Architecture

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Typhoon
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Architecture

Post by Typhoon »

8FCXuv6AiAc
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Re: Architecture

Post by Antipatros »

The resort where we stayed in Osoyoos, B.C., last year rents out yurts. They are very interesting to see, and evidently very popular. Perhaps those are indicia of architectural success.
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
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Typhoon
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Re: Architecture

Post by Typhoon »

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Re: Architecture

Post by Antipatros »

A little virtual reality:

The House Of Dionysos In Pella, Macedonia - GREECE
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Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
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Typhoon
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Re: Architecture

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Re: Architecture

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Lecture 13 in a series of 18 in topics on architecture and engineering:

Three Great Domes Rome to the Renaissance
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Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
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Hans Bulvai
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Re: Architecture

Post by Hans Bulvai »

Tokyo Sky Tree
img_maxheight_01.jpg
img_maxheight_01.jpg (253.99 KiB) Viewed 7734 times
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Typhoon
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Re: Architecture

Post by Typhoon »

Hans Bulvai wrote:Tokyo Sky Tree
img_maxheight_01.jpg
BBC | Tokyo Sky Tree completed

Image
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Re: Architecture

Post by Typhoon »

SDdB5fLTxfU
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Re: Architecture

Post by Endovelico »

The project of a new political capital for Equatorial Guinea - Djibloho -, made by a Portuguese architecture firm:

i_C6Z_7sPKw

The assignment was to project an African capital, and not an European capital in Africa. Whether this was achieved is open to discussion, but it has some interesting ideas.

There is a longer YouTube version of this presentation, for those interested: NQ3fVJ2ZXTk
Hoosiernorm
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Re: Architecture

Post by Hoosiernorm »

Been busy doing stuff
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Typhoon
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Re: Architecture

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May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: Architecture

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Re: Architecture

Post by Carbizene »

Typhoon wrote:SDdB5fLTxfU
Amazing how ideas simultaneously form around the Globe, I am working on a patent at the moment that had it's genesis in this concept 3 months ago, though I guess it's not that unusual since tech is ubiquitous and homogenous.
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Wartime housing

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I'd like to turn for a moment from some very grand structures to quite modest ones: Canadian wartime houses. The extremely limited amount of construction during the Great Depression and the Draconian stringency of wartime rationing resulted in a severe shortage of housing. The answer was wartime housing. Something similar may be the answer again in the current economic difficulties.

Image

Wartime Housing

Graham McInnes, 1943, 17 min 54 s

http://www.nfb.ca/film/wartime_housing
This short documentary looks at the rapid industrial expansion that took place during WWII and the need for more decent housing. Workers flooding into urban centres and outlying areas were accommodated with small pre-fabricated homes that could be constructed quickly and efficiently.
Victory Housing

http://www.internationalmetropolis.com/?p=80
In Canada these homes were built and owned by Wartime Housing Ltd. The crown corporation bought materials and land and followed through with orders for homes across the country. Victory Homes came in two models: a two-room bungalow or a four-bedroom, one-and-a-half storey house. They were tiny by today’s standards – and without basements and furnaces – but they met the need.

After the war, many veterans moved into Victory Homes after the war and renovated them. Some of them, enlarged and updated, are standing today. But there was still a post-war housing crisis. The entire economy was affected by a continued scarcity of materials and of the money to acquire housing. In 1946 the federal government responded by creating the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (now the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation). The assets of Wartime Housing Ltd. Were transferred to CMHC in 1947 (including the responsibility of housing veterans) through the Veteran’s Rental Housing program.

Between 1941 & 1945 – 19 000 of these houses were built across Canada. In 1946-47 – 13 000 more were built to house returning servicemen....
(Good photos and sample floor plans.)

History of Wartime Houses

http://www.nowhouseproject.com/aboutHistory.php
Wartime houses brand every community in Canada. They offer a material glimpse into our collective memory of World War II and the socioeconomic challenges associated with that event.

Between 1941 and 1947, Wartime Housing Limited (later CMHC) built over 30,000 houses to provide affordable housing for munitions workers, returning veterans and their families.

