MARK #53 surveys American low-income housing from coast to coast. Michael Webb provides the historical and cultural context for some recent success stories in affordable development and presents three buildings in California designed by Kevin Daly Architects, OJK Architects and Planners, and Rob Wellington Quigley.
Larger low-income developments in New York and Los Angeles, by David Adjaye and Michael Maltzan respectively, speak to overcoming the challenge of aesthetic innovation on a tight budget. In the southern and western states, we find the Rural Studio at Auburn University and Design Build Bluff at the Universities of Utah and Colorado tackling the low-income housing issue outside the city, realizing rural homes for less than €20,000 each.
Then, it’s time for dinner and a show. Tour MVRDV’s mixed-use Markthal, a food paradise for casual grazers and sit-down diners alike, before talking with Jan Versweyveld, who designed the scenography for a stage adaptation of The Fountainhead.
In Santiago, visit the monolithic, ‘inside-out’ Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center by Elemental. Finally, top in Zurich, where Müller Sigrist Architekten have designed a unique, live-work housing cooperative, and publisher Lars Müller talks to us about the longevity of books and the analog experience.
Cross Section:
Iroje KHM, Amorphe, Garrison, Heri&Salli, Tato, Cal Poly Pomona Architectural Design Studio, Atelier Zafari, Möhring, Henning Larsen, Koning Eizenberg, Theo Deutinger, GPY, MachineGames, Studio Prototype, Norisada Maeda, Lewicki Łatak, Morphosis, Züst Gübeli Gambetti, Tilch + Drexler, Alphaville, Cadaval & Solà-Morales
Perspective: Low-Income Housing in the USA
- Michael Webb discusses the current state of low-income housing in the United States and looks at three case studies in California.
- David Adjaye’s Sugar Hill slab, despite differing opinions on its appearance, gives the community a sense of worth.
- Two American university programmes aim to make well-designed housing a universal norm – and all for €20,000 or less.
- Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan designs buildings for homeless people in his city. Five of them tell their stories.
Long Section:
- MVRDV’s Markthal became an instant hit in Rotterdam with a little help from artist Arno Coenen.
- In Japanese architecture office Be-Fun, project acquisition is just as important as architectural design. Tsuyoshi Shindo explains how they have navigated the economic crisis.
- Müller Sigrist Architekten have designed a live-work complex in Zurich that’s a city in itself.
- Jan Versweyveld is responsible for the scenography of the stage adaptation of The Fountainhead. He feels an affinity with protagonist Howard Roark.
- Two Houses by Hiroshi Nakamura combine formal features with a concern for their inhabitants.
- Elemental’s design for the Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center turns the conventional high-rise inside out.
- Patkau Architects designed an angular house on a steep slope overlooking Whistler Valley.
- Swiss publisher Lars Müller compares online reading to eating sushi and points out that there are many other wonderful things to eat.
