The client for this filigree-façade building by Amano Design, located in Ginza Central Street of Tokyo is a developer company. The company purchased a long-sought after lot in Ginza, and planned to build a commercial, office building. The atmosphere is quite different from the gorgeous Central Street, and the site is on an empty street which is often seen behind the street with large-sized buildings. Attracting as many people as possible into such a street is our task. As they state in Amano Design Office, the client desired the building to be a gorgeous existence. In addition, the designer desired to provide a “slight feeling of strangeness” to the passersby that would attract them to the building.

Due to the fact that the street scenery is hectic, a double skin structure for the façade is employed, consisting of glass curtain walls and graphically treated aluminum punched metal. The façade therefore becomes a part of the interior decoration and obviates the need for window treatments such as blinds or curtains. By using a double skin, reduction of the air conditioning load and the glass cleaning burden was also intended. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Helsinki Library is a design that reinterprets the classical library. Henn’s proposal for a library competition was represented as a meeting point of urban life, a place to exchange knowledge and a physical interface for traditional and new media. The flexible spatial concept allows for various workspaces and event formats, providing the framework for this extensive challenge. A spacious lobby with a café and bookshop dominates a large section of the ground floor. The two upper floors hold the collection of books as well as digital workspaces and learning facilities. The partially glazed roof landscape is based on a modification of the classical shed roof. Its expansive scale not only forms the character of the building, but also leads through its diagonal structure to a realignment of the building along the urban axis. Read the rest of this entry »

Messner Mountain Museum Corones by Zaha Hadid Architects is under construction. Located in Kronplatz, South Tyrol, Italy, this museum is the final piece in the series of mountain museums. The museum is dedicated to the great rock faces of the work, and will focus on the discipline of mountaineering. This unique composition of fluid, interconnected volumes, is carved within the mountain and informed by the geology and topography of its context. A sharp glass canopy resembling a fragment of glacial ice, rises from the rock to mark and protects the entrance to the museum.

A cascading ramp connects the exhibition spaces and creates dynamic volumes of circulation throughout three levels of temporary exhibitions, presentation areas and an auditorium, enabling the museum to showcase its permanent exhibition together with objects and images from Messner’s archive. Read the rest of this entry »

The project of “Brain Technology Center” by Vojtech Geryk of Sfera Archtects, is an experimental research center dealing with neuroscience. This project aims to create an interactive learning environment that should offer a way to improve or regenerate brain activity. The center with its own focus should build on existing research centers around, which has been involved in neurosurgery and neuroscience. The project program presents new interactive training environment as a way of regeneration and improving of brain activity.

The design is creating a landmark in the park. Building activates topology of the surrounding by the modification of the ground which follows geometry of the building. Elevated pavilions present one of the key spaces from the interior as a continuing piano nobile floor pointing to the treetops. Ground floor of this project presents interactive park environment under canopy which offers different outdoor activities for park visitors, such as sound therapy garden, yoga terraces or sports performing fields. It is a blending of the building into the park on one side and it is a iconic landmark on the other side. Read the rest of this entry »

Icebergs and quartz crystal are the design inspiration for a new hotel, retail and cultural center by LAVA. The clash of fire and ice in a dramatic lobby contrasts the electro light transparent facade. Icebergs, quartz crystal formations and elegant swans are the design inspiration for a new hotel, retail and cultural center in Harbin. The tenth largest city in China is a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications hub in the North China.

Known as the ‘Ice City’, it is renowned for its annual international Ice and Snow Sculpture festival. The combination of Han, Manchu and Russian cultures influences the local architecture style, food, music, and customs. A new re-development, ‘Ice Hotel’, is a dynamic clash of fire and ice, with a dramatic crystalline lobby that draws the user into a warm, cave-like interior. The visitor moves from the perceptually ‘cold’ exterior of a transparent facade and vertical linear iceberg geometry. The grouping of several crystal-shaped buildings adds to this drama. Read the rest of this entry »

Mitikah Office Tower by Richard Meier Architects, designed for Mexico City is inspired by the character of its unique context and the importance of his position in the city. The form of the tower is highly iconic and evocative of the modern Mexican architecture and Aztec forms from the pre-Hispanic era. The project is a part of a mixed use master plan designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The scheme consists of commercial space, low-rise residential buildings and a hotel with the residential tower.

