Designed by Abramson Teiger Architects, the TCH boutique hotel, located in downtown Los Angeles, weaves the nature of the temporal society with the evolving art world. Reflecting the architects’ philosophy of a visually dynamic architecture which evokes a sense of peace, sanctuary, and productivity, the art gallery becomes a backdrop to viewed experiences while the hotel becomes a backdrop to the guests. They are both fortresses of collections: a collection of art and a collection of people. All spaces within the 47 rooms activate as a gallery resulting in a building that activates as an art piece. More images and architects’ description after the break.
XTEN Architecture is planning a new, 65,000-square-foot hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California. The monolithic concrete structure will be carved by a system of slots and slices that bring light, air and views deep into the building. Equipped with a performance-based lobby, two subterranean bars, restaurant and a rooftop terrace featuring an infinity edge pool, this mid-rise hotel will surely attract some attention.
Dubai shipbuilder Drydocks World has signed on with Switzerland’s BIG InvestConsult, on behalf of partner Deep Ocean Technology (DOT), to become the sole construction contractor of the futuristic Water Discus Underwater Hotels in the Middle East. Tailored to the luxurious lifestyle, aspiring divers and marine life enthusiasts, the patent-protected concept by DOT is comprised of disc-shaped volumes that are both above and below the water’s surface, exploring the depths of the ocean while taking advantage of the warm climate.
Continue after the break for more on the Water Discus Underwater Hotels.
Ground will be broken on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 for Skidmore Owing & Merrill LLP (SOM)’s newest building at Beijing’s China World Trade Center (CWTC) complex. The 58-story Phase 3B Tower features sleek horizontal bands of canted glass that wrap the building’s square floor plates. The 918-feet (280-meters) tall icon will be located immediately northeast of the 74-story, SOM-designed China World Trade Center Tower 3, completed in 2010—which is the tallest building in the Chinese capital. More images and complete press release after the break.
Located in Polk County, Florida, on a 16,000 acre property between Orlando and Tampa, the Streamsong Resort and Conference Center, designed by Alfonso Architects, is a celebration of reclamation, of both land and spirit. The site is formerly mined phosphate land owned and developed by The Mosaic Company, the world’s leading producer and marketer of phosphate-based crop nutrients. The 300,000 sq. ft resort includes 216 rooms in the main lodge, 12 rooms in the golf clubhouse, a full service spa , three restaurants, and 18,500 sq. ft of conference center space. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Buro Ole Scheeren, the architect behind one of the most iconic buildings of the 21st century, the CCTV headquarters in Beijing, recently revealed his design for a new landmark tower in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The 268 meter tall tower, Angkasa Raya, was unveiled today at an official ceremony in the capital of Malaysia. Now, the country will once again appear on the world stage with a stunning new piece of architecture that alters the perception of what a skyscraper can be and how it connects to the city by inviting life into its balancing heights and visually projecting it back into the urban landscape as a symbol of the multi-cultural society. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Aliah Project, a hotel for a green World Cup, designed by Hiperstudio + Arkiz has been awarded as the winner of a competition organized by Aliah, a company which promotes sustainable development through practices and businesses that are profitable with a positive socio-environmental impact. A sustainable luxury hotel complex for the 2014 World Cup, their design serves as a model of sustainable architecture by disseminating innovative concepts that promote a green lifestyle. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Live Between, a concept design by HKS Architects, is a newly launched hotel experience for guests who enjoy the extreme. Their design seeks out urban cities to set up short-term residency between existing buildings. As it moves from city to city, it is designed and installed specific to its temporary inhabitance. Taking on various forms from a spider’s web to a constellation, the hotel formation is ever changing and always evolving. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The young architectural studio Urbanplunger was recently awarded third prize in the international competition to design a Night Club Hotel in the dense city of Hong Kong. Their proposal consists of a uniquely suspended building structure described as an “architectural parasite” that leans on neighboring buildings in order to elevate itself above ground. Read on for more.
