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Circular material case studies and resources

By Melanie De Cola posted 9 hours ago
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This 3rd of 3 articles celebrates two COTE® Top winning projects and includes an extensive list of AIA and external resources to help firms integrate circular materials practices into their workflows and generally learn more. Thanks to all who contributed stories. MASS Moca Building 6 2024 COTE ® Top Winner | Architect: Bruner/Cott Architects | Location: North Adams, Massachusetts Link to full project page > The removal of floors and walls is approached as an operation of architectural cut-and-fill. As material was removed through these sculptural edits, a careful site salvage program was used to ...
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Summer 2026 AIA Corporate Partners COTE Newsletter Article: ROCKWOOL

By Ellie Falcon posted 2 days ago
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Wildfire-resilient design for WUI projects: Rockwool Technical Bulletin provides valuable guidance for architects This article draws from the two-part article "Enhancing Community Safety," co-authored by Antoine Habellion, P.Eng., M.Eng., Technical Director, ROCKWOOL North America, and Tony Crimi, P.Eng., MASc., published in Construction Specifier's December 2025 and January 2026 editions. It has been supplemented with additional material. Building in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) presents unique challenges, as these zones mark the boundary where developed areas meet or intermingle with vegetative fuels. In these environments, structures ...
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COTE Network Corner: Q3 Call

By Roshni Krishnan, Intl. Assoc. AIA posted 7 days ago
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COTE Network Corner: Q3 Call How do we make conscious decisions towards decarbonization as an industry? Join the COTE Quarter 3 call on August 11th to hear about carbon tracking tools to support design. We can improve only what we can measure. Architecture 2030 founder Ed Mazria, FAIA, examined a 2022 U.S. Energy Information Administration study and highlighted promising decarbonization trends in the built environment, including the decoupling of emissions and building sector growth through data driven decarbonization decisions. What tools for tracking and sharing carbon data can help us make early decisions to reduce both embodied and operational ...
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AIA26 Design for Aging Open Forum Recap

By Alison Karfeld posted 8 days ago
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At AIA26, DFA’s Open Forum had representation from an array of disciplines connected to designing for aging…including a senior living resident! The contribution of this multidisciplinary group created an incredibly well-informed and rich open forum with critical perspectives. Buildings are the most obvious, enduring, and expensive reflections of our goals and priorities. Without a diverse group of stakeholders such as this, we could inadvertently exclude or underrepresent stakeholder groups within environments that are supposed to benefit everyone. Our lively and inspiring discussion yielded four key takeaways: Age-friendly design is ...
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IAKC July Letter from the chair: Candice Rabovsky, AIA & Bob Dillon, AIA

By Alison Karfeld posted 9 days ago
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Happy July everyone! We hope you are enjoying your summer so far. We had a busy start to June at AIA26 in San Diego. We hope you were able to join one or more of our IAKC-sponsored events: IAKC Open Forum Tour of the Minge Museum at Balboa Park Award-winning Interiors: Designing Spaces That Inspire & Heal IAKC leaders at AIA26 during the tour of the Minge Museum at Balboa Park Image: Interior Architecture Knowledge Community We had a great time and had big turnouts at each event. Next year’s conference will be in Philadelphia in May 19th-22nd. We are hard at work planning some great ...
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Strategies for embedding circular materials in your process

By Melanie De Cola posted 9 days ago
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Embedding circular materials article 2 of 3: This piece aims to equip architects with strategies and questions to increase circular materials usage in their projects. A uthors: Melanie De Cola, AIA Director of Climate Action Pledge Programs, LEED Green Associate; Brad Guy, AIA , of Material Reuse LLC ; and Rodolfo Perez, Ph.D. of IWBI, with special thanks to Shawn Wood of USGBC for his input on all things LEED v5. | All photos courtesy of Brad Guy. Firm strategies Creating an action plan: The first step is to develop an action plan. ISO ( ISO 59004 ) encodes six key principles for the establishment of ...
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Voices of Advocacy – Interview with Arathi Gowda, FAIA

