Category: Projects

Park(ing) Day 2010

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

In 2005, ReBar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single 2 hour metered parking space in downtown San Francisco into a temporary public park.  The goal was to provoke an examination of the values that generate public urban space by briefly transforming territory typically reserved for vehicles. The intervention aimed to address a broader range of public needs by providing a public green space.

Today, Park(ing) Day has evolved into an annual worldwide event that empowers the community to enact urban change by creatively altering parking spots for the betterment of the public.  This year, Park(ing) Day will be on Friday, September 17th.  HAA will be participating in this unique project, and is in the process of selecting a location and designing the Park(ing) spot.  Please check back for updates.

If you would like to create your own Park(ing) space or would like more information, please click here: http://parkingday.org/

License to Participate: http://parkingday.org/src/NPD_license_2010.pdf

Park(ing) Day network: http://my.parkingday.org/

DICH(2)OTOMY {THE WATERS OF NEW ORLEANS}

Friday, August 27th, 2010

DesCours is a week-long, contemporary architecture and art event that looks towards the future in showcasing experimental, cutting-edge new media and interactive installations while embracing New Orleans rich cultural heritage.  During DesCours, internationally recognized architects, designers and artists transform unique, hidden spaces within the French Quarter and Central Business District into destination places for visitors and locals alike.

Following an international design competition, a total of 11 artists and architects (individuals and teams) will be selected through invitation and proposal process to participate by creating installations for French Quarter courtyards, downtown building lobbies, rooftops, walkways and other ‘hidden’ New Orleans spaces.   Overall, the AIA New Orleans is seeking installations that react and respond both to the historic nature of the sites, and to the public audience that views them. (more…)

DINING BY DESIGN

Friday, August 20th, 2010


Last weekend, the greater Detroit design and culinary communities coalesced in a three day event to benefit the Michigan AIDS Coalition. The Dining by Design tour, which has been visiting six cities a year for the past 13 years, made its debut in Detroit at the Benson and Edith Ford Conference Center at the College for Creative Studies in the recently renovated Argonaut building.

Organized by Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), the event offers an opportunity for local designers to turn a 150-200 square foot dining area into a work of art. Each installation becomes a unique interpretation of the dining experience limited only by the design team’s creativity. Works ran the gamut from luxurious to theatrical to rustic. One could find a tranquil garden set adjacent to a vibrant typographic environment. One installation was built entirely from cardboard.

The event culminated Saturday night in a dinner for the designers, sponsors, and donors to enjoy a meal, completing the artistic visions. The other cities in this year’s line-up include: Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Columbus, Atlanta and Kansas City, where the event began.

NEW ORLEANS STOOP HOUSE PART II

Friday, August 6th, 2010


The United States Green Building Council 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition challenged young designers to envision a LEED platinum home in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans.  Due to recent stipulations which require new homes to be raised above flood levels, the brief asked that entries find creative ways of addressing this prerequisite, while also maintaining strong ties to the neighborhood context, and designing under a $100,000 construction budget.

HAA’s design approach focused on the stoop as a critical physical and social space. By emphasizing this literal and conceptual middle ground between the public street and private home, the design attempted to mitigate contextual issues brought on by lifting homes above Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters.  The resulting design directly opens traditionally public functions to the front of the home and the stoop, reinforcing the connection of the home to the community. (more…)

Expo 2010 Shanghai

Friday, July 30th, 2010


The World Expo 2010 is currently underway in the city of Shanghai, China. Staged along both banks of the Huangpu River, more than 190 countries and 50 international organizations from around the globe have come together to share pavilions and exhibitions. The theme of the exposition is Better City – Better Life, and is an opportunity for countries from around the world to showcase their artistic, cultural, and architectural talents.  With an estimated 70 million visitors, the event is said to be the most expensive and also largest World’s fair site – 5.28 square km – in history.

