SOMA Architects and Park51 developer Sharif el-Gamal just unveiled a new set of renderings of the controversial Mosque proposal near Ground Zero in New York City. The project is planned to be a 15-story Islamic community center estimated to cost around $140 million -investment would come from various real-estate companies in Dubai.

The mosque will include a $17 million prayer space in the basement, a memorial, and recreational facilities. Gamal’s idea is to recover the investment by offering high-end amenities including swimming pool, gym, and spa to affluent New Yorkers – memberships would start at $2,700 per year.

SOMA’s design features a structural façade based on Arabic geometric patterns that create an interesting play between solids and voids. Read the rest of this entry »

List of the world’s 10 tallest building proposals.

Burj Mubarak Al Kabir
Madinat Al Hareer, Kuwait
234 floors
1001 meters (3284 ft)

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The Seoul Tea Service is the latest product design by Zaha Hadid Architects, which was commissioned by NY Projects in 2009. The service is made out of ceramic while the textured case that resembles a spaceship is carbon fiber. The fluid and dynamic form of the set is based on the exploration of movement through space. Read the rest of this entry »

Polish architectural firm Studio Architektoniczne Kwadrat won the first place in the international competition to design the World War II Museum in Gdansk, Poland.

Architect’s description:

To fit in the historic part of the city, and creating a form that may become its icon at the same time, we had to make a compromise between its forma and monumentality, being careful with its impudence and aggressiveness. We wanted the architecture to be a delicate suggestion rather than strong quotation for the World War II tragedy. That is how the idea of dynamic, expressive form had been brought to live, tearing apart the symbolic and dramatic shell covering the world, created by the war. The design of the form is to be undefined by one literally meaning. It may be discovered in many ways by each and every individual viewer. Read the rest of this entry »

The Diamond Tower is a skyscraper proposal for New York City designed by Mexican architect Luis Durazo. The complex geometry of the building is inspired on the chemical structure of a Diamond with an exoskeleton acting as a steel lattice where habitable cells or units can be arranged. The 300 meter high tower allows for daylight to enter into every unit through the ingenious placement of openings according to solar studies. Twenty percent of the steel lattice will remain unoccupied and will be used as vertical recreational areas for the city. That is the case of the plinth where New Yorkers will have the opportunity to enjoy a variety of amenities including a museum and art galleries. Among the various green technologies, the tower counts with wind turbines located through out the top levels and solar panels in the entire façade. Read the rest of this entry »

Due to a lack of integrated social, cultural, and urban systems, downtown Los Angeles lacks continuous human activity. This project designed by architects Yang Wang and Stephen Silva explored the human muscular system and applied it to an architectural vision. One of the most interesting parts of the muscular systems is how each muscle has its own identity, yet they work in a choreographed way. In a similar fashion, each program in this tower has its own volume but they are interlocked to work together. Each program supports the next one and sustains continuous activities for 24 hours. The idea is infuse downtown Los Angeles with nightlife when it is normally deserted. Read the rest of this entry »

The board of KARA/Noveren, Denmark’s leading waste to energy supplier, signed a contract with the Dutch Architect Erick van Egeraat for the realization of their new inceneration line at Roskilde [DK].

Erick van Egeraat won the design-competition for this incinerator in 2008 with his challeging and highy praised proposal to embrace both the historic and industrial heritage. It is a contempoprary Cathedral, close to the ground we shaped the building to reflect the angular factory roofs of the immediate surroundings”, says Erick van Egeraat. “We then let the building culminate in a 100 meter tall spire, which is an articulation of a fascinating and sustainable process in creating energy”

The large, outspoken, amber-colored design is likely to become a new icon for the wide and open landscape of the Roskilde area. After its completion in 2013, the facility is not only processing a large part of the local waste. This process produces both electricity and heating for the Roskilde district. Read the rest of this entry »

Canadian architectural firm Ja Studio submitted a fascinating proposal to the Solar Park South International Competition in Calabria, Italy. The intention of the contest was to re-use the decommissioned highway between Salerno and Reggio Calabria. Ja Studio’s proposal seems to have been inspired by the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence as an inhabitable bridge. While the famous bridge is home for few families, this new proposal takes the concept to a larger level. The idea was to create a suspended informal city in relationship with the highway and the landscape. It is comprised of a series of random volumes that self-organize to create a large urban network of well defined private and communal areas. Read the rest of this entry »

The Eco-techno City is a proposal designed by Russian architect Orzunova Eduardovna as a floating mega-city constructed on top of a complex network of artificial islands. The main recreational and service areas are located in the periphery while the residential hub is located in a 500 feet-high skyscraper. This structure is equipped with vertical farms and diverse green technologies including an undulating façade covered with photovoltaic cells and rainwater collectors located through the vertical parks. Read the rest of this entry »

Italian architects Diego D’Agostino and Enrica Papa proposed a skyscraper for low-income inhabitants in developing nations. The building consists of a prefabricated steel frame assembled in stages according to population growth. The housing units are designed using recyclable materials including plastic and cardboard collected at local recycling plants. The main idea is to create highly customizable blocks that could expand according to the number of residents. The tower also includes green terraces for vertical farms and recreational areas.  An interesting aspect of the proposal is its temporality; the building could be dismantled and transported to new areas according to population needs and economic fluctuations. Read the rest of this entry »