Archinect - News

When a refugee camp becomes a semi-permanent settlement

2019-10-01T14:30:00-04:00

With the prospect of the Rohingya not being able to return to Myanmar for years to come, the prototypes in Camp 4 Extension reflect how aid and relief organizations are finding new ways to manage the long-term needs of the most populous refugee camp in the world.

CityLab reports on the latest efforts to drastically improve living conditions inside Kutupalong Refugee Camp, the world's largest camp of its kind and currently home to more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees that fled from ethnic and religious persecution in Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh.

"Designers in the U.S. are helping to facilitate these dreams for more stable refugee camps," write Victoria Milko and Clare Hammond in their CityLab article about recent design and infrastructure improvements.

"Nadyeli Quiroz and John David Wagner at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design are embarking on a year-long collaboration with OBAT Helpers, an Indianapolis-based community nonprofit, to explore how to create varied functional spaces within the camps, such as outdoor courtyards or provisional pop-up designs."

But making lasting progress is tricky. The Bangladeshi government insists on the temporary status of the camp — emphasizing that its Rohingya population would be returning to My...

China may dam its only free-flowing river left

2016-02-04T13:07:00-05:00

...the Nu [River is] the last remaining major watershed in China without a dam. For years, though, the local government has planned to build a series dams along the Nu, too. Entire villages have already been relocated to make way. If the dams are built, China’s last free-flowing river will turn into a series of cascading lakes.

“It’s a uniquely Chinese phenomenon,” smiled Fan. “A local government sets up an investment company, attracts investors, approves and builds its own projects with developers. All of them make enormous profits. They claim this helps alleviate poverty, but it only causes common people more problems.”

Related:

Preserving historic Yangon

2014-12-31T00:11:00-05:00

At the heart of the plan will be the idea that downtown Yangon should retain its vibrancy rather than become another sanitized zone that appeals to well-to-do tourists impressed by expensive hotels and tony cafes, Mr. Thant Myint-U said

Jane Perlez reports in from the old colonial capital, where groups like Yangon Heritage Trust are working to preserve the distinctive charm of a now crumbling, British ostentation.

Previously noted by Alexander Walter; here, here and here

New York state of mind: Weekly News Round-Up for November 10, 2014

2014-11-17T14:53:00-05:00

Thursday, November 13:

Smithsonian hires BIG architecture group for $2 billion South Mall renovation plan: While approval is still pending, the large-scale renovation will include "two underground levels of visitor amenities" and could take up to twenty years to complete.

Lucas museum faces lawsuit from Friends of the Parks: The nonprofit advocacy group claims that cordoning off the Chicago waterfront for Lucas' museum violates the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing "equal protection and due process" for deciding what to do with land belonging to the state of Illinois.

Wednesday, November 12:

Two window washers trapped on scaffolding at 1 WTC: The two men were shortly rescued by firemen, after uneven ascending cables left them dangling at a 65-degree angle 827ft in the air.

The Courtyard House Plug-In: A House Within The House: People's Architecture Office created a modular interior set to install in Beijing's historic buildings, as a renovation alternative to demolition.

The Race to Save Archi...

The Race to Save Architecture in Myanmar's Biggest City

2014-11-12T13:37:00-05:00

Through six decades of assault [...] the apartment building on Upper Pansodan endured, its graceful arches and colorful patios sacrificing little of their elegance and charm to the torments of time, nature, and repression. Then in 2013, three years into Myanmar's unprecedented political and economic opening up, the building succumbed to a force that proved too great to resist: development.

As Myanmar Modernizes, Architectural Gems Are Endangered

2014-06-05T13:01:00-04:00

Decades of socialism and military rule kept Myanmar — or Burma, as it was known — poor and isolated. There was one upside, though. The economy was so lousy, there was no drive to demolish the big British colonial buildings in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, and replace them with the glass and steel towers that now define much of the skylines in East Asia. [...] remarkable architectural heritage, which has come into the cross hairs of developers trying to cash in on rising land prices.

As Myanmar opens up to modern world, historic buildings are at risk

2014-01-09T14:06:00-05:00

Hundreds of colonial-era structures have been destroyed in recent years to make way for modern ones like the Centrepoint tower. Completed last year, the glassy 25-story skyscraper looms over a historic block that includes the dilapidated 100-year-old Supreme Court building and City Hall, which, with its white paint and intricately tiered roof, draws easy comparisons to a wedding cake. The condition of many older buildings makes them targets for tear-down.

2013 Curry Stone Design Prize Winners Announced

2013-11-07T20:02:00-05:00

The Curry Stone Foundation has announced the winners of the 2013 Curry Stone Design Prize. Now in its sixth year, the annual prize celebrates humanitarian design and honors the influential work of socially engaged practitioners.

This year's Prize winners are:

Hunnarshala (Bhuj, India)
Proximity Designs (Yangon, Myanmar)
Studio TAMassociati/Emergency (Venice/Milan, Italy)

Principals from each group will attend a two-day awards ceremony at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco tonight at 7:30 p.m. PST.

The ceremony continues tomorrow Nov. 8 at the Autodesk Gallery, San Francisco, where each winner will present their work at the Design Like You Give A Damn! LIVE conference starting at 12:30 p.m. The two-day event will be live-streamed here.