Archinect - News

Testbeds is giving discarded architectural mock-ups new life in New York's community gardens

2022-12-08T12:13:00-05:00

A new project from New York-based duo New Affiliates is making headlines in the Queens neighborhood of Edgemere, where architects Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb have invented a radical new way of reusing one of the design processes’ most wasteful customs – discarded architectural mock-ups.

With the help of Columbia GSAPP doctoral candidate Samuel Stewart-Halevy, the pair have begun a pilot program called Testbeds that takes the temporary structures and repurposes them as toolsheds for community gardens around the city.

Previously on Archinect: The Founders of NY-based New Affiliates Discuss How Their Love for Arguing Betters Their Work

Beginning with the generally underserved neighborhood located on the Rockaway peninsula, Testbeds has been experimenting with a new way of adapting the notion of a “circular economy” into the built environment. The program got off the ground in 2018 with the blessing of officials from the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation's GreenThumb program, u...

Handel Architects aims to build a "community of opportunity" in East Harlem

2019-07-19T14:53:00-04:00

Construction on Sendero Verde, a sizable Handel Architects-designed affordable housing development in New York City, is expected to break ground later this summer.

Patch reports that L+M Development Partners, Jonathan Rose Companies, and Acacia Network, the developers behind the project, have secured the necessary funding to get shovels in the ground. AECOM is providing landscape architecture services for the project.

The $233 million, three-phase development will ultimately bring close to 700 affordable housing units to New York's East Harlem district, where recent developer interest and real estate activity have disturbed the area's naturally affordable existing housing stock. The project results in part from the recent re-zoning of the East Harlem neighborhood, an effort that is expected to bring up to 1,288 affordable housing units to the area, overall, according to Patch.

The development will preserve a series of existing community gardens currently located on the developmen...

Deborah Marton will lead the Van Alen Institute

2019-06-15T15:52:00-04:00

Deborah brings extensive experience to Van Alen in successfully mobilizing professionals across various sectors —architecture, urban design, ecology, public health--—to take an interdisciplinary approach that effects positive change, particularly among underserved communities.

Deborah Marton has been selected to lead the New York City-based Van Alen Institute as the group's new executive director. Marton will replace David van der Leer, who announced plans to step down in October 2018.

Marton is currently the executive director of the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), an environmental and social justice initiative founded by actress Bette Midler. Under Marton's tenure, NYRP completed its MillionTressNYC Program and secured the necessary resources to renovate all of its 52 community gardens, among other accomplishments.

In a press release announcing Marton's selection, Jared Della Valle, board chair of Van Alen, said, "[Marton] has clearly shown an ability to build on Van Alen’s multiple roles as instigator, convener, thought partner and catalyst, and communicated a strong desire to ensure we create demonstrable outcomes that will usher in our next 125 years.”

The Van Alen institute is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. Marton is due to assum...

Norman Foster's secret garden: a tour of Foster + Partners' Maggie's Center

2016-05-04T13:07:00-04:00

Cancer survivor Lord Norman Foster gave HRH Duchess of Cornwall a tour of his newly completed Maggie's Center in his hometown of Manchester at the cancer facility's official opening April 27th, showing her a design that emphasizes natural light and a connection to nature. This has lead to numerous sliding glass doors and walls throughout the rectilinear plan, as well as the intention to plant vines on the signature triangular timber frame. Additionally, each treatment and counselling room comes with its own private garden.

As Foster noted, "Our aim in Manchester, the city of my youth, was to create a building that is welcoming, friendly and without any of the institutional references of a hospital or health centre – a light-filled, homely space where people can gather, talk or simply reflect. That is why throughout the building there is a focus on natural light, greenery and views; with a greenhouse to provide fresh flowers, and an emphasis on the therapeutic qualities of nature and ...

Vancouver's unused railway to become public greenway

2016-03-10T13:07:00-05:00

The City of Vancouver has reached an agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway that will transform a contentious stretch of old rail corridor into a public greenway. Under the deal, the city will pay $55 million to purchase the land on the railway route, which extends for nine kilometres from False Creek near Downtown Vancouver to Marpole on the city's south side.

Once the unofficial home to community gardens and in situ artworks, under the city's plan the Vancouver's Arbutus Corridor will become a place for cyclists and walkers. It's not the High Line (although much like that project, Vancouver city officials would like to continue thinking that the rail tracks could be still be used for transportation after the corridor is developed).

What else is going on in Vancouver? Creative, intriguing things:

Educational space for flourishing community garden, Huerta Del Valle, Ontario, California

2016-01-03T13:14:00-05:00

When three architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona, Kirill Volchinskiy, Hana Lemseffer and Necils Lopez invest their skills and resources with the community, the possibilities are endless.

We are a team of 3 architecture students who have worked for a year to make this project a reality and today we need the final push to materialize the desires and needs of a community.

Why crowdsource architecture?

Crowdsourcing building projects puts financial power back in the hands of the people. By focusing on one public space project at a time, communities can develop built public space with the help of other communities. With the internet and platforms like Kickstarter, public projects paid by people for communities in need become a feasible reality.

This is their story. educational space for flourishing community garden