UNStudio has been chosen to remodel and renovate Hanwha’s headquarters building – the facade, the interior of the common spaces, lobbies, meeting levels, auditorium and executive areas, along with the redesign of the landscaping. Several important variables were required to be incorporated into the redesign, most essentially the surroundings, nature and the environment. Their concept for the project resulted in the design of a responsive facade which prioritizes and integrates groups of key parameters: program – exterior and interior, indoor climate and environmental considerations.

The existing façade contains horizontal bands of opaque paneling and single layers of dark glass. In the remodeling this is replaced by clear insulated glass and aluminum framing to accentuate views and daylight. The geometry of the framing is further defined by the sun and orientation factors to ensure user comfort inside and reduced energy consumption.

The basis for the facade expression is largely formed by the program. By varying the placement of the facade panels a variety of program-related openings are created. The North facade opens to enable day lighting within the building but becomes more opaque on the South façade, where the sun would otherwise have too much impact on the heat load of the building. Openings within the facade are further related to the views: opening up where views are possible but becoming more compact on the side adjacent to the nearby buildings. Direct solar impact on the building is reduced by shading which is provided by angling the glazing away from direct sunlight, while the upper portion of the South facade is angled to receive direct sunlight. The facade is animated by individual LED pixels, with dynamic lighting reflecting different parts of the building and highlighting areas of activity within. Read the rest of this entry »

800m Tower for China by MAD Architects questions what the future skyscraper should be. Unlike the traditional skyscraper that embodies its greatness in height and monumental form, the 800m Tower declares its significance in the unique way in which it relates to the city around it. The institutional framework of the traditional skyscraper is limited – it is defined by a simple, linear structure and mediocre duplication in business districts across the globe. At a time when the height record for such buildings is almost instantly replaced, the building’s landmark status quickly wanes as taller versions rise around it. As such, it becomes increasingly necessary for a building to create and realize a higher level of complexity in its expression of modern city relationships.

The two towers are connected with a cable car at the top, allowing all people from the city to make the journey around it and through it, echoing the dynamism and movement of the city. The previous conception of form and style establish landmark appears outdated by contrast.

The 800m Tower will not act as an office machine. On contrary, it will become a living admixture. Space for commerce, service and entertainment are elevated to the same level as the office and hotel functions, forming a solid city element that makes the sister towers and its users part of the metropolitan life.

Exciting and dynamic, the 800m tower will house office spaces and a hotel, on a 310,840sqm area. Read the rest of this entry »

UNStudio designed Grand Musée de l’Afrique in Algiers, Algerie, for ARPC – Agence Nationale de Gestion des Realisations de Grands Projects de la Culture. The museum is designed as an amalgamation of history, geography, ecology, culture and presents itself as a sensitive, context-conscious modernizing impulse. The Grand Musée de l’Afrique of Alger is designed to bring Algeria and Africa a manifestation of its cultural and natural richness. Its architecture is a medium to generate a ‘trait d’union’ between African cultures, while blending into Algeria’s city fabric.

The museum highlights the diversity and multiplicity of the African continent due to the language of aggregation which was deployed in the design, acting as an organizational system. The varied nature of the collection led to a concept for a museum that reflects the idea of variety and diversification, where the program aggregates in a range of flexible scenarios by alternating exhibition and performance spaces. The logic of program distribution within the museum sets itself apart from the more classical notion of museum program distribution. By intertwining the narrative and the routing, diversifying the visitor experience into a mixed space with a loose start and a loose end, the Grand Musée de l’Afrique presents a unique museum experience.

The intensification of urban activities promotes the site as an urban destination, a social and cultural meeting point. Museum garden unveils several types of African ecologies, where a route of 2km crosses several landscape ecologies and the various gardens will allow for art work to be placed outside in a landscape scenario.

The winners of the international tender for the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2015 are studio Nemesis & Partners Proger of Pescara and Rome with BMS Projects in Milan. The winning concept is rooted in the idea that the architecture should act as a system for generating relations – the way in which these relationships are organized and expressed gives the life to set of volumes that further build architectural landscape, evoking the image of an urban forest. The design of the pavilion comes together in one volume, very rigorous and unified, in order to meet the functional requirements.

