In the recent, well known two-staged competition for Helsinki Central Library, the jury decided not to award the second price, but to give a shared Third, to entries “LIBLAB” by Playa Architects and “Kasi” by various authors.

The Playa Architects’ concept for the Library is clear and straightforward – it presents simple but strong form of joyful architecture, modern and innovative, yet functional and human. The design has strong and respectful relation to the surrounding, taking into consideration both the small and the big scale of the built environment and the logic of the urban tissue in which center it is placed. The design preserves positive aspects of the existing situation and creates new covered spaces in smaller scale, while providing an active and distinctly recognizable addition to the city-scape, in bigger scale.

The sculptural maneuver of preserving the long view from south, towards the Aalto’s Finlandia Hall, by sculpting the southern edge of the block, creates a welcoming and easy-to-locate entrance to the new urban point from the main directions of approach. The main spaces of the Library are superposed – the vertical organization allows the quieter spaces to be situated on the very top, while the noisier rooms and halls are closer to the most public function and the city center itself. Read the rest of this entry »

International architectural practice Aedas has designed mixed-use development and a new hotel in China. The complex is located outside of Guangzhou at an island within the Pearl River, and the project comprises of four distinct uses split between two different sites. The first site features a large retail exhibition area in the podium and a large office showroom building on top. The other site, 1401, contains a traditional multi-floor exhibition center in the podium with a 500-key 5-star hotel.

The project fronts directly onto one side of the water while the location affords views to the water from both directions. The design responds to the surrounding context and its direct and unapologetic reaction to the passive middle neighbor is the driver of both the volumetric placement of the towers as well as the articulation of both towers and their podium. Read the rest of this entry »

The Life Aquatech project by THINK Tank investigates relationship between the building systems that mediate between interior and exterior and architectural design, via shifting from air based to water based systems. The initial research started with a general concern about poor development of building systems over time which has huge impact on human comfort and its relation to architectural form. The authors advocate that the buildings can be seen as a layering of architectural design and structural support, similar to skin and bones. However, the systems that allow for human comfort act as mediators between interior and exterior operate like grey matter which lacks real interaction with the design and architecture.

As the research aims to find an ideal relationship between the user’s comfort in relation to temperature and how the building can self-regulate in order to provide it, it focuses on the behavior of fluid as part of both generative design methodologies and evaluation tools for functional criteria. The Life Aquatech proposes the deployment of a building system where water plays an integral role in the building tectonic. Read the rest of this entry »

The Confessional Church, winning design by GRAFT, lies in the landscapes of Wuensdorf. Until the fall of the Iron Curtain, this beautiful area in Germany, occupied by the Russian Army headquarters, was left alone to flourish. Today, it is the site of an enormous new development for health, sports and recreation which is currently underway. The competition called for a spiritual center – a church for confession but designed as multi-functional space – possibly used as an opera house or assembly hall.

The background of the location required that the architects question the value of the traditional form, existing typologies and institutionalized solutions for the project. GRAFT aimed to offer the proposal which would provide a new framework for very complex and various forms of belief systems. They advocated positive change and inclusion instead of exclusionary practices of the traditional religious establishments.

What they wanted to avoid in GRAFT is a clear and fixed typology for a church, mosque or theater, which would dominate the shape of the building. On contrary, the architects used those directions to inform the design, in order to create a new typology. The outcome is the building whose formal language communicates different religions and visual typologies, without being literal. Read the rest of this entry »

This project of a Model Home Gallery by NADAAA Inc, is designed for Seoul, South Korea, where the study, design and sales of housing have developed into a discipline serving an ascendant middle class with amenities and technologies that are significantly sophisticated. As a direct product of society we live in, the Model Home Gallery is adapted to house all the needs of consumer society, therefore offering not only sales offices with model homes, but also a large variety of public amenities, such as art galleries, restaurants, cafes, auditorium and other public open spaces which would bring in the residents of the area, in order to expand the customer base and boost the housing economy.

As we are living in an era of iconic architecture, we are witnessing the rise of architectural spectacles even in the housing market. Being the dominant approach, highly themed icons and surfaces serve as a mask for typologically simple diagrams. Normative requirement for these types of buildings ask for public base which supports a black box of exhibition space for full-scale models above. Read the rest of this entry »

Monumental and golden, Emporia, designed by Wingardhs, is an architectural statement – a shopping mall for Malmo, Sweden, is actually an urban planning project which further includes offices, housing and retail spaces on the Hyliie Boulevard 19, on the south side of Sweden capital. The project is the winning entry for the competition and the main idea was to hide inward-looking retail behind a wreath of residential and commercial buildings. The aim was to create the preconditions so the whole shopping complex would eventually become fully integrated into the existing city fabric.

The strong form was needed in order to attract visitors from Station Square to come and spend money. The composition is bronze-ochre combination of vaults from the previous competition proposal along with a memory from the Pantheon. Double-bent glass encloses the diagonal slit that cuts through the building. Here the weather of the Öresund Strait, its fast-moving clouds chasing glimpses of sun, becomes present and tangible.

The development is colossal and it will be built in parts – for now, only one part of Emporia is completed – the corner building with the Amber Entrance, a gate which would be, at the end, the only visible part of the shopping mall. The retail will further be organized around a figure eight pattern which will cover three floors and the shops will be grouped around atriums with different themes. Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architects participated in an international competition in Astana, Kazakhstan, to design the facilities for the international exhibition, scheduled for 2017. The theme of the expo