Beach Bungalow

Stellar Drawings Selected as Winners of WAF’s Inaugural Architecture Drawing Prize

The World Architecture Festival has announced the winner of the their inaugural Architecture Drawing Prize, established to recognize the “continuing importance of hand drawing, whilst also embracing the creative use of digitally produced renderings.” From 166 entries from architects, designers and students across the globe, 38 of the best drawings were shortlisted within three categories: Digital, Hand-drawn, and Hybrid. 

This year, the overall winner was Momento Mori: a Peckham Hospice Care Home by Jerome Xin Hao Ng (top image), produced as part of Ng’s final diploma project at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

When news of The Hobbit being turned into a firm first broke out, I was quite the giddy camper. After all, it was 11 years ago when I first discovered Lord of the Rings and its epic goodness and I was quite excited for this movie. And with Peter Jackson back at the helm in directing the prequel of the trilogy that made me fall in love with the series, you bet that I was very much looking forward to this movie. So much to the point that I just wanted my last final to be over and for midnight to strike so I could watch. via Reelwire

after

Night Train to Lisbon movie will be offering audience the chance to see a finely done drama motion picture which can hope to be enriched with drama element from beginning to end. There are many viewers who are interested in seeing dramas and their wish for such a motion picture will be delivered with this latest one. As a project it is still in pre production which means viewers will have to wait for a while if they are interested in having the first hand experience of the motion picture. Audience which will be attracted to theaters are promised a fine theatrical venture.

source : Night Train to Lisbon Movie (2013)

Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, has been on quite a journey since we met her in September 2010.

We first met her in the context of Downton Abbey’s changing fortunes. With the sudden death of her cousins James and Patrick on the ill-fated Titanic, the future of the estate is...

Social Housing

I have received a lot of follow up questions and comments to my post about social housing and my opinion that vertical social housing is a dying typology including:

What is Vertical Social Housing? Google didn’t return anything obviously useful.

Hi, different anon, but what impact are you referring to when it comes to vertical social housing?

A dying typology? You are wrong

What is Social Housing? Social housing is affordable housing. A key function of social housing is to provide accommodation that is affordable to people on low incomes. Limits to rent increases set by law mean that rents are kept affordable. 

Vertical Social Housing brings up images of identical towers like the Pruitt–Igoe complex which was composed of 33 buildings of 11 stories each, located on St. Louis. Its demolition was one of the first demolitions of modernist architecture; postmodern architectural historian Charles Jencks called its destruction “the day Modern architecture died." Its failure is often seen as a direct indictment of the society-changing aspirations of the International school of architecture. [via]

In the United States, policies included "urban renewal” and building of large scale vertical social housing projects. Urban renewal demolished entire neighborhoods in many inner cities to accommodate these projects as a solution to the lack of affordable housing; but in many ways, it was a cause of urban decay rather than a remedy.

This type of architecture segregated and isolated its residents from the cities around them. Effectively trapping them in buildings that quickly deteriorated because of poor maintenance and overcrowding. Like in every typology you find some successful examples but many of these projects have been demolished to be replaced by low rise urban infill projects. The idea is to thread social housing into the tapestry of the city instead of creating isolated pockets.

You can read more on how cities have tried to redirect their efforts to provide affordable housing in books like Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival and American Project.

Architecture should not reinforce the old stigma of living in social housing, and architects should find the joy in tight budgets, limited briefs, and seemingly mundane programs.

Here are some recent successful examples of low-rise social housing: 

Le Lorrain – Brussels, Belgium

Honeycomb Apartments – Izola, Slovenia

Monterrey Housing – Nuevo León, Mexico

Vivazz, Mieres Social Housing – Asturias, Spain

Tête en l’air Social Housing – Paris, France