Archinect - News

A Motor City Missionary

2013-04-26T17:38:00-04:00

According to academics like Brent D. Ryan, author of “Design After Decline: How America Rebuilds Shrinking Cities," it is one of the most ambitious privately financed urban reclamation projects in American history.

Earlier this month David Segal traveled to Detroit to look into the efforts/urban boosterim of Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans. Using his real estate company, Bedrock Real Estate Services, Mr. Segal is renovating properties, building apartments and wooing corporate tenants. The goal is to remake Detroit (or at least some of it's downtown) into a high-tech hub, full of the 'creative class', high culture and young entrepreneurs. Mr. Segal also explored the context and cause for the current crisis and interviewed some locals who worry about the creation of "two Detroits".

MASS Design Group wins Zumtobel Award for Butaro Hospital

2012-07-03T17:04:00-04:00

"The [Butaro] project has a high relevance, since it can be applied as a solution to similar regions with limited opportunities and high risks of infection. [...] Also remarkable is the excellent quality of the buildings that were built exclusively with local workers.”

The Butaro Hospital in Rwanda was praised as innovative and cost-efficient by the Zumtobel Award 2012 jury, ultimately winning in the category of "Built Environment." Over 230 projects were submitted in for the 2012 Zumtobel Group Award in this category. Entries were received from 22 nations while the projects themselves spanned some 30 countries.

The Butaro Hospital in Rwanda was praised as an “innovative [and] cost-efficient [in] technology and design strategy in the category "Built Environment." Over 230 projects were submitted in for the 2012 Zumtobel Group Award in this category. Entries were received from 22 nations while the projects themselves spanned some 30 countries.

The Butaro Hospital is built in the Burera District, which was one of the last two districts in Rwanda to receive a district hospital. The hospital now serves a population of over 400,000 people. Innovative design developed in collaboration with infectious disease specialists from Partners in Health and ...

Too narrowly focused on placemaking...

2012-02-29T14:11:00-05:00

You can’t just focus on housing and transit in the core of a city, you need to focus on the physical needs of manufacturing, development and the needs that go along with them. That will clearly have a huge effect not only on the city but regional level.

Jason Kambitsis recently interviewed Bruce Katz, the founding director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The two spoke about Katz's belief that optimizing economic structure, not urban form, is the key to revitalizing depressed cities and strengthening thriving ones.

The Yin and the Yang of Corporate Innovation

2012-01-29T17:56:00-05:00

....breakthrough ideas still come from individuals, not committees. “There is nothing democratic about innovation."

Bjarke Ingels among Honorees of WSJ. Magazine's Innovators of the Year Awards

2011-10-24T12:38:00-04:00

Marc Jacobs will present Katie Grand the award for fashion innovator of the year. Marina Abramovic will accept the award for Ai Weiwei... for best art innovator. Jonathan Safran Foer will present the food innovator award to — wait for it — Chipotle founder Steve Ells. Other winners include Elon Musk (technology), Joris Laarman (design) and Bjarke Ingels (architecture). Bill Gates and Warren Buffett got the philanthropy award, but will not be at the ceremony.

Printed Paper Photovoltaic Cells

2011-10-04T12:04:00-04:00

Researchers from Chemnitz University of Technology and Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, in Germany, have presented solar panels that are printed on standard paper. The technology, known as 3PV (3PV stands for printed paper photovoltaics) uses conventional printing methods and standard substrates, like those used for magazines, posters or packaging.