Hasta La Ideas

News: architects and designers including OMA, BIG and WXY have unveiled proposals to revitalise parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut devastated by Hurricane Sandy, and help protect them against future emergencies.

The Rebuild by Design competition asked ten teams of architects, landscape architects, engineers and urban designers to develop proposals for different sections of America’s east coast, which was struck by the hurricane in October 2012.

Danish studio BIG has developed a protective system, called Big U, which would wrap around the outside of Manhattan. Designed to shield New York City against floods and stormwater, the three separate sections would also create new public spaces.

For the Hoboken district of New Jersey, Rem Koolhaas’ OMA proposes introducing an “urban water strategy”, where a combination of hard infrastructure and soft landscaping can create a coastal defence integrating natural drainage.

New York studio WXY Architecture worked with landscape architects West 8 on a strategy for the New York and New Jersey harbour, entitled Blue Dunes. The designers made predictions about storms of the future and are promoting the establishment of a research initiative.

The design by New York landscape firm Scape features “a necklace of breakwaters” to offer a buffer against wave damage, flooding and erosion on Staten Island, while urban design studio Interboro have developed a series of approaches for the barrier islands, marshes and lowlands of Long Island.

Other proposals include ideas for Jersey Shore, Bridgeport in Connecticut and Hunts Point in New York’s South Bronx.

The competition was initiated last year by US housing and urban development secretary Shaun Donovan. The winning projects will be announced later this year and will be implemented with funding from community grants.

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America’s hurricane-struck east coast appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architecture studios OMA and BIG are among the ten collaborative design teams selected for an initiative to revitalise parts of the USA devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

The Rebuild by Design competition was launched in June by US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Shaun Donovan and asked architects, landscape architects, engineers and urban designers to come up with proposals that would help revitalise communities affected by the hurricane that struck the east coast in October 2012.

Danish studio BIG and Dutch firm OMA were both named on the shortlist, alongside New York studio WXY Architecture, landscape architects West 8 and a design team from the University of Pennsylvania.

The ten teams will spend the next three months studying the region and building relationships with local stakeholders. Designs will be focused on four areas: coastal communities; high-density urban environments; ecological and waterbody networks; and the unknown and unexpected.

“The projects that come out of this competition will save lives and protect communities in this region and – as the Task Force will emphasise in the Rebuilding Strategy to be released in the coming weeks – serve as models as we prepare communities across the country for the impacts of a changing climate,” said Donovan, who also chairs the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force.

Implementation of the resulting designs will begin in March 2014, funded in part by community grants.

Top image of Hurricane Sandy devastation courtesy of Shutterstock.

Read on more for information and to see the full shortlist:

Ten design teams selected to proceed to stage two of Rebuild By Design competition

The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force has announced the selection of ten Design Teams to proceed to Stage Two of REBUILD BY DESIGN, a multi-stage regional design competition that will develop innovative projects to protect and enhance Sandy-affected communities. U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, who also chairs the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, launched the competition on June 20, 2013 in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation.

Over 140 potential teams from more than 15 countries submitted proposals, representing the top engineering, architecture, design, landscape architecture and planning firms as well as research institutes and universities worldwide. Thanks to the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation and JPB Foundation, as well as the New Jersey Recovery Fund and the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, ten Design Teams will participate in an intense eight-month process broken into two distinct stages: analysis and design.

“The ten teams we selected stood out because of the talent they bring to the table, their pioneering ideas and their commitment to innovating with a purpose and competing not just to design but to build something,” said Secretary Donovan.

“The projects that come out of this competition will save lives and protect communities in this region and – as the Task Force will emphasise in the Rebuilding Strategy to be released in the coming weeks – serve as models as we prepare communities across the country for the impacts of a changing climate.”

“As cities around the world face increasing shocks and stresses, it is more critical than ever that we find ways to integrate resilient design into our urban future,” said Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation. “The Rebuild by Design competition is an innovative model, bringing together some of the greatest minds around the world to improve how our cities manage, cope with and bounce back stronger from disasters. I am confident that the ten extraordinary teams chosen will create innovative and replicable projects that will strengthen our cities and help them thrive in the face of climate change.”