The main theme of the whole Expo is “feeding the planet”. In the Italian Pavilion’s brief the key words – life, transparency, changeability, all focused on the visitor’s experiences into the space.

The volume of the pavilion is articulated in four main blocks, arranged around central void – the square. The dynamism of architectural massing is obtained through inclined surfaces of the interior of the square. Within the pavilion macro key functions required by the Preliminary Document are organized – exhibition area, auditorium, offices and Meeting. The four architectural volumes, as if they were trees, have the support massive point on the ground that simulates large “roots” of the exhibition on the ground floor.

In the words of the jury, the highest ranked project plays with special care and self-expressive formal comprehensive architectural imprint the theme – Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, with pre-figuration introduced by the concept. Read the rest of this entry »

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Algae Urba Canopy, as part of the Future Food District project, is being developed by Carlo Ratti Associati at the central crossroads of the Milan EXPO site. The pavilions’ façades and canopy utilize new systems of micro-algae, designed by Cesare Griffa and ecoLogicStudio. Two prototypes – full scale models of the façade and canopy – are being previewed as part of INTERNI’s Exhibition-Event ‘Feeding New Ideas for the City’ during Milan Design Week.

The functioning principle of these prototypes is based on the exceptional properties of micro-algae organisms, which are ten times more efficient photosynthetic machines compared to large trees and grasses. The façade and canopy currently being developed for EXPO Milano 2015 develop a natural man-made ecology and explore the use of algae as an integrated architectural cladding and urban agriculture system. Algae can represent an important part of creating a healthy and live-able planet. Giving life to mysterious urban gardens, algae can be used as an innovative energy and food production system within our cities.

The Urban Algae Canopy, based on ecoLogicStudio’s ‘HORTUS’ system, is presented with a 1:1 scale prototype of the world’s first bio-digital canopy integrating micro-algal cultures and real time digital cultivation protocols on a unique architectural system. The potential of micro-algae have been integrated within a custom designed four-layered ETFE cladding system, whilst the flows of energy, water and CO2 are controlled and regulated in real-time and made to respond and adjust to weather patterns and visitors’ movements. Once completed, as part of the EXPO Milano 2015 Future Food District, this special edition of the Urban Algae Canopy will produce the equivalent amount of oxygen as four hectares of woodland, and up to 150 kg of biomass per day – 60% of which are natural proteins.

The Urban Algae Façade – based on Cesare Griffa’s ‘WaterLilly 2.0’ system – is the prototype of a micro-algae façade, being developed in a special edition for EXPO Milano 2015. ‘WaterLilly 2.0’ is a project for a micro-algae vertical farm to be implemented as an architectural skin. The intention here is that, integrated into the green system of the cities, micro-algae can help in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, while acting as a second skin of buildings, boosting passive cooling and increasing shading of the façade. Read the rest of this entry »

LAVA Architects did an exciting proposal for a library in Kazakhstan. Instead of creating an individual icon, they wanted that the library establishes relationships between Astana the city, Kazakhstan the country, and the rest of the world.

Information has traditionally been stored in the form of books, but the internet and digital storage devices have multiplied the possibilities infinitely. Books and printed media are only one form of information storage yet are still a widely accepted form of information. The library of the future is therefore an information hub connected as much to the individual user in the city as it is to the rest of the world.

The proposed building form reflects both the traditional approach and future tendencies, and it also suggests the reading of the city as a modern 21st century polycentric network of relationships. The outer perimeter is based on the square form in plan, which is representative of tradition, stability and order. The cutouts into the rigid square form open the interior of the building to the outside, providing a sense of openness and invitation.

Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is only just over a decade old and a wide range of ambitious building projects are always in full swing – 1,700 cranes are currently in operation on 650 separate sites in a city which less than ten years ago, had a population of only 280,000, and today boasts almost a million.

