Archinect - News

MVRDV and KLABU create modular sports center for refugee communities using shipping containers

2024-12-05T11:47:00-05:00

MVRDV and Amsterdam-based social enterprise KLABU have unveiled the third iteration of their modular clubhouse design aimed at fostering community and providing sports access to refugees. The latest clubhouse will be installed at Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp, home to approximately 41,000 Syrian refugees.

Image credit: Coco Olakunle

KLABU, which means “club” in Swahili, builds inclusive community spaces in refugee camps, settlements, and urban areas. The clubhouses provide access to sports equipment, activities, TV broadcasts, Wi-Fi, and other resources, seeking to provide “a flexible, safe, and engaging space for refugees to connect and play.”

Image credit: Coco Olakunle

The clubhouses are constructed from modified shipping containers, chosen for their durability, security, and ease of transportation. The approach allows KLABU to deliver a “flat-packed” solution that combines the physical structure with sports equipment in a single shipment. Each iteration of the design has been refine...

Hassell and IAAC deploy 3D printing method for greater gender equality in Tanzania

2024-08-29T12:35:00-04:00

A new 3D printed project in Tanzania from Hassell and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) team of researchers in Barcelona will provide housing, professional skills training, and education for young women in the village of Kibaha.

Within the new Hope Village master plan, which is being undertaken with help from Australia’s Clarke Hopkins Clarke (CHC), a new Community Building structure will take shape using earth materials and locally sourced timber sections.

Its realization expands on research that first began in Spain and has since earned the Shaping A Circular Industrial Ecosystem Prize at the New European Bauhaus Awards in 2023. Construction will start in 2025. Mark Loughnan, the Principal and Head of Design at Hassell, states: “We’re using design to uplift the way people experience their daily lives. In this instance, we’re using it to hopefully help, heal and educate — and we’re also using it to innovate.”

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Your next job could be with humanitarian champions Shigeru Ban Architects

2024-05-31T11:18:00-04:00

Following our previous look at an opening for an Exhibition Designer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for an Architect at Shigeru Ban Architects.

The role, based in New York City, calls for an individual with 6 to 10 years of experience, working to develop documents for cultural, community, and residential projects. The practice is particularly interested in candidates who have worked on projects that are “inventive, carefully detailed, with well-integrated building systems.”

Related on Archinect: Shigeru Ban team constructs Paper Log House prototype in wildfire-ravaged Maui. Image courtesy Hawaii Off-Grid Architecture and Engineering

Why the role interests us

The open role at Shigeru Ban Architects offers us the opportunity to profile a selection of recent projects by the acclaimed practice, who often experiment with materiality in addition to undertaking activist work with reli...

Shigeru Ban details post-earthquake response effort in Turkey

2023-05-19T12:29:00-04:00

Shigeru Ban Architects has released photos of the architect’s response to the humanitarian crisis plaguing Turkey following the 7.8 earthquake that destroyed over 160,000 structures while claiming the lives of more than 50,000 people there and in Syria on February 6th.

The firm had previously been on the ground since March working through its Voluntary Architects Network (or VAN) nonprofit arm to construct shelters using their patented Paper Partition System that was first utilized in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan.

The system works by first constructing a system of 2x2-meter paper tubes, over which fabric privacy curtains can be installed.

Photo: © Mert Ünal

Now, three months removed from the disaster, an effort is underway to build temporary housing using what it says are new prototype designs that improve upon the Paper Log House Ban first debuted following the 1995 Kobe earthquake and later, also in Turkey, in reaction to the devastating İzmit earthquake there in...

Doctors Without Borders seeks architect to join their global humanitarian missions

2023-01-18T11:12:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Shop Manager at Studio Sanford Biggers, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open position on Archinect Jobs for an Architect at Doctors Without Borders.

The role, which requires a minimum of two years’ experience, calls for an architect who will oversee the design and construction of infrastructure to support the organization’s international humanitarian missions. Responsibilities in the role can range from feasibility studies and design proposals to management of the tendering, construction, and completion process.

In return, and aside from conventional industry workplace benefits, the organization offers to cover a range of primary costs including pre-departure inductions, vaccinations, visas, transportation and accommodation in the field, and psychosocial care support before and after missions.

