The new plans for the Zayed National Museum, a monument and memorial to the United Arab Emirates founding President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, were recently unveiled by Foster + Partners, an international architecture firm based in the United Kingdom.

The museum, which will be located on Saadiyat Island, 500 meters off the coast of Abu Dhabi, seeks to blend modern, sustainable architectural design with traditional Arabic forms and cultural values. The result is a warm and hospitable complex that, while forward-thinking in design, is also uniquely of its place.

The museum will be warm culturally, but literally as well: the complex is comprised of a dramatic lobby that sits within a man-made hill, and is topped, in addition to a thick layer of earth, by five wing-shaped, solar thermal towers that act as thermal chimneys. Fresh air that flows into the lobby is pushed through the complex and up through the towers, giving a constant, cool airflow to the museum. The towers are made of lightweight steel to mirror the light, aerodynamic design of a bird’s wing. This design is functional but also references Sheik Zayed’s love of falcons. Read the rest of this entry »

Part art installation, part portable sanctuary, the “Ma Bulle, Ma Plante, & Moi” (My Bubble, My Plant, & Me) exhibition by Amaury Gallon recently placed several transparent, plant-filled bubble structures on the streets of Paris to provide passers by with 15 minutes of inspiration, beauty, and fresh air.

Four bubble gardens in total were constructed. One bubble overflowed with plants to be a “jungle;” another was filled with hundreds of orchids that were woven around the metal supports that comprised the bubble’s frame. All featured hundreds of lush plants and flowers, which were visible through the clear cover that enclosed the bubbles, which were wrapped around the metal frame. Read the rest of this entry »

“Progression Through Unlearning” is part of an ongoing research by Bao An Nguyen Phuoc, Arie-willem De Jongh, and Mingy Seol from TU Delft into an architecture which explores the generation of programmatic, structural and spatial order through a multi-agent based design methodology which operates in a high pressure environment. The intention was to achieve highly varied heterogeneous spatial formations, catering to a wide variety of human activities and programmatic demands. The strategy of the project was to explore the possibilities of connecting exclusive programmatic and hard threshold zones through a continuous and gradient experience of the multifunctional voids and green areas. Read the rest of this entry »

AquiliAlberg unveiled their project for a new Jewish Memorial in Frankfurt, Germany  inspired by the work of  British author Zygmunt Bauman. The project consists of a path where  tension reaches very high levels, a memorial that marks the point where more than 10,000 Jews were captured and later transported to concentration camps. Two sculptural geometries rest in a reflecting pool that extends toward the old Market Square. The sculptures morph into elongated geometries that delineate a pedestrian path with seating areas and contemplation gardens – a profound place for meditation. Read the rest of this entry »

Reiser + Umemoto (RUR) has been awarded First Prize in the international competition for a new Port and Cruise Service Center in the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, ROC.

For the Kaohsiung Port Terminal, RUR proposes a dynamic 3-dimensional urbanism that takes advantage of the site’s unique lateral positioning with respect to the city grid. Existing public pedestrian flows along the proposed elevated boardwalk can be amplified, rather than interrupted by creating a continuous elevated public esplanade along the waterfront. Cruise and ferry functions, meanwhile, are located just below the public level and are kept distinct to maintain secure areas for departing/arriving passengers.

