. 1. The announcement gives more information: http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/events/lectures/johnreynolds.html. The tape of his presentation will soon be available!

The last speaker is Susan Roaf, speaking Monday, Nov. 6. The announcement is at http://www.library.unlv.edu/arch/events/lectures/susanroaf.html

This series has been fabulous!! Many thanks to Klai Juba Architects for sponsoring the series. Kudos to Alfredo Fernandez-Gonzalez for putting together an outstanding slate of speakers.