It turns out pedestrians couldn’t be bothered to detour through the pixellated concrete compound. “Stairs were too steep, and people preferred crossing Blaak [the street passing under foot] at ground level,” van Schaik explains. “This left the bridge with serious problems. Most shops were vacant, as was the Supercube for a long time." — fastcodesign.com

Architects Alice Kimm, FAIA; John Mutlow, FAIA; Lorcan O’Herihy, FAIA; Warren Techentin, AIA; Patrick Tighe, FAIA; and Ed Woll, Ph.D. will present housing projects in development and discuss the potential of micro-housing units, transit oriented development and changing lifestyles to create livable density in LA. — USC Architecture

Due to popular demand, the Museum of the City of New York is now extending their "Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers" exhibit until Sept. 15, 2013. Originally planned to close on Labor Day weekend after recently hosting its special "Living Large While Living Small" series this month, the exhibit continues to attract visitors from around the globe. — bustler.net

A new project, “Walking Shelter,” explores what on-the-go housing might just look like. Here, a portable dwelling is packed right into a pair of sneakers. Essentially a tent without a pole (that’s the clever part), the mobile home can be deployed anywhere you’d like it to pop up.

Rather than relying on the old pole standard, the shelter’s frame is provided by the person(s) occupying it, explains Amelia Borg, one-eighth of Sibling, the Australian architectural collective behind the project. — fastcodesign.com

The Timber in the City competition organized by ACSA, the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, and Parsons The New School for Design, attracted over 1,000 architecture students and young professionals to create proposals for a mid-rise, mixed-use complex addressing NYC housing needs. The winners were chosen by a panel of leading architects and professors based on the use of wood as the primary structural material while meeting the needs of the Brooklyn waterfront community. — acsa-arch.org

As part of the popular "Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers" exhibit, the Museum of the City of New York will host "Living Large While Living Small", a series of events about how to live comfortably and stylishly in small urban spaces -- not to mention that all events will take place in a fully built 325-sq.ft "micro-apartment" housed inside the museum (an apartment size prohibited in most of NYC). — bustler.net

Four finalists have just been chosen from Phase I of the two-phase “For a Resilient Rockaway” (FAR ROC) design competition. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), L+M Development Partners, The Bluestone Organization, Triangle Equities, American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIA New York) and Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. (Enterprise) made the announcement at the Center for Architecture in New York City. — bustler.net

The city of Emmen, Switzerland has announced that Rotterdam architects MVRDV, together with investment corporation Senn BPM AG, Fontana Landscape architects and Wüest & Partner real estate consulting, are the winners of the Feldbreite competition for a housing block with 95 homes of 16 different types. — bustler.net

Danish firms JAJA Architects and ONV Architects, in collaboration with Bascon and Scandi Byg, have won the fourth delivery of the affordable housing concept AlmenBolig+. The order comprises 300-400 housing units on sites in the greater Copenhagen area. — bustler.net

The Denver Architectural League recently announced the winners of their Micro Housing Ideas Competition as well as seven formal recognitions. Inspired by a concern about the lack of innovation in Denver's existing multi-family housing market where many banal apartment, townhome and condo complexes continue to be built, this competition offered designers an opportunity to engage in reinventing the notion of "responsible affordable housing" with an emphasis on regenerative design. — bustler.net

Also announced this week were the three recipients of the 2013 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards, sponsored by the institute's Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). — bustler.net

Six residential projects have been selected as recipients of the 2013 AIA Housing Awards. The jury recognized projects in four award categories: One/Two Family Custom Housing, One/Two Family Production Housing (none selected this year), Multifamily Housing and Special Housing. — bustler.net

Housing starts in March rose to the highest level in five years. If developers keep building at that rate, there’d be one million new houses by the end of the year.

So, what are builders building and what kind of homes do consumers want? The granite countertop of the new kitchen is like the leather interior of a new car -- a standard, special order must-have. — marketplace.org

The winning entries of the 2013 Housing Tomorrow competition have just been announced, awarding three prizes and sixteen special mentions to design concepts that "explore, document, analyze, transform, and deploy socially‐ and environmentally‐engaged approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects."

This year's first prize was presented to Die Hu, Boji Hu, and Yang Zhou for their extreme environments housing proposal, 'Life on the Ropeway.' — bustler.net

Four finalist entries have been unveiled in the Christchurch, New Zealand urban design competition, Breathe - The New Urban Village Project. The brief called for innovative medium-density housing development designs from collaborative groups containing a designer and a property developer. — bustler.net