Archinect - News

UNStudio proposes a new meaning for 'smart living' with their latest residential project in Munich

2021-02-10T20:29:00-05:00

Conversation around the future of housing is a topic commonly discussed within architecture and urban planning circles. Firms large and small have postulated where issues within housing schemes lie and how the industry can address them. However, as architects continue to dance around solutions for "smart housing" and urban living, there are reservations on what that looks like specifically.

While housing issues vary worldwide based on their social, political, and environmental factors, firms like MVRDV, Sidewalk Labs, among others, have presented ideas that aim to reimagine residential developments and their so-called "smart" components. Recently, UNStudio announced the introduction of their latest residential project in Munich called Van B. They claim their prototype for modern city-dwelling will "cater to changing demographics and multiple family constellations. With its highly flexible apartments, outdoor and shared communal spaces, and striking facade, Van B offers a new form o...

The "anti-noise control window" is designed to stop urban sound pollution in its tracks

2020-07-15T15:42:00-04:00

The system uses a microphone outside the window to detect the repeating sound waves of the offending noise source, which is registered by a computer controller. That in turn deciphers the proper wave frequency needed to neutralize the sound, which is transmitted to the array of speakers on the inside of the window frame.

A team of researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore led by Masaharu Nishimura and Bhan Lam have developed a prototype approach that can decrease the amount of urban noise that infiltrates a dwelling.

The grid of circular speakers is installed within the open window frame and filters out constant sounds of a certain frequency. It has yet to be perfected to block out sporadic and low-pitched sounds, however.

How architecture plays a key role in fighting loneliness in our cities

2018-12-20T19:12:00-05:00

Winston Churchill once observed that we shape the buildings and then the buildings shape us. I have written elsewhere about how architects and planners, albeit unwittingly, are complicit in producing an urban landscape that contributes to an unhealthy mental landscape. Can we think of different ways to be in the city, of a different architecture that can “cure” loneliness?

Tanzil Shafique, a Ph.D. researcher in urban design at the University of Melbourne, conducted a graduate design studio where students came up with potential architectural and urban responses to loneliness.

New Yorkers with elevator phobia share how they've coped with their lifelong fear

2018-10-05T18:26:00-04:00

The elevator-phobic people of New York City are almost our own subculture [...] I’ve fantasized at times about a kind of utopia: a gleaming glass city free of elevators. But for now I, just like Gabriella and Rachel and Kevin and Nakia, still live in New York, and still constantly have to force myself to enter slim or squat boxes of despair. Why haven’t we left? What strange fate have we dealt ourselves, to live in a place full of hellscapes.

Having a deeply ingrained fear of elevators while living in a vertical landscape like New York City — which has over 60,000 elevators, by the way — isn't easy for some folks, like writer Amos Barshad. He and other fellow New Yorkers he interviews talk about how their phobia began, their search for answers to why they still have this fear, and how they manage it in their everyday lives.

New robotically furnished apartments being tested for space efficiency

2018-09-28T19:25:00-04:00

As Americans cram into ever-tighter urban living arrangements, a question has emerged: Isn’t there some better way to furnish a tiny apartment? Yes. The answer, of course, is robots. Inside a model studio apartment at the Eugene, an 844-unit building on Manhattan’s West Side, sits a blocky, Swiss Army-knife-like unit that looks a little like two-sided armoire with lots of compartments. It’s called Ori. Ori runs on a track and can be activated by voice command...

Companies like Ori and Bumblebee Spaces are testing out robotic furniture in major cities where living space is limited. The Ori system, currently testing robotically-furnished apartments in Manhattan, operates through voice command or your smartphone app moving the modular unit along a floor track. Bumblebee Spaces, testing spaces in Seattle and San Francisco, takes interior robotics to the ceiling by moving furniture vertically from the floor to being stored above your head.

