Archinect - News

A house for spite and haunting

2016-01-05T13:35:00-05:00

While a dream house tells us what we want, and a haunted house tells us what we fear, a haunting house sits somewhere in between: seductive rather than spooky, suggesting an alternate reality that is more adventurous or transgressive or fulfilling than the one actually being lived.

Kate Bolick writes about the Pink House, located on the road to Plum Island, overlooking a vast flat landscape of pristine salt marsh Massachusetts. Rumored to be a "spite house", it served as personal real estate fantasy, as well as inspiration for artists, photographers and now preservationists.

Demolishing the ghosts of a housing crash

2013-12-29T21:32:00-05:00

"During that time, Ireland allowed a kind of honor code building inspection. The result is that many people paid high prices for houses that are fire hazards or sinking in bogs or are built with faulty foundations or missing drainage systems, a problem that is even harder and more expensive to solve."

Suzanne Daley examines how Ireland is addressing the problem of ghost estates, unfinished leftovers from the booming days of the Celtic Tiger. Government has embraced demolition as one solution, especially for homes which were never finished and which would cost too much to complete. However, given the scale of the problem, current demolition plans are not adequate to the need.

Regarding Moderne Geisterstädte

2012-05-26T18:10:00-04:00

Neft Dashlari, an artificial settlement off the coast of Azerbaijan, was constructed by the Soviets after World War II, when the state was facing a major oil shortage. (Image by Jon Björgvinsson)

Kate Katharina Ferguson writes about a current exhibition at the Museum of Architecture at the TU Berlin, which features photographs of ghost towns from around the world. From a deserted Cypriot holiday resort to a brand new Chinese city devoid of inhabitants, the exhibit asks why people abandon their communities and explores the stories that make these empty places so compelling.