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Deep beneath the streets of Clapham, London, in a former air raid shelter, Steve Dring and his colleagues are farming. Vertical farming, that is.
The company Dring co-founded, Growing Underground, is cultivating a wide range of vegetables and herbs in vertically-stacked trays in the confined space. It’s part of a growing trend in Europe and the U.S.
— Marketplace
Marketplace visits Growing Underground, a cutting-edge vertical farm inside a converted WWII-era air raid bunker 100 feet beneath London. "If we were growing peas out in the open, we’d have three crops a year," the company's cofounder Steve Dring tells the reporter. "Here, we get 62 crops a year... View full entry
This all makes what is happening now all the more remarkable. Last summer, Ford Motor Company announced it had bought the building, with plans to invest $740million to transform it into a world-leading research centre for ‘future mobility’. The very industry that signed the station’s death warrant in the first place is now set on resuscitating it as a beacon of sustainable transport. — The RIBA Journal
Oliver Wainwright pens a piece on the upcoming renovation of the Michigan Central Station, which was a celebrated icon of Detroit when it first opened in 1913. After the station closed in 1988 and was abandoned, it became the epitome of the city's ruin porn. After buying the building last summer... View full entry
Her newly resurrected 114-year-old Purse Building features a floor-to ceiling mural of the late Jacobs, an urbanist activist and author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, superimposed on a downtown street grid. Above Jacobs’ striking bespectacled image, her mantra “New ideas need old buildings” blazes in neon lights. — Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News profiles Tanya Ragan, a Dallas-based real estate developer who is taking on commercial real estate's "boys club" mentality with a Jane Jacobs-inspired approach. Ragan's Wildcat Management is behind a series of new and forthcoming projects, including the... View full entry
The Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and developers Lovett Commercial have unveiled plans to transform the 55,000-square-foot Barbara Jordan Post Office in Houston into a mixed-use cultural center and park for the city. Rendering of proposed atrium located within the renovated post... View full entry
L.A. has a reputation for being a progressive city architecturally, and a city that’s always transforming itself. We have an amazing amount of architecturally significant historic buildings. I think people have grown to appreciate what those have to offer.” — Metropolis
The city of Los Angeles is a city filled with several renovated buildings and historical structures that have been turned into must-see stops. Although this city isn't the first to revive unused historical buildings, Los Angeles' ever-evolving knack for finding "beauty in the reuse" has given many... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
The New Delhi based practice, Studio Lotus, creates a winning project design that applies adaptive re-use techniques to transform the historic Mehrangarh Fort precinct in Jodhpur, India. The new Visitor Centre and Knowledge Centre is set to create an alternative entrance to the Mehrangarh Fort... View full entry
Chicago's West Loop neighborhood celebrated the inauguration of its very first public library last Thursday. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the two-story library — which is the City of Chicago's 81st branch — was once part of the Harpo Studios campus and was donated to the city... View full entry
Once the largest warehouse in the world, the Fenix building and its surrounding riverbanks in Rotterdam saw millions of European migrants leave from its embarkments. Bought this year by the arts organization Droom en Daad Foundation, the building will soon undergo a historic renovation that seeks... View full entry
In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles. (Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!)... View full entry
Berlin has decided on a novel location to host some of the new apartments the city badly needs—on top of the old ones.
Yesterday, Berlin’s Senate announced a project to add more units on top of already existing buildings in the city’s east, with a possible capacity of up to 50,000 new homes. The plan to add floors isn’t novel in itself, of course, even in Berlin. What’s striking is the specific type of building chosen for the experiment: East Berlin’s Plattenbau.
— citylab.com
The first building to win the RIBA Stirling Prize – Hodder Associates’ Centenary Building for the University of Salford – could be converted into a new primary school.
The plans for the currently empty 23-year-old building form part of 5plus Architects’ emerging 99ha development framework for the university’s existing campus and surrounding area.
— Architects' Journal
Hodder + Partners's Centenary Building for the University of Salford was the first to be awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize back in 1996. Originally designed to be the School of Electrical Engineering, during construction plans changed for the building to house the Faculty of Art and Design... View full entry
Maurice Cox grew up in Brooklyn, a borough whose name has since become a global shorthand for gentrification. An urban designer, architectural educator, and former mayor of the City of Charlottesville, VA, in 2015 Cox became head of the planning department of Detroit, where he hopes to prevent the forces that have reshaped his childhood home from taking over the Motor City. [...] Cox is using design to catalyze growth that’s incremental and closely in line with the city’s strong sense of self. — Urban Omnibus
Urban Omnibus presents an insightful conversation between Maurice Cox, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit, and Marc Norman, founder of the consulting firm “Ideas and Action” and Associate Professor of Practice at UMich's Taubman School of Architecture and Urban... View full entry
"During our architecture practice we felt the need to create a working space which could represent our work and way of thinking" says KOGAA Architectural Studio, a Czech firm based out of Brno, the country's second largest city. Photography by Jakub Skokan and Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNiceAs... View full entry
The only profitable games in modern Olympic history, LA 1984 was a case study in public–private partnerships, corporate sponsorship, and municipal storytelling [...] It’s proof, say LA 2028 organizers, that the city can do it again: re-use the city’s wealth of existing and under-construction stadiums and athletic facilities, house athletes and the media at local universities, and host an Olympics that won’t require new publicly-funded infrastructure... — curbed.com
The Olympics have been promoted to cities as a vehicle for ushering in investment, attention, and urban growth. The reality, however, is often contradicting with failed developments and infrastructure left in the aftermath. As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 games, large questions remain on... View full entry