The Main Hall splits up into three different partitions, each related to a different itinerary for travelling by ship, while the concourses are oriented parallel to the waterfront to maximize the interface between water and land. By vertically separating the functions of the general public, port business, and travelers along this waterfront edge we are able to keep the various operational uses highly efficient while at the same time allowing for the synergy of mixed functions for the general public. Vertical circulation is organized around thickened zones in the building’s skin which also house structure, utilities, and ventilation. The structure is a system of nested, long-span shells, which are composed of an underlying steel pipe space frame which is sandwiched by cladding panels to create a useable cavity space. Overall an experience of directed yet functionally separated flows will lend an aura of energy to the point terminal space. Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architects revealed the Opus, a mixed-use commercial and retail development located in the Business Bay district of Dubai. The Opus is a fluid, spatial building that refutes traditional definitions of office functionality. Constructed of three separate towers the building will appear as a singular unified whole, that hovers from the ground, with a distinctive free form void. The interiors of which will be clad with a fully engineered curved glass curtain wall to allow for eye-catching views into the void. Reflexive fritting patterns in the form of pixilated striations will be applied onto the glass facade to provide a degree of reflectivity and materiality to the cube while assisting in the reduction of solar gains inside the building. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Hill House” designed by Bjarke Ingels Group is, simply, a single family home with a green, living roof. However, the roof is special in how large it is: the elongated roof essentially serves as the structure’s roof and side walls simultaneously, wrapping from the top of the building down the sides, and connecting with the earth. The surface is covered in living sedum plants, which are low maintenance and drought tolerant.

The sedum roof protects the home from the hot sun in the summer, and keeps warmth in during the cold winter. Ingles also envisions it as a playful architectural element: the roof, he shows in renderings, can be used as a recreational greenspace, and perhaps could even be a hill for sledding or skiing down during Denmark’s long winters. Read the rest of this entry »

David Scialò from the Politectnico de Torino unveiled his project to commemorate 150 years of a unified Italy. The project consists of an urban intervention in Turin through the creation of three pavilions to be located in the city’s main streets. Each pavilion is dedicated to one color of the Italian flag. The white pavilion represents the diversity of Italy’s cultural background; the green pavilion commemorates its landscape, and the red one signifies the events that led to a unified country -the three structures would extend and merge at Piazza Castello. Read the rest of this entry »

Paris-based Influx Studio obliterated the archetype of the safari-like zoo layout by designing, for a 2009 competition, a vertical-urban zoo.

With wide expanses to comfortably house animals stacked on top of each other, Influx Studio has created a completely original zoo design that makes wildlife accessible in the city. The project, proposed for Buenos Aires, Argentina, seeks to increase the awareness of the earth’s diversity of ecosystems by placing a diverse array of wildlife in the unusual urban context.

Within the structure is a giant ferris wheel that visitors ride, making the structure as a whole a functioning safari experience. The enormous wheel is comprised of cars where visitors ride and view the animals close up in their separate sections. The wheel turns very slowly, fully completing its circuit every hour.  At the top stop of the observation wheel, visitors can exit onto a sightseeing level to admire the view, eat, shop, or participate in educational activities.

At a staggering 240 meters tall, this urban zoo complex is certainly, as Influx Studio stated, “a surprising and dramatic city sightseeing safari.” Read the rest of this entry »

Paris-based Influx Studio, has designed “The Vortex,” a bold complex that will house the Kaohsiung, Taiwan Marine Culture and Pop Music Center, as well as retail, recreation, and outdoor performance spaces.

The Vortex’s center, or its “eye,” is a swirled hub that makes a strong architectural impact through its undulating roof. This part of the complex, designed to be an entertainment destination, will be open 24 hours a day, and will feature lively shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, and more.

Designed to be a raised continuation of the sea waves that surround the complex, the roof extends from the “eye” in both directions along the waterfront, covering the cultural centers and retail spaces underneath like a thick, wavy ribbon. Influx Studio sees the structure’s defining wave imagery as representative of the sea, but also of sound waves, which further relates to the complex through its concert space.

An important aspect of this project actually lies outside of the complex: new pedestrian pathways leading to the site will be created to increase accessibility to the Vortex, and the waterfront area as a whole, from downtown Kaohsiung. Additionally, the land surrounding the complex will be landscaped into an urban park, furthering efforts to achieve Influx Studio’s goal of better uniting the city’s urban core and waterfront area. With this bold design, Influx Studio hopes that The Vortex will become an icon for the city, one that can entertain the masses and better unite the city’s urban core with its reawakening waterfront sector. Read the rest of this entry »