“Hurricane Sandy brought to the fore difficult and challenging questions for the metropolitan area,” said Robert D. Yaro, President, Regional Plan Association. “The Rebuild by Design competition is an important and innovative process to bring design professionals and the affected communities together to deliver the best answers.”

David van der Leer, Executive Director of Van Alen Institute, said, “By bringing together local communities with world-class, interdisciplinary design teams, we aim to produce extraordinarily innovative projects that highlight next generation perspectives and trends that will catalyse regional approaches to resilience for the United States and beyond.”

Eric Klinenberg, Research Director for Rebuild by Design’s Research Stage and Director of NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, said, “Rebuild By Design is an unprecedented opportunity to think deeply about the great challenges for cities as the climate changes, and to act boldly, too. We look forward to learning from communities and working collaboratively with the Design Teams as we spend the next several months bringing positive action throughout the region.”

“MAS heralds the leadership of the Hurricane Sandy Task Force, and its philanthropy partners, in challenging the world’s best planners and designers to work with communities and develop innovative approaches ” said Vin Cipolla, President, Municipal Art Society of New York. “Our priority is to strengthen the capacity of local communities across the city and region to build their environmental, economic, social and cultural resilience. RBD brings tremendous resources and expertise into the city and region.”

The selection of the teams marks the beginning of the second of four phases of the design competition, which will ultimately result in resilience projects that will be built or implemented in communities in the Sandy-impacted region:

Stage Two: Analysis

Starting today, the Design Teams will begin a three-month research and analysis process, facilitated by New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK). IPK, known for bridging the gap between serious scholarship and practical action, will present the outcome of Stage Two in a detailed report cataloguing the Design Teams’ research reports and synthesizing their findings into one resource kit for local communities throughout the region.

Stage Three: Design

Building off the comprehensive analysis of the region’s vulnerabilities and existing initiatives developed during Stage Two, each Design Team will then work on one site-specific design proposal. Design Teams will partner with a local or state government entity to identify specific sites and projects that will improve the resilience of communities. During this stage, the Regional Plan Association, Municipal Art Society of New York and Van Alen Institute will collaboratively facilitate this design process for the teams to develop implementable solutions for the opportunities they identified in Stage Two.

Stage Four: Implementation

The projects that come out of this innovative process will be evaluated by the Rebuild by Design jury – made up of world-renowned experts in hazard mitigation, resilience, public health, landscape architecture, urbanism, real estate, design, and other fields – to ensure that winning projects are implementable and have the maximum impact on the region’s resilience.

Background on Design Teams:

1. Interboro Partners with the New Jersey Institute of Technology Infrastructure Planning Program; TU Delft; Project Projects; RFA Investments; IMG Rebel; Center for Urban Pedagogy; David Rusk; Apex; Deltares; Bosch Slabbers; H+N+S; and Palmbout Urban Landscapes.
2. PennDesign/OLIN with PennPraxis, Buro Happold, HR&A Advisors, and E-Design Dynamics
3. WXY architecture + urban design / West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture with ARCADIS Engineering and the Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University; Maxine Griffith; Parsons the New School for Design; Duke University; BJH Advisors; and Mary Edna Fraser.
4. Office of Metropolitan Architecture with Royal Haskoning DHV; Balmori Associaties; R/GA; and HR&A Advisors.
5. HR&A Advisors with Cooper, Robertson, & Partners; Grimshaw; Langan Engineering; W Architecture; Hargreaves Associates; Alamo Architects; Urban Green Council; Ironstate Development; Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation; New City America.
6. SCAPE with Parsons Brinckerhoff; SeARC Ecological Consulting; Ocean and Coastal Consultants; The New York Harbor School; Phil Orton/Stevens Institute; Paul Greenberg; LOT-EK; and MTWTF.
7. MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism and the Dutch Delta Collective by ZUS; with De Urbanisten; Deltares; 75B; and Volker Infra Design.
8. Sasaki Associates with Rutgers University and ARUP.
9. Bjarke Ingels Group with One Architecture; Starr Whitehouse; James Lima Planning & Development; Green Shield Ecology; Buro Happold; AEA Consulting; and Project Projects.
10. Unabridged Architecture with Mississippi State University; Waggoner and Ball Architects; Gulf Coast Community Design; and the Center for Urban Pedagogy.

