Habitação: The Latest Architecture and News

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.

Housing may come in different ways, different forms, and different places. So to start this week of Round Up, we bring you previously featured “Housing” works on ArchDaily.

Group 41, a San Francisco-based firm, has been experimenting with shipping container design. The company is currently working on a large multi-family development in Utah that is to be entirely constructed out of shipping containers.

This proposal is a design for market-rate housing in the suburbs of Salt Lake City Utah. Involving the use of nearly 1000 shipping containers to create up to 200 units of housing, and sitting on a concrete commercial “base” that also includes parking, this major development is slated for a Transit Oriented district near a commuter rail station. Currently, in the preliminary conceptual phase, Container Nation has created two different proposed schemes that take different approaches to the stacking and build-out of the containers. Preliminary local Planning approvals are expected by mid-2009.

For more information, go to Container Nation official website. More images after the break.

New York-based architects Perkins Eastman sent us their new project, 303 East 33rd Street, the first green development in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan. It’s a 12-story, 165,00 sf building. They worked on the exterior while Studio V Architecture worked on the interior design. They also worked with Archipelago on the landscape of the roof garden.

More images and the architect’s proposal, after the break.

Developed by Toll Brothers, Inc. and The Kibel Companies; 303 East 33rd Street is the first green development in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan. Designed by top ranked green architecture and design firm Perkins Eastman, the LEED Certified development is a fresh interpretation of the full- and half-block residential complexes built during the last century, and reflects the mix of architectural diversity in the area.