Lindsey Adelman, Apparatus and Rich Brilliant Willing are among 40 design studios and makers in New York City that have put their work in an online charity auction, where all proceeds will support the city's battle during the coronavirus crisis.

Organised by Brooklyn studio General Assembly, the online auction called At Home launched today and will run until 12 April.

Proceeds will be given to humanitarian aid organisation Direct Relief, which is coordinating with public health authorities, nonprofits and businesses to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and gloves to New York's health workers.

"There has been an overwhelming desire to do something to help in NYC," General Assembly studio founder Sarah Zames told Dezeen.

"As designers and creatives we are optimists and work to create solutions, but our office and I think a lot of people in our community were at a loss in how they could directly contribute to the relief efforts," she added.

Fort Standard, Chen Chen and Roll & Hill join the large number of those that have donated work to the project.

Designs range from light fixtures and armchairs to vases and planters, with pieces including chainmail pendant lights from Konekt and an armchair by Orior.

General Assembly sought out the studios for collaboration, as many of them are friends or have worked together on projects. Others to offer designs are Egg Collective, Calico Wallpaper, Coil + Drift, Matter, Kinder Modern, Pelle, Anna Karlin and Vonnegut Kraft.

"Over the years, we have been lucky to work with and become part of a talented network of New York-based makers, designers and artists," Zames said. "We organised At Home as a way for our community to come together and chip in what they can."

"We really do believe that together we are stronger and I think the response we have received is proof of that," she added.

The online auction forms part of an effort from the architecture and design community to offer help during the coronavirus crisis. A number are addressing the shortage of PPE and other supplies that hospitals and clinics are facing.

American architecture firms have joined forces as part of an open-source project to produce make 3-D printed face shields. Fashion brands such as Prada, COS and Louis Vuitton are also retooling to manufacture surgical face masks.

Others have focused on ways to create more facilities for hospitals. Carlo Ratti Associati has proposed creating shipping-container intensive care units while flat-pack startup Jupe has designed pop-up care facilities to help hospitals under pressure.

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Nike has created face shields and lenses for air-purifying respirators with materials from the sportswear brand's footwear and clothing to help protect against Covid-19.

Working with health professionals at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), a public university with two hospitals in Portland, Nike designed the personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses and other frontline medical workers.

The products include a face shield and a lense for a powered, air-purifying respirator (PAPR), which are used to safeguard medical workers in contaminated areas.

Nike, which is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, manufactured them from materials usually used for apparel collections or sneakers to help with shortages caused by the coronavirus.

The production makes use of the brand's capabilities for custom extrusion of the polyurethane film, which was refined for the airbag in the sole of its Air shoes.

Called thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), the rubbery, plastic material is used to form the veil of the face shield and the lenses of the PAPR. The latter is made in segments that are welded in order to properly fit the PAPR.

Nike's face shield is modelled on a design that OSHU was already using, and features a foam-like band that is repurposed collar padding and clothing cords to tighten the mask. The shield's three parts are designed to come together in nine stages.

The PPE design was lead by the brand's innovation teams and manufacturing groups at its Air Manufacturing Innovation (Air MI) facilities in Oregon and Missouri. The facilities are continuing to adapt to suit the production of the PPE and follow government protocol.

Nike made its first shipment of the PAPR lenses and full-face shields to OHSU on Friday 3 April. It intends to continue to distribute devices to other areas in Oregon, including hospitals and healthcare companies Providence, Legacy Health Systems and Kaiser Permanente.

"OHSU's mission is to support the health and well-being of all Oregonians, and we can't do that without adequate supplies of personal protective equipment," said OHSU president Danny Jacobs.

"Nike's generous response to the Covid-19 crisis helps to instill an added layer of confidence and support for healthcare workers, that we can safely carry out the jobs we were born to do."

The PPE forms part of a series of efforts from the sports brand to offer help amid the health crisis. Nike also created an advert to promote staying at home and social distancing with a simple message that reads: "Play inside, play for the world".

Nike follows a number in the design industry that have pivoted its manufacturing capabilities to make face shields. Architecture studio Foster + Partners has created a laser-cut face shield that can be disassembled, sanitised and reused, while MIT has developed a one-piece Covid-19 face shield.

Leading fashion brands Prada, COS and Louis Vuitton are also manufacturing surgical face masks in response to the shortage caused by Covid-19.

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Weathered cedar covers this Vermont house, which local studio Birdseye Design built into a grassy slope to take cues from nearby barns.

Called Bank Barn, the three-storey home is located Green Mountains of Vermont on a steeply sloping meadow surrounded by 27 acres (11 hectares) of land.

The wood-clad house is designed to take cues from bank barns, which are built into hills and accessible at two different levels.

Outdoor wooden steps run alongside the residence and access the front door on the middle floor level.

"Grade transitions are a feature of bank barns and the main entry path accentuates the topography," said build-design studio Birdseye Design.

A concrete foundation embeds the house on a flat portion of the hill and projects outwards to form barrier walls on the east and west sides.

Acting like bookends, the concrete encloses a driveway and garage on the one side, and a patio with a firepit further from the dwelling on the opposite.

"The flat grade at the upper bench proved to be the ideal site, a natural promenade to the view with an opportunity to embed the house into the landscape with an eastern slope at the arrival point," the studio added.

An open-plan kitchen, living room, dining area and office are located on the middle level. Almost the entire floor is enclosed with glass walls to offer expansive views of outside.

Steel beams and cross-bracing are left exposed and painted white, matching the stark interiors of white walls and grey floors. A free-standing steel staircase is also painted white and has a glass railing.

The bottom floor is mostly concealed by the sloped terrain, aside from a garage door at the front that is clad in wood. A green roof covers a portion of this lower volume as it extends slightly outwards from the two floors above.

Three bedrooms with en suites and a laundry room are on the top storey. Designed to be more private, this floor has smaller windows with deep jambs to frame the pastoral views.

Bank Barn is complete with a number of environmentally friendly design elements. Geothermal wells provide heating and cooling via water-to-water and water-to-air systems, and a triple-glazed curtainwall bolsters the insulation to reduce heat flow during Vermont's freezing winter months.

According to Birdseye Design, the home is designed to produce as much energy as it consumes on-site. "The project was designed to be a net-zero residence pending a future 18-kilowatt solar array," it said.

Birdseye Design was founded in 1984 and is led by Jim Converse and John Seibert.

In addition to this home, the Vermont practice has built other houses in the northeastern US state, including a black house with broad eaves, a white dwelling called Two Shed and a wood-clad residence called Woodshed.

Photography is by Jim Westphalen.

