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It's fascinating to document how architectural and cultural trends are deployed across the country, but we've seen that widespread disinvestment — as well as patterns of renovation and repurposing — add to an already palpable sense of impermanence. — NPR
Chicagoans Zach Huelsing and Jon Lehman’s Rural Indexing Project was first launched during the Obama administration and has grown to an archive of more than 1,200 locations spread across 25 different states. Huelsing and Lehman both studied architecture and urban planning respectively, and their... View full entry
The U.S. Census Bureau has changed its definition of an urban area, which will cause hundreds of existing urban areas to be reclassified as rural. The change is centered on a new methodology for how urban areas are calculated, with the number of housing units being used as the key metric, rather... View full entry
Québec City-based architects Bourgeois Lechasseur have completed a set of contemporary cabins in the woods near the Canadian metropolis. Titled Reflection, the two identical cabins sit on a flat clearing close to Massif Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, a popular ski resort. Photography by... View full entry
It is no exaggeration to say that our present is the future that Dorothea Lange’s images foretold. The crisis of agriculture in the face of toxic capitalism and climatic disaster that is at the center of her famous photographs might also have served to focus and sharpen "Countryside: The Future," where it is occasionally a subject but more often merely an unstated subtext. — Places Journal
In "Countryside: The Future and the Past," Deborah Gans reviews Countryside: The Future, at the Guggenheim Museum, the multimedia culmination of years of interdisciplinary, globe-spanning research led by OMA's Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, director of its think tank, AMO... View full entry
With 16 architects announced as shortlist winners back in October, the Architectural Review has announced Comunal Taller de Arquitectura as the winner of Architectural Review's 2019 Emerging Architecture Award. The Mexico-based architecture firm was applauded for a project submission... View full entry
The Irish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, opening May 26th, will explore the importance of the rural marketplace. Once the economic and social hubs of the countryside, many of these marketplaces have seen their roles diminished as rural regions experience accelerating change... View full entry
"By investing in Framework, our city will now be home to the first skyscraper made from wood in the United States. This project not only reflects Oregon’s leadership in the newly emerging wood products industry of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), it also demonstrates our city’s commitment to finding innovative ways to quickly deliver affordable units during our housing crisis,” said Portland Mayor, Ted Wheeler. — Portland Housing Bureau
LEVER Architecture's project, Framework, has been awarded 6M from the city of Portland as a recipient of the City's "Fast Starts" Affordable Housing Program. The program aims at providing financial and city level assistance in the development and deployment of affordable housing projects that aim... View full entry
Since 2004, MONU has been working towards the disentanglement and collective understanding of the process of global urbanization. With its latest issue, the magazine seems to demonstrate, and at the same time question, the nature of this process, characterizing it primarily as one of decentralizing urbanization.
By Federico Ortiz
In a world undergoing a process of constant urbanization, which appears to cover the entirety of our planet’s surface, we have become familiar with the idea of living in the “Urban Age” and with statistics that predict, for example, that by 2030 60% of the world’s population will live in... View full entry
the federal government’s disaster declaration formula has been broken for years, making it nearly impossible for smaller communities to get help. [...]
The FEMA Disaster Assistance Reform Act requires the feds give greater consideration to the localized impact of a disaster [...]
rural parts of the state ... must meet an arbitrarily high threshold in order to qualify for a disaster declaration. Enacting this language into law will level the playing field
— wjbc.com
Known as HR 1471, the FEMA Disaster Assistance Reform Act of 2015 (passed by the House on February 29 of 2016) includes input from architects and members of the building industry to review and update FEMA's policies. In a press release issued earlier today, AIA President Russell Davidson FAIA... View full entry
[University of Kansas alumnus + architect Michael Cummings] and his wife have donated $1.6 million to establish the Michael A. Cummings Scholarship for architecture students at KU, with a preference for those from rural communities...'I’m hoping this scholarship will help some people who will have a similar experience to what I have had, which is to find a career that wasn’t on their radar and from there to end up with a wonderful and fulfilling career.' — ljworld.com
Read the University of Kansas' full press statement here.More on Archinect:2015 NCARB Awardees to implement new curricula "to expand and reposition practice"Encroaching on the green belt: UK loosens protections on rural landSuicide rates are higher in rural areas than in cities, but why?Hello... View full entry
Rural adolescents commit suicide at roughly twice the rate of their urban peers, according to a study published in the May issue of the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Although imbalances between city and country have long persisted, “we weren’t expecting that the disparities would be increasing over time,” said the study’s lead author, Cynthia Fontanella, a psychologist at Ohio State University.
“The rates are higher, and the gap is getting wider.”
— the New York Times
"Suicide is a threat not just to the young. Rates over all rose 7 percent in metropolitan counties from 2004 to 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In rural counties, the increase was 20 percent." View full entry
What is a village? More importantly, how rapidly can one be formed? The 150 academics, students and practicing architects participating in Project Village set out to answer these questions by constructing an entire community in a week, including a stage, a pub, and a residential building. ... View full entry
As rural Japan battles the twin afflictions of a population that is getting smaller almost as quickly as it’s getting older, Kamiyama is one of a handful of towns that is bucking the trend. It’s practicing 'creative depopulation' — trying to make sure it gets younger and more innovative, even as it shrinks, by attracting youthful newcomers who are weary of big-city life to work in new rural industries. — The Washington Post
More:Find your ideal neighborhood with this new 'Livability Index' online toolRevisiting Sharon Zukin's "Loft Living" and NYC gentrificationRenzo Piano: the future of European architecture lies in the suburbsDesigning for Seniors and Soldiers, Toward a "Silver" Architecture View full entry
Increasingly, young tech talent wants to live and work in cities. As a result, the hottest tech companies, from Google to Twitter to Uber, are setting up shop in San Francisco, a long drive north of Silicon Valley, the traditional stronghold of the computer game. In the cutthroat world of tech recruiting, catering to the demands of the talent is everything, and even Apple isn’t immune to the first rule of real estate: location, location, location. — wired.com
[The Catskills] could become a lot flashier, thanks to [Sherry Li's] proposal for the area: a multibillion-dollar "China City of America," complete with an amusement park, mansions, a casino, retail centers, a college, and more. [...]
The Center for Immigration Studies wrote a comprehensive take-down of "China City," criticizing the project's potential for environmental disruption, dubious promise of job creation, and possible role as a stalking horse for the Chinese government.
— The Atlantic Cities