Comic-strip ads created as marketing to entice millennials to move to a Chicago suburb

2018-04-10T13:51:00-04:00

Welcome to Homewood, Illinois, a suburb of 20,000 that is marketing itself to urbanites as a hidden hipster gem. The town, which is about 25 miles south of downtown Chicago, just launched a new advertising campaign called “Think Homewood.” Ads posted inside trains on the L’s Blue Line and elsewhere in Chicago contrast the laid-back vibe of Homewood to the stress of city living. The ads are comic strips drawn by illustrator and Homewood resident Marc Alan Fishman.

The Chicago suburb Homewood harnessed the graphic skills of a local artist to launch their comic-strip ad campaign, Think Homewood, in order to attract millennials. Joining the list of suburban towns that must now work to attract the demographic they were originally intended for, Homewood strives to market itself as a diverse neighborhood for young families.

Homewood ad campaign by artist Marc Alan Fishman.

Think Homewood addresses the inconveniences of city life, especially for those with kids, and promises a stress free alternative. The campaign plays off millennial tropes including love of avocados, children named "zen", and brunching at farm-to-table cafes.

Homewood ad campaign by artist Marc Alan Fishman.

Geographer Federico Caprotti on the “new urban citizen” in data-driven urban planning

2017-08-25T20:51:00-04:00

What if new technology further exacerbates urban inequality, especially among those on the wrong side of the digital divide? [Geographer Federico Caprotti of the University of Exeter] sees the world heading toward a notion of a “new urban citizen”, one that continually provides data, which may leave out those who are unable or unwilling to contribute.

Citiscope interviews geographer and smart-city researcher Federico Caprotti, who co-wrote an academic paper in response to the U.N.'s approval of the New Urban Agenda last year. Caprotti shares his thoughts on the rise of the “new urban citizen”, as well as the hidden inequalities that data-driven urban planning and management could potentially worsen.

Thirty-three projects win $5 million prize in 2017 Knight Cities Challenge

2017-06-12T13:04:00-04:00

The Knight Foundation held another successful Knight Cities Challenge for the third consecutive year...Starting with a staggering 4,500 design ideas in the open call, the jury narrowed down the competition pool to 144 finalists. Now, the 33 winners have been revealed and will share the $5 million cash prize that will help implement their projects in 19 Knight-invested communities.

The winning ideas range from an urban beach along Detroit's Atwater Street to a new public space in Columbia, South Carolina that connects two isolated neighborhoods. See all the winning projects on Bustler.

How these U.S. cities will continue to fight climate change during Trump's presidency

2016-11-22T14:48:00-05:00

What impact will Donald Trump’s league of global-warming deniers and fossil-fuel boosters have on U.S. climate action? The short-term prognosis might not be as damaging as some fear, but...it seems safe to assume that for the next four years, domestic climate policy will be in the deep freezer—while the rest of us heat up...[But] U.S. cities have the power to shrink that footprint and prepare for the worst, even in the absence of financial or regulatory support from the federal government

A quick profile at how five American cities will continue progressing toward their goals to combat climate change, even without federal support from a Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress.

More on Archinect:

Trump says climate change is a "hoax", yet moves to protect his properties from sea level rise

Trump pilfers Clinton's plan for an 'infrastructure bank'

Frank Gehry might bail on the U.S. now that Trump's been elected

“You miss it when it’s gone”: On New Yorkers' addiction to noise

2016-08-02T14:28:00-04:00

To live in New York means to get habituated to the noise of everyday life here...As a neighborhood becomes more homogenous, and its residents sync their noise patterns, noise complaints tend to go down. This may explain why, controlling for other factors, gentrifying areas of the city display higher levels of noise complaints. City residents stop consciously recognizing noise as novel, and it becomes background, even if their bodies don’t always recognize it as such.

“We all love to hate the noise. And yet sitting in silence, I do not feel as if I’ve found an escape from pain: I have simply traded it for a new variety. Shockingly, I realize I want to trade back.”

Writer Susie Neilson delves into the pros and cons of urban noise pollution, a truly defining factor of living in NYC.

