Danjiang Bridge by Zaha Hadid Architects, render by VisualArch

Zaha Hadid Architects, working with Leonhardt, Andrä & Partner and Sinotech Engineering Consultants, have won the international competition to design the new Danjiang Bridge in Taipei for the Directorate General of Highways, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Located at the mouth of Tamsui River that flows through the capital Taipei, the Danjiang Bridge is integral to the infrastructure upgrading program of northern Taiwan. The bridge will increase connectivity between neighbourhoods and reduce through-traffic on local roads within local town centres by linking the Highways 2 and 15, with the West Coast Expressway (Route 61) and Bali-Xindian Expressway (Route 64). By also reducing traffic from the congested Guandu Bridge upriver, the Danjiang Bridge will greatly improve the northern coast traffic system and enhance accessibility throughout the region with the rapidly expanding Port of Taipei/Taipei Harbour, the region’s busiest shipping port.

The Danjiang Bridge will also allow for the extension of Danhai Light Rail Transportation (DHLRT) system over the Tamsui River to connect the town of BaLi and the Port/Harbour with Taipei’s public rail network.

The Tamsui River estuary is a natural environment flanked by the urban centres of Tamsui to the East and Bali to the west. The estuary is rapidly growing in popularity with both residents and tourists as a recreational area where people gather each day to watch the sun setting over the Taiwan Strait.

The cable-stayed bridge design minimises its visual impact by using only one concrete structural mast to support the 920m road, rail and pedestrian deck made from steel. The Danjiang Bridge will be the world’s longest single-tower, asymmetric cable-stayed bridge.

The mast is designed and engineered to be as slender as possible and positioned to offer the best structural performance, avoid impeding the navigability of the river and also minimise any interference with the views of the sunset from popular viewing points along the river. This single-mast design also minimizes structural elements in the riverbed in accordance with the increased protection programs of the estuary’s ecosystems.

Zaha Hadid Architects, with Leonhardt, Andrä & Partner and Sinotech Engineering Consultants placed first in the competition. CECI and Nippon Engineering Consultants placed second; Aecom Asia and Resources Engineering Services placed third, MAA Group and Cowi placed fourth, with Oriental Consultants with Pacific Engineers & Constructors and Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants and Pacific Consultants with Taiwan Engineering Consultants and Yuang Engineering Consultants placing joint fifth. Read the rest of this entry »

Ecocapsule - Photo: Tomas Manina / Juraj Fifiki

Ecocapsule designed by Nice Architects is smart house powered by purely the solar and wind energy. It allows people to reach the frontiers with the luxury of the hotel room. It can serve as cottage, pop-up hotel or even as charging station for electric cars.

Extended off-grid stay
Ecocapsule is equipped with dual power production system bypassing periods of low energy production and massive battery capacity allowing to store surplus energy for later usage.

Spherical shape of the Ecocapsule is carefully formed to maximize collection of the rain water and morning dew. Membrane water filters installed in the Ecocapsule are devised to purify 99,999% of the bacteria and rendering any natural water source suitable for drinking.

Low-energy design
Spherical shape of the Ecocapsule was purposely designed to minimize energy losses. Hollow walls filled with hi-performance thermal insulation are protecting inhabitants from harsh environment and helping to achieve near passive house performance. Low consumption system and energy recuperation are helping to reduce energy consumption and extend life span.

Easy mobility
Ecocapsule is optimized for easy transportation. It can fit into standard shipping container therefore it can be easily shipped globally with lowest shipping fees possible. Mobility of the Capsule can be extended via additional undercarriage which will turn Ecocapsule to the fully functioning caravan. Read the rest of this entry »

The chair that embodies design, ingenuity and meticulous American craftsmanship.

Maximillian Chair

Los Angeles based industrial designer Armen Sevada recently launched his Maximillian Chair. Seven years in the making, the chair combines meticulous attention to design proportion and craftsmanship.

“Fine-tuning a timeless chair that needed to be built like a watch was perhaps the hardest part of the process. My goal is to design objects that are timeless and complete in and of themselves. For me, this is the true test of sustainability; designs that are not governed by style or frivolous form. I wanted to create an object that for me embodied meticulous attention to design proportion and craftsmanship. I believe the Maximillian embodies design, ingenuity and meticulous American craftsmanship. I wanted to create something that could be as close to a perfect chair as possible” ~ 
Armen Sevada

The Maximillian Chair took seven years of design and prototyping to create, and is a true testament to American manufacturing. Each piece is welded from stainless steel sheets that are cut with laser precision. It takes six weeks to produce one chair. The chair’s hollow structure is meticulously designed like a building, and is manufactured in Los Angeles, handcrafted meticulously by expert artisans. The chair is designed to withstand the effects of moisture, and will not rust or tarnish.

“I believe that furniture has become a commodity. The general public may spend thousands of dollars on their clothing, but care less how they live behind closed doors. I believe the handcrafted approach is important to show that there are objects that are built with care and precision rather than mass production. Hermès bags are also handmade and I think this is one of the reasons why they are valued as they are. I think it is important to make things that have a personal touch, and there is a beauty in subtle imperfection. We are too used to identical objects that are manufactured by machines”

The chair is a real investment piece, with only 100 available worldwide. Each chair comes with a numbered plaque and signature, priced at $25,000. The first one went to Armen’s son, Maximillian, the inspiration for this project.

