Archinect - News

(A) Primitive Hut or open-air abattoir?

2020-03-24T00:28:00-04:00

Archaeologists have unearthed about 70 mammoth-bone structures across Eastern Europe. But this one is the oldest on the Russian plain thought to be made by modern humans. Most of the previously identified structures were small, leading researchers to conclude they were most likely used as winter dwellings on a nearly treeless landscape. But the researchers said this circle was too large for a roof, which might suggest it was used for a different purpose.

Nicholas St. Fleur provides an update on what scientists and researchers have been learning from a 25,000-year-old mammoth-bone circle, first discovered in 2014, 300 miles south of Moscow.

h/t @The Ice Age

Alejandro Arevena's alluring concrete vacation home

2018-10-12T20:28:00-04:00

The radical, four-bedroom vacation house is part of the Ochoalcubo project – a pioneering ‘architectural laboratory’ led by the entrepreneur and architecture lover Eduardo Godoy. Leading Chilean and Japanese practices including Aravena, Smiljan Radic, Toyo Ito and Sou Fujimoto were asked to design a series of ground-breaking homes on the coast of Ochoquebradas.

Pritzker Prize-winner Alejandro Aravena uses the Chilean landscape of Coquimbo to create a weekend home oozing with dramatic appeal and a moody ancient beauty. The vacation home is comprised of three large concrete volumes specifically stacked one against the other. Sitting on a hilltop overlooking the Chilean coast, the home, at first glance exudes an "ancient" looking quality.

Image via Chile Sotheby’s International Realty

The massively rugged, boulder like structure was heavily influenced by primitivistic values. Its simplistic exterior is carried through out the entire house. The interiority of the space reflects modernist principles that focus on a flow of indoor/outdoor space and a loyalty to basic materials.

Image via Chile Sotheby’s International Realty

At the center of the home is a large fire pit that accents the room without frills. The exposed concrete surfaces found through out the structure complement the floor-to-ceiling glass walls that can be found in each of the fo...

Kwong Von Glinow Design Office proposes a modular pavilion for long-term use and mobility

2017-10-30T19:17:00-04:00

The US-based Kwong Von Glinow Design Office, who have won a few competitions for their creative solutions to affordable housing, have released a proposal for a temporary pavilion in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District Nursery Park. Titled the Primitive Pavilion, the project riffs on Marc-Antoine Laugier’s 18th-century idea of the “primitive hut.”

Courtesy of Kwong Von Glinow Design Office.

Responding to Laugier's theory that man wants nothing but shade from the sun and shelter from storms, the architects envision their pavilion as "a deep roofscape set upon elemental columns, harboring man between earth and sky first at West Kowloon and, in the future, at other parts of Hong Kong."

Courtesy of Kwong Von Glinow Design Office.

Pavilions of the 21st century often have a short lifespan, and Kwong Von Glinow offer theirs a longer future by designing a modular system that allows for efficient reassembly in other locations. Drawing on nature's...

Back to basics: building primitive architecture using only primitive tools

2016-10-12T13:33:00-04:00

Of the countless DIY YouTube channels out there, Primitive Technology has to be one of the most impressive. Starring an unidentified Australian protagonist—known as "Prim" by some within the channel's millions of followers—the videos document our primitive hero building huts, spears, a forge, and all kinds of other tools for survival using only what he finds in the bush of Northern Queensland.

Perhaps one of the most impressive projects, for the labor, time and complexity involved, is the tiled roof hut, complete with in-floor heating and an oven. How's that for design/build?

Despite always appearing shirtless in his videos, Prim still has a t-shirt tan, backing up the channel's origin story as a free-time hobby within a dude's otherwise modern life (although he'd like to pursue it full-time). All of his videos have millions of views, presenting one kind of project each episode, with no narration or introduction—only occasional subtitles—making them remarkable pedagogical resources fo...

When does the architecture begin?

2014-05-12T17:57:00-04:00

MIT Prof. Mark Jarzombek on the notion of primitive, the worldwide evolution of the housing, and the fate of the native populations in the modern environment When does the architecture begin? How the pit house can explain the global migrations and links between the Navahos and first men in Europe? MIT Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture Mark Jarzombek clarifies the essence of the problem.