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Istanbul Demolishing 3 Skyscrapers to Preserve City Skyline

10 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

istanbul city skyline

After a huge and lengthy legal battle fought on various fronts by developers, municipalities and the Council of State, the Turkish government has ordered the partial destruction or total demolition of multiple buildings said to threaten the historic architectural heritage of Istanbul (above image via Gokorg).

istanbul historic skyline

When speaking of skylines, one generally thinks of of the towers that define them – but the courts have ruled that modern-day Istanbul (not Constantinople) is not allowed to reach for new heights, or even maintain its currently-constructed ones. Adding pressure to the mix, Unesco has threatened to revoke the city’s status as a World Heritage Site, in part due to rampant urban development (additional images by Moyan Brenn).

istanbul night view

At the heart of this particular legal issue are views of a series of structures long central to the civic identity of Istanbul, including the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque, all of which are now being overshadowed by three new structures standing dozens of stories tall. These new threats to the existing sihuoette are part of Onalti Dokuz complex, a residential development already largely finished.

istanbul city streets

Detractors are celebrating the victory, which started with legal attacks beginning last year. From Dezeen and the Turkish newspaper Todays Zaman, “two legal cases were launched against the development – one seeking cancellation of the permits for the construction of the building and another to shut down the construction and destroy parts of the buildings that had already been completed.”

istanbul sunet

istanbul distant hills

The government has rejected appeals by the developers and city, and it remains unclear who will pay for the cost of the necessary size reductions the buildings in question must now undergo. It is easy to see why critics would feel threatened by these and other new developments, but at some point one has to wonder: who has the right to suppress urban growth, and where do we draw the line between preservation and urbanization?

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Post-Olympic Abandonment: Sochi Already on the Road to Ruin

09 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

sochi ghost town olympics

The Olympics have a long history of leaving a mixed legacy in their wake but the story of Sochi is particularly strange – it was never completely finished in the first place, and is already nearly abandoned less than a year after it hosted the Winter Games of 2014.

sochi art abandoned deserted

sochi remains building square

sochi abandoned after games

Already located in a remote area of Russia (albeit near the country’s largest resort area), it is perhaps no surprise that this Olympic Village would not be sustainable after serving as a venue. Russian photographer Alexander Belenkiy recently visited to document the deserted architecture of the area.

sochi ghost town river

sochi empty bridge scene

sochi sidewalk river place

His photos show what you might expect – empty streets, sidewalks, buildings and parking structures, many showing signs of degradation and disuse. Anyone who tuned into the media attention during and in the run-up to the games knows that the facilities were also in many cases shoddily constructed or incomplete to begin with.

sochi failed parking structure

sochi abandoned deserted place

Stylistically, the architecture is a strange mix of contemporary and chistorical with elements of rural-town traditionalism, resort-village detailing and decorative columns, colors and facades spanning and mixing various movements and periods. Without upkeep, though, these eclectic remixes may not be long for this world.

sochi russia 6 months

sochi after the games

sochi deserted city streets

TThis was Russia’s first time hosting the Winter Olympic Games, but it had to start largely from scratch: “The site of a training centre for aspiring Olympic athletes, in 2008, the city had no world-class level athletic facilities fit for international competition. To get the city ready for the Olympics, the Russian government committed a $ 12 billion investment package. According to some estimates, the investments necessary to bring the location up to Olympic standards may have exceeded that of any previous Olympic games. By January 2014 the construction costs had been reported to exceed the $ 50 billion mark, making it the most expensive Olympic Games in history.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Floating Neighborhood for NYC, or: How to Hover a Whole Megablock

09 Sep

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

NYC Floating Skyscraper 1

How do you fit an entire new neighborhood for 65,000 people, complete with offices, schools and streets, into the already congested and overdeveloped island of Manhattan without knocking anything down? Hover it. That’s the plan for Hudson Yards, the largest private development project in U.S. history, which will be erected on a super-strong platform over an existing active rail yard between Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen.

NYC Floating Skyscraper 3

The whole massive, incredibly heavy thing will barely touch the ground, resting on 300 concrete-sleeved steel caissons inserted 40-80 feet into the bedrock. Borrowed from bridge-building techniques, these supports will hold up a slab that will serve as the foundation of six skyscrapers, 100 shops, 20 restaurants, a school and 14 acres of parks.

NYC Floating Skyscraper 2

The 26-acre West Side Yard over which this development will be built is a critical part of New York City’s transit system, serving overflow Long Island Railroad trains during rush hour with 30 tracks and space for storage and maintenance. Luckily, its original developers in the 1980s realized that one day the space would be prime for redevelopment, and left a gap around the edges of the yard just big enough for structural members to be installed without interrupting traffic.

