Drawing on Shenzhen’s interconnected qualities, Morphosis‘ 2009 proposal for the Four Towers Into One competition pushes the conventional urban grid to organize a complex system of four interwoven towers. The competition asked for an urban plan that would unify the Headquarters of Shenzhen Media Group, China Construction Bank, China Insurance Group, and Southern & Bosera Funds–the new global faces of Shanghai’s Financial District. Instead of vertically extruding their isolated 2D site footprints to four individual skyscrapers, the strategy of transferring air rights helps to extend the zoning envelopes of each of the projects through an interlaced system resembling a traditional Chinese puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »

Alexander Smaga‘s Postgraduate Master Thesis from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna explores the translation of music into architecture in a concert hall, creating variations in acoustic mass as a result of different biocomputing techniques. The project’s aim is to embody sound into a “mental building material,” where cavernous organic forms provide options for private and open performances as well as continuous open spaces found between folds and cavities of the cellular flesh. The project’s partie involves the visualization of single tone sound structures comprised of units of repeated cycles of electronic music, where forms acquire different levels of cellular density. Combinations of these structures are further complicated by the subdivision and permutation of smaller units with different rhythms, a common model that is seen in biogenetics and nano technology. This translated mass creates a network of particular cell growths, forming a general dystopia. Read the rest of this entry »

Launched in 2009, Uncommon‘s mission is to offer its clients the option to individualize Apple product accessories with unique designs. Currently, customers have the option to print their own digital photos or featured designs by a selection of artists onto their accessories. Uncommon is the first manufacturer to offer mass customization with proprietary 3D TATT® printing on plastic to customers. Clients may also buy ready-made cases.  Read the rest of this entry »

Studio’s SHIFT proposal for the World Sustainability Center in Afsluitdijk, Netherlands sets out to connect the local and global community in a progressive arena of emerging technologies and investigations in a park-like setting near the Wadden Sea. Located along a 20-mile long dike, the center serves as a hot spot for educational, corporate and institutional topics on emergent sustainable practices and technologies. Temporary exhibitions on sustainable topics are stationed on floating piers and are also integrated into the natural landscape. In order to compensate for its remote physical location, the state of the art research facility projects an iconic form in order to inspire and capture the attention of visitors. Read the rest of this entry »

Located in the heart of the Frankfurt city center, the MyZeil Shopping Mall’s by Fuksas Studio has been the newest hub for restaurants, fitness gyms, and retail shopping since its opening in 2009 next to the famous Zeil shopping street and the PalaisQuartier. A funneled roof landscape  takes urban shoppers into a vertical realm through six floors beneath 3,200 triangular glass pieces and one of the longest escalators in Germany (46 m). A void strategically travels through the building at multiple elevations and roots itself at the ground floor, much like a river, providing an openly lit tunnel from above and an atrium structure.  Read the rest of this entry »