Archinect - News

Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim unveil Essential Homes prototype designs for Latin America

2024-06-14T13:24:00-04:00

The Norman Foster Foundation has unveiled details of its new Essential Homes prototype design with Holcim that will deliver low-cost options for emergency shelter in Latin America using low-carbon concrete and cement products in demonstration of the principles of a circular economy.

Image: courtesy Norman Foster Foundation

The prototypes, which are currently being displayed as part of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, expand on a presentation made during last year's Venice Biennale and incorporate research performed by the Swiss materials manufacturer. The design has since morphed into a better scalable row house version that will be rolled out next year. The homes are said to be fully recyclable and showcase Holcim's proprietary ECOPact low-carbon concrete and ECOPlanet low carbon cement products.

Image: courtesy Norman Foster Foundation

Foster describes: "This project grew out of a workshop organized by the Norman Foster Foundation for young graduates devoted to the iss...

NYC’s housing chief resigns amid concurrent homelessness and affordability crises

2023-05-24T17:50:00-04:00

New York City’s Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz is set to leave her post in the Adams administration by early July, she told Gothamist, leaving open a critical role tasked with overseeing the city’s response to its growing housing and homelessness crises.

Katz told Gothamist the job was both “frustrating” and a “real sprint.” She is credited with overseeing the beginnings of New York Mayor Eric Adams’ first housing plan as well as streamlining several key projects involving supportive and transitional housing during her 16-month tenure.

The city’s shelter system swelled considerably in 2022 while an influx of newly arrived migrants complicated efforts to provide beds for those most in need. This came at a time when rents across the city have soared past pre-pandemic record highs in nearly every borough. New Yorkers are currently experiencing homelessness at a rate of 1 per every 120 persons, according to The Bowery Mission.

The Mayor's office has yet to name a replacement for the position.

Shigeru Ban details post-earthquake response effort in Turkey

2023-05-19T12:29:00-04:00

Shigeru Ban Architects has released photos of the architect’s response to the humanitarian crisis plaguing Turkey following the 7.8 earthquake that destroyed over 160,000 structures while claiming the lives of more than 50,000 people there and in Syria on February 6th.

The firm had previously been on the ground since March working through its Voluntary Architects Network (or VAN) nonprofit arm to construct shelters using their patented Paper Partition System that was first utilized in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan.

The system works by first constructing a system of 2x2-meter paper tubes, over which fabric privacy curtains can be installed.

Photo: © Mert Ünal

Now, three months removed from the disaster, an effort is underway to build temporary housing using what it says are new prototype designs that improve upon the Paper Log House Ban first debuted following the 1995 Kobe earthquake and later, also in Turkey, in reaction to the devastating İzmit earthquake there in...

Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim to exhibit essential housing prototype at 2023 Venice Biennale

2023-05-02T11:52:00-04:00

Construction and materials group Holcim has announced a collaboration with the Norman Foster Foundation at the 2023 Venice Biennale to develop a model for essential housing. Titled the Essential Homes Research Project, the model is intended to “provide safety, comfort, and well-being for displaced communities.”

The project is to be unveiled at the Time Space Existence exhibition organized by the European Cultural Center during the biennale, which will include the display of a real-size prototype in the Marinaressa Gardens. The prototype will be supported by an exhibition hosted in the Palazzo Mora, reflecting on the Biennale’s overall theme “The Laboratory of the Future.”

“Natural and manmade disasters create a continuous exodus of people seeking instant shelter,” said Norman Foster in a statement. “Traditionally tents or variations on them are the primary r...

IKEA Foundation supports Better Shelter’s deployment of 5,000 modular shelters in response to earthquake in Turkey and Syria

2023-02-24T11:34:00-05:00

Swedish nonprofit Better Shelter has announced the provision of 5,000 emergency shelters in Turkey following the major earthquake that has so far killed over 47,000 people across the country and neighboring Syria. The shelters were made possible through a EUR 10 million (approximately USD 10.5 million) donation by the IKEA Foundation.

Better Shelter's modular units deployed in Hatay, Turkey after the recent earthquake. Image credit: Alaaddin Seyitisa for Better Shelter

“The generous support provided by the IKEA Foundation will give crucial protection to many thousand people in this difficult time,” said Better Shelter’s managing partner Johan Karlsson in a statement. “We are proud to support our humanitarian partners in Syria and Türkiye working day and night to help survivors. We now ask businesses to step forward and join our efforts to support even more people who have lost everything.”

Better Shelter's modular units deployed in Hatay, Turkey after the recent earthquake. Image cre...

