Nashville – Tennessee – USA (by Joel Tonyan)
Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne has completed a three-semester–long study of Houston’s future, given its current sprawling urban conditions and rapid growth. The project, conducted alongside 21 University of Houston students and faculty members Matt Johnson, Peter Zweig, and Jason Logan, focused on ways of addressing the problems that arise from Houston’s historical lack of zoning in conjunction with the largely unregulated growth of industry and capitalism. These approaches include reinventing the current energy infrastructure, changing real estate and density, and leveraging the lack of zoning to generate new ideas.
“Houston is the only major city in the United States without zoning and form-based codes,” said Logan. “Surprisingly, we found a lack of zoning can generate exceptional forms of urbanism and architecture.”
The studio involved a summer project in Los Angeles, where Mayne’s firm, Morphosis, is based. Students collaborated with Mayne to envision Houston’s rapidly approaching future.
By exploring how to rebuild and rethink the development of the central business district, students were challenged to demonstrate the viability of designs from an economic, cultural, social, and ecological point of view, said Zweig. Their vision proposes a dynamic, optimistic future that is actually occurring faster than anyone has anticipated.
The culmination of the studio project is an exhibition at the College of Architecture and Design’s Mashburn Gallery, which opened on November 30. Additionally, the work is set to be published in a book in fall 2017.
News via: University of Houston
From the architect. We received a commission from a married couple to design a house to be built on a small plot (with an 8-meter frontage and a depth of 30 meters) inserted within a dense and difficult context. The couple, whose children had already left home, asked us for a simple house, obstruction-free and with a strongly contemporary feel.
The layout is based on the idea of using the frontage and the rear extension without interruptions to give a sense of space even with the small area available.
Two axes were defined along the ends of the building, each measuring 1.5 meters wide. All of the services –bathrooms, kitchen, larders, and septic tanks –are grouped together at the south end; all the circulations are at the north. This enables a 5-by-5 meter modulated space between the two axes. Within this sequence of structures, two patios were arranged as a means of filtering the light.
Therefore the areas are connected to afford wide open views despite the compactness of the plot. The result is a spacious and bright house where courtyards can be enjoyed all the time.
Costa Rican architect César Oreamuno has designed a modular capsule that accommodates to the basic needs of a community after a state of emergency or disaster. The units are adaptable and easily assembled in order to account for a variety of situations and respond to a series of unique functions, although the main theme of the project is focused on improving the quality of attention towards the basic needs of crisis victims, as well as encouraging the development of the community.
The National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Response of Costa Rica defines mass disasters as the disruption of ordinary societal functions. In addition to the number of deaths and injuries, consequences include the loss of material goods, the interruption of supply lines and economic instability. Every society that has been affected by a situation of crisis experiences a degradation of living conditions.
When restricted to their own means, individuals often experience difficulties in satisfying their most basic needs, calling for the attention of humanitarian organizations and institutions. In most cases this aid is found through shelters, usually community halls or schools, that may not have the necessary infrastructure required for personal hygiene and sanitation, nor adequate areas for storage or cooking.
There would be no need for architecture if human beings were content to live in caves or in trees. Architecture is necessary to create conditions of habitability that are not dependent on the time of day or the time of year, or on the climatic conditions of the environment anywhere in the territory. – Guallart, 2009
This is why Oreamuno has designed these temporary refuge modules, conceptualized from the idea of a Swiss army knife; architecture capable of solving multiple problems simultaneously, allowing users to overcome a state of crisis within a relatively short amount of time.
The shelter unit constitutes of 5 cubicles, 3 of which are mobile (internal furniture) and 2 rigid (structural support). The modules, the understanding the accessories’ functions, the methods of transportation, the assembly manual and the characteristics of technical support were of highest importance during the design process in order to create a functional proposition that fulfils a series of basic characteristics, such as:
Architect: César Leonardo Oreamuno Canizal
University: Latin University of Costa Rica. Graduate project for a Bachelor in Architecture and Urbanism
Year: 2015
Location: This project doesn’t have a determined or specific location as its location is determined by climactic and anthropological factors
Area: 13.7m2
You have got to love nature and its creations.
Have a great weekend. Cheers!
