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Twelve people have died in a west London tower block fire and the number of deaths are expected to rise, police have said. [...]
Grenfell Tower underwent a two-year £10m refurbishment as part of a wider transformation of the estate, that was completed last year. [...]
Before and during the refurbishment, the local Grenfell Action Group claimed that the block constituted a fire risk and residents warned that site access for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted".
— BBC
While it's still too early to determine the cause of the fire, the BBC reports that "before and during the refurbishment, the local Grenfell Action Group claimed that the block constituted a fire risk and residents warned that site access for emergency vehicles was "severely restricted"." Latest... View full entry
The worst flooding in two decades has struck Peru, causing a death toll of 72 people since the beginning of the year. The floods are caused by a series of “highly unusual rains” produced by the warming of surface waters along the country’s northern coasts. The waters have inundated hospitals... View full entry
Towns and villages in central Italy have been hit by an earthquake for the fourth time in three months.
The 6.6-magnitude quake - Italy's strongest in decades - struck close to the region where nearly 300 people were killed by a quake in August.
This time no-one appears to have died, but about 20 people were injured.
The medieval basilica of St Benedict in Norcia, the town closest to the epicentre, was among buildings destroyed.
— BBC
The earthquake is the most recent in a series that has rocked the region for several months. Last August, an earthquake in Amatrice killed about 300 people and, in 2009, an earthquake destroyed most of the town of L'Aquila. Related:How Architects Can Help Nepal (And Learn From Past Disastrous... View full entry
“AbleNook is a modular disaster relief dwelling that you can put together without tools in under two hours,” Verdecia said.
While Shigeru Ban has become the de facto expert in designing quick yet elegant solutions for disaster relief housing, he may have some competition in the form of two University of South Florida architecture students whose "AbleNook" can be assembled in under 120 minutes without any tools. Sean... View full entry
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban is once more jumping into disaster-relief efforts. The cardboard-wielding starchitect traveled to Ecuador earlier this week [...] to provide architectural training and brainpower in the wake of the deadly earthquake April 16 earthquake, which has killed more than 650 people and displaced another 26,000 from their homes. — curbed.com
The Colegio de Arquitectos del Ecuador Provincial de Pichincha issued this statement on its website (Google-translated from the original Spanish text):"The Association of Architects of Ecuador, Pichincha Chapter (CAE-P) and the Pan American Architecture Biennial of Quito, officially announced the... View full entry
The death toll rose to 350 on Monday from a devastating earthquake that hit Ecuador at the weekend, as rescuers hunted for survivors, victims clamored for aid and looting broke out in the Andean nation's shattered coastal region.
More than 2,000 people were injured in Saturday night's 7.8 magnitude quake, which ripped apart buildings and roads and knocked out power along the Pacific coastline.
— Reuters
Related stories in the Archinect news:A 6.4 magnitude earthquake has just struck JapanTaiwan earthquake: tin cans found as fillers may have caused high-rise to collapseShigeru Ban builds earthquake-proof homes in Nepal: "I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No copyrights." 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
After twin earthquakes in April and May claimed 9,000 lives and left vast swathes of Nepal in ruins, survivors worried if they reused the brick rubble, they would end up with the same vulnerable, seismically unsound structures.
[...] Shigeru Ban - who helped bring global attention to humanitarian architecture and continues to influence fellow architects and disaster-relief workers - devised a solution. [...]
"I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No copyrights," Ban said.
— reuters.com
"While Ban said he enjoys working on grand projects commissioned by privileged people, he also wants to help people who have lost their homes, and is encouraged that many architects have followed in his footsteps."Previously in the Archinect news:Shigeru Ban: Beauty as a basic human needShigeru... View full entry
Dozens of people are missing after a landslide engulfed 22 buildings at an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. [...]
Local media reported that the soil that came loose had been dug up in the past two years in construction work and was piled up nearby.
A statement on Weibo from the Shenzhen municipal government said the landslide had also triggered an explosion at a nearby gas station.
A landslide in the country's Zhejiang province in November killed at least 25 people.
— bbc.com
"Shenzhen's fire brigade said it was working to free other trapped people - state media say 59 remain missing. Two workers' dormitories are among the affected buildings."It's been a rough few months in the news for China lately:Following warehouse explosion, three new high-rises in Tianjin... View full entry
“Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.”
In the Pacific Northwest, everything west of Interstate 5 covers some hundred and forty thousand square miles, including Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Eugene, Salem (the capital city of Oregon), Olympia (the capital of Washington), and some seven million people. When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America.
— newyorker.com
In the five-and-a-half years since an earthquake killed more than 220,000 people here and displaced 1.5 million more, most of headlines from Haiti’s capital have been about dysfunctional projects, mismanagement and the overall slow pace of reconstruction.
Yet some innovative urban development work is going on here, often under the radar.
— citiscope.org
Previously:Four years and half a billion dollars later, the Red Cross has built six houses in HaitiMASS Design Group's new Open-Air Clinics in Haiti, reviewed by Michael KimmelmanRebuilding Haiti: Houses for Haiti's homelessHaiti Simbi Hubs Wins AA School and Foster + Partners Sustainability and... View full entry
Aesthetics is a primary concern for Ban—not despite, but especially in humanitarian scenarios. He believes that beauty is a basic need, an aspect of a person’s dignity. Erecting beautiful, if simple, structures can ensure that a refugee camp is not labeled a slum. So, when examining available materials in Kobe, he fussed about the color of the beer crates, choosing Asahi’s more neutral plastic bins over Kirin’s glaring red crates. — qz.com
Last week, Ban visited several U.S. cities on a brief lecture tour, captivating audiences with his thoughts about "the Temporary and the Monumental." Read Archinect's report from his Los Angeles lecture at LACMA here. View full entry
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development embraced the trapezoid, dubbed Iberville-Treme, along with an exhaustive New Orleans plan that called for 2,314 apartments constructed within 54 months.
Yet after 48 months — four years — the work in New Orleans is far from done.
If construction continues at the same pace in coming years, the promised 2,314 apartments won’t be complete until 2026.
— nextcity.org
“I hate to throw things away,” explained the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban to a packed audience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last night. On the projection screen, one of his first works as an architect was displayed: an exhibition of the work of Alvar Aalto, who Ban... View full entry
The daughter of the man who was awarded what is considered the most prestigious prize in architecture said her late father was increasingly concerned society was not adequately confronting the looming ecological challenges.
Frei Otto, a German, was named as the winner of the 2015 Pritzker Architecture Prize earlier this year, just days before his death...
The award was received by...the architect’s daughter who...said he had been worried that the concerns he tried to voice were not heard.
— independent.co.uk
