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Articles by Michael Cockram
Marlon Blackwell's Bold Residence in Fayetteville Provides a Study in Contrast within its Traditional Context
Even without knowing the exact address, the Shaw residence, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects, would be easy to spot. Located at the crest of a hill in an upscale Fayetteville, Arkansas, neighborhood—a 20-year-old development lined with manicured lawns and sprawling European-manor-style McMansions—its low, rectangular form stands out among its traditional neighbors, appearing to float above the ground plane behind a golden swath of prairie grasses.
Finding a Renewed Sense of Place in the American South
A two-day symposium “The Place of Practice/The Practice of Place” gathered prominent architects last week from across the South. The 18 architects were a sampling of the 40 firms that participated in an exhibit of contemporary architecture entitled “A South Forty,” featured at the Venice Biennale in 2021.
Moving Masterworks
Three important buildings with new sites demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of relocation. Architectural Record Learning Objectives: Debate the ethical issues involved in moving significant buildings. Describe different methods for relocating buildings. Describe methods for preventing damage to structure, finishes, and other original fabric when a building is moved. Discuss the challenges presented by moving the Bachman Wilson House, the Winton Guest House, and the North Prospect Church.
Water and Resilience
By Architectural Record Learning Objectives: Explain how green infrastructure can be used to bolster traditional hard infrastructure for flood control. Describe how green infrastructure tactics can be used to remove pollutants from stormwater. Discuss measures implemented by two recent art museums as protection from flooding. Outline the testing regimen for hurricane-resistant glazing.
Building Integrated Photovoltaics
Catching Rays: A diverse set of projects demonstrates that a building's skin can be transformed into a solar power plant. Architectural Record Learning Objectives: Explain the difference between PVs and BIPVs. Describe the performance properties of thin-film and crystalline solar cells and explain how they are made. Explain the strategies employed on recent projects intended to maximize BIPV power production. Describe new BIPV technologies.
Adapting to New Environs
As Passive House certification gains ground in the United States, the standards are modified for North America's diverse climate conditions. By Architectural Record Learning Objectives: Describe the goals of the Passive House certification system. Outline the arguments for adapting the certification system for North America. Outline the original certification criteria and explain how the new criteria are different.
CE Center - Mass Timber
View course on architecturalrecord.com » Although only four stories tall, Albina Yard, a spec office building, stands out among its one- and two-story neighbors in the scrappy residential and commercial district in north Portland, Oregon. Looking up from the street through the horizontal bands of the glass facade, the ceilings of each level—planes of warm Douglas fir—are visible. These elements are not just finish material but the building’s exposed floor plate.
Masonry Construction
View course on architecturalrecord.com » Venice is a city built of bricks and one enriched by the wooden cargo ships that helped lift the former Venetian Republic to greatness.
Invited Review: The welfare of cull dairy cows
). Unfortunately, there is variation in the use of the term “culling,” and it has been used to refer to all cows that leave the herd regardless of the reason. As shown in Culling is the removal of a cow from the dairy herd.
Is this Wikipedia editor who deadnamed a trans celebrity a high-profile film critic?
Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock Wikipedia (Licensed) Remix by Jason Reed The curious case of Tenebrae. Feb 26, 2021, 12:59 pm* IRL Michael Cockram Analysis This article is a joint effort between the Daily Dot and Wikipediocracy, an investigative website that works to shine the light of scrutiny into the dark crevices of Wikipedia and related projects. Wikipediocracy recently exposed a Rhode Island lobbyist who faked his own death and used his Wikipedia biography to cover it up.
Welfare issues associated with the transport of cull sows to slaughter
Welfare issues associated with the transport of cull sows to slaughter Michael S.
Continuing Education: High-Performance Facades
Continuing Education Like the layers of atmosphere that protect our planet from the extreme temperatures and radiation from space, facades provide buildings with the filters and shields that make them habitable for living, play, and work. “The facade is the interface between humans and nature. Our job is to elevate that relationship as much as possible,” says Steve McDowell, principal at Kansas City–based BNIM.
The Design-Build Studio: Crafting Meaningful Work in Architectural Education
The reputation of the Auburn University Rural Studio founded by the late Sam Mockbee stands as a benchmark for innovative and exuberant design with a deep social conscience. In this manifesto for the designbuild curriculum in architectural education, Tolya Stonorov reinforces the legacy of pioneers like Mockbee by examining 16 hands-on programs, all of which bridge architecture to the construction process and have a strong sense of community engagement.
Continuing Education: Rammed Earth
It would be hard to imagine a more elemental building material than rammed earth. Produced by compressing a sandy earthen mixture into forms, the earliest examples of the technique survive at 7,000-year-old archeological sites in China. The method for making walls, with its layers of rich colors and textures, is being rediscovered by architects who are bringing it into the 21st century with refined mixes and innovative technology.
Continuing Education: Designing for Coastal Resilience
In the aftermath of the damage wrought by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, many residents in areas surrounding Houston, in the state of Florida, and throughout the Caribbean are struggling to satisfy their immediate and most basic needs. But as the devastated communities start thinking about long-term recovery efforts, they will need to carefully consider their rebuilding strategies.
Continuing Education: Mass Timber Construction
Although only four stories tall, Albina Yard, a spec office building, stands out among its one- and two-story neighbors in the scrappy residential and commercial district in north Portland, Oregon. Looking up from the street through the horizontal bands of the glass facade, the ceilings of each level—planes of warm Douglas fir—are visible. These elements are not just finish material but the building’s exposed floor plate.
Continuing Education: Masonry Construction
Venice is a city built of bricks and one enriched by the wooden cargo ships that helped lift the former Venetian Republic to greatness. So it’s fitting that last May at the 2016 Venice Biennale, a handful of architecture and engineering students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several European schools joined a team of professionals to build an experimental brick structure in the courtyard of the historic Arsenale, where naval and trading vessels were once constructed.
Fayetteville High School in Arkansas
From the bird’s-eye perspective of Google Earth, nothing in central Fayetteville or the adjacent University of Arkansas has a larger footprint than the new Fayetteville High School. Its two buildings, each 600 feet wide by 250 feet deep, appear like a supersize equal sign sitting on a hillside site. Designed by DLR Group, Hight Jackson Associates, and Marlon Blackwell Architects, this 535,000-square-foot project was commissioned by Fayetteville Public Schools to accommodate a growing student body.
Building Integrated Photovoltaics
For several decades, building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) have been waiting in the wings for much-anticipated fame and success. But the technology, which transforms a building’s envelope into a solar power plant, has remained a niche market since its development in the late 1970s. Conventional photovoltaic (PV) panels, which are typically installed on a building after construction, have long been the industry favorite.
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