Doctors Without Borders seeks architect to join their global humanitarian missions

2023-01-18T11:12:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Shop Manager at Studio Sanford Biggers, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open position on Archinect Jobs for an Architect at Doctors Without Borders.

The role, which requires a minimum of two years’ experience, calls for an architect who will oversee the design and construction of infrastructure to support the organization’s international humanitarian missions. Responsibilities in the role can range from feasibility studies and design proposals to management of the tendering, construction, and completion process.

In return, and aside from conventional industry workplace benefits, the organization offers to cover a range of primary costs including pre-departure inductions, vaccinations, visas, transportation and accommodation in the field, and psychosocial care support before and after missions.

Zaha Hadid Architects designs collection of emergency shelters for displaced communities

2022-12-20T11:20:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a collection of tents to be used as schools, clinics, and emergency shelters for displaced communities. The 27 tents, constructed with the support of the Education Above All Foundation, have been donated to the International Organization of Migration (IOM) and the Qatar Red Crescent.

Photo credit: Luke Hayes

Described by the ZHA team as a “robust, cost-effective, and lightweight modular architectural system,” the weatherproof structures are designed to be easily moved and re-assembled, with components that can be upcycled or recycled. Supported by a curving steel frame clad with fabric, the internal environment offers an open-plan layout lit by diffuse natural light.

Photo credit: Luke Hayes

Before the donation, the tents were being utilized as schools for hundreds of displaced Pakistani children in Pakistan, and Syrian children in Turkey. In their new capacity, ten tents donated to the IOM will serve as schools in Turkey and Yemen, while five will ...

Kyiv-based Balbek Bureau develops modular refugee shelters for displaced Ukrainians

2022-03-29T16:58:00-04:00

With more than 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country and another 6.5 million internally displaced, architects in Ukraine have been hard-pressed to put their skills to work by creating the necessary shelters and accommodations required for those uprooted by the brutal Russian war machine.

One such firm at the forefront of this effort is Kyiv-based balbek bureau, an award-winning 70-member practice whose peacetime portfolio ranges from retail and residential spaces to corporate offices, hotels, restaurants, and wellness centers. Led by its founder Slava Balbek, the team has pivoted to the refugee crisis with a new project for temporary housing titled RE: UKRAINE.

Rendered image © Balbek Bureau.

The modular town system is meant to provide a modicum of dignity for their fellow citizens via the expedited delivery of an adjustable set of structures centered around four basic elements: private rooms, public recreation areas, adequate kitchens, an...

Joseph Choma explores foldable shelters with his students at Clemson University

2021-12-20T14:24:00-05:00

Taking as the focus the possibility of his patented, foldable fiberglass technique for use in resiliency design efforts, Design Topology Lab founder Joseph Choma is once again breaking the mold on a typology that has become increasingly relevant in the era of intensifying natural disasters born out of climate change.

Choma is currently teaching a studio at Clemson that explores the potential of fully deployable shelters for disaster relief with foldable composites.

The Cone crease pattern. Image courtesy of Joseph Choma, Clemson University.

The studio was split into four parts. The first segment included analyzing the current state of deployable shelters for disaster relief, uncovering what he calls a significant gap between lightweight tents and more permanent dwellings made from prefabricated components. This gap resulted in people usually living in tents a great deal longer than originally anticipated. The challenge for his students then became to answer the question of how flat-p...

Harvard’s origami-inspired structures offer a future for pop-up or emergency architecture

2021-04-28T10:37:00-04:00

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed bistable inflatable structures inspired by origami, raising new possibilities for the future of emergency shelters, pop-up architecture, and even extra-terrestrial structures.

Many of today’s inflatable structures are monostable, meaning they require constant pressure to maintain an inflated state. A loss of pressure will return the structure to its original stable form – flat. The researchers at Harvard therefore asked “what if these structures had more than one stable state?” and set about developing a form that eould be just as stable inflated as it was flat on the ground.

The resulting design is inspired by origami and guided by geometry, developed through a library of triangular building blocks that can pop up, fold flat, or combine in different configurations to build closed, multistable shapes. “We are relying on the geometry of these building blocks, not the materi...

Jupe creates rapid response deployable shelter units for healthcare workers and patient recovery

2020-04-02T18:23:00-04:00

Across the globe, industries are doing the best they can to respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting millions of people daily. The architecture and design industry has stepped into action by providing aid and continuous assistant through the PPE fabrication and collaboration with other medical and health institutions.

As numbers of coronavirus patients increase, the need for medical space to assist these patients has decreased. In places like China, Italy, the U.S. and Germany, temporary medical facilities have been constructed. However, one company aims to help mitigate the issue and provide spaces where healthcare workers can rest and patients can recover. Co-founders Jeff Wilson and Cameron Blizzard have teamed together with a group of healthcare professionals, industrial design specialists, architects, and engineers to create another way to help the COVID-19's growing housing and treatment issue.