Project credits:

Landscape architect: Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture
Environmental design: Atelier Ten
Builder: Birdseye

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Blades taken from retired wind turbines form a sculptural playground in this conceptual Burning Man installation designed by American architecture firm Michael Mannhard Workshop.

Bladeyard A Turbine Blade Playscape reimagines a wreckage site made of dozens of wind turbine parts. It is intended to draw attention to the waste of the renewable energy machines, which Michael Mannhard Workshop said can't be recycled after use.

"Designed as a ruin, Bladeyard re-contextualises the enormity and streamlined architecture of these symbols of our renewable future while serving as a warning for the consequences of waste and shortsightedness in how we imagine the end-of-use of our built world," the Washington state-based studio said.

Mannhard, who grew up in the Midwest, recalls passing by fields outfitted with large turbines, which convert wind into electricity and offer a more environmentally friendly energy alternative in comparison to fossil fuels.

Parts of the machines, including the blades which can measure up to 100 metres (328 feet), however, can't be recycled and are reportedly piling up in landfills. Michael Mannhard Workshop said the project aims to show the counter-intuitive nature of the object meant to represent a sustainable future.

"These objects are now layered in new meaning as symbols of our shortsightedness in how we approach our built world and the incredible challenge of designing for the whole life cycle of products," the studio added.

Mannhard's proposed installation submerges various sized blades into the landscape of Nevada's Black Rock Desert where the annual event takes place.

The turbine parts lay across the sandy floor and stick up out of the ground. Burning Man revellers would be encouraged to climb on, meander through and hide inside the tubular pieces.

"Participants can feel the physical reminder of this warning as they climb on, seek shelter under, and wander through this forest of immense sculptural blades," it said.

Drawings of the imagined design show the bases of the white blades lit up at night.

Bladeyard is proposed for the Burning Man 2021 festival. After the event the installation would be dismantled and situated on a more permanent site.

Burning Man still plans to host its 2020 activities from 30 August to 7 September despite the cancellation of a number of large-scale events in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Architect Renzo Verbeck and artist Sylvia Adrienne Lisse have designed an eight-pointed angular structure that will serve as the main temple at Burning Man 2020.

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New York architecture studio Worrell Yeung has brought new life to a former artist's studio in the city, stripping paint off wood pillars and adding a large kitchen island.

Located in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood, the project is a two-bedroom apartment that spans half of a floor in an early 20th-century building.

It was previously occupied by an artist and art handler for the Museum of Modern Art and had not been updated in nearly 40 years. Seafoam green paint coated historic wood pillars and the ceiling was clad in tin tiles.

Worrell Yeung's overhaul of the 2,200-square-foot (204-square-metre) apartment involved stripping back these finishes, painting the walls and ceiling white and adding in reclaimed pine wood floors from Madera.

"Timber columns and beams, cast-iron capitals, and wood timber ceiling joists were left raw and exposed, particularly in the generous living area, to maintain the spirit of the New York artist's loft," said the studio.

The studio designed a new kitchen in between two of the pale wooden columns. The island is covered in Ceppo di Gre marble and forms a centrepiece of the open-plan Chelsea Loft.

"There was a strong desire to express the island's 'object-ness' by keeping it very elemental in form, yet still arranging the stone planes to invite comfortable congregation with these square stone niches that embed into the wood floor," said Worrell Yeung co-founder Jejon Yeung.

The studio has designed two other New York apartments – a penthouse in Downtown Brooklyn and two-storey unit in the NoMad neighbourhood – where the kitchen island is also a key feature.

Chelsea Loft includes an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room, joined by a smaller sitting area and a powder room. On the opposite side of the home, a master bedroom has a walk-in closet and bathroom, while a children's bedroom is complete with a bathroom clad in yellow tiles.

"The organising design strategy of this renovation was to maintain contiguous public living zones and extend daylight as far as it can reach by minimising partitions and concentrating private rooms on the north side of the apartment," said the studio.

The interior decor was created by Jean Lin, who has launched a consultancy platform under her local design collective Colony.

Features include a black dining table by Brooklyn studio Vonnegut/Kraft, several tables from Washington studio Grain, and numerous pieces by Cassina including a red velvet sofa, rattan coffee table and Utrecht chair.

Other details are vintage Marcel Breuer Cesca dining chairs, black stools by Hollis and Morris, Noguchi light fixtures, and a collection of artwork owned by the clients, ranging from figure drawings and paintings to abstract pieces.

"The design and overall material experience of the home very much reflect the client's playfulness and complements their eclectic art collection," said Max Worrell, who founded the studio with Yeung in 2014.

Rounding out the design are exposed pipes, white-pigmented ash wood closets and casework, and kitchen cabinetry in dark-stained ash wood.

Worrell Yeung has also built a black barn north of the city in the town of Ancram.

Photography is by Eric Petschek.

Project credits:

General contractor: Bednarz Construction
Interior designer: Jean Lin, Colony
Lighting designer: Lighting Workshop
Mechanical and electrical engineer: Engineering Solutions

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The architecture community has paid tribute to William "Bill" Menking, co-founder of The Architect's Newspaper, who has died aged 72 of cancer.

Menking co-founded The Architect's Newspaper (AN) in 2003 with Diana Darling and was the editor-in-chief when he died on 11 April.

His death after a long battle with cancer has triggered an outpouring of tributes from architects, academics and journalists around the world.

"Menking was an invaluable part of the architecture community of New York as well as nationally and internationally," said Matt Shaw in an obituary for AN.

His "zest for life" and "knack for being in the centre of the action" were reflected on by the former AN executive editor.

"Menking was a central figure in the architecture culture"

"This is terribly sad news, and a huge loss," tweeted New York critic Paul Goldberger. "Bill Menking was a central figure in the architecture culture, liked and respected by just about everyone. And AN is a creation that all of us have come to value, and to need. RIP."

Menking was a tenured professor and trustee at Pratt Institute and was also on the board of directors at Manhattan's Storefront for Art and Architecture and The Architecture Lobby.

"The architecture world is mourning another loss: Bill (William) Menking, historian, writer, critic, founder + editor Archpaper + a loved Pratt Institute professor," tweeted Harriet Harriss, dean of Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

He wrote books including Four Conversations on the Architecture of Discourse and Architecture on Display: On The History of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, and was the curator of the 2008 US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Menking remembered for "ability to connect" community

"Oh this is heartbreaking," tweeted Brenden Cormier, senior design curator of London's Victoria and Albert Museum. "I met Bill in Lisbon in 2013 – was immediately blown away by his energy, passion for architecture culture and ability to connect the huge network of people he had met along the way."

