The community center in Cormiers, Haiti.

OK, so what you’re looking at is not another of our hobbit houses, nor is it the next tiny-homes craze (though, selfishly, we kind of wish it were). Even better: this is a community center in the rural village of Cormiers, Haiti, and it checks off so many humanitarian-design boxes—earthquake resilience, local materials, simple construction, community self-determination—all while looking like a very fine outcropping of Easter eggs.

Completed in 2010, the community center kicked off a collaboration between the residents of Cormiers and Konbit Shelter, a small group of U.S.-based artists, architects, engineers, and builders, including the street artist Swoon. Since then they’ve built a similarly domed house for a local woman, and now the group has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the construction of a second house for a woman and her three kids. Read more!

more

All images courtesy of Shawn Clover

In 1906 a massive earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed the city of San Francisco, killing thousands and creating devastation throughout the area.  Over 100 years later, San Francisco-based photographer Shawn Clover is working on a series of composite images that inter-mix photos of the disaster’s aftermath with scenes from modern day San Francisco. Read more.

more

Istanbul’s population has grown to 16 million. Image: skyscrapercity user manon

In 1999, an earthquake struck the Turkish cities of İzmit, Adapazarı, and Yalova, killing 17,000 people in collapsed buildings. In 2011, an earthquake struck the city of Erciş, killing 600, again in their collapsed apartments. In order to prevent more fatalities in future earthquakes, the government of Turkey has proposed a new law that would make all of the country’s residential buildings earthquake-proof in twenty years, just in time for the 100^th anniversary of Turkish independence in 2023.

The law would have seismic inspectors going door to door for the next two years testing the soundness of Turkey’s 20 million residential structures. Officials estimate that perhaps up to 6.5 million of these would have to be demolished or modified, and their residents relocated. While this law will disrupt the daily lives of millions of people, it is tremendously necessary. Scientists believe that Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, is long overdue for a major seismic event, one that could put hundreds of thousands of its 16 million residents in danger of losing their lives. The effort will pay special attention to the massive illegal settlements which sprawl on the edges of Turkey’s cities, often built with whatever materials are at hand, as well as the millions of structures built in defiance of building codes. Because of this law, Turkey’s cities and buildings will change tremendously, hopefully for the better.

Aftermath of the 1999 Izmit earthquake. Image: Carnegie Science Center

Aftermath of the 2011 Ercis earthquake. Image: Huffington Post

[via ANSAmed]

more

images courtesy of Mike Hewson

In February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake ripped through Christchurch, New Zealand, damaging much of the city’s infrastructure and prized architecture. Christchurch has seen many new cultural projects as part of a string of renewal and revitalization programs, including Shigeru Ban’s cardboard “Transitional Cathedral” and now, these large scale mixed media installations by Kiwi artist, Mike Hewson. The “murals” have been mounted on the plywood volumes that fill the haphazard voids of several heavily damaged buildings throughout the city.

The installation, which consists of a total of ten images, is entitled ‘Home to the Lost Spaces’ and pays homage to the former Christchurch Normal School. Using his own money as well as private donations, Hewson covered the buildings’ exteriors with a total of 130 square meters of plywood and mixed media images of artists and residents who lived and worked at the school. The stone complex, which is listed for impending demolition, has been given a breath of life with these images reminiscent of the function spaces that it once knew.

[via emptykingdom]

more

Construction has been approved and will soon commence on Shigeru Ban’s cardboard Christchurch Cathedral project, renamed the “Transitional Cathedral” as it will come with an expiration date of 20 years. Ban’s church will replace Christchurch’s grand 1864 Anglican Cathedral which was damaged beyond repair after a February 2011 earthquake devastated the city. As we described it last year, the cathedral is an A-frame structure that will be fleshed out with a diverse material palette, including cardboard tubes, timber beams, steel, and a concrete floor. The NZ$4 million (US$3.8 million) church, expected to be completed in time for Christmas, will host the St. John’s parish until sufficient funds have been raised to build the permanent successor.

The parish expressed great enthusiasm about the project, praising it for its elegant form and its sustainable structure. They are confident that the Cathedral will “attract interest nationally and internationally drawing additional visitors to the city,” and thus actively contribute to the fundraising. Ban reacted swiftly with his church design, which he had donated to the community–just as he had done with the Takatori Catholic Church at Kobe after the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995–and whose  use of cardboard follows in the architect long series of experiments with the material.

more

The earthquake that devastated Japan one year ago began a new chapter in the island nation’s history, ripping through its coastal cities and villages and momentarily stripping the entire country of its long-cultivated hard shell of contented self-sufficiency. Since then, Japan’s gift for design has spiked with full force, as its resident architects and designers did not hesitate to take action and pair up with relief organizations to unearth a new stage of Japanese modernity from the vast wreckage. From Shigeru Ban’s refined shipping container housing complexes to Koji Kakiuchi’s minimalist gabled frames set atop of the exposed foundations of razed homes, the architecture of the aftermath has been a steady source of inspiration for all. Now, Kengo Kuma joins the list of innovators with plans for a new meeting center in Rikuzentakata. Continue.

more

A Japanese company has developed technology that lifts homes off their concrete foundations in the event of an earthquake. As Spoon & Tamago reports, translating Japanese news coverage of the project, Air Danshin Systems, Inc. was established in 2005 to test and sell the patented systems, which they market as a low-cost effective form of earthquake-proofing that requires relatively little maintenance.

