Archinect - News

Norman Foster Foundation and Holcim to exhibit essential housing prototype at 2023 Venice Biennale

2023-05-02T11:52:00-04:00

Construction and materials group Holcim has announced a collaboration with the Norman Foster Foundation at the 2023 Venice Biennale to develop a model for essential housing. Titled the Essential Homes Research Project, the model is intended to “provide safety, comfort, and well-being for displaced communities.”

The project is to be unveiled at the Time Space Existence exhibition organized by the European Cultural Center during the biennale, which will include the display of a real-size prototype in the Marinaressa Gardens. The prototype will be supported by an exhibition hosted in the Palazzo Mora, reflecting on the Biennale’s overall theme “The Laboratory of the Future.”

“Natural and manmade disasters create a continuous exodus of people seeking instant shelter,” said Norman Foster in a statement. “Traditionally tents or variations on them are the primary r...

Building codes saved this Florida town from Hurricane Ian’s ravages

2022-10-03T17:30:00-04:00

Once the storm passed, the sight of Punta Gorda may have surprised some people. While it had typical post-hurricane storm debris, downed trees and several flooded streets, a number of homes and buildings appeared largely intact and many showed only minimal damage to their exteriors. How is it possible that the coastal city wasn’t more devastated by a storm that ranks among the most powerful to ever strike the United States? One major factor, according to some experts, are modern building code

While other southwest Florida communities like Fort Myers were devastated, Punta Gorda, a town of about 20,000, was saved thanks to strident code changes enacted in the wake of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Charley twelve years later.

“It’s a demonstration that updated building codes really work,” University at Buffalo architecture professor Nicholas Rajkovich told the Post. Stricter structural load continuity, impact-resistant windows, and hurricane shutters are all hallmarks of a so-called “modern” code whose continued absence the AIA warned against earlier in the summer. Florida alone has an estimated $3.7 trillion worth of properties that are susceptible to storm and wind damage, making the need to further adapt lessons offered by the survival of Punta Gorda's Harvard Jolly-restored Charlotte High School imperative in the minds of experts statewide.

Previously on Archinect: The building industry is preventing resiliency efforts in areas increasingly affected by deadly st...

Tsunami Towers are about to spring up along the Pacific Northwest shorelines

2022-02-08T12:37:00-05:00

“The fact of the matter is that if a tsunami occurs tomorrow, we are going to lose all of our children,” said Andrew Kelly, the superintendent of the North Beach School District, which includes Ocean Shores. Mr. Kelly is one of a growing number of local officials who are calling for a network of elevated buildings and platforms along the Northwest coast that could provide an escape for thousands of people who might otherwise be doomed in the event of a tsunami.

Voters in the Washington state community of Ocean Shores will decide today on a measure that would install a pair of tsunami towers that can hold up to 800 people. Residents in the immediate shoreline region would have only ten minutes to escape potentially 100-foot waves propelled by a quake in the shallow offshore Cascadia subduction zone. The state estimates that around 70,000 people would be trapped in low-lying areas that have no bluffs or tall buildings which can be used as an escape.

The elevated steel platforms can be placed on top of parking garages, schools, and other structures to achieve a safe vertical distance from the inundation, although many such buildings in the area are not sufficiently seismic-ready to withstand magnitude 9.0 tremors. Washington has proposed 58 such towers, which cost around $3 million each to construct. To date, only two structures have been completed: one at a facility operated by Oregon State University, and the other, at Ocosta Elementary Sc...

The building industry is preventing resiliency efforts in areas increasingly affected by deadly storms

2021-12-23T15:49:00-05:00

While experts say the technology and design standards exist to better protect people and buildings from tornadoes, attempts to incorporate those designs into building codes have repeatedly been blocked or curtailed by the building industry, according to public documents and people involved in efforts to tighten the model codes.

Resilient infrastructure in states like Kentucky and Tennessee that are increasingly falling into the crosshairs of deadly tornadoes as a likely result of climate change-produced atmospheric conditions and non-related weather patterns like La Niña is becoming more and more imperative, as evidenced by the recent storm that killed 93 people in the region on December 10th.

The challenge is not at all unsurmountable but is, however, corrupted by the building industry, critics charge. A 2012 proposal that came in front of the rather powerful International Code Council and even had backers in the deep-pocketed insurance and concrete lobbies was ultimately blocked thanks to a coalition that included the National Association of Home Builders, among others.

