Housing: The Latest Architecture and News

Architects: Pedro Varela & Renata Pinho Location: Porto, Portugal Project Year: 2011 Photographs: José Campos

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In keeping with our coverage of the Solar Decathlon, we are happy to share Victoria University’s Meridian First Light House third place finish. Finishing a few point shy of the University of Maryland’s 951 points, the New Zealand university received 919 points with high standings in several categories, including winning the Engineering contest, gaining first equal in Hot Water and Energy Balance, second for Architecture and third for Market Appeal. Plus, over the course of the competition, the house managed to produce more energy than it consumed – achieving net zero energy consumption, despite 10 days of undesirable weather. Team member Nick Officer exclaimed, “While we may not have won overall we are incredibly proud to have represented New Zealand on the world stage. We had such and amazing response from the US public here along with supporters back home.” Be sure to check out our previous coverage of the house to learn more about the traditional Kiwi bach – a New Zealand holiday home – inspired residence.

More photos of the residence after the break. 

Designing in Lima, a city of marked eclecticism is more a provocation than a challenge. The vibrant movement of forms, heights, colors, reflections, textures and all kinds of elements competing for the leading role is a particularly interesting framework for XTe a+d‘s proposal for an exclusive, loft apartment building. More images and architects’ description after the break.

MSA+PMA Architecture entered this competition in collaboration with “MAS Urban Design ETH Zürich” – successful teamwork that revealed a First-Prize Winning Project for “Cabuço de Baixo 5”. The initiative of this cooperation began with a proposal from a cohort of postgraduates who were attending the Masters Program in Advanced Studies in Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich).

The aim of the sustainable residential complex, designed by Morfearch, is not only the production of new buildings able to satisfy living space requests, but the will to offer public services to the new settlement and open to the “outer” population. The project area, crossed north to south by divergent paths, generates trapezoidal spaces that become the generating principle of the different parts of the whole complex: every secondary parcel is indeed composed by different size tanks, 30 to 120cm high, open to different uses, materials, and patterns: green areas, water, paved spaces, vegetation and gardens, available for residents with a leisure, but also social, function. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The informal city is a problem that could not be solved by the twentieth-century urbanism. It is necessary to produce a set of tools that will allow us to perform with solvency and responsibility in this area. Some of the tools of traditional architecture and urbanism can be successfully applied; others are yet to be elaborated. With this in mind, Drucker Arquitetura designed the winning proposal for the Sáo Paulo competition to rebuild the city’s slum-areas.

The HA tower, designed by Frontoffice + François Blanciak Architect, proposes a hybrid model for urban life that embraces the city, pulling it in the heart of the units, while still offering large open spaces that otherwise are only available on the urban fringe. Located in Higashi-Azabu, within walking distance of a cluster of rail lines, Shiba Park, and the iconic Tokyo Tower, the corner site is small, covering only 130 square meters and is constrained by a floor area ratio that limits construction to 8 floors. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Though primarily known as Wiliamsburg’s only first-run movie house, this project is in actuality an expansive 23,000 square foot mixed-use building with three floors of residential apartments above the cinemas, bar, café commercial kitchen housed in the retrofitted brick warehouse below. All of the apartments have access to outdoor space in the form of private roof decks at the penthouse level and shared courtyard access for the floors below. Caliper Studio designed all phases of the project from the earliest design studies through the construction process. More images and architects’ description after the break.