World Home Foundation to focus philanthropy on global housing crisis

2020-07-29T13:55:00-04:00

31-year-old entrepreneur Fanyu Lin has initiated a new philanthropic enterprise called the World Home Foundation, an effort focused on providing homes to undeserved populations that include low income urban citizens, migrants, and refugees.

The new endeavor addresses a common phenomenon in reconstruction projects after natural disasters where low quality tents are provided to the impacted population as shelters while transitional housing is developed and built. "The shelters are often shacks, or low quality tents. There are technologies such as 3D printing which could improve the conditions and speed of building significantly, essentially combining shelters and transitional housing. But to achieve that in reality, it requires people who know the technology, the willing capital, and the right organization to bring it to life," writes Fei Bo in a profile on Lin.

Prior to launching World Home Foundation, Lin founded Fluxus, an architecture and construction technology company, and also...

Shigeru Ban on not designing for a utopia that will never come

2019-10-15T19:33:00-04:00

“This moment, the beginning of the 21st century, is a big moment to change the direction — toward sustainability and disaster relief,” he said. “This will continue as the main theme of this century.” Times had changed since the Modernist era: “Those times, people believed that they would have utopia some day. But we know that it’s not true. There’s no utopia.”

Nikil Saval, writing in T Magazine profiles architect Shigeru Ban in a wide-ranging article, shedding light on Ban's American education at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and The Cooper Union, highlighting the architect's ideological disagreements with Peter Eisenman, and his love for Alvar Aalto.

Not one to consider himself a "Japanese architect," Ban explains that instead he received exposure to the open-plan, indoor-outdoor elements of design traditional Japanese architecture is known for in reverse, after they had made their way from Japan to Frank Lloyd Wright and from Wright to Southern California's budding Mid-Century Modernism scene via the Case Study Houses.

Ban says, “My Japanese influence was made through Case Study Houses by accident,” he said. “Case Study Houses have many Japanese influences: for example, the connecting inside and out, like a Japanese traditional house, and also the way to use the materials, and also the post-and-beam structure. There...

'My works are an extension of my life': Notable designs of 2018 Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi

2018-03-07T15:12:00-05:00

If you're not too familiar with the works of 2018 Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi, the 90-year-old architect, urban planner, and educator has been a major influence in shaping modern architecture and urban living in his native India. Throughout his 70-year career, he has built public administrations, educational and cultural institutions, private residences, and more.

Read on for a glimpse into some of Doshi's notable projects.

Balkrishna Doshi (photo courtesy of VSF)

“My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams trying to create treasury of the architectural spirit. I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary expression for a sustainable holistic habitat,” Doshi said on receiving the Pritzker Prize. “[W]ith all my humility and gratefulness I want to thank the Pritzker Jury for this deeply touching and rewarding recognition of my work. This rea...

Win John Cary's book, “Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone”

2018-01-22T12:00:00-05:00

Esteemed designer and entrepreneur John Cary created the book “Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone” to bring attention to impactful designs that address critical issues of inequity and accessibility, as well as challenge the widespread assumption that good design is a luxury. Thanks to publisher Island Press, Archinect is giving away five copies of the book to our readers!

The book starts with a foreword by philanthropist Melinda Gates. “Great design is not a finite resource; it is a choice we can all make by listening more, empathizing more, and demanding more for humanity,” Gates writes.

The book highlights 20 human-centered projects from around the world that not only demonstrate how design can elevate communities, but how it can be achieved. It features in-depth interviews with designers, clients, and users, alongside full-color photographs.

St. Jerome's Children's Centre in Murunyu, Nakuru, Kenya, by Orkidstudio. Photo: Odysseas Mourtzouchos.

Women's Opportu...

Architects for Society creates Hex House, a more “dignified emergency shelter”

2017-12-27T15:45:00-05:00

Sallam noted that the average stay in a refugee camp is 17 years, and many displaced people live in makeshift dwellings such as airplane hangars. They may have shelter, but it’s not “shelter with dignity,” Design elements [of the Hex House] include 12-foot ceilings, which give the impression of roominess within the cozy space. Designed to function “off the grid,” [it] also has solar panels, and it’s raised slightly to protect against flooding and to provide some passive cooling, Sallam said.

The Minneapolis-based Architects for Society, a small non-profit group of mid-career architects from around the world, designed the Hex House to find better solutions for providing deployable emergency shelter for people displaced by natural or manmade disasters. The 500-square-foot Hex House is a hexagon-shaped dwelling that includes two bedrooms, a bathroom, a porch, a kitchen, and common areas. So far, Architects for Society has built two prototypes. Although they're still fine-tuning the design, they hope to eventually work with organizations like FEMA to implement their concept.

