LINE Architecture / weblog

Quito based firm founded in 1997 that is developing inspiring solutions to the underpriviliged and underserved primarily in Ecuador

for the next week we will be featuring firms and innovators that are developing concepts and designs that press for social and environmental change. we begin with MASS Design Group (MASS), a 501(c)(3) pending, not-for-profit firm, which currently operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Partners In Health. MASS works to deliver the highest possible impact at the lowest possible cost to the groups they serve.

New York based firm that has been involved in projects from residential buildings to commercial retail and office spaces in New York, Argentina, Uruguay and Singapore

On May 12, 2008, Sichuan experienced an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 on the Richter scale. More than 2 million rural homes needed to be reconstructed. In the following month, Hsieh and the Rural Architecture Studio began work developing, constructing, and promoting waste-separating toilet facilities. At the end of July, they built the first model of a light-guage-steel-frame-and-adobe home. By the end of September, they had begun successively reconstructing rural homes in villages across Qingchuan, Wenchuan, and Maoxian Counties.

Amongst several other interesting projects by this firm, ‘Aging in Africa’ sets out to be the first age-valued community on the African continent where the elderly can maintain a meaningful and healthy lifestyle in a comfortable and safe environment. It is a retirement community for Catholic priests that are excluded from the traditional, family based, model of elder care in Cote D’Ivoire.

My Father turns 80 today and I am proud to not only call him my Father and major inspiration but perhaps more importantly to attest to a life well lived (with many years ahead of him we hope!!!)… See his revolutionary work http://www.binisystems.com/ here… Tanti Auguri Babbone!!!

Nantes based firm that you can bet we will be hearing more from in the future

Auckland based firm with projects which include coastal and rural homes, farm park developments, large scale residential, commercial, institutional and healthcare developments

Austin based firm that runs the line between the material facts of architecture and the occasions (social and otherwise) that it shelters and invites

Photographer whose groovy blog highlights his passion for life and for the beautiful women who drop by his studio. The above photo was taken during the making of a show at Lazarides in London