Another year comes to an end and with it, another round up that explores the most important events that took place over the past twelve months. In this article, we look into the photos that received the most interactions (likes, comments, shares, and saves) on ArchDaily's Instagram.
The word commensality refers to the act of eating together, sharing a meal. Much more than a mere function of essential human need, sitting at the table is a practice of communion and exchange. An article by Cody C. Delistraty compiles some studies on the importance of eating together: students who don't eat regularly with their parents miss school more; children who do not have daily dinner with their family tend to be more obese and young people in families without this tradition can have more problems with drugs and alcohol, in addition to poorer academic performance. Evidently, all these issues raised are complex and should not be reduced to just one factor. But having a suitable place to have meals, free from distractions, is a good starting point for at least one moment a day that is focused on conversation and food. This is where dinner tables come in. In this article, we review some projects to classify the most common ways to deploy these important pieces of furniture.
Valuing formal simplicity and delicate attention to details and finishing, Studio MK27 was founded in the late 1970s by Marcio Kogan and currently has more than 30 members based in São Paulo and other collaborators around the world. Its work, as described on its website, seeks to fulfill the task of rethinking and continuing Brazilian modernism.
The first wooden housing modules of Juf Nienke, a new circular prefabricated timber housing project by SeARCH, RAU, and DS landscape architects, has been installed in Amsterdam. The project will feature 61 rental homes made entirely of wood, and will sit at the entrance of Centrumeiland, a newly raised piece of land on Lake IJmeer that features 1500 housing units. It is set to be one of the most sustainable apartment buildings in the Netherlands, incorporating an innovative cross-laminated timber construction and utilizing recycled materials.
noa* network of architecture has unveiled a prototype of a Centre for Culture and Community (CeCuCo) questioning "what form flexibility takes, how nature can be embedded in the project and how far the role of the architect goes, in the belief that a project only works when people make it their own". The center is a research project that explores how to create flexible and multifunctional spaces without a fixed context, giving the community the chance to decide, act, and circulate within the architecture.
Few cities have a growing design culture like Austin, Texas. Ranked as one of the best places to live in the United States, the city is experiencing a building boom in recent years. With a wide variety of residential styles, architects are continuing a legacy of modernist design. With an emphasis on craft and detailing, these new homes use simple geometry and forms as they open up to hills, lakes and the urban fabric.
Although the design diversity of private homes often relies on how each project responds to the topography, context, and material availability, the most significant factor of residential architecture is users and what they require in terms of spatial needs and preferences. This user-centric approach has long been practiced, Mies van der Rohe once explained that "the architect must get to know the people who will live in the planned house. From their needs, the rest inevitably follows".
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights private residential projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a private family house nestled in the forests of Russia to a reinvention of Colombia's traditional courtyard typology, this round up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects design private spaces that combine nature, functionality, privacy, and locality. The article also includes projects from Kosovo, Spain, United States, and Serbia.
OF.studio has unveiled the design of PZ Torre Residencial, a residential building within the Zapata Palace in Mendoza, Argentina, seeking to recreate the traditional courtyard of Cuyanas houses, a common style in northern Argentina.
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MVRDV has revealed "O", one of four letter-shaped apartment buildings that spell out the word HOME in Franklin Mitte, Mannheim. The 15-storey residential building features a brightly colored structure with 120 apartments, commercial spaces, and a terrace, and is part of Franklin Mitte's complete master plan transformation.
UNStudio revealed its competition-winning design for K31 Courtyard, a residential complex in Moscow that fosters community-building in the context of a rapidly changing city. The proposal features a stepped podium and two towers and reinterprets Moscow’s typical courtyard block, aiming to create a new neighbourhood through various housing typologies, amenities, and outdoor spaces.
German architecture firm Meyer-Grohbruegge has proposed a new residential typology that "adds a dynamic spatial dimension to a small building gap and emphasizes physical experience in housing". The competition-winning design features a central spiral staircase that connects the entire structure together and offers residents a fluid and dynamic interior that merges the outdoors and indoors.
MAD Architects has broken ground on One River North, a sixteen-storey residential tower which features a descending nature trail carved into its façade. The project is set to "blur the lines between the built and natural environments" with more than 13,000 sq. ft. of open-air spaces, a water feature, and trail-like walkways, echoing Colorado's rich terrains. The project is expected to be complete towards the end of 2023.
In residential architecture, the garage is a space that is mainly used for storage and car parking. Although the garage door is usually not a very thought-out part of the design of a residential project, it often occupies a large part of the front elevation of a house, and can play an important role in its general curb appeal.
The garage door is typically a large door that is opened manually or by an electric motor, and its size and design are determined by the vehicles that will need to pass through it. Raynor, a North American company that specializes in garage doors, describes several of the most important factors that go into choosing the right garage door.
All over the globe, countries are facing a housing crisis. United Nations statistics put the number of people who live in sub-standard housing at 1.6 billion, and 100 million of the world’s population are without a home. As conflicts and climate change forces refugees to move to new countries, and as housing prices around the world continue to rise, cities are having to grapple more and more with how to provide safe and affordable housing for their residents.
Mexican firm Tatiana Bilbao Estudio has unveiled Botániqo, its new project in collaboration with the Ecuadorian firm Uribe Schwarzkopf in Quito, Ecuador. With over 12,000 km2, the project will cede 4,000 km2 to create a new transportation hub expected to service over 60,000 people per day, in addition to the creation of green space around the residential units.
Homebuilding company Lennar and construction technologies company ICON are collaborating with BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group to build the largest community of 3D-printed homes to date. The 100-home neighborhood in Austin is expected to break ground in 2022 and will combine ICON’s innovative robotics, software, and advanced materials with BIG's designs.
Designing residential projects has become nothing short of a challenge. Whether it being for the housing crisis and its repercussions, the heightened environmental awareness, or the fact that people are spending more time inside their dwellings, architects are now focused on building projects that look beyond the typical house and that provide answers to questions like: how can architects offer residents privacy and comfort while maintaining a connection with the outdoors? And how can these spaces cater to the spatial and functional needs of all family members, especially when the lines between work, play, and rest are blurred?
From a Matrix-inspired housing compound in Saudi Arabia to the world's first steel 3D printed structure of modular houses in Sardinia, this round up of unbuilt apartments showcases how architects have reimagined the traditional residential typology, and looked into how these structures can cater to their users, the site, and the environment. This round up also includes projects from the Netherlands, Siberia, Sweden, and Italy.
Only 18 months ago, everyone around the globe had their life upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost immediately, architects and designers began to speculate on how they could design for a better world that would be flexible, functional, and healthy. While the pandemic is far from over, with many scientific advancements and public health policies still needed to truly allow us to live out our “new normal”, perhaps its time to reflect on our predictions and examine what aspects of the pandemic were short-term reactions, and which aspects of life might be permanently reflected in how we think about the built environment.
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