Saturday 5 April 2014

Dutch first-time buyers get on housing ladder

Self-build kit homes in Nijmegen in the Netherlands can be assembled within six to eight weeks
 
Artist's impression of the Deckhouse
 
Log cabin-style: an artist's impression of the flatpack Deckhouse by Exs Architects
If you like spending time in the greenhouse and following the sun throughout the day, you might opt for the Hayhouse; or if you're more drawn to the idea of a cosy Scandinavian log cabin, maybe the Deckhouse is for you.
Choosing your dream home has become as simple as picking furniture from the Ikea catalogue for residents of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, where a neighbourhood of affordable architect-designed kit houses has just been launched.
Aimed at first-time buyers, the city's "I build affordable in Nijmegen" initiative (IbbN) has paired 20 architects with building companies to produce about 30 designs – from detached timber cabins to redbrick terraced houses – with a construction cost of as little as €115,000 (£97,400).
Anyone with an annual income of between €30,000 and €47,000 is eligible to apply for the IbbN loan, while all costs are fixed from the beginning, removing the usual danger of ballooning budgets and long delays when building your own, untested house. Designed to be manufactured from prefabricated parts, in close collaboration with the builder, the flatpack kits are delivered to the site and can be assembled within six to eight weeks.
"Since the economic crisis, both architects and the city are trying to find new ways to build houses," said Elsbeth Ronner of LRVH architects, a young practice that has designed one of the house types, a straw-bale eco-house inspired by local haylofts. "There are few developers willing to build, so the city is selling plots directly to the residents and letting them do it for themselves."
For young architects such as Ronner, whose practice has so far only worked on refurbishment projects, the scheme also provides an opportunity to get into housebuilding. "It is difficult to approach potential clients when you haven't built anything," she said.
"People always think working with an architect will be more expensive and take longer, but this way they feel more secure. We've always wanted to make a really cheap, sustainable house and this gives us a great way into the market."
IbbN joins a growing movement of self-build kit homes in the Netherlands, following the example set by the new town of Almere near Amsterdam, where more than 800 homes have been built in this way since 2006, with thousands more on the way. And momentum is beginning to build in the UK.
In Middlesbrough's docks, on the sprawling site of the stalled Middlehaven regeneration project, an area has been set aside for self-build, with a competition launched for innovative ideas, while parts of east London's Olympic site could be given over to up to 100 self-build homes. So could flatpack kit housing be part of the answer?
"System-building makes it so much easier," said Ted Stevens of the National Self Build Association. "Rather than giving people an entirely blank piece of paper, it's like a big menu with options to choose from. A lot of people are put off self-build because of the uncertainty involved, but this way the price and delivery time are guaranteed – making the process much more like buying a car."
It is also much cheaper: by cutting out the developer's profit, the average self-built house in the UK costs just 60% of its final value to build. If more local authority land can be opened up, and architects retained at the centre of the process, it seems to make more sense than ever to go Dutch.

More over at theguardian.com

The world's first 3D-printed house


Zero waste, lower transport costs and recyclable materials – is 3D-printing the future of housebuilding? Dutch architects are putting the process to the test for the first time in Amsterdam
3D-printed house … The future of volume house-building, or a novelty technology for temporary pavilions?
3D-printed house … The future of volume house-building, or a novelty technology for temporary pavilions? Photograph: Peter Dejong/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Treacle-black plastic oozes from a nozzle at the bottom of a small tower in Amsterdam, depositing layer upon layer of glistening black worms in an orderly grid. With a knot of pipes and wires rising up to a big hopper, it looks like a high-tech liquorice production line. But this could be the future of house-building, if Dus Architects have their way.
On this small canal-side plot in the north of the city, dotted with twisting plastic columns and strange zig-zag building blocks, the architects have begun making what they say will be the world's first 3D-printed house.
“The building industry is one of the most polluting and inefficient industries out there,” says Hedwig Heinsman of Dus. “With 3D-printing, there is zero waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled. This could revolutionise how we make our cities.”
Working on site for three weeks, the architects have so far produced a 3m-high sample corner of their future house, printed as a single piece weighing 180kg. It is one of the building blocks that will be stacked up like Lego bricks over the next three years to form a 13-room complex, modelled on a traditional Dutch gabled canal house, but with hand-laid bricks replaced by a faceted plastic facade, scripted by computer software.
At the centre of the process is the KamerMaker, or Room Builder, a scaled-up version of an open-source home 3D-printer, developed with Dutch firm Ultimaker. It uses the same principle of extruding layers of molten plastic, only enlarged about 10 times, from printing desktop trinkets to chunks of buildings up to 2x2x3.5m high.
For a machine-made material, the samples have an intriguingly hand-made finish. In places, it looks like bunches of black spaghetti. There are lumps and bumps, knots and wiggles, seams where the print head appears to have paused or slipped, spurting out more black goo than expected.
“We're still perfecting the technology,” says Heinsman. The current material is a bio-plastic mix, usually used as an industrial adhesive, containing 75% plant oil and reinforced with microfibres. They have also produced tests with a translucent plastic and a wood fibre mix, like a liquid form of MDF that can later be sawn and sanded. “We will continue to test over the next three years, as the technology evolves,” she says. “With a second nozzle, you could print multiple materials simultaneously, with structure and insulation side by side.”
For now, these plastic blocks, which are printed with a honeycomb lattice within for reinforcement, are back-filled with lightweight concrete, for structural strength and insulation – which would make recycling the parts somewhat difficult.
“It's an experiment,” says Heinsman. “We called it the room maker, but it's also a conversation maker.” Over 2,000 people have already visited the site, from building contractors to coach-loads of architecture students, while even Barack Obama was shown the prototypes when he was in Amsterdam last week.
“This is only the beginning, but there could be endless possibilities, from printing functional solutions locally in slums and disaster areas, to high-end hotel rooms that are individually customised and printed in marble dust.”
Countour crafting … Researchers at the University of Southern California have been developing a technology that 'prints' quick-setting concrete from a computer controlled gantry.
Countour crafting … Researchers at the University of Southern California have been developing a technology that 'prints' quick-setting concrete from a computer controlled gantry. Photograph: Contour Crafting
While Dus may be the first architects to start printing a full-scale house, they join a number of others who have been experimenting with printing at an architectural scale over the last few years. Since 2008, researchers at the University of Southern California have been developing a technology, known as contour crafting, that uses a computer-controlled gantry to print structures in quick-setting concrete, which they say is potentially capable of printing high-rise buildings, with the printer climbing the structure as it grows. Another Dutch architect, Janjaap Ruijssenaars, is working on a project to print a house shaped like a looping Mobius strip with the Italian-made D-Shape printer, which uses sand mixed with a binding agent to create a form of synthetic sandstone. So far, only a small pavilion-sized structure has been printed. This looks to be where the technology will remain for the time being: temporary novelty structures for exhibitions and events.
“One of my fantasies is printing in biodegradable materials for festivals,” says Heinsman. “You could print an outrageous tent structure, then after a couple of years and few rain showers it disappears.”

