Archinect - News

Cosmic set to produce prefabricated ADUs in California with water recycling and solar energy

2024-04-23T13:58:00-04:00

San Francisco-based Cosmic has raised $1.5 million in funding for their micro-home product designs aimed at bringing “self-sustainable homes in California and beyond.” The company’s leading product, Cosmic ONE, is described as a “limited-edition high-quality micro-home” that can serve as an ADU, a primary single-family home, or a component in a wider residential community.

Showroom model. Image courtesy: Cosmic

Cosmic ONE has been designed as an all-electric, prefabricated unit that can use recycled water for non-potable needs, as well as being equipped with a solar and battery system. The first 100 CosmicOne units will be available for sale in California.

Showroom model. Image courtesy: Cosmic

“Building a new home and expanding an existing one today can be very challenging due to the intricate permitting process, labor scarcity, and complexities of site infrastructure works,” the company says about their prop...

Kadre and Lehrer Architects team up for a new transitional housing community in Los Angeles

2024-01-04T12:50:00-05:00

A new supportive housing concept in Los Angeles has been introduced by LA-based practices Kadre Architects and Lehrer Architects. The design teams shared it can become a new model for design resourcefulness and occupants’ dignity at a time when the city, as do many others in America, faces a desperate need.

The new 95-unit Cypress Park New Beginnings Community was inaugurated in early December after first breaking ground in May of 2022. The new housing scheme aimed to serve “displaced populations and environmental and/or socio-economic crises.”

Image courtesy of Kadre Architects.

Their brief called for the construction of 350-square-foot micro-housing units on a disused plot between the Arroyo and Golden State Parkways. Site conditions for the 35,000-square-foot development were extremely challenging in an echo of Lehrer’s previous work on the Tiny Homes Villages in different parts of Los Angeles.

Image courtesy Kadre Architects.

Faced with this challenge, the design team responded ...

Preservation and micro-apartment living come together to save America's first shopping mall

2020-03-02T12:56:00-05:00

The rise of online shopping has drastically reduced the need for shopping malls across America. However, in Providence, Rhode Island, the Westminster Arcade, America's first shopping mall, has found a way to turn this supposed "retail apocalypse" into an opportunity to build more housing.

Westminster Arcade from Views of Providence (1900) printed by L.H. Nelson Company.

A Country Living article reports that the formerly abandoned mall has been transformed into a new commercial and residential hub for micro-apartment living. Rather than demolishing the building, developers wanted to preserve the structure not only for its historical value, but for its housing potential. Northeast Collaborative Architects along with developer Evan Granoff helped lead a renovation project that aims to transform the aging Greek Revival style mall into The Arcade Providence, a micro-loft apartment complex that includes 48 rentable units along its two upper floors. The former mall was built in 1828 and is...

How do our homes influence the relationships we nurture within them?

2019-09-24T13:05:00-04:00

The rise of micro-homes and micro-apartments has created debate over how much space is needed to live comfortably and happily. A recent report conducted by researchers from Brigham Young University explores how individuals perceive space in their homes and how that influences personal and family functioning. According to work published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, the study is an examination of "ways in which actual (e.g., density) and perceived (e.g., crowding and distance) elements of the spatial home environment act as predictors of family functioning."

Peter Rubinstein of the BBC dives into the subject of how space inside a family home affects domestic preferences and perceptions. Rubinstein highlights individuals who are learning how to discover their "environmental autobiography," a term developed from design psychologist Dr. Toby Isreal.

When this form of design psychology is incorporated into housing design, it's compelling to think about how space might be ...

Is the ceiling "the next frontier" for space-saving micro-apartment designs?

2019-08-23T16:30:00-04:00

A startup called Bumblebee Spaces is trying to make micro apartments more appealing by adding movable furniture. Beds, wardrobe and drawers are stored up on the ceiling, to be lowered quietly on white suspension cords at the touch of a tablet, like a scene change on a theatre stage. In theory this frees up floor space.

The Economist's 1843 Magazine delves into Bumblebee, a new San Francisco startup that aims to imbue tiny apartments with movable architectural elements.

View this post on Instagram Bumblebee Spaces Open House on Saturday, 10/20. Come check us out, Seattle!

Giving up privacy to live in America's most expensive cities

2019-07-06T18:10:00-04:00

Housing costs have become so expensive in some cities that people are renting bunk beds in a communal home for $1,200 a month. Not a bedroom. A bed. PodShare is trying to help make up for the shortage of affordable housing in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles by renting dormitory-style lodging and providing tenants a co-living experience.