A typical “safe room” costs around $7,000 for a single-family residential unit and $100,000 for commercial structures like the ones that collapsed in Kentucky and Illinois, according to The New York Times.

“It really does kind of boil do...

Doomsday bunkers are coming back in a big way

2019-08-16T19:00:00-04:00

Americans have, for generations, prepared themselves for society’s collapse. They built fallout shelters during the Cold War and basement supply caches ahead of Y2K. But in recent years, personalized disaster prep has grown into a multimillion-dollar business, fueled by a seemingly endless stream of new and revamped threats, from climate change to terrorism, cyberattacks and civil unrest.

Developer brings luxury condos to old Missile Silos in Kansas

2018-11-13T15:46:00-05:00

When one thinks of luxury condos, rural Kansas isn't what typically comes to mind. Then again, the location isn't the only thing unique about developer Larry Hall's 15-story, residential complex sitting underground in a former missile silo.

In 2008, Hall purchased the missile launch facility in Kansas for $300,000, in order to build fortified shelters that can withstand a variety of catastrophic events. The result is his $20 million Survival Condo Project where accommodations start at $1.5 million and include things like windows that mimic natural sunlight.

Indoor swimming pool inside the Survival Condo Project.

In the event of an attack or natural disaster, the luxury facility can hold up to 75 people for over five years. During this time, residents of the complex can go for a swim in the indoor pool complete with a waterslide, enjoy a flick in the movie theater, read a book at the building's library, or grab a drink at the custom bar while the world outside burns. The sprawling fa...

Florida Keys get new affordable housing after Hurricane Irma destruction

2018-08-29T14:42:00-04:00

Irma instilled new urgency to address the islands’ housing problem. “What was an emergency prior to the storm is now a crisis—an utter and complete crisis with regards to the housing for average worker here in Monroe County,” said Mike Laurent, executive director of the Florida Keys Community Land Trust.

The Florida Keys Community Land Trust was developed after Hurricane Irma hit last year to help built new affordable housing, which suffered the most damage on the islands. So far the trust has four new affordable cottages under construction with plans of building 20 more.

The new homes have been designed by Marianne Cusato, who led a similar disaster architecture project in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Designed to withstand 200 mile-per-hour winds and at an elevation of 12 feet, the cottages' monthly rent will be capped at $1,588 with preference given to families displaced by Irma.

Shigeru Ban builds temporary shelter for flooding victims in Japan

2018-07-17T14:17:00-04:00

World-renowned architect Shigeru Ban sprang into action again in a disaster zone by setting up temporary “homes” to give flooding victims here some much-needed privacy. Ban, members of his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and student volunteers used recycled paper tubes and pieces of fabric to create partitions for evacuees in the gymnasium of the Sono Elementary School in the Mabicho district on July 14.

Torrential downpours and subsequent floods and mudslides have devastated parts of Western Japan in recent weeks. With over 250 people dead or missing and more than 8 million people under evacuation order, this has reportedly been one of the country's most severe natural disasters in years.

Pritzker Prize laureate Shigeru Ban joined the relief efforts with VAN, the Voluntary Architects' Network he's leading, and his award-winning, low-cost, easy-to-assemble cardboard tube emergency shelter system to create a sense of privacy for evacuees having to spend their nights away from their flooded homes in an elementary school gymnasium in Okayama Prefecture.

"It is our mission as professional architects to make living environments better. We are just doing our job," said Ban.

Image: VAN - Voluntary Architects' Network

Image: V...

MADWORKSHOP fellows reimagine the emergency shelter for disasters

2018-05-08T14:37:00-04:00

Through a plethora of over-designed shelters, interventions, and temporary housing prototypes, professional architecture has attempted to pick up on issues of global mass displacement. Despite the endless stream of projects of this nature, little has changed and cots in gymnasiums remain the standard, insufficient approach in times of need.

Addressing this issue, Shelter Squared is meant to offer a different design-oriented solution to emergencies. Designed by Jeremy Carman and Jayson Champlain, two of MADWORKSHOP's 2017 fellows, the flat-packed, approximately mattress-sized shelter takes less than fifteen minutes to assemble, and can be stored on-site making it immediately available in any scenario.

The units are constructed with lightweight, waterproof panels for easy maintenance and use velcro connections to ensure simplicity of assembly. Each unit provides an operable fabric enclosure, clean floor, roomy sleeping quarters, lockable...