More on Archinect:

Take a listen to the NYT's beautiful sonic portraits of architectural spaces

For nebulous decibel numbers, the Silent Treatment

Have you listened to your building?

Master acoustician, Yasuhisa Toyota, talks about kickstarting his career with the Disney Concert Hall

This atlas shows how much light pollution has infiltrated night skies worldwide

2016-06-10T21:08:00-04:00

Where should you travel if you want killer views of the stars unblemished by artificial light?Certainly not the U.S. or Europe, where nearly 100 percent of the population endures some form of light pollution...Italy’s [ISTIL], NOAA, the National Park Service, and elsewhere built one of the most comprehensive atlases of global light pollution to date. They hope their work will set a benchmark for future generations struggling with day blending into night.

You can find the atlas of artifical sky brightness here.

More on Archinect:

New glow-in-the-dark cement could illuminate roads & structures

Designing for the Night

"drawing/space" by Emma McNally to show at “Abstract Drawing” exhibition in London’s Drawing Room

Is Pyongyang's eccentric architecture only skin deep?

2016-05-20T14:09:00-04:00

Some Pyongyang-watchers believe the changes are merely skin deep, and do not portend or reflect deeper political or economic changes. ‘There is still all this state influence. There is no free development [...] The production of the city has not yet changed. Only the shapes of the buildings have changed.’ ‘There is this thing among North Koreans about developing...an architecture that is reflective of their society. So what is an architecture that reflects their society?‘

More on Archinect:

‘Pyongyang Speed:’ North Korea miraculously cranks out massive residential development for scientists in only one year

Pyongyang's inner Wes Anderson shines through in its architecture, then and now

As bicycle ownership in North Korea rises, Pyongyang introduces bike lanes

How Jane Jacobs continues to be an influential force in city planning

2016-05-04T14:19:00-04:00

She would ask us to look at the consequences of these sub-economies for the city – for its people, its neighbourhoods, and the visual orders involved...Talking with Jacobs, it became clear that community battles were, for her, simply part of a wider inquiry as she sought to better understand, and develop concepts for, the role of cities in the economy.

And if you haven't already noticed it, there's a special Google Doodle celebrating Jacobs' 100th birthday.

More on Archinect:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx on the troubled relationship between infrastructure and race: "We ought to do it better than we did it the last time"

A closer look at the often complicated relationship between placemaking and gentrification

Built for Humans: Bryce T. Bauer interviews Sharon Zukin

Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs: The Opera

Loneliness is on the rise throughout the world's cities

2016-04-12T15:13:00-04:00

”...it might be that loneliness is often due to circumstance. The thing with cities is we are absolutely surrounded by people...We can see other people living richer, more populated lives than our own. At the same time, we can feel very exposed … there are lots of eyes on everyone. That is why the loneliness of the city has a particularly distinct tang to it. Loneliness, however, is often like bad weather, “it passes through our lives”.

More about mental health on Archinect:

The Internet and the Future of Loneliness

An environmental psychologist on why boring design is bad for your health

How urban designers can better address mental health in their work, according to a new think tank

Study Links Walkable Neighborhoods to Prevention of Cognitive Decline

Austin Mayor Steve Adler on the city's growing pains

2016-03-29T13:44:00-04:00

We’re growing faster than any other metropolitan area in the country, and we have been for the last five years...And the challenges are, with all the growth that we’re having, we’re going to stop being the city that we imagine that we are, that we remember being. We have to grow to be the city that we still recognize. So those challenges are not optional challenges for us to deal with, they’re the challenges for us to deal with.

As Austin rapidly becomes an "it" city, how will the city keep its character? Metropolis talks with Austin Mayor Steve Adler about the multiple challenges ahead.

