Parramatta design competition has finally got its winner – twin towers by Sydney-based firm Johnson Pilton Walker were unanimously chosen by a jury of industry experts, to transform Parramatta’s skyline. The winning design was chosen from four shortlisted proposals, selected from 73 submissions in total. Lord Mayor John Chedid said that the project is essential to the revitalization of the Parramatta town center and to the safe, easy and pleasant delivery of pedestrians from the transportation hub to the center of the city.

The jury and city council were both confident that the winning design consisted of two linked buildings will complement all the aspects of the square, and be of premier appeal to national and international tenants. When finished, the commercial towers will add up to 140,000 square meters of office space to the Parramatta CBD and will function as two of the key centerpieces of the vital Parramatta Square site in the heart of the city. Read the rest of this entry »

Shenzhen Energy Mansion – SEM is BIG’s proposal for an invited competition, organized by Shenzhen Energy Company. The skyscraper proposal is the result of the successful synergy between Bjarke Ingels group and ARUP and Transsolar, and its currently under construction.

The skyscraper typology has evolved as an economically efficient way to provide flexible, functional and well-illuminated work spaces for very dense population of professionals. However, since the early 20^th century, air conditioning and electric lighting have served as modern solutions to highly increasing demand without seriously thinking to environmental consequences or energy shortages. Today the tower needs to evolve into a new sustainable species. It must, however, retain highly developed qualities such as daylight, flexibility, views and overall usability while still exercising new and untested attributes. Read the rest of this entry »

This thesis project by Carmelia Chiang explored the implications of tangential space – the condition caused by two surfaces, either physical or implied, approaching to touch at a single point. The moment of the “kiss” resolves itself in spatial discomfort, awkwardness and tension.

Architects seemed to avoid tangential moments through history, as they considered it to be dysfunctional space – the acute angle. In an eternal effort to create better composition and what they would think of as usable space, methods of overlapping or distancing have been typically employed. As a rejection of this sensibility, the intention of this thesis is to treat tangential moments as catalysts for new use, novel spatiality, unique structural solutions and unexpected atmospheric settings. By designing architecture through tangency, this thesis explores the potential of tangential space in order to provoke new forms of spatial, programmatic and practical relationships in architecture. Read the rest of this entry »

The Linz Castle has been home to the Upper Austrian National Museum since 1965. and recently it faced requirement for the enlargement of the exhibition space and new construction of the Southern wing. HoG Architektur’s architectural concept of the new wing is based on two strategies – to construct the missing wing from the fire in 1800, without closing the courtyard of the castle completely and to preserve the unique location above the city, accessible by the public any time. In order to achieve this, the new wing was layered horizontally and the central entrance level was designed as a transparent, half-open storey. It resulted with a space created above the city on top of the historic foundation through which one can enter the foyer, the museum shop and the restaurant.

The first level contrasts the maximum openness of the ground floor – it constitutes a metallic shimmering, windowless bar that floats above the solid historic wall foundation when viewed from the city. The construction as elevated steel truss enables a wide span and a projection of 30 meters above the main entrance. The steel truss of the upper level is built on three Ferro concrete cores which open up the whole building vertically. Read the rest of this entry »

SOM’s Pertamina Energy Tower for Jakarta, Indonesia is the dramatic centerpiece of a new consolidated headquarters created for the Indonesian state-owned energy company. The tower will rise more than 500 meters above Jakarta as a stunning new landmark on the capital’s skyline. Complemented by performing arts and exhibition pavilion, a mosque, and a central energy plant, the 99-story “beacon of energy” will represent a new standard for sustainable development, bringing together 20,000 employees on its innovative, dynamic campus, as they state at SOM.