The AIA releases a revamped 'Disaster Assistance Handbook'

2017-04-06T13:07:00-04:00

The AIA has released a revamped version of its Disaster Assistance Handbook, which they claim is “significantly enhanced” and “will serve as a go-to resource for architects, built environments professionals, municipal government officials and emergency managers involved in disaster mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery.” Developed by a national team of AIA members and staff, alongside contributions from industry experts and government officials, the Handbook is oriented towards utilizing architects’ existing skill set to address different phases of a disaster.

“As the frequency, severity and costs of natural and manmade hazards continue to impact the built environment, the unique skillsets that architects bring to all phases of emergency management are more critical than ever, “ states AIA’s embattled Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA. “The new Handbook shows architects everywhere how they can work with local governments to prepare for and respond to disasters, and h...

In 24 hours, get a 3D-printed house that will last 175 years

2017-03-07T12:40:00-05:00

Although it's unclear when the furnishing/window and door fitting process takes place, one thing is certain: you can now have the basic components of an entire 400 square foot house printed in about a day from the company Apis Cor. Aside from being speedy, the $10,000 printing process is impressive because the house is printed using only one machine, instead of a multi-component process that requires wall assembly. In this slightly bizarre promotional video (featuring notable speakers including a student, identified only by first name without any kind of school affiliation) the 3D printed houses are envisioned as being great solutions for providing fast relief from natural disasters. Since they're designed to last 175 years, it makes one wonder if these curvy domiciles could become a kind of inadvertent historical marker of previous catastrophes. Check it out:

Students design disaster relief structure that takes 2 hours to assemble

2016-06-29T13:08:00-04:00

“AbleNook is a modular disaster relief dwelling that you can put together without tools in under two hours,” Verdecia said.

While Shigeru Ban has become the de facto expert in designing quick yet elegant solutions for disaster relief housing, he may have some competition in the form of two University of South Florida architecture students whose "AbleNook" can be assembled in under 120 minutes without any tools.

Sean Verdecia and Jason Ross, the students behind the design, constructed their 20' x 13' x 10' module out of aircraft grade aluminum with insulated panels that "you can just click together without any tools,” Verdecia said.

Not only can the unit be constructed without tools, but its modularity allows for easy expansion into larger structures. Here's the video backstory behind the Cade Museum People's Choice Award-winning design:

Shigeru Ban arrives in Ecuador to train locals in relief architecture

2016-04-29T14:25:00-04:00

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban is once more jumping into disaster-relief efforts. The cardboard-wielding starchitect traveled to Ecuador earlier this week [...] to provide architectural training and brainpower in the wake of the deadly earthquake April 16 earthquake, which has killed more than 650 people and displaced another 26,000 from their homes.

The Colegio de Arquitectos del Ecuador Provincial de Pichincha issued this statement on its website (Google-translated from the original Spanish text):

"The Association of Architects of Ecuador, Pichincha Chapter (CAE-P) and the Pan American Architecture Biennial of Quito, officially announced the arrival of the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban because of the events that took place following the seismic event occurred on April 16 in the coastal area of Ecuador. The winner of the Pritzker prize expressed his solidarity with the moment in the country and has expressed interest in visiting the affected area and provide training sessions under these circumstances in the capital city."

Checking in on Nepal, one year later

2016-04-26T21:39:00-04:00

As the Nepalese government continues to face criticism for the slow pace of the country’s reconstruction, Nepal’s prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli announced today that the reconstruction of key heritage sites in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur is to finally begin, the Associated Press reports.

A year after the devastating quake, there is some good news in Nepal. As this article notes,

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) also announced today that it, in collaboration with American Express, was financing the rebuilding of the 16th-century Char Narayan Temple, which was reduced to rubble by the quake. The project is to receive a share of $1m in grants earmarked for five major preservation projects across the globe.

For more on Nepal:

Creations from Catastrophes

2016-02-05T13:50:00-05:00

From masterplans to reconfigure London after the Great Fire of 1666 to contemporary responses to earthquakes and tsunamis, the exhibition considers the evolving relationship between man, architecture and nature and asks whether we are now facing a paradigm shift in how we live and build in the 21st century.

Paul Kerley talked with curator Jes Fernie, about a new exhibition, Creation from Catastrophe, at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

When the next disaster strikes, how resilient would future-proof cities in the U.S. be?

2015-08-14T14:45:00-04:00

'There is no one size fits all approach — every region is completely different...' Hurricane Sandy underlined the urgency by ruthlessly exposing New York's structural weaknesses...California also suffered as historic droughts settled in, and the 2014 wave of winter storms terrorized the North, emphasizing that extreme conditions were here to stay and could strike anywhere. This bought the U.S. into line with the global situation.

