Adaptability | Tag

Climate Lessons From the Floating Villages of Cambodia

December 08, 2023

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Lake Tonle Sap is a part of Cambodia’s inland water system that’s connected to the flooded forests that purify water and buffer communities from storms—an important benefit as climate change makes extreme weather more frequent. Every year from June to November, the Mekong Delta backs up into Lake Tonle Sap, creating water-depth fluctuations of up to 10 meters. The result is that land-based buildings are inundated during the rainy season, then refurbished and reoccupied again after the water recedes.

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OMA, Studio A Kwadraat, and Circlewood Win Amsterdam School Competition with Modular Wood Construction System

November 29, 2023

As part of the Schools by Circlewood consortium, OMA’s David Gianotten and Michael den Otter, together with Studio A Kwadraat, represented by Jimmy van der Aa, have won the competition to design the Wisperweide school in Weesp. This will become the first school to be built using Schools by Circlewood’s prefabricated wooden modular system, developed in collaboration with OMA. The system has earlier been chosen by the administration of Amsterdam to be employed across the city to provide flexible and sustainable elementary schools.

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Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023 Announces Opening Program and Site-Specific Commissions

November 06, 2023

Prior to the opening of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023 on November 11, 2023, the organizers have revealed details of several new commissions and site-specific interventions that will explore and expand on the overarching themes of this year’s edition, The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability. The three-day opening program has also been announced, featuring talks, tours, screenings, workshops, and performances. Curated by architect Tosin Oshinowo, the event set out to explore the innovations born out of conditions of scarcity in the Global South and ways in which cultures collaborate, adapt, re-use, and re-appropriate resources to move towards a more resilient and equitable future. Architects, designers, and studios have been invited to contribute with installations and projects to be displayed across the city and the surrounding desert.

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2024 Color of the Year Picks Unveiled by Paint Leaders Such as Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams

October 26, 2023

The year 2024 brings forth an intriguing array of Color of the Year selections from renowned paint manufacturers, each offering a unique perspective on the hues that will influence our living spaces. Striving to capture the moods and aspirations of the coming year, color experts have veered towards soft and calming shades, hoping to bring a sense of serenity to counter the hectic and tumulus passing year. Countering the bold color chosen by Pantone in 2023 as their previous Color of the Year, Benjamin Moore embraces a softly saturated and nuanced shade, AkzoNobel emphasizes calmness and stability, Sherwin Williams aims to inspire mindfulness, Graham & Brown fosters warmth and tranquility, and C2 Paint focuses on freshness and sustainability.

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Bridging the Gap: 15 Atypical Living Solutions in Urban Remnants

October 24, 2023

Behind facades lie vibrant lives, where the exterior melds with the interior, transforming neglected urban spaces into captivating residences. In cities around the world, architects, engineers and designers face the challenge of integrating new buildings into existing urban landscapes with limited space. Many architects are now embracing this concept, expanding their designs beyond conventional boundaries and transforming small city lots into layered and interconnected living spaces.

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Ephemeral Cities: 3 Radical City Concepts That Propose for Users to Shape Their Built-Form

September 01, 2023

The concept of a city can be viewed as a constantly evolving system where both architects and users contribute to its design and redesign. While its framework may start with planners or designers, the character of the urban fabric is ultimately shaped by the societies and generations that inhabit it. The question of "city authorship" often arises in the context of masterplan design. Can architects and urban planners determine the extent to which a city will evolve through its initial design? The answer is no. User authorship then acknowledges that city planning should not be approached like building design, where designers attempt to predict every aspect of shape, pattern, behavior, and culture. Instead, it recognizes the role that people play in shaping the urban fabric through their personal taste in architecture, the development of neighborhood personality, and ongoing redesign that contributes to the story and spirit of a place. These factors should be considered in the initial design by engaging ideas related to future expansion, adaptable infrastructure, and empowering citizens to contribute to the city's architecture, thus making the city design democratic. This article explores conceptual radical cities where designers embrace the ideas of user authorship and the constant evolution of ephemeral architecture.

