Flinders Street Station Design Competition has been burning topic in architectural circles these days. The site of Station is in the very center of Melbourne and is sandwiched between the Central Business District and the bank of Yarra River. The building of the existing station separates the city from the railway and from the river. Herzog & De Meuron’s proposal tries to keep the very specific linear use of this site, considering it a strong marker and urban element, while providing the architectural solution that would improve this very important location through public access and use of the entire site.  Various connections across the site and diverse public functions are only the part of the proposal.

In the words of the architects, the proposal for Flinders Street Station offers new civic destination with a distinct architectural identity, offering a holistic experience on many levels and times of the day and forming an urban linchpin in the heart of the city of Melbourne. Rather than simply creating an iconic gesture, the architects at Herzog & De Meuron decided to revive the originally planned roof for the existing building, and by tracing the arches and vaults the key element of their design was defined. It works as a passé-partout, due to the framing of the existing building. Read the rest of this entry »

The stadium is the symbol of vitality. It is a place where you can stay before and after the event. The viewer is not only the host of the tadium, but also within an inhabited neighborhood of shopping, cinema, restaurants, hotels, housing, sports facilities, gardens and public places. All of these transform the stadium from a monument into a more familiar place, which provides its visitors with an increased freedom of social interaction.  Read the rest of this entry »

KK100, designed by TFP Farrells for Shenzhen, China, is an innovative project, located on a 3.6-hectare site, which previously housed the old dwellings of Caiwuwei Village, an area known for its bad environment, insufficient transportation infrastructure, and degraded buildings. The developer took the initiative to form a company with the villagers (a Joint Development Initiative), for a new model for the district that would benefit everyone. The existing buildings were mainly run-down housing with inadequate living conditions.

This 100-story and over 440 meters high tower is one part of the master plan for a 417,000m2 mixed-use development which includes five residential and two commercial buildings. The tower is horizontally divided into different uses – levels from 4 to 72 houses 173,000m2 of Grade- A office space while the uppermost levels from 75 to 100 are occupied by a 35,000m2 St. Regis Hotel complete with a cathedral-like glazed sky-garden. Due to the curved and smooth roof surface, the generators were not put on top of the building. Read the rest of this entry »

A new pavilion, covered in galvanized steel plates, is constructed on a sloping lawn on the temporary Dover Campus of Singapore University of Technology and Design. Designed by City Form Lab in collaboration with ARUP, the shell pavilion is accommodating three mature trees and forming a buffer, a noise barrier toward the Expressway in the north. The outdoor space behind the existing library building is therefore activated. In daytime, the structure of the pavilion offers shaded open-air place to work, mingle or relax. During the night, the place becomes the spot for informal gatherings, event lectures and community events.

The free-shaped temporary structure is a third space, between the classrooms and the dormitory, and the main place for spontaneous intellectual and social exchange. Due to its design and chosen structural principle – a catenary structure, the pavilion uses little material in order to achieve necessary spans while the canopy forms a lightweight timber shell, free of columns, beams and vertical walls. The double curvature of the form, which follows the lines of the compressed thrust, is enabled by hanging-chain model.

In order to execute the pavilion in precise manner, the computational design and computer fabrication was used – complex three-dimensional form is achieved with readily available materials and the cost is reduced to minimal. Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architect’s Innovation Tower for Hong Kong Polytechnic University is near its completion. The architectural office was commissioned to design the architectural landmark that would symbolize the dynamic development of Hong Kong as Asia’s greatest design hub as well as the high level educational institution offering variety of design and research programs.

The design for the University’s Innovation Tower came as a result of the re-examining the characteristics and the requirements of such an institution and therefore the creative multidisciplinary environment called for something other than the classical typography of a tower rising from the podium – the design team proposed seamlessly fluid new structure. However, the tower still references University’s rich tradition, but with an accent on the upcoming, future achievements.

“Collateral flexibility” is a concept derived from the university’s many different programs and their interconnections, which provided a clear guiding principle, used to govern the building’s internal logic and to create a structure inherently organized and easily attended by visitors from the entering point. Read the rest of this entry »

This 3D printed LED diffuser is made from a lightweight ceramic or a semi transparent UV cured acrylic which gives an ethereal glow when switched on. Designed by Margot Krasojevic, the light geometry is a symmetrical helix which can be balanced along a central axis depending on which surface you wish to levitate it from. The semi-conducting base creates a magnetic field around it which enables you to position the light hovering over it; when gently pushed it rotates altering its immediate surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »

As it has been recently announced, UNStudio is commissioned to design Yongjia World Trade Center in Wenzhou, China. The winning concept by architectural team led by Ben Van Berkel proposes five towers, ranging from 287 meters for the central tower to 146 meters for the smallest. The towers offer traditional mixed-use, due to the fact that the residential apartments are located on top of offices of World Trade Center, therefore the users will experience 360-degree views. Located in the new riverside city of Wenzhou, the complex represents necessary functional shift of the WTC area from a business and financial district to a more sustainable, mixed-use development incorporating cultural and recreational facilities as well as residential layer.

In the words of architects, the landscape of the complex was used as a unifying factor, offering the common ground for the precious singular objects, as it was the main design concept. The continuous podium serves as a green plain for the towers which are in specific dialog with the existing surrounding – they quietly coexist, but still clearly outstand from the environment. Read the rest of this entry »

Live. Learn. Work. is a design by Brian Richter, created as a response to the recent expansion of Lexington, Kentucky. As the city is becoming a new regional urban model of a mid-size city center and being surrounded with many important public and private institutions and businesses with incredible cultural, social and economic potential, Lexington surely has the necessary intellectual capacity to attract new businesses that could take advantage of both the existing and proposed urban, social and cultural infrastructure.

This particular design aims create a network with Lexington’s proposed projects, such as the Scape Town Branch Park System, Space Group’s Rupp Arena expansion, Centerpointe, Downtown Theater District and the Sasaki Master plan for the University of Kentucky, in order to form a stronger link between the urban center of downtown and the University of Kentucky. Due to combination of many diverse and complex urban conditions and Lexington’s historic districts there is true and dynamic opportunity to successfully combine existing business and research initiatives with Kentucky University while enhancing the public infrastructure of the city. Read the rest of this entry »

Dutch architectural practice UNStudio is behind the concept design for the new business district at Tongzhou in Beijing, China. This waterfront development is rather dynamic composition of towers interconnected by aerial bridges and it introduces clear asymmetry in plan, orientation, clustering and façade treatment. The architects strongly believe that this asymmetry relates to users on a more personal scale, regarding its more natural character, while it also has a far-reaching urban effect.

Six towers of this vivid and playful development form three groups which are very precisely synchronized. Each pair of towers is standing on a joint platform. As defined by the bridging connections between them, the towers are grouped as a couple, a trio and a single volume. The form of the tower or its silhouette is formed in diagonal wrapping, derived from differences between the lower and the upper plans. Lower parts of the tower are densely stacked, but as the façade goes towards the top it becomes smoother and reflective. Strong diagonals running the entire length of the tower make this transition almost seamless. Read the rest of this entry »