In this video, filmmaker Ryan Clancy takes us inside Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, home to the world’s largest collection of buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe.

Due to the redevelopment of Detroit and the surging popularity of mid-century design, home prices and cost of living in the neighborhood have dramatically increased in just 5 years time – leaving the community on the cupse of turnover. Seeing the need to document Lafayette Park before it changes for good, Clancy uses his camera to capture the diverse group of existing residents in their homes, highlighting their relationships to the timeless architecture.

Primarily known for being the largest collection of Mies Van Der Rohe designed homes in the world, Detroit’s Lafayette Park is usually the subject of Architectural interest, leaving little said about its socioeconomic climate. This project narrates the experience of living in an iconic and rapidly changing neighborhood. The area has been influenced by a grim past and faces an uncertain future, making this footage a valuable documentation of a fragile moment in time. As a result, “A Poem of Glass and Steel” questions the worth and sustainability of beauty and community.

To learn more about the film, visit the official website, here.

AD Classics: Lafayette Park / Mies van der Rohe
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Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park Named National Historic Landmark
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© Marie-Caroline Lucat

• Architects: ARTELABO
• Location: Hérault, France
• Architects In Charge: Nadine and Laurent Fayard
• Area: 120.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Marie-Caroline Lucat

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

From the architect. The project is a second home located in the countryside, in a small village near Lodève, at the north of Montpellier. 

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

The plot of land has a sloping topography organized in a series of platforms supported by old stone walls.  It is opening on the north on a magnificent view on wooded steep hills.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

The projet integrate this landscape : following the lines of the platforms transversely to the slope, it takes shape in a ground floor building stretched in length and turned towards the view.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

The outlines of the platforms are preserved. The dry stone wall below the house is simply rebuilt and extended with the site material.

A terrace with a swimming pool is created on the south side of the house.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

A new retaining wall is created in a raw concrete that, by its compact minerality, contrasts sharply with the field’s material, revealing it, while in turn the site refers to the purity of the lines of architecture. The pool is digged against the wall, which closes the space of the terrace and forms a nested and intimate place in the heart of a large garden.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

With its flat roofing the house has a horizontal line which highlights the shape of the landscape.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

Its mineral aspect makes it merge with the stony platforms, and, seen from above, the projet « melts » within the landscape.

The plan is composed of a very simple rhythm of identical opaque thin « blocks », alterning with large gaps corresponding to the openings of the house.

Floor Plan

Each block is a « servant » space with attributed functions, and between them are rooms wide opened on the outside.

The project is made of two independant buildings (a main house and children’s rooms) connected on the ground level by a large terrace and up, by a light pergola.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

The terrace is at the heart of the project. Second open living room, it allows to live outside while being still in the heart of the house. Its decorative shadows, inspired by the site, gives the living space a poetic dimension.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

The project’s balance, in a potentially disturbed harmony – thin changes occurring between identity in variety – as its regular intervals and measures are the keys of its unity.

© Marie-Caroline Lucat

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Courtesy of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, InGenious Studio

Construction is underway on a 700 foot (213 meter) tall Hindu temple in Uttar Pradesh, India that, upon completion, will be the world’s tallest religious building. Designed by Indian firm InGenious Studio, the structure (named “Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir”) will surpass the Ulm Minster in Germany, the current tallest church at 530 feet (162 meters).

The earthquake-resistant structure will rise 70 tiered stories and cover an area larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and will house a variety of religious and cultural facilities – as well as a theme park filled with attractions.

“Attractions planned in the theme park would be like park rides, animatronics, light, sound and special effects as well as the Vraja Mandal parikrama shows and laser shows,” project director Narasimha Das told The Spaces.

Courtesy of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, InGenious Studio

Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir will be dedicated to Hindu deity Lord Sri Krishna, who scripture states grew up in Vrindavan. The temple will be surrounded by additional social and residential facilities, set into a 30 acre forested area planted to recreate the 12 forests of Braj.

Courtesy of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, InGenious Studio

Current work is concentrated on the building’s 180 foot (55 meter) deep foundation, which will contain 511 columns.

News via The Spaces.

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© Paul Crosby

• Architects: Salmela Architect
• Location: Schroeder, MN, United States
• Architect In Charge: David D. Salmela FAIA
• Area: 1400.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Paul Crosby

• Intern Architect: David Getty
• General Contractor: Rod and Sons Carpentry
• Structural Engineer: MBJ Engineers

© Paul Crosby

© Paul Crosby

The retreat is sited near Taconite Harbor where the boreal forest meets the exposed bedrock of Lake Superior shoreline. The utmost character of the project reveals the predominance of place. There is a sense of old and new, an ageing beauty in the materials that reflect both permanence and impermanence. It is an encounter of something unexpected, of things that are in opposition. 

© Paul Crosby

1st Floor Plan

© Paul Crosby

Arriving at the site a garage and elongated storage shed to house kayaks form the stone entrance path. Clad with black paper-resin composite, repetitive cedar battens provide each otherwise stealth structure a sense of scale, warmth and resemble adjacent birch tree-trunks. Once on the path, the main building, courtyard and sauna come into view. Native grasses encroach on the path from the sides and through the gaps in random sized stone pavers. Descending and passing through a gap in a low stone wall you enter the court. To the right is a traditional white-washed masonry sauna with outdoor baking oven. The purity of white upon closer examination reveals the texture of the masonry and heightens the slight imperfections embodied in the construction. Ahead stands a L-shaped unchimney which defines the corner of the outdoor gathering area. The residual soot patterns mark the visual, auditory, olfactory stimulation from the presence of fires previous. Permanent outdoor furniture suggests uses related to the outdoor oven, unchimney and sauna.