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Sandy-affected communities appeared first on Dezeen.

News: furniture giant Ikea has used its expertise in flat-pack design to redesign refugee shelters.

The Ikea Foundation has been working with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which currently houses displaced people in traditional canvas ridge tents or more modern hoop tents, neither of which provide insulation or last more than a few months.

“Many of the current shelters used in refugee camps have a life span of approximately six months before the impact of sun, rain and wind means it needs to be replaced. Yet long-term refugee situations mean that, on average, refugees stay in camps for 12 years,” says Ikea.

Designed to last three years, the prototype shelter from Ikea is a shed-like structure made of lightweight polymer panels, laminated with thermal insulation, which clip onto a steel frame.

The shelters take four hours to assemble and come flat-packed with panels, pipes, connectors and wires in cardboard boxes just like an Ikea bookcase.

There’s also a textile sheet with aluminium woven into the material that lays over the roof, reflecting the sun during the day and keeping heat in at night. A solar panel laminated on a thin plastic film powers built-in lights and a USB outlet.

At 17.5 square metres, the shelter is twice as large as a traditional refugee tent and each one accommodates five people. The upright walls mean the structure could be upgraded over time, for example by adding earth walls or a metal roof.

The firm hopes they could be made for around £655 each once in mass production. Ikea’s Refugee Housing Unit is manufacturing 50 trial shelters to be tested in Ethiopia, Iraq and Lebanon.

Other stories about disaster relief on Dezeen include post-tsunami housing by Shigeru Ban, the reconstruction of a refugee camp outside Tripoli in Lebanon and Brad Pitt’s Make it Right project where architects including Frank Gehry, Morphosis and MVRDV are designing homes for New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Ikea also recently announced it will produce miniature versions of its most popular products as dolls’ house furniture and that its founder Ingvar Kamprad is stepping down after 70 years at the helm. Last year the firm apologised for selling products manufactured by East German political prisoners in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Sandy did a number on the tri state area, and many people need help. Please give if you can. 

Shigeru Ban Architects have designed temporary homes for Japanese disaster victims inside a chequerboard of stacked shipping containers.

Above and below: prototype unit

Once the Multi-storey Temporary Housing is constructed it will provide 188 homes in Onagawa for those left homeless by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The containers can be placed on unlevel terrain or narrow sites and should be able to withstand future earthquakes.

Containers can be stacked up to three storeys high, with open spaces between each apartment.

The architects, who have constructed one prototype apartment, suggest that temporary residents may choose to stay in the containers permanently.

Since the disaster in Japan, Dezeen has published a few projects by designers to raise money for victims – see all the stories here.

Another recent story on Dezeen features shipping containers that provide a sea-facing observation deck – click here for more stories about container architecture.

Images are from Shigeru Ban Architects

Here’s some more information is proved by the architects:

Multistorey Container Temporary Housing

Temporary housing are starting to be deployed disaster areas.

However, the number of the amount of housing required is insufficient. The main reason is that most of the damaged coast areas are not on level terrain.

Usually, temporary housing is suitable for flatlands, and providing the required number of units is difficult.

Click above for larger image

Our project to Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture is to use existing shipping containers (20 feet) and stack them in a checkerboard pattern up to three stories.

Click above for larger image

The Characteristics of multistory temporary housing:

» shorten the construction period by usage of existing containers
» possible to build up tp 3 stories and to be build in narrow sites or slope lands
» placing containers in a checkerboard pattern and create a open living space in between
» excellent seismic performance
» can be used as a permanent apartment

See also:

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Housing for New Orleans	Sand-bag houses by MMA Architects 3	Pallet House by I-Beam