The tradition of World Expositions stretches back to the Great Exhibition at Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace in London. At that time, the Exposition provided a unique opportunity for the convening of cultures which otherwise would remain largely separate. Today, even in an era when globalization drives this cultural fusion, the Expo continues to hold an important position both as a cultural venue, political platform, and an opportunity for Shanghai to demonstrate its international significance both to its citizens and the world. (more…)

PI RIVER PLANNING COMPETITION

Friday, July 23rd, 2010


Located approximately eight hours west of Shanghai, the city of Lu’an is relatively small by Chinese standards.  With roughly 400,000 residents, it sits along the banks of the Pi River in the Anhui Province.   Recently, the Pi River waterfront was the focal point for an extensive redevelopment effort outlined by the City’s 2030 Masterplan.  This masterplan anticipates exponential growth, transforming Lu’an from a city of 400,000 residents to one with over 4 million people.  The 2030 Masterplan goal is to create an attractive urban waterfront that accommodates this growth model, addresses environmental challenges, and protects the rich cultural heritage of existing neighborhoods and sites.

Following the City’s release of the 2030 Masterplan, the City organized the Lu’an City Pi River Urban Design Plan as an international design competition.  Shortlisted as one of four competitors, HAA crafted an overall masterplan for all future development within the city of Lu’an.  Integral to the overall design partii, the river becomes the city’s spirit.  Humans and the environment engage the river’s edge, drawing strength from its history.  This same strength is pulled outwards along projected greenways and a network of highly functional landscape systems.  These greenway connections become the most important city infrastructure, stitching together all future developments along a varied, multi-functional recreational system. (more…)

“VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT” LECTURE DISCUSSION

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Volunteerism in Detroit: A [RE]Generation Strategy from HAA on Vimeo.


An army of volunteers. In Detroit, volunteerism is a catalyst for change.  We accomplish change by performing change, and the unique legibility of these efforts is striking within Detroit’s urbanscape.  Established throughout Detroit, various non-profit volunteer organizations and their dedicated, creative volunteers have successfully regenerated many facets of our City.  This legion of volunteers has provided the impetus for positive marketing campaigns, entrepreneurial endeavors, and formal urban redevelopments.

These positive interventions inspire and motivate others to contribute to our City.  And so, we ask ourselves…

How can we facilitate regeneration?
How can we become the vehicle for Detroit’s transformation?

On June 15th, lecturesHAA celebrated its one-year anniversary by hosting an event aimed at answering these questions. Entitled “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)generation Strategy”, this event provided a venue for six local non-profit volunteer organizations

Young Detroit Builders
Detroit Synergy
Greening of Detroit
Preservation Wayne
Architecture for Humanity
Summer in the City

to present and discuss their origins, inspirations, and bodies of work within the City of Detroit.  Initially, the organizations demonstrated themselves as unique, outlining their specific programs, and then documenting their commendable efforts on a common base map of our City. Between these six local organizations over 10,000 volunteers are utilized each year within the City of Detroit.  En masse, their projects influence 60 square miles of the city.  The collective scope, breadth and impact of these projects are striking. Click here to view the Volunteerism Areas of Influence Mapping. (more…)

HAA ANNOUNCES LECTURESHAA – EVENT 07

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Volunteerism in Detroit Lecture Announcement

Volunteerism in Detroit Details

lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.

The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit. (more…)

Christian Unverzagt Lecture Discussion

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Christian-Unverzagt_Detroit: The Grotesque from HAA on Vimeo.

Detroit: The Grotesque (and other projects).

On April 13th, local designer and University of Michigan professor, Christian Unverzagt, gave a compelling lecture summarizing his Detroit design work.  Divided directly down the middle, Christian inadvertently described his work using a split personality analogy, first illustrating his architectural pedagogy through multiple student projects and then following with his professional work through M1/dtw. (more…)

STOOP AS MIDDLE GROUND 01

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

New-Orleans-Stoop-Design-Concepts

New Orleans Stoop 01
New Orleans Stoop 02New Orleans Stoop 03

New Orleans Stoop House

The United States Green Building Council has initiated a nationwide design competition for a LEED platinum, single family home for the Broadmoor district of New Orleans, LA.  This competition, entitled USGBC’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, targets innovative design solutions from students and emerging professionals, while challenging designers to create an inexpensive (under $100K construction budget) contextually sensitive home.

A small group of HAA designers have challenged themselves to create the new archetypal home in New Orleans – a home that engages the existing neighborhood and city infrastructure from the elevated platform of post-Katrina housing.  Four winning designs will be constructed by the Salvation Army, measured and verified during a designated sustainable testing phase, and then only afterwards will a final winner be selected. (more…)