Every day, hundreds of people walk, run, and bike along the Lafitte Greenway in New Orleans, one of the citys newest parks. Bordering the central path are lush green bioswales sunken gardens that capture stormwater. The 2.6-mile-long stretch of greenspace transects some of the citys historic neighborhoods, connecting Bayou St. John to the French Quarter and passing through Treme and Mid-City along the way.

New Orleans-based architect Bryan C. Lee, Jr. calls the Lafitte Greenway a civic green boulevard and describes it as a space that has continuous motion.

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This motion has certainly been present since the bike path was built in 2015, but the land beneath it has seen movement for more than 200 years. Before it was a park, it was a railroad, and before that, a shipping canal. Residents have always lived alongside this stretch of land. Lee sees a deeper story that needs to be told here. He envisions creating a new space a bridge that will span the bioswales that he hopes will encourage the parks users to slow down, pause, and reflect on the citys destructive, unjust, and buried history.

Lee is the founder and design principal for a nonprofit design and architecture firm called Colloqate (pronounced co-locate.) He approaches all of his work with a set of core beliefs he calls design justice.

For every injustice in this world, theres an architecture, a plan, a design that has been built to sustain that injustice, Lee says. Weve got to acknowledge how, whether we play a minor role or a major role in some of these things, how best to not be complicit.

Lee and Colloqate first gained national recognition for a project they called Paper Monuments. In 2017, when Confederate monuments were being torn down across New Orleans, Lee and his colleagues collected a series of lesser-known stories about the citys historical injustices. They created posters to tell those stories and pasted them on brick walls and public spaces across the city. The posters were also distributed at book stores and libraries.

In an open letter about the Paper Monuments, Lee and his colleagues said, The question of a singular monument or of a singular location is less important than our conviction that all residents have a right to this city and an inherent role in shaping the place in which we all live, work, learn, and grow together.

Now Lee wants to use architecture and design justice to tell a story about the displacement of people, cultures, communities, and environments across New Orleans. This time, his approach will be a series of outdoor pavilions hes calling the Storia Program.

One will be a modified A-frame structure that opens up entirely and is planned for a site adjacent to the New Orleans African American Museum. As a venue for collective memory and storytelling, this Defrag House will be a hub for public art and also an event space for musicians and poetry readings. Lees aim is for it to represent the people and communities across New Orleans who have been forced out, whether by Hurricane Katrina, other impacts of climate change, gentrification, or violence.

We are reflecting and building, essentially, a living memorial to those who have left and a living documentation of how that happened, Lee says.

Another structure planned in the Storia Program is the Delta: A bridge spanning the bioswales of the Lafitte Greenway.

Its about ecological displacement, Lee says. The intention is to draw connections between our human movement around water and the city, and its movement around us. How has water influenced the city of New Orleans? he asks. How have we influenced the water systems within the city?

The Chitimacha were the original inhabitants who lived on the land that is now New Orleans. Their homeland encompasses all of the wetlands in the Atchafalaya Basin in central Louisiana. According to their recorded history, the Chitimacha were one of the most powerful tribes in the southeast before European contact. Yet, a 12-year war with the French annihilated their members. When a Chitimacha chief signed a peace treaty in New Orleans in 1718 to end the war, the majority of their tribal members had been enslaved, killed, or displaced.

In the mid-1700s, the French transferred their authority to Spanish colonizers, who irrevocably transformed land and water to serve the powers of commerce and trade. During the final years of the 18th century, the governor of the then-Spanish colony, Francisco Luis Hctor de Carondelet, ordered forced laborers convicts and slaves to dredge a canal that would open up a new pathway for ships to access the heart of New Orleans. That canal is now the Lafitte Greenway.

In the mid-1800s, the canal was transformed into a railway corridor, and then in the late 1920s and early 1930s, part of it was filled. Eventually, the land fell into disuse and was abandoned. It sat like this for decades, until 2005, when a group of local residents now called the Friends of Lafitte Greenway saw its potential as a community park and started to advocate for its transformation. That same year, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and displaced hundreds of thousands more of its residents.

From the Chitimacha to Katrina, water has shaped the way people live in New Orleans. Lee wants the Delta bridge to span the centuries and tell these stories.

It is fundamentally about how we tell a history of ecological and communal displacement, ecological and communal binding through this structure, Lee says. Both the structure itself and the habitat around it are nodes to a history and nodes to a story and place that is often negated and unfamiliar to residents.

To address this ongoing historical inequity, Lee is working with New Orleans residents, including those who live in the homes adjacent to the park, to design the Delta bridge. He envisions it as a lightweight steel structure that stretches 60 feet in length and features pieces of art to speak to the ways in which water shapes land. But beyond that, he says the ideas and design will need to come from local residents.

