Architectural studio SOMA has finished the design of the thematic pavilion for the 2012 Yeosu World Expo. The project was selected in late 2009 and is expected to begin construction during the next couple of months.

As a major and permanent facility the thematic pavilion embodies the expo’s theme ‘the living ocean and coast’ in manifold ways. The ocean is experienced in two ways, as an endless surface and in an immersed perspective as depth. The plain duality of the ocean motivates the building’s spatial and organisational concept. Continuous surfaces twist from vertical to horizontal orientation and define all significant interior spaces. The vertical cones induce the visitor to immerse into the thematic exhibition. They evolve into horizontal levels that cover the foyer and become a flexible stage for the best practice area. Continuous transitions between contrasting experiences also form the outer appearance of the pavilion. Towards the sea the conglomeration of solid vertical cones define a new meandering coast line, a soft edge that is in constant negotiation between water and land. Opposite side the pavilion develops out of the ground into an artificial roof landscape with gardens and scenic paths. The topographic lines of the roof turn into lamellas of the kinetic media facade that faces the expo’s entrance and the ‘digital gallery’. Read the rest of this entry »

Ateliereen Architecten just completed a 25 meters high viewing tower in Ruesel, Netherlands. The project is composed by six wooden boxes made out of half logs (from the park) supported by a steel skeleton.

Project description by Ateliereen Architecten:

In the Netherlands over 50 spots are marked on the map as starting points for recreational use of the rural landscape. People are encouraged to park their cars at these locations instead of at other, more preserved, areas. From here they can explore nature by foot, mountain bike, horse etc.

In the small town Reusel, the nomination motivated a local sports merchant to found an outdoor sports park. A tower, 25 meters high, with sport facilities like climbing and abseiling is the main attraction. It consists of six cubes, hanging on a core of steel columns. Straight flight staircases raise in between and cross the cubes several times in different positions.

Two of the six cubes are accessible. The third one is the start platform for a rope slide and a high rope track. In the top box people can enjoy a panorama view of the surrounding landscape and there is a starting platform for abseiling. The athletes on the 13 meters high climbing wall are observed by visitors of the adjacent bistro. Read the rest of this entry »

The renovation of the Taastrup Theatre in Copenhagen by Cobe has just been completed and the building has already gained praise by critics. The project has been shortlisted and will comete for the “Old-New” award at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona.

Cobe’s description of the project:

The project for the extension and renovation of Taastrup Theatre seeks to improve the communication of the building with its environment – a social housing neighborhood. Formally we were commissioned to improve the energy consumption of the 1970s local community theatre in the Copenhagen neighborhood of Taastrup. Yet, we use this opportunity to improve the general appeal and functionality of the building by introducing a second (isolating) theatre curtain around the rough concrete structure.

By adding this new layer in front of the existing rough concrete structure, the building is extended and opened as wide as possible towards Kjeld Abels Plads north. The new translucent facade subtly reminds us of a theatre curtain about to open when the play starts. In fact, when the tickets are outsold or the show is on, red lights underneath the facade broadcast the special atmosphere of this magic moment towards the square. This new composition underlines the unity of the old building and its extension as one piece of architecture. Read the rest of this entry »

The board of Sberbank, the leading bank of Russia, signed a contract with the Dutch Architect Erick van Egeraat for the realization of their new Corporate University, west of Moscow, close to the Novorizhkoye highway.

Sberbank is Russia’s largest and oldest state run bank with over 250.000 employees and 20.000 branch offices in the country. The new Sberbank University will provide education, seminars and team building programs to the company’s top professionals, to continuously improve their performance within the corporate standards. The most prominent Russian bank implies the highest standards for its employees and therefore it aimed for the most ambitious educational project in terms of design and quality. Erick van Egeraat’s design for the 32,000-m2 Corporate University was chosen from 4 other proposals including David Adjaye’s entry.

The site is located in a suburban, almost rural setting, bordered by woods on its southern side, and the Istra river embankment on the northern side. The University will consist of education and conference spaces, dormitories, guest teacher quarters, teacher housing, a club building and sports facilities.

The spacious and picturesque setting allows for a campus model; the program’s distribution on site creates comfortably scaled public spaces that intensifies interaction with the natural surroundings. Education, lodging and sports functions are each clustered in orthogonally defined volumes. Taking into account the climate, all building elements except the teachers’ housing are connected with an elegant and climate controlled colonnade. This colonnade is programmed with recreational, bar, relaxation functions and serves as an identifying backbone of the entire complex. Read the rest of this entry »

Adaptive ecologies explores the emergent logics of adaptation and evolution that are constitutive of ecosystems in nature. Chimera’s vision is to define an urban ecosystem which supports housing and cultural programs and has the ability to adapt, transform, mutate, and adjust according to the specific urban and social character of the site and of Manhattan. This urban ecological system is taking as a model an organism in nature, specifically the mangrove plant. The mangrove plant and its collective the mangal, provide examples of social associative principles as well as structural capacities and hybrid responses to environmental and contextual conditions.

