Urbain DRC

30/01/2019

A sneak peak at our new site for the Wikitopia project in the heart of Ginza in Tokyo, a plaza and multi-story underground complex that links to the subway. More details to come soon. @ Ginza Sony Park（銀座ソニーパーク）

10/12/2018

Jack Cochran, Urbain co-founder, is in Charlottesville for final reviews at U.Va. An intense snowstorm has set the starting point back a few hours, but we couldn’t imagine a more beautiful setting for what’s sure to be an exciting day of conversation and fantastic student work.

06/12/2018

We’re excited to announce the second phase of the Wikitopia International Competition! Building on the incredible ideas we received from the first phase, we ask that participants focus on a specific site in Tokyo and build off of prior ideas, akin to updating software. More details on Phase 2.0 are available at wikitopia.jp/competition/index_en.html. We’ll be posting images from our Phase 1.0 winners soon, as well as pictures of our exhibit in Tokyo last week that featured competition entries and research into the long history of tactical and participatory urbanism.

21/07/2018

11/07/2018

We’re excited to announce the Wikitopia International Competition is now open! A collaboration with Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Wikitopia seeks tech-enabled tactical urbanist designs and ideas, to help citizens quickly and effectively change their environment for the better. Please go to wikitopia.jp/competition for details and share if you know anyone who might be interested.

10/07/2018

We’ve got an exciting Wikitopia announcement tomorrow, an ongoing project with our Japanese partners at Sony Computer Science Laboratories. Check back tomorrow for the latest on this Tokyo-US collaboration.

11/04/2018

We’re excited to announce a research project we’ve had underway since January, a collaboration with Sony and Japanese architects on tactical urbanism. Titled Wikitopia, we’re investigating historic and contemporary examples of DIY improvements to cities. Bouquinistes, above, are Parisian magazine and bookstands, rapidly deployable from wood crates bolted to low walls, bringing reading material and conversation to the sidewalks and minimizing hauling by owners. More updates to come on our yearlong endeavor. Photo credit: Benh Lieu Song.

09/04/2018

Our custom ceiling for the first level at Konko Hostel mixed yellow, white, and metal mesh inserts with varying opacities, creating an eye-catching element to draw visitors to the second-level reception. @ Jakarta, Indonesia

06/04/2018

Facade detail at night at our newly opened hostel.

08/02/2018

Our 2014 installation at the Knockdown Center, a reading room made of receipt paper. Titled Obsolescence/Birth, the installation was a part of a one-day event featuring artists, chefs, and designers responding to a visual (non-haptic) Braille manual. Influenced by the beauty of the code and also its obsolescence, as Braille is being quickly supplanted by text-to-audio technologies, we asked how another soon-to-be replaced technology, the physical receipt, might be reimagined.

01/02/2018

From the archives: Carl Koepcke conducts an early test of the MIMMI lights, hung in his garage a few months before installation, working with Yuichiro Takeuchi in Japan. We individually assigned each WiFi-enabled LED to show the mood of a local Tweet, all of which worked together to evoke the real-time feelings of a city.

25/01/2018

Demo has begun on our Medford St. apartment! We’re converting a former acupuncturist clinic to a four bedroom home. By tearing down two small rooms, we’ve turned a tight space into what will become an open kitchen and living room - targeted minimal costs for great impact.

03/01/2018

A hallway to bunks and private rooms at Konko Hostel nearly finished.

10/11/2016

We're proud to announce we've been working with an exciting non-profit in New England that's developing a new rail-to-trail bikeway in Cape Cod. Check out Friends of the Bourne Rail Trail's website for more info: http://www.bournerailtrail.org/the-vision/.

Knowing the success of the Midtown Greenway in our hometown of Minneapolis, we're excited to help with the visioning process for a key missing link in Massachusetts. More to come!

07/01/2016

Technology and automation are transforming every corner of the world - even the construction industry: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/540916/robots-lay-three-times-as-many-bricks-as-construction-workers/ #

Creators of a new bricklaying robot say its purpose is to leverage human jobs, not entirely replace them.