To organize community around the Delta project, Lee wants to have conversations. He wants to ask nearby residents and the city at large about their experiences with water: How has water shaped their lives? How has the environment and climate change influenced them specifically? But Colloqate is not just distributing questionnaires or handing out surveys in order to collect data. Their aim is deeper: to listen to stories and build relationships.

Humans are directly related to the outcomes that we put into the world, Lee says. Engaging with people is just as important to a project as the structure itself.

At Colloqate, architecture is not simply a profession of designing buildings and structures. Lee and his colleagues firmly believe that the very premise of architecture is complicit in systems of racism by creating physical environments that have historically disenfranchised Black and Brown communities, blocked people from accessing power, and reinforced segregation.

Design justice is actively about challenging existing systems that use architecture as a tool of oppression, Lee says. It seeks to tear down those structures and rebuild them with intention to give communities power.

When applied to outdoor spaces, he says design justice, along with art, can expose buried histories in the landscape. Public spaces present an opportunity to build community and host civic engagement. Beyond that, design justice also begs the question of what a park means, as a concept and a cultural value, to different communities.

When we talk about parks, are we still talking about it through a lens of whiteness or are we doing it through a lens of Indigeneity or Blackness or Hispanic, Latino? How are we seeing it? Lee says. If we are capable of reconciling cultural differences and building spaces and places that support a larger swath of engagement, were going to do a lot better. He goes on to say, Its harder to detangle and dismantle communities when communities are whole, when they have connections to one another.

In a part of the city thats seen so much movement for centuries, Lee hopes the Delta bridge will offer people a place to pause and think, perhaps about their relationship to the history and context of the place.

With the pandemic, community organizing around the Delta project and others has largely been put on hold. Lee now hopes the bridge and the Defrag House will be built in early 2021.

Our ability to really pull people together in this moment is tough, Lee says. But public outdoor spaces are taking on new meaning and importance in light of public health guidelines for COVID-19. One could argue that design justice is more important now than ever. The sole purpose, Lee says, is to build power and build community.

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This architect is using design justice to empower communities through outdoor spaces - Grist

Need a last-minute gift for the architecture enthusiast in your life? Does that person also enjoy butt plugs?

If so, look no further. The New York-based interior architecture and exhibition design firm Wolfgang + Hite has turned New York Citys skyscraper-studded $25 billion mega-development Hudson Yards into a seven-piece sex toy set. Its phallic-shaped buildings of mostly high-end office space and some residential have been transformed into silicone dildos. The trophy developments centerpiece, the stairs-to-nowhere architectural sculpture the Vessel, has been rendered into a hot pink butt plug, available for $75.

[Photos: Wolfgang + Hite]The full set of sex toys replicate the entire built space of Hudson Yards, with individual dildos modeled on each of the projects six towers, which were designed by architects including Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Foster and Partners, and Diller Scofidio and Renfro. Made to order, the full sets take a few weeks to manufacture, so wouldnt be available in time for this years holiday season. The butt plugs and the dildo version of the tower at 15 Hudson Yards, though, are available now.

Originally produced last fall, the architectural sex toys were designed to be used. Of course they work, says Shan Raoufi, cofounder of Wolfgang + Hite. Manhattans finest new jewel is really good at finding the sweet spot.

We have gotten good reviews, actually, adds Greta Hansen, the firms other cofounder. She notes that the toys are geared toward certain sexual proclivities, because some of those structures are huge.

[Photo: Wolfgang + Hite]The sex toys are what Hansen calls a soft critique of Hudson Yards as a transformative force in this part of Manhattan, and a reaction to the $6 billion of public funding that was used to develop the projectfinancing partly secured by gerrymandering the citys map to connect the projects site to Harlem and qualifying as providing jobs to the economically distressed neighborhood.

[Photo: Wolfgang + Hite]We were pretty upset to learn how much public money went into the largest private development in the history of the United States, says Raoufi. Real estate at this level is part of an asset class that is just traded and invested. We just dont think this much public money should be going to someones portfolio.

[Photo: Wolfgang + Hite]During the coronavirus pandemic, this level of public funding is even more upsetting, Hansen says, as the offices are largely emptied and the commercial areas drained of activity. I think it puts this kind of city investment into even starker light, she says. The city and the state now are having huge budget deficits because weve been hit so hard by the pandemic. It kind of makes you wonder whether they might look back and question the prudence of their investment in Hudson Yards.