Armen Sevada Gharabegian, designer and producer of the Maximillian Chair, is an accomplished industrial designer based in Los Angeles. He is the founder and principal designer of Lounge22, a modern furniture design and fabrication company, as well as the founder and CEO of Ethos Design, a production company involved in global exhibits and events worldwide. He is an accomplished artist, sculptor and published author who continues to pursue all his passions. A graduate of the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, he holds a Master’s degrees in industrial design and has taught furniture design for several years.

The complete story of the chair can be found at http://maximillianchair.com Read the rest of this entry »

The former French Concession in the heart of Shanghai is known for its typical rectilinear development – the Li Long. Li stands for neighborhood, and Long refers to the narrow rectilinear streets separating the buildings. This urban morphology, which is typical of Shanghai, creates narrow and intimate urban spaces.

The design for SOHO Fuxing Lu, an urban quarter with restaurants, shops and offices primarily intended for young start-up companies, adopts the scale and orientation of the neighboring blocks, integrates existing historic buildings and, in this way, adds to the important urban seam in the inner city using the existing urban development structure.

The ensemble consists of nine oblong building blocks with sloping roofs and an east-west orientation, and a high-rise building which provides a more general reference to the urban landscape.

Within the confines of this precinct, a network of pathways and small alleys converges at a central square with restaurants. A circular access provides entry to commercial facilities in the basement and to the underground railway. The façades and roofs have been clad with light natural stone strips of different widths. The dark grey metal elements of the glass façades provide a contrast to these strips.

The abstract pattern image of the façades and the omission of any historic references underscore the urban focus of the project in the center of the city.

On completion, the project obtained the LEED Gold certificate.

Design – Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Stephan Rewolle
Project management – competition Su Jun
Team members – competition Stefan Hornscheidt, Li Zheng, Zhou Bin, Zhang Jing
Project management – detailed design Matthias Wiegelmann, Kong Jing
Team members – detailed design Cai Yu, Guo Fuhui, Kornelia Krzykowska, Li Ling, Sebastian Linack, Xie Fang, Thilo Zehme, Zhang Yingying, Zheng Shanshan, Zhou Bin, Catharina Cragg, Dai Tianxing, Gao Rui, Hua Rong, Wu Hua, Yuan Hang, Zhang Xuhui
Client SOHO China
Chinese partner practice ECADI (East China Architectural Design & Research Institute CO. LTD)
Lighting design CONCEPTLICHT GMBH
GFA, total above ground 71,565 m²
GFA, total below ground 64,975 m²
Retail area 85,661 m²
Office area 50,879 m²
Height of high-rise building 99.85 m Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Aedas, the project occupies one of the best locations in Dubai Marina, facing the Arabian Gulf on one side and the Dubai Marina on the other. It consists of three residential towers standing above a cluster of podium loft units with retail facilities at lower levels. The towers range from 43 to 56 storeys, offering spacious, modern apartments and duplex penthouses. They are tied together by a seven-storey podium that houses waterfront villas and boutique retail units. Each building has its own tropical pool deck, gym and facilities.

The client’s vision for the development was to provide spectacular views of the Marina for each apartment with well planned orientation and spatial layouts. Architecturally the development ‘grows’ from the ground. Aedas designed a solid base of stepped retails and villas with concrete and textured paint finishes, while the apartment towers above have a glass façade with a lightweight and transparent feel. The towers look clean and elegant in daytime, shaded with mesh fins that reflect the adjacent water, and transform into a lit sculpture at night, creating an iconic architecture on the most prominent site in Dubai Marina. Read the rest of this entry »

Melike Altınışık and Gül Ertekin were listed as finalist with their proposal for the İstanbul Gülsuyu Cemevi and Cultural Center Competition which was opened in May 2015 by Maltepe Municipality of Istanbul for a religious and cultural complex for Alevis. “Cemevi” is the name of the religious building of Alevis and there isn’t enough research on the history of it. The competition was opened to challenge local architects to come up with a design which serves the contemporary needs of this society while carrying traces of their culture.

There is a tension between the past and the present, the rural and the urban when it comes to design a Cemevi and Cultural Complex. The historical and rural samples of Cemevi are more small scale and hidden spaces. Due to the massive immigration of Alevis to big cities in the last 30 years and their new needs (cultural and social facilities), the scale of “City Cemevi” has become bigger and unfortunately they lack the feeling of a religious building.

Instead of a formal sustainability of the past, the cultural sustainability became the core of the design. Alevi culture and their values are taken as main principles for the architecture of Cemevi; such as humanism, modesty, socializing, strong connection with nature and the surroundings

The proposal offers a new way of designing Cemevi and Cultural Complex with its human scale, expanded, yet united look. It is consisted of repeating modules to express the unity of the complex, while differentiating the religious hall from other units with material changes. Pedestrian experience and socialising are important inputs for the project. Roof landscape, terraces oriented to the islands view, courtyards, and visible visual and physical connections between the functions create lively public spaces inside the complex for people to interact. Read the rest of this entry »

The objective of this project designed by Armin Senoner was to contextualize and gradually change both, the appearance as well as the physical experience of a Presidential Library.