Images courtesy of JUPE

According to the company's site, "COVID-19...

Composite shelters being developed to aid hospitals in COVID-19 testing and treatment

2020-03-31T15:28:00-04:00

The new Tupelo shelters are designed to be easily and strategically combined with additional rigid-walled Tupelo shelters as well as soft tent shelters. [...] the new shelter’s dynamic design can adapt to fit needs in healthcare for treatment and testing, and perhaps in the evolving classroom setting as well. The shelter can be “flat-packed,” meaning the shelter walls can be stacked on top of each other for high-volume, rapid transportation to affected areas.

Rhode Island-based Core Composites, a leading company that has built and designed advanced composite-based, rigid-wall shelters for the U.S. military, is working to quickly develop an easily deployable shelter that can be used for COVID-19 testing and treatment, and to aid over-capacity hospitals.

The wealthy run to bunkers to escape coronavirus

2020-03-12T11:18:00-04:00

The world’s richest people are chartering private jets to set off for holiday homes or specially prepared disaster bunkers in countries that, so far, appear to have avoided the worst of the Covid-19 outbreak. Many are...taking personal doctors or nurses on their flights to treat them and their families in the event that they become infected. The wealthy are also besieging doctors in private clinics in Harley Street, London, and across the world, demanding private coronavirus tests.

According to the Guardian, Robert Vicino, founder and chief executive of Vivos Group, a California-based company constructing underground shelters designed to withstand a range of natural disasters and catastrophes, said his firm had seen a surge in inquiries and sales since the crisis took hold.

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...

Developer brings luxury condos to old Missile Silos in Kansas

2018-11-13T15:46:00-05:00

When one thinks of luxury condos, rural Kansas isn't what typically comes to mind. Then again, the location isn't the only thing unique about developer Larry Hall's 15-story, residential complex sitting underground in a former missile silo.

In 2008, Hall purchased the missile launch facility in Kansas for $300,000, in order to build fortified shelters that can withstand a variety of catastrophic events. The result is his $20 million Survival Condo Project where accommodations start at $1.5 million and include things like windows that mimic natural sunlight.

Indoor swimming pool inside the Survival Condo Project.

In the event of an attack or natural disaster, the luxury facility can hold up to 75 people for over five years. During this time, residents of the complex can go for a swim in the indoor pool complete with a waterslide, enjoy a flick in the movie theater, read a book at the building's library, or grab a drink at the custom bar while the world outside burns. The sprawling fa...

Shigeru Ban builds temporary shelter for flooding victims in Japan

2018-07-17T14:17:00-04:00

World-renowned architect Shigeru Ban sprang into action again in a disaster zone by setting up temporary “homes” to give flooding victims here some much-needed privacy. Ban, members of his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and student volunteers used recycled paper tubes and pieces of fabric to create partitions for evacuees in the gymnasium of the Sono Elementary School in the Mabicho district on July 14.

Torrential downpours and subsequent floods and mudslides have devastated parts of Western Japan in recent weeks. With over 250 people dead or missing and more than 8 million people under evacuation order, this has reportedly been one of the country's most severe natural disasters in years.

Pritzker Prize laureate Shigeru Ban joined the relief efforts with VAN, the Voluntary Architects' Network he's leading, and his award-winning, low-cost, easy-to-assemble cardboard tube emergency shelter system to create a sense of privacy for evacuees having to spend their nights away from their flooded homes in an elementary school gymnasium in Okayama Prefecture.

"It is our mission as professional architects to make living environments better. We are just doing our job," said Ban.

Image: VAN - Voluntary Architects' Network

Image: V...

MADWORKSHOP fellows reimagine the emergency shelter for disasters

2018-05-08T14:37:00-04:00

Through a plethora of over-designed shelters, interventions, and temporary housing prototypes, professional architecture has attempted to pick up on issues of global mass displacement. Despite the endless stream of projects of this nature, little has changed and cots in gymnasiums remain the standard, insufficient approach in times of need.

Addressing this issue, Shelter Squared is meant to offer a different design-oriented solution to emergencies. Designed by Jeremy Carman and Jayson Champlain, two of MADWORKSHOP's 2017 fellows, the flat-packed, approximately mattress-sized shelter takes less than fifteen minutes to assemble, and can be stored on-site making it immediately available in any scenario.

The units are constructed with lightweight, waterproof panels for easy maintenance and use velcro connections to ensure simplicity of assembly. Each unit provides an operable fabric enclosure, clean floor, roomy sleeping quarters, lockable...

