Our friends from OBRA Architects shared with us their project Red+Housing, an emergency housing prototype commissioned as part of the exhibit CROSSING: Emergency Dialogues for Architecture to acknowledge the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, held at the National Art Museum of China. More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »
Architect: Schleifer & Milczanowski Architekci s.c.
Location: Gdynia, ul. Krasickiego 30, Poland
Design Team: Tomasz Milczanowski, Stefan Schleifer, Agnieszka Schleifer, Agnieszka Majkowska, Anna Niedzielska, Hanna Zamorska, Roksana Czartopolska, Michal Treder
Structure Engineer: Studio R Roman Radowski
Client: Polskie Pierze i Puch Sp. z o.o.
Area: 2092 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2009
Photographs: Schleifer & Milczanowski Architekci
Belgian practice BURO II sent us their latest project in collaboration with Alph’, in charge of the interiors and the furniture design.
The volume is at the head of a row of buildings, on the corner of the village square. Due to the location, its character is determined by the village square to a large extent. The designers took this into account by making the wall facing the village square completely transparent. This unique building consists of an apartment (+1), an office (0) and a partial cellar (-1). There is a separate entrance to the apartment.
The 24 architecture teams with the client, Almere city officials and the project teams of MVRDV on site, photo by © Xander Remkes
We all know that the Dutch are experts on reclaiming land from the sea. And with all this new land, come new cities. One of these is Almere, a city founded in 1984, which is growing fast into becoming the fifth largest city in the Netherlands. This growing city is now into the process of consolidating a new center, Olympiakwartier, envisioned on a larger master plan for a sustainable city by Mecanoo.
By 2030, Almere expects to grow into a city with a stronger identity and a total of 350,000 inhabitants, which involves the building of 60,000 new homes and the creation of 100,000 new jobs for the expected 150,000 new inhabitants. For this, Amsterdam based housing association Housing Stadgenoot commissioned MVRDV to be planner for 60,000m2 work space, 120,000m2 housing (1,000 homes), 15,000m2 education, 2,000m2 commercial space, 2,640 parking spaces and various public spaces. This total has been split into 93 volumes of which MVRDV will design 45. The plan demands individual development of the buildings: a dense mix of living and working leading to a complex urban condition. Retail, a public square and communal gardens are also part of the comprehensive plan which introduces inner city life to the mostly suburban typology of Almere. Flexibility is a key objective: All ground floors and part of the office and apartment buildings are designed to facilitate future change of use. In this way the owner, Stadgenoot, can adjust the district more and more to the needs of the growing new town and its inhabitants.
The remaining 48 buildings (500m2 to 5,000m2) are going to be designed by a selected group of 24 international practices, including established and emerging offices (see list after the break).
This project is very ambitious, with the potential of becoming a milestone on urban planning, apart from recent mega projects by groups of architects we have seen lately, which can be very innovative in terms of form or solving individual housing problems, but lack of a clear master plan that make all the individual architect’s efforts act as a whole. It sort of reminds me of the Weissenhof Estate, lets hope this one becomes an example for future architects.
Architect: Schleifer & Milczanowski Architekci s.c.
Location: Gdansk, ul. Moniuszki, Poland
Design Team: Tomasz Milczanowski, Stefan Schleifer, Agnieszka Schleifer, Agnieszka Majkowska, Anna Niedzielska, Hanna Zamorska, Roksana Czartopolska, Agata Burian
Structure Engineer: Kompago s.c.
Client: Pomerania S.A.
Area: 3,922 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2008
Photographs: Schleifer & Milczanowski Architekci
Architects: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
Location: Mazama, Washington, USA
Lead Architect: Tom Kundig, FAIA
Date of Completion: 2008
Size: 440 sf/per hut (200 sf interior space, 240 sf exterior deck)
Photographs: Chad Kirkpatrick & /Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects
Architects: Studio Gil with Max Rengifo
Location: Palmira, Colombia
Executive Architect: Luis Bueno
Structural Engineer: Mauricio Drada
Photographs: Fernando Agreda
Standard Architecture’s conceptual design, Co-Op Canyon, has recently received an honorable mention for the Re:Vision Dallas competition. The competition provided participants with the opportunity to create an innovative and sustainable prototype for an urban community. Standard’s radical approach focused on how the residents could potentially gain equity through participation in construction, agricultural, maintenance, education and conservation programs central to the sustenance of the community.