"He was incredibly generous to me, and for that I'm forever grateful. RIP," he added.

Architect James Timberlake also posted condolences for Menking's family on behalf of his architecture firm Kieran Timberlake.

"Kieran Timberlake sends our condolences to the staff at #AN and his daughter Halle; he was a terrific collaborator, critic, and tireless advocate for great design, the environment, and how architecture could improve the social good #WilliamMenking will be sorely and sadly missed," he tweeted.

Menking was born in 1947 in Puerto Rico and raised in California. He studied architecture and urban studies the University of California Berkeley and in Florence, Italy where he met members of the radical design movement.

After his studies, Menking worked as a labour organiser in New York City, at Studio 54, and as an art director for the 1980s television show Miami Vice. He moved to London to study at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London and wrote for British architectural publications including The Architects' Journal and Building Design, before founding AN.

Photograph is courtesy of The Architect's Newspaper.

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Burning Man has cancelled its Black Rock City event this year and revealed plans to host a virtual alternative instead due to the "painful reality of Covid-19".

The organisers of the annual festival announced on Friday 10 April that it will cancel the 2020 festival, which was set to take place in the Nevada desert from 30 August to 7 September.

"After much listening, discussion, and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision not to build Black Rock City in 2020," they said in a statement.

"Given the painful reality of Covid-19, one of the greatest global challenges of our lifetimes, we believe this is the right thing to do," they added. "Yes, we are heartbroken. We know you are too."

"It will likely be messy and awkward with mistakes"

In place of the traditional event, Burning Man will host an online festival called Virtual Black Rock City or VBRC, which will "lean into" the 2020 theme, The Multiverse.

"We are, however, going to build Black Rock City in The Multiverse," the organisers explained. "That's the theme for 2020 so we're going to lean into it."

"We're not sure how it's going to come out; it will likely be messy and awkward with mistakes," they continued. "It will also likely be engaging, connective, and fun."

The announcement comes just under three weeks after the festival organisers said they were waiting to see how the pandemic unfolds in the following months before changing these plans.

They have since decided that the gathering 80,000 in the temporary desert city was too dangerous.

Burning Man to enforce "belt-tightening measures"

"In 2020 we need human connection and immediacy more than ever," the organisers added. "But public health and the well-being of our participants, staff, and neighbours in Nevada are our highest priorities."

Refunds will be offered to those that have already purchased tickets for this year's event. The organisers have asked that those who are in the financial position to donate their ticket value or a portion to the event.

The organisers said that it will need to make "substantial staff layoffs, pay reductions, and other belt-tightening measures" in order to stay afloat. "This is going to be a tough year for us, as we know it will be for you, but we will get through it together," they added.

The virtual event will be ticketed and will allow up to 100,000 attendees.

Burning Man has already chosen its 2020 temple, which will form the centrepiece of the temporary Black Rock City. The design, created by Colorado architect Renzo Verbeck and artist Sylvia Adrienne Lisse, comprises an eight-pointed angular structure.

Architecture and design events are cancelled or postponed

A majority of other large-scale music events that were due to happen this summer have also changed plans because of the coronavirus crisis.

California's music festival Coachella, which was set to start last weekend, will now take place in October, while the UK's Glastonbury music festival is cancelled.

Major architecture and design events have also been affected. Milan's Salone del Mobile has been cancelled until 2021 and the Venice Architecture Biennale has been delayed from May until August.

This week, Dezeen will host Virtual Design Festival, the world's first online design festival, which will contain a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches.

The project will complement and support fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled, and provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

Photography is by Will Roger, as featured in Compass of the Ephemeral: Aerial Photography of Black Rock City through the Lens of Will Roger.

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The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the issues with housing in New York City that must be addressed following the crisis, according to architects in the city.

As people self-isolate in their homes to reduce the spread of Covid-19, private outdoor areas have become invaluable spaces for people to safely get fresh air. But, according to Nathan Rich, co-founder of local architecture studio PRO, many living in New York's public housing don't have access to such areas.

Coronavirus "absolutely revealing needs" in housing

"Access to outdoor space is obviously more relevant now than ever before, especially for lower-income residents," Rich told Dezeen.

"Almost none of the more than 400,000 public housing residents in New York City, for example, have any kind of access to outdoor space from their apartments," he added.

"The coronavirus crisis is absolutely revealing needs and inequities in New York City housing that we should be thinking about."

Rich's studio PRO has been designing case studies for the public housing authority in New York, known as NYCHA. The studio has proposed adding balconies onto existing public housing towers to enhance the lives of tenants.

He said the update could also extend the life of the buildings, many of which have not been renovated since they were built in the 1940s.

"The balconies could better insulate the ageing brick facades, while providing a place for localised heating/cooling condensers," said Rich. "Residents would have private outdoor space that would simultaneously bring far more sunlight and air to the apartment interiors."

"The lessons from the virus are immediately self-evident"

The problem is also not limited to public housing. According to the latest American Housing Survey, as reported by the New York Daily News, nearly 80 per cent of people that live in the city's housing complexes with over five residences don't have access to a "porch, deck, balcony or patio" from their apartment.

Eran Chen, the founder of New York architecture firm ODA, said that providing outdoor spaces has also been overlooked in city developments, which aim to make the most of little space.

"The lessons from the virus are immediately self-evident to architects who have been striving for these things, against the tides of developers and the bottom line, for so long," he said.

"There must be a better way to arrange our homes in our increasingly dense cities where we can enjoy our privacy while acknowledging our neighbours, where we can all access outdoor spaces and feel the sunshine on our face."

Chen believes that the prevalence of high-rises and penthouses throughout the city, which has turned "isolation into a status symbol", should also be reconsidered.

"It's time to look at more successful typologies to reconnect society"

"The social housing experiment of the 1950s and 60s created a new architectural typology, which was compounded by an underlying social construct, driven by capitalism, that told us to mind our own business," he explained.

"Somehow, during the age of high rises that followed, turned this idea of isolation into a status symbol, as private penthouses, accessed by private elevators, today float high above the city streets."

Chen argues that it will also take "more than a balcony" to create the necessary changes to New York housing. He cites examples in European cities, where apartment buildings often wrap around a block and have a hollow space at their core for communal gardens.

"It's time to look at more successful typologies to reconnect society," he said. "In 2020, as the wave of Covid-19 subsides, I believe it will be a greater need for intimacy within communities."

"We will have to reimagine creative solutions to the spatial inequalities this crisis has surfaced"

David Brown, principal of the New York office of international firm Woods Bagot, said the pandemic called on architects to come with "creative solutions" to adapt urban apartments, many of which are being hacked by their residents.