Cameron Sinclair to lead Airbnb humanitarian team for temporary-housing project

2017-04-25T19:47:00-04:00

Sinclair has been working with Airbnb over the past year on various pilot projects, with the official [temporary housing] project launching this summer. The ultimate goal is for one million Airbnb users to register as “hosts for good,” signaling that they will provide housing for people impacted by natural disasters or otherwise displaced.

Sinclair will lead Airbnb's in-house humanitarian team as part of the company's goal to provide free, short-term housing for 100,000 people in need over the next five years. Airbnb announced the #weaccept project in a commercial (linked below) that aired at this year's Super Bowl, not long after Trump's travel ban was issued and also in light of Airbnb guests reporting that they experienced racial discrimination from hosts on the website.

2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture winners revealed

2016-10-03T17:48:00-04:00

The 2016 winners have been revealed for the honorable Aga Khan Award for Architecture...Starting out with 348 nominations for the 2014-2016 cycle, the independent Master Jury shortlisted 19 competitive projects this past May. Following rigorous deliberation, the jury finally selected the six winning projects, which...include a children's library in Beijing, a spirituality refuge in Dhaka, and the Zaha Hadid-designed Issam Fares Institute, to name a few.

Here's a glimpse of the winning projects:

Bait ur Rouf Mosque | Dhaka, Bangladesh
Architect: Marina Tabassum Architects

Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre | Beijing, China
Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke

Superkilen | Copenhagen, Denmark
Architects: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Topotek 1 and Superflex

Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge | Tehran, Iran
Architect: Diba Tensile Architecture / Leila Araghian, Alireza Behzadi

Issam Fares Institute | Beirut, Lebanon
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

Friendship Centre | Gaibandha, Bangladesh
Architect: Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA

Learn more about each project on Bustler.

Previously:

2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture winners announced

Winners of the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Announced

2016 Fuller Challenge announces 19 semi-finalist initiatives

2016-07-12T14:04:00-04:00

The ninth cycle of the prestigious 2016 Fuller Challenge is well underway, and competition is as fierce as ever. Following the expert jury's rigorous evaluations, 19 semi-finalists were announced today...Multi-disciplinary teams work hard for a chance at winning the $100,000 grand prize that will help implement their initiative.

A few of this year's semi-finalists include:

Cooperación Comunitaria, which works with marginalized communities in Mexico's most seismically active region to build housing that is affordable, seismically sound, sustainable, and culturally appropriate.

The African Design Center “aims to transform the African built environment through a comprehensive program to recruit and train the next generation of African designers and architects.”

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) produces sustainably designed feminine hygiene products made out of discarded banana fiber. They call out the lacking availability of such products in developing countries, as well as broader taboos surrounding menstruation.

(cover image) Taking Roots' CommuniTree project works “to tackle deforestation, climate change, and poverty, through a comprehensive reforestation and carbon sequestration strategy” in Nicaragua and Guatemala, in collaboration with local rural farmers and their families.

Check out the full list of se...

Australian architects mourn the loss of Paul Pholeros, renowned housing equality advocate for Aboriginal communities

2016-02-03T21:05:00-05:00

[Healthabitat, the non-profit Paul Pholeros co-founded,] developed a model called Housing for Health...working with Aboriginal communities, conducting a survey of all housing and completing urgent repairs using mainly local Indigenous contractors, and adding whatever upgrades or repairs they can afford until the money runs out. The organisation has improved more than 8,000 houses – a third of Australia’s Indigenous-controlled housing stock – and with them the lives of 55,000 people.

Master architect M.N. Ashish Ganju on working to achieve "good architecture"

2015-09-03T13:07:00-04:00

Munishwar Nath Ashish Ganju is a thought leader in Indian architectural philosophy...Based in New Delhi, Ganju cares about the fact that over a quarter of Delhi’s population lives outside the law in unauthorised colonies. He lives and works on the urban fringe, to demonstrate by example the principle of urban renewal by citizens.

In a recent Forbes interview, esteemed architect M.N. Ashish Ganju looks back on his career over the last few decades -- from the history of Indian architecture, his most notable projects, to his current efforts to instill citizen-led urban renewal in the outskirts of the country.