In the last few years, we have written stories on recent trends in compromised living situations designed in response to severe economic conditions, such as tiny homes and micro-apartments. While these living types are challengingly small - some as compact as 100 square feet - they still offer privacy, an amenity that most would find a basic necessity.

PodShare Advertisement.

Co-living habitations, however, are quickly becoming a third alternative to the increasingly high cost-of-living in some of the world's most expensive cities. While companies like WeLive have tossed around the idea, a recently developed company has developed a much more extreme version. For $1,200 a month, PodShare will provide renters little more than a twin-sized mattress with as many as 220 other guests. According to CNN, the amenities are limited to "a bed, a locker, access to wifi and the chance to meet fellow 'pod-estrians.'" The concept is quickly picking up steam, as there are now six locations between L...

Scientists build world's tiniest house using nanorobotic assembly

2018-05-22T13:39:00-04:00

In order to demonstrate the capabilities of a new nanorobotic system, French scientists have built a "microhouse" that sits on the cleaved end of an optical fiber. The diminutive home was built by a team from the Femto-ST Institute in Besançon, France, using the new μRobotex nanofactory system. That setup utilizes a robotically-controlled ion gun and a gas injection system, operating within a large vacuum chamber, to assemble microstructures on the tips of optical fibers with extreme accuracy.

The 'Tiny Houses' trend is so passé—Micro Houses are all the rage now. This charming nanobungalow built by the French Femto-ST Institute sits on a plot measuring only 300 by 300 micrometers.

Credit: FEMTO-ST Institute

All you need to get started on your own fun projects is a large vacuum chamber, some ion guns, thin membranes of silica, with a little robotic piloting for the nanoassembly sprinkled on top.

To learn how it really works, visit the full paper in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A.

Cruise ships, tenements, drainpipes: Hong Kong's housing crisis inspires creative design approaches

2018-03-27T14:03:00-04:00

For eight years in a row, an international survey of nearly 300 cities has named Hong Kong the world’s least affordable housing market. [...] Architects and developers have also put forward some novel proposals, ranging from the quirky to the audacious. While some of the ideas may be repackaged versions of the cramped spaces the city has long known, others could reshape the future of housing in Hong Kong.

The proposal by architect James Law to squeeze 100-square-foot micro apartments into concrete drainpipes was widely published a few weeks ago. The NYT lists a few more 'solutions' — some lofty, others being already implemented.

This 100 sq. ft micro-living unit made from concrete pipes is Hong Kong's newest housing solution

2018-01-02T13:08:00-05:00

The goal with it is simple, says architect James Law: to utilize “leftover space” between buildings in Hong Kong, a city with limited land and a constant housing shortage.

The city of Hong Kong has retained the title of the world's most expensive real estate market for the past seven years. As housing prices continue to soar, many residents are finding themselves with inadequate shelter, including over 200,000 people living in what has come to be referred to as 'coffin homes,' or tiny, subdivided housing units measuring at just 4' x 6'.

Aiming to ease the city's affordable housing problem, architect James Law has found a creative solution that converts concrete water pipes into 100-square-foot micro-living units. Called OPod, the tiny apartments are equipped with a shower, toilet, and smartphone lock, and can house one to two people. Additionally, the tube houses can also be stacked on one another between the city’s highrises to form modular communities.

MONU #27 on "Small Urbanism" released

2017-10-16T12:39:00-04:00

“… And Though She be but Little, She is Fierce!”, the title of Liz Teston’s contribution using a quote from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, captures the content of this MONU issue on “Small Urbanism” very well. For when it comes to urbanism, small things seem to matter, whether they are actions, small physical elements, information and communications technology, or small-scale interventions. With regard to actions, Teston shows how transient micro-urbanisms of protest architecture can have a significant impact on our cities. During such actions, human bodies can alter public spaces through practices that challenge the arrangement of urban power and convert it into a channel of opposition, as Ana Medina argues in her piece “Dissident Micro-occupations”. In her explorations of dissident architectural practices, she reveals that spaces for protests are in fact not designed, but taken over by the dissidents to transform the architectural urban landscape. However, t...

These architects actually proposed building the border wall with shipping containers and micro-housing units

2017-03-09T12:35:00-05:00

What if the border wall proposed by Trump didn’t have to be built in concrete, but rather out of that ubiquitous staple of BArch theses and “pop-up” urbanism, shipping containers? That’s the twee take of DOMO Design Studio, who propose a “softer, gentler” version of the wall, wherein shipping containers line the US/Mexico border. And, if that wasn’t enough, the shipping containers will include other tropes of contemporary urbanism, from retail spaces to micro housing.