More on Archinect:

Seven U.S. cities competing to be the "smartest" in urban transit systems

Guns in the Studio: Texas' new campus carry law prompted Architecture Dean Fritz Steiner to resign. He joins us to discuss the law's effect on architecture education, on Archinect Sessions #55

Entrepreneurs look to tackle Austin's traffic woes

More Americans are becoming "mega-commuters", U.S. Census stats show

2016-02-26T17:51:00-05:00

In 1980, for instance, fewer than 12 percent of American workers commuted for 45 minutes or more one way, according to the Census. The Census didn't even bother separating out 60- and 90-minute commuters in 1980, since it was relatively rare. But they began tracking these mega-commuters in 1990. That year, 1.6 percent of workers commuted 90 minutes or more one way. In 2014, 2.62 percent of workers were commuting this long, an increase of 64 percent over the prevalence in 1990.

More about urban mobility:

So Cal has dumped a lot of money into transit projects, but there's been little pay-off so far

The Ehang passenger drone might be another way people will get around town someday

Is America actually shifting away from its car obsession? Not entirely.

Think driverless cars will reduce traffic? Not so fast.

BIG is proposing this "pixellated"-module housing project in Toronto

2016-02-22T18:19:00-05:00

The sentiment is warm and fuzzy. The design, however, is radical: BIG has imagined a complex that would be unlike any other building in the city – or, indeed, North America. The scheme blends an unusual stack-of-blocks form, and adds a complex weave of public and private spaces underneath and within the heart of the building itself...the effect [Bjarke Ingels] is going for is akin to 'a Mediterranean mountain town.'

More recent BIG projects:

BIG to design 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, alongside smaller "Summer Houses" by Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman and Asif Kahn

BIG in Paris: Bjarke Ingels to design for Galeries Lafayette on Champs-Élysées

BIG's concept for a spiraling-landscape tower in NYC's Hudson Yards

"It’s about recognizing someone as existing": Photo exhibit depicts L.A.'s homelessness crisis

2016-01-19T11:30:00-05:00

Los Angeles-based designers Sofia Borges and Susan Nwankpa recently collaborated in a photo exhibition titled "HOME(less)". Currently at the University of Southern California, the exhibition spotlights L.A.'s ongoing homelessness crisis in an interestingly positive manner. Borges and Nwankpa took a moment with Archinect to give more details into their project.

Read the full Archinect feature here.

More about homelessness in L.A.:

LA's freeway system is becoming an increasingly crowded 'neighborhood' for the city's homeless

Low-income housing in Los Angeles: A look at the past, present and future

Los Angeles to declare homelessness in the city an 'emergency' and pledge $100 million

In Los Angeles, homelessness is becoming more visible

Lessons learned: The complex realities when designing communal social housing

2016-01-05T15:18:00-05:00

What went wrong in Winnipeg was not just about architecture, and 5468796 were stuck trying to make the best of a bad situation. The pulling out of government support to make Centre Village an actual co-operative changed the [project's direction]...'It’s time to get the peanut butter off our fingers,' said Ross McGowan, former chief executive and president of CentreVenture...He admits that a failure to understand the needs of the community took a considerable toll on the project.

Despite good intentions to help families in need, perhaps the worst nightmare an architect can face when designing affordable housing is realizing that the project — which would of course already be fully built — doesn't meet the actual demands of the community, and then some. That's basically what happened to the 5468796 architecture-designed Centre Village project in Winnipeg.

More about affordable housing on Archinect:

California to decrease parking requirements for affordable housing

Cutting across the Chicago Architecture Biennial: Tatiana Bilbao's solution to Mexico's housing shortage

Up to 50% of all renting London households are living in poverty

The promising affordable housing of Hunters Point South

Poor Doors of Perception: discriminatory design, collapsing balconies, and virtual realities on Archinect Sessions #36

How L.A. can reboot its "creative economy" so artists can actually live in town

2015-12-11T14:26:00-05:00

But if L.A. is going to remain a creative capital, its civic and cultural leaders are going to need to do more than offer really great talk about how great we are...This can start with the Otis Report on the Creative Economy...If this report is to be more than just a feel-good data dump, it could use some solid recommendations on how L.A. compares to other cities culturally and how we might improve the situation for artists and cultural organizations, both small and large.

