Archinect - News

UVA architecture students present ideas for rebuilding a war-torn Ukrainian city to the U.S. Department of State

2024-01-08T14:25:00-05:00

The culmination of the 2023 Fall semester at the University of Virginia saw a contingent of students from UVA’s School of Architecture travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss ideas for rebuilding the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Izium upon a special invite from the U.S. Department of State.

Together with Professor Suzanne Moomaw, the cohort of 23 students who participated in the school’s Ukraine Green Recovery Lab were delegated to the National Museum of American Diplomacy in order to present their research to State Department officials, other government representatives, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.

Highlighting topography and other similarities between Izium and Charlottesville, the students presented six phases of a proposed redevelopment to those assembled. What they took away from it was a rewarding experience delivering findings that will, in turn, be presented to the people of Izium for feedback. All in attendance report to have en...

Foster + Partners, BIG attached to master plan rebuilding effort in Antakya, Turkey

2023-10-31T19:13:00-04:00

The master plan for a new rebuilding project in Turkey’s southeastern Hatay province has been revealed by Foster + Partners in association with the Türkiye Design Council (TDC) in response to the devastating 7.8 magnitude Turkey-Syria Earthquake which displaced thousands and destroyed a majority of structures in the region in early February.

The plan draws in BIG and twelve other local and international practices into a consortium that will together design a revitalization of the city of Antakya with sensitivity to preserving the “cultural heritage and identity” of the 2,300-year-old provincial capital known to antiquity as Antioch.

"Hatay has been destroyed by a major earthquake at least seven times in history — some experts suggest as many as 33. In February, 80% of the city was devastated, putting Hatay in a unique position. Its archaeological and religious mosaic features require special urban planning, which needs to be combined with the creation of self-sufficient, resilient s...

Beirut port explosion survivors are pushing to have the remaining silos preserved as a memorial site

2022-02-24T13:45:00-05:00

Last August, Swiss engineering firm Amann Engineering GmbH concluded that the iconic grain silos are at risk of collapsing as they slowly tilt. The Lebanese government, notably Economy Minister Amin Salam who is in charge of the silos, has echoed similar sentiments, which has angered the families of the devastating blast’s victims.

The structure was comprised of 42 individual reinforced concrete cylindrical silos and is credited with preventing the blast radius from further impacting the heavily-populated western portion of the city, which could have killed into the thousands. The remaining portion has since become a de facto memory site to those lost in the blast (and its survivors) similar to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial that was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Back in May, Beirut issued an international call for proposals for a port renewal competition that includes the silo site. Many Lebanese citizens have responded favorably to the restoration of the silos in support of victims’ families who have become fed up with the controversial judicial investigation into the blast’s root causes. The struggle has drawn parallels to the failure to hold certain parties accountable after its devastating Civi...

A global competition to redesign the Port of Beirut has been announced

2021-05-20T14:12:00-04:00

The Beirut municipality and the Inspireli Awards have announced a competition calling on architecture students from around the world to submit entries for a new Port of Beirut, following the devastating 2020 explosion that completely destroyed the port and the adjacent part of the city.

The aim of the competition is to offer humanitarian aid to Beirut through the unique designs and innovations of students’ submissions. The subject of this massive renewal project will be implemented in the curriculum of many universities around the world throughout the upcoming winter and spring semesters, with a final submission date in February 2022.

Photo: Inspireli

The new Port of Beirut will be rebuilt and financed by Lebanon’s Finance, Design, Built, Operate, and Transfer Department (F.D.B.O.T). The Port administration and the Ministry of Public Work and Transportation are currently setting their requirements and conditions list, which will shape the approach of the entries and, subsequently, ...

Likely increase in Louisiana construction jobs following destructive hurricanes

2020-11-04T10:35:00-05:00

After three hurricanes made landfall in Louisiana over the past few weeks efforts to recover after the storms may boost the state's otherwise bleak jobs market.

According to The Advocate, "Hurricane Zeta made landfall in Louisiana just three weeks after Hurricane Delta and roughly nine weeks after Hurricane Laura. Combined, the storms were estimated to have caused more than $10 billion in damages."

With efforts arising to rebuild, various regions throughout the state are experiencing some growth in temporary construction jobs, Kristen Mosbrucker writes for The Advocate.

Will there be enough construction workers to rebuild post-flood Houston?

2017-08-29T12:44:00-04:00

Rain continues to fall in Houston, Texas, a city which may see up to 50 inches of precipitation over a span of five days thanks to the aftereffects of Hurricane Harvey. Unfortunately, the continued flooding has been exacerbated due to some decades-long, head-in-the-sand urban planning, the history of which is detailed in this comprehensive ProPublica piece. (Spoiler: it turns out paving over natural flood zones with asphalt and concrete, as well as replacing the comprehensive root systems of switchgrass with the comparatively shallow root systems of suburban lawns, gives water few places to go.)

