archolab » Project https://archolab.com Architectural Research Collaborative Fri, 25 Jul 2014 18:25:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.40 Afterhouse https://archolab.com/archives/445 https://archolab.com/archives/445#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:03:14 +0000 http://archolab.com/?p=445 Afterhouse_Main-Image_Resized

Like too many Detroit houses irreparably damaged by disuse, vandalism and fire, the house at 3347 Burnside must come down. With support from the neighborhood, rather than razing it and leaving fallow land, we propose deconstructing the house and reusing the foundation to build a semi subterranean passive geothermal greenhouse.

Precedents in contemporary Bolivia and Renaissance Italy show that greenhouses that use the heat of the earth dramatically expand crop possibilities without the use of additional energy. Bananas grow in the Andes and lemons grow in Milan.

We will use materials from the house and in the vernacular of the neighborhood to integrate ideas culled from stories shared of the home’s history as we experiment with layering, light, transparency and heat. Utilized by an existing community garden after construction, AFTERHOUSE will draw from what once was to become a part of what Detroit is now.

]]> https://archolab.com/archives/445/feed 0 Hostel Detroit https://archolab.com/archives/44 https://archolab.com/archives/44#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:08:47 +0000 http://archolab.com/?p=44  

Youth Hostel Design Build

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In the fall of 2010 the Archolab began a series of conversations with the director of Hostel Detroit, a non-profit youth hostel located in the re-emerging Corktown neighborhood in southwest Detroit. Those conversations led to a seminar course during the spring of 2011. The hostel needed an outdoor building to provide secure bicycle and equipment storage, a covered gathering and socializing space and a functional rainwater collection system to support a series of small scale organic gardens. Adjacent to the Hostel’s property are two vacant lots that frequently play host to guests and neighbors. The new building was to make the first gesture in connecting with the adjacent land and activate the Hostel’s unique set of urban spaces.

]]> https://archolab.com/archives/44/feed 0 Spring Back https://archolab.com/archives/42 https://archolab.com/archives/42#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:10:02 +0000 http://archolab.com/?p=42 Digital Steam Bending

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In the mid-nineteenth century, at the same time that Great Lakes craftsmen utilized abundant regional lumber to construct bent-wood snowshoes and canoes, Michael Thonet was manufacturing his iconic Café Chair No. 14. Steam-bent construction was lightweight, rigid, and compact, making it ideal for mass production. But unlike many industrial processes, steam bending used local and renewable materials, lent itself to easy disassembly / repurposing of material, and required no toxic adhesives.
While steam bending remains a viable craft-based practice its chapter in the history of early industrial production was relatively short-lived, having been quickly replaced with tubular steel and other more predictable, more thoroughly modern materials. Practicing in the post-industrial meltdown of the American Midwest, we began our research by probing this virtually forgotten technique.  This return provided a frame within which to speculate about new modes of digital fabrication at an architectural scale.
 credits
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