Brad Pitt’s got his design on New Orleans
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Brad Pitt’s latest movie, ‘Moneyball,’ is officially kaput, but his New Orleans architecture project is rolling full speed ahead with the unveiling of 14 new designs for duplex houses.
The actor’s Make It Right Foundation recently revealed the new designs that are part of multimillion-dollar initiative to help rebuild the city’s Lower Ninth Ward, devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. The foundation has been working with architecture firms from around the world -- including such notable names as Gehry Partners (whose design is pictured at left), Morphosis and Elemental -- to design single family and duplex buildings.
The newly unveiled designs concern the duplex homes, intended for two or more families. The foundation originally offered only single-unit homes to residents of the Ninth Ward, but the foundation said demand prompted the addition of duplexes to its design catalog.
Pitt engaged 14 architecture firms from around the world to design homes that would incorporate such elements as solar power, outdoor recreation space and structural protection against floods. Groundbreaking for the duplex homes is expected to begin in mid-August. The duplexes will be part of the expected total 150 homes constructed by the foundation in the Lower Ninth Ward.
The firms contributing duplex designs are Atelier Hitoshi Abe, Bild Design, Billes, buildingstudio, BNIM, Constructs, Elemental, Gehry Partners, GRAFT, KAppe Architects, MVRDV, Pugh & Scarpa, Waggonner & Ball, and William McDonough and Partners.
Founded by Pitt, the Make It Right Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to build ecologically friendly and affordable housing for residents of the Lower Ninth Ward who were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.
Click through for more architectural design illustrations...
A duplex design by the architecture firm Billes.
A duplex design by the firm William McDonough & Partners.
-- David Ng
Images used with permission from Make It Right Foundation.