"Tenement dwellers are taking full advantage of the scraps of outdoor space we have always used in summer – fire escapes, tar beaches (roofs), and stoops," Brown told Dezeen.

"For those of us still dedicated to the socially sustainable project of the high-density, mixed-use city, we will have to reimagine creative solutions to the economic and spatial inequalities this crisis has surfaced to bring dignity and amenity to small urban apartments."

Woods Bagot has already developed a modular system that adapts apartments to make them better suited for working at home because of coronavirus.

Brown added that as New Yorkers realise the danger and difficulty of city living, and adjust to working remotely, they could rethink their urban life entirely.

"It remains to be seen if this crisis will make society rethink its relationship to urbanity – we are learning to work remote and potentially raising fears of density, proximity and public transit," he said.

Photograph is courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Brooklyn design agency Standard Issue has created an open-source design for a face mask that can be CNC-cut and produced on a large scale.

Standard Issue's product, called One Mask, is designed so it can be produced by companies that have access to automated cutting and seaming technologies, such as manufacturers for furniture, fashion and sportswear brands.

The face mask is not intended to be medical grade but instead aims to help ramp up the production of masks for use by the public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has urged everyone living in the US to wear a face cover whenever they are outside of their homes to help slow the spread of Covid-19.

"A month ago we identified the real issue was not around the design of a face mask, but the design of a face mask that provides reasonable protection and can be mass-produced for rapid and wide distribution," Victor Abellan told Dezeen, who is head of operations at Standard Issue.

The design comprises two, symmetrical shapes that can be cut-out from a single piece of material. Standard Issue has designed the patterns so they can be cut by a computer numerically controlled (CNC) router, helping to produce them quickly on a large scale.

The two pieces are then connected to one another at their widest point with ultrasonic welding, which is a common manufacturing technology in many industries, including furniture and sportswear.

"It can be produced by organisations in many industries," the studio said. "The technology required to produce One Mask is ubiquitous."

"Manufacturers of sneakers, outdoor and athletic gear, furniture, window coverings, clothing and packaging are a few of the many industries that might pivot to manufacture One Mask."

Standard Issue advises using a "breathable, pliable, soft, non-woven material that will not fray" to make the mask. "The use of nonwoven fabric is a simple choice as it does not require stitching to prevent fraying and it is extremely effective blocking particles from passing through it," it added.

One Mask has a seam that runs down the centre of the nose, mouth and chin, and four straps are tied around the head to secure it.

Standard Issue said it based the mask design on the medical-grade N95 mask, which Lien-teh Wu created in 1910 in response to the pneumonic plague in China. The mask was similarly designed from cloth and sewn together down the middle.

Standard Issue's design comes with a pattern file and a step-by-step brochure. The studio said that the design could also be cut and sewn by hand.

"It can easily be made at home using a sewing machine," Abellan said.

Fashion brands like COS and Prada have already pivoted their production to make face masks in response to the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Others have focused their efforts on producing face shields for medical workers treating coronavirus patients. They include brands like Nike and Apple, architecture studios such as Foster + Partners and BIG, and educational institutions like Cambridge University and MIT.

In an interview with Dezeen, physician and epidemiologist Michael Edmond said everyone should wear shields whenever they leave home.

Photography is courtesy of Standard Issue.

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The Wing drone delivery system developed by Google is being used to deliver toilet paper and medicine to residents in lockdown in Virginia, USA.

Run by Google's parent company Alphabet Inc, the drone delivery service had been running a test programme for several months before the coronavirus pandemic.

Now Wing's drones are being used to deliver essentials such as medicine, baby food, canned tuna, toilet paper, toothpaste and pasta for people living around the town of Christiansburg in rural Virginia.

Wing has seen a significant increase in requests for deliveries since the coronavirus outbreak began.

"We've made more than 1,000 deliveries in the last two weeks across all our communities," Wing CEO James Ryan Burgess told Dezeen.

"While we recognise that this service will be a small relief during this time, we hope it means one less trip to the store for items our customers may need, and provides an efficient way for local businesses to reach their customers in a time when limiting human-to-human contact is important."

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the state's governor to put Virginians under a stay at home order until 10 June 2020.

To reduce transmission, people have been asked to avoid contact with people outside of their household. Drone delivery allows people to buy essential items without leaving their house or putting delivery people at increased risk.

Wing's drones have a wingspan of one metre and can carry parcels that weigh up to 1.3 kilograms for a round trip of 12 miles.

Google began testing its Wing drone delivery service in Australia in 2014, where the unmanned aerial vehicles dropped off dog treats and first aid kits for farmers in the outback. Last April, Wing became the first drone operator in the USA to be approved as a commercial service to deliver goods by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Customers submit an order via an app, prompting a drone to fly to a delivery facility to pick up the items packed in a specially designed cardboard carrier.

Laden with its package, the drone flies to its destination at altitude, before dropping and hovering at a height of seven metres above the ground to deliver its cargo.

The package is lowered on a tether and automatically released. There is no need to interact with the drone or unclip the package before the drone flies off and returns to its base.

In Virginia the unmanned arial drones are being used to deliver orders made via delivery company FedEx and supermarket Walgreens.

Local bakery Mockingbird Cafe has also been using Wing to deliver pastries to residents stuck at home during the lockdown, and a coffee shop called Burgh Coffee has signed up to deliver its cold brew using the service. Wing still has two delivery sites in Australia, and is also trialling the service in Helsinki, Finland.

Drone deliveries are changing the way that people live in urban areas, as explored in Dezeen's documentary short Elevation.

As countries around the world attempt to contain the spread of covid-19, drones are one of the technologies being used to help maintain quarantine. In China, drones were used to hold lights over hospital construction sites at night and to tell people out in the streets to stay at home.

Photos courtesy of Wing.

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Architecture firm Bryanoji Design Studio has wrapped aluminium shingles around this angular house in a Massachusetts woodland.

Mill-finished aluminium shingles cover the exterior and roof to pick up on the hues and patterns of its surroundings in Princeton, Massachusetts.

"The house becomes one with the landscape, reflecting continuous gradation of surrounding colours, adding a sophisticated poetry to a simple life in the woods," Bryanoji Design Studio said.

The cladding is made from 90 per cent recycled material and is combined with insulation and Energy Recovering Ventilation (ERV) to help reduce the house's energy use, according to the firm.

Called Project Merri, the property is formed by two conjoining gabled volumes. One portion houses the social spaces in a large open room, while the other side is partitioned into bedrooms and bathrooms.

Inside, the house is decorated with simple materials such as plywood and oriented strand board cover the floors, walls, ceilings and rafters.

