Archinect - News

Is the ceiling "the next frontier" for space-saving micro-apartment designs?

2019-08-23T16:30:00-04:00

A startup called Bumblebee Spaces is trying to make micro apartments more appealing by adding movable furniture. Beds, wardrobe and drawers are stored up on the ceiling, to be lowered quietly on white suspension cords at the touch of a tablet, like a scene change on a theatre stage. In theory this frees up floor space.

The Economist's 1843 Magazine delves into Bumblebee, a new San Francisco startup that aims to imbue tiny apartments with movable architectural elements.

View this post on Instagram Bumblebee Spaces Open House on Saturday, 10/20. Come check us out, Seattle!

Seoul housing development builds traditional hanok designs for a slower lifestyle

2018-09-04T13:36:00-04:00

Eunpyeong Hanok Village was selling locals hanok, the traditional Korean tile-roofed residences that have, after hundreds of years, increasingly been destroyed and replaced by towering steel structures; indeed, not since the 1930s have hanok been constructed in significant numbers. The decline of vernacular architecture in the face of global urbanization is, of course, hardly new, though traditional Korean hanok are a particularly stark contrast to modern city living.

A new housing development, Eunpyeong, in northern Seoul is solely dedicated to constructing traditional Korean hanok houses. The design adheres to certain guidelines on proportion and design, with a low center of gravity, a courtyard, and an orientation towards nature.

The hanok's popularity comes from a need to connect to Korean identity and a desire to slow down from a past-paced economy. The minimalist design confronts the occupant with the amount of stuff they own and orients them to reconsider a new, slower way of life.

New photos by João Morgado capture modern Kuwaiti housing project

2018-03-12T18:07:00-04:00

The Areia Houses designed by Associated Architects Partnership (AAP), are located in Kihran, Kuwait. These modernist houses were built in Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City, a community created around canals off of the Persian Gulf.

Areia Houses by Associated Architects Partnership (AAP), located in Kihran, KW. Image: Joao Morgado.

Developed around docks and marinas, the Areia Houses are situated along the shoreline of an inner canal overlooking the sea.

Areia Houses by Associated Architects Partnership (AAP), located in Kihran, KW. Image: Joao Morgado.

These five structures follow the same basic organization concept, yet each house has its own variation making it unique among the group.

Areia Houses by Associated Architects Partnership (AAP), located in Kihran, KW. Image: Joao Morgado.

Each house features a rooftop lounge with 360º panoramic views over the water and surrounding area.

Areia Houses by Associated Architects Partnership (AAP), located in Kihran, KW. Image: Joao Morgado.

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This modern prefab house in Spain boasts only a five hour assembly time

2017-12-28T17:35:00-05:00

It took less than four months to build this modern prefab home in a factory, and only five hours to assemble it on-site. The minimalist modern abode is set in Valdés, a small town in Asturias, northwest of Madrid. Studio [baragaño] designed the Montaña House as a stylistic mix between a traditional home and the granaries found throughout the area.

The house, designed by Studio [baragaño], was constructed in less than four months in a factory in Madrid then transported to Valdes, where a local artisan embellished the structure with a slate roof. This space was designed using traditional residential architecture as inspiration and boasts an impressive on-site assembly time of just five hours.

The house serves as residence for an English landscaper and his family with two levels and plenty of common space. Diffuse natural light is used on the top level with light polycarbonate panels functioning as barriers between rooms. A metal staircase acts as a center piece around which the other spaces were organized. With a strictly minimalist interior, the home's defining feature is its fireplace suspended from the living room ceiling.

Miniature manhole rooms highlight reality of Bucharest's underground dwellers

2016-04-15T13:30:00-04:00

Borderlife is a street art intervention by Biancoshock in which three abandoned manholes in Milan’s Lodi district have been transformed into miniature dwellings. [...] With Borderlife the street artist wants to make us aware about the distressing living conditions of many fellow humans who are forced to live in confined spaces, especially manholes. He got his inspiration from the reportedly hundreds of people that are occupying manholes and sewer systems in the Romanian capital Bucharest.

Images of the BORDERLIFE street art intervention via Biancoshock's website.

Oregon housing design curriculum wins national award

2016-02-24T15:08:00-05:00

“The combination of the course offerings on a regular basis in subject-area courses, housing studios, design-build, as well as programs for both students and the primary faculty involved—that we feel is unique,” says UO architecture professor Michael Fifield.

The University of Oregon Department of Architecture was recognized in January as among the finest in the country for its housing design education.

UO architecture faculty members Michael Fifield, Peter Keyes, and Rob Thallon, who spearhead the UO Housing Specialization Program, received the “Housing Design Education Award-Excellence in Housing Education Course or Activity.” The accolade is given jointly by Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Architecture (AIA).

The three professors oversee a variety of subject-specific courses. Thallon teaches Design Build and Residential Building Construction courses, including Oregon BILDS (Building Integrated Livable Designs Sustainably); Keyes instructs a thesis studio and a Housing Design course; and Fifield, the program’s director, teaches housing design studios and subject-area courses including Housing Prototypes, Community Design, and Minimal Dwelling.

“Very few other—if any—housing programs a...