The hill of Montabo looms over the city of Cayenne and provides a dramatic backdrop for an architectural project which addresses the raw and unremitting power of nature. The winning competition entry by OUALALOU + CHOI derives from a dual strategy to conserve the natural environment and to protect the building from an undesirable degree of the jungle’s encroachment. The project preserves as much of the natural hilltop as possible, transforming it into a public space by creating a park at the crown of the hill. Thus, the highest point in the city becomes a part of the public realm. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The main concept in the Dead Sea Resort & Opera House by Accent Design Group is to create a resort that naturally blends in this special site, by having the built up areas merge naturally with the surroundings, appearing as terraces in the landscape. These terraces, or strips, would contain the individual housing units, amidst a natural/artificial landscape of palm trees and water pools. The idea again is to have something that infringes as little as possible on the experience of the Dead Sea, and that would provide an antidote to the other reigning ideas of suburban recreational facilities, which create completely artificial surroundings. More images and architects’ description after the break.
JDS has just been awarded first prize for their Hangzhou Waves scheme – a competition entry that called for the design of not one, but two buildings for the financial district of Hangzhou Xintiandi of Hangzhou, China. The two sloping volumes offer different exterior expressions and hold different programmatic entities (a hotel and an office building); yet, the forms are guided by similar attitudes regarding sunlight, green roofs, an active ground plane, etc, which immediately creates a strong relationship between the pair.
More about the winning competition entry after the break.
The hotel proposal by BNKR Arquitectura aims to reproduce in material form the ephemeral process of the diffusion of sound. This is a process of vibrant outward expression and subsequent decay. It is a narrative of the loss of integrity and dematerialization in space. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Oppenheim Architecture + Design recently won the international competition to design a new hotel in Brooklyn, NY. A third pillar of the Williamsburg Bridge to emerge after 108 years. Their design of the Williamsburg hotel attempts to capture the essence of this vibrant neighborhood. Adjacent to both the Williamsburg Bridge and the historic Williamsburg Savings Bank, the building expresses itself as three dramatically proportioned, rectilinear volumes of varied height and materiality. Soaring high above the neighborhood, the hotel becomes the third pillar of the bridge, while serving as an archetypical tower to the domed basilica of the historical bank.
Sustainability was once again an important issue for Oppenheim Architecture + Design. The hotel will have geothermal, wind, and solar power generation, along with other resource saving strategies, for which they achieved Platinum LEED rating. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The musical theme is present in the project proposal by ARQX Arquitectos, therefore in a very metaphorical way, avoiding a mimetic decoration or spatial-appropriation to music reported items. They try not to just show musical objects, but to compose as a musician, to flow in nature and in space, contemplating and feeling. This idea of contemplation is seen in the rhythm of the volumes, as well as the allowance to go to the exterior, to feel weather contingency, to hear the sound of the sea and of the the wind in the trees constitutes the basic experience they feel a guest should have while staying at Liesma. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal by Capella Garcia Arquitectura is designed for a music-themed upscale Hotel Competition in Jurmala. The resort town, located on the Latvian coast of the Baltic Sea, in the Gulf of Riga, can be described as a polycentric, linear city between the Gulf of Riga and river Lielupe, formed of several historical fishing villages. From the 19th century onwards, the city has transformed into seaside resorts, but Jurmala is also well known for its musical heritage, so they believed the surrounding environment must not be ignored.
Jurmala’s main focus nowadays is on leisure and its related programs and the greatest environmental advantage is the proximity to the Baltic sea. What do music and the sea have in common? How can it be related to architecture? How can the new building fit in Jurmala’s cityscape? Their concept was guided by these questions. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Visual Workshop shared with us their proposal for the Hotel Liesma competition. The aim of their concept is to make a new landmark of the surrounding neighborhood as a contemporary, sustainable and functional hotel. More images and brief description after the break.
