One of the longest standing debates in community economic development is the face-off between “place-based” and “people-based” approaches to combating poverty, housing affordability, chronic unemployment, and community decline. Should help go to distressed places or distressed people?

People or Place: Revisiting the Who versus the Where of Urban Development

Casa Kike, Cahuita / Costa Rica by Gianni Botsford Architects
By coupling indigenous techniques and materials with modern design technologies and aesthetics GBA has created this intimate double pavilion for a writer in Costa Rica.
A main studio space, with library, writing desk and grand piano, is the writer’s daytime space. The pavilion’s wooden structure, sourced from local timber, sits on a simple foundation of wooden stilts on small concrete pad foundations.
Roof beams of up to 10 m long and 355 mm deep allow for an interior with no vertical columns. The mono-pitched roof elevates towards the sea shore, while the interior is through ventilated via a completely louvred glazed end façade.

Mortensrud church Oslo / Norway by Jensen & Skodvin Architects
The church is situated on the top of a small crest with large pine trees and some exposed rock.Geometrically speaking the church is an addition to the existing ground, no blasting and excavation was necessary except carefully removing the thin layer of soil.

Gunkanjima Island / Japan
” Off the westernmost coast of Japan, is an island called ‘Gunkanjima’ that is hardly known even to the Japanese. Long ago, the island was nothing more than a small reef….

House V, Zagreb / Croatia by 3LHD
“House “V” was designed in order to satisfy the needs of a family. Applying communication between the common and individual rooms, the facilities and functions of the space have been connected into a single unit that creates a comfortable living area for a family.
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