While most of these buildings are constructed out of more traditional materials like cement, brick, drywall, and plywood, forward-thinking architects and members of the construction industry have increasingly been turning to natural materials as an alternative for the future. Due to its ability to sequester carbon, hemp has landed itself at the forefront of the conversation about natural building. — Topic A
Hemp’s high tensile strength, pliability, and strength-to-weight ratio are increasingly valuable in the manufacture and design of products like fiberboard and even a new concrete alternative. The recent COP26 conference in Glasgow featured the speculative 'Urban Sequoia' design from SOM... View full entry
Colourful houseboats anchored along the Nile have been fixtures of Cairo since the 1800s. Last month the government ordered their removal, saying the boats were unsafe and lacked permits—no surprise, since it stopped renewing the permits two years ago. It has recently begun towing them away.
Officials are coy about their plans for the riverbank. If the past is any guide, the boats will be replaced by restaurants and cafés, their lush gardens buried under concrete.
— The Economist
As the New York Times pointed out recently, the houseboats carry quite a bit of cultural significance as the site where Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz wrote his seminal 1966 novel Adrift on the Nile and several other classic tomes. Egypt is pursuing an aggressive redevelopment of its ancient... View full entry
Smart city technology should do things like shorten commute times, speed the construction of affordable housing, improve the efficiency of public transit, and reduce carbon emissions by making building technology more efficient and providing less polluting transportation alternatives to the car. But often its proponents focus on what it can do rather than what it should. If Sidewalk’s Quayside failure taught us anything, it’s that these technologies need to respond better to human needs. — MIT Technology Review
The MIT Technology Review took a dive into the abandoned pre-pandemic conversion of Toronto’s 12-acre Quayside waterfront plot into an elaborate “Smart City” development by the hands of Sidewalk Labs. The revitalization was recently repackaged as a mixed-use green corridor concept to be... View full entry
Arup has been placed in the lead for MTA/NJ Transit and Amtrak’s planned redevelopment and expansion of Penn Station in New York City. The tender was announced recently by the rail service and is part of a larger Gateway Program aimed at improving a critical infrastructure clog situated in a... View full entry
After two years, Vienna has overtaken Auckland as the world’s most livable city, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The EIU said that Auckland’s position on the index dipped to the 34th spot this year because of higher Covid-19 infection rates and strict border controls in 2021. Although lockdowns ended in New Zealand in December, well-vaccinated cities in Europe and Canada had begun easing restrictions earlier.
— CNBC
The Austrian capital was joined by Copenhagen, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam as the other European cities on the list. Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Osaka, and Melbourne rounded out the Top 10 of the 172-city sampling. The Russian invasion of Ukraine also impacted the makeup of the... View full entry
New York has lagged for years behind other major American cities in making its subway system accessible to people with disabilities: Just 126 of its 472 stations, or 27 percent, have elevators or ramps that make them fully accessible. But on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it would add elevators and ramps to 95 percent of the subway’s stations by 2055 as part of a settlement agreement in two class-action lawsuits over the issue. — The New York Times
The settlement will see 81 subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2025. Another 85 stations will be made accessible by 2035, with 90 more by 2045, and an additional 90 by 2055. The subway stations selected for changes include nine that currently are partially accessible, where... View full entry
The new construction is part of planning by Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, who said he envisioned a new, more resilient Ukraine after this war and is revamping his city’s infrastructure to prepare for an almost constant state of conflict […] for those displaced by war, Anton Kolomeytsev is envisioning something much less adorned, but no less graceful. — The New York Times
According to the New York Times, Lviv, Ukraine’s westernmost major city with a population of approximately 800,000, could face a war-fed refugee increase of around 50,000 persons if the process of internal displacement continues at its current pace. Recently updated building codes means the wave... View full entry
Embarking on a new project type for the first time in the history of the practice, Ma Yansong’s MAD Architects recently unveiled photos for a social housing scheme located near Beijing’s central business district called Baiziwan. It is promoted to include some 4000 new housing units... View full entry
In time for the start of summer, the global fraternity of Chief Heat Officers has grown as cities decide to commit themselves to full-time professionals from the subfield of public design in the face of mounting challenges caused by climate change. The city of Monterrey, in the Mexican state of... View full entry
Your eyes do not deceive you: after six years, construction is set to come to a close next month for the new Sixth Street Viaduct. The $588-million structure, which spans 3,500 feet across the L.A. River between Boyle Heights and the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, will open to the public in a two-day celebration on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10, 14th District Councilmember Kevin de Leon announced this week. — Urbanize Los Angeles
The largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles is finally here. Designed by a team including architect Michael Maltzan and HNTB, the Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement Project sees the creation of a new bridge, dubbed “The Ribbon of Light”, to replace the original 1932 structure. The... View full entry
A general picture of the proposed $10 billion overhaul of Washington, D.C. Union Station is bit clearer this week after the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts released renderings of a revised plan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Earlier in May, the FRA scrapped parts of that plan that... View full entry
Construction of Studio Gang’s planned Parcel F contribution to the Mission Rock development is officially underway in San Francisco, filling in the final puzzle piece of a 28-acre mixed-use scheme led by Tishman Speyer and the local Major League Baseball affiliate San... View full entry
The work of Concordia University Centre for Sensory Studies director David Howes and other researchers working in the growing field of sensory urbanism was recently highlighted by Jennifer Hattam of MIT Technology Review. A wide range of methods ranging from the high-tech and... View full entry
The Line, as the car-free linear city that will form the backbone of Neom is known, could cost up to $200 billion to build, the prince said last year, though that was before the plan changed to include gigantic horizontal buildings.
The buildings would be “different heights as you go,” adapting to the landscape, with their final size determined by engineering considerations and the terrain, Al-Nasr said.
— Bloomberg
The OPEC nation has thus far been mum as to the new plan’s details but says it will be funded in part through an increase in surplus revenues overseen by the Public Investment Fund, which is managed by NEOM’s CEO Al-Nasr. It is yet unclear whether Bechtel, who previously signed on their... View full entry
ICYMI, Sean Joyner debunked Architecture’s Mythological Work Culture. Given the clear "disconnect between the traditional professional ethos and the advent of the current zeitgeist" he argues "It is time to value people over projects, individuals over industry, compassion over concept." Not... View full entry
