Archinect - News

Inside Aravena's open source plans for low-cost yet upgradable housing

2016-04-06T14:35:00-04:00

After Alejandro Aravena accepted the Pritzker Prize yesterday, his firm Elemental released four open source plans for low income housing that, according to the firm's website, balance the constraints of "low-rise high density, without overcrowding, with possibility of expansion (from social housing to middle-class dwelling)." The plans were released partly as a response to the looming housing crisis of 2030, in which it is estimated that two billion people will be living under the poverty line.

Aravena's self-described "incremental housing" is partly a governmental effort, and partly an individual one. By providing plans for proven models of sustainable housing, people can have greater agency in housing themselves. "Given the magnitude of the housing shortage, we won't solve this problem unless we add people's own resources and building capacity to that of governments and the market," reads Elemental's statement.

The four projects Elemental has released plans for are Quinta Monroy, V...

A brief history of twisted apartment buildings

2015-08-13T13:41:00-04:00

This 21st century trend started with Sweden's 2005 Turning Torso building, then quickly was adapted and modified by Frank Gehry for what became 2011's 8 Spruce Street in Manhattan. Now the twisted apartment building seems to have become its own typology, to judge by recent proposed works by both Urban Agency and Sou Fujimoto:

↑ Urban Agency's code-savvy twisting apartment building.

↑ Sou Fujimoto's Abre Blanc apartment building.

Urban Agency's apartment building twists not just for an aesthetic thrill, but as a way to legally increase the total floor space by 40 percent by artfully shimmying through France's planning laws. Sou Fujimoto's unfurling, frond-like patios on Abre Blanc are thoughtfully designed purposefully to suit the structure's surrounding Mediterranean climate by embracing an outdoor lifestyle. MAD's "Marilyn Monroe" 2010-2012 Absolute World towers in Mississauga, ON took a more curvaceous and populist approach, as the final design was voted on by the Canadian public aft...