The Hurricane Katrina Cottages: where are they now?

2015-08-13T14:49:00-04:00

‘"It’s hard to think about ways to drain the swamp when alligators are biting your ass.’”

Immediately after a natural disaster, most residents want to get things back to normal, even if that "normal" wasn't particularly ideal. The story of the Katrina Cottages, a series of 400 to 800 square foot residences that would provide temporary relief housing in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and also act as "seed" housing for safer, long-term neighborhoods, is a nuanced and occasionally frustrating look into the political dimensions of recovery.

For more on disaster and recovery efforts:

Shigeru Ban: Beauty as a basic human need

2015-06-23T14:56:00-04:00

Aesthetics is a primary concern for Ban—not despite, but especially in humanitarian scenarios. He believes that beauty is a basic need, an aspect of a person’s dignity. Erecting beautiful, if simple, structures can ensure that a refugee camp is not labeled a slum. So, when examining available materials in Kobe, he fussed about the color of the beer crates, choosing Asahi’s more neutral plastic bins over Kirin’s glaring red crates.

Last week, Ban visited several U.S. cities on a brief lecture tour, captivating audiences with his thoughts about "the Temporary and the Monumental." Read Archinect's report from his Los Angeles lecture at LACMA here.

Between the Temporary and the Monumental: A Review of Shigeru Ban's Lecture at LACMA

2015-06-19T18:29:00-04:00

“I hate to throw things away,” explained the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban to a packed audience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last night. On the projection screen, one of his first works as an architect was displayed: an exhibition of the work of Alvar Aalto, who Ban cited as one of his primary influences. The exhibition was the first time Ban worked with paper tubes, which has become one of his signature strategies. “I couldn’t afford wood like Aalto,” so he turned to the large tubes that had once supported reams of tracing paper. Finding the tubes surprisingly strong, Ban began testing their viability – and the rest has become history.

Throughout the evening’s lecture, Ban spoke with refreshing humility, a quality that often seems lacking among his peers. Many of his most iconic design decisions he attributed to chance, like his use of paper. As Ban worked his way through a retrospective survey of his career, he made frequent quips that enlivened the mood a...

Another powerful earthquake has hit Nepal

2015-05-12T14:35:00-04:00

A powerful earthquake shook eastern Nepal on Tuesday, shattering the halting recovery from the earthquake that hit the country less than three weeks ago, and causing loose hillsides and cracked buildings to give way and collapse. By late afternoon, Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center had reported 42 deaths and 1,117 injuries from Tuesday’s earthquake, which the United States Geological Survey assigned a preliminary magnitude of 7.3...

Nepal is still reeling from a devastating, magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 25, which claimed upwards of 8,159 lives. According to the New York Times report, Tuesday's earthquake happened just as a semblance of normality was returning to the streets of Kathmandu and its environs. Landslides have further isolated already-damaged rural villages in the mountainous region. A large percentage of the country's infrastructure is critically damaged, while international relief has been short in coming.

Since the April 25th earthquake, Archinect has been compiling architectural responses and reactions to the on-going disaster.

Archinect's Julia Ingalls compiled a feature, How Architects Can Help Nepal (And Learn From Past Disastrous Mistakes/Successes). Ingalls notes the three phases of a natural disaster – emergency, relief, and recovery – and provides useful ideas for how architects can help in each stage. She notes, "In the emergency phase, architects can help primarily by fundraising or d...

Shigeru Ban responds to the emergency in Nepal

2015-05-08T15:30:00-04:00

Pritzker Prize Laureate Shigeru Ban has announced plans to contribute to emergency relief efforts in Nepal after the April 25 earthquake reduced cities to rubble, killed more than 7,000, and left thousands homeless. In the short term, Ban’s firm and his relief organization Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) will distribute simple tents—supplemented with plastic sheets donated by contractors to serve as wall partitions—and assemble them onsite as temporary shelter and medical aid stations.