NYC Floating Skyscraper 4

Since the trains will still be active while Hudson Yards is under construction, actually getting everything into the ground will be a bit of a challenge. The builders plan to sink the caissons in sections and then attach them to 100-foot trusses whenever there’s a window of opportunity in between moving trains.

NYC Floating Skyscraper 5

Gizmodo got an early look at the plans and has a series of mesmerizing gif images of exactly how everything will come together. It’s an interesting example of developers finding space for something new in a bustling metropolis without disturbing existing functionality, and even arguably improving a lot that many find an eyesore. The final phase of the city’s High Line park, set to open later in 2014, will connect directly to Hudson Yards, which should be complete by 2024.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Modular Cities: 13 Expandable Solutions for Urban Growth

09 Sep

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

Modular Cities Seeds of Life 1

As urban populations flourish, cities typically expand outward into suburbia or suffer growing pains with static infrastructure that just can’t keep up. What if, instead, cities were based upon modular structures with virtually no limits as to how much they could grow? These modular urban concepts include developments that hover above LA’s freeway system, Jenga-like towers and pixelated stacks of prefabricated residential units.

Modular Paracity

Modular Cities Paracity 2

A gridded framework made up of basic 6-meter-square wooden structural models can be built out almost endlessly, rising above the ground in flood-prone places like Taipei City and Jakarta. ‘Paracity’ by Marco Casagrande is designed for unrestricted growth by gradually infilling the open column-and-beam lattice framework with dwellings, gardens, roadways, shops, restaurants and more. The idea is ‘self-sustainable bio-urban growth,’ using sustainable technology for water purification, waste water treatment and energy production. Says the designer, “In a sense Paracity is a high-tech slum, which can start tuning the industrial city towards an ecologically more sustainable direction. Paracity is a third generation city, an organic machine, urban compost, which is helping the industrial cit to transform into being part of nature.”

Garden City K66

Modular Cities K66 2

The ‘pixelated’ look of this development comes from the seemingly random arrangement of 10×10 modular volumes stacked in a flexible grid that’s interchangeable and adaptable. The modules can for the basis of apartments, offices and other spaces, making it easy to switch out the function of various parts of the community. Public spaces are on the lower levels, and living spaces on the top.

Car-Free Skyvillage Over Los Angeles’ Freeways

Modular Cities Skyvillage 2

Modular Cities Skyvillage 3

LA’s system of freeways divides the city into separate quadrants, restricting activity to whatever area you happen to live in, hemmed in by the massive and perpetually backed up roads. But what if the city could literally rise above that freeway system? This concept called Skyvillage imagines a Los Angeles that grows vertically, interconnecting above the roads to bring the community together. This would eliminate the need for cars, making it easy for residents to fulfill all of their needs within walking distance. The pillars that make up the building are ‘green filtering towers’ filled with vegetation to counteract the pollution from the freeways.

A New Vision for Egypt’s Garbage City

Modular Cities Seeds of Life 2

Modular Cities Seeds of Life 3

The people of Egypt’s so-called ‘Garbage City,’ which processes nearly all of the waste from the enormous city of Cairo, do so with an admirably inventive spirit – but as you might imagine, sorting trash for a living can make for a less-than-pleasant living environment. Mekano Architects came up with a way that actually uses the heaps of waste around the city as an advantage, recycling it as building material for a vertical city. The Seeds of Life skyscraper consists of a series of ‘wind stalks’ that can be stacked with modular homes interspersed with parks, plazas and other public spaces. The ‘wind stalks’ would be topped with mini turbines to collect energy.

Vertical City with Plug-In Houses

Modular Cities Plug-In 2

Hexagonal living units are plugged into a primary structure made of reinforced concrete, making it easy to add and remove modules as necessary or group several together into a larger home. Inspired by Le Corbusier’s theory that “a house is a machine for living,” the concept is flexible, easy to dismantle and could be prefabricated and transported to cities anytime growth calls for it.

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Modular Cities 13 Expandable Solutions For Urban Growth

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Bath House: Abandoned Public Restroom Turned Private Home

08 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

deserted loo pre conversion

The ultimate fixer-upper, real estate rarely looks so unpromising as this London dump did – thankfully, one architect saw potential beyond these potties, despite the place truly looking like shi… well, er, bad. In the end, the before-and-after shots speak for themselves – few buildings can boast such total turnarounds, converting crappy ruins into shining tur…, er, digs.

deserted public restroom uk

converted skylit underground condo

Located under the Crystal Palace Parade, these lavatories constitute just 600 square feet of space – not much by the standards of some cities but relative huge for England’s densely-packed capital.

