Courtesy of David Butler | Marmalade Lane Cohousing development
The International Day of Cooperatives is a celebration of the cooperative movement, which takes place annually on the first Saturday of July. In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly established it a national day, celebrating the cooperative movement worldwide with yearly themes. The cooperative movement is an association focused on achieving common goals and addressing collective communal needs. Cooperatives believe in community development at their core, prioritizing people and supporting local communities to improve their well-being. Moreover, the co-living models that have been adapted from it have become an enormous success over the past few decades, providing a form of cost-effective social housing. The cooperative structure redefines how people live, work, play, and collaborate. This year's theme is “Cooperatives: Partners for accelerated sustainable development.”
As cooperative principles continue to be injected into built environments today, the concept has created different models of co-op housing, leading to co-living. Over the past years, established European awards have celebrated co-living and architecture studios and developers worldwide have designed different models exploring co-living. The articles and projects selected in this article address what it means to live together, work together, and form healthy communities in this day and age.
SNHU Innovation and Design Education Building / HGA. Image Courtesy of Cupa Pizarras
When designing architectural projects, protecting a building’s walls is key for ensuring its longevity, durability, and resistance to the elements, therefore preserving its aesthetic appeal. Among the protective measures available, cladding systems are exterior coverings that integrate varying textures, colors and finishes, allowing for customization and creative expression, while also providing weather resistance and thermal performance.
Exploring materials beyond traditional masonry cladding or commercial curtain wall systems, Cupa Pizarras has developed natural slate rainscreen facades. From linear to honeycomb patterns, these geometric facade layouts meet the requirements of current architectural trends, which demand more sustainable and energy-efficient buildings. The combination of high-durability tectonic slate with innovative fastening techniques, as well as the efficiency of rainscreen cladding, makes CUPACLAD a sustainable and aesthetically pleasing alternative for enhancing the LEED certification of projects.
Water scarcity is one of the most stressful situations that one could ever endure. And yet, in India, a country that holds 18% of the total world population with only 4% of its water resources, this is a recurring struggle with notable numbers of Indian households having to manage water scarcity on a daily basis.
The yearly water cycle is a tough one, ranging from one extreme to another. Harsh monsoons and flood seasons turn into insufferable droughts, making it increasingly difficult to control and retain water resources. While most large-scale actions focus on consequences to agricultural and production sectors, the result is also recognizable at an individual household level. Therefore cumulative small-scale actions are relevant gateways for citizens (? people, designers) to mitigate the issue.
Studio KO’s curation of the Uzbekistan Pavilion for the Venice Biennale is based on research, curiosity, workshopping, and experimenting with the senses. For over two years, the studio has worked alongside the Arts and Cultural Development Foundation, designing the Center for Contemporary Arts and their initiatives to restore and rehabilitate vernacular houses, transforming them into artist residencies. While exploring the 18th International Architecture Exhibition onsite in Venice, ArchDaily had the chance to speak with the founders of Studio KO, Karl Fournier, and Olivier Marty, curators of Uzbekistan National Pavilion. Their exhibition for this year’s theme, “The Laboratory of the Future,” focuses on the country’s rich heritage as a potential tool and inspiration for developing a more sustainable future.
Pihlmann Architects is a young Copenhagen-based architectural run by Søren Pihlmann. In this interview with Louisiana Channel, the rising architect elaborates on his unique practice, the values he holds, and what he finds fascinating about architecture. Most notably, Pihlmann explains that his view on the practice has transformed from being an architect into becoming a type of curator, selecting very few things with great sensitivity.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 30 winners of the 2023 RIBA National Awards for Architecture, providing an insight into the country’s architecture, design, and social trends. Among the key themes observed this year, the need to rebuild communities and to find sustainable ways of practicing stand out as the main concerns of the participant architects. The response to these themes is varied, ranging from buildings that aim to offer opportunities for collaboration for students to creating stimulating social spaces for the elderly or providing creative programs at a neighborhood scale. All the projects selected have been in use for at least one year and have provided data regarding their environmental performance. Examples of sustainable design include both new buildings, following the Passivhaus certification, and renovation of existing structures.
Videos
Courtesy of Atrium Ljungberg | White Arkitekter
Atrium Ljungberg has just revealed Stockholm Wood City – the world's largest urban construction project in wood. Construction on the project is expected to begin in 2025, and the first buildings are expected to be completed in 2027. The initiative is a demonstration of Swedish sustainability.
The largest wood-building project in the world is now in progress, covering an impressive 250,000 square meters. The project sets a sustainable example for the real estate market, which is essential because built structures contribute a sizeable 40% of the world's CO2 emissions. Furthermore, Stockholm Wood City is set to become a turning point in sustainable architecture and urban planning. Situated in Sickla, southern Stockholm, this innovative neighborhood will offer an additional 2,000 houses and 7,000 business spaces. By merging workplaces, homes, neighborhoods, dining establishments, and retail spaces, it aims to create a vibrant and dynamic urban environment.
An arid environment refers to specific regions characterized by a severe lack of available water and extremely dry weather conditions. More specifically, arid regions by definition, receive less than 25 centimeters of rain per year. In the immense vastness of arid environments, where extreme climates present significant challenges, the role of water in architecture takes on a new dimension.
For centuries, architects and designers dealing with harsh desert landscapes and the vital necessity of water have invented techniques, technologies, and new structures. Moreover, many creative approaches have been created to harness, collect, and cool water in arid environments.
Land reclamation from the sea has become a popular phenomenon in coastal development. It is the most preferred solution to the need for land in coastal areas and has been implemented for various use cases, including flood control and agriculture. Nowadays, it has become a famous urban response to the rapid increase in coastal urbanization, economic activity, and global population. Countries like China and the Netherlands lead the chart on the amount of land area reclaimed. However, most reclamation projects today take place within urban centers in the global south. Cities in West Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East produce these new lands as economic forerunners for their commercial industry and as platforms to house luxury residences.