Architects for Society creates Hex House, a more “dignified emergency shelter”

2017-12-27T15:45:00-05:00

Sallam noted that the average stay in a refugee camp is 17 years, and many displaced people live in makeshift dwellings such as airplane hangars. They may have shelter, but it’s not “shelter with dignity,” Design elements [of the Hex House] include 12-foot ceilings, which give the impression of roominess within the cozy space. Designed to function “off the grid,” [it] also has solar panels, and it’s raised slightly to protect against flooding and to provide some passive cooling, Sallam said.

The Minneapolis-based Architects for Society, a small non-profit group of mid-career architects from around the world, designed the Hex House to find better solutions for providing deployable emergency shelter for people displaced by natural or manmade disasters. The 500-square-foot Hex House is a hexagon-shaped dwelling that includes two bedrooms, a bathroom, a porch, a kitchen, and common areas. So far, Architects for Society has built two prototypes. Although they're still fine-tuning the design, they hope to eventually work with organizations like FEMA to implement their concept.

Surge in bomb shelter sales as tensions with North Korea increase

2017-08-11T15:24:00-04:00

As tensions with North Korea flare in light of the news that they may have successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, everyone is scrambling to determine how seriously to take them.

Back in May, when North Korea began testing nuclear weapons with growing sophistication, Japan—vulnerable due to its proximity to North Korea and the fact that it hosts a number of U.S. military bases—saw a huge uptick in price inquiries on private nuclear shelters.

Tropical island-themed nuclear shelter in Japan

Now that the U.S. President has threatened the communist country "with fire and fury like the world has never seen" and Kim Jong-Un has shot back with threats of an attack on Guam, we are seeing a similar increase as those in areas like Guam or California that are at high-risk of being effected in the event of an attack look into extreme safety measures.

Bomb shelter on display, by Atlas Survival Shelters

In California, one company, Atlas Survival Shel...

Shigeru Ban is building shelters for a Kenyan refugee settlement

2017-07-20T13:14:00-04:00

Due to the large influx of refugees, sheet walls of many temporary houses have begun to wear out. And there are other major constraints. There’s low water supply, deforestation, and extremely hot temperatures, and a rainy season which often results in heavy flooding. Plus Kalobeyei remote location creates many obstacles. There are no commercial flights to the area, and it can take up to 3 days to get there by road for the capital, Nairobi, where some materials may have to be sourced from.

Shigeru Ban has signed an agreement with UN-Habitat to design up to 12,000 new homes in the Kalobeiyei refugee settlement site in Northern Kenya. Commissioned in response to the settlement’s rapid growth, which is expected to outnumber its original capacity of 45,000 within a year, the new housing will need to be a replicable model adaptable to the influx of refugees fleeing violence and climate change in South Sudan and Somalia.

"The key thing will be to design and construct shelter where no or little technical supervision is required,” noted Ban, “and use materials that are locally available and eco-friendly. It’s important that the houses can be easily maintained by inhabitants.”

Take a look at the tropical island-themed nuclear shelters popping up in Japan

2017-05-01T19:09:00-04:00

In Japan, small companies offering custom-built underground nuclear shelters claim a boost in sales in recent weeks. Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, based in Kobe, western Japan, told Reuters it typically receive six shelter-building orders a year, but has received eight orders in April alone. Another company, Earth Shift, says it has received 10 times more inquiries for quotes this year.

North Korea has been busy launching missiles and testing nuclear weapons the past few weeks—and their flexing of power on the international stage has many worried. As fear of global conflict increases, their neighbor, Japan, is left particularly vulnerable due to its proximity to North Korea and its hosting of numerous U.S. military bases. Fear of a strike in the country is growing. Discussion of a possible missile strike and what to do have dominated TV talk shows and media in Japan in recent weeks as interest in regional television has spiked. Tokyo has encouraged local governments to carry out evacuation drills and Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe is currently in Moscow discussing the global response with Putin.

The growing threat of a nuclear attack has lead to a huge uptick in private nuclear shelters. One company, Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, which usually sells about six bunkers a year, has received eight orders in April alone. Earth Shift, another company specializing in fallou...

Refugee shelter takes top prize for the Beazley Designs of 2016

2017-01-26T20:13:00-05:00

Designed by Johan Karlsson, Dennis Kanter, Christian Gustafsson, John van Leer, Tim de Haas, Nicolò Barlera, the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR, the photovoltaic panel-powered refugee shelter "Better Shelter" has been named the Beazley Design of the Year, beating out the five other category winners to take the top spot.

