Construction work will shortly begin of the Mateo Arquitectura-designed housing blocks in the Andromède district of Toulouse, France, near the airport of Toulouse-Blagnac. — bustler.net

The collaboration of three Toronto-based firms, JET Architecture, JCI Architects, and Terraplan Landscape Architects, has won the commission to build the "Shobuj Pata" (Green Leaf) Eco Community Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh. — bustler.net

Across America, recession-fueled foreclosures and plummeting home values have left countless properties abandoned and vulnerable to looting. As Scott Pelley reports, the problem has gotten so bad in Cleveland, Ohio, that county officials have demolished more than 1,000 homes this year - and plan to demolish 20,000 more - rather than let the blight spread and render nearby homes worthless. — 60 Minutes - CBS News

Once again this December 1st the world's attention turns to the global issue of HIV/AIDS. Typically media coverage focuses on the role of education and redoubling efforts to prevent transmission among at-risk groups. However one aspect of the disease that has received less attention is the extent to which housing conditions affect both the risk of infection and the wellbeing of people living with HIV/AIDS. — globalurbanist.com

Oftentimes, United States' military men and women carry the physical and emotional wounds of their service home with them, "find[ing] workarounds to cope with their surroundings based on individual capabilities and preferences." Today, IDEO and Michael Graves Associates see their work come alive as the U.S. Army Fort Belvoir and Clark Realty Capital unveil a new model for building accessible homes on military installations: the Wounded Warrior home. — core77.com

Here in Merced, a city in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley and one of the country’s hardest hit by home foreclosures, the downturn in the real estate market has presented an unusual housing opportunity for thousands of college students. Facing a shortage of dorm space, they are moving into hundreds of luxurious homes in overbuilt planned communities. — nytimes.com

Prefabricated shells meant for building Bangkok's elevated skyway have become home for flood refugees. — cnn.com

Winners have recently been revealed in Aarhus, Denmark, for the new Brabrand Housing Association residential complex competition. The winning team consists of Danish architects ADEPT and LUPLAU & POULSEN, turn-key contractor Dansk Boligbyg and NIRAS Consulting Engineers. The team has designed a project [...] that consists of 238 public dwellings distributed between 83 apartments for families and +55 aged seniors, and 155 student-housing units. — bustler.net

Both the two- and three-story buildings, quakeproof and made from freight containers, were designed by architect Shigeru Ban. The second and third floors have balconies. Units are built in a staggered fashion to curb noise disturbance. — japantimes.co.jp

One of our favorite architectural design competitions has just announced the winning entries of its 2011 edition: the Zombie Safe House Competition. Sure, laugh about it, but once the postapocalyptic days are upon us and roaming hordes of the undead come for your guts, the term "sustainable design" takes on a whole new meaning. — bustler.net

On Wednesday Lord Foster announced a plan so big that even Burnham would have been impressed. The Thames Hub, a £50bn project devised by architects Foster and Partners, planners and builders Halcrow and Volterra, a consultancy group of British economists, aims to revolutionise Britain's often creaking and largely inadequate national transport and energy infrastructure. — guardian.co.uk

What little new housing that's being built in this country right now is being closely geared to the ways the American economy -- and its society -- are changing. Fewer sprawling suburbs. More urban living.

And in Kansas City, Mo., a nod to demographics. Developers there are building homes that cater to a very specific changing family dynamic. — marketplace.publicradio.org

Walker showed his idea around. The response was near freezing.

"So far, people don't like them," he says. "They say, 'I want something I recognize.'

"The baby boomers are coming of age, and I always imagined that they were more design-minded than they turned out to be."

Or they just haven't caught up to Gordon Walker. — seattletimes.nwsource.com

When I mention that architecture seems to be an afterthought in many new houses, Brady interjects: "If at all." It's a serious point because, she says, many homes are simply constructed off-the-shelf from manuals; even the once ubiquitous term "architect designed" has been ditched. — Guardian

Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture’s reorganisation of a 44 sq m studio apartment in New York in 2009 shows how architects in the Big Apple are designing better, smaller homes. The practice transformed an untidy, student-style pad in Manhattan’s East Village into “a live/work sculpture for a grown up” for its owner, Michael Pozner, head of retail development at American Apparel. — ft.com