More about arts districts on Archinect:

Venice Beach's ongoing grapple with the tech titan invasion

Downtown LA's vision of an architecture and design super cluster

How one urban planner is helping revamp a Miami suburb "without gentrification"

With a little compromise, illegal urban squats like Ljubljana's Metelkova Mesto can do a city good

How Many Artists Does It Take to Make an Arts District?

A trip in Lavasa, India's developing corporate-built town

2015-12-08T18:37:00-05:00

When fully built, [the New Urbanist, corporate development] Lavasa intends to consume 100 sq km...and will cater to a total population of up to 300,000 in five 'towns' built on seven hills...[But] how does it turn itself from a quirky weekend getaway into a fully fledged 'smart city' where people live and work full time?

Previously on Archinect: Lavasa a new orderly, high-tech "city"

Is America actually shifting away from its car obsession? Not entirely.

2015-10-23T18:45:00-04:00

The plateauing and decline in U.S. vehicle miles traveled per capita that occurred between [2005-2014] was described by some hopeful commentators as a dramatic shift that was indicative of the preferences of a new workforce...Marginal changes in the way a new generation behaves...cannot overcome the realities of a country where more than three-fourths of jobs are located more than three miles from downtowns and where only one-fourth of homes are in places that their residents refer to as urban.

More about car transit on Archinect:

Welcome to Evanston, Illinois: the carless suburbia

Dawn of the self-driving car: testing out Tesla's autopilot function

From California to Texas, car culture is losing its monopoly

Can a loss of driver autonomy save lives?

Designers imagine a world of self-driving, mobile offices

How urban designers can better address mental health in their work, according to a new think tank

2015-08-26T14:01:00-04:00

With the huge impact of mental disorders on people’s health and wellbeing, and the increased mental health risk of that comes simply from living in a city, you might think that mental health would be an urban health priority. In fact, few policies or recommendations for healthy urban environments address mental health in any depth.

Layla McCay, director of the recently launched Centre for Urban Design & Mental Health think tank, gives her two cents on the stigma that still overshadows mental health, both in urban design and current society.

More on Archinect:

Mindy Thompson Fullilove is a psychiatrist for cities

Jason Danziger heals psychosis with design

Putting entire cities on the psychiatrist's couch

Study Links Walkable Neighborhoods to Prevention of Cognitive Decline

Mental Health Survey at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture Reveals Worrisome Results

Christopher Hawthorne on repairing L.A.'s long-broken relationship with its freeways

2015-08-07T20:27:00-04:00

The truth is that Los Angeles, once a pioneer in defining the freeway’s place in urban life, has fallen behind other cities. From Dallas to Paris to Seoul, the most innovative ideas about freeways and how they can be redesigned are coming from places far from Southern California. It’s time for L.A. to catch up...

Following his recent review of the 405 Freeway expansion through the Sepulveda Pass, Christopher Hawthorne sums up why the time is ripe for Angelenos to refresh their perspectives on the city's freeways.

More on Archinect:

With a little compromise, illegal urban squats like Ljubljana's Metelkova Mesto can do a city good

2015-07-24T19:38:00-04:00

The irony of [Metelkova Mesto's] transformation – from the military arm of a censorious regime to a tolerant artistic community – is what makes the regeneration project of this space so encouraging...Metelkova, in contrast, has built its image firmly on its artistic and cultural credentials. It’s autonomous, but not anarchistic; liberal, but not lawless.

More on Archinect:

Developer wants to re-use and trademark the 5Pointz name for their new residential towers

Muralists and the fragile relationship with the buildings they paint on

The Uncertain Future of Slab City, California

Herzog & de Meuron to redevelop Berlin’s infamous Tacheles cultural center; locals fear gentrification

Could Google's Sidewalk Labs help alleviate urban city problems?