These houses were based on standardized, inexpensive, sometimes pre-fabricated 1 1/2 storey designs that served as models for future housing initiatives across Canada after the war. Although they were conceived during a time of wartime conservation and intended as temporary suburbs, wartime neighbourhoods developed distinct social and cultural networks. While some of these neighbourhoods dissolved after the war, many continue to thrive and currently remain a fixture in Canada’s urban areas. An estimated one million wartime houses are still standing in Canada today.
Thomas Wicks, Wartime Housing

http://spacingtoronto.ca/2007/12/12/wartime-housing/
During the 1940s an army of unassuming houses laid siege to Toronto's outer regions. Now located in the hearts of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough, wartime housing (also known as Victory Housing) laid the foundation for many of the sprawling suburbs that grew in the following decades. In their quiet way they housed a shifting and growing population while indicating where urban development in Canada was heading.

In a step meant to meet the growing demand for low-cost housing in urban areas for both defence-related industry workers and returning veterans, the federal government jumped into the world of residential development for the first time. The Veterans' Land Act provided the funding required to assist municipalities in building the homes and provided the veterans and munitions workers financial assistance in purchasing them. Originally meant to be temporary housing, the government quickly realized that these new settlements would be permanent. Constructed of prefabricated components the houses mimicked the mass production of the war effort. In all over 30,000 houses were built across Canada through this program under the direction of the Wartime Housing Corporation (later to become the Canadian mortgage Housing Corporation or CMHC).

Most homes had steeply pitched roofs, small sash windows and clapboard walls. Both centre and side-hall plans were available, as were shingle and brick veneers. Inside, small rooms and sensible plans made use of every corner with little energy spent on embellishment. Overall the appearance could best be described as pseudo-Cape Cod Revival. Normalcy was sought after with a traditional aesthetic: what could be homier than a pitched roof and a colonial-revival design? Detached housing with an eye on collective community made these houses appealing (not to mention the low price).

Individually the houses do not present a particularly high architectural style. They are small (often lacking basements) and constructed of cheap materials. Their uniqueness stems not from their design but from the factors that contributed to their existence (the war) and from the streetscapes they created. Most often they were built on large lots on winding streets and cul de sacs. Emphasis was placed on giving a uniformed and homey feel to the entire neighbourhood. In southern Etobicoke in a large block of land near the Queensway and Royal York Road an entire neighbourhood was created out of these houses. Built on winding streets around a centrally located park, these houses retain their original feel, despite modifications over the years. Lacking the sexy modernist aesthetic of suburbia that was aspired to after them (and which went largely unrealized) these houses still don't lack character.

In comparison to the drabness of many suburban developments, wartime housing has a comforting feel. They constitute a distinct break from Toronto's generally free-market housing developments. They are a unique byproduct of the war. Now many of them have seen their final days; torn down to make way for larger homes or severely altered. They are representative of an interesting period of Toronto's housing history. They may lack the charm of Victorian row houses but there's something about them that endures and endears.
Annmarie Adams and Pieter Sijpkes, Wartime Housing and Architectural Change, 1942-1992

http://people.mcgill.ca/files/annmarie. ... Change.pdf
This paper comprises the intermediate results of a two-year study of architectural changes made to individual houses in the half-century since their construction in Ville St-Laurent. The study is a collaborative effort between an architectural historian and a specialist in building materials and innovative construction methods. Modelled on both Philippe Boudon's legendary study Lived-in Architecture, which explored the changes made to Le Corbusier's housing units at Pessac, France, and Herbert Gans' sociological documentation of Leavittown, our preliminary research has confirmed several basic patterns in the ways people change their spaces over time. In-depth interviews with longtime occupants of the wartime neighbourhood and a comprehensive photographic survey of the area -- all 400 houses are extant -- have shown that architectural change is tied closely to changes in family size and structure, the availability of credit, and evolving trends in the use of building materials.

More interesting, perhaps, are our three current working hypotheses: (1) that it was their wartime work experience which encouraged many householders to undertake renovations themselves, (2) that the employment of professionals for difficult tasks followed a kind of copy-cat phenomenon, and finally that (3) many women, living alone or with male partners, supervised and/or managed the alterations made to their houses....
Avi Friedman and Maria D. Pantelopoulos, The Wartime Home as a Paradigm for Today's Affordable Housing Design

Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Feb., 1996), pp. 184-195

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1425327
Abstract

The current quest for affordable housing in North America has focused on reducing the size of the housing lot and on downsizing the house itself. Proponents of the small home maintain that given the diminished size of today's family compared with the traditional and larger family household of the postwar era, the smaller home does not in fact represent a diminution in space standards. When we consider available living space on a per-person basis, the smaller family inhabiting a smaller house belies the notion that affordable housing directly signifies any real reduction in living standards. This article uses the wartime home as a research model to explore how people meet their spatial needs within a restricted housing space. Using the wartime home as a paradigm of the small house (no larger than 1,000 square feet) we investigated this housing type as a prototype of affordable housing. Our research included interviews with the owners of twenty-five wartime houses that had retained their original footprint, drawn from three areas on the island of Montreal. The field study determined the types of spatial conflicts that arose in these homes and demonstrated how they were resolved. The study also reinforced the proposition that people are willing to make several trade-offs when choosing to live in a smaller home and that as soon as household finances permit, the owners will modify the layout to suit their lifestyle requirements. The spaces in the wartime home that underwent the most significant degree of change during the household life cycle (that is, kitchen, bedrooms, and storage) indicate their critical status in the accommodation of users' needs and suggest that they should therefore become central priorities in the teaching and design of future affordable housing.
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
Seek not to count the future waves of Time;
But be ye satisfied that you have light
Enough to take your step and find your foothold.

--T.S. Eliot
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Wartime housing 2

Post by Antipatros »

Some might assert that Army/RCAF permanent married quarters are not, technically, "wartime housing" within the meaning of the previous entry. It is a distinction without a difference. They share the salient characteristics of small size, functional design and simple, sturdy construction. This case study shows their continuing attractiveness to purchasers and suitability for integration into new developments.

CFB East Community Plan

http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/pla ... ground.pdf
1.5 Existing Housing Stock

The CFB East Plan area which is more commonly known as the Currie - PMQs (Permanent Married Quarters) was acquired by the Department of National Defence in 1948 in order to provide housing for married army personnel. The housing units were constructed in three main phases: 100 units in 1948; 250 units in 1949 to 1950; and 211 units in 1950 to 1952. An additional 25 units were built in 1981 and are located in the south central portion of the site.

The original plan for Currie Barracks, as indicated on a 1934 proposed site plan, called for a residential district to be built for military personnel and their families. However, the Department of National Defence acquired the land east of Currie Barracks in 1948 to build permanent married quarters for Army personnel. A large portion of this property was acquired from the City of Calgary and had been virtually undeveloped. At the same time, the Lincoln Park PMQ site was developed for Air Force personnel.

The Currie PMQs represent the largest concentration of residential units of the three CFB sites (i.e. Lincoln Park PMQs, the Currie Barracks, and the Currie PMQs).

There is a total of 560 housing units on the CFB East lands, consisting of 316 single-detached and 244 semi-detached (referred to as duplex) units. Over half of the units are made up of 1 to 1 ½ storey buildings, and the remainder made up of two storey houses.... Single-detached housing units range in size from 730 sq.ft. to 1754 sq.ft. and the duplex units range in size from 960 sq.ft. to 1612 sq.ft.

Although the units would be considered small by modern suburban single-family standards, the housing stock is typical of post-war housing found elsewhere in the City....

The buildings are of wood frame construction and have a simple, solid, and utilitarian design. Generally the units are well maintained and in good condition due to regular maintenance. However, limited updating has been undertaken and the units are essentially equipped in the same manner as when they were built....
Image

Figure 4: Hundreds of the old houses on the military base were refurbished and relocated at increased densities.

Residential Intensification Case Studies

Garrison Woods, Calgary, Alberta

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/su/s ... lberta.pdf
Garrison Woods, the redevelopment of the eastern part of the former Canadian Forces Base (CFB) in Calgary, is made up of 1,600 residential units including new townhouses, new single-family homes, new three- and four-storey apartments, refurbished single- and semi-detached former military housing units, and new single-detached infill homes among the refurbished units. Secondary suites (mortgage helpers) are included above garages on some of the lanes. Many of the former military buildings have been reused for community amenities. Developed by Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation, this "new-urbanist" project challenges conventional standards of the City’s engineers with rear lanes, customized road standards, mixed uses and a mix of densities to achieve an overall gross density of almost 25 units per hectare — high for a new subdivision....
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
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But be ye satisfied that you have light
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Re: Architecture

Post by Antipatros »

Roman Architecture with Diana E. E. Kleiner

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBCB3059E45654BCE

A series of 24 lecture videos from Yale University.
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
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Re: Architecture

Post by Antipatros »

As of today, it is reportedly taller than the Empire State Building:

Time-Lapse Video Shows One World Trade Construction
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1 World Trade Center

Design

http://www.wtc.com/about/freedom-tower/ ... ter-design
One World Trade Center will be a bold addition the the New York skyline. The design is an innovative mix of architecture, structure, urban design, safety, and sustainability.