"This rather stoic approach, in return, expanded client's freedom for space occupancy, an essential criterion for every single family home," the studio added.

Repurposed items form decorative elements and furniture throughout the house.

In the kitchen, the cabinets are constructed using plywood sheets from old construction scaffolding. Recycled bleacher seats have been converted into light fixtures that span across the length of the open kitchen.

On the exterior, a series of 100-year-old marble steps were recycled from the State Capitol building of Rhode Island and refurbished materials taken from a local recycling centre form a swing bed on the porch.

Other details that furnish the house are a wooden ladder attached to a sliding track that provides access to a loft area inside one of the peaks, black and white mural of men working and wood stove with a tall black chimney pipe.

Bryanoji Design Studio is led by design director Takako Oji and has its office in Princeton, Massachusetts.

Other houses designed for rural Massachusetts sites are an elongated wood volume stretched over a hillside by O'Neill Rose Architects and a small cabin in a forest with a metal roof envisioned by WOJR.

Photography is by Ed Wonsek and Takako Oji.

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The American Institute of Architects has cancelled its annual conference, which was set to take place in a month, as the US continues to battle the spread of coronavirus.

The AIA had previously planned to postpone the conference scheduled for 14 to 16 May until a later date this year. It revealed today that it will instead take place next year.

Decision amid "uncertainties" of the coming months

"After carefully monitoring Covid-19 developments, we have determined that we will not be able to reschedule conference given the number of uncertainties we face as a nation in the coming months," said AIA president Jane Frederick.

"We believe this decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of our members, colleagues, exhibitors and speakers and out of consideration for all attendees."

The AIA is offering refunds to those that have purchased tickets to the 2020 Conference of Architecture, which was set to take place in Los Angeles with designer Virgil Abloh as the keynote speaker. It has not yet released dates for next year's event.

AIA to focus efforts on issues caused by pandemic

Now that the event is cancelled, the institution said it would instead be focusing on other ways to address issues caused by the pandemic.

The AIA has previously urged Congress to provide financial support small architecture firms and their employees. It applauded the $2 trillion (£1.61 trillion) emergency rescue package that president Donald Trump signed shortly afterwards for the way that it could help architects and their firms.

The institution also established a task force to consult on how to adapt buildings into healthcare facilities. As part of this project, it launched a tool for assessing alternative care sites for treating Covid-19 patients.

"At this time, we are focusing all of our efforts on assisting our members through these economic uncertainties and supporting their important work in contributing to the Covid-19 response," Frederick added.

Major architecture and design events cancelled or postponed

A majority of architecture and design events that were planned for spring and summer have been cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. They include Salone del Mobile in Milan, which has been cancelled until 2021, and the Venice Architecture Biennale, which has been postponed.

Keep up with developments by following Dezeen's coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. For news of impacted events, check Dezeen Events Guide's dedicated coronavirus page.

Photograph of 2018 conference in New York's  Radio City Music Hall, courtesy of AIA.

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New York architecture studio Forma has created contrasting orange and grey-coloured rooms for Yale University's student-run radio station.

Forma, led by Miroslava Brooks and Daniel Markiewicz, designed the interiors with a simple but striking colour palette that covers the floors, ceilings and walls.

A recording studio is painted top-to-bottom in pale grey and is joined by an orange-painted performance space. Forma designed the radio station on the top floor of a four-storey, 1930s building in New Haven, Connecticut.

"An immersive colour space delineates the performance zone at the rear of the building for live band and show recordings," said Forma.

The studio demolished existing interior walls to create the two areas, and added new carpeting and vinyl floors. The performance area is complete with a new reinforced dropped ceiling.

In the recording area, which hosts Yale's online radio station WYBCx, the walls are painted pale grey and the room is topped with a skylight.

"The intensely saturated space is juxtaposed with the calming grey of the adjacent recording studio, where similarly the ceiling and walls match the carpeted floor for an all-encompassing visual experience," added the studio.

Forma added a fire-resistant guardrail around the staircase to comply with the adaptive reuse project's commercial building code.

Made of plywood and painted black, it offers a striking accent alongside the orange and grey. The existing stairs were stained black to match.

"It acts as a connecting and unifying element between the floors, framing the changing views as one moves through the narrow stairwell," said the studio.

The two floors below the recording space remain relatively unchanged but are also for Yale's radio station, including an existing restaurant on the ground floor.

Forma also updated all of the rear windows near to the outdoor fire-escape. The windows have minimal, custom-made boxes with black-stained wood.

"The windows appear as objects inserted in the wall, in dialogue with the existing cast-iron radiators also painted black," said Forma.

Other projects at Yale University are Louis Kahn's Yale Center for British Art that was restored in 2016 and a house designed by graduate students for people experiencing homelessness.

Photography is by Devon Banks.

Project credits:

Client: Yale Broadcasting Company Inc
Partners in charge: Miroslava Brooks, Daniel Markiewicz
Collaborator: Parsa Khalili
Construction: Babbidge Construction Company Inc

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Next up in our series of roundups of houses from each US state we're looking at Michigan, where residences are designed to make the most of its abundance of shoreline.

Michigan Lake House by Desai Chia Architects

A striking, blackened timber roof cantilevers over an outdoor patio for this lake house Desai Chia Architects completed in Michigan's Leelanau County.

The house is built from materials found on site. Dying ash trees were used for the external cladding, which were then scorched using the traditional Japanese technique called shou sugi ban.

Find out more about Lake House ›

Camp Minoh by William Kaven

Architecture firm William Kaven used heavy board-marked concrete to bolster Camp Minoh against the harsh climate of its sandy, waterfront site. This is paired with timber that has been charred to ensure that it can weather strong winter winds.

A large concrete wall is used to enclose a courtyard at the front of the property, complete with a firepit and built-in seating.

Find out more about Camp Minoh ›

Courtyard House by John Ronan

Courtyard House on Lake Michigan takes its name from four courtyards that offer a link between the indoors and the water.

John Ronan chose the home's palette of materials and colours to take cues from the surroundings. This includes charred douglas fir cladding intended to reference bonfires on the beach and textured, cast-glass planks to evoke green beach glass.

Find out more about Courtyard House ›

Lawless Retreat by Searl Lamaster Howe Architects

Charred cedar, cement-board lap siding and glass walls are intended to hide this house on its site on the edge of a nature preserve, called Lawless Park.

Chicago studio Searl Lamaster Howe chose materials with similar tones to decorate the interior of Lawless Retreat like pale and dark woods and slate tiles.

