Citing experts and news articles, architecture student Hugon Kowalski says that the unrest in the Darfur region of Sudan, where over 200,000 have been killed and 2 million have fled, has, in reality, been caused by the scarcity of water, and the subsequent struggles to claim some of this precious resource. Amazingly, researchers at Boston University discovered, in 2007, an underground lake in the region that, though now dry, could be refilled as an artificial lake. This reservoir could then be tapped to bring plentiful water, and quite possibly peace, to the war-torn area.

The skyscraper that Kowalski has designed taps into the underground lake and brings it to the surface for distribution. In addition to housing the water pumps and treatment facility, however, the building also has a hospital, school and a food storage center, centralizing many life-bringing and saving services into one vital tower.

The building is made of brick, which will be made on-site and baked, energy-free, by the hot desert sun. The building will also be environmentally responsible by utilizing water turbines and solar panels. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Gullwing Twin Wind Towers,” designed by architects Minervini Vittorio and Sanna Giacomo of Rome with designers Delzotti Carlo and Lombardi Fabio, Ph.D., is an idea for how to generate clean energy in an urban setting – in a manner aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The structure is a pair of towers whose exteriors are covered in blade-like wings that project up to catch the wind; the wind then moves the wings, which are attached to rings that spin around the buildings’ exteriors. As the rings spin, the movement powers the wind turbines inside of the two towers. The movement of the rings with the two towers so closely entwined creates a “tornado-like effect” to maximize movement and energy generation.

To accentuate architecturally the permeability of the structure, the towers feature empty plastic cavities interspersed throughout their heights. The towers are covered in a black “skin,” with a glass encasement of the turbines on the interiors. Read the rest of this entry »

London based design group PostlerFerguson recently displayed the conceptual renderings of Microclimates a passive cooling unit that is as much art as it is functional. The project uses artificial sandstone to make a complex series of surfaces which when wet allow air to be cooled by evapo-transmission. The pieces stand in central areas where air currents are maximized to cool and moisten the immediate environment.

Using stereolithography a 3-D printing process by D-Shape the individual units are inspired by desert cooling techniques developed over the millennia. The stand alone units are composed of sand and an organic binder that is printed out in layers to achieve the complex internal area required for sufficient evaporative surface. The structure’s patterns are an interpretation on Islamic architecture styles. While intended to be art installations the design holds promise to be incorporated into desert buildings where peak energy loads can be reduced. Read the rest of this entry »

The proposal by four Singapore designers for a Migratory Park in the bustling capital of the country is one that seeks to bring respite to both humans and birds alike.

The Migratory Park tower, created by Earl Monroe Magale, Hinn Ong, Jirawit Yamkleeb and Darren Yio, will be located in the Orchard Road district of Singapore, one that’s characterized by high-end malls and designer flagship stores. Nearby Lucky Plaza is the hub of the city’s Filipino community, which has many members who immigrate to the country to find work. Lucky Plaza serves as an important place for recreation and relaxation for the hardworking Filipinos, but the parks and open space in the vicinity is quickly disappearing because of Orchard Road’s valuable land prices. Read the rest of this entry »

Philippe Arnihac and Nicolas Gervais, architects from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emerites, have designed “Green Towers,” a mixed-use, double-skyscraper complex that houses a mall, offices, a hotel and individual apartment units, as well as multiple levels of hanging gardens.

According to the architects, the two towers symbolize Abu Dhabi’s great density and diversity; they are united in an accessible way into one structure that serves the keep the city lively with shopping, tourists and more.

The towers feature ample green space so as to be “a theater of nature’s representation” for the city where they’re located. The buildings’ hanging parks sit between every ten levels and have a height of eight meters, making them tall enough to accommodate full-grown trees.

Naturally, a building concerned with being “green” will also need to be built sustainably; as such, this structure has photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, solar panels to provide hot water, and rainwater recycling system to water the building’s ample gardens. Read the rest of this entry »

Award-winning architectural studio Emergent unveiled their design for the new Pop Music Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This design is intended to re-invigorate the Port of Kaohsiung as a cultural destination through world class public attractions, cutting edge music infrastructure, green energy technology, and lush landscaping. The design is based on creating two buildings located at anchor points on the site– one lifting into the air and the other embedded in the ground. By lifting partially off the ground, the Pop Music Center creates a huge shaded public plaza underneath the building. It also creates a protected space for the 12,000 seat public amphitheater, so that events can be planned year-round and in various weather conditions. The nine Performance Halls are organized inside bubbles nested between skin layers. Read the rest of this entry »

Karsten Huitfeldt from SCI-Arc proposes a new type of architecture based on cinematic research. Instead of treating the problem of structure as purely an architectural one, this project is borrowing techniques and effects from other fields such as the movie/entertainment industries and visual arts to create a notion of collapse and ephemerality that is not necessarily a result of physical laws and engineering but rather of formal, emotional, and visual considerations. The animation is the final platform for this project, and therefore formal attributes, geometries, panelization and organization are solved strictly according to specific motions and behaviors rather than to classical architectural dogmas such as stability, functionality and materiality. Setting such limitations aside, new and unexpected relationships emerged between form and movement, in contrast to the more familiar and well explored relationships between form and structure or form and organization.

via suckerPUNCH

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The Haramain High-speed Railway designed by Foster and Partners is a major infrastructure project for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, connecting the cities of Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and the developing King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). The stations, which have been designed by a Foster + Partners and Buro Happold joint venture, with local architect, Dar Al Riyadh, are conceived as gateways to each city, filled with places to meet, shop, eat and shelter from the sun. Altogether, the large, flexible stations will cover an area more than 30 times the size of London’s Trafalgar Square and will accommodate an anticipated 60 million passengers by 2012 – approximately six times the number of passengers that take the Eurostar from St Pancras each year. This is expected to increase to 135 million passengers by 2042. Read the rest of this entry »

Bjarke Ingels Group unveiled their design for a new elementary school in Asminderod, Denmark. A pristine undulating hillside serves as the backdrop for the future Vilhelmsro School and its outdoor facilities. The sloping landscape and the building’s sloping roofs merge into one continuous experience. The surrounding landscape serves as an aesthetic backdrop and as an integral part of the school’s mission which focuses on nature and sustainability. Formed as a sloping landscape bands the building merges with nature and allows daylight into all the class rooms. Read the rest of this entry »

Today FIFA announced that the 2018 World Cup will be held in Russia and the main stadium has been designed by Erick van Egeraat.  Egeraat and Russian partner Mikhail Posokhin, architects of Moscow’s new VTB Arena are thrilled to hear of this decision. “What wonderful news! What a start for this new Russian masterpiece to be the center of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™!”, says architect-director Erick van Egeraat when presented with this latest news. “The VTB arena will be more than a soccer-arena; the multitude of functions will ensure enjoyment for its visitors for decades!” With a 300,000-m2 development surface the VTB Arena Park is one of the largest projects that will be developed in the Russian Federation in the coming years.

VTB Arena Park comprises the redevelopment of the Dynamo Moscow stadium and an articulation of the surrounding park. In contradiction with mono – functional sports arena’s Erick van Egeraat designs multifunctional urban regenerator,that will play a key role in transforming its wider surroundings. Erick van Egeraat’s 300,000-m2 multifunctional culture, health and sports centre will be developed on a 116,000-m2 site and will comprise a 45,000-seat Stadium Arena for Dynamo Moscow, a 10,000-seat Arena Hall, a Retail and Entertainment complex, restaurants, parking and other facilities. This careful mix of functions will ensure a self sustaining character. Read the rest of this entry »