AECB News

Unstructured Re-launched

5 June 2012 by

The green cultural network, Fourth Door, re-launches its main web-magazine, Unstructured, increasing its web-presence, and with Sitelines a specific focus on sustainable architecture and the built environment. Sitelines highlights sustainability and its cultural, social and political implications and contexts, in contrast to the more technical approaches often found across contemporary architectural media.

AECB members and its extended network will be interested to hear that Sitelines features a special Passivhaus section, which includes an in-depth history of how the AECB moved from the sustainable margins to being a significant contributor in building cultures mainstream, particularly in its championing of Passivhaus as a near zero-carbon approach to building. Unstructured is run by Oliver Lowenstein, who contributed to Building for a Future/Green Building between 2000 and 2010. As well as the Passivhaus section there are other features which are of likely interest to the AECB network membership. 

Unstructured’s re-launch is the first in several new Fourth Door projects, including the new Fourth Door Review www.fourthdoor.co.uk featuring a major themed section on humanitarian architecture, with Shigeru Ban, Francis Kere and Anna Heringer interviews; the new edition of Annular, www.annnular.org.uk, Fourth Door’s timberbuild web-magazine, with a focus on timber hi-rise, with Hermann Kaufmann, Andrew Waugh and timber turbine towers; and lastly this year’s Roots Architecture@WOMAD, a design and make workshop connecting humanitarian architecture with world music www.fourthdoor.co.uk/review/roots_architecture_2012.php

The re-launched Unstructured features the following:

  •  Time of the Anti-Iconic – Peter Zumthor in Britain
  • Tunnel Vision – The Stuttgart 21 station controversy
  • Research by Vandkunsten’s Søren Nielsen on Adaptable Buildings
  • Photo-essay on Studio in the Woods by Ioana Marinescu,
  • Biomimicry for Architects, Michael Pawlyn- Book Review
  • Health architecture and vernacular – T-SA’s Centre for Sight
  • An in-depth themed section on Passivhaus’s arrival in the UK
  • The AECB’s long march to Passivhaus
  • Architype’s ‘whole family of Passivhaus Schools
  • Bere Architects – What makes Justin Bere run?
  • Passiv Shorts – with VennerLucas, Eurobuild and 4orm