Archinect - News

Take a look at Reiser+Umemoto's completed Kaohsiung Port Terminal

2024-06-01T10:00:00-04:00

Reiser+Umemoto, RUR Architecture DPC has shared new photos of their recently completed Kaohsiung Port Terminal project in Taiwan’s busiest commercial port.

The nearly eight-year construction exemplifies the firm’s conception of “3D Urbanism,” breaking apart the design vertically across three separate datums that carry different functions for passengers and pedestrians as oriented to the existing city grid.

Image courtesy Fei & Cheng Associates

The firm explains: “RUR’s work with 3D Urbanism comes from a long-standing set of explorations challenging the monofunctionally of infrastructure projects which are traditionally conceived and designed to do a single task well, much in the vein of civil engineering. RUR takes an architect’s approach to infrastructure, which eschews monofunctionally in favor of polyfunctional spaces which productively transform the terminal typology from an inert piece of urban hardware into a dynamic space of civic, cultural and commercial interchange.”

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North America’s largest cruise terminal begins construction, designed by Arquitectonica

2022-03-21T13:39:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the largest cruise terminal in North America. Located in Port Miami, and designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, the MSC Cruises Terminal will be capable of hosting three cruise ships simultaneously as well as 36,000 daily passengers, upon its completion at the end of 2023.

Image courtesy of Arquitectonica

The $350 million, 492,000-square-foot scheme adopts a long, thin footprint in response to site constraints, while a flowing form allows for embarking and debarking functions to be overlapped across four levels. The flowing roof profile is also visible in the terminal’s interior, accentuated by parallel lighting and supported by colonnades to gently divide the vast space.

Image courtesy of Arquitectonica

“The design maximizes the limited footprint by creating a layered embark and debark experience, allowing both processes to overlap seamlessly,” said Arquitectonica in a statement. “The form of the building expresses this layering visually, highlighting th...

Oakland Councilwoman wants to house 1,000 homeless people on a cruise ship

2019-12-20T11:28:00-05:00

An Oakland City Council member’s plan to house up to 1,000 homeless people on a cruise ship in the bay could actually set sail. Because the International Maritime Organization is imposing more stringent emissions regulations in 2020, and some ships won’t be able to upgrade their engines to the new standards in time...Instead, they could dock them at the Port of Oakland or a private dock and plug into electricity...

Led by City Council president Rebecca Kaplan, the plan seeks to create affordable housing through a creative approach grounded in history. According to the East Bay Times, ships were used to house relief workers responding to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas this past September; FEMA chartered cruise ships to house people in 2017 during the hurricanes in the U.S. Virgin Islands; and in 2005 during Katrina.

Port officials have expressed doubt regarding the proposal, reports . the East Bay Times, but Kaplan still believes "the idea is worth at least exploring."

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.

Vernacular architectural photographer John Margolies has died

2016-06-16T13:10:00-04:00

Mr. Margolies, who died on May 26, at 76, was considered the country’s foremost photographer of vernacular architecture — the coffee shops shaped like coffeepots; the gas station shaped like a teapot (the Teapot Dome Service Station in Zillah, Wash.); and the motels shaped like all manner of things, from wigwams to zeppelins to railroad cars — that once stood as proud totems along America’s blue highways.

In memoriam, here are a few of Margolies' idiosyncratic finds, many of which were compiled into the 2010 book "John Margolies: Roadside America":

Other architectural photographers who are still doing their signature thing:

Venice Lagoon declared most endangered heritage site in Europe

2016-03-17T15:37:00-04:00

The Venice Lagoon is the most endangered heritage site in Europe, declared the pan-European heritage organisation Europa Nostra at an event today [...]. Rising sea levels, swelling number of tourists, large cruise ships in the lagoon, the erosion of the sea bed, dredging deeper channels and the lack of an agreed management plan for Venice has created a perfect storm of threats to the city’s preservation.

Previously in the Archinect news:

Unesco threatens to put Venice on its Heritage at Risk list

2014-10-16T15:24:00-04:00

Unesco, which for too long has been silent on the growing environmental threat to Venice and its evident mismanagement, as revealed by the exposure of massive corruption in the construction of its flood barriers, has at last shown its teeth. At the meeting of its World Heritage Committee in Doha this June it passed important resolutions that show that it intends to call the Italian government to account and put Venice on its World Heritage at Risk list if it is not satisfied.

Previously: Leading museum directors, artists and architects call on Italian government to ban giant ships from Venice

Leading museum directors, artists and architects call on Italian government to ban giant ships from Venice

2014-07-24T13:20:00-04:00

More than 50 leading figures from the worlds of art, film, fashion and architecture have signed a petition calling for a ban on giant cruise ships sailing through Venice. [...] Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery in London, Richard Armstrong, the director of the Guggenheim Foundation, the architect Norman Foster and his wife Elena also endorse the appeal which has been launched by the Association of the International Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice [...].