Founder of this wonderful platform called ArchDaily :) Graduate Architect. Jury, speaker, curator, and anything that is required to spread our mission across the world. You can follow me on Instagram @dbasulto.
b720 architects won the competition for the World Trade Center at Igualada, Spain. The complex will articulate the existing industrial city with the residential zone, completing a new zone of infrastructure for this developing city.
The complex consist of 4 buildings with a total area of 53.000 sqm, including 530 underground parking spaces. This project will hold offices, retail spaces.
Retail space is located on the lower and first level of the first 3 buildings, as a base to the office space above it as you can see on the rendering. The upper levels are wider than this retail base, creating a covered space for pedestrians. Between the volumes, several spaces will allow for future occupation. Galleries on the upper floors will allow an exterior-interior continuity, integrating the mid-rise volumes with the exterior that starts to become more as a neighborhood than with this new relations, thus answering to the city council requirement to turn this project in not just office space, but a new urban centrality.
There’s only a few more images available (after the break), but we will keep in touch with b720 to bring you more on this project as it develops.
In order to relocate the people that lost their houses, the Chinese goverment decided to build 1.5 million temporary homes. For this, Ming Tang proposed a shelter that was easily produced, cheap and environmentally friendly, using bamboo. The concept utilizes a system of bamboo poles that are pre-assembled into rigid geometric shapes. The geometry of these forms provides each structure’s integrity, allowing a range of lightweight modular structures to be quickly assembled in factories and transported to their destination. Once constructed, the shelters are then covered by using post and pre-consumer recycled paper.
For this modular system, Tang also proposed a paper fibers, water, and cement envelope that allows for larger configurations.
This project was presented on the RE:Construct competition, a call for a ideas on temporary housing. This project was selected as a notable entry, but i think it should have been awarded since it address a on going problem with a local solution in an innovative way.
This are the kind of projects that I wish were being built right now! What do you think? Do you have more examples on innovative temporary housing?
Rural Studio has been a good teaching model, which made students get involved on communities as they learn architecture, a good approach to form architect’s that are part of the society. This model, first initiated by Sam Mockbee in 1993, is still being used in schools in the US. A good example of this is DesignBuildBLUFF, a studio taught by Hank Louis (AIA) through the University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning.
I was very eager waiting for the mail man on this one, because as i stated before, Mark Magazine is one of my favourite publications when it comes to new projects.
The October/November issue has a very nice texture on the cover, featuring Sou Fujimoto´s Log House. This issue´s central theme is “House Rules”, with 7 amazing houses on the inside.
But lets start by the beginning, with the section Notice Board.
The Burj Dubai by SOM hasn´t been finished yet, but it´s currently the world´s tallest structure. Meanwhile, the Shanghai World Financial Centre by KPF has been opened a few weeks ago, which is (as for now) the tallest building in the world when it comes to roof height with 492m (1,614.2ft). The Taipei 101 in Taiwan is 509.2m (1,670.60ft) if you count the antenna, but its roof is only at 449.2 m (1,473.75 ft).
The building took almost 11 years to be completed, delayed by the Asian Financial Crisis of 97-98 and change on design, but it was finally opened to public on August 30, 2008. You can see an interesting tour of the building on the video posted above.
The observatory on the 100th floor is amazing, with a transparent floor.
Also, I found an interesting documentary by National Geographic on the construction of the World Financial Center, posted it below. Enjoy!
UPDATE: We wrongly credited the whole project to AS+GG, but they were only comissioned to design the three main towers, on a master plan designed by SOM Chicago.
It seems no one told Dubai about the financial crisis, as new projects keep being unveiled. This time, our green friends over Inhabitat tipped us on a mega development, owned by Maraas Holding: The Jumeirah Gardens. The master plan for this project was designed by SOM Chicago, and consists of a mixed-use development that incorporates low, medium, and high-density zones for business, residences, retail, leisure, and recreation – a city within a city, with an estimated cost of US$95 billion.
The three main towers were comissioned to Chicago based architects AS+GG (Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill), The most impressive one -and the third tallest tower in the UAE- is 1 Dubai, pictured above. The tri-partite skyscraper will be 3218 ft (981m) tall, and the towers will be connected by a series of glass suspension sky-bridges. This bridges are so big, they even grow palms on them as you can see on the further renderings. At the base of the buildings, grand arched entrances allow boats to travel underneath the building and into a central atrium space. The mixed-use development includes a hotel, residential, commercial retail and entertainment space totaling 800,000-900,000 square meters.
Architect Jacques Rougerie -an expert when it comes to space and underwater structures- has designed the soon-to-be first underwater museum. It will be located off the coast of Egypt, near the new Library of Alexandria, where Cleopatra once had a palace on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world back in the day, submerged by earthquakes in the 4th century.
The ruins were discovered years ago, and include several sphinxes, statues, roman and greek shipwrecks and pieces believed to be from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world).
This ruins haven’t been moved, since it would be a tremendous effort that could damage the ruins in the process. Also, it follows the 2001 UNESCO convention for the preservation of underwater heritage.
With that in mind, the museum is designed as both inland and submarine. The building will have four tall structures shaped like the sails of fellucas, the traditional sailboats used in the Nile. From the inland building, underwater fiberglass tunnels will take visitors to structures where they can view antiquities still lying on the seabed.
eVolo Architecture was created by a group of international architects in New York as a forum of discussion of new ideas. One of their strategies have been architectural competitions, held since 2005.
