Competition and Collaboration

Fabric (Charleston, left above) was thrilled to work again with Ryan Wilson (Chicago, right above), old friend and co-conspirator in the design collective PublicHouse Projects.  We united to compete on the recent Urban Intervention competition, to design a new campus near the Seattle Space Needle. We’ll be posting our competition entry here after winners have been announced.

I/Jacob teach teach urbanism theory at the Clemson University School of Architecture, and was thrilled to see some of our students take First Prize at Design to Zero Competition.

New life for retail megastructures:

Making Over the Mall With Parks and Sermons - NYTimes.com

This morning, we came upon a great article by Christine Grant on the Sightline Daily. She recently spent six months traveling the world to document cycling culture. Her great article highlights ten big lessons. Read it here:

http://daily.sightline.org/2012/01/23/two-wheels-and-high-heels/

We’ve just returned to Charleston after three days of continuous work. Our new project, in conjunction with Peter Drey Architect, has the potential to transform a 2.5 mile corridor in the town of Covington, GA (near Atlanta). We’ll post ideas and updates in the coming weeks.

I/Jacob teach a theory class at the Clemson Architecture Center at Charleston, a small outpost of the Clemson School of Architecture. Last week, we had the privilege to visit the new architecture building at the Clemson main campus in northern South Carolina.

This new architecture school, designed by Thomas Phifer, is an all-white, super minimalist warehouse. With this new addition, the Clemson school has upgraded its facilities during a precarious time in American architectural education. We wish them the most success with their new addition.

Getting it right: tiny buildings

We have often proposed the construction of micro-buildings for infill in urban locations. But our proposals remain mostly unbuilt, often due to restrictive zoning in American cities that prevents such tiny structures.  

So we were impressed with this tiny gallery and office in Japan.  See it here:

Dezeen » Blog Archive » Iron Gallery by Kensuke Watanabe Architecture Studio

This graphic describes our current situation at Fabric; you may be familiar with the process!

Image via Fast Company.

Nice Work: Bejing’s Urban Carpets via URBAN CARPET on the Behance Network

Great coverage in the New York Times about Europe’s biggest and best urban park project:

 City Parks, Like Madrid Río, Stand Where Highways Did - NYTimes.com

Hmm:

Ikea’s property development group is proposing to build a massive new project in London, according to the English Huffington Post.  See more:

Strand East: Ikea Hopes To Build An Entire London Neighbourhood

Getting it Right: Utilizing vacant development sites

With empty parking lots and stalled development projects in city centers all across the country, this article highlights some efforts by real estate developers to breathe temporary life into their sites.

Temporary Tenants Bring Life to Stalled Construction Sites - NYTimes.com

Exotic Urbanism: Nairobi

Via Designboom: “Netherland-based chris idema reinier simons have created ‘twentyeleven: project kenya’, a housing development which re-imagines the current slums in nairobi, kenya, africa without enforcing a westernized ideal onto an existing culture. by working together with the 236 inhabitants - including 52 families, 15 small companies and three workshops - a new building plan is being developed for the people currently living in the slums of nairobi. the existing norms and values are integrated into an organized structure, ensuring it is a flexible and adaptable design while giving them clean water, a controlled cooking environment and better living conditions in general.”

(via chris idema reinier simons: twentyeleven project kenya)

Local progress update:

In a major victory for cyclists and pedestrians in Charleston, the SCDOT has approved converting one lane of the above bridge to cyclist use. This small change will connect two parts of the region by bicycle, vastly improving quality of life for Charleston residents.

(via Bike lane over Ashley River approved by SCDOT | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment)

Getting it Right:

From the local news front, the City of Charleston, SC, our adopted home, is considering a major upgrade to its bicycle friendliness.

For those who don’t know the city, it’s a peninsula, connected to adjacent neighborhoods by on a few bridges. Two of these bridges are currently for cars only: no sidewalks or bike paths.  

But the City is considering something which would be a huge step forward and a model for other towns: converting an existing lane of car traffic into a bike and pedestrian lane.

Hopefully this will be decided soon, against the Transportation Department’s wishes, and in favor of humans.

Read more: Study complete on bike lane over river; findings withheld | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC

For all our friends in the architecture and design industries, you may want to have a look at this most recent survey of trends in the profession.

U.S. Community Design Trends highlight Infill Development | ArchDaily