Archinect - News

Atelier RZLBD proposes 35-mile-long, hovering megastructure above Toronto's Yonge Street in love letter

2021-06-25T18:03:00-04:00

Through a series of postcards and a love letter, Toronto-based practice Atelier RZLBD has proposed a conceptual project that would add a 35-mile long tower above Toronto’s Yonge Street, the longest street in the world.

Titled #YongeCity, the megastructure would be composed of space frame and shipping containers. But most importantly, it would accommodate 134,000 inhabitants, aiming to reduce the housing market gap in Toronto. According to the firm, this elevated “line” above Yonge Street symbolizes equality and diversity as it is accessible and occupiable to everyone regardless of financial standing or cultural background.

Illustrating the concept is a collection of postcards, concept diagrams, and a love letter to Toronto, which can be viewed below.

Dear Toronto,

Toronto, you are one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, proudly referred to as “Canadian Mosaic.” However, despite all the optimism, you have also become one of the least affordable cities in the world,...

What happens when kids design their own bedrooms?

2019-04-12T13:44:00-04:00

With their unabashed imagination, fresh perspectives, and uninhibited curiosity, young adults have a lot of talent to offer the world of design. And, what better way to let them explore their aesthetic capabilities than giving them free reign to design their own bedrooms? That's why, when seeking new sources of home design inspiration, Angie's List decided to look through the eyes of a child.

Inaya, a 5-year-old from Pakistan, wanted cartoonishly large puzzle-pieces on her walls, while Elias, a 7-year-old from Greece, wanted a forest-like room due to his love of squirrels. The two, along with five other participants ages 5 to 10, were each given the open-ended brief to draw whatever they wanted in their rooms, and so they did. Researchers also conducted a short Q & A with their parents to get further insight into their lives and interests. Afterwards, the project was handed over to an interior designer, a CG artist, and others to help bring these drawings to life in realistic CGI r...

Five New York-based architecture firms present their alternative visions for Amazon HQ2

2019-03-27T15:10:00-04:00

Last month, Amazon announced that it was canceling its controversial plan to build a second North American headquarters in New York City's Long Island City neighborhood. For residents and activists concerned about gentrification and overcrowding, the decision to abandon the plan was seen as a massive win; for other cities, it was seen as a second chance to woo 25,000 jobs to their region.

Though HQ2 NYC may have been cancelled, Surface Magazine asked five local firms to envision a substitute future. Crosby Studios, Future Green, wHY, INC, and Outpost Office, all put forth proposals that imagined a New York in which Amazon's headquarters not only moved forward, but also addressed significant worries over displacement, provided community-focused investments, and reimagined modern office design.

Inspired by the jungle, Crosby Studios paired a lush landscape with a big glass box that employs the convenience of Amazon's marketplace to provide all necessities once inside. wHY Architectu...

Dream houses drawn by kids and rendered by professionals

2017-10-17T19:35:00-04:00

There is a wonderful children's book written by Chis Van Dusen called If I Built a House, in which the character Jack embarks on designing the house of his dreams. In the opening pages, Jack announces that "[his] house will be different. It can't be the norm./[He'll] think about traffic flow, function, and form./Oh, it may include shapes like a tower or dome./But [he'll] focus on what makes a building a home."

Like the character Jack, children in general can make great architects. While architects often focus on how they can create spaces—like schools and playgrounds—for children, the less explored question is what can children offer the architect. With their unabashed imagination, young adults have a lot to offer design, which is itself a childlike kind of process that allows you to engage with something in a more immediate kind of way. To this process, children bring fresh perspectives and an uninhibited curiosity, they are spontaneous, honest and have further been found to conce...

A tower designed to hang from an asteroid in Earth's orbit

2017-03-29T12:22:00-04:00

Following on the heels of that paperclip-esque tower design for New York, here’s another ‘out there’ skyscraper design. Literally, this one is ‘out there’—in Earth’s orbit. Designed by Clouds Architecture Office, this speculative building would hang from an asteroid, which would be lowered into orbit. Then a high strength cable would descend down to Earth and support a super tall tower.

“Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location,” state the architects. “The proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one fifth the cost of New York City construction.”

From the architects:

Orbital mechanics for Analemma: geosynchronous orbit matches earth's sidereal rotation period of one day. The tower's position in the sky traces out a path in a figure-8 form, returning the tower to exactly the same position in the sky each da...

"Never Built New York" catalogues alternative visions of the City

2016-10-11T19:20:00-04:00

In an alternate reality, a half-mile-diameter dome would enclose much of Manhattan. The dome would regulate the city’s temperature and reduce energy consumption, according to the man behind the plan, R. Buckminster Fuller. Titled “Noah’s Ark #2”, the fantastical idea actually found a sponsor and the idea went through preliminary feasibility studies.

This is just one of the 200 unbuilt projects for New York City included in Never Built New York, a new book published by Metropolis Books. Authored by Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell, the book is a follow-up to their popular edition Never Built Los Angeles, and documents unbuilt plans for towers, bridges, parks and airports from the outrageous to the banal.

An 1870 project by Rufus Henry Gilbert sounds a bit like Elon Musk’s Hyperloop: a series of elevated, pneumatic tubes would propel passengers across the city. Suspended in tall Gothic arches, the tubes would be powered by compressed air.

The Museum of Modern Art building in New York carries ...