Good afternoon and welcome back to another diverse selection of news for your reading pleasure.

Here’s what’s going on today:

The New York City Council reaches a deal on all-electric heating in new buildings

Today, the New York City Council reached a deal requiring most new buildings constructed after 2027 to rely on electricity rather than natural gas for their heating, shaving even more emissions when paired with the planned transition to renewable power generation. The council is slated to vote on the measure next week and it is reportedly expected to pass.

To dig into specifics, new buildings with less than seven stories will need to switch to electric heating on the first day of 2024, while buildings with seven or more stories will be required to implement the measures as of July 1, 2027—projects that file their construction approvals before those dates will remain exempt.

H/t to The Real Deal

Renzo Piano converts a Russian power plant into an awe-inspiring art center

Renzo Piano Building Workshop has completed the transformation of a century-old, 440,000-square-foot power station in Moscow into Russia’s newest center for contemporary art. The new GES-2 House of Culture, run by the international nonprofit V-A-C Foundation, sits opposite the Kremlin; an apt metaphor for an arts institution hoping to position itself as a formidable international player from the get-go. Sprawling international opening exhibitions line the halls of the new museum, which was paid for out of pocket by V-A-C at a rumored cost of $300 million—admission is, and will remain, free to the public.

H/t to Artnet News

MASS Design Group partners with Holcim for a 3D-printed community in Kenya

Just north of Mombasa, Kenya, the Boston-based MASS Design Group and Swiss multinational Holcim are partnering to realize Mvule Gardens, a new 52-home complex. The project, designed by MASS, will be 3D printed from concrete with work beginning next year as part of the Green Heart of Kenya development, which is intended to showcase different methods for achieving sustainable growth.

H/t to Global Construction Review

The Biden administration imposes sweeping federal sustainable energy and building material mandates

Today the Biden administration released a sweeping new plan aimed at taming carbon emissions at the federal level, requiring the government purchase sustainably-sourced power by 2030, cut the emissions from its buildings in half by 2032, and require new sustainable building practices for all federal projects. Aiming for carbon neutrality in government operations by 2050, the edict would cover approximately 300,000 buildings across the United States and necessitate the purchase of about 600,000 new electric vehicles.

H/t to the New York Times

Grounds For Sculpture in New Jersey unveils a psychedelic nighttime installation

At Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, visitors to the outdoor sculpture park have gotten a major reason to return after the sun sets. The park has announced a two-year partnership with collective Klip Collective for a series of night-exclusive works—the Night Forms series. Running from November 26 of this year through February 27, 2022, the first installation, Night Forms: dreamloop by Klip Collective, bathes the grounds in multicolor light and invigorates the landscape even during the harsh winter months.

A floating office building in Rotterdam could hedge against climate change

Rotterdam is a city almost uniquely vulnerable to climate change, and despite building berms and retention ponds throughout the city, that likely won’t be enough to stave off the worst of the flooding over the next 50 to 100 years. So, the city has now added another tool to its arsenal, recently unveiling the world’s largest floating office building anchored at Rijnhaven port. Designed by the mainstay international Powerhouse Company and serving as new headquarters for the Global Center on Adaptation, the 50,000-square-foot structure floats 60 feet away from the mainland and rises and falls with the tides. Could the best way to preserve the buildings of the future be to work with water rather than against it? Rotterdam is betting on it.

H/t to Fast Company