© Paul Crosby

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Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

• Architects: Wingårdh Arkitektkontor
• Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
• Architects In Charge: Gert Wingårdh, Anders Olausson
• Design Team: Peter Ejvegård, Liselott Jademyr, Tobias Fasth, Sebastian Olsson Susanne Flinck, Peter Öhman, Madeleine Stoops, Ulrika Davidsson, Malin Mattsson, Viktoria Wallin and Jens Vilhelmson
• Area: 1580.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

• Pattern Graphics Team: Felix Holgers and Pål Ericksson (Wingårdhs)
• Structural Engineer: Cowi
• Services Consulant: BDAB, Rejlers
• Main Contractor: Bergman & Höök
• Facade Contractor: KG Constructions
• Greenhouse Specialist: Drakenius Gardens
• Client: Nötkärnan Bergsjön Vc & Bvc AB

Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

“Paradise is the term for a place of timeless harmony”

In Somalia, a simple flue often means death. Especially if you are young or newborn. The death-rate among children is the highest in the world.

Site Plan

Sweden has a high influx of Somalian refugees.

The Somalian community is concentrated at Bergsjön, a suburb of Gothenburgh. A private health clinic has been highly successful by giving rapid treatment to anxious mothers. It needed to expand.

Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

The parking in front of the existing clinic provided a new plot for a new clinic, a new construction above the cars.

The drab surroundings of precast concrete, it is basically “a project” of 60s social housing, needed some colour and flair. The new building was conceived as a gift, carefully wrapped in elaborate glass. It should stand out and empower the community!

Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

Somalia is a very arid country where the idea of paradise is lush gardens, literally paradise or the garden of Eden.

Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

We decided to surround the waiting area with four walls of dense, damp and excessive(in time) vegetation, a rain forest.

Diagram

Plan

Diagram

The exterior walls are clad with unique pieces of screened glass. There is a different pattern on the inner pane. The two patterns are juxtaposed. This creates the illusion of movement.

A flag of colors slightly shifting in the wind. A celebration of color.

Courtesy of Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

Product Description. It was the strong desire of the client to make a colorful and optimistic statement. Therefore, we used standard insulated glass units to print unique rasterized multicolor print patterns on both glass panes. The distance between the overlaid patterns means that the combination of pattern looks different depending on the visual angle they are seen from, and it keeps shifting as you move your vantage point. The result is an illusion of movement, shimmer, shadow and depth, that offer an extra vibrancy of the expression.

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via http://www.tdag.org.uk

Tree and Design Action Group is a group that “shares the collective vision that the location of trees, and all the benefits they bring, can be secured for future generations through better collaboration in the planning, design, construction and management of our urban infrastructure and spaces.”

“Trees make places look and feel better, as well as playing a role in climate proofing our neighborhoods and supporting human health and environmental well-being, trees can also help to create conditions for economic success.” The Trees in the Townscape guide presents a modern approach to urban forestry, providing officials and professionals with the principles and references needed to realize the potential of vegetation in urban areas.

This is an approach that keeps pace with and responds to the challenges of our times. “Trees in the Townscape offers a comprehensive set of 12 action-oriented principles which can be adapted to the unique context of [any] own town or city.” 

Who should use the 12 principles?

“The 12 principles in Trees in the Townscape are for everyone involved in making or influencing decisions that shape the spaces and places in which we live. It will be particularly relevant to local elected members, policy makers and community groups. It will also be useful to those professionals who bring their technical expertise to facilitate delivery, such as engineers, architects, landscape architects or urban designers.” 

How were the 12 principles developed?

“This guide was developed by the Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG) based on over 40 interviews and wide consultation with key knowledge holders in the built environment sector including civil engineers, insurers, developers, designers, planners, tree officers, sustainability specialists, arboriculturist, tree nursery managers, ecologists, academics, and not-for-profit organisations specialising in community engagement and trees.”

via http://www.tdag.org.uk

Here is a brief description of each of the 12 principles:

PLAN

1- Know Your Tree Resource

Create and maintain easy-to-use records of the existing canopy cover and the nature and condition of the tree population.

2- Have a Comprehensive Tree Strategy

Produce, adopt and implement a collaborative strategy for protecting, developing and managing a thriving, benefit-generating urban forest which is in tune with local needs and aspirations.

3 – Embed Trees Into Policy and Other Plans

Adopt clear standards for the protection, care, and planting of trees in local plans.

DESIGN

4 – Make Tree-Friendly Places

Create places where tree species can thrive and deliver their full range of benefits without causing harmful nuisance. 

5 – Pick the Right Trees

Select and use trees appropriate to the context.

6 – Seek Multiple Benefits

Harvest the full range of benefits trees can deliver as part of a local green infrastructure system, focusing on key local aspirations.

PLANT / PROTECT

7 – Procure a Healthy Tree

Plant healthy, vigorous trees that have been adequately conditioned to thrive in the environment in which they are destined to live. 

8 – Provide Soil, Air and Water

Ensure trees have access to the nutrients, oxygen and water they need to fulfil their genetic potential for growth and longevity.

9 – Create Stakeholders

Work with local political, professional and community stakeholders to champion the value of trees in the townscape. 

MANAGE / MONITOR

10 – Take an Asset Management Approach

Inform all planning, management and investment decisions with a robust understanding of both the costs and the value trees deliver. 

11 – Be Risk Aware (Rather than Risk Averse)

Take a balanced and proportionate approach to tree safety management.

12 – Adjust Management to Needs

Conduct proactive and tailored tree maintenance to ensure optimum benefits in response to local needs.

To see the complete guide, click here.

This is an adapted version of the original guide released by TGAD with a focus on trees in urban areas.

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