Building & Design Blog

There is perhaps no more stunning example of the destructive power unleashed by a natural disaster than that of the before-and-after photos recently compiled by Google "Street View" of Japan's devastating March 2010 earthquake and its resulting tsunami. The "Street View" photography vehicle logged in more than 27,000 miles of devastated commercial and residential infrastructure, literary taking you inside the ground zero of seismic activity. The photos contain "before" images such as a perfectly intact and functioning urban center, and what moments later became "after" photos that display a wasteland of destruction.

The photos are more than just a study about the destructive forces of nature. They are evidence that commercial infrastructure constructed on or near areas of seismic activity require earthquake resistant and/or earthquake-proof engineering. The world's leading engineers will no doubt be studying these photographs for years to come. Comments?

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The new World Trade Center Memorial in lower Manhattan is becoming memorable not only for the lives it honors, but also for the fact that it reuses almost none of the original building's materials or structural components from the Twin Towers. Unlike more traditional war memorials, such as those in Berlin that feature portions of war torn structures from WWII, the WTC memorial has eliminated virtually any sign of the original towers. Is that appropriate? Or should there have been some reminder of the sleek structures that once stood on the site?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Building & Design, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Building & Design today.

If you travel a lot, you know how much of a hassle it is going through today's version of airport security. Bag searches, removing shoes and belts, emptying your pockets, pat-downs, and body scans — all combine to leave many passengers irritable and a bit humbilitated. Isn't there a better way? Fortunately, there may be. Building designers in Amsterdam have teamed up with professionals from the International Air Transport Association to develop a new, non-evasive system of security checkpoints. The tunnel-like "checkpoints of the future" will hasten security by scanning people and sorting them according to their supposed risk. Would such a system remove much of the preflight burden?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Building & Design, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Building & Design today.

Those of us who grew up in the Cold War years remembel those duck-and-cover drills in elementary schools, some of which boasted reinforced concrete basements that served as Civil Defense structures. As David Monteyne's new book, Fallout Shelter, points out, those Civil Defense structurers offered the population a glimmer of hope that they might survive a nuclear war. At the same, those featureless underground doomsday shelters, the author notes, would have a long-lasting architectural impact not only in the U.S., but all around the globe. That's clear from the wave of concrete office and educational facilities that were built, often designed with vast underground spaces. Are such doomsday structures a thing of the past, or do vestiges remain in current building and design practice?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Building & Design, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Building & Design today.

The term "sustainable" gets tossed around a lot, but what does the term actually mean? If it entails spending more money on buildings that provide both heat and energy without negatively affecting the environment's natural nitrogen cycle, then we're headed in the right direction. And if sustainability means not only avoiding pollution but creating structures that actually create their own energy, we may be getting even closer to sustainability's real goals.

Here's what architect Mark English has to say about it: "Sustainability is about common sense. It isn't a movement, a reaction, or a philosophy. It's simply about doing no harm, making thoughtful choices, and being concerned with the impact of your actions over time. It is essentially a conservative approach to life and building."

Is English on target?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Building & Design, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Building & Design today.

Sustainability has become a familiar idea to all building professionals over the past decade. Yet despite the rapid development of alternative power sources and innovative materials, sustainability remains a hazy concept.

Mark Jarzombek, an Architecture and Planning professor at MIT, recently stated that sustainability is still being deployed more as a form of "ideology" rather than a planned construction strategy.

Perhaps if sustainability is to evolve, it must become less vague. A good starting place is the wording. Words like "sustainability" and "green" don't resonate to bottom-line construction pros like "bricks" and "mortar" or, of course, "total overall cost of construction." What do you think?

The preceding article is a "sneak peek" from Building & Design, a newsletter from GlobalSpec. To stay up-to-date and informed on industry trends, products, and technologies, subscribe to Building & Design today.