According to the report, VAN aims to partner with local universities, students and architects in the coming months to work towards create stable housing once conditions have stabilized. This is not the first time that Shigeru Ban, who won the 2014 Pritzker prize, has deployed his architectural expertise to respond to emergency situations. After Christchurch, New Zealand was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2012, Ban designed a soaring cathedral out of paper tubes to temporarily shelter congregates. His firm is well-known for designing emergency housing following a massive tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

UN Refugee Agency Commissions 10k Ikea-designed Better Shelters

2015-03-31T17:23:00-04:00

Ikea's line of flat-pack refugee shelters are going into production, the Swedish furniture maker announced this week, after being tested among refugee families in Ethiopia, Iraq, and Lebanon. The lightweight "Better Shelter" was developed under a partnership between the Ikea Foundation and the ...UNHCR... Each unit takes about four hours to assemble and is designed to last for 3 years — far longer than conventional refugee shelters, which last about 6 months.

As the Verge article notes, the announcement comes at a time when there are nearly 4 million people left without homes from the ongoing wars in Syria alone. Globally, there are 45.2 million people currently displaced by conflict and persecution according to a UNHCR report. And even that number doesn't account for the millions currently being displaced by drought, famine, rising sea levels, resource scarcity or other ecological disasters.

The Ikea Foundation's "Better Shelter" houses comprise three individual parts: the frame, the panels, and the photo voltaic system. They can be assembled on site without any additional tools or equipment. While lightweight and transportable, the units are designed to last three years. The solar panels charge an LED light that can be used at night for four hours or to charge a mobile phone.

In an article posted last year, Architectures of the Disaster, I consider other design projects addressing the global refugee crisis.

Relocation or Adaptation: Earth Home Project Brings Relief to Pakistanis Reeling from Floods

2015-02-14T11:58:00-05:00

In July 2010, heavy monsoon rains flooded nearly 20% of Pakistan, producing a crisis later described by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the worst disaster he had ever seen. The floods affected around 20 million people and claimed the lives of nearly 2,000. Ravaging infrastructure and agriculture, the total economic impact has been estimated to be as much as $43 billion. Pakistan is still far from recovering, in no small part because of a calamitous lack of relief funds and international aid.

In total, the floods left six million people homeless. Already in a precarious state afters decades of conflict and terrorist attacks, Pakistan’s infrastructure crumbled beneath the torrents of water. Then, in the fall of 2014, the strongest post-monsoon ever recorded in the country produced another round of disastrous floods in the Kashmir region of Pakistan and neighboring India. Affecting a total of more than 1.1 million people, the floods devastated an already-desperate population.

And, li...

The Most Relevant News of 2014 (for Architects)

2014-12-30T14:02:00-05:00

Sometimes it's easy to pretend that architecture exists outside of this world, erupting instead in the blank of a 3D space governed only by the laissez-fair laws of software. But sometimes a news headline will penetrate through this fog of imagination, appearing as a blazing light shining forth from an image of some distant row of houses hollowed by mortar fire and colored with the blood of a strangers' body. "This is the real of architecture," the news seems to silently implore.

As gravity serves as the counterweight to the feverish, technofuturism fashionable to today's students, news events seem to ground architecture just at the moment it seems like it may finally escape into the vapors of idealism. While it may seem that architecture is increasingly consigned to the building of institutions or expensive residences, the demand for buildings and dwellings simultaneously grows louder and more desperate with every unfolding disaster.

A year-end round-up is as fraught as a ranking. If...

Libraries Without Borders Creates Kit For Refugee Camps

2014-12-22T15:10:00-05:00

A typical library can take years to build. But a new library kit, designed to travel to remote refugee camps or disaster zones, can come together in less than 20 minutes. The Ideas Box...fits the equivalent of a small-town library on two standard shipping pallets. It comes with books and e-readers, tablets, laptops, cameras and other creative tools... Since camps might not have internet access or power, it comes with its own. The boxes that hold all of the devices convert into tables and chairs.

L.A. Mayor Calls for Mandatory Earthquake Retrofitting

2014-12-08T17:36:00-05:00

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday proposed the most ambitious seismic safety regulations in California history that would require owners to retrofit thousands of building most at risk of collapse during a major earthquake. Garcetti’s recommendations target two of the riskiest types of buildings in Los Angeles built before 1980: concrete buildings and wooden structures built atop weak first floors, such as those on top of carports and garages and supported by slender columns.

D.C. Exhibit Explores Disaster-oriented Design

2014-12-03T19:17:00-05:00

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires — no part of the United States is immune to natural disasters. While no one can prevent these hazards, people can prepare for them. “Designing for Disaster” at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., showcases how scientists, engineers and government officials work together to guard the country’s infrastructure against Mother Nature’s fury.

For Archinect coverage of related design work, check out these links: