Speculative Twists: Studio Gang's MIRA Tower in Abitare

 

Speculative Twists: Studio Gang's MIRA Tower in San Francisco, Abitare, Dec. 2020.

“It’s necessary to ask, however: why are 60 percent of the homes on public property designed for the top one or two percent of income earners, rather than only one or two percent of the units? Our policy and planning institutions are at the service of the rich. That is the logic of capital. In a better-designed economic structure, Jeanne Gang would have access to billions of dollars to make a city as imaginative, thoughtful, cooperative, and equitable as she would be capable of creating. The failing system keeps compelling us to churn out luxury high-rises with some greater or lesser margin of below-market rate housing within.”

Tadao Ando's Manhattan Penthouse in Abitare

 

A Temple among the Clouds, Abitare, October 2020. 

“I always try to create homes that go beyond mere functional requirements, in order to turn them into places of rest for the spirit and the heart,” explains the acclaimed Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who has designed this white penthouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for his friend the gallerist Kazuhito Yoshii.

Photo: Sam Ellis via Unsplash

What Historically Low Mortgage Rates May Spell for Homebuyers in 2020 and Beyond, Dwell, Sep. 22, 2020.

"Home is not meant to be a speculative financial asset—it’s supposed to be something that we fundamentally live in, and everybody should have a right to that," says Frank van Lerven, senior economist at the London-based New Economics Foundation. He points out that the Federal Reserve could easily lend substantial sums to public banks—the money could be used to fund social housing and other infrastructure, and the debt could then be sold to the private sector, just like other government debt, to reduce risk.

Garden House by Barbara Bestor for Dwell

 

Out of the Blue: An Eccentric Pop of Color Lends Personality to an Otherwise Understated House in Los Angeles, Dwell, Sep./Oct. 2020 [print edition]. 

A House Belonging to the Earth by Ensamble Studio for Dwell

 

An Abandoned Stone Quarry in Spain Becomes a Sublimely Minimalist Home, Dwell, Sep. 10, 2020. 

"To improve natural lighting and ventilation, the architects carved a square aperture through the ceiling of one quadruple-height volume. The excised stone fell into the quarry, bringing a tree along for the ride. It began growing on the cut-out plinth, lit from the skylight above, creating a charged, luminous moment that expresses the potential for breathing new life into an abandoned mine."

On Blockbusting for Dwell

 

How Blockbusting and Real Estate Profiteers Cash In on Racial Tension, Dwell, Aug. 13, 2020. 

"A predatory real estate practice, blockbusting leverages racial prejudice to drive white homeowners out of their neighborhoods and coerce them into selling their properties at low prices. Real estate agents and speculators situated a Black household on a block, then capitalized on expectations of declining home values, flipping the vacating homes to Black families to turn a quick profit. Within a short period, a neighborhood’s demographics would change, and the manufactured white flight depreciated prices further in a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Los Angeles Garden Oasis by Design, Bitches for Dwell

 

A Los Angeles Bungalow Opens to a Gorgeous Garden Oasis, Dwell, Aug. 12, 2020.

"Viewed from the street, Garden House in Los Angeles’s Atwater Village recedes into the scenery of Spanish-style dwellings, obscured by hedges, succulents, and strawberry trees. But beyond the cedar fencing, it’s a welcoming oasis opened up and oriented around the side and rear gardens."

On Redlining for Dwell

21 Resources on Redlining’s Role in Cementing the American Wealth Gap, Dwell, June 4, 2020.

"Homeownership was the central pillar of the American dream in the 20th century, contributing to retirement security and generational wealth. Beginning roughly in 1945, returning veterans taking advantage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944—better known as the G.I. Bill—spurred a post-war building boom of midcentury homes that were meant to be more accessible for an expanding middle class. These ladder rungs to financial stability, however, remained out of reach in Black neighborhoods as property values declined due to a discriminatory practice known as redlining."

Public Transportation in Crisis in Oculus

Public Transportation in Crisis, Oculus, Summer 2020. 

“I can imagine no shortage of scenarios,” says Transportation Alternative director Danny Harris of the hopes for a change in priorities. “The reality is that we have this administration and any administration that would come next. We should wish to have a high-speed rail network like Japan, Germany, Switzerland, or France, and a bike network like the Netherlands or Denmark. We should wish to have active and vibrant public space as they do throughout southern Europe. But all that requires the political will and the vision that those things are not whimsy, they’re not partisan. When you build them, they create more vibrant and connected regional economies.”

Well-Being at Work: Models and Pandemic for L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui

Well-Being at Work: Models and Pandemic, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui 436, May 2020. 

À l’heure de la première crise mondiale susceptible de forcer une remise en question de nos modes de vie contemporains, la quête du bien‑être au travail vit le pire des scénarios, apocalyptique : le bureau à domicile obligatoire. Passage en revue des espaces de travail du XXIe siècle en temps de pandémie.