Houston, 2017. Image: @ohcami_ via Twitter

As devastating as current conditions must be to homeowners who built in the surprisingly quick to deliver "500-Year Flood Plain," Houston's drier future isn't looking great, either. Thanks to the Trump Administration's widespread anti-immigration policy, there's likely to be a significant shortage of construction workers to rebuild the U.S.' fourth ...

In 24 hours, get a 3D-printed house that will last 175 years

2017-03-07T12:40:00-05:00

Although it's unclear when the furnishing/window and door fitting process takes place, one thing is certain: you can now have the basic components of an entire 400 square foot house printed in about a day from the company Apis Cor. Aside from being speedy, the $10,000 printing process is impressive because the house is printed using only one machine, instead of a multi-component process that requires wall assembly. In this slightly bizarre promotional video (featuring notable speakers including a student, identified only by first name without any kind of school affiliation) the 3D printed houses are envisioned as being great solutions for providing fast relief from natural disasters. Since they're designed to last 175 years, it makes one wonder if these curvy domiciles could become a kind of inadvertent historical marker of previous catastrophes. Check it out:

Checking in on Nepal, one year later

2016-04-26T21:39:00-04:00

As the Nepalese government continues to face criticism for the slow pace of the country’s reconstruction, Nepal’s prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli announced today that the reconstruction of key heritage sites in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur is to finally begin, the Associated Press reports.

A year after the devastating quake, there is some good news in Nepal. As this article notes,

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) also announced today that it, in collaboration with American Express, was financing the rebuilding of the 16th-century Char Narayan Temple, which was reduced to rubble by the quake. The project is to receive a share of $1m in grants earmarked for five major preservation projects across the globe.

For more on Nepal:

Creations from Catastrophes

2016-02-05T13:50:00-05:00

From masterplans to reconfigure London after the Great Fire of 1666 to contemporary responses to earthquakes and tsunamis, the exhibition considers the evolving relationship between man, architecture and nature and asks whether we are now facing a paradigm shift in how we live and build in the 21st century.

Paul Kerley talked with curator Jes Fernie, about a new exhibition, Creation from Catastrophe, at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Resilience on the fly: Christchurch’s SCIRT offers a model for rebuilding after a disaster

2014-08-11T14:59:00-04:00

That calamity hit Christchurch, New Zealand, in a series of earthquakes that devastated the city in 2010 and 2011. Most people here don’t see the extent of repair work going on underground. [...]Yet the organization created to manage Christchurch’s infrastructure rebuild has a vital role, and it’s become something of a global model for how to put the guts of a city back together again quickly and efficiently after a disaster.

Relocation or Adaptation: Creating resilience against natural disaster

2014-06-23T15:34:00-04:00

U.S. disaster rebuilding has traditionally focused on merely replacing what has been lost. But a little-noticed federal design competition, Rebuild by Design, has done something different: engage communities to develop a more porous relationship between land and water that recognizes the dynamism of rising seas and more violent storms...

U.S. Department of HUD announces the Rebuild By Design winners

2014-06-02T20:40:00-04:00

The winners of the Rebuild By Design competition were finally revealed! The global competition sought out the best local and resilient design solutions that would help rebuild the Eastern Seaboard cities affected by Hurricane Sandy...Out of the 10 invited multidisciplinary teams, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) selected the six winners, who were announced today by Secretary Shaun Donovan.

BIG U by the BIG Team for New York, New York

Living with the Bay: A Comprehensive Regional Resiliency Plan for Nassau County’s South Shore by the Interboro Team for Long Island, New York

New Meadowlands: Productive City + Regional Park by MIT CAU + ZUS + URBANISTEN for The Meadowlands, New Jersey

Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge: A Comprehensive Strategy for Hoboken by OMA for Hoboken, New Jersey

Hunts Point Lifelines by PennDesign/OLIN for Bronx, New York

LIVING BREAKWATERS by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture for Staten Island, New York

Winning design solutions will be implemented through CDBG-DR funding in addition to other public and private-sector funding sources.

Find out more on Bustler.

diji-lab investigates the future of flood-damage control with BIM and digital design

2014-02-24T18:47:00-05:00

With strange weather patterns becoming the norm, who knows when or where the next natural disaster will strike and affect local neighborhoods. And architects are trying to work with nature to find effective and economic solutions in disaster rebuilding. Some of those architects include Ida D.K. Tam of the diji-lab — a Building Information Modeling (BIM) and digital design consultancy in New York City — in collaboration with Runsheng Lin and Julia Pascutto.

The team investigates the possibilities to integrate BIM, digital simulation technology, and natural systems in an effort to mediate floodwater damage in the context of New Orleans.

Keep reading for a more detailed summary of the project:

"Owing to the inseparable links between nature, performance and efficiency, it is time that digital simulation, building information modeling technologies and natural systems play larger roles in design and construction.

Reversed tributary housing system is an ecological flood water management orient...