Find out more about Lawless Retreat ›

Higgins Lake House by Jeff Jordan Architects

Clad in warm wood, Jeff Jordan Architects' long residence sleeps up to 20 people.

A number of the bedrooms are buried partially underground to reduce the massing of the house, which is named after its location on Higgins Lake. The upper levels house an open-plan living room and a master suite.

Find out more about Higgins Lake House ›

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California architect Juan Saez Pedraja has added a studio fronted with aluminium panels and cedar shades to the backyard of a remodelled Santa Monica residence.

Ramar Residence and Studio is located on a hill in the city's Sunset Park neighbourhood approximately one mile (1.6 kilometres) from the Pacific Ocean.

Saez Pedraja designed the renovation to a 2,150-square-foot (199.7-square-metre) house, which was built in 1958, for a fashion designer. The project included updating the existing structure with new finishes and adding a small studio.

Previously the house was clad with light stucco, which was updated to dark grey. Concrete steps that wrap around one corner of the house were added to replace a wood staircase formerly used to provide access to the main floor.

On the other side of the house, a large stucco balcony with a glass guardrail juts out from the residence.

The fashion-design studio is nestled in the backyard. The structure is framed with aluminium and fronted with a series of ceiling-height sliding glass doors that let in light and air.

"We decided to do a detached structure located at the rear of the lot in order to take advantage of the views, light and ocean breeze," Saez Pedraja said.

Local building regulations usually limit the maximum square footage of outdoor units at 230 square feet (21 square metres).

To maximise the available space, however, the architect extended the studio's roof structure beyond the enclosed building to form an outdoor lounge area on one side and exterior walkway at the front. With the added spaces the unit totals 400 square feet (37 square metres).

The studio is also covered in stucco exterior but this is concealed by a painted steel board that covers most of the facade its length. Windows are fronted with large cedar shades that are painted grey and framed in aluminium to match.

The interior decor is minimal including polished concrete flooring and several structural steel posts.

Updates to the residence included replacing the hardwood with concrete flooring and reworking the layout to expose the interiors to views of the nearby ocean. The studio painted the walls white and left the wood slabs and beams that cover the ceiling exposed.

A fireplace wall in the living room is clad with cold-rolled steel. The black metal material is also used on the set of staircases that leads to the lower level, which houses the garage and an additional bedroom.

Santa Monica is a Californian city west of Downtown Los Angeles. Recent projects in the city include the rustic BreadBlok bakery and the Santa Monica Proper Hotel designed by Kelly Wearstler.

Other renovations in California with added studio units include a project by FAR fronted with a folding plastic door.

Photography is by Ignacio Espigares.

Project credits:

Lead Architects: Juan Saez Pedraja
Engineer: Aram Arakelyan
Steel works: Jacobo Paredes
FF&E procurement: Aeco Design

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While converting existing buildings into fully functioning hospitals is unfeasible, high schools and large hotels can be used as care space for coronavirus patients, says Jason Schroer, who is director of health at HKS's firm in Dallas. Here he explains how.

The Covid-19 pandemic brings a unique challenge to all healthcare architects. It stretches our design paradigm and asks us to play a key support role in the trajectory of health outcomes in our communities.

In just 10 to 14 days, a hotel, high school or public assembly space can be converted into a temporary patient-care facility that will ease the pressure on mainline hospitals by providing more space for patient beds. No alternative space is perfect, but attempting a hard-walled construction project or launching the cumbersome permitting process a new facility would require – even one with pre-fabricated modular components – isn't practical.

It's also too time-consuming and expensive to convert and/or renovate most existing building types into fully operational hospitals that meet all licensing and compliance requirements. In our current Covid-19 environment, speed and efficiency are major design drivers – but patient and staff safety also remain paramount.

There's a lot to quickly consider when we assess buildings for conversion to patient care facilities

It must be acknowledged that a non-healthcare building converted to patient care space is not quite a hospital. It's not practical, and there isn't enough time to make such a conversion. There's a lot to quickly consider when we assess buildings for conversion to patient care facilities, and the baseline criteria is straightforward: is it a building type that can converted quickly; is there enough space to allow flexibility for a critical mass of patients; and is it located in an area or region that requires more bed capacity in the immediate near term?

Drilling down further, it's important to match patients' acuity levels to the facility. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers guidance regarding which Covid-19 patients are appropriate for alternative care sites.

A tier one site is for individuals who test positive for Covid-19 but cannot stay at home. This would require limited monitoring and require primary self-care. A tier two site would be considered a low-acuity site for individuals that require some monitoring and additional care. A tier three site would house high-acuity patients that would require intense monitoring and respiratory treatment with a highly trained care staff.

After studying a wide variety of educational facilities, it became clear that medium to large high schools are optimum

The patients most appropriate for a Covid-19 hotel, school, or public assembly space would include those who are in the tier one and tier two category: suspected of being a Covid-19 carrier; confirmed Covid-19 positive, but are not presenting severe symptoms; confirmed Covid-19 positive, live with high-risk population; confirmed Covid-19 positive, live alone and cannot self-care; recovering from Covid-19 but still require care or sequestration. In the case of pediatrics, it is recommended that children with severe cases be treated within hospitals.

We studied many different hotel types. We found that a full-service convention hotel provides the best opportunity to quickly create and support functional patient-care spaces. Convention hotels are predominantly located in large population centers where the need for Covid-19 treatment and sequestration could potentially be higher. These hotels are also likely situated near major hospitals.

After studying a wide variety of educational facilities, it became clear that medium to large high schools are optimum – here's why. High schools are generally easy to access and are found in almost all communities and publicly owned. These schools are large enough to house between 200 and 500 patients, depending on the facility and the ancillary spaces available (like gymnasiums). They offer wide corridors and mostly non-porous/durable surfaces to maintain cleanliness.

The conversion of a high school requires minimal intervention and/or construction

High schools are designed for older/larger students, unlike their elementary school counterparts. These spaces come equipped with Centralised Mechanical Electrical Plumbing (MEP) systems that can provide a higher quality of control for spaces.

High schools provide multiple spaces that are easily convertible for patient care and its support requirements. The conversion of a high school requires minimal intervention and/or construction, and can be done quickly.

Large assembly spaces in buildings like gymnasiums, arenas, stadiums, ballparks and convention centers are being considered for rapid transformation. These building types share several attributes that make them efficient large-scale alternative care facilities in times of pandemic.

These attributes include: publicly owned facilities can be occupied faster; large flat floors offer flexible patient care configurations which can easily expand if needed; efficient loading systems for quick set-up and delivery; readily available facilities staff to assist; ability to accommodate large numbers of people; easy vehicular and transit access located in city centers; a variety of support spaces easily convertible for use as patient care support.