More images and information after the break. read more »
Architects: LOHA Architects
Location: West Hollywood, California, USA
Principal in Charge: Lorcan O’Herlihy
Project Team: Pierre De Angelis (PD), Sabrina Schmidt-Wetekam, Alex Morassut
Client: Whitecap Development, LLC
Project year: 2008
Constructed Area: 2,230 sqm
Program: 8 apartments
Photographs: Tate Lown
Architecture photographer Iwan Baan once again shared with us an impressive photo set on a social housing project by Chinese architects Urbanus.
The commission was to design a 220 apartment housing complex for people for low income families in Guangzhou. Urbanus decided to give the complex a nice and intimate atmosphere, by reinterpreting the traditional Hakka Houses. This housing typology correspond to 300 year old houses in the south of China, and as you can see on some pictures after the jump, they are basically a large housing project where complete families live as a community (aunts, nieces, nephews, etc.)
You can take a look at the Urbanus’ complete photo set over here, and the Hakka Houses photos over here.
Bostjan Gabrijelcic from Arhitektura d.o.o. sent us this rehabilitation of an old apartment’s terrace in Slovenia.
More images and drawings after the break.
Architects: Sou Fujimoto Architects
Location: Hokkaido, Japan
Principal Use: Group home for elderly with dementia
Project Year: 2006
Structure material: Wood
Site Area: 1,637 sqm
Constructed Area: 745 sqm
Photographer: Daici Ano
Michael O’Connor sent us this single family house designed by Garry Miley for a rural site in Tipperary, Ireland. O’Connor + Shanahan architects prepared the detail drawings, brought the project to Tender and onto site for the clients due to Garry’s commitments at the time.
Our friends from Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter sent us their latest project, a first prize in an invited housing competition in Sweden.
You can see some more images and drawings after the break.
Architects: LOHA Architects
Location: West Hollywood, California, USA
Principal in Charge: Lorcan O’Herlihy
Project Team: Kevin Southerland, Tracy Smith, Franka Diehnelt
Contractor: Archetype, Inc.
Client: Habitat Group Los Angeles, LLC
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Lawrence Anderson
Architects: Paulo César Lourenço and Bruno Sarmento
Location: Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil
Structural Engineering: Protec Engenharia
Construction: Suport Engenharia
Electrical & Sanitary Services: Primus Engenharia
Site Area: 600 sqm
Constructed Area: 3,300 sqm
Project year: 2005-2007
Photographs: Marcio Brigatto
Dutch architects MVRDV strike another one with a new mixed use project in the new inner city heart for the Laurens Quarter, the pre-war centre of Rotterdam.
The project, comissioned by Provast, includes an open air market, that due to new hygienic constraints of dutch laws has to be covered. It also includes 246 residences, that form an arc that covers the open market area.
This results on a 3,000sqm retail area, with a 1,600sqm catering area on the ground level and first floor, a 1,800sqm supermarket and an underground car park for 1,100 cars.
The interior face of the arc will be covered with LEDs for an ever changing interior. The front and backside are covered with a flexible suspended glass facade, allowing for maximum transparency and a minimum of structure.
This new icon for Rotterdam is expected to be completed in 2014. More images after the break.
Two student housing buildings present Arons en Gelauff Architecten in the University of Twente. A 3 stories building with a great contrast between its exterior and interior and the other one, with an amazing climbing wall on the north-west elevation.
Take a look at the photographs, drawings and descriptions after the break.
Aerial collage: the new archipelago of incremented kaccha houses rising from a context of well built permanent homes in a typical slum.
The problem with social housing has been how to give the most with less money. We have very good examples in Europe, but the constrains are way different than the ones in developing countries. In these countries, almost all the constructions are done by anyone but architects. Clearly, in these countries architects can do something way better than just designing or constructing, developing strategies together with communities to achieve housing solutions that not only address today´s necessities, but that can also be extended over time as families grow, once again by themselves and without architects.
A good example on this is Elemental, lead by Alejandro Aravena, which has been changing not only design aspects of social housing, but also public policy. Currently, they have built and on going projects in Chile, Mexico and more countries.
But also, there´s the work that Filipe Balestra and Sara Göransson have been doing in India, invited by Sheela Patel and Jockin Arputham from SPARC to develop an Incremental Housing Strategy that could be implemented anywhere.
read more »
Architects: Pb Elemental Architecture
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Constructed Area: 650 sqm
Construction year: 2008
Photographs: Pb Elemental Architecture