2015-07-03T12:33:00-04:00

It’s this inevitable dichotomy between data and real life that will likely define [Google's] Sidewalk Labs...There’s a naivety to their worldview that might help to get things done inside a company but could prove a hurdle to progress in the public realm. Yes, the region does need more housing, but the politics of how, where, and when that housing is built are far more nuanced than Google can apparently handle.

The cloud of speculation surrounding Google as of late only grows bigger with the tech giant's recent launch of its independent start-up, Sidewalk Labs. Charging further into Google's real-world endeavors, the "urban innovation company" vies "to improve city life for everyone through the application of technology to solve urban problems" like curbing energy use, creating more affordable housing, cutting pollution, and streamlining transportation. Could Sidewalk Labs potentially ease the growing pains of real-life urban cities, or is Google just spewing more technocratic rhetoric?

Rural Japanese town applies "creative depopulation" to attract millennials in aging population

2015-06-03T13:45:00-04:00

As rural Japan battles the twin afflictions of a population that is getting smaller almost as quickly as it’s getting older, Kamiyama is one of a handful of towns that is bucking the trend. It’s practicing 'creative depopulation' — trying to make sure it gets younger and more innovative, even as it shrinks, by attracting youthful newcomers who are weary of big-city life to work in new rural industries.

Find your ideal neighborhood with this new 'Livability Index' online tool

Revisiting Sharon Zukin's "Loft Living" and NYC gentrification

Renzo Piano: the future of European architecture lies in the suburbs

Designing for Seniors and Soldiers, Toward a "Silver" Architecture

How urban cities continue to veer toward new forms of mobility

2015-04-30T09:32:00-04:00

Gilles Vesco calls it the 'new mobility'. It’s a vision of cities in which residents no longer rely on their cars but on public transport, shared cars and bikes and, above all, on real-time data on their smartphones...'Multi-modal' and 'interconnectivity' are now the words on every urban planner’s lips...This model of denser, less car-dependent cities is becoming the accepted wisdom across the developed world.

Writer Stephen Moss talks to urban planners and transportation authorities around Europe to get a glimpse into how cities worldwide continue to wean themselves off car dependency and explore new forms of mobility, all while city density increases.

Read the Urban Land Institute's full report on the micro unit housing trend

2015-01-30T15:49:00-05:00

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) recently published a report titled "The Macro View of Micro Units", which shares the latest findings in the revived trend of micro dwellings in the United States. The report arose from a ULI Foundation research grant that the Multifamily Housing Councils received in 2013 to evaluate the market performance and acceptance of small living spaces.

↑ The 23-unit SMARTSPACE SoMa micro apartments at 38 Harriet St. in San Francisco.

Bill Whitlow, a partner of Terra Search Partners, led the ULI Research Committee that wrote the 46-page report. The Committee worked with ULI Multifamily Council members as well as other developers, operators, and design professionals familiar with micro unit developments in conducting interviews. The findings were presented at the ULI's annual fall meeting in New York.

The report focuses especially on high-density and pricey metropolitan cities like New York, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., and San Francisco. The prefab SMARTSPACE ...

Muji's prefab Vertical House now available for Japanese residences

2014-11-03T15:11:00-05:00

MUJI HOUSE, the architectural entity of Japanese design brand Muji, recently released their latest prefab house in Tokyo called the Vertical House. The slender 3-story structure was primarily designed for urban dwellers living within Tokyo's tight living spaces.

Designed with simple white walls and wooden flooring, the house exhibits the same contemporary minimal aesthetic that Muji's products continue to gain popularity for. The house was built with a timber framework method and an open plan interior with no doors or interior walls. The house also features a kitchen and dining area, a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and large windows that allow for ample sunlight.

Muji isn't entirely new to the prefab house scene. The company worked with prominent Japanese architects like Kengo Kuma for the Window House in 2008 followed by the Tree House in 2009. Muji then worked with Shigeru Ban for the Furniture House during the House Vision 2013 Tokyo Exhibition.

Product details:
Name: Vertical Ho...