Yep, that’s right: DOMO Design Studio imagines you might want to live in a tiny home within a piece of divisive infrastructure! It’s the Bushwick of xenophobic nationalism: a dystopia of hipster consumerism set within an aestheticized landscape populated by the signifiers of the post-industrial economy!

“One of our goals was to not be like the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall or any of those typologies that represent division,” principal architect Francisco Llado told Politico. “Our design is not about division bu...

The Onion takes on the 'Tiny House' movement

2016-08-16T17:13:00-04:00

The Onion has once again skewered an architectural trend, this time honing in on the 'pro's and con's' of tiny houses, aka 'micro-houses'. Pro's include: "paints inability to afford a real home as positive life choice"; "allows you to live the simple life your ancestors did everything in their power to escape"; and "4’-by-3’ velvet Allman Brothers Band poster gets the decorating job done on its own" among others. Meanwhile, the con's include: "anxious pacing route severely restricted"; "lack of diversity in a neighborhood composed entirely of other people whose novels didn’t sell"; and "have to live there".

Desperate for more laughs? Follow these links:

New York's micro-apartments seen through the psychological lens

2016-05-16T13:45:00-04:00

In just a few weeks, the residents of New York’s first micro-apartment building can move in to their new homes. And when they say micro, they mean it [...]. Spending extended amounts of time in a crowded space can be stressful; if the unit holds multiple people, the occupants – especially kids – can suffer as a result of the lack of privacy. And creative space-saving layouts, she explained, can become a source of mental fatigue.

The disappearing barsati, or rooftop dwellings, of Delhi

2015-12-21T17:33:00-05:00

Buildings in Delhi’s residential areas were restricted to two storeys, with construction permitted on only a fraction of the space on the third floor, so on top of homes, families built small dwellings for their own use, as accommodation for domestic staff or to rent out cheaply. Exposed to the elements, the single room on the top floor became known evocatively as the barsati – derived from the Hindi word for rain, barsaat.

"These apartments – generally, a small shack with a large terrace – afforded a new generation of urbanites cheap living space near the centre of town... But it’s a typology that, as land values rise and the population grows, is fast disappearing. While there are no official figures, anecdotal evidence suggests that in the 1980s, 75% of small rentable properties in many residential suburbs were barsatis – the same areas today have only a few dozen such properties, but many more apartment blocks."

Long Island City ‘Micro’ Units Will Have Three Bedrooms

2015-10-08T17:45:00-04:00

A micro apartment is typically less than 350 square feet, but the term “micro” is getting an expansion (figuratively and literally) in Long Island City. A new rental complex will offer 57 two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 490 to 735 square feet, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project at 37-10 Crescent Street is being developed by Ranger Properties.

More details emerge about WeWork's residential endeavor WeLive

2015-09-03T14:29:00-04:00

WeWork, the $10 billion startup that leases space to startups, has bigger ambitions: it wants to rent you a "co-living" space where you work, too. WeWork is busy launching its co-living apartments — known as WeLive spaces — in places like New York City and Washington DC, The Information reports. [...] WeWork will offer more than 250 micro-apartments at that location, along with amenities like bike parking, an herb garden, and a library.

Read also our Working out of the Box interview with Miguel McKelvey, co-founder of WeWork and a trained architect himself.

Previously in the Archinect news: WeWork moves into residential development with WeLive.

500 Square Feet and Falling

2015-07-22T18:59:00-04:00

The trend toward living in less square footage isn't just about battling rent hikes: in Orange County, the able-bodied and financially resourceful are choosing to habitate (and sometimes co-habitate) in so-called micro or mini-apartments. Although the definition varies, anything below 500 square feet is generally considered to be on the petite side. The smaller appliances, constricted shelving, and overall compactness of these places requires spatial creativity and a Spartan materialism. According to the Orange County Register, nursing student and 475 square foot apartment dweller Cayla Alexander says of she and her husband, “We have three bowls and five plates. But when you really come down to it, do you need anything else?”

Perhaps the most extreme example of this trend is the My Micro NY, a complex of 55 apartments designed by nARCHITECTS in New York City that range in size from 260 to 370 square feet. According to CapsysCorps, the units make use of tall ceilings, large windows an...

Editor's Picks #403

2015-02-03T11:20:00-05:00

Archinect Sessions still wants you to share your client horror stories!, (Inspired by the insane Just lost a-hole clients thread from a earlier this month) which you can do via twitter #archinectsessions, email or call us at (213) 784-7421.

