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/
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…)
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…)
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…)
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 platformof 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…)
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 initial program for 2010 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide 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.
The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.
EVENT 06: Lecture
DETROIT: The Grotesque (and other projects)
Christian Unverzagt, Principal Design Director @ M1/DTW
On April 8th, HAA’s Mike Ford will be lecturing on “Cultural Innovation – Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design” @ The University of Michigan. This 8:00 pm event is being hosted by The University of Michigan’s “Hip Hop Congress” chapter. Click here for a previous posting on Hip Hop Architecture. (more…)
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? – Jack Kerouac
Detroit is ironically the most and least likely place to discuss mass transit. Once the home of one of the nation’s most extensive streetcar systems (link to map), Detroit has become synonymous with decentralization, suburban expansion, and the dominance of the automobile. Where human mobility was once limited by the location of rail lines, canals, and the limited travel range of other non-motorized forms of transportation, the car provided a universal form of personal transportation which could be used at virtually any geographic scale. Unfortunately, the success of the car came at the expense of all other modes of transportation, eventually leading Detroit and other cities toward an inefficient and unsustainable transit monoculture.
Recently, infrastructural failures in this country have gained national and international attention. With increasing national imperative, as well as efforts at the regional and local level, it appears mass transit is finally becoming a reality. High-speed rail development in Florida between Tampa, Orlando and Miami, and in California linking Sacramento, San Francisco and L.A., has been covered extensively throughout the media. Portland Oregon’s streetcar system has become a benchmark for urban transit in this country. And the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has allocated substantial funds to the development of public transit systems, indicating a shift in support and investment toward sustainable car alternatives. As this transition occurs, however, it is important to consider not only the new forms of transportation infrastructure and technology that will be necessary, but also the relationship between these and existing development patterns. (more…)
Field observation. Amidst the cold and snow typical to our Detroit winters, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority (DWCPA) is steadily progressing through construction. Located at the intersection of Bates and Atwater in Downtown Detroit, the DWCPA Public Dock and Terminal “is designed to not only harbor and attract cruise ships, but also any other transient vessels visiting Detroit.” Once completed, this HAA designed facility will accommodate visiting domestic and international vessels and further energize Detroit’s already successful pedestrian Riverwalk.
The expected public opening for cruise operations is tentatively scheduled for summer 2011.
DISASTER RELIEF HOUSING. The president of Haiti, Rene Preval, is living in a tent. Or rather, he will be shortly, once they pitch it. He is doing this in part out of necessity and partly as a show of solidarity while he makes an international appeal for 200,000 tents. Potentially, these 200,000 tents will house as many as a million Haitian earthquake survivors.
As the Haitian relief efforts transition from rescue, food, and medical aide, to longer term reconstruction efforts like transitional and permanent housing, the world of architecture will likely revisit the design typologies of disaster relief housing. While much of the architectural and design community is uninvolved with disaster relief housing, some architects and entrepreneurs have produced effective prototypes that serve the global community in times of need. There are a number of considerations for the design and implementation of disaster relief housing strategies, not the least of which address sustainability, duration of use, vernacular architecture, climate, cost, and the lives of refugees impacted by the disaster. Most importantly, many in the scientific community predict that the global climate is becoming increasingly violent and the destructive power of natural disasters will be experienced all over the globe. It is imperative that we develop holistic methodologies for disaster relief housing, as their necessity will become more urgent. (more…)