[Photo: Wolfgang + Hite]Such reflection may not be likely. Shortly after they first created the sex toys last year, Raoufi and Hansen had one of the full sets sent to Stephen Ross, chairman of the Related Companies, which developed Hudson Yards. Through a friend, they sent a follow-up email to one of Rosss assistants to see what he thought. There was no response.

But Hansen and Raoufi have gotten some feedback from one of the architects involved in Hudson Yards. She wrote us and asked us for instructions on how specifically she could use her building, Hansen says. We need to send her a Christmas gift.

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Wolfgang + Hite sex toys are the ultimate gift for architects - Fast Company

in response to an international call to redevelop thessalonikis waterfront, OF. STUDIO has teamed up with degree zero architects to create OCULIS. launched by ALUMIL, the competition called for innovative ideas regarding the redevelopment of the greek citys western coastal side and the creation of a new central business district. the criteria set by UIA sought high energy efficiency and sustainability to redefine thessalonikis position on the international map while welcoming citizens and entrepreneurs alike.

aerial view of OCULIS

image by cosmoscube

the proposal is composed of ten striking towers to highlight the new central business district at the entrance of the city. a podium, designed at the lower levels as a fluid, multi-program zone, sparks the revitalization of the site area, the adjacent city quarters, and the city waterfront. through a sequence of public plazas, the proposal opens up and connects to the city at the northern boundary while creating a public path through the project site.

the podiums create a base for the tube-shaped towers

image by cosmoscube

a green buffer zone of natural beauty forms the southern edge towards the commercial port. in order to connect the development to the water without interrupting the operations of the port, the water bays are extended to reach the site. at the same time, to create a buffer zone between the port, the design explores the creation of a green zone of coastal afforestation.

the podiums contain a sequence of covered, semi-covered and open spaces

image by cosmoscube

the towers follow a modular concept. the design emerges from a basic tube-shape geometry that transforms to respond to different programmatic uses. this maintains formal coherence throughout the design proposal while at the same time promotes mutation and variation, integrating the particularities of each tower according to functional requirements.

the towers propose a striking skyline for the new central business district of thessaloniki

the podium represents the expansion of the city fabric into the site. it consists of a sequence of covered, semi-covered and open spaces, corresponding to the mediterranean climate, rituals, and lifestyle. multiple free-shaped spaces interconnect or detach to allow ventilation and sun penetration while the roofs overhang to provide shade. green roofs and ramping surfaces create a fluid and continuous landscape allowing routes for pedestrians and cyclists to circulate throughout the development. the podiums create a base for the towers, lifting their geometries above it and providing protected access to their circulation cores at ground level.

layout at +82m and ground level: a fluid landscape runs throughout the development, connecting the various programs of the towers

a wide range of programs is proposed alongside two additional functions education and cultural spaces to further enrich the civil fabric

the modular concept behind the towers

the transparency or opaqueness of the faade systems change according to the use of each building

project info:

project name: OCULIS

competition: ArXellence 2 by ALUMIL

location: thessaloniki, greece

design: OF. STUDIO and degree zero architects

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readershere.

edited by: lynne myers | designboom

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OF. STUDIO + degree zero architects propose 10 tube-shaped towers for thessaloniki's waterfront - Designboom

KWK Architects has been contracted by global infrastructure consulting firm AECOM to provide architectural programming on a project to renovate the U.S. Air Force Academys Sijan Hall north of Colorado Springs, CO.

The renovation will be the first modernization project at Sijan Hall since it was built in 1968, with the renovation/modernization to include the halls residential, academic, courtyard and recreational spaces. At 700,000-square-feet, Sijan Hall is the second-largest residence hall in the United States with 2,200 beds. It is located within the campus Cadet Area -- a National Historic Landmark District.

As part of AECOMs design team, KWK will orchestrate conceptual floor plans for the halls renovation by determining where shared spaces and amenities for studying, socializing and living make sense in a modern layout. The renovation will incorporate energy-efficient materials and systems, smart building technologies, improved daylighting and updated HVAC systems.

We are so honored to have been selected by AECOM for our university housing design expertise to work on this monumental renovation for the Air Force Academy, said KWK Principal Paul Wuennenberg, AIA, LEED AP. Our main goal on the project will be creating a home away from home where the cadets can comfortably collaborate, learn and thrive. We understand the vital role this prestigious institution plays in a cadets higher education.

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KWK Architects to Provide Architectural Programming on Renovation of U.S. Air Force Academy Sijan Hall in Colorado - Suburban Journals

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LaCanTouch FF&E Gallery, Library and Salon in Shanghai, China by Vermilion Zhou Design Group Yunpu Cai

The announcement of the Pantone Color of the Year seems to cause the media to stir every year. While everyone jumps on the hype showcasing how "excited" they are, how do color trends impact architects?

