Kanché Restaurant / VAGANTES
Kanché is a space specialized in beverages and food prepared with national liquors and locally grown ingredients from the orchard at Kinich restaurant in Izamal, Yucatán.
Sustainability
House Between Trees / Barbara Berson
Upon arriving at the site, it was surprising to find ourselves in front of the presence of three majestic trees located in the central place. At that moment, I imagined that the house should embrace those monumental conifers. They would be responsible for structuring the architecture and endowing it with the “time” factor, through the wrinkles of their bark, their transformations throughout the seasons, and their swaying with the wind.
Designing in Connection with Nature: An Interview with Tom Bassett-Dilley on Sustainable, Healthy Architecture
When addressing the world’s broader problems—such as the climate emergency, energy crisis, and housing shortage—, we often seek sweeping, grand solutions that could tackle them all at once. As alluring as these ideas may be, they eventually run into the thousands of complexities and interconnections our world presents. But what if we sought more decentralized and domestic solutions? Chicago-based firm Tom Bassett-Dilley Architects has been pursuing just this, focusing on sustainable design, carbon-free and energy-efficient projects for residences, historical buildings, institutions, and commercial projects. In their Manifesto: The New American Dwelling, they argue that the single-family home, once the great American dream, needs to be redefined to emphasize minimalism, efficiency, health, connection with nature, durability, and personal kindness, moving away from wasteful, artificial, and toxic practices. We spoke with Tom Bassett-Dilley, FAIA, CPHC, LFA, and founder of the firm, about some aspects of their work.
Sofia House / Mário Martins Atelier
The project focuses on a building located at the corner of the block, which was the site of a previous demolition of an old 2-story building formerly used for housing. The building is an integral part of the urban fabric within the city walls of Lagos, opposite the Church of S. Sebastião.
Yao-Hakka Yard / YXDesigners
Yao-Hakka Yard, located in Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, is neighboring the Yao migration Town and Hakka village, so it is titled “Yao-Hakka” to express the best wishes for the harmony of the two peoples. Yao-Hakka Yard can be regarded as a deconstructed architectural museum—an assemblage of fragmented constructs sourced from local villages, encompassing elements of both traditional and contemporary designs.
Recycling “breakthrough” could usher in zero-emissions cement
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have devised a way of cheaply producing low-carbon concrete at scale by making use of waste cement and the steel industry’s electric arc furnaces. The method developed by the engineers involves recycling old cement from demolished buildings by heating it up and reactivating the compounds within it. Key to
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Botijo House / ALE Estudio
The Botjio house is located on a street where low houses are interspersed with small industrial buildings of the early 20th century. It is a neighborhood within the neighborhood, with a reduced scale.
AVA House / Irina Biletska
Located in a tranquil coastal village in southern Bahia, Brazil, this house harmoniously integrates with the lush Atlantic Forest, embracing the region’s humid tropical climate. Its main purpose is to offer a healthy, welcoming, and environmentally friendly environment, prioritizing solutions that minimize dependence on conventional energy resources.
Winbond Electronics Corporation Zhubei Building / XRANGE Architects
For Winbond Corporation, a total memory solution provider in Taiwan, the Zhubei building is designed to reflect the client’s core value of fostering worker well-being and commitment to ecological preservation and education. The design goal was to provide a green Gold Energy listed (the second highest energy designation in Taiwan), people-centric workspace for collaboration and sharing while working within the uniform efficiency of cubicles that accommodate the legions of high-tech workers occupying 19 floors of offices.
HQ & Conference Center / Archi+
Located within the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex (Morocco), the “lighthouse building,” intended to house a Reception and Conference Center and the Masen offices, is the starting point for the programming of circuits of diversified scientific and cultural visits. The architecture of the building went through several phases, but the philosophy and ambition developed upstream of the project were the continuous threads of reflection. The building should be representative of the complex’s environmental commitment and technical excellence. The architectural concept meets the same requirements: innovation, strong identity, and integration in a particular environment. The architects propose a set of “exploded” buildings, inserted in the same concern for compactness in a perfect rectangle and arranged around a panoramic tower. Each entity displays the singularity of its volume in a unique, sculptural, and dynamic composition. The advantages of this composition are multiple: the uses are differentiated (Masen Services, Masen Center) but remain and communicate with each other.