The project’s elevated gymnastics are dealing both with the complex topography of the site and its connectivity to the larger city. The new ground has been defined by creating an elevated plateau  generated by the potential directionality of human fluxes on the newly proposed site. This oriented space is being partitioned following a logic of cellular aggregation, embedding neighbouring relationships at different scales, and is also the ground reference of the urban housing massing negotiation. Models from nature such as phyllotaxis and branching have been the driving paradigms to define a parametric machine which is able to create a responsive urban ecology. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Omiros One Architecture (O1A) for Aldar Properties, the Yas Island Yacht Club forms a key part of the Yas Marina precinct, which recently staged its inaugural Formula 1 motor racing event. The recently completed project is the architect’s first significant work in the Middle East. O1A principal and founder Mr Omiros Emmanouilides describes the design as “a composition of dynamic and fluid forms that link the buildings to the nautical theme, the heritage of the location and the new F1 character of Yas Island.” “The Yacht Club is designed to excite, inspire and strengthen the concept that is Yas.”

Incorporating various 5-star club uses including restaurants, bars, lounges, function rooms, outdoor decks and 45-metre observation tower, the Yacht Club (Building 1) is the more expressive and prominent of the two. Building 2, the retail and administration component, features a waist-shaped glass internal courtyard and maintains a quieter profile. Read the rest of this entry »

The TU Delft School of Architecture was burned down during a fire in 2008. The University official held an architectural competition in 2009 to build a new school and architect Sid Wichienkuer was selected among the finalists.

The use of section and topographies become the driving force behind this project. By reconstituting and reconsidering each of the precedents, the resultant project intends to not reinvent but understand how section can foster productive architectural relationships. The gathering/communal spaces are stacked through the core of the building – operating as a central gathering space for offices, studios, and the greater community as a central, unifying element that serves the same purpose for a variety of programs. Read the rest of this entry »

OR² by Orproject is the further development of OR, a single surface roof structure which reacts to sunlight. The polygonal segments of the surface react to ultra-violet light, mapping the position and intensity of solar rays. When in the shade, the segments of OR² are translucent white. However when hit by sunlight they become coloured, flooding the space below with different hues of light. During the day OR² becomes a shading device passively controlling the space below it. At night OR² transforms into an enormous chandelier, disseminating light which has been collected by integrated photovoltaic cells during the day into the surrounding areas.

Special software components have been developed in order to create the shapes and to generate the cutting schedules. The individual elements were then automatically numbered and water jet cut. OR structures are the first ones to employ photo-reactive technology at an architectural scale, exploring its applicability to the fields of construction and design. The beauty of OR² is its constant interaction with the elements, at each moment of the day OR’s appearance is unique. Read the rest of this entry »

The starting point of this project designed by Patrick Bedarf evolved during the research of the ongoing conflict between different social groups and their interest in one of the most attractive pieces of  land in the heart of Berlin: the Spree Riversides located between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.

Through iteratively distributing programmatic layers  from the surrounding city fabric into the site and systematically mixing volumes of different social characteristics, the geometry of the project adopted the shape of foam clusters. The quality of formal variety as a consequence of the heterogeneity of the overall system is implied by the design methodology of functional aesthetics. The project focuses on a spatial partitioning strategy of voronoi regions featuring a gradient-driven diversity with highly functional orthogonal structures as well as distorted and geometrically complex volumes. Pointclouds, generated from early studies of programmatic foam structures, are therefore manipulated locally depending on programmatic attributes. Read the rest of this entry »

The new pavilion for the Hakone Open-Air Museum designed by Tezuka Architects is comprised of a structure entirely assembled with timber logs without any metal parts. Cutting-edge structural analysis has been employed to overcome the loads resistance variability that characterizes timber. The structure used traditional wood joints even though Tezuka Architects conceived a futuristic form.

In the interior of the pavilion a series of nets create an artificial topography for children. Nets are configured at different levels to create platforms, resting and playground areas.

The pavilion was designed to be permanent and dismountable with 100% recyclable materials. Since its completion at the end of 2009, the pavilion has gained the recognition among critics for its unconventional use of traditional materials and responsibility towards the natural environment. Read the rest of this entry »