For the last 3 years (2006-2008) the competition has been inviting architects around the world to explore the future of skyscrapers. The 2009 Skyscaper Competition looks to continue exploring new ideas and concepts for vertical density. And to really give you the freedom to explore this kind of project, there´s no restriction on site, height and shape. But always being technically feasible, enviromentally responsible, aware of its urban context and define new programmes for a vertical structure.
With that freedom, contestants can focus on on pushing the concept of skyscrapers beyond the concept we are used to.
The competition is opened to students, architects, engineers and designers. Registration deadline is on January 12, and submission deadline on January 19, 2009.
LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) unveiled the design of the Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower in Dubai, the first project of a series of branded towers, a new concept by PNYG:COMPANY, a company focused on branding. I´ve heard about branded towers such at the Porsche Towers by OMA, but it´s the first time i hear about a building branded after a Formula 1 champion.
LAVA is a practice formed a year ago by associate architects of the Mercedes Benz Museum and the Watercube, who decided to start their new practice focused on new technologies and innovation.
According to the architects, the design of the 59 storey luxury tower is abstracted from the geometric laws of snowflakes and Formula 1 aerodynamics, in order to obtain an effficient/minimal structure, maximum views and optimal light and air distribution.
Something that took my attention were the first levels of the tower. Since the tower wides on the base, which emerges from the water, the lower level has been reinterpreted as a series of wharf apartments, terraced similar to a cruise ship deck.
Fernando Herrera shared with us some very interesting photos of the California Academy of Science (previously posted with the official photos). First, a series of pictures from the opening day on which you can see the building with people on it, and get a better idea on the scale and how it works. He even caught Renzo Piano admiring his own work!
Also, he sent us a series of pictures of the green roof during construction, on which you can see more details such as the irrigation system and the skylights.
Enjoy the gallery! I also recommend checking out Fernando´s Flickr page, he has photographed an interesting selection of contemporary buildings in the US and Europe.
Sketchup is, by far, the easiest tool for modeling. Google acquired this software in order to crowd-source the 3D modeling of the earth, since anyone can use it to model their house, school or favourite building. But being simple and fast doesn’t mean it lacks on features.
Mark Magazine is by far one of my favourite architecture magazines. Their motto “Another architecture” tells us what we´ll find inside: fresh architecture – the main reason we love this magazine so much.
This bimonthly magazine is structured in 5 sections: Noticeboard (a collage of new projects), Cross Section (short articles on new buildings and architectural subjects), Viewpoint (interviews with architects on the rise), Long Section (in depth articles on buildings) and Service Area (new building materials).
On the August/September issue (October one on the mail, more about that soon) we find an amazing house by spanish studio Ensamble, shown on a collage with embossed textures, something that has become a signature on Mark Magazine covers.
In my opinion Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, is one of the best architects when it comes to give shape to the interests of an “unspoken” client on public buildings,either representing the values of a country or a culture. All with exceptional syntax and presentation skills.
And BIG‘s latest project (in collaboration with Arup and 2+1), the Danish Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo, does it again, by taking the best of living in Copenhagen and placing it on China for visitors to experience.
Basically, the pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion there’s a big pool with fresh water from Copenhagen’s harbor, on which visitors can even swim.
Yesterday, I was visiting the Skyscraper Museum in New York, and I saw an incredible aerial photo that shows the evolution of downtown Manhattan during the last century, from the water reclamation to the black towers to the new skyline without the twin towers. Undoubtedly, this city changes its shape very often.
And as of now, new residential buildings are bringing new forms to this skyline. First, we have OMA on the 23rd street with its structural facade and cantilevered volume, and now the 56 Leonard Street building by Herzog & de Meuron, which entered the construction phase.
This 57-story residential in the Tribeca area will house 145 residences, each one with its own unique floor plan and private outdoor space. This typology makes the building look like a stack of houses, away from the traditional skyscraper form. I wonder how the concrete structure works on this building, which was done by consultant firm WSP Cantor Seinuk (who also worked on the Freedom Tower).
This is funny: While browsing architecture offices websites in look for new works to publish in ArchDaily for our beloved readers, I found this project. I bookmarked it to contact the architects the next day, and when I woke up I had an email from Kristin Jarmund Architects offering us this project for publishing.
Well, enough of this, lets go to the project description.
This morning, while walking down Union Square i noticed the new tall and slim tower at One Madison Park, currently under construction. The developer of this tower, Slazer Enterprises, is also working on an adjacent project with OMA, which resulted on their first residential tower in New York, which was unveiled yesterday.
Located at at 23 East 22nd St, the 335 ft (107 m) tall mid-rise tower -which you can see on the second plane behind One Madison Park at the rendering- features an innovative design when it comes to towers, an evolution of the OMA studies on new high rise designs. The building cantilevers 30 feet over its neighbor, a form that “provides a number of unexpected moments that appear at each step – balconies at the upper part of the building and floor windows at the lower part — providing a variety of unit types and features throughout the building”, in words of Rem Koolhaas.
This project is led by Rem and Shohei Shigematsu, a partner at OMA currently in charge of OMA NY. When we visited their office back in March to interview Shohei (an interview i recommend you to watch), we saw a lot of experimentation around new forms for towers, such at the Jersey City project and the Bicentennial Tower. I bet OMA will surprise us in the future with more innovative tall building designs.
