Ecology
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about ecology
Project • By INI Design Studio • Shopping Centres
Unity Mall
Reframing Retail as Cultural Infrastructure:
Unity Mall is conceived as an architectural response to a national question:Can retail infrastructure become an instrument of cultural integration, ecological sensitivity, and economic empowerment?
Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya, is the primary gateway to the state. The site, located within the emerging New Shillong Township, is part of a rapidly developing administrative and institutional zone. Transcending conventional definitions, Unity Mall is conceived not as a sealed container of commerce, but a civic landscape where craft, culture, tourism, training, and community converge. It is an infrastructural framework designed to strengthen the cultural and economic fabric of the Northeas... More
Project • By Barry Wark • Private Houses
Tùr House
This speculative research project proposes a new architectural model built around adaptability, disassembly, and long-term material reuse. Rather than treating buildings as fixed and disposable objects, the project asks how architecture might be designed to evolve over time—able to be taken apart, repaired, and reconfigured as needs change.
At the center of the proposal is a single-material building envelope made from large-scale 3D-printed sand blocks. The façade is conceived as an independent outer layer, separate from the structure and interior spaces inside. By avoiding complex, multi-layered façade systems, the project imagines a more circular approach to construction, where materials can be easily reused and repla... More
Project • By INFORM Studio • Waterways/Wetlands
Boardman Ottaway DT
The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) hired INFORM Studio to develop a conceptual design for a riverwalk and pedestrian plaza on a two-block stretch along the Boardman/Ottaway River in downtown Traverse City. Currently the downtown retail and commercial buildings face away from the river, surface parking lots and concrete walls line areas along the river, and public access to the river is limited. Despite its prominent role in defining the trajectory of much of Traverse City’s past, the river’s place within the urban fabric of downtown Traverse City today is not well defined and feels disconnected.
INFORM
The Boardman Ottaway Downtown Riverfront will be a place for people to gather and interact with each o... More
Project • By INFORM Studio • Bridges
Keating Channel Pedestrian Bridge
The Nda-Nwendaaganag Bridge honors the Anishinaabe meaning ‘All My Relations’ to a precious place in the heart of Toronto. It exudes beauty in both form and symbolism, establishing a place significance for the history of all peoples and cultures in the region.
INFORM Rendering
INFORM Rendering
Our project approach presents less of a bridge and more of an intervention weaving together an identity of placekeeping; creating a mosaic of rich narratives that braid the City of Tkaronto [original Haudenosaunee name for Toronto] back to the important heritage of this land, Mother Earth, taking time to learn from the Teachings as they are offered to help us to go forward together, in a Good Way.
INFORM Rendering
INFORM... More
Project • By INFORM Studio • Libraries
Ann Arbor Traverwood Library
The new public library is the result of a 2005 initiative to expand the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) system, which lead to four freestanding branch facilities for Ann Arbor’s school district. The Traverwood Branch serves as a community-based learning center primarily for the residents of northeast Ann Arbor.
JGC
JGC
JGC
Being across from the Sapp Nature Area – an 8.11 acre nature reserve adjacent to the site – the design strategy of the library was to serve the public and community, while also protecting and maintaining the existing ecosystems and biodiversity within and around the site. Situated on a heavily wooded 4 acre green-field site, the library is oriented to minimize its impact on the natural... More
Project • By INFORM Studio • Community Centres
AB Ford Park Community Center
The new A.B. Ford Park Community Center (formerly Lenox Center) marks a significant milestone as Detroit’s first climate-resilient public facility. Set within expansive parkland, the center enhances community access to the waterfront while boosting local economic opportunities. The project embodies the vibrant cultural heritage of the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood, reflecting residents' values through sustainable and resilient design.
Steve Kroodsma
Design for resiliencyConstructed outside the floodplain, the center serves dual purposes as both a vibrant community hub and an emergency resilience facility. It is equipped to provide residents with essential shelter, renewable energy, and supplies during climate emergenci... More
Project • By INFORM Studio • Transports
I-395 PEDESTRIAN BAYWALK & BIKEWAY
The future Miami Baywalk connection in front of the cultural district exemplifies a preeminent opportunity to demonstrate sustainable and socially conscious leadership for our nation’s future infrastructure. The holistic design philosophy layers a profound set of solutions woven together to establish new transit connectivity for the City of Miami and heighten broad community access to ecology, science and the arts within a cultural center of the Biscayne Bay. The project has the potential to become both a local and international destination that will contribute to the cultural and economic engine of Miami.
Caption
The primary purpose of the project is to establish pedestrian continuity of the Baywalk under the MacArthur Causeway... More
Project • By INFORM Studio • Bridges
Van Leesten Memorial Bridge
The new Van Leesten Memorial Bridge reworks abandoned freeway infrastructure (I-195) to connect five prominent neighborhoods and institutions within the city. Acting as a pedestrian center, the pedestrian bridge not only performs as a practical connector between regions, but also offers multiple programmatic interventions to encourage community connection and social engagement among city residents. The project captures a potential much larger than that of a pure connector. It leverages integrated program elements to serve as a mediator between urban and ecological spaces, allowing east and west to become a singular public space.