I'm encouraged to see healthcare architects and allied professionals mobilise and respond proactively to this health crisis

As part of the US Army Corps of Engineers' effort to support the nations' surge bed capacity needs, HKS was recently commissioned as part of a team with Gilbane Building Company to retrofit the 250,000-square-foot (23,226-square-metre) Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan into a 1,000-bed alternative care facility.

Located in suburban Detroit, this expo centre represents a great combination of what we require as far as location, size and easily convertible space. As part of an industry-wide effort to collaborate and develop creative solutions by using our core competencies around planning and design, I'm encouraged to see healthcare architects and allied professionals mobilise and respond proactively to this health crisis by committing to quickly design structures that will help save lives and prevent further transmission of the Coronavirus.

The American Institute of Architects has assembled a task force to assist public officials, health facility owners and architects as they adapt buildings into temporary healthcare facilities. Two of my HKS colleagues, Erin Peavey and Yiselle Santos Rivera, serve on this task force and are hard at work developing a Covid-19 Rapid Response Safety Space Assessment for Alternative Care Sites (ACS) to safely and effectively provide health care operations in unconventional buildings and locations.

Photograph of the temporary hospital in New York's Jacob K Javits Convention Center is by The National Guard.

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Architecture firm OMA and landscape studio Olin have released updated visuals for 11th Street Bridge Park – a raised garden that will extend over Washington DC's Anacostia River.

The update follows the National Capital Planning Commission's approval of the scheme to construct a park spanning Washington DC's Anacostia River earlier this month.

OMA and Olin, who won a competition to redesign the area in 2014, have now released new renderings that detail 11th Street Bridge Park with several green spaces and mixed-use buildings.

"At a time when we are paradoxically isolated from one another but united in a common cause, public spaces that we all share and that benefit health have become more important than ever," said OMA partner Jason Long.

"Our work has focused on creating a new civic space that engages with the Anacostia River and refining the programme for the park to ensure it will be a place for everyone in DC."

11th Street Bridge Park will occupy a series of piers that previously supported a roadway spanning the river. It will be composed of a split-level structure that meets in the centre to form a cross shape.

On the two upper levels, lifted by trusses, there will be gardens and lookout points connected by a series of walkways. These will also lead to the lower level where there will be additional green space, plazas and a cafe.

Pedestrians will access the raised park via ramps and paths that are constructed at either riverfront. A roadway will run alongside the 11th Street Bridge Park, which will extend the full width of the river.

Visuals show the landscape occupied by colourful benches and hammocks, play equipment, including slides built into a small hill and a waterfall feature.

A small performance stage attaches to the underside of the bridge on one side of the design. On the opposite side of the bridge, the raised portion creates a roof for a cafe and patio space. An additional triangular building on the site can be used for public events.

OMA and Olin beat proposals from Balmori Associates and Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Stoss Landscape Urbanism and Höweler + Yoon Architecture, and Wallace Roberts & Todd , NEXT Architects and Magnusson Klemencic Associates.

Since winning, the firms have worked with the District Department of Transportation, non-profit Building Bridges Across the River and the Anacostia Watershed Society to develop the project. Construction is expected to start in 2021.

"This project will be the first public space in the nation's capital that will make a bridge a destination – a park above the river – where access to green spaces can significantly encourage physical activity while building social capital," OMA said.

11th Street Bridge Park joins a number of infrastructure reuse projects in North America. Others include Diller Scofidio + Renfro and James Corner Field Operations' hugely popular High Line park on a reclaimed a section of a disused elevated railway line along the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

OMA was founded in 1975 by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It has recently completed a department store in Gwanggyo, South Korea clad with tessellated triangles of stone and a luxury resort in Bali.

Renderings are by Luxigon.

Project Credits:

Partner: Jason Long
Associate: Yusef Ali Dennis
Team: Titouan Chapouly, Alireza Shojakhani, Yiyao Wang, Gonzalo Samaniego
Landscape Architect: Olin
Structural & Civil Engineer: WRA, Delon Hampton
MEPFP: Setty
Community Outreach Advisor: ARCH Development
Acoustics Consultant: Threshold Acoustics
Lighting Designer: MCLA

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Convention centres that have been rapidly turned into facilities for coronavirus patients should not be called hospitals, says Doug King, the healthcare principal of Stantec, which has overseen the transformation of Chicago's McCormick Place.

Stantec worked with contractor Walsh Construction to turn three halls in the centre into an alternative care facility with 3000 beds. The team, which was assembled on 26 March, was tasked to complete it within three weeks.

"We were under construction within 12 hours of contract"

"From the day we got the contract to completion of all 3,000 beds is 25 days," King told Dezeen. "We were under construction within 12 hours of contract."

"We were starting to build support spaces within 12 hours," he added. "The first 500 beds were delivered in less than a week."

Stantec's project marks the latest convention centre that has been turned into facilities for coronavirus patients – including the ExCel in London and the Javits Center in New York – as hospitals reach capacity due to the pandemic.

"That's one of the mantras – not a hospital"

But King said it shouldn't be considered as a replacement for its hospital counterpart.

"This is not a hospital," King said. "That's one of the mantras – not a hospital. It's an alternative care facility."

King's view is echoed by Jason Schroer, the director of health at architecture firm HKS's Dallas outpost. He similarly argued that "a non-healthcare building converted to a patient care space is not quite a hospital" in an Opinion piece for Dezeen.

The McCormick Place facility comprises 2250 for patients that aren't diagnosed with Covid-19 and a separate area with 750 beds for those that have the disease.

King said that the main intervention was to introduce a mechanical system that created negative pressure in the areas with Covid-19 patients. Negative pressure forces air that could be carrying the virus out of spaces and helps to prevent cross-contamination.

Ductwork and fans direct contaminated air out of the centre

To achieve this, the team inserted scaffolding to create a lower ceiling in the centre – which typically reaches heights of 30 to 40 feet (nine to 12 metres) – to hold ductwork at 10 feet (three metres) high.

HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters are then used to collect and suck pollutants "like a vacuum cleaner" into the ductwork.

"We directed the air into that ductwork and basically sucked it out of the building with a series of fans," King said. "So that was the largest intervention that we did."

"That flushed air goes through the HEPA filter so all of the virus is captured in the HEPA filter, which gets changed out regularly," he added. "Then it goes up into the ductwork that gets pulled to the outside of the building."

Nurse stations customised

King said while it wasn't straightforward to transform the centre there were a number of advantages. For example, there are regular hubs across the floor that provide electricity, water and often WiFi that could be used for nurse's stations.