You can also read some of Ganju's writing here.

Patrik Shumacher - backhanded compliment to Shigeru Ban?

2014-03-25T12:24:00-04:00

I worry if the criteria of the Pritzker Prize ... architecture's... most prestigious prize ... are now also being diverted in the direction of political correctness ....

Conrad Newel responds to Patrik Schumacher's "backhanded compliment" criticizing the Pritzker Prize awarding political correctness...

Patrik Schumacher :

"it is Ban's humanitarian work that the Pritzker jury emphasized in announcing the prize"

I congratulate Shigeru Ban ... love his work, especially the Metz project ... however, I worry if the criteria of the Pritzker Prize ... architecture's... most prestigious prize ... are now also being diverted in the direction of political correctness .... I would wish that architectural innovations that upgrade the discipline's capacity to cope with and facilitate the great urban develpment and restructuring tasks we are facing would dominate choice here ... I am afraid that if criteria shift towards political correctness great iconoclast-innovators like Wolf Prix or Peter Eisenman wont ever stand a chance to be recognized here ...

does this mean that those who aspire to win the Pritzker - or the nobel prize in physics - have to add humanitaria...

2013 Curry Stone Design Prize Winners Announced

2013-11-07T20:02:00-05:00

The Curry Stone Foundation has announced the winners of the 2013 Curry Stone Design Prize. Now in its sixth year, the annual prize celebrates humanitarian design and honors the influential work of socially engaged practitioners.

This year's Prize winners are:

Hunnarshala (Bhuj, India)
Proximity Designs (Yangon, Myanmar)
Studio TAMassociati/Emergency (Venice/Milan, Italy)

Principals from each group will attend a two-day awards ceremony at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco tonight at 7:30 p.m. PST.

The ceremony continues tomorrow Nov. 8 at the Autodesk Gallery, San Francisco, where each winner will present their work at the Design Like You Give A Damn! LIVE conference starting at 12:30 p.m. The two-day event will be live-streamed here.

Cardborigami: Designed to Help the Homeless

2013-07-31T19:25:00-04:00

Tina Hovsepian of global architecture firm Callison was driven by the need to help homeless individuals in Los Angeles when she designed the first prototype for the "Cardborigami" shelter during her fourth year at USC's School of Architecture. Cardborigami, which has grown into a non-profit organization, provides temporary housing for the homeless as part of a process to help them gradually overcome their state of homelessness.

The Cardborigami shelter balances innovative design and functionality. The application of traditional origami techniques onto cardboard gives the shelter a beautiful form. Before its modified origami form, the shelter was originally a re-design of an Air-stream trailer. "The idea is to deploy a trailer to a disaster site where mass shelter is needed, then the trailer expands to 20 times its length and twice its width to provide instant space," Hovsepian explained over email. "The form was then revised and re-scaled to fulfill its potential as a portable...

Norwegian architects reach out to the needy

2012-06-15T12:32:00-04:00

Energetic duo Andreas G. Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, partners of TYIN tegnestue Architects from Norway live by Finnish architect and writer Juhani Pallasmaa’s saying, “Architecture is about the understanding of the world and turning it into a more meaningful and humane place.“

Humanitarian Design Project Aims to Build a Sense of Community

2011-10-23T18:45:50-04:00

Countless academic studies have argued that studying design at school can be hugely beneficial, even for students who have no intention of becoming professional designers, because it builds their confidence by teaching them communication, planning and visualization skills, which will be useful in any field. Yet relatively few students in America’s cash-strapped public school system are given the chance to study design, or art, especially in deprived areas like Bertie County

Who Gives A Crap? Sanitation, Energy and Entrepreneurship in Kenya

2011-05-23T13:19:58-04:00

Sanergy, a year-old for-profit social enterprise that manufactures high-quality, yet low-cost and compact toilets for urban slums in the developing world and then uses human waste to produce energy and fertilizer. It is an “affordable, accessible and hygienic sanitation” solution for millions that live in places without sewage or electricity. They are places where the street is the bathroom. And that’s precisely the problem.

The tent that turns into concrete in less than 24 hours

2011-05-18T15:25:43-04:00

The past 12 months have seen a remarkable number of humanitarian crises with earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand and deadly tornadoes in the southern US being among the most recent. Among new innovations which could help relief efforts is a fabric shelter that, when sprayed with water, turns to concrete within 24 hours.