The process is surprisingly simple. A sensor embedded in the walls of the structure detects the first rumblings of a quake, immediately activating an air tank which funnels air downwards through the floor to create a plenum sandwiched between the bottom of the house and the top of the foundation. The temporary air layer can expand to lift the house up to 3 cm above the concrete bed; the home remains suspended above the shaking ground until the tectonic plates have resettled, at which point it gently lowers back to terra firma. The company says that the system can be scaled up to accommodate larger structures such as factories or, one wonders, nuclear power plants, houses of state, and heritage sites.

[via Archinect]

more

The 2008 earthquake that devastated China’s Sichuan province has become something of an afterthought in the wake of more recent natural disasters. Four years later, it seems all too easy to forget the emotional ache felt around the world when news outlets linked the collapse of over 7,000 schoolrooms and the deaths of thousands of school children in the area to poor construction and a corrupt building industry. Though such tragedies inevitably fade over time, it is important to remember their lessons, especially as China expects to complete over 65 skyscrapers within the next six years, and has already effectively built a 30-story hotel and furnished it all within a mere 360 hours.

But we turn our attention to positive news from Sichuan’s Deyang district. According to a review in Chinese-Architects, a steadfast campaign to raise money and attract prominent Beijing-based practice TAO Architects has finally culminated in a new elementary school that has just recently opened its doors. Made of concrete, brick, wood and bamboo, the Xiaoquan Elementary School fits within the footprint of its institutional predecessor while conceiving of the school in an entirely different manner, as “a small urban cluster.” Wonderfully clean forms that exude their own materiality are staggered, scattered and connected by open and covered walkways, providing a miniature network of streets, plazas, alleys and courtyards for children to play in. More after the jump.

more

Ishio Abe (R) and his wife, next to their temporary accommodation in Ishinomaki city in Japan. Image (c) AFP Photo/Antoine Bouthier.

AFP reports today that tens of thousands of Japanese tsunami victims are facing a brutal winter, despite the efforts of relief workers and designers who have worked to build thousands of temporary housing structures in the hardest-hit coastal regions of northeast.

It’s been almost a year since the massive earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11. The outpouring of support from the world at large has been palpable from all over the professional and global map. Architizer has written often about many of the efforts to shelter tsunami survivors, from Shigeru Ban’s sustained efforts to build temporary and semi-temporary housing, to Logos’ “Decagon Tent.”

Still, according to some estimates, as many as 20,000 families will struggle with staying warm as the coldest months of the year approach. In many cases, families are living in partially-repaired homes that are still exposed to the elements, demonstrating how rebuilding efforts will take years, not months. As the media has widely reported, survivors have adapted and rebuilt without so much as a single complaint or request for more aid. Yet the AFP report is a sobering reminder that the tsunami survivors are still in need, despite the passing of many months. Check out Global Giving for several ways to sustain reconstruction efforts. 

more

This past March, the New York Times released satellite images of Japan before and after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the eastern coast. With a spectacular sliding feature that seamlessly overlays aerial views of Japan in two contrasting states, the interactive photos quickly spread through the Internet, becoming the most viral story of 2011.

Since then, the stream of news from Japan has dwindled, and the sensational imagery that had once gripped the world has lost its hold. An organization known as the Nagasaki Archive works to counter the fading impact of such watershed historical events through the creation of interactive, digital maps. Starting with the atomic bombing of Nagasaki over 65 years ago, the Archive overlaid photographs, stories, videos and more relating to a single widespread tragedy onto a navigable map of Japan generated by Google’s satellites. In having people confront instead of overlook these terrible events, the Nagasaki Archive hopes to move and to inform the public, one individual at a time.

Their latest map for the East Japan Earthquake offers a “mash-up” of content that users can explore to “understand the real state of affairs…that cannot be understood by inspecting individual photographs.” The map reveals over 100 photos taken from the New York Times overlapping with three-dimensional geographical features that offer comprehensive views of the Sendai airport and Fukushima nuclear plants, 360-degree panorama images, and geographically arranged videos of victims’ testimonies. The project is ongoing, constantly updated with the most recent photos and information that users can browse through chronologically. Click here to access the East Japan Earthquake Archive.

Images via.

more