The team had to be creative with the design of each station so they connect to hubs and are also located to enable medical workers views of the patients.

"That became a bit of a design exercise that required collaboration with the contractors and for us to quickly customise every single nurse station location," he said.

"Every single nurse station location had to be customised to its services, or origin of its services. So when you look at the layout, you'll see the nurse stations, but many times they have, they're shaped like Zs or shaped like circles with one leg on them or something."

Future hospitals will have dedicated pandemic areas

King added that the current crisis, which has put extreme pressure on hospitals and medical workers, will impact the ways that hospitals are arranged and designed in the future.

He said that they will start to include specific areas dedicated to "pandemic-stricken individuals" and those that need other types of care.

"Hospitals are going to start to acknowledge the need to be able to separate their facilities into what we'll call pandemic-stricken individuals, virus-stricken individuals versus those that are basically just regularly in the hospital," he said.

"In the future, you're going to see hospitals thinking like that."

Photograph courtesy of Walsh Construction.

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Architects Robert Arlt and Charles MacBride and a group of students in South Dakota have completed an experimental gabled Passivhaus, which they claim is the first in the area to "sell energy back to the grid".

Arlt, an instructor in the South Dakota State University Department of Architecture, and MacBride worked with students to complete the house in Brookings near the school campus.

As there is currently no statewide energy code that residential buildings must meet in South Dakota, the project is intended to highlight the possibilities for construction.

"In a state that will not adopt energy codes, the design responds to showcase and demonstrate sustainable development to the region's public, contractors, and building officials through site selection, systems and assemblies," the team said.

The group obtained a housing grant from the Governor's Office of Economic Development to design the project to meet standards set by the Passive House Institute.

According to the team, the 2,000 square-foot house is also the first in the area to produce more energy than it consumes.

"The residence is 90 per cent more efficient than a similar house built to code and is the first house in the region to sell energy back to the grid," it said.

Energy-saving and environmentally friendly details include photovoltaic panels installed on the roof to generate energy, a built-in water heater with a more efficient heat pump and quadruple glazed windows.

There is also a Zehnder HRV (Healthy Climate Heat Recovery Ventilation) ventilation system, which uses the heat of the stale air that is leaving the house to warm up the fresh air entering to reduce energy loss.

The roof is designed to hang over openings on the south-facing facade to offer shading in warm weather and the gutter is built-in to reduce heat loss through thermal bridging. All of the walls inside the house are coated in a white non-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint, which means it doesn't contain any carbon.

The house also has a striking appearance; dark grey fibre-cement lap siding covers the exterior and the windows and doorways are framed with cedar wood.

A portion of the front of the gabled house a portion is cut away to form a small entry porch. The inset entrance is entirely clad with cedar and features a bright red door.

"A simple gabled massing responds to the neighbouring context and implements contemporary detailing to read as a single, subtracted volume with deep set apertures," the team added.

At the rear of the house, an exterior courtyard covered in wood slats connects to the detached garage.

Inside, the living and dining area features double-height ceilings to view activities on the upper level, which includes two bedrooms and a loft on the upper level. The master bedroom is located on the ground floor.

The team designed a wooden staircase made from cross-laminated timber and glulam, materials that are deemed to be more sustainable details that concrete and metal. These are among a number of wooden details, such as the basswood slat railings and ceiling beam, which are intended to contrast the plain interiors.

There is also a black accent wall grid system made from painted MDF panels constructed on both floors to conceal the master suite, bathrooms and mechanical rooms.

Residents can monitor and adjust the air quality and energy usage via an online platform that provides information on the areas of the house using the most energy.

The property joins a number created to explore the possibilities for low energy and more sustainable design. Examples include a Kansas residence completed by students at the University of Kansas and architecture firm Snøhetta's ultra-efficient HouseZero at Harvard University.

Photography is by Vondelinde.

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A modernist housing development in Detroit designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is captured in photographs by architect and local resident Julio Alberto Cedano.

Called Lafayette Park, the project was built by the German-American architect in 1959 and comprises two superblocks of differently sized buildings.

Cedano photographed the development, which marks the largest collection of residential buildings by Mies van der Rohe, to pay homage to the design. For four years, he has lived in an apartment in one of the site's twin Lafayette Towers that scales 22 storeys.

"Living in the Lafayette Towers allows me to document different moments through changing seasons, with new palettes of colour reflecting off the glass facades and providing visual excitement," Cedano told Dezeen.

"It's a unique opportunity, like living in an active museum of Mies buildings."

Lafayette Park encompasses 46 acres (18 hectares) and includes a variety of buildings, from modernist high-rise condominium towers and two-story modular townhomes to single-storey dwellings. The centre of the site is defined by a greenway and many trees and plantings are interspersed throughout.

Cedano believes the surrounding natures pairs well with Mies van der Rohe's structures, which feature gridded windows, flat roofs and steel facades.

"At Lafayette Park, van der Rohe creates a dramatic dialogue between architecture and nature," he said. "The geometry of the grid juxtaposed with the natural surroundings is awe-inspiring. Nature creates the space that frames the architecture in place, allowing the simplicity of its beauty to radiate."

Mies van der Rohe designed Lafayette Park with urban planner Ludwig Hilberseimer and landscape designer Alfred Caldwell on the eastern edge of Downtown Detroit.

The developer Herb Greenwald previously worked with the architect on his Chicago apartments at 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, which was completed in 1951 on the city's lakefront.

Its northern section, which was planned and partially built by Mies van der Rohe, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It includes buildings by both Mies van der Rohe and other architects.

Before moving to Detroit, Cedano studied architecture and urban design at Columbia University in New York City. He currently works as an urban designer for the City of Detroit Planning and Development and uses photography to engage with architecture.

"As an architect and urban designer, I am constantly photographing my surroundings, whether with an iPhone or my digital SLR camera, and I use photography as a way to observe and understand light, space and the built environment," he added.

Cedano created the photography series with architectural historian Jacqueline Taylor, who also used to live at the complex and work at the Detroit's city planning department but is now based in Berlin.

"Lafayette Park provides a model for housing that combines density and diverse housing options with a respect for nature in an abundance of exterior green space, where limbs can stretch, lungs can expand, and minds can feel a sense of freedom," Taylor told Dezeen.

Mies van der Rohe is considered one of the most significant architects of the 20th century. Known simply as Mies, he was the final director of the Bauhaus school and went on to live in the US and head the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago.

His other projects include Farnsworth House in Illinois, which was illuminated with red lasers in an installation by Iker Gil and Luftwerk. The duo has also created a similar light design for the architect's Barcelona Pavilion.

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