Archinect - Features

Where Are All The Affordable Housing Startups?

2024-06-19T13:04:00-04:00

Despite the general consensus that the United States is in need of more affordable housing, funding to startups focused on affordable housing and more efficient construction technologies is lower in 2024 than in recent years. In the meantime, a series of high-profile bankruptcies, closures, and struggles have been reported among startups tackling the issue. How has this happened?

TALLER’s Luis Gil on Balancing Design Idealism and Development Pragmatism

2022-11-15T10:49:00-05:00

For some, architecture is a calling; for others, they're called to the profession in unexpected ways. This is the case for Luis Gil, architect and founder of the LA-based practice TALLER (tah-yehr).

For the latest installment of Archinect's Studio Snapshot series, we connected with Gil to learn more about the firm he established and his journey to architecture. We discuss the challenges and benefits of running your own practice, what he looks for in new team members, and what he strives to change when it comes to the industry's problematic work culture.

The University of Texas at Austin's Green Core Studio Explores Sustainable Energy Production in Residential Building Design

2022-09-29T12:35:00-04:00

Design studios are one of the core components of an architectural education. Through the guidance and expertise of dedicated faculty members, students are taught the skills and design perspectives needed to navigate architecture studios.

Studios encourage students to explore new ways to design, prototype, think, and build. To bring closer attention to architecture studios, their committed instructors, and the exciting work being developed, we present Archinect Studio Pin-Ups, a new series highlighting architecture studios focusing on new and thought-provoking topics.

To kick off the series, we dive into the University of Texas at Austin's Advanced Spring 2022 Studio - Green Core, led by Jing Liu (Visiting Professor and co-founder of SO–IL) and Claire Townley (UT Austin Alumn '19 and Associate Architect at Pollen Architecture & Design).

America’s Public Housing is Burning, Fueled by Cold Indifference

2022-03-09T13:22:00-05:00

In early 2022, building fires at publicly-funded properties in the Bronx and Philadelphia claimed 29 lives. The facts and conditions surrounding the fires expose an ongoing failure by officials to provide and maintain a safe standard of housing for some of America's most vulnerable. However, the reactions by the same officials would suggest that a moment requiring urgent reforms in regulations, funding, and oversight is instead being met with indifference.

Tulane School of Architecture Graduates Reference Haiti's 2010 Earthquake to Address The Importance of Essential Infrastructure Design For Disaster Relief

2021-08-18T09:00:00-04:00

On August 15th, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. With news still unfolding, at the time of publication, over 1,400 people have been confirmed dead and over 6,000 injured. However, this isn't the first time a massive earthquake destroyed homes and impacted lives within the region. For this iteration of Archinect's Summer 2021 Thesis Review, we connected with B.Arch students Jorge Blandin & Joanne Engelhard. The duo from Tulane School of Architecture used their thesis project "A Developing Framework - Rethinking the Displacement Housing Crisis in Developing Countries" to explore how to approach essential infrastructure and affordable housing after a natural disaster like the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Blandin and Engelhard's thesis project question the excessiveness within architecture and the disparity between accessible and functional architecture that also fosters community development and equity. The duo explains, "The 2010 earthquake in Haiti damaged and destroyed 295,000...

For Affordable Housing, The Revolution Will Be Modularized

2021-07-28T14:51:00-04:00

Across the globe, the design and construction of affordable housing is failing to meet demand, leaving both low and middle income dwellers with little choice but to accept high costs, substandard conditions, or a move away from urban centers. This reality not only presents dangerous environmental and social conditions, but also underpins a fundamental failure of our current processes to design and construct quality affordable housing. In the face of this crisis, architects are finding opportunities for change. In this article, we speak with architect David Wallance FAIA, whose new book The Future of Modular Architecture sets out a paradigm-shift vision for the future of affordable housing. Here, we discuss the details of Wallance’s industrial-scale system, derived from the standard dimensions of intermodal shipping units, as well as the major changes such a system would bring to cities, housing markets, the environment, architectural education, and the business structure of the arch...

