Blaine Brownell

2 weeks ago | architectmagazine.com | Blaine Brownell

As the popularity of wood-based materials in building construction increases, facade-based applications are becoming more desirable and prevalent. Wood’s susceptibility to decay is a familiar phenomenon, and many established preservation methods exist. However, most wood treatments for external use are problematic from human health and environmental perspectives.

1 month ago | architectmagazine.com | Blaine Brownell

In conversations about structural materials, steel has been upstaged in recent years by wood and concrete. Wood is celebrated due to biomass's carbon sequestration potential and renewability, and strategies to reduce concrete’s significant carbon footprint have also received much attention. Steel, one might presume, has remained essentially unchanged: a material cornerstone of modern architecture, robust and imminently capable, yet limited by its high embodied energy and global market volatility.

1 month ago | architectmagazine.com | Blaine Brownell

In buildings, structural systems have dominated the conversation about carbon thus far, with more scrutiny on the high embodied energy of concrete and steel. However, the facade also contributes to a building’s overall carbon footprint and is increasingly receiving attention for this aspect of environmental performance.

2 months ago | architectmagazine.com | Blaine Brownell

One of the most celebrated models of biomimetic design is the butterfly wing. More specifically, the wing of the Morpho menalaus, or blue morpho butterfly, exhibits a model biological phenomenon called structural color. Unlike pigments or dyes, structural color scatters light of particular wavelengths based on particular micron- and submicron-scale surface structures. A significant benefit of structural color is that it does not fade like pigments and dyes.

2 months ago | architectmagazine.com | Blaine Brownell

Increasing interest in space travel and extraterrestrial resources has focused attention on building habitable dwellings on our closest planetary neighbor, the Moon. Establishing a long-term human presence on the forbidding lunar landscape will require far more materials than can be transported from the Earth. Scientists and engineers are, therefore, investigating the utilization of in-situ materials for lunar construction.