According to a press release, 30,000 of the shelters, which only take a few hours to assemble from their two-box, fully equipped kit, are currently being used globally.

Increasing development translates to more homeless housing

2016-05-18T13:06:00-04:00

When Amazon donated an empty South Lake Union hotel for use as a homeless shelter, it was investing in a model that Mary’s Place, the service provider, has perfected: turning vacant or transitioning buildings into temporary shelter.

According to decades of research conducted on real-life case studies, providing housing for the homeless is actually cheaper than not doing so. Thriving real estate markets also make it easier to provide permanent shelter, as noted in the article:

It’s perhaps counterintuitive, but Executive Director Marty Hartman says the boom times for the local real estate market have created more opportunities for Mary’s Place than the recession. As companies expand, it’s development more than abandonment that stocks the vacant building pool.

Seattle officials have begun to pivot toward 24-hour shelters as a new approach toward the issue. This is modeled after San Francisco’s Navigation Center, which houses people so they can devote their energy away from survival and toward creating stability in their lives.

For more on homelessness:

Surviving in style: the world's largest private doomsday shelter has a swimming pool, wine cellar, art vaults

2015-11-16T13:51:00-05:00

This is The Oppidum, a massive 323,000 square foot property with plans for a spectacular estate. What lies hidden beneath, carved deep in the mountain is the largest residential doomsday shelter in the world. [...] The planned luxurious underground compound on two levels includes a total space of 77,500 sf with 13 foot high ceilings. The layout features one large 6,750 sf apartment and six 1,720 sf apartments. Construction on the secret facility began in 1984, at the height of the Cold War.

Related on Archinect:

It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel luxurious): high-end apocalypse shelters

2015-10-22T20:14:00-04:00

Vicino's company built Vivos Indiana, an "impervious underground complex" built in a Cold-War-era nuclear shelter and kitted out with luxury amenities. The idea is that you sign up in advance and plunk down $35,000 per person ($25,000 for kids) to secure one of the 80 spots available within the shelter...you can survive for a year amidst leather couches, 600-thread-count sheets and gourmet chow.

"Once through security, the aesthetic makes a drastic shift," notes the narrator of the Travel Channel's video profile of the Vivos Group's underground luxury shelter. Vivo, a company which specializes in creating luxurious accommodations for that rough, between-civilizations feeling, also has a top-of-the-line European version of their shelter, made specifically for "high-net worth families."

The Anatomy of Emergency

2014-12-10T14:33:00-05:00

Of all the roles of government, emergency response may be the least controversial. When disaster hits, we expect our fire, police, and other public services to provide immediate relief. But as James McConnell, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Data at the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM), reminds us, tactical effectiveness in a crisis requires more than boots on the ground, ready at a moment’s notice.

Garrison Architects develops post-disaster housing prototype for NYC residents

2014-06-25T21:15:00-04:00

Garrison Architects adds to the pressing topic of 21st-century disaster resilience for dense urban cities with their modular post-disaster housing prototype. Developed for the New York City Office of Emergency Management, the project aims to provide New Yorkers not only with reliable and adaptable emergency shelter, but also to keep residents close to their communities and reduce the necessity of long-term displacement.

More details on the prototype's design below:

"The aim is to create a blueprint for post-disaster housing by utilizing the latest construction technology in conjunction with stringent requirements for safety, sustainability, durability, and universal design.
The five multi-story modules [that Garrison Architects designed] are infinitely flexible: they can be deployed in vacant lots, private yards, or public spaces. When needed, the modules are trucked to a site, craned into place, and plugged into utilities.
With 1- and 3-bedroom configurations, every unit features a liv...

IKEA designs a better home for refugees

2013-06-26T12:03:00-04:00

The prototype of the shelter is now being tested in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The refugee families who would be making the shelter their homes will have a direct say in how the product is developed, putting their experience at the heart of this collaborative process.

Chinese man spends whole life savings building very own 'Noah's Ark' over fears of impending apocalypse

2012-11-28T17:20:00-05:00

The vessel, which has cost him ¥1million (£100,000), measures 21.2m long, 15.5m wide, 5.6m high and displaces about 140 tons of water. Lu, from Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, admits it's not much to look at, but is confident it will serve its purpose.

Architecture for Humanity Launches Philippines Floods Response Program for Long-Term Disaster Mitigation

2012-08-09T18:01:00-04:00

On August 6, the Tropical Storm Haikui brought two days of heavy rains that caused massive flooding and landslides throughout the capital city of Manila in the Philippines. Over 800,000 people were evacuated from their homes and 250,000 people have moved into emergency shelters. [...] Architecture for Humanity is committed to helping communities in Manila rebuild and prevent future disasters. We need your help.