Planners have long argued against suburban sprawl for the possible health effects it has on residents who are able to avoid physical exercise from behind the wheel. California Polytechnic State University architecture students Thomas Shorey, Ryan Nevius and Baptiste Roult have approached design as health promoter in a more urban manner: design a city vertically to force physical movement and better health.

Their Sky District plan abandons the typical design of buildings where visitors are distributed to floors via easily accessible elevators, saying that method offers “poor architectural design, consumes finite resources and promotes a lazy way of life.” Instead, they propose, arrange city blocks vertically and offer skip-stop elevators and attractive stairways that reward climbers with impressive city views. Not only does this encourage walking, they say, but it also increases opportunities for public interaction. Read the rest of this entry »

If the S.M.A.R.T. tower appears to be in constant motion, it’s only because the structure is covered by a swarm of 100,000 robot bees.

S.M.A.R.T. stands for Swarm Manufacturing and Augmented Reality Technology. Using CAD and LPS (Local Positioning System) data, the bees can be programmed to augment the structure virtually, turning virtual information and data into physical realities. The concept is the vision of Seoul, Korea architects Yoon H. Kim and Yang-Kyu Han.

These bees aren’t interested in honey: these workers will actually build a structure. Each robot is capable of using cartridges filled with agents that enable them to construct literal physical material, which the designers dub “augmented synthetic material.” An amassing of this material forms skyscraper that is conductive, allowing electricity and data to flow throughout the skin of the structure which enables the pulses to be directed to very specific locations. Read the rest of this entry »

The Acadia Tree tower design by Czech architect Petr Pospisil operates from the basic observation that as cities grow and density rises, precious ground space takes on new importance. The design for the Acadia Tree allows for an exciting high rise that is both monumental in scale and look and has a small footprint on the city below.

Three long legs rise high and support a complex of living and commercial spaces on top. The legs themselves have many functions: they house office spaces, the are the location of elevators that whisk people to the tower’s top, and they have plants growing in a middle groove, bringing living foliage to the whole length of the tower, culminating in plentiful green space on the complex that rests on top of the pillars.

The relaxing, green area perched on the three legs is meant to resemble a bird’s nest, providing secure housing, protection and respite. With expanses of grass, trees and even swimming pools, residents living in apartments on this tower enjoy leafy environs and fantastic views. Each apartment even has its own large, landscaped terrace. Read the rest of this entry »

Hong Kong architectural graduate student Kenneth Cheung Shiu Lun is worried about human kind’s consumption. We are killing the earth, Lun argues, and will soon make our own kind extinct as we deplete the planet’s resources.

In Noah’s Tower, Lun has designed an architectural island where the mantra “survival of the fittest” means that those brave enough to leave land will live on into the future. Noah’s Tower, playing off the story of Noah’s Ark, comes with a tagline: “It’s time to face it. Architecture without ground.”

As the earth’s land disappears, refugees gather on temporary floating islands before arriving to the Noah’s Tower complex, which is a series of towers connected by bridges that float and move with the waves and are interchangeable to allow for new linkages as the city grows.

The bridges linking the towers serve a special purpose: not only do they connect the expatriate community, but they serve as a link for residents to the world they left behind. The floating bridges are comprised of two levels, the bottom serving for traffic and the top covered in trees, bringing a connection to nature and the environment that has been lost for residents. Read the rest of this entry »

Egyptian architects and engineers Gehan Ahmed Nagy Radwan, Sameh Morsj Gad El-Rab Morsi and Ahmed Magdy Ali are heavy on idealism and light on literal plans for their design Stairway to Heaven, a skyscraper design that blends reality and dreams to create a new utopian dimension.

Located within the slums of Cairo, the Egyptians’ entry couples the smiling faces of children and women with a futuristic tower plan that stacks spheres and rectangular living units high into the sky. The opposite shapes are symbolic of the different purposes the structure serves: dream bubbles foster idealism, living cells house real life, and a “main core of hyper cubes” fuses the two, as would a time machine, say the architects, in a way that opens a “fourth dimension” to residents. A new reality is what is truly created when blending dreams of the future with the roots of your past, issues of identity and community considerations. Read the rest of this entry »

Situated along the Great Glacier Trail in Canada, the Discovery Walk design interprets the architectural phrase “natural surroundings” in an extreme manner. The object shifts the attention from itself, humbly accentuating the grandeur of nature.