News
Stephen Burgen traveled to the newly opened Museo Universidad de Navarra, designed by Rafael Moneo. Mr_Wiggin was disappointed "To me, Moneo's best works are those that are inserted into a place built up 100+ years ago....this, standing alone in the middle of a verdant green, looks like failure of planning".

The NYT reported on the latest developments regarding Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, N.Y. Thayer-D lamented "I know this building is a maintenance nightmare, but it's truly one of the more interesting brutalist buildings out there. A lot of ideas to cull from it".

Orhan Ayyüce shared a quote/story from Esther McCoy's 1981 memorial to Konrad Wachsmann, wherein both Corbu and Konrad praise the Pont Transbordeur as ...

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 ...

Asia’s richest man is building Hong Kong apartments barely bigger than a prison cell

2014-07-22T14:32:00-04:00

Li’s development company Cheung Kong will start selling “micro-apartments” for between HK$1.94 and HK$2 million ($250,000 to $260,000) a unit on July 26. The 196 mini flats, part of a larger development (pdf) of 1,071 units, are among the cheapest in Hong Kong and less than 200 square feet, or around 18 square meters. The smallest of the apartments come with usable area of just 177 sq. ft, including a 97 sq. ft living room, a 13 sq. ft kitchen and a 31 sq. ft bathroom.

Thousand dollar house, million dollar view

2014-03-05T15:29:00-05:00

New homes in America are a lot bigger than they used to be. In fact since 1950 they've doubled in size, to an average about 2,500-square feet per home. And a bigger home generally uses more energy. So one college professor is attempting to trash some of our ideas about home ownership, by sleeping in a six-by-six-foot dumpster. [...] this month, Wilson moved into a sanitized recycling dumpster on the Austin, Texas, campus of Huston-Tillotson University.

Micro Housing by Donghyun Kim - second-prize entry for International Architectural Thesis Award 2013

2013-11-08T14:32:00-05:00

Donghyun Kim, an architectural designer who graduated from Cornell University, recently won second place in the Residential category for RE-THINKING THE FUTURE's International Architectural Thesis Award. [...] Kim's "Micro Housing" proposal is a response to New York City's changing demographics of shrinking housholds and also the lack of ground-level residential housing space.

Editor's Picks #327

2013-08-07T11:36:00-04:00

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect, reviewed the exhibit Never Built: Los Angeles, currently on display at the Architecture and Design Museum in L.A. She concluded "When Los Angeles appears so often but rarely as itself, Andersen’s piece honors the city’s ability to be a kind of transforming icon -- each destination in conversation with its inhabitants. It's impossible to know exactly what Los Angeles would be like today were these projects successful, but that isn't the point of "Never Built" -- it captures the collective consciousness of a city in the unrealized language of iconic architecture".

News

Justine Testado Archinect’s Editorial Intern highlighted the work of CARDBORIGAMI™, an effort started by Tina Hovsepian to "provide temporary, transitional shelter and connections to social services to help get people off the streets". Her Cardborigami shelter is currently on display at the Berkshire Museum's latest exhibit, "PaperWorks: The Art and Sc...

Editor's Picks #321

2013-06-25T11:32:00-04:00

For the latest edition of the Student Works: series Archinect featured work by two AA Visiting Schools one held in Athens & the other in Istanbul. Completed prior to the recent OccupyGezi unrest, Noise De-Former (one of the projects from the Istanbul school) "aimed to materialize the fluctuating noise levels in Taksim Square by creating an interface which can regulate noise, enabling a more comfortable environment for the public resting in Gezi Park".

News
Inspired by a recent discussion re: the Influence of Robert Venturi on Louis Kahn Orhan Ayyüce; highlighted a significant thesis by then Master of Science in Architecture candidate Sam Rodell in Washington State University completed in 2008. In the thesis Mr. Rodell, "considers the question of how Louis Kahn’s development as an architect was shaped by the influences of Robert Venturi. The personal and professional interaction between these two historically significant architects began late in Kahn’s career and early in Ven...

Results of Denver’s Micro Housing Ideas Competition

2013-05-31T19:42:00-04:00

The Denver Architectural League recently announced the winners of their Micro Housing Ideas Competition as well as seven formal recognitions. Inspired by a concern about the lack of innovation in Denver's existing multi-family housing market where many banal apartment, townhome and condo complexes continue to be built, this competition offered designers an opportunity to engage in reinventing the notion of "responsible affordable housing" with an emphasis on regenerative design.