The Butterfly Effect: Retrofitting Low-Income Housing

2021-05-27T13:18:00-04:00

America's low-income housing stock is aging. The human health, social, economic, and environmental consequences of substandard housing is felt not just by their inhabitants, but by the general public. However, a growing number of architects, researchers, and policymakers are identifying a solution: retrofitting. In this article, we take a closer look at the current status of America's low-income and public housing stock, as well as the benefits, methods, and potential futures for a large-scale retrofit campaign that transforms both lives and living conditions.

Connecticut Is In the Spotlight as a Housing Reform Hotspot

2021-04-30T14:55:00-04:00

When Dr. King came to Connecticut in 1944, he was astonished by the openness and inclusivity the sleepy town of Simsbury provided in contrast to the roiling hatred he knew from his youth growing up under the shadow of Jim Crow in Georgia.

The 16-year-old college freshman was changed forever by his experience working on a tobacco farm that summer, and wrote in his diary about misgivings he had on the train ride back to Atlanta, his memory fresh with integrated dances and dinners that left him with feelings of fondness and admiration for the welcome he received in the Nutmeg State.

But what King likely could never have imagined when he was touring the verdant and friendly Hartford-area communities he found inspiring was that the same problem he found sanctuary from in the towns and suburbs north of the capital was taking hold in silence all around him. A problem with roots in the Depression that still takes hold today.

Build Something Big! One Million New Affordable Housing Units, 2020-2030

2020-09-04T17:34:00-04:00

The USA has an ever-growing affordable housing problem. For Black Americans, however, this problem has been a chronic condition that desperately requires a solution. As DC-based architect and author Melvin L. Mitchell discusses in this op-ed, the work needed to fix this must involve Black individuals from every aspect of the building industry.

This essay references the second part of Melvin L. Mitchell's recently published book African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities. Mitchell asserts that African American architects must catalyze a Black controlled housing industry and develop/build one million affordable new houses over next ten years.

A Conversation with Katie Swenson On Rebuilding Trust Through the Design of Safe and Healthy Spaces

2020-04-08T09:00:00-04:00

The question of the architect's role within the community has continued to grow and change in recent years thanks, in part, to the work of dedicated individuals like Katie Swenson. Her involvement and leadership within organizations like Enterprise Community Partners and MASS Design Group have enabled her to help redirect architecture’s creative and generative energies towards fulfilling social and community goals through projects that include the creation of affordable housing and healthful spaces.

Archinect was able to chat with Swenson and learn about her journey from comparative literature to architecture, housing, and community development. In addition, Swenson discusses what it means to be a community architect in the COVID-19 era and how two fellowship opportunities changed the course of her professional career.

"I went in with the question,” Swenson tells Archinect, “‘how can love and kindness be tools for community development?’ I came out appreciating the broader implicati...

Let's Move the Conversation From Demolition to Creating More Affordable Housing

2020-03-10T19:53:00-04:00

At the end of February, a surprising decision by a state judge revoked the approval for the top 20 floors of 200 Amsterdam Avenue, a market-rate, luxury, residential building on the Upper West Side in New York.

The developers amassed air rights, using a zoning loophole to create a 39-sided lot. While the city clarified that these zoning lots will no longer be allowed, it nevertheless sided with the developer to challenge this ruling. Despite the zoning gerrymandering that went into the design and approval of the 52-story building, few would have imagined that after receiving the required approval from the Department of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals, the developer would be asked to demolish the upper third of the building.

David Baker Architects on Growing a Team-Based, Family-Friendly Practice

2019-08-07T10:37:00-04:00

San Francisco's David Baker Architects is a leading office in the realm of affordable housing design. Founded in 1982 by University of California, Berkeley-trained architect David Baker, the firm has designed over 8,000 units of affordable housing across the San Francisco Bay Area, and has garnered hundreds of design awards, including the American Institute of Architects California Council's 2012 Distinguished Practice award.

Baker, who was elevated to the AIA's College of Fellows in 1996, runs the practice with principals Amanda Loper and Daniel Simons. Their work, which spans affordable, senior, workforce, and low-income housing types, is distinctive for the inventive sense of materiality and playful but dignified formal approaches the architects pursue as they go about fulfilling the myriad and sometimes tedious requirements specific to these types of projects. Using this approach, the team strives to concretize their "passion for and deep understanding of the power of humane an...