By Joyce Raybuck, AIA posted 13 days ago
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We continue our Voices of Advocacy series where we interview leaders from the COTE community who are advocating for important policy change. By sharing the stories of those doing substantive work, we hope to de-mystify the process. Throughout the series, you will hear stories from across the country that speak to varying advocacy issues and their local nuances. An interview with Arathi Gowda, Principal, FAIA, LEED BD+C, AICP, LFA about being a citizen architect, the importance of building coalitions, and why architects should lift and raise Joyce Raybuck and Hope Schmelzle Arathi Gowda leads Perkins & Will’s East Coast Regional ...
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Interfaith Design Knowledge Community — AIA26 Conference Summary

By Alison Karfeld posted 15 days ago
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At AIA26, the Interfaith Design Knowledge Community (IDKC) advanced its mission to encourage and support excellence in the design of worship spaces and their accoutrements through a rich slate of programs that engaged architects, designers, students, and allied professionals. As an association committed to fostering an interfaith forum for the exchange of ideas relating to religion, art, and architecture, IDKC used the conference as an opportunity to broaden its reach and deepen conversations about the role of sacred space in contemporary practice. Collaborative Forum The Collaborative Forum served as a warm, open, and safe environment ...
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Public Architects at AIA26: A Recap

By Alison Karfeld posted 15 days ago
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The AIA26 convention served as a perfect venue for the Public Architecture Knowledge Community (PAKC). Here are some of the events that the PAKC was involved in: The Joint PA-PD Open Forum: Designing for the Public Good The collaborative forum held with the Project Delivery Knowledge Community (PDKC), titled "Designing for the Public Good: Navigating Change in Project Delivery of Public Projects," was a major Public Architect highlight of the convention. The forum engaged discussion from 60+ professionals of diverse backgrounds, industries, and ages, who are involved in public architecture design and construction. The discussion ...
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AIA26 HCD Tour Recap

By Alison Karfeld posted 15 days ago
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By Karen Kubey, Assoc. AIA On behalf of the AIA Right to Housing Working Group, I was happy to co-organize two tours for the AIA26 Conference with Casa Familiar, Inc. , an environmental justice nonprofit in San Ysidro, and the legendary Ted Smith, pioneering architect of shared housing in San Diego's Little Italy. ____ Tour: Casa Familiar Walking Tour: Social Impact Design Innovation Local Tour Leader: Georgette Gomez w/ Casa Familiar partners Co-Organizer: Ceara O'Leary We toured Beyer Station Cultural Corridor, La Semilla Climate Resiliency Center, Living Rooms at the Border (architects: Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna ...
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Follow COTE on LinkedIn!

By Alyssa Murphy, AIA posted 26 days ago
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Did you know that COTE now has its own LinkedIn Page? The COTE community has a number of ways to connect - here on the AIA Community Hub, though the AIA COTE® LinkedIn Group, - and now through a dedicated AIA COTE® "spotlight" page on LinkedIn. This allows the AIA Climate Action staff and our own COTE Leadership Group to share news and information more readily and connect with a broader audience. Give us a follow, and invite your connections to do so, too! https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/aia-cote-committee-on-the-environment
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Summer Leadership Summit: The pinnacle of health care architects—Insights from NextGen Scholar Noah Gaither

By Alison Karfeld posted 28 days ago
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What is the value of attending SLS? Why should others come? This conference is unlike any other. By attending the Summit Leadership Summit, you'll be among the pinnacle of health care architects. The opportunity to be at forefront of how our profession is developing and how the most prevalent challenges in our industry are being solved is invaluable to thought leaders of all experience levels—both early and established. If you've attended in the past—other than being a NextGen scholarship recipient! — what was different or surprising about last year? Last year was my first attendance to the Summer Leadership Summit, so I’m ...
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From Process to Practice: Sustainability in El Paso, TX

By Ellen Mitchell, AIA posted 06-19-2026
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Ellen Mitchell, AIA, interviews Laura Foster, AIA, about what sustainability in West Texas can tell us. Mitchell is the 2026 chair of the Committee on the Environment . This article is part of a series that she hopes will bring more voices to the sustainability conversation. Texas is too large—and too environmentally varied—for a single sustainability narrative to make sense. The questions that shape design in Austin or Houston don’t land the same way in El Paso, where the landscape is desert, the time zone is Mountain, and the proximity is closer to Phoenix than to Dallas. This fact became apparent in speaking with Laura Foster, an architect ...
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Member spotlight: Mahbuba Khan, AIA, Public Architects Committee Chair

