In Saskatoon bridges cost hundreds of millions of dollars, deeply divide the city, and then tend to fall down because they haven’t been properly maintained. The locals of Nongriat in Meghalaya, India have a different approach to infrastructure, they grow it. They have been doing this for the past 500 years. Some of [...]
architecture
Architecture as a force to deal with poverty?
As Paris is finding, it may be overestimating the power of architecture Balzac has now been emptied, though, and a spidery mechanical arm tears away at it each day. The towering wall of stained concrete and tile, once 600 feet long and 16 stories high, is to be replaced by a cluster of smaller units, [...]
Urban Islands 2011
In case you are in the area of Oz in July, you may be interested in Urban Islands 2011. Urban Islands is an independent cross university program that brings renowned architectural practitioners from around the world to Sydney’s Cockatoo Island. Guest tutors each run an intensive 12 day workshop based at Cockatoo. Through processes of [...]
The Worst of Saskatoon
When we moved to Saskatoon in the mid-80s, there was a magazine called Western Living that we received and it listed the Sturdy Stone Centre as one of the ugliest buildings in Western Canada (Moose Jaw’s crushed can was also on that list). I am not a big fan of brutalist architecture either downtown or [...]
The impact of gentrification on San Francisco
From a series of articles written in 1999 in the San Francisco Guardian LET’S SAY THE NEXT major earthquake that hits San Francisco is of roughly the same magnitude as the Loma Prieta quake of 1989, or maybe just a little bit stronger. Let’s say it wipes out roughly 1,000 houses and apartment buildings and [...]
Affordable Rental Suites in Winnipeg
For all of the news about affordable housing in Saskatoon, most of the affordable housing units are still over $200,000. There is still a huge need for low rent units. A company in Winnipeg is solving both the problem of creating low rent apartments and finding a solution for how to build on narrow abandoned [...]
Katrina Cottages
I just blogged about this over at The Cooper Cabin. They are Katrina Cottages and are low cost but significant upgrades over the FEMA trailers designed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As soon as I saw them and some other low impact houses over the years, I can’t help but think of them as [...]