The brake up from a seemingly purely contextualized agglomeration of solids into a new more articulated central library can be interpreted as the reflection of the last year’s turbulent, refreshing maybe also controversial presidency.

This project sees itself as a timeline, where the old and traditional negotiates creating new forms. Situated in Chicago, the presidential library takes place at West Garfield Park, at 5th Avenue and Kostner. A neighborhood predominated by high criminality, poverty, high percentage of low weight births and high rates of infant mortality.

The objective is to clear up the neighborhood by creating employment, adding service facilities and therefore hopefully lowering criminality. Many buildings are empty, lots can still be filled up. High potential for urban expansion guaranteed. In terms of program, the 105.000m² large area will be overbuild with the library and the archives in first place, followed up by a medical care center.

A boulevard is splitting the two main buildings and at the same time numerous shopping and retail facilities will revitalize the area and hopefully decrease negative characteristics of the surrounding area. Read the rest of this entry »

The prosposed design is not inteded to be seen just as a normal bridge or a path which is just the shortest link.The exisitng structure fullfills this requirement well enough. In this case it’s character and essence would be deepely rooted in making the city center of Atlanta more accessible and user friendly to the community and attractive to guests passing through. Because modern monuments don’t need to be just statues.They can be structures,areas , surfaces or places strengthening interaction, focused on performance in many ways, on what they can give in return to the eco-system, nature and society due to claiming of a piece of land. Hence the bridge design does not have to derive from aesthetics, beeing a sculptural form what would not bring any solutions for the issues of those who live within and visit Atlanta using the connections above the connector via car, bicycle, transit, and pedestrian movement systems.It can be a performative approach showcased in this parametric bridge design proposal which has the potential to be easily tailored to different needs and conditions including financial ones.

The outcome is a 35 meters wide and 144 meters long platform which would hover and stretch beyond the focus area to create a seamless connection with the land and improve pedestrian connections. The structure would form a roof allowing to shade specific areas positioned on an easy promenade featuring social active functions such as meeting points or market places. The extended pavement would still be giving necessary clearance for each type of traffic,where cars,bicycles would have it’s own lane, designed to changing vehicular needs. While the bridge would be a functional connector it’s character and essence would be defined by nature and the Atlanta City itself. Read the rest of this entry »

Electrical Energy is the key factor for mankind evolution and at the same time its Achilles heel, the demand of this precious resource keeps growing at exponential rates but our capacity to produce and transmit it is limited.

In the future, civilization will be forced to research and develop alternative energy sources. Our current rate of fossil fuel usage will lead to an energy crisis this century. In order to survive the energy crisis, our team is proposing new ways to extract energy from renewable and self-sustained sources.

The project develops as a way of finding a solution for this premise; inspired by tesla’s work and way of thinking we create a system based on four formulas that complement each other to achieve a renewable source of energy. This power grid is based on interrelated systems that support each other with different inputs and outputs as a balanced system.

The project is intended as a pilot based on its campus scale and location on Boston’s innovation district.

Formula 1 (Initial Push) – The purpose of this formula is to create enough energy for the initial push of our system. The two main aspects to consider is the height (min 40m) and the water mass that we need to power up the tesla turbine.

Formula 2 (Liquid Nitrogen Production) – The ideal way to distribute and store energy with a minimal loss is obtained by cryogenically cooled superconducting coil/cable.

Formula 3 (Electricity Generation) – Our infinite energy will be created through induction, where a magnet is constantly moving inside a coil. The energy is then stored in a Superconducting magnetic energy storage that requires liquid nitrogen.

Formula 4 (Hydrogen Production) – Since the amount of energy created is too much for our area, we will use the electricity to create Hydrogen by electrolysis.

Project by: Alejandro Carrillo, Borislav Schalev, Denis R. Li Read the rest of this entry »

The Wood Shed project designed by HAO / Holm Architecture Office is situated along the coast, a short drive from Taipei in Taiwan. The project is designed as an adaptive reuse project around an existing shed structure, re purposing all of the existing structure.

The building design takes it inspiration from the unique forest and nature located in Taiwan, creating a new building envelope that blends naturally into its surroundings.

A series of vertical wooden fins create natural shading for the shed interior and creates a consistent pattern that defines the entire shed volume as a built forest. Each fin has a series of small extrusions that, when stacked horizontally, creates the forest pattern that defines the shed exterior. The new facade pattern creates a seamless integration into the natural surroundings of the shed making the building one with its surroundings.

On the interior the roof and parts of the shed sides have clear polycarbonate facades to allow for control of changing weather conditions as well as integrated lighting.

“With the Wood Shed project we wanted to redefine the mainstream shed volume to directly reflect the beautiful surroundings of the Taiwan landscape. The project reuses the existing long span steel structure, keeping a completely flexible interior plan which allows the building to be used for a multitude of programs ranging from storage to exhibition space.” – Jens Holm (director, HAO) Read the rest of this entry »