But the relationship between the design and production of reclaimed lands and the response of water in ocean environments is complex. It requires a symbiotic relationship with water bodies for stability but can provoke natural forces when negligently imposed on the sea. Ocean water behaviors, including tidal accumulation, sea level rise, connection to wetlands, and aquatic biodiversity, can question the success or failure of land reclamation projects in different contexts.
Rendering depicts a ground-level view of the planned new Doris Duke Theatre, viewed from a perspective right outside the Perles Family Studio. The new building will feature two lobbies with sliding doors, which will create multiple entrances and exits to the building. The lobby on the west side of the new Duke is visible in this image. Image Courtesy of Mecanoo Architects and Marvel
Jacob's Pillow has revealed its plans for the redesigned Doris Duke Theater, which will be built on the original site of the theater that was destroyed by a fire in November 2020. Mecanoo, based in the Netherlands and led by Creative Director and Founding Partner Francine Houben, has taken on the role of lead architect for the new building project, collaborating with Marvel, based in New York and led by Jonathan Marvel, who serves as the project's architect of record and landscape architects.
URB has revealed 'Dubai Reefs,' a floating living lab designed to restore marine ecosystems and promote ecotourism. The project's primary objective is to generate over 30,000 employment opportunities within a green economy in the city. Dubai Reefs encompasses a sustainable floating community dedicated to marine research, regeneration, and ecotourism, comprising residential, hospitality, retail, educational, and research facilities.
Timber is a natural, renewable material, easy to fabricate, and with low-carbon emissions. As a construction material, however, when put under enough directional force along its grain, sawn timber is structurally unstable, so deemed unsuitable under higher loads. In comparison, the manufacture of cross-laminated timber (CLT) involves simply gluing multiple layers of timber together at right angles. By crossing the direction of the grains, CLT achieves a far higher level of structural rigidity along both axes. CLT boards start with a minimum of three layers but can be strengthened further with the addition of more. Simply put, due to the complex physics involved in the perpendicular lamination, the strength of CLT board is similar to that of reinforced concrete, and has proven performance under seismic forces.
So what’s new? Wood’s been around for long enough now, and we’ve been using it as a building material for centuries. Surely this isn’t the first time someone’s realized it gets stronger the more you use it? Well… as you’d expect, the changing popularity of cross-laminated timber in construction does coincide with a greater understanding and focus on environmental causes, but the relationship hasn’t always been positive.
Architecture is a continually evolving form of human expression influenced by cultural and contextual factors. While many of the problems we face today aren't directly linked to architecture, it has the ability to provide or facilitate solutions to these challenges. This has been evident throughout history, as societal issues have played a significant role in shaping our built environments. For instance, during the Victorian era, the infamous "Great Stink" led to the modernization of London's drainage system and urban layout. Similarly, the 2008 recession gave rise to the sharing economy and coworking spaces. Nowadays, the climate crisis is transforming the way we conceive architecture, seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and cities to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives. Given this backdrop, what challenges should we expect in the future?
https://www.archdaily.com/1000810/energetic-retrofitting-a-solution-for-environmental-obsolescence-in-architectureEnrique Tovar
I first went to China in 2002, a year after the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing. That initial trip was about exploring nature, cuisine, ancient temples, archeological sites, and, in general, experiencing lifestyles in China, mainly outside of its major cities. I was motivated by the pure curiosity of a Western tourist driven to an Eastern country in search of the old world, the exotic, hoping to catch a glimpse of a rich traditional culture on the cusp of its inevitable radical transformation. At the time, there was no modern, or rather contemporary, architecture in China to speak of. There were only the promising first hints of the development of a potentially new architectural language being undertaken by just a handful of independent architects almost entirely under the radar.
Cities are complex ecologies of intersecting natural systems and urban infrastructure. Environmental degradation has brought attention to the asymbiotic relationship between man-made and natural systems. A new economy is emerging where interdependence and environmental stewardship are valued. Designing for a circular economy requires consideration of human habitats not as towns or cities, but as bioregions.
Located in the southern part of Benin-Republic, near the port city of Cotonou, is Ganvie; the largest floating village in Africa. It is situated in the middle of Lake Nokoué and is characterized by colorful wooden stilt houses arranged around artificial islands dating back to the 17th century.
This unique architecture was born from the history of the Tofinu tribe, who built it as a refuge from the slave trade. It has been sustained over time by their communal socio-ecological aquacultural systems and has now become a global tourist attraction for the country. The village was recognized as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1996, attracting up to 10,000 visitors annually. However, this influx of tourists has impacted the locals and their socio-ecological practices that sustain this water environment. Aquaculture has become increasingly challenging to maintain as the village struggles to retain its economic foundation. Additionally, traditional building practices have given way to modern ones, and the village faces ongoing environmental challenges. Nevertheless, the unique lifestyle of the locals around the water still offers many lessons for the design of prospective floating cities.
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.
This year marks the centennial of the first edition of Vers Une Architecture, Le Corbusier’s epoch-making book. Though a new English translation appeared in 2007 to much acclaim, most other practicing architects read the first English edition that appeared in 1928, entitled Towards a New Architecture. Comparing the three editions is instructive, particularly in one crucial respect: the insertion of the word “new” in the title. The book wasn’t really about new architecture, because very little of it showed buildings in the International Style. Instead, it was in many respects a clever diatribe intended to convince Europeans that they had no choice but to renounce every kind of architecture that had been built before the Great War and begin anew. It was remarkably successful in fulfilling that aim.
https://www.archdaily.com/1000499/away-from-old-architecture-what-le-corbusier-really-meantMark Alan Hewitt