The tower offers an extraordinary opportunity to develop an architecture that mediates between the commercial core and the residential community. The high-rise will be the visual transition between the avenue and the elevated highway. Architectural massing of the building combines an elegant 34-storey tower that rises above a transparent and translucent base. The lobby is positioned in a way to be exposed and visible from all the approaches to the site. Read the rest of this entry »

If in the next 100 years we can expect human population to reach 11 billion people, can we think this is sustainable? The Bio City World Map by Terreform is a forecast of the world population density in the next 100 years. It has been modeled by combining all the world cities together as one continuous growth system. The current phenomena of explosive growth – the “Mega-city” and the “Instant City” merge together into a continuous urban construct. As human population expands, we see it as one single macro city spread across the continents. Other cities, mainly in the developed world, demonstrate the opposite tendency, because they are shrinking at a significant rate.

In Terreform they argue that most nations cannot view the effects of planetary population density through the lens of just one city or region. Instead we aim to reveal the long-range effects of massive human population in areas of present and future urban intensity. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Lava – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, the Michael Schumacher Tower is developed as a prototypical design translating brand values into iconic architecture. Also called Snowflake Tower, this skyscraper for Abu Dhabi, UAE, is the first in a series of towers located at strategically chosen locations around the world. The tower marks a departure from traditional architectural thinking and design takes the initiative. The development comprises executive residential suites, luxury amenities, and a marina.

Inspired by the geometrical order of a snowflake and the aerodynamics of a Formula 1 racing car, the tower encapsulates speed, fluid dynamics, future technology and natural patterns of organization. Rather than purely mimicking shapes in nature Lava has learned from nature’s own geometrical orders creating highly efficient structures and intriguing spaces. The design of the tower unfolded as a result of the project’s needs: optimal natural light and air distribution, maximum views, minimal structure, user comfort and a water experience. Read the rest of this entry »

33-35 Hoxton Square is an exciting addition to the eclectic character of this London square. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the concept is based on the idea of a prism. The building seeks to respond to and manipulate daylight and views while the form is composed of interwoven planes that respect neighbor’s need for access to natural light, controlling light and views between the interior and exterior.

The new structure replaces two existing buildings with 3000 sqm of new space that houses a two level gallery, commercial office spaces and eight residential flats on a site locate within the South Shoreditch Conservation Area. The form is playful and vivid, bringing new and fresh spirit to the neighborhood. The façade is clad in blasted aluminum and clear glass.

The building invites in – it creates a relationship between the ground floor gallery and Hoxton Square, therefore engaging the public. The frontage carves into the interior of the gallery, spatially connecting the ground floor, basement, lower front and upper front areas. The balustrade around the front area also serves as seating – an element that penetrates into the building itself and an amenity that invites and attracts the public inside. Read the rest of this entry »

The Breathing Shelter, by Rhina Portillo and Matthias Urschler was done at Vienna University of Applied Arts, Energy and Design Strategies Department. The designed structure is a pavilion designed to adjust to different climate conditions. It is conceived with a different approach, not knowing its site; its main feature is flexibility to its environment. The formal language used for this project is a form-finding process looking for suitable configurations that allow the building itself to be a kinetic model.

Its genesis is in the movement of three modules that are able to breathe independently, reacting according to interior needs. This movement allows air flow that is able to balance the interior temperatures. The model also changes its basic position depending on the season. Therefore, it interacts with airflow and has both a summer and winter mode. The summer position is when the folds are relaxed, and the opposite situation the winter shape, were the body is completely contracted to reduce the volume of space in the building, helping to keep the temperature as high as possible. In addition, when the shape is contracted the skin allows any snow to slide off of the structure. Read the rest of this entry »