Community

Construction with earthen materials, as one of the oldest traditional technology, was widely employed all over China during the past thousands of years. According to the latest statistics, at least 60 million people in China are still living in various traditional rammed-earth dwellings, most of which are located in poor and rural regions. In recent decades, due to the fact that the earth-based technology is usually regarded as a “dangerous” tech and a symbol of “poverty” by dwellers and governments, an increasing number of rammed-earth dwellings have been abandoned and replaced by conventional constructions with concrete and fired-bricks. However, limited by the low level of economy, technology and education conditions, most of renewed concrete-brick-based dwellings have even worse performances in comfortability, anti-seismic capacity and sustainability.

Hindupara community is the minority group among Rohingya refugees who are now living in the world’s largest refugee camp in Kutupalong. Host communities in Bangladesh have been sharing their resources, land & everyday life for more than two years now. As the host communities are very nearby, Hindupara Integrated Community Center was designed to build a sharing platform that will try to create aspiration for the surrounding, and be a catalyst for better communication between refugees and host community as well as majority and minority groups.

The construction of the Jaurès recreation center provided the city of Athis-Mons with an opportunity to equip itself with a facility for small children adapted to open learning methods and at the same time help to reduce the pressures of the towns growing population.

A circular shade house made from 90% reclaimed wood. A structural and architectural demonstration of three success stories: a collective, a circular economy approach, and a practical application of the international Fab City movement. This project would not have been possible without the support of Icade Promotion, REI Habitat, Quartus and SUEZ. The project expresses the undulations of the canal on a façade. The roof, like the hull of a boat, follows this motion and rises in the center to designate the entrance to the house. Following a call for projects by Les Canaux, an association for solidary and innovative economies, the collective Re-Store by WoMa (www.restore.woma.fr) was selected to implement this shade house made of reused materials. The delivery date was fixed two months after the announcement. The project was constructed for the duration of the summer. The entire structure was completed just in time, 5 minutes before its inauguration, and remained intact until its dismantlement.

The Archipélia social center is located in the heart of the 20th arrondissement in Paris. Since 2001 Archipélia has occupied the premises that initially housed a supermarket on the ground floor and a technical basement serving the social housing units above. The building is the property of the social housing tenant Paris Habitat and was built in the late 1970s. Archipélia is an important place in the daily life of the inhabitants of the neighborhood but it suffered from a lack of visibility and an unclear spatial organization. The center’s classrooms were not adapted to the rich variety of educational, cultural and leisure activities that the center offers.

In a homogeneous space like an office, about twenty users were engaged in work; some were packing products in boxes at their desks, and some were processing parts for industrial products. One-half of them were working at an open desk, and the other half sat at individual desks with partitions so that no other people came into sight. Because they felt nervous about the visitors, high screaming came from individual cabins separated by piled up boxes and partitions. It was something I saw in the existing facility on an adjacent section before the design of the employment support facility PALETTE.

Origin. Wudang Mountain Tourism Economic Zone in Shiyan City has been actively promoting B&B business and improving the surrounding environment of the scenic area. Yuanheguan Village is close to the entrance of the Wudang Mountain Scenic Area, and therefore was selected as a prioritized place for a pilot programme. According to the plan, the plot where the original village committee office was situated and its surroundings will be transformed into a B&B reception demonstration area, so it was very urgent to relocate and construct a new village committee office. To guarantee services for the villagers, it was essential to figure out how to build it in a short time.