Designing for a better future: Framlab’s vision for urban architecture

When it comes to sustainability, cities represent both the problem and the solution. Expanding concrete and asphalt slabs create heat islands, resulting in significantly higher temperatures than undeveloped areas, while city populations only grow as the planet becomes more populous. Already, more than 60 percent of humans live in urban areas.

Framlab is a research and design studio based in Bergen, Norway and Brooklyn, New York, and the architects are focused on rethinking the way we build spaces in the city. Framlab founder Andreas Tjeldflaat believes that conventional urban planning needs to be revisited with a view to inclusiveness, adaptability and regeneration. His concepts address social issues at the micro and macro levels, from feelings of personal isolation to the consequences of man-made climate change. They also end up looking extremely stylish.

Tjeldflaat described three concept projects for us, each addressing a different problem in growing cities. Open House is a building designed to encourage interpersonal interaction through the use of soft edges and shared spaces, while Oversky places buildings floating in the form of a cloud above the city streets. Glasir takes advantage of leftover urban spaces, such as vacant lots and street landscaping, by establishing large glass treehouses with community gardens within their branches. Watch the video below for the full story.