Dutch architectural practice BIG Architects won the first prize  for national Kazakhstan library. Read the rest of this entry »

GXN, 3XN’s green innovation unit, is the architect of the 150m2 meeting pavilion that will be a movable spearhead for developing the construction industry in a more sustainable direction. The technology and design of the pavilion, developed in collaboration with engineers from COWI, Cradle 2 Cradle® Denmark and others, point towards a future where buildings contribute positively to the environment.

The solar cells integrated in the roof are angled so that they are exploited most efficiently. Together with a heat pump producing three times the heat energy it consumes in electrical power energy, the solar cells ensure that the building has a surplus of energy.

The materials used in the pavilion are either 100 % biological degradable or recyclable. Among the degradable materials are bio-composites, which are building blocks, made out of for example flax or hemp. Well known building materials like steel and glass are also used as they can be recycled and therefore would not turn into waste if the pavilion some day is demolished. The C2C Pavilion is an on-going project, meaning that the pavilion is to be continuously improved as new inventions within sustainable building come about.

GXN was established in 2007 as an internal division of Danish architectural practice 3XN, and has since day one been working with applied architectural research in green materials and building technologies. The ‘G’ stands for Green, highlighting GXN’s dedication to ecological design research through digital processes and innovative material solutions. GXN competencies span over architecture and design projects, research and innovation and external consultancy. Read the rest of this entry »

The following project is the outcome of a workshop, held at Architectural Association, Design Research Laboratory, London, UK. The theme of the workshop was self-organizing and self-assembly systems, cellular automata and game of life.

Computational / parametric architecture stays very close to contemporary theory of algorithms. The authors of the workshop have already implemented cellular automata and particularly game of life in architectural project Fashion Design Museum in Kyiv, 2009. Current project designed within the Architectural Association (AADRL) was aimed to go deeply into cellular automata theory and practice and to define the strategies of control the self-organizing system and to find the directions of usage in architectural design. Implementation of the algorithm for space tessellated into truncated octahedrons instead of usual cubic voxels also became a contribution into cellular automata research.

The aim of the study was to develop an algorithm that analyzes the system and cellular automata based on the statistical data decides how to change the input parameters – rules of growth or initial generation, and modifies the geometric structure of the system given the strategies that are necessary for the achievement of design (frame search, combining in clusters , etc.). Much of the workshop was dedicated to testing of various input conditions and rules’ generation. The second phase consisted of obtaining numerical data from the complex system. Third was the interpretation and searching the path of application of numbers obtained. And fourth – a change of the morphology of generative field and the manufacture of a physical model of the variations’ catalogue and graphical explanation of the search tree of desired result.

Workshop tutor was Mostafa El Sayed while the team members are Dmytro Aranchii, Paul Bart, Yuqiu Jiang and Flavia Santos. Read the rest of this entry »

Dongdeamun Design Plaza by Zaha Hadid Architects opened 21 March 2014 by hosting Seoul Fashion Week. DDP also hosted five separate design and art exhibitions featuring works by modern designers as well as the prized collection of traditional Korean art of the Kansong Art Museum. The Design Plaza has been designed as a cultural hub at the very center of Dongdaemun – an historic district of Seoul. DDP is a catalyst for the instigation and exchange of ideas and for new technologies and media to be explored. It has been designed as an architectural landscape that revolves around the ancient city wall and cultural artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations, preceding DDP’s construction.

The design of the development is a very specific result of how the context, local culture, programmatic requirements and innovative engineering come together – the whole new civic space is created allowing the architecture, city and landscape to combine in both form and spatial experience.

It is place for leisure, relaxation and refuge – a new green oasis within the busy urban surroundings of Dongdaemun. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape.

Dongdeamun Design Plaza’s design and construction sets many new standards of innovation. It is the first public project in Korea to implement advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services that ensure the highest quality and cost controls. These innovations have enabled the team building DDP to control the construction with much greater precision than conventional processes and improve efficiency. Implementing such construction technologies make the development one of Korea’s most innovative and technological advanced constructions to date. Read the rest of this entry »