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OMA / David Gianotten and Circlewood Develop a Modular Wood System to Create Flexible Schools for the City of Amsterdam

May 12, 2023

As part of the Circlewood consortium, OMA’s David Gianotten and Michel den Otter have developed a modular system to build schools that can adapt and transform throughout their lifecycle. The system was selected by the City of Amsterdam to be employed to build multiple schools in the coming ten years, as part of the Innovation Partnership School Buildings program. The citywide initiative aims to build nine to thirty “high-quality, flexible, and sustainable” schools as a way to contribute to the city’s goal of becoming fully circular by 2050.

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Can Architecture and Urban Planning Fight Back Against Climate Change?

December 15, 2022

Climate change has been one of the most pressing topics of this year, and for a good reason. Its effects are visible not only in natural habitats but also in urban environments. The construction industry has an important role to play in this dynamic. Throughout the year, events such as COP27 emphasized the importance of striving to achieve net carbon zero and the challenges faced by developing countries affected by increasingly devastating natural disasters. Possible directions for development include actions at varying stages and scales, from optimizing green spaces for urban heat control to employing local and innovative building materials to minimize the carbon footprint or passing laws that help create more sustainable urban and natural environments.

This article represents a roundup of articles published on ArchDaily during the course of 2022 with themes related to climate change and architecture’s potential to make a difference. It breaks down the topic into four main questions: What Are Cities Doing to Mitigate Urban Heat? How to Tackle Rising Sea Levels? What Was COP27 and Why Does It Matter? Can Building Materials Play a Role in Achieving These Goals? The last section presents an overview of new legislation approved during 2022 as a way of understanding how state and local governments are imposing this need for change.

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Why Should We Design Spaces with Furniture on Wheels?

November 03, 2020

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In a time where space grows more and more limited and people increasingly spend time at home, flexibility presents itself as an underutilized strategy of interior design. With flexible furniture, residents can optimize square footage and easily reshape configurations according to specific requirements and shifting needs. Below, we discuss the benefits and variations of furniture on wheels, closing with 7 example projects illustrating their creative and practical application.

UNStudio Designs a Multifunctional and Flexible Education Building for TU Delft in the Netherlands

June 19, 2020

Part of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), in the Netherlands, Echo is a new multifunctional and flexible inter-faculty building, now under construction and due for completion in Dec 2021. Designed by UNStudio, in collaboration with Arup and BBN, the future-proof facility meets the needs of the ever-increasing numbers of students.

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HOME Competition Released their Results for the 2019 Edition

January 02, 2020

The HOME competition 2019, organized by architectural initiative arch out loud, has released its winning projects. The annual challenge that pushed the limits of adaptability and innovation, asked designers “What is the future of HOME?”

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Kjellander Sjöberg Wins Competition to Climate Proof the Coastal Town of Faaborg in Denmark

December 31, 2019

Kjellander Sjöberg, one of the leading architectural practices in Scandinavia, in collaboration with GHB Landskabsarkitekter, Mogens A. Morgen, Realise and Tyréns, was selected to design a strategic development plan for Faaborg. The coastal town in southern Denmark is facing many challenges like a high risk of flooding and an important decrease in its population.

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Trees Trees Trees! Design Competition

November 04, 2019

As you may know, things aren't going too well for mother earth. With challenges like deforestation, fires, pollution, and even methane from cows we are facing an uphill battle against climate change.

One of the simplest, and possibly most effective, methods to reverse the damage is to plant trees, billions of them. According to the respected Science Journal, "The restoration of forested land at a global scale could help capture atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change."

This is no easy task and will require hundreds of millions of people to plant trees in their front yards, backyards, patios, open land, businesses, cities,

5 Architectural Secrets of the Badjao: 21st Century Sea People

June 02, 2015

Thousands of years ago, a small civilization of hunter gatherers migrated to the coastal regions of Southeast Asia. These people progressed into a widespread tribe of travelling sea dwellers. To this day, they remain a stateless people with no nationality and no consistent infrastructure, sometimes living miles away from land. Yet these people are one of the few civilizations whose collective life practices have survived so long through human history. They are called the Badjao, and they have a surprising amount to teach us about architecture.

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Adaptability: The Latest Architecture and News