Following holistic design approach that integrates architectural design, structural engineering, and sustainable engineering services, this tower is the world’s first super-tall high-rise for which energy is the primary design driver. Sustainable strategies at the core of its design are exposed in its simple profile yet sophisticated architectural expression. The tower opens up at the crown, revealing a ‘wind funnel’ that will take advantage of the prevailing winds and increased wind speeds at the upper floors to generate energy. The tower is precisely calibrated for Jakarta’s proximity to the equator – its curved facade will mitigate solar heat gain throughout the year. Read the rest of this entry »

The melting of glaciers comes with the consequences – it increases the sea level and causes the water shortage, as they are main reservoirs of sweet water in numerous cities. The melting also causes glacier lake outburst floods, serious consequences of the global warming directly related to glacier melt. The great majority of all glaciers worldwide lost a large part of its masses in last decades. Read the rest of this entry »

Cristal Riviera is a competition proposal by French firms Périphériques Architectes, a/LTA architects and Hamonic & Masson. It is a response to current developing renovation and regeneration program around Rennes Railway station in France, which asks for an improved urban circulation and connectivity within the whole of the city.

The Féval city-block is a significant part of the renovation program performed around the Rennes rail-station. The urban project is developed by FGP and Territores. The program suggests developing of a new territory to connect the two sides of the city, while involving changes in landscape and topography. The railway road passes through urban structures like a river would pass through giant tectonic monuments in a form of large crystals.

Three buildings that form a project are made by three different architects, and the whole project is structured around a landscape rift. The crystal structure is carved very precisely in order for sunlight to reach the inner territory. Read the rest of this entry »

Studio Daniel Libeskind has recently unveiled the design for a residential building in Berlin that will brighten the already emerging neighborhood of Chausseestrasse. The completion is expected in 2015. The eight-storey building is continuation of his work in this city – his Berlin projects include very well known Jewish Museum. With its large angular windows designed to catch maximum light, canted walls and metallic-coated ceramic façade the building will occupy the corner of a block in Berlin Mitte.

The challenge was to create 73 one to four bedroom apartments on almost rectangular plot, which will accommodate seductive retail on the ground floor, underground parking and a common outdoor area. The dramatic ending of the building features a penthouse apartment at the top, which embodies the ultimate inside-outside urban living. Its double-height living room is lined on one side by a sloping wall of obliquely shaped windows, which leads out to a patio overlooking Berlin.  A floating stairway ascends to an open-plan living area, bedrooms are tucked into the rear, and the ceiling sweeps up to a height of ­21 feet. Read the rest of this entry »

Studio Daniel Libeskind designed an iconic 46-floors sustainable office tower for the new Yongsan International Business district development in , South Korea. The design is inspired by YunDeung, traditional Korean paper lanterns. The aim was to create a faceted tower as a lantern, whose multiple planes reflect the sky and the earth while capturing the light on its differing angles. Therefore a glowing beacon for YIBD site is created.

The tower is sculptured and shaped by the urban context – it tapers at its base in order to create a feeling of space and openness for the pedestrian plaza. The floor plates and the views over Han River are maximized as the form reaches out in the middle of the tower, creating a sense of scale marking the gateway from the western entrance to the site. The tower tapers back and up to its top to allow the most light and air onto the other towers around, creating a strong ascending peak to the tower. Read the rest of this entry »

MARS Architects recently won open architectural competition to design Walltopia Headquarters in Sofia. The building will be Bulgaria’s first sustainable activity center. Walltopia was founded in 1996 as a manufacturer of artificial climbing walls and holds. Now the company is global leader in its field, supplying its products to every country in the world where climbing is popular – including all West European countries, USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Starting with just 5 people, the company now employs over 300 people working in the areas of design, engineering, manufacturing and installing of the climbing walls.

MARS’s proposal is a hybrid structure whose program is folded by an interweaving climbing atrium. The proposal is characterized as flawless integration of a complex program with a spectacular user experience and it undoubtedly showed that sustainable can be seductive.

The authors found inspiration in emerging market of Bulgaria and its refreshing vitality. The program, consisting of climbing and brand head offices is supplemented by a diversity of functions – from leisure and entertainment to health and wellness. The climbing walls of the winning entry are folded through the entire office program therefore the constant crossover is achieved.  The project reveals the outer limits of what can be achieved with these climbing walls as sculptural interior spaces. Read the rest of this entry »