Archinect - News

Editor's Picks #287

2012-10-30T02:48:00-04:00

This week the Liyuan Library in Jiaojiehe Village near Beijing by Li Xiaodong/Atelier as well as two projects from the first edition of the Istanbul Design Biennial (October 13th - December 12th) were featured Archinect’s Showcase series. Namely; the interactive kinetic installation Cerebral Hut by Guvenc Ozel, and Augmented Structures v2.0, a media installation based on Istanbul's urban texture by Alper Derinbogaz and Refik Anadol.

Commenting on Augmented Structures v2.0 FRaC wrote "i don't know what it is, but i like it" while Derek Kaplan felt the Liyuan Library in Jiaojiehe Village was "Beautiful" and continued "The rough twig facade is a little close to something like camouflage, but... so well executed, and to such effect...assuming there are no sprinklers because they were not required by code for public occupancy there"?

News
Over at the NYT Opinionator blog Allison Arieff examined the pros and cons of micro-units in How Small is Too Small? brooklynmade argued "Dep...

Editor's Picks #273

2012-07-15T11:00:00-04:00

Rusty Shackleford quipped "I wonder what the realtor spin will be with these units... ‘Japan style luxury!’ ‘MINI COOPER with plumbing! Going fast!’ ...I lived once in 275sg.ft. place in NYC. A more appropriate name for this housing type would be JAIL." KarjaCH countered "if properly designed with great attention paid to detail, 300 sf can be the most amazing place to live". Meanwhile hanque helpfully pointed out "if you look at the RFP they've already been designed."

Archinect’s latest project featured in the Showcase series is the House in Ovar, Portugal, by architect, Paula Santos.

News
NYC launched the adAPT NYC Competition, a pilot program to develop a new housing model for the City’s growing small-household population. adAPT NYC seeks to create additional choices within New York City’s housing market to accommodate the city’s changing demographics. The focus being on developing new proposals for a rental building composed primarily, or completely, of micro-units -- apartments smaller than what is allowed under current regulations.

Rusty Shackleford quipped "I wonder what the realtor spin will be with these units... ‘Japan style luxury!’ ‘MINI COOPER with plumbing! Going fast!’ ...I lived once in 275sg.ft. place in NYC. A more appropriate name for this housing type would be JAIL." KarjaCH countered "if properly designed with great attention paid to detail, 300 sf can be the most amazing place to live. I spent a year in a 275 sq ft ...

Mayor Bloomberg announces new "micro-unit" apartment design competition

2012-07-09T19:38:00-04:00

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel and Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Mathew M. Wambua today launched the adAPT NYC Competition, a pilot program to develop a new housing model for the City’s growing small-household population. adAPT NYC seeks to create additional choices within New York City’s housing market to accommodate the city’s changing demographics.

The design competition involves a Request for Proposals for a rental building composed primarily, or completely, of micro-units -- apartments smaller than what is allowed under current regulations. New York City's housing codes have not kept up with its changing population, and currently do not allow an entire building of micro-units. Under this pilot program, Mayor Bloomberg will waive certain zoning regulations at a City-owned site at 335 East 27th Street in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan to test the market for this new housing model. The Mayor made the announcement at the American Institute of Architects' Center for Architecture and also was joined by Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden and Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri, whose agencies collaborated with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development on the creation of this design competition.

HPD will hold a pre-submission conference for ...

Editor's Picks #237

2011-11-13T16:13:32-05:00

Richard.Rozewski, discusses a microtecture solution being developed by a friend Patrick of APOC. Stephanie however contends “ the idea that this will promote sustainable living is patently false...the construction, however small, of individual buildings for individual people, will always inherently mean the opposite of 'sustainable' ” To which holz.box responded “false false false. microtecture can be very sustainable”.

In Archinect’s latest In Focus feature we talk to British photo artist Simon Gardiner. Simon is a “street photographer who fuses the street with a cinematic feel”.

Guy Horton, in part two of the What Should Architecture Occupy series, argues that what architecture needs is “more consumers not less”, consumers who can afford to purchase architecture. Guy goes on to suggest that the AIA should be less concerned with supporting policies which “protect the narrow interests of wealthy clients” and instead align themselves with the OWS movement since both “should be on the same side of the economic argument. After all, architects are famous for making utopian proposals. Then how about making a utopian proposal rooted in sound economic principals that will foster long-term growth and lead to greater economic stability?”

On a related note check out Reinhold Martin’s Occupy: What Architecture Can Do over at Places journal, in which he writes “Architecture is capable of mounting a prof...