Archinect - News

Mæ's John Morden Centre wins the 2023 RIBA Stirling Prize

2023-10-19T19:57:00-04:00

The design for the John Morden Centre in Blackheath, London, by Mæ has just been announced as the winner of the 2023 Stirling Prize by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

The country’s new ‘Best New Building’ honor was bestowed to the 22-year-old firm’s redesign of the elder care facility located on the site of Grade I-listed Morden College, the original design for which dates to the 1690s and has been attributed to the period’s most significant architect, Sir Christopher Wren.

Photo: Jim Stephenson

The scope of the project involved creating a more sociable, physically active, and less isolating atmosphere in which residents can age in place gracefully. With dramatic effect, the overhaul consolidates formerly diffuse functions at the non-profit care facility into a series of brick pavilions that are connected by the construction of a central timber colonnade.

Photo: Jim Stephenson

A steeply pitched roofline gives the structure an austere but still inviting character. I...

Arakawa and Madeline Gins' avant-garde, Life-Span Extending Villa hits the market at $2.5 million

2018-08-22T14:13:00-04:00

The Bioscleave House (Life-Span Extending Villa), designed by avant-garde artists Madeline Gins and Arakawa, has hit the market, the four bedroom, two and a half bath house asking for $2,495,000 via Brown Harris Stevens.

Building upon the couple's fifty year body of research into solving death—what they saw as the ultimate design flaw—the house comes with the unique promise of staving off mortality. Commissioned by the art collector Angela Gallman back in 2007, it has been designed to empower its inhabitants to resist their own deaths and reverse the downhill course of human life.

Image via Madeline Gins and Arakawa.

The East Hampton home features walls of more than three dozen different colors and an undulating, dunelike floor that challenges the body in unexpected ways. Windows are placed at varying heights, there is an open flow of traffic, and the kitchen is sunken at the center of the house—all designed to rejuvenate whoever moves in.

The house, which cost slightly less than it...

JR's "Wrinkles Of The City", portraying the faces affected by gentrification and rapid urbanization, hits Istanbul

2017-05-04T23:42:00-04:00

If I was a poet, I would speak of Istanbul If I were a musician, my music would belong to Istanbul If I was a painter, I would paint Istanbul -Mihail

Prolific French artist JR continues to produce impactful work, following up his latest public exhibition with a special installation of his “Wrinkles of the City” series. First launched in 2008, the series is meant to visually portray the faces affected by gentrification and rapid urbanization in the world’s largest cities. Accordingly, JR spent the past two weeks in the alleyways and rooftops of Istanbul, forcing residents to confront the elderly’s personal stories through singular images.

Architecting for the Golden Years

2017-01-15T20:37:00-05:00

Building industry professionals are taking note. Since the National Association of Home Builders started to offer a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist program in 2002, nearly 7,000 contractors, architects, interior designers and occupational therapists have become credentialed by attending a three-day course, according to Elizabeth Thompson, a spokeswoman for the association.

Kaya Laterman examines designing for an aging population. Renovations focused on age-in-place fixes, along with rise of NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities) in NYC, are creating new market opportunities.

Plus, some training/CEU sources via Living in Place Institute and NAHB

What makes an age-friendly city? Older citizens worldwide speak out

2016-04-28T20:35:00-04:00

“I believe it’s important for all ages to interact on a day to day basis. It...hopefully removes the labelling of people as ‘elderly’ or ‘past it’ and the self-fulfilling behaviours that are often generated by this.” “Cities need cross-generational activities...People living alone of whatever age can become isolated, lonely and then mental health problems can develop.” “Teach young people that we are not going to move over, nor do we have to.”

How do you define an age-friendly city? Share in the comment section below.

The Pulaski Skyway tells the tale of America's aging highway system

2015-06-16T13:49:00-04:00

Just north of Newark, New Jersey, the Pulaski Skyway became the country’s first so-called “superhighway” — a 3.5-mile raised roadway running over the top of some of the most heavily industrialized property in the country. [...] In infrastructure terms, the Pulaski is what’s called “functionally obsolete,” meaning it doesn’t meet modern design standards —and the money being spent to fix it up won’t change that.

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

Design for an Aging Population

2013-02-06T23:23:00-05:00

A new multidisciplinary field has emerged in several universities in which sociologists, psychologists and urban planners work to tailor architectural designs to seniors as that demographic continues to grow. In America, 54 million people are over the age of 55 and that number is predicted to increase over the next 30 years by nearly 50 per cent. Despite most people’s desire to age in their own homes, most will be required to seek alternative arrangements.

Better technology does not equal better architecture

2013-01-23T18:05:00-05:00

How can we let geriatrics design the future? There is a creeping conservatism in old age, Rogers and Piano’s Pompidou was genuinely revolutionary, but that was in 1977, ever since then they've been riffing off the same ideas, with decreasing vitality...They are past retirement age and yet they march on, pulling out the same ideas over and over again, while the planet fawns obsequiously at their feet.

As part of Vice Future Week, Eddie Blake pens a critique of the current geriatric state of architecture. He believes that we must move beyond the tired designs of the past and embrace a new emerging architecture. The future of architecture is more co-operative, varied, often temporary and emphasizes "the evolution of a building, rather than how it looks as a finished piece".

H/T sevensixfive

An Octogenarian’s Modernist Dream Comes to Life

2012-05-10T13:51:00-04:00

“Here is the most modern of modern houses I’ve ever seen and loved,” she wrote, describing the turquoise mosaic tile, the compact state-of-the-art kitchen, the distant views of city lights, the proximity to her daughter’s family and the circular stairway that she felt, sadly, too old to sail down. “I guess you can’t expect to have too many dreams answered,” she concluded. “At least, I’ve had the opportunity to see the Morris House, to know it existed.”

A Nursing Home Shrinks Until It Feels Like a Home

2011-11-01T07:59:25-04:00

The Green House concept is the most comprehensive effort to reinvent the nursing home ...— including the way medical care is delivered. In traditional nursing homes, employees typically have narrowly defined jobs ... based on efficiency that tends to ignore individuals’ preferences and needs.

Gordon Walker designs a house for the future

2011-10-10T15:14:25-04:00

Walker showed his idea around. The response was near freezing. "So far, people don't like them," he says. "They say, 'I want something I recognize.' "The baby boomers are coming of age, and I always imagined that they were more design-minded than they turned out to be." Or they just haven't caught up to Gordon Walker.

A Seattle architect designs a house for him and his wife to grow old in, and realizes he's way more cool than most other senior citizens.