Photo by Martin Kurt Haglund

In the metropolitan area of Manila in the Philippines, affordable and adequate housing is extremely scarce for the urban poor. The city has the highest population density in the world, (110,000+ people per square mile), and 40% of its 21 million residents live below the poverty line. With those numbers, the impoverished often are forced into shantytowns and makeshift shelters.

But, according to a fascinating article and photo series published on Amusing Planet, some residents have come up with another option. Starting around 1950, poor Manilans began squatting in the North Cemetery, the oldest and largest in Metro Manila—and they’ve been transforming it into their own thriving alternative community. Click through for more.

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The KAUST Breakwater Beacon looks more like a vertical honeycomb than a seaside lighthouse. Far from the traditional imagery of quaint watchtowers, this Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, lighthouse, designed by Daniel Tobin, Matthew Tobin, and Jamie Perrow of Urban Art Projects reflects ancient Arabic maritime traditions and regional artwork and architectural details, tying it to the Red Sea. Click through for more!

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The last few weeks have been brutally cold for us here on the East Coast, and even wearing our scarves and sweaters indoors hasn’t helped. The dreary bit of  good news—it could be much worse! Though it feels as if our office is made of ice, perhaps it would be better if it actually were. Our Arctic-dwelling Inuit friends have thrived on northern ice plates for thousands of years, in shelters made entirely of packed snow, where temperatures inside can reach into the mid-60s Fahrenheit! A new book, Igloo: Contemporary Vernacular Architecture by Alejandro Bahamon and Ana Canizares, charts the history and development of vernacular ice structures and their translation into contemporary architecture.

We’ve pulled some examples from the book, plus a few of our own choosing to bring you today’s snow-packed roundup. So pull on your fingerless gloves, and click through for the photos!

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Project:  Rock Strangers

Architect:  Studio Arne Quinze

Location:  Ostend, Belgium

The often overlooked coastal town of Ostend hugs the English Channel, and can seem more sea than town—the sweeping views out to sea draw focus away from Ostend and to the horizon. To contradict this tendency, architect Arne Quinze developed the Rock Strangers, a series of monumental metal sculptures scattered across the seafront plaza. Their electric orange hue and ineffable forms are visually magnetic. Exploring the themes of otherness and alienation, the sculptures radically transform the public space of the town and act as an anchor to the town-at-land’s-end.

Read more about this project in the Architizer database!

Images courtesy Studio Arne Quinze

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Project: De Zeester Day Care Center

Architect: Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer

Location: Noordwijk, Netherlands

Function:  Situated on a gently rolling lawn, the De Zeester Clinic melds clear geometric form with playful detailing—an insightful architectural approach to creating a welcoming and comfortable environment for developmentally challenged guests. A regular pattern of porthole windows creates visual connectivity to the surrounding woodland, and provides intimate exterior views at multiple heights. The building centers on a large interior courtyard, which gives guests free access to a safe open-air garden.  Read more about this project in the Architizer database.

Think you’ve got a better project? Submit it for an Architizer A+ Award!

Images courtesy Daria Scagliola/Stijn Brakkee

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Hearst Building (left), Gareth Pugh Spring/Summer 2009 (right), image via T Magazine..

Architecture and fashion. It’s a convergence we’ve seen time and time again, whether in Adolf Loos’s polemical essays about proper dress or in the twisted rubber of a pair of Lacoste sneakers designed by Zaha Hadid. We recently got a chance to speak with Karen Moon, co-founder of the newly launched StyleMusée, about the overlap between these two areas of design. StyleMusée is described as “a customizable style inspiration board keeping you at the pulse of fashion. It lets users visually explore the fashion industry’s social media posts on Facebook to discover designers and muses they love… and never knew they loved.” Their hope is to eventually take the style inspiration that people find in social media and offer tailored shopping recommendations. Their first editorial, Architectural Interpretations, immediately caught our attention, and Moon gave us the lowdown on building, dwelling, thinking…and dressing. Check out the interview after the jump.

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The unstoppable Gavin Browning became Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation’s Director of Events and Public Programs in June 2011. Since then, he’s been working tirelessly to create engaging and exciting programming that speaks to the span of disciplines within the Graduate School of Architecture.

With all the doing he is doing, he is hard to pin down, but I convinced him to break down how he does it, and what he thinks about it. Read on.

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Photo via the Portuguese American Journal

The Museum of Modern Art has just announced the appointment of Portuguese architect, curator and writer Pedro Gadanho as the new curator of contemporary architecture. The newest member to MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design will be taking on the task of “building the Museum’s holdings of contemporary architecture” and organizing exhibitions, as well as overseeing MoMA and P.S.1’s Young Architects Program (YAP) and the two-year-old YAP International Program in conjunction with the MAXXI in Rome and Constructo in Santiago, Chile.

Barry Bergdoll, MoMA’s chief curator of architecture and design, lauded Gadanho as a “talented and innovative curator and a tireless advocate for contemporary practice.” Bergdoll recognizes the architect as a “key liaison between the Museum and academics, practitioners, and partner organizations,” hoping to see MoMA’s newly appointed curator to strengthen MoMA’s position as “an international showcase for the most innovative contemporary architects.”

Gadanho, as the Architects’ Newspaper reports, holds a masters in Architecture from the University of Porto, a masters in Art and Architecture from Kent Institute of Design in the U.K., and a Ph.D. in Architecture and Mass Media from the University of Porto, where he has was also a professor of Architecture. He is the editor-in-chief of Beyond, Short Stories of the Post-Contemporary and the editor of the blog ShrapnelContemporary. He has curated a number of architecture exhibitions in Europe, including Portugal’s entry for the 2004 Venice Biennale. Better yet, he is a member of Architizer, and you can take a look at a project he has uploaded here!

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British architecture publication Building Design Online has a great little interview with Architizer’s founder, Marc Kushner, today!

A different Marc — founder of UK think tank Pidgin Perfect, Marc Cairns — stopped by our office last month to chat with Marc Kushner about  about how the profession is changing, the mission of Architizer, and why he hates British people (jk). On the subject of Architizer’s core mission, Marc says “we can make people hire architects and know that they can hire architects, which people think is somehow reserved for the realms of institutions and really wealthy people.” Go check out the full interview over here.

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Rendering, Re-Cultivating the Forest City.

PORT A+U (Architecture + Urbanism) is an architectural firm and speculative research collaborative, founded by Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell. With footings in both New York and Chicago, the two-man office is developing a dynamic understanding of what is possible when creative theoretical thinking is applied to very real architectural and urban issues.

Not afraid to compete on a global level, this small firm has made a name for itself by developing thought-provoking work. One of their best-known projects, Carbon T.A.P. // Tunnel Algae Park, was the winning entry to the 2009 WPA 2.0 Whoever Rules the Sewers Rules the City Competition, sponsored by cityLAB at UCLA.

I sat down with the founders at their Chicago office to speak a little more about the breadth of their work, and their approach to designing visionary architectural interventions. When I spoke with the duo, they were gearing up to present at tomorrow’s (Saturday October 15th) MAS CONTEXT : ANALOG event, along with a number of other Chicago luminaries. More about MAS CONTEXT, plus the interview with the founders, after the jump.

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