Full story at the theguardian.com

Thursday 3 April 2014

America’s Abandoned Shopping Malls

Dead malls are popping up all over the states, particularly in the Midwest, where economic decline has sped up the “going out of business” process. This map, put together by a Dead Malls Enthusiasts Facebook group, shows that well.
As Americans are faced with multiple shopping options and more stores are leaving malls, it should be interesting to see if malls and mall culture will survive.
What you are about to see is what happens when malls are abandoned. It’s apocalyptic and really, really creepy.

Rolling Acres Mall: Akron, Ohio

The Rolling Acres Mall opened in 1975 and expanded several times throughout its history. At one point, it had more than 140 stores. On Dec. 31, 2013, the mall’s last retail store closed, and it currently remains abandoned.

Rolling Acres Mall: Akron, Ohio

Hawthorne Plaza Mall: Hawthorne, Calif.

The Hawthorne Plaza Mall was opened in 1977 in partial hopes to revive the city of Hawthorne. At one point, it had 134 stores, but during the ’90s the mall went into decline. By 1999, it had closed. The mall is featured in 2001’s Evolution and 2002’s Minority Report.
 

Cloverleaf Mall: Chesterfield, Va.

The Cloveleaf Mall opened in 1972 with 40 shops anchored by J.C. Penney and Sears. The mall was a popular hangout for families in the ’70s and ’80s, but according to the Chesterfield Observer, “That all changed in the 1990s. Cloverleaf’s best customers, women, began staying away from the mall, fearful of the youth who were beginning to congregate there. People started seeing kids with huge baggy pants and chains hanging off their belts, and people were intimidated, and they would say there were gangs.” Stores stopped renewing their leases and in 2007 it closed permanently.

Cloverleaf Mall: Chesterfield, Va.

North Towne Square Mall: Toledo, Ohio

The North Towne Square mall opened in 1980 in hopes of reviving the north end of Toledo. The mall featured stores that weren’t found anywhere else in the area: Chick-fil-A, Camelot Music, CVS, and Frederick’s of Hollywood. During the ’90s, the economy in Toledo was on the downturn and by the early 2000s, stores were leaving the mall. In 2005, the mall was closed and finally demolished in 2013.

North Towne Square Mall: Toledo, Ohio

Woodville Mall: Northwood, Ohio

The Woodville mall, like other Ohio malls, experienced an economic decline in the ’90s. The mall was opened in 1969 and by the early 2000s most stores had left. In 2014, it was demolished.

Woodville Mall: Northwood, Ohio

Crestwood Mall: St. Louis

Crestwood Mall opened in 1956 and stayed open for more than 55 years. At one point, it had over 90 stores and 4 anchor stores. According to St. Louis Today, “Like many longtime indoor malls across the country, it is changing because of age, location, new ways of shopping, and increased competition from newer shopping centers and the Internet.” The mall was also inconvenient to get to because it wasn’t close to an interstate exit. In 2013, the mall was put up for sale, and if sold, will most likely be razed.

Crestwood Mall: St. Louis
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com
Dan Wampler / Via danwampler.com

Dixie Square Mall: Harvey, Ill.

Dixie Square Mall: Harvey, Ill.
The Dixie Square Mall opened in 1966 and only stayed open for 13 years. In 1979, the Blues Brothers movie shot its iconic driving-through-the-mall scene there. Later that year, the mall closed due to a spike in crime. It stayed abandoned until 2011, when it was demolished.

This is what it looked like during the Blues Brothers filming:

This is what it looked like during the Blues Brothers filming:
Universal Pictures / Via dailymail.co.uk

Turfland Mall: Lexington, Ky.

Turfland Mall: Lexington, Ky.
Ron May
The Turfland Mall was the first enclosed shopping mall in Lexington, Ky., and opened in 1967. It was popular until the mid-’90s when another local mall expanded. The mall closed in 2008.

Ron May
Ron May
Ron May

Randall Park Mall: North Randall, Ohio

Randall Park Mall: North Randall, Ohio
Randall Park Mall opened in 1976 and closed in 2009. In 1995, there were 120 stores that employed 5,000 people. The mall began its decline in the early 2000s when J.C. Penney and Dillard’s left. By 2008, the mall was basically empty. The mall is currently being demolished and will be gone any day now. An industrial park will replace it.