By Alison Karfeld posted 06-15-2026
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The Immigrant Architects Coalition, a 501©(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering foreign- born architects and designers to build successful careers in the United States has released City Shapers, Volume II, edited by Mahbuba Khan, AIA, PAKC Chair. An Immigrant Architect’s Story of Service, Resilience, and City-Shaping The stories in this volume move beyond arrival and survival to explore growth, leadership, reflection, and responsibility. Contributors represent a wide range of cultural backgrounds, career stages, and design disciplines; yet, they are united by a shared willingness to speak honestly about their journeys. These ...
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The Road Less Traveled: Interview with new Fellow, Etty Padmodipoetro, FAIA

By Alison Karfeld posted 06-15-2026
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Etty Padmodipoetro, FAIA, NOMA Loeb Fellow . Photo by Joe Allegro Congratulations to the Public Architects Committee, BoKnoCo, representative Etty Padmodipoetro, AIA Massachusetts, NOMA Loeb Fellow, who was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. How did your career develop? Early in my career, I was practicing architecture in the traditional sense, designing buildings or - as the engineers call it - vertical infrastructure. That was my path until I had the opportunity to work on the Boston Central Artery/ Tunnel Project (the “Big Dig”), at the time the biggest and most expensive highway project in the country. ...
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Rivermark: A Retrofit That Reframed Performance and Place

By Andrew Hassan posted 06-09-2026
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Rivermark: A Retrofit That Reframed Performance and Place By Karim Muri, Vice President, Marketing Services and Strategy Development at Kingspan Insulated Panels North America In cities across the country, many existing structures were designed before today’s expectations for thermal efficiency; occupant comfort and carbon-conscious design became central to the way architects approach the building envelope. At the same time, these buildings often occupy prominent sites where appearance matters just as much as performance. Located along the banks of the Charles River, Rivermark in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had a highly visible address ...
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AIA Practice Management Digest - June 2026

By Eva Read-Warden, AIA posted 06-01-2026
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Financial Discipline How systems, strategy, and everyday decisions shape more profitable, resilient architecture practices Letter from the editor By Eva Read-Warden, AIA, Principal, Arkitex Studio Stewart Brand, in his book Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One , explores the art, science, and civilizational importance of maintenance. The book uses diverse examples, from the 1968 Golden Globe solo sailing race to military weaponry and vehicle repair, to argue that maintenance is a radical act of responsibility, essential for keeping everything running on nearly every level. This look at maintenance is both practical and philosophical ...
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Leadership beneath the surface: Jeffrey Huber on practice, profit, and discipline

By Jaime Sobrino, FAIA posted 06-01-2026
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by Jaime Sobrino, FAIA Editor's note: Coming to AIA26? Join us on Friday for a deeper dive into these topics: Jeff Huber, FAIA is our Practice Management Luncheon speaker! Learn more > Architectural leadership is often visible only through its outcomes—design awards, built work, and reputation. What remains unseen are the systems, decisions, and discipline that make consistent excellence possible. In a candid conversation with Jaime Sobrino, Jeffrey Huber, a recently named partner of Brooks Scarpa Huber (formerly Brooks + Scarpa) reflected on what firm leadership requires—and what architects often misunderstand about it. Huber does not ...
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Why most architecture firms bleed — and what to do about it

By Darguin Fortuna, AIA posted 06-01-2026
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By Darguin Fortuna, AIA, Alyse Makarewicz, AIA & Joshua Zinder, AIA Part 1: The problem nobody names out loud By Darguin Fortuna, AIA Architecture school teaches you how to design buildings. It rarely teaches you how to run a firm. That gap — between design excellence and practice sustainability — is where most small firms live. In this gap firms are not failing dramatically but eroding quietly, one uncompensated revision at a time. One scope addition is absorbed as goodwill. One initial consultation is given away for free. The work is excellent. The clients are often satisfied. And at the end of the year, the numbers don't work ...
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