Glavovic Studio on Using Architecture as a Catalyst for Environmental Stewardship and Social Impact

2019-07-15T12:45:00-04:00

Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, architect Margi Nothard uses her global heritage and upbringing as a keystone to leading her Florida-based practice Glavovic Studio. A practice whose values stem from community-based engagement, socially conscious designs and environmental stewardship, Nothard has helped transform South Florida. Through her work in urban planning projects, affordable housing, public art projects, and commercial projects, the studio has made a lasting impact in Florida. Leading her firm for twenty years, Nothard's enthusiasm for social change through good design has allowed her and her team to works like the Young Circle Arts Park and the Kennedy Homes.

For this week's Studio Snapshot, Nothard shares her experiences of running a firm and what has changed over time. According to Nothard, "I was told after graduating to go somewhere where I could make a difference." After starting her practice 1999, Glavovic Studio has established itself as one of Fort Laude...

Housing after Debt? A discussion with Alastair Parvin

2017-10-20T11:28:00-04:00

This month Archinect looks closer at our housing economy—how we commission and produce homes in today’s financial climate. This year a primary index tracking residential real estate value in major US cities revealed American house prices are now rising at a rate of 5.9% per annum—a three year high—significantly outpacing relative income gains. This growth now more than doubles the hourly earnings of the average American, pricing many families out of the market and out of the city. Similar trends can be found across major metropolitan areas in Europe and Asia, fueling acute housing crises such as the well documented situation in London, England. I speak to designer and civic entrepreneur Alastair Parvin of London-based studio Architecture 00 who, frustrated by a select number of poor quality homes for sale at sensational prices, is now actively looking for ways to reshape the market itself; starting by rethinking the business model.

Can good design cure LA’s homeless problem? We asked Mike Alvidrez, CEO of Skid Row Housing Trust

2017-06-23T14:30:00-04:00

For Skid Row Housing Trust, a nonprofit developer in Los Angeles that builds housing for LA’s homeless population, good design is a basic civil right. Understanding that the environment plays a vital role in their residents’ recovery, the organization consistently teams up with renowned architectural firms such as Michael Maltzan Architecture and Brooks+Scarpa to design buildings for the homeless that stand out.

A voting guide for Los Angeles architects on the anti-growth Measure S

2017-03-06T12:24:00-05:00

Opposed by a majority of architects, yet backed by a handful of prominent Angelenos including AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, Measure S is on the March 7th ballot. Is it a sneaky ratification of NIMBY, or a sensible call for considered growth?

The Short Life and Bitter End to Munich's 'Yellow Submarine'

2016-11-26T12:26:00-05:00

Made of 16 bathtubs with specially installed portholes, 'Yellow Submarine' was a hotel room/political housing statement, and one of the 24-winning designs in the 2015 Shabbyshabby Apartments competition. Created by the Glasgow-based and Lithuanian-staffed collective Urban Restart along with Kurt Cleary, the design is purposefully referred to in the past tense: only two days after it was erected in Munich, it was destroyed. This prompted speculation that vandals, or right-wing extremists opposed to refugees, were responsible.

'Ethical Dwellings for Generation Y' explores new forms of living and owning in a changing London

2016-08-13T06:08:00-04:00

While an average of 100,000 people move to London each year, only about 25,000 new homes are built annually: a formula that has produced a critical lack in affordable housing. The median rent in the capital city is £1,400 and the average house price has passed £600,000. In other words, only the very rich can afford to live in London.

Touring some of the world's most attractive public housing projects

2016-08-09T09:24:00-04:00

Can affordable public housing be beautiful? It’s a question that for years was answered with indifference.

Student Works: Resilient Public Housing from Parsons

2013-11-06T15:05:00-05:00

Responding to a daunting list of post-Sandy urban concerns, M.Arch students at the Parsons New School for Design proposed a variety of affordable housing complexes in an under-developed patch of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.