deserted underground bathroom stalls

deserted london renovation project

Located by architect Laura Clark after just finishing up at the Glasgow School of Art, the strange site seemed a perfect challenge for an aspiring architectural designer wanting to take up residence in London.

converted home stairs ladder

deserted amazing subterranean home

At the intersection of various municipalities and built nearly a century ago, getting approvals turned out to be painfully difficult – even establishing who owned the property proved problematic. Eventually, though, it went up for sale and she was able to secure and start working to convert it.

converted house closet bathroom

deserted underground home skylights

The results of her efforts: a compelling home constructed for under 65,000 Pounds (around $ 100,000 USD), surprisingly open, spacious and light-filled compared to its cavernous original state. Along the way, the architect was able to reuse some old materials in the new construction and save some existing walls as well.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Big Miss Steak: 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

08 Sep

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 1
As the disconnect between the meat we eat and the places it’s processed grows, so does the number of urban and suburban abandoned meat packing plants.

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 2

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 3

Take the former Swift and Company meat packing plant in Fort Worth, Texas. The plant first opened in March of 1904 but by the 1950s, the consequences of local droughts and the reduced importance of the historic Fort Worth Stockyards saw the Swifts plant enter a long period of decline – it finally closed in 1971.

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 4

Even closure and abandonment couldn’t reverse the Fort Worth Swifts meat packing plant‘s spiral into decay. In the 1970s, two major fires reduced most of the plant’s buildings to ruins leaving only the firm’s administrative offices still salvageable: in the 1980s the building housed an Old Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. More recently, one of the plant’s buildings acted as a very believable prison in the TV series Prison Break. Kudos to Flickr user Noel Kerns for capturing the Swift plant’s eerie afterlife in 2008 and 2009.

Forst To Close

abandoned Old Forst meat packing plant Kingston NY 1

abandoned Old Forst meat packing plant Kingston NY 2

abandoned Old Forst meat packing plant Kingston NY 3

Flickr user richie 59 fired up the wayback machine to post these two images of the decrepit red brick Old Forst meat packing plant in Kingston, New York. The first two photos date from early 1982 while the third was snapped in 1985. As for Old Forst, it was demolished in 2006 when developers planned to build a 7-story hotel (which ended up not being built).

Hello, Neuhoff

abandoned Neuhoff meat packing plant Nashville TN 1

abandoned Neuhoff meat packing plant Nashville TN 2

abandoned Neuhoff meat packing plant Nashville TN 3

The former Neuhoff Meat Packing plant is located in northern Nashville, Tennessee, just six blocks from the State Capitol building… one imagines summer legislative sessions must have been unbearable when the wind rose. The plant closed in 1979 after decades of operation on a site that hosted a slaughterhouse for some time before the Neuhoffs even arrived. The abandoned meat packing plant is at long last being cleaned up, however, as the main buildings are being re-purposed as a mixed-use development focused on arts and ecology. A tip of the hat to Flickr user Eva Wood who snapped these striking scenes of neglect and decay in October of 2008.

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Big Miss Steak 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Flexible Furniture: Mold this Seat into All Sorts of Shapes

07 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

the body modular seating

Sitting in a single position for long periods is not just uncomfortable but also a health hazard, but is the solution to be found in a single form or something more pliable and adaptable?

modular chair lying down

London designer Kirsi Enkovaara (images by Aava Anttinen) explores plasticity and comfort in this project titled The Body, a thesis work completed at the Royal College of Art.

the body chair design

The idea is in part to avoid presuppositions about ‘best ways’ to sit or lie down, letting a user bend and twist their furniture into shapes suitable for different activities and allowing for various positions of rest.

modular moldable furniture london

The structure itself is composed of canvass and filled with rice, giving it the right combination of flexibility and rigidity to support a person while also allowing it to be reshaped on demand.

modular seat design curve

From the designer: ‘The Body’ encourages a person to find their choice of sitting by discarding learned cultural norms. Trusting in their touch, movement and the feelings that arise in reaction to these in order to create the most comfortable way of sitting. The structure of ‘The Body’ is made from canvas and rice allowing it to be formed into reconfigurable rigid structures.

modular comfortable seat exploration

“The project started from an interest in emphasizing the psychology of sitting. When we are sitting or laying down we are less aware of our surroundings and in a more relaxed state. This is why the construction of the seat needed to reflect the qualities of human touch, the tactility and safety of which provides us with great comfort.” Many of her other works, both of art and design (or somewhere in between), likewise explore different relationships between ourselves and everyday objects.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Extreme Cliff Living: Modular House Dangles Precariously

06 Sep

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Modscape Cliff House Main

Only the uppermost portion of this ambitious five-level home is visible when approaching from land, preserving the views for others and making for one dramatic way to live adjacent to the sea. Cliff House by Modscape Concept is a response to the demand in Australia for residences to be built along extreme parcels of rocky land on the coast.