Don't get me wrong; I love seeing the use of color in projects. The study ofcolor theory is valuable and impacts a project tremendously.Verner Panton and Josef Albers are probably two of the most recognizable color aficionados in design, amongst others, but do these yearly trends make their way into built projects?

While the public may "welcome" the 2021 color of the year (PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating), its announcement is more of a reminder that color trends don't have much weight unless they're used and applied.

To see color in action we've gathered eleven projects featured on Archinect that celebrate color and its use.

Elementary School Vesovice/Reconstruction of Baroque RectorybyPublic Atelier

Chetian Cultural Center by West-line Studio

Hall WinesbyNICOLEHOLLIS

Qiora Store & Spa by Architecture Research Office

Innovation Lab in Huizhou by AIM Architects

American School of Kosovo - High Schoolbymaden GROUP

Clinton Hill BrownstonebyMKCA // Michael K Chen Architecture

Great Wall Yunmo Winerybya+a anderloni associates

2 LafayettebyBKSK Architects, LLP

Stanford University, GSB Highland HallbySteinbergand Legorreta

Ziggy by Hou de Sousa

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Pantone has selected 2021's "color(s) of the year" should architects care? - Archinect

florian busch architects has completed house in the forest, an elevated timber residence, that as its name suggests, is immersed in the woodland of hokkaido, japan. located in close proximity to the niseko ski resort, the remote dwelling is sited on three acres of barely touched forest. the client, a large family, tasked the architects with designing a retreat that allowed them to spend time with each other and the natural landscape. the house in the forest is not about a fixed form but an ever-changing dialogue with the forest, explain the architects.

all images courtesy of florian busch architects

the site is almost a perfect square with 160-meter-long edges and filled with tall pine trees. thanks to a mound, the plot remains secluded with a small rural road providing the only access to the site. florian busch architects discovered a clearing in the woods, but, instead of positioning the building in the middle of the clearing, the team decided to place the structure between the trees at the edge to the clearing.

the house itself extends horizontally, with the end of each branch open to the surrounding woodland immersing occupants in nature. while the protection of the inside separates us physically from the experience of the forest, the focus and scale of the windows to the forest intensifies it we are sitting in the forest, says florian busch architects. in the houses central spine, this focus of selection is replaced by a multi-faceted instantaneity. as a multitude of views of the forest around us are filling the space, the original experience inside the forest is always present.

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'house in the forest' by florian busch architects in hokkaido - Designboom

steven chilton architects (SCA) has completed a 2,000 seat theater in the huadu district of guangzhou, china ahead of its opening in 2021. guangzhou has been a significant center for the arts and trading since the han dynasty and, inspired by the citys traditional and contemporary artists, the concept for the theater was informed by silk embroidery and the illustrations of artist zhang hongfei. guangzhou has been the home of and inspiration for artists who have helped to define the worlds concept of chinese culture for thousands of years, says steven chilton. through our work on the theater, we have endeavored to channel the history, emotion and creative energy of the city through a building whose purpose is to nurture the next generation of cultural leaders in the performing arts.

all images by chongart photography

silk has been painted and embroidered by fine artists in guangzhou for thousands of years and developed as a creative medium for depicting myths and scenes of nature on tapestries and ornamental robes. SCA explains that the physicality of silk cloth informed the formal expression of the building through a series of ten, gently twisting folds that define the outer envelope. meanwhile, the various entrances into the building are created by tucking the surface in on itself where the valley of each fold would meet the ground plane.

the theaters mission to cultivate talent is expressed through the imagery applied to the surface of the cladding. we were influenced by a beloved local myth, 100 birds paying homage to the phoenix, chilton explains. the phoenix or fenghuang stands for virtue and grace, whilst the allegory signifies notions of recognition, leadership and mentoring. using illustrations created by artist zhang hongfei, SCA digitized and interpreted his hand drawings before mapping each figure onto the surface geometry.

we developed a compositional style inspired by tattoo art aesthetics, the architects continue. each figure was positioned on the body of the theater over a series of studies in response to the topology of the surface geometry. whilst significant figures like the phoenix were positioned where the form afforded prominence, lesser figures such as birds, were organically and less consciously arranged in the spaces between. the cladding is composed of thousands of perforated aluminum panels, each painted with a unique portion of the overall composition. the panels are supported by a complex structure of welded steel tubes that work interdependently with the concrete superstructure supporting the theater floors.