From a 200-foot concrete base, the tower ascends sixty-nine stories, its edges chamfered back to form eight isosceles triangles, a perfect octagon at center. It culminates in a square, glass parapet at the crown. Its crystalline form will create a vibrant effect, as the light refracts in it like a kaleidoscope, changing throughout the day. 1 WTC will have 69 office floors, a restaurant, an enclosed observation deck, and a two-level broadcast facility, as well as below-grade shopping and access to public transportation.

The cubic base of 1 World Trade Center with have a square footprint the same size as the footprints of the original Twin Towers. Clad in more than 2,000 pieces of prismatic glass, the surface of the base will shimmer. Surrounding the base will be a communal space at the plaza level has antecedents in Bryant Park, the steps at the Metropolitan Museum, and the base of Renaissance palazzos. In this space, people will gather, sit, relax, and reflect,around steel terraces shaded by trees and textured by granite cobblestones. Visitors to the WTC site will find the plaza an open, reflective space, one that connects the building with its surrounding neighborhoods.

The crown of 1 World Trade Center is the 408-foot antenna, which will consist of a mast and a communication platform ring. The mast will be protected by a one-of-a-kind fiberglass panel system that will resist wind loading, and create a protected maintenance area. At the base of the mast, a tetrahedral lattice ring will support media transmission equipment and brace eight radio-frequency transparent Kevlar guy cables that support the mast. When lit at night, a beacon at the top will send out a horizontal light beam that can be seen from miles away.

With entrances on all four sides of the building, 1 World Trade Center has been designed to integrate the heterogeneous traffic of visitor and office tenants. Each portal will allow dedicated access to the concourse lobby and observation deck, office floors, and restaurant. The light-filled grand lobby will encircle the central core, a setting for changing art exhibits.
About the Building

http://www.wtc.com/about/freedom-tower/ ... e-building
Soaring above the city at 1,776 feet, One World Trade Center will be America's tallest building - and an indelible New York landmark. Designed by David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 2.6-million-square-foot building will include office space, an observation deck, world-class restaurants, and broadcast and antennae facilities.

Begun by Silverstein Properties in April 2006 and taken over by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, construction has accelerated in the last year.

An expansive public lobby will be topped by a series of mechanical floors, comprising the base level of 1WTC. Above this base will be sixty-nine office floors, including two television broadcast floors, mechanical floors, and two restaurants. Atop this, there will be an observation deck and a glass-metal parapet. The crown of the project is a communications platform and a 408-foot, cable-stayed antenna, designed in collaboration with artist Kenneth Snelson.

Sustainable design is central to One WTC's development, integrating renewable energy, interior daylighting, reuse of rainwater, and recycled construction debris and materials. The below-grade concourses will include approximately 55,000 square feet of retail space and connect to an extensive transportation network.

One WTC will incorporate advanced life-safety systems that exceed New York City building code requirements. From structural redundancy to dense fireproofing to biochemical filters, it will create a new standard for high-rise buildings. Extra-wide pressurized stairs, multiple backups on emergency lighting, and concrete protection for all sprinklers will ensure optimal firefighter access. Exits are designed to ensure easy evacuation, and all safety systems will be encased in the core wall, with the enhanced elevators.

Safe, sustainable, artistically dynamic - One WTC will stand as a shining beacon for New York's transformed Downtown.
At the architects' website:

One World Trade Center

New York, New York

http://www.som.com/content.cfm/one_world_trade_center

There are some beautiful artist's renderings and photographs in the image gallery.
Be not too curious of Good and Evil;
Seek not to count the future waves of Time;
But be ye satisfied that you have light
Enough to take your step and find your foothold.

--T.S. Eliot
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Typhoon
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Re: Architecture

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31844738
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Re: Architecture

Post by Typhoon »

4siWUAQn_nk
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Re: Architecture

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May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: Architecture

Post by Parodite »

In pictures: Scottish housing design winners
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-19476902

Image
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Re: Architecture

Post by Hoosiernorm »

Been busy doing stuff
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Re: Architecture

Post by noddy »

awesome, my old bomb of a house is cracking in half due to shifting ground, wonder if i can talk both the missus and the council into something cheap like this :)
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Typhoon
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Re: Architecture

Post by Typhoon »

Brilliant.
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