The Lefo Mall Shopping Centre has opened its doors to the public in Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province Eastern China, with the scheme being the largest retail project to be built to a design by global architecture, urbanism and design practice Broadway Malyan in China to date.

The design for the 65,000 square metre destination mall, located at the heart of Suzhou’s new Wuzhong Central Business District, was delivered for client Suzhou Zhongrun Real Estate Ltd, part of Zhongrun Resources Investment Corporation. I

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There are things happening these days that are Not in the best interests of the Health, Safety & Welfare of the public.  Things about non-professional entities using the title Architect.  There are those in our society that seek to confuse the public about what it means to be an architect.  To find out more, read on

A lot! So

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The passing of Thanksgiving brings the beginning of the outdoor holiday decorating season. I must say that driving home after stuffing myself with turkey and fixings became much more enjoyable as I passed homes with lights on the roofline, in the bushes and windows and on the front yard. This is the time of year, I love going on walks and driving through neighborhoods to see the lighting displays.

Make sure you plan out your holiday lighting before stepping on that ladder to minimize time.

Installing outdoor holiday lights can, however, be dangerous or cause damage when done incorrectly. At Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, we’ve come up with the SHINE ON acronym to give hints on how to create a beautiful display without incident.

Sketch: Develop a plan. F

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This one-story house is for an old couple will spend their rest of life after retirements.

The house is located in Yagiyama hilly district which lies south of a Hirosegawa river terrace. It it a historical residential area developing from the beginning of showa era 1960 by scraping off bedrock. The site is surrounded by houses, apartment, and a nearby house which clients son family is living, so the clients requested living in privacy, but a sunny and breezy house while considering connection with the nearby house.

To take appropriate distances from the surroundings, first I decided to put volume at the middle of the site.

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Trending energy codes appear to be headed in the direction of thermal insulated sheathing.  Right now, the 2012 IECC , page R-29, Table R402.1.1, Prescriptive Requirements for the building thermal envelope for residential construction, indicates that  many climate zones now permit usage of what amounts to a 24 stud wall with R13 insulation + an R5 to R10 continuously sheathing thermal barrier outboard of the stud wall.  At present, using a 26 stud wall with R19 conventional fiberglass batt insulation is also permitted, with no additional thermal envelope, but the code requires R20 for this, which is what you achieve , when adding R values of structural sheathing, siding, interior finish wall cladding and interior and exterior air films.

So, while the present 2012 IECC permits some walls to Not have continuous thermal barriers, this firm has been around long enough to read the handwriting on the wall.  It is headed in that direction.  So, anticipating this, this architectural company has started adding a 1 thick XPS R-5 continuous rigid foam insulation sheathing to their stud construction systems.  Typically, this will be added outboard of the structural sheathing of a 26 stud wall.  Therefore, with only the insulations included, that = R19 for the fiberglass studwall batt + R5 for the thermal XPS insulation = R-24.  However, when all the other layers of the system are added to this, the R rating is even higher.  Why is this continuous thermal sheathing outboard of the structural sheathing so important?  Well, it provides a CONTINUOUS thermal barrier.  Why is that important?  Because the studs in a stud wall act as thermal shunts of solid material.  Every stud has a much lower R-value than the batt insulation to the sides of them.  Structurally, you really need to brace the studs with a material like plywood because it costs a lot less than plywood) and this wood sheathing gives builders something solid to nail and screw siding to, along with other things like trim, windows, doors, light fixtures and other things.  The continuous thermal sheathing outboard of the structural wood sheathing is what provides a excellent thermal barrier OVER THE ENTIRE WALL, even over the thermal shunts at studs.  A great idea.

Item                                             R-value

Outside air film-wall:                0.17

Wood Siding/similar:               0.80

Drainage Plane fibermesh:     0.425 

Water resistive barrier:          assumed to be negligible.

Thermal Sheathing:                  5.

15/32 OSB:                                 0.63 

5-1/2 Fiberglass:                     19. 

1/2 Drywall:                                0.45

Interior Air Film:                         0.68 – Total R-value:                           27.155

And heres one of the other break-through components of the SupR-wall: Drainage Plane Fibermesh.  This material is manufactured by Benjamin Obdyke.  Its made of fiberous nylon.  Its purpose is to keep the outside wall cladding from contacting the water-resistive barrier membrane, which is inboard of that.  The idea is to break the hydrostatic pressure of any water getting through the siding/ cladding and allow it to harmlessly drain down and out of the wall, before it gets past the water barrier.

Not only is this excellent at improving the water-resistive properties of the wall, this also ventilates the back side of the siding.  Why is this good?  Because this can prevent the rear of the siding from staying permanently wet, which can rot the siding from the rear and grow microscopic organisms, like mold, which makes your house not as healthy as it could otherwise be.  And mold can help rot wood structures.  The result: a healthier home, lower utility bills due to better insulation value, and more durable conditions for your wall materials, which means you save more money longer and with fewer problems.  In Canada, a drainage plane layer is required.  Its only a question of time before the USA catches up.  But until then, you can have this much-improved feature in all new projects from this architectural firm.

SupR-wall architectural design firm:

1-828-269-9046

My favorite part of the holiday season is the outdoor holiday décor. The trees, lights, bows, I love it all. It’s not uncommon to find me walking around the outdoor malls that have gorgeous holiday displays in the winter months. And according to Downtown Decorations, that’s the point.

In a recent article, Downtown Decorations explains that by decorating and keeping the outside of your commercial property looking good, you can increase your bottom line. As the customer’s first impression of a store is really the outside of it, it’s important to entice the visitor to want to come in, walk around and see what’s inside. And word of mouth can grow from there too. If someone is wowed by your holiday lighting, they may tell others to go and see it. And hopefully they’ll want to come in and explore the store too.

At Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, we work with a lot of commercial properties on their holiday decorations and each one is different. Some clients

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One of the most demanding tasks in Porto nowadays is the intervention on the major amount of old and historical buildings of Porto downtown which are unnocupied in large percentage of the central urban fabric.

This project aims that general emergency and is a recovery of a 18th century building to convert into a 18 housing unit for turists and students, converting the building in a rediscovered and multifunctional residential experience.