Dear FuturArc readers, Let’s talk about this issue’s cover design for a bit. For this theme, we wanted to express the concept of health/wellness as an intimate reality in one’s everyday life. And what’s more everyday than one’s home? So, we took the bold Floating House in Thu Duc, Vietnam, as the ‘exemplar’ home, as […]
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Climate change was famously called a monster of our own making. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, which swiftly evolved into the most significant health problem of this century. The health and economic fallouts are well documented, particularly on already vulnerable families and communities. ⠀ For some people, staying at home posed threats […]
Read More… from The Symbiotic Relationship between Housing and Health
When it comes to Green and sustainable housing, Nature offers promising solutions. The fast-growing bamboo is known as a sustainable alternative to conventional building materials such as concrete, steel and timber. When properly treated and engineered, bamboo exhibits impressive compression properties and tensile strength, surpassing traditional materials. In Nepal and the Philippines, homes that are […]
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Among the rapidly aging societies in Asia and the Pacific, Hong Kong is expected to have the highest share of the world’s senior population by 2050. More than four in 10 persons will be aged 60 and above then. JLL said the city will face a shortage of over 60,000 senior-friendly places by 2032.19 The […]
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In Vietnam, the construction sector uses 54,000 tonnes of asbestos annually, ranking as one of the top importers of ‘fibro cement’. Most of the supply goes to low-income and vulnerable populations unaware of the health risks of exposure to friable airborne asbestos. In a 2021 project, Habitat for Humanity Vietnam set up zero-asbestos villages21 as […]
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In summer, temperatures can exceed 40 degrees Celsius in many parts of India. For low-income families with little or no access to electricity, staying in cooler homes is more a matter of survival rather than just comfort. Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter partnered with Excel Coatings in a pilot project in […]
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Habitat for Humanity Cambodia is working with computational design students from University of New South Wales in Australia to explore the use of data modelling in housing design for future projects. Prior to construction, modelling can help to optimise variables such as orientation of the house to minimise the exposure to sun rays. In Cambodia’s […]
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Speaking with Milinda Pathiraja feels a lot like being in the presence of a bright light—in terms of an architectural analogy, perhaps a lighthouse. Personally speaking, it would be a familiar lighthouse: Milinda was not only a former FuturArc Prize 2017 juror, but his highly acclaimed projects were also profiled frequently in this magazine over […]
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According to a study in 2019, around 86 per cent of medical visits in India are from individuals living in rural areas, with a majority needing to travel over 100 kilometres to reach available healthcare facilities.1 The same study states that although 73 per cent of the nation’s populace live in rural areas, they have […]
Read More… from JSW Sanjeevani Multispecialty Hospital
The aim was to create a zero-energy building as a sustainable office space for the architecture firm on a small plot in the city. The Studio Shunya team sought to use only natural materials—challenging conventional norms of using cement—and applying them in a way that would not only enhance the health and well-being of the […]
Read More… from Green Oasis: Handmade with Love for Health
Breathing life into a public space can be challenging. An expansive civic space by itself is not enough to draw the community to use it—let alone one that inspires healthy activities—especially if it comes across as arid or cold due to a lack of human-scale elements. The huge space then becomes a deterrent rather than […]
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ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF VULNERABLE GROUPS IN HONG KONG Siu Lam Integrated Rehabilitation Services Complex is built as part of a special initiative with the Social Welfare Department (SWD) of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to strengthen support for persons with disabilities and their families. It provides 1,700 places for one-stop services with two types […]
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