Design Initiatives | Tag

MTspace Studio Designs Flood-Resistant 3D Printed Homes for ICON's Initiative99 Competition

May 20, 2024

In an open competition, ICON’s Initiative 99 requested participants to design a home using ICON’s 3D printing technologies while keeping the construction budget under $99,000. Among the three selected winners for the Open Category, New Zealand-based office MTspace Studio proposes a robust flood-resistant design, in response to the housing crisis in New Zealand’s flood zones. Titled “Wai Home” after the Māori word for water, the concept revolves around the idea of working with this essential natural element. The design features innovative rainwater collection and storage systems, along with elements to increase the resilience of the construction in the face of increasing threats.

+ 8

Architecture Philanthropy re:arc institute Announces the 2023–24 Grants, Practice Lab Collaborators, and Initiatives

November 01, 2023

Copenhagen-based philanthropic association re:arc institute has announced the cohort of nonprofit organizations, people, and practices they will support throughout 2024. The organization founded in 2022 works at the intersection of climate action and architectural philanthropy, aiming to support the development of solutions that address the root causes and consequences of climate change.

The architectural field often adheres to conventional industry models, either client-based or competition-based, which can perpetuate problematic or extractive motivations. The re:arc institute hopes to rethink the architecture discipline’s potential for addressing social and environmental concerns by providing a blueprint for pioneering philanthropic projects. To do so, they provide funding to nonprofits, individuals, and community-led projects exploring innovative approaches that prioritize planetary well-being. Their focus is on hyper-local, grassroots initiatives that address climate crises with a strong emphasis on the unique needs of specific places and communities.

+ 12

Jinzhou New Area Medical Center / Design Initiatives

September 21, 2012

The proposal for a Jinzhou New Area Medical Center by Design Initiatives is located as closest as possible to the existing wing of the hospital in order to shorten the routes and form one integrated complex with that existing wing. The architects believe that the everyday experience of the users is critically important for the hospital typology. They shifted and offset the four different wings so every room that needs it has an access to natural light and ventilation – something so rear in medical buildings and hard to get organized with an area of 185,000 m2. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Disaster Prevention and Education Center / Design Initiatives

December 01, 2011

The intention of Design Initiatives in the ThyssenKrupp Elevator Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center Competition is to organize a joyful, integral space where man reconciles with nature. In addition to animate forms, they have manipulated the movement in order to induce the production of new urban opportunities. More images and architects’ description after the break.

New Taipei City Museum of Art Proposal / Design Initiatives

September 03, 2011

The attempt of architect, Vlado Valkof, with designers Malgorzata Blasik and Anne Valkof, in the New Taipei City Museum of Art competition is to find the essence of art and to materialize our notion of art. To redefine the meaning of the art museum and to alter the way art museum functions. To organize a relationship between ourselves and the world around us. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Crowd in the Cloud / Design Initiatives

February 19, 2011

Design Intiatives has once again sent us their latest work, The Crowd in the Cloud, their firm’s entry in the SpireTec mixed use competition for Greater Noida, Delhi, India. Images and a narrative by the architects after the break.

A Room for London Proposal / Design Initiatives

December 30, 2010

Design Initiatives, an innovative, award-winning architecture practice based in Los Angeles, California and Sofia, Bulgaria, shared with us their proposal for A Room for London, a competition for a temporary demountable hotel room for up to two guests on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London during the Olympic year of 2012. Designed as a boundary structure floating in space between ground and sky, their proposal employs the dialectical contrast of active OR passive. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Design Initiatives: The Latest Architecture and News