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...

2015 U.S. population report shows return to pre-2000 patterns

2016-03-25T14:19:00-04:00

Today the U.S. Census Bureau released its 2015 population estimates for counties and metropolitan areas. After volatile swings in growth patterns during last decade’s housing bubble and bust, long-term trends are reasserting themselves. Population is growing faster in the South and West than in the Northeast and Midwest, and faster in suburban areas than in urban counties; both of these trends accelerated in 2015.

Our cities must adapt to climate change and growing populations within a single generation, according to the head of Arup

2016-01-04T13:43:00-05:00

Cities around the world have only one generation to meet the twin challenges of climate change and a rapidly growing urban population, the head of a global engineering firm has warned. Gregory Hodkinson, chairman of the Arup group, said that with more than half the world’s population already living in cities, and the proportion set to rise to 70% by 2050, city leaders need to take urgent action.

Gregory Hodkinsin, the chairman of the engineering giant Arup Group, has warned that cities must adapt to climate change and booming population growth within the timespan of a single generation.

“If we don’t, in my view, we’re screwed: my children and my grandchildren and everybody else’s children," Hodkinsin told the Guardian. "We need to find a way to do this rapid urbanisation in a way that’s not going to kill us – and to do it once.”

Climate change and urban population growth are "twinned" challenges for a variety of reasons. As global temperatures rise, an increase in natural disasters and resource-driven conflict will likely drive displaced populations to urban centers, where shelter and access to basic necessities are more available. This is a pattern already emerging, for instance, in the mass migration of refugees from Syria and Iraq into Europe and elsewhere.

Cities currently house more than half of the world's population – and will most likely have to shelter up to 70% in t...