INFORM
INFORM
INFORM
INFORM
In addition to establishing a visual symbol of renewal, the Van... More
Project • By KAAF I Kitriniaris Associates Architecture Firm • Sports Centres
Kyathos Mass Timber Arena
The architectural design plans for the mass timber basketball arena with a composite timber load bearing system were developed after being directly commissioned by the Cultural and Athletic Organisation of Galatsi Municipality as a special building requiring specialised technical know-how and related research in timber construction. The construction schedule for the timber arena includes the main basketball court with spectator stands, an inbuilt mezzanine/gallery around the perimeter, changing rooms for athletes and referees, sanitary spaces, administration offices, club offices, and auxiliary spaces with a total surface area of 4000 sq.m. The new building will replace the existing timber gymnasium in the same location, and now marke... More
Project • By Marc Thorpe Design + Architecture • Private Houses
Fremont House
Marc Thorpe completes the Fremont House in the West Catskills of New York.
The Fremont house is nestled amongst the trees deep within the Western Catskill Mountains. Located close to the town of Roscoe, the Fremont house is an off-grid 100% solar powered home sitting quietly in harmony with its environment. We set out to develop a traditional residential program in 1000 sqft including 2 Bedrooms, 1 Bath, Living, Dining, Kitchen, Storage, Utility and Terrace. This allows for the separation of public and private spaces, living and dining on the ground level and bedrooms up above.
Marco Petrini
Marco Petrini
The intention behind the house was to design and build an affordable contemporary home with integrated sustainable... More
Project • By ss67architetti | Lucia Barna | Roberto Castellani • Sculptures
co2morrow
CO2morrow is a reactive sculpture, first shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London as a part of the show, “Earth: Art of a Changing World” in 2009. Inspired by Timothy Morton’s idea of the hyperobject, CO2morrow approaches climate change as an issue of consciousness. The sculpture is created almost entirely out of carbon fiber and is modeled after a scrubber molecule that takes CO2 out of the air, based on research by chemist Omar Yaghi. The sculpture is also covered in LED lights that react in real time to data received from a network of sensing technologies in the United Kingdom. During the project, the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, who were helping Lutyens and his team collect data, were hac... More
Project • By sons of architecture • Primary Schools
Elementary School Amos for Psáry and Dolní Jirčany
Urban planning and architectural design
The new school campus creates within the municipality a place with its own identity. Despite its size the building and its entrance area is not disturbing the spatial and functional context of the place as it stands on the other end of an urban axis connecting the campus with the village square unveiling its potential to become a lively street. The community character of the building is visually supported by a public library situated in an exposed corner facing the village. The school is set in a mellow slope and the design works with different floor counts facing the entrance area on one side and the school grounds on the other one. The large building is divided into several structural vo... More
News • News • 3 Jan 2020
FLOAT places three pavilions in Oregon as resistance against proposed Pacific Connector Pipeline
The three pavilions designed by FLOAT each mark an ecologically rich area that could be expropriated to make way for the Pacific Connector Pipeline. One is located in an estuary, another in a wetland and the third is riparian.
Credit: David Paul Bayles
FLOAT intends to change the perception of the regions value as ecological, nutrient cycling, multi-species sheltering and biodiverse, instead of extraction and profit.
Credit: Christopher White
The wooden structures have loose thatch that spiral around. FLOAT is upfront that the pavilions make for a terrible shelter for humans. This further underlines their intent to place the use as habitat for species at all scales above the usual human supremacy in architectural space.
Credi... More
Project • By KOGAA • Pavilions
Next Gen Park
Informed by research on urban problematics related to climate change, we actively challenge the functions of public spaces, transforming them into educational, interactive, and conscious catalysts. Similarly to our previous urban project ‘City Cell Prototype’, a fully self-suffcient public installation tackling the problem of water shortages and heat waves, their latest Next Gen Park is addressing the issue of CO2 production in our cities, by visually representing the amount of 1 ton in the size of the air balloon.
The iconic landmark raises the environmental awareness in the public realm and becomes, throughout the day, a center for the discussions on various topics such as the use of public spaces, the implementation... More
Project • By BoysPlayNice • Private Houses
Freedomek No.061
The “Sixty-one”Author’s report The “Sixty-one”, a home with the number Freedomky No.061, was assembled (to the surprise of neighbours) during one autumn Friday from 7 am to 3 pm, followed by the construction of the carport and terrace. It uses its compositional dimensions and sizes from the author’s previous modules and places them above each other, smaller S (4 x 7m) on top of larger M (4 x 11,5m). Modules were brought to the site fully furnished and equipped, including furniture. The Tachov “Sixty-one” stretches toward the sky and its proportions evoke a similarity with a stylized steamboat, also with the upper terrace – the deck at the fore. From becoming a real houseboat, it is only short of water it could anchor in. It is the ver... More