23/07/2015

Check out this MIMMI-like art proposal in Chicago: http://blog.archpaper.com/2015/07/help-kickstart-interactive-installation-chicagos-l/ #.VbFubehViko

Wabash Lights, a site-specific installation under Chicago's L. (Courtesy Wabash Lights) Chicago is best known for Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower (yes, t

13/06/2015

Check out this awesome new 3d printing technique. Wonder what the possibilities might be in the future! http://www.fastcodesign.com/3047350/this-robot-can-3-d-print-a-steel-bridge-in-mid-air?utm_source=facebook #9

Autodesk and MX3D have teamed up on a robot that can actually "draw" city infrastructure, on location and without human intervention.

03/04/2015

Today is your last chance to cast a vote for MIMMI! Please vote now and share with your friends and family! http://awards.architizer.com/public/voting/?cid=46

Architizer A+ Awards Public Voting

24/03/2015

Thanks to our alma mater, the University of Minnesota College of Design for sharing MIMMI. If you haven't already follow the link below to cast your vote: http://awards.architizer.com/public/voting/?cid=46

Carl Koepcke and Jack Cochran (both BS Arch '07) Urbain DRC are finalists in the Architizer A+Awards! Their Minneapolis Interactive Macro-Mood Installation is a contender in the Architecture + Communications category.

Check out all the projects and vote for at z.umn.edu/uug.

17/03/2015

We are pleased to share the new article that the StarTribune wrote about our residential project, Midtown Crossing. Check it out here: http://www.startribune.com/business/296514051.html

A pair of New York architects hope to build an apartment building in south Minneapolis where families of all sizes could live and work together, a striking contrast to the design of many new apartment buildings

31/01/2015

We're proud to be a part of Section Cut, a fantastic compilation of design resources. Check out the link below for a few of our recommended readings, focused on rethinking global systems and challenging paradigms.

**New Guest Lecture w/ Jack Cochran!**

RETHINKING GLOBAL SYSTEMS
http://sectioncut.com/collections/rethinking-global-systems/

"There are times when designing to solve particular problems will not be enough, simply because the paradigms under which solutions are generated are in fact part of the problem in the first place. If you wish to have some of your underlying day-to-day assumptions challenged, check out these books..."

24/01/2015

Here's a sneak peek at our new project in Minneapolis - a live/work community along the Midtown Greenway.

21/01/2015

Is gentrification really as much of a threat as it seems and who is it really hurting?

Check out this thought provoking piece from Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/01/the_gentrification_myth_it_s_rare_and_not_as_bad_for_the_poor_as_people.2.html

It started in Soho, then moved to Chelsea and the East Village. Riots in Tompkins Square in 1988 earned it some headlines but didn’t stop its creeping advance. It moved on to lower Harlem, then jumped the river to Park Slope. Williamsburg and Fort Greene followed; today, it threatens even...

11/01/2015

We just received some new photos of Teduh Hostel in Jakarta, now open and ready for visitors. Please take a look and let us know what you think!

http://www.urbaindrc.com/teduh-hostel/

30/11/2014

We are happy to announce that Teduh Hostel has opened in Jakarta! Here are a few construction images, with finished images to follow in a couple of days. We've also redone our website, so please check it out let us know what you think! Hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving.

www.urbaindrc.com

09/10/2014

Honored that MIMMI was featured in the Grounded Visionaries exhibition at the Harvard Graduate School of Design! If you are in Boston you should definitely check out all the other amazing work that is exhibited there.

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/ #/projects/grounded-visionaries-pedagogy-and-practice.html

Welcome to the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

08/07/2014

We are pleased to announce our design for Teduh Hostel in Jakarta, Indonesia, has started construction! Here's a sneak peek at one of the bedrooms. More drawings and photos to come.

04/06/2014

Its fascinating to watch how these simple transformations communicate in such a whimsical way the language of architectural form:

http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/awesome-architecture-gifs-channel-tetris-and-bend-reality

This is what it would look like if work by David Chipperfield and others came to life.

21/05/2014

With all the space our roads use, something like this could transform our energy landscape:
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/solar-roadways-could-power-cities

American engineer Scott Brusaw's photovoltaic, LED-imbued tiles could reduce greenhouse gases by 75%.