Modscape Cliff House 2

Modscale Cliff House 3

The clients approached Modscape to explore options for a vacation home on the southwest coast of Victoria, where they own a piece of land that could prove a challenge for more conventional architectural solutions.

Modscape Cliff House 4

The architects took inspiration from the way barnacles cling to the hull of a ship, hanging the home off the side of the cliff instead of perching it at the edge. This configuration makes it feel like an extension of the cliff face, opening up incredible views of the water.

Modscape Cliff House 1

The prefabricated, modular house would be anchored to the cliff using engineered steel pins, with entrance through a carport on the top floor.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Drawn in Dust: The Great Traveling Dirty Truck Art Exhibition

05 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

dirty car road art

Typical art travels inside, safely stowed in carefully-packed containers to prevent damage – these drawings do the opposite, playing up the folk-artsy practice of scribbling into built-up grime on vehicles.

dirty truck back travel

“Using his finger to scribe into the layer of dirt built-up from exhaust emissions,” Ben Long “creates elaborate drawings on the rear shutters of white haulage trucks. In this on-going series, collectively entitled The Great Travelling Art Exhibition, he expands upon the daubing and crude slogans that commonly adorn commercial freight vehicles.”

dirty truck art process

Some of the pieces will be rapidly wiped away by rain or vandals, but others have survived for as long as six months and on long cross-country road-trips made by their drivers. Like street art, these reverse graffiti works are susceptible to the elements and necessarily temporary.

dirty vehicle art city street

The artist’s motivations are various, but include a desire to make his work more accessible outside of traditional gallery spaces, reduce the costs of creative expression by using free materials and obviating the need for a studio space in which to create.

dirty truck road art

At the same time, there are a lot of artistic conventions still in play here – hallmarks of the ‘high art’ world, as it were. Long crafts these compositions within (and with reference to) a fixed frame, much like a canvass, and signs the pieces as well.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Racing Pigeons: Garbage City Hosts World’s Oddest Pastime

04 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

pigeon tower in motion

In the trash-ridden outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, precariously lofted structures rise up on stilts, home to birds that, come sunset, are set loose as the strange race begins to reroute and capture the free-flying flocks of one’s neighbors. The goal: to use flags and whistles to navigate your own birds and bring them back to their roost, all while hopefully entrapping your neighbors’ pets in the process.

pigeon architecture

Photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro (via CityLab) flew in from London to document this bizarre phenomenon. Dating as far back as 4,000 years ago in various forms, this sport-like activity involves breeding, raising, releasing and recapturing huge collections of pigeons.

pigeon roost loft sport

pigeon informal architecture

Garbage City, the informal name of the trash-collecting suburbs surrounding Cairo, plays host to many of participants, its lack of building code regular contributing to the unsteady-looking structures used to house the birds.

pigeon housing between rubble

Not made to support heavy loads, many of these informal roosts are cobbled together from scraps and assembled like scaffolding from wood and whatever else is available.

pigeon stacked housing

PigeonNews gives a great deal of detail on everything from the types and ratings to behaviors of the birds and their masters, including stories of training, endurance and skill as well as sickness, predators and other mishaps.

pigeon homes against rubble

Notably, pigeon is also eaten in the region, so while many treat it as a hobby or sport, some participants may also have other incentives for breeding (or catching) these birds.

pigeon rooftop caretaker

pigeon racing garbage city

There are as many as 2,000,000 people actively raising these birds in Egypt today, with some people spending hundreds of dollars a month on the upkeep of hundreds of birds.

360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Istanbul Demolishing 3 Skyscrapers to Preserve City Skyline

Post-Olympic Abandonment: Sochi Already on the Road to Ruin

Floating Neighborhood for NYC, or: How to Hover a Whole Megablock

Modular Cities: 13 Expandable Solutions for Urban Growth

Modular Paracity

Garden City K66

Car-Free Skyvillage Over Los Angeles’ Freeways

A New Vision for Egypt’s Garbage City

Vertical City with Plug-In Houses

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Modular Cities 13 Expandable Solutions For Urban Growth

Bath House: Abandoned Public Restroom Turned Private Home

Big Miss Steak: 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

Forst To Close

Hello, Neuhoff

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Big Miss Steak 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

Flexible Furniture: Mold this Seat into All Sorts of Shapes

Extreme Cliff Living: Modular House Dangles Precariously

Drawn in Dust: The Great Traveling Dirty Truck Art Exhibition

Racing Pigeons: Garbage City Hosts World’s Oddest Pastime

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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

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