Archinect - News

Pratt Institute launches new Center for Climate Adaptation aimed at researching resiliency solutions for island cities

2024-03-13T14:28:00-04:00

Pratt Institute has announced the creation of the new Center for Climate Adaptation (CCA). The initiative is part of its alignment with The New York Climate Exchange, a consortium of research institutions that will use Governor’s Island as its hub for climate change investigations and education. David Erdman, an associate professor in the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD) program, will lead the center as its first Director.

Pratt says the new CCA is aimed partially at protecting global island cities such as New York and Singapore. The focus expands on the United Nations Archipelago Agenda and will include experts taken from every subfield of architecture and urban design. Pace University and Singapore University of Technology and Design have signed on as academic partners in the initiative as well.

The school's President, Frances Bronet, stated: “The Center combines our deep engagement with the local community and global networks, and our collaborative approach to critic...

A domino-inspired design has been unveiled for Africa's potentially second largest tower

2021-09-03T18:42:00-04:00

A spiraling new supertower hopes to grace one of Tanzania’s most spectacular coastal islands thanks to an ambitious, albeit repurposed design from Dubai-based firm xcassia.

Taking its design from a set of dominoes, the proposed 70-story tower will inhabit a manmade island on the Zanzibar archipelago 100 miles away from the capital Dars es Salaam.

Once completed, the scheme could become the second-largest tower on the African continent as well as the first skyscraper to be built on a manmade island outside of Dubai.

Made up of 360 individual component “keys,” the 1.2-million-square-foot Zanzibar Domino Commercial Tower will play host to Africa's largest luxury hotel topped in addition to 500 residential units by an observation deck that offers visitors views of the surrounding Indian Ocean.

Related feature article on Archinect: The Emerging Female Architects of East Africa

According to the architect: “I dreamed of building this project for over a decade. Between its innate mathematic...

The World is coming back to life in Dubai

2018-02-14T14:26:00-05:00

Underwater bedrooms, ‘Lohan Island’ and snow all year round – a decade after it was scuppered by the financial crash, the fantasy archipelago of 300 artificial ‘countries’ is back in business. Has anybody learned anything?

Remember The World? Dubai's lofty vision a decade-and-a-half ago to recreate the globe's map with artificial, celebrity-owned islands dredged from the Gulf floor that was just as grandiose and monumental as its financial crash in 2008? Well, it appears to be back in business again.

The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright takes a trip to the long-abandoned and now-bustling-with-development-again artificial archipelago of 300 islands 2.5 miles off Dubai's coast and confirms: "After a decade in limbo, The World is back – with more ambitious plans than ever before."

And yes, Lindsay Lohan is designing her own island, too.

Amsterdam's ambitious IJburg housing project on 10 artificial islands keeps growing

2015-06-15T13:05:00-04:00

Right now, Amsterdam’s Center Island (Centrumeiland in Dutch) doesn’t look like much [...] The island, in use for the first time this summer as a campsite-cum-art installation, is in fact an entirely artificial creation, lying at the heart of what could currently be Europe’s boldest engineering and housing program. [...] The archipelago will eventually be home to up to 45,000 people in 18,000 homes, 30 percent of which will be earmarked for affordable rent.

Luxury Anthropocene: Dubai gets its first private floating islands

2015-06-11T13:25:00-04:00

Completely stable on the water, the base of the island is built to last for far over 100 years and will create a new underwater habitat for sea life, the company states, adding, it is building similar islands in Maldives and in Miami in the US.

Dubai's "The World", a man-made archipelago of islands arranged like a world map, is now spawning private floating homes. The "luxury floating private islands" will be designed to specific client wishes, and reportedly will all come with a pool. Developed by Amillarah Private Islands, these aren't in fact the only floating-homes being developed in The World – Kleindienst Group is selling "floating seahorses", with submerged bedrooms and bathrooms. Just don't call it a houseboat.