The 400 feet long boardwalk allows visitors to savor the overwhelming beauty of Jasper Park. Its tectonic structure successively transforms into a glass viewpoint suspended 30 meters above the Sunwapta Valley. Steel was used as an artificial equivalent of surrounding rock, making the design act as a natural extension of the terrain. Use of material and form reveal a strong sustainable approach to building. Read the rest of this entry »

The first regional headquarters branches for Moroccan bank, BMCE (Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur) have opened in Rabat and Casablanca, with a further branch in Fez due to complete shortly – they are the first buildings by Foster + Partners to be completed in Africa. The banks’ contemporary interior is wrapped by a traditional, energy efficient envelope and their design is based on a modular system, which utilises local materials and craftsmanship to create a striking new emblem for BMCE.

The design follows a ‘kit-of-parts’ approach, with variations in colour and scale according to the bank’s location. Each building comprises a concrete frame, with an entrance colonnade and a series of bays repeated on a modular grid. The bays are enclosed by glazed panels and 200mm-deep screens, which provide shade and security. The screens are cut from sheets of stainless steel – a special low-iron mixture that does not heat up in the sun – which are curved to create a geometric design, based on traditional Islamic patterns.

All BMCE flagship branches feature an ‘earth tube’, an electricity-free cooling system: fresh air is drawn into an empty pipe that encircles the building underground, where it is naturally cooled by the earth and released into the branch. Read the rest of this entry »

The design of the Z-Chair Chair summarizes the essence of contemporary design and the research developed by Zaha Hadid Architects over the last three decades. A simple three-dimensional gesture zigzags in the space as part of the continued discourse between form and function, elegance and utility, differentiation and continuity.

Geometric abstractions inform the design’s linear loop, which is articulated along its path in a language that alternates thin wire streams and large surfaces to provide both ergonomic affordances and inherent stability to the overall shape. The dichotomy between the elegance of the composition and its articulation is negotiated through a subtle play of contrasting angular corners and wide, smooth curves. Read the rest of this entry »

Oyler Wu Collaborative and Michael Kalish have recently completed a traveling installation dedicated to Muhammad Ali.

From the Designers: “Designed as collaboration between Oyler Wu Collaborative and Michael Kalish, this traveling installation is built as a tribute to the life and cultural significance of Muhammad Ali.  The project is aimed at exposing a new generation to this larger than life character by building an appreciation for the nuanced emotional, aesthetic, and technical principles that collectively form experience – a concept that holds true as much for human persona as it does for architecture.

Conceived of as an experiential 2-D image, the core of the project is a seemingly random field of 1300 boxing speed bags that, when viewed from a single vantage point, form a pixilated image of the face of Muhammad Ali.  The structure is designed with the intention of simultaneously supporting the clarity and focus from that vantage point, while enriching the experience of the piece from all others, through a combination of dense structural bundles, material effects, and geometrical repetition.

The need for viewing the image from a single vantage point set in motion a series of essential design decisions.  First, the overall form of the piece is defined by the cone of vision between the viewer and the image, growing from front to back both in plan and in section.  In order to minimize the impact of the structure from that vantage point, its form from that location can be seen only as a simple frame that surrounds the image- one that is careful not to detract from that likeness.  Once the viewer moves away from that location, even the slightest, the bags explode into an unrecognizable array, with the surrounding structure serving as a complimentary and integral part of the system.

As a way of further highlighting the 3-dimensionality of the field of bags, the structure is split down the middle, with half of the bags pulled forward and the other half pushed backward, effectively elongating the field of bags.  Similarly, the structure is divided in such a way as to cantilever both forward and back, creating the rotational effect of the overall form.  In addition to supporting the bags, this strategy allows for portions of the bags to be viewed separately from the structure in elevation. Read the rest of this entry »

A new, 92 meter tall complex of soft, undulating curves marks the skyline of Groningen. This asymmetric, aerodynamic construction is set amidst small, ancient woodland, sheltering rare and protected species. The project includes the design, construction and financing of two public institutions; the national tax offices and the student loan administration. The commission from the RGD (National Buildings Service) includes, besides the architecture, the management and building maintenance and care of facilities and services for a period of 20 years. Accommodating 2,500 workstations, parking facilities for 1,500 bicycles and 675 cars in an underground garage, the building will be surrounded by a large public city garden with pond and a multifunctional pavilion with commercial functions.

The architecture aims to present these institutions with a softer, more human and approachable profile. Tall buildings are generally associated with mid-twentieth century modernism. Their harsh, businesslike exteriors contain powerful, inaccessible-seeming strongholds. By contrast, the DUO and Tax offices deliberately cloak a commanding public institution in an organic, friendlier and more future-oriented form.

“The design contains numerous new innovations related to the reduction of materials, lower energy costs and more sustainable working environments. It presents a fully integrated, intelligent design approach towards sustainability.” – Ben van Berkel Read the rest of this entry »