Developed by faculty and students at Virginia Tech Center for Design Research, the FutureHAUS is an exploration in the integration of pre-fabricated, energy efficient and smart home systems for the future of affordable housing. The prototype was unveiled in the 2018 Solar Decathlon Middle East competition, taking home a first-place victory over 14 other selected teams and more than 60 total entrants. The victory comes after years of research in two distinct fields: the industrialization of buildings and integrated construction, and sustainably designed smart home environments.

“It oozes smooth.” This is what 2019 Metal Architecture Design Awards judge Charles Bloszies, FAIA, SE, LEED AP, principal, Office of Charles F. Bloszies FAIA Ltd., San Francisco, says about the C.H. Robinson Midwest Headquarters in Chicago, the smooth metal wall panels award winner. “It undulates in a subtle way. In the class of parametrically modeled transitional shapes this is very controlled and subtle, and I love it.”

For showcasing how metal panels can be leveraged in a transformative retrofit project, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 134 headquarters building in Chicago won the 2019 Metal Architecture Design Award for renovations and retrofits. Metal wall panels were used in the adaptive reuse project to give the building a new identity, express its use and the importance of some spaces. The retrofit completely transformed a 1960s elementary school building into a labor organization’s modern headquarters, which includes a lobby, large meeting hall, offices, meeting rooms, lounges and gymnasium community center.

The new Quora Education Center in Little Canada, Minn., celebrated its grand opening in August 2018 as the latest educational facility in Minnesota’s Northeast Metro 916 Intermediate School District designed specifically to address the sensory needs of students receiving special education services.

The new Chicago flagship operation of logistics provider C.H. Robinson opened its doors to employees in August 2018 as the first anchor tenant in the new Lincoln Yards revitalization development near the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Marketing materials for the Exo apartments – which feature a gleaming contemporary façade – encourage residents to “live in full color” in this 457-unit multi-family residential community that opened in July 2018. Located in Reston, Va., Exo residents live less than 25 miles from Washington, D.C.