We're now about a month past the UK's historic 'Brexit' vote to leave the European Union, and, well, lots has happened. David Cameron stepped down as Prime Minister, and was replaced two weeks ago by fellow Conservative, Theresa May. The economy has drastically slowed down as the value of the... View full entry
On June 23rd, 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union. In the following month, the pound dropped 10% in value against the US dollar (the lowest since the 1980s), PM David Cameron resigned, Boris Johnson resigned, Nigel Farage too (not before insulting all of the European parliament), and... View full entry
It's rare that spectacle and nuance combine effortlessly, but an exception can be made for the lithe sculptural form of the San Shan Bridge. The bridge, which translated into English means "three mountains," will serve as a shapely conduit between Beijing and the river valleys of Zhangjiakou... View full entry
On issues related to the funding, mass transit, biking, and the environment, the two parties have staked out dramatically different views about how they envision the future of the nation’s transportation system.
Democrats are proposing an expansive increase in federal support for transportation investment, with a focus on building access to opportunity, bolstering access to non-automobile modes, reducing the impacts of climate change, and maintaining the role of unions.
— The Transport Politic
Republicans, on the other hand, propose no increase in federal spending (though Mr. Trump may disagree), an elimination of the federal role in funding non-automotive transportation, an emphasis on pollution-spewing modes and energy sources, and a reduction in the role of unions.For more on the... View full entry
Monopoly is an undeniable classic. Originating over a century ago in the U.S., in the era of Rockafellers and Carnegies, it was first known as “The Landlord’s Game”—a didactic tool protesting the power of, well, monopolies. Its current form of winner-takes-all buyouts has dominated since... View full entry
The authors and curators behind 2013's Never Built Los Angeles, a collection of fantastical and aborted projects from LA's 20th century urban history, have now turned their attention eastward, to New York City.In Never Built New York, Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin (with a foreword by Daniel... View full entry
To help ease California’s housing crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are turning to people’s backyards.
Multiple bills with the endorsement of Brown are moving through the Legislature to make it easier for homeowners to build small units on their properties, whether in their garages, as additions to existing homes or as new, freestanding structures.
[Mayor] Eric Garcetti and other supporters hope the relaxed rules will spur backyard home building to combat a housing shortage..
— Los Angeles Times
For more on Los Angeles' major housing crisis, check out these links:Los Angeles sues property owner who allegedly evicted tenants for Airbnb flipLA has a housing crisis – but the problem isn't those fancy new towersMeditating on the "Past Future Housing" of Los Angeles with Morgan Fisher and... View full entry
Five hundred steps, 25 stories, and 100 meters of height make up the Dubai Steps, as well as what appears to be a steely reflective outer casing with circular perforations. An aesthetic cross between the spinal column of a terminator and the euphoric ascendance of MVRDV's Rotterdam stair... View full entry
An exhibition of Scottish architecture held as part of a major festival in Italy is to be staged for the first time in Scotland.
Prospect North, one of three architecture exhibitions being staged in Oban, was first shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
It explores the stories of 15 Scots communities who have used design and architecture to make a difference.
— bbc news
Read more articles on Scottish projects and featured firms:Former juror Rory Olcayto breaks down the 2016 Stirling Prize nomineesRIBA 2016 Stirling Prize Shortlist announced: includes Herzog & de Meuron, Wilkinson EyreEdinburgh's maker-architects: a visit to GRASArchitects react to shocking EU... View full entry
Now through August 25, take an immersive, tongue-in-cheeky video tour through Los Angeles at WUHO Gallery, with David Hartwell and Bill Ferehawk's "MEDIAN".Enter the narrow, deep gallery space and be at the center of MEDIAN–an "experimental moving image installation" projected onto the length... View full entry
Facebook could be your next landlord. In an effort to drum up support for the controversial expansion of its headquarters, the social media giant is trying to give back to the community by building at least 1,500 housing units that can be rented by the general public—not just Facebook employees [...]
Facebook has pledged that 15 percent of the new units it creates will go to low- or middle-income families.
— Gizmodo
...Which is great until you realize that 85 percent of the building will probably be ridiculously expensive and probably populated by local tech bros.For more on Silicon Valley urbanism, check out these links:Silicon Valley campuses at risk as sea levels riseMark Zuckerberg's resolution for... View full entry
Nudge down the design and development fees, pay the construction workers less, drop the interest rate as low as it will go, spend nothing on maintenance, even assume that someone gave the land for free — and the buildings still aren't feasible. A 50-unit apartment is still millions short.
"Even if you try to tweak a lot," Poethig says, "for people of extremely low incomes, there’s just going to be this gap to the cost of development and production of housing."
— washingtonpost.com
A very enlightening (and depressing, but with tentative solutions!) interactive from the Urban Institute uses data from Denver, Colorado's housing market to show how building affordable housing just doesn't "pencil out"—meaning, as Emily Badger puts it for the Washington Post, "The costs of... View full entry
After a strong 2015, there is a growing sense that the construction industry expansion will be more tempered over the next eighteen months. [...]
The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast, a survey of the nation’s leading construction forecasters, is projecting that spending will increase just less than six percent for 2016, with next year’s projection being an additional 5.6% gain.
— AIA
“Healthy job growth, strong consumer confidence and low interest rates are several positive factors in the economy, which will allow some of the pent-up demand from the last downturn to go forward,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “But at the same time, the slowing... View full entry
[James] Leadbitter called it “a playful and exciting space for redesigning madness, a utopian attempt at what a mental health hospital could be like.”
Each structure...is an abstract interpretation of the feedback from the workshops, designed to offer varying levels “of privacy and intimacy ranging from total isolation to complete togetherness.”
“This is only a small glimpse of a project that has huge potential to influence the way we think about the design of mental health care environments,”
— Slate
More than 300 patients, architects, and psychiatrists pitched their ideas on how they would redesign the psychiatric ward for “Madlove: A Designer Asylum”, a collaborative project conceived by artist and activist James Leadbitter, who has suffered from mental illness and has stayed at several... View full entry
The [plastic] materials are thoroughly cleaned, before being ground into a rough power, mixed, melted and extruded into a range of shapes – mostly beams, blocks and pillars – which lock together to form buildings. Importantly, [Conceptos Plásticos] also trains communities in how to build these structures, giving them ownership over their homes [...]
Like LEGO blocks, these interlocking structures don’t need adhesive to be strong and sturdy, which makes them a good option for mobile shelters.
— forbes.com
Related on Archinect:Rotterdam considers paving its roads with recycled plasticStudent Works: This house made of trash teaches a lesson in green housekeepingTaiwan tests recycling's limits with bus stops out of bottlesRaumlabor’s ‘Big Crunch’ is an Incredible Building Made from Discarded... View full entry