the concept design of the auditorium was led by dragone with theater consultant auerbach pollock friedlander. the space is a performance environment that can be transformed from a 360 degree theater into a variety of different configurations. overhead LED screens provide an immersive experience, while 12 acrobatic hoists and three acrobatic tracks and trolleys are integrated above the stage. meanwhile, above the audience, at the gridiron, there are two storage wagons that allow scenic elements to be lowered on custom built hoists.

while the theater can be used for typical productions, it can also be transformed for productions that require water effects. below the center of the theaters stage floor is a deep pool with an automated stage lift that can be raised a half meter above the stage floor or dropped nine meters into the water. at this lower elevation there are three under water scenery storage garages that are used to store large props and scenic elements before they are moved onto the lift and elevated through the water to stage level. the sunac guangzhou grand theatre is scheduled to open in 2021.

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steven chilton architects completes 'sunac guangzhou grand theatre' - Designboom

VLOT architects has completed the buitenhuis or country house a timber structure interwoven with its immediate surroundings located in heinenoord, netherlands. measuring only 54 square meters in size, this house makes sure you are connected with nature thanks to its almost transparent faade that can be opened completely, blurring the boundary between interior and exterior. the awning also contributes to this, creating an intermediate zone.

images courtesy of VLOT architects

even if small, the buitenhuis by VLOT architects expands its total area when theres good weather as the entire deck can be experienced as floor space, increasing the total area to 210 m2. the floor has been slightly raised in relation to the ground level so that the garden extends partly under the country house. the platform partially cantilevers over the existing ditch that forms the boundary between the garden and the polder. from here, guests are able to enjoy great views of the ever-changing arable land.

the architecture practice made sure to keep the CO2 impact of this building as low as possible. to begin with, the house has been designed to be 100% modular, making it possible to prefabricate many of its components and then assemble them on site. the modular construction is laid out on a grid of 1.5 meters in two directions. larch cross columns have been placed on the grid to support the roof. the roof has been covered with moss that on the one hand acts as a water buffer and on the other as an integration of greenery.

the buitenhuis is also all-electric and uses electric underfloor heating, electric boilers and electric cooking. the elevation in the roof allows warm air to rise while the overhangs provide passive sun protection. In addition, the almost fully openable faade ensures that the wind can blow through the house.

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buitenhuis by VLOT architects is a low-carbon, modular timber structure in the netherlands - Designboom

Yet five years on from that cold evening in Paris when I saw nearly 200 nations step up -- including the US with a delegation led by John Kerry -- this is no time for complacency. The period from 2010 to 2020 was the hottest period on record. Covid-19 has exposed our vulnerability to nature: the more we heat the planet and disrupt ecosystems, which causes disease-carrying animals and insects to relocate, the more vector diseases we will unleash. As 2020 draws to a close and Covid-19 vaccines mercifully come close, we can all reflect that no country is an island. Walls have limited utility against Mother Nature.

But reflecting back to five years ago, I see there has been a fundamental shift in people's understanding and expectations -- across all societies and sectors of action. There is widespread understanding that the climate crisis means net zero is the future we all have to go to. And citizens are demanding -- and voting for --this change.

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Paris Agreement architect: 2021 will dawn with hope - CNN

Branch Technology, a Chattanooga-based 3D printing and construction technology startup, announced this week that it has raised a new $11 million funding round.

The round, led by EquipmentShare, brings the companys overall funding to $22 million to date. Additional support came from Brick & Mortar Ventures, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, and other previous investors.

When Hypepotamus connected with Branch Technologys CEO Platt Boyd back in spring 2019, he said the company draws inspiration from the way that nature creates form and structure and stands to revolutionize the construction industry through unprecedented design freedom and resource stewardship.

Branch Technologys 3D printing process, Cellular Fabrication (C-Fab), allows for material to solidify in open space. This polymer matrix helps move beyond dimensional restrictions or support structures of standard design while using 20% less material than traditional construction methods.

Projects that have used Branch Technology have included the University of West Florida Art Pavilion, the Durham Public Library, and several other unique structures listed here.

John McCabe, Director of Brand and Communications at Branch Technology, told Hypepotamus that while COVID did put a few projects on hold for the company, it overall helped drive unique trends in the construction space.

We have seen a lot of interest in retrofitting existing buildings as a way to quickly compete in the changing WFH real estate market, McCabe told Hypepotamus. Additionally, based on our daily conversations with the industry, the global construction market is extremely hungry for additive manufacturing solutions that solve real-world problems.

Branch Technology is set to use the new funds to continue to grow its product line and ultimately scale its robotic production fleet.

Branch Technology team

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Chattanooga's Branch Technology Raises $11 Million To Help Designers and Architects "Freeform" - hypepotamus.com