Istanbul’s Valens Archway could be rejuvenated with “floating” housing concept

The Valens Archway, an aqueduct in Istanbul built at the end of the 4^th century by the Roman Emperor Valens, provided the city with water during the middle century. Today, however, the remaining section of the archway is nothing more than a forgotten landmark in the busy and historic Istanbul district of Fatih.

But it may not be forgotten for long, as Superspace, a Turkish architecture studio, has plans to transform the over 3000-foot-long structure into a recreational and residential space.

According to designboom.com, the proposal suggests building a vertical wooden grid above the archways that would serve as a linear underlay for wooden housing modules suspended above the walkway. Each volume of wooden housing units would be clad in a heat-treated wooden façade. The wood houses and the old stonework of the aqueduct would create a dichotomy of old and new, hard and soft, and heavy and light, the architects say.

The goal of the project is to generate “an alternate elevated life, keeping tabs on the city, instead of just being watched,” Superspace writes of the project on the studio’s website.

Rendering courtesy of Superspace.

The Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team announced that it has reached an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County on a $6.5 billion, 86-acre mixed-use development that will include a new 30,000-seat ballpark and an array of office, housing, hotel, retail, and restaurant space totaling 8 million sf.

Engineers | Sep 15, 2023

NIST investigation of Champlain Towers South collapse indicates no sinkhole

Investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found no evidence of underground voids on the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse, according to a new NIST report. The team of investigators have studied the site’s subsurface conditions to determine if sinkholes or excessive settling of the pile foundations might have caused the collapse.

MFPRO+ Research | Sep 11, 2023

Conversions of multifamily dwellings to ‘mansions’ leading to dwindling affordable stock

Small multifamily homes have historically provided inexpensive housing for renters and buyers, but developers have converted many of them in recent decades into larger, single-family units. This has worsened the affordable housing crisis, say researchers.

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Adaptive Reuse | Aug 31, 2023

New York City creates team to accelerate office-to-residential conversions

New York City has a new Office Conversion Accelerator Team that provides a single point of contact within city government to help speed adaptive reuse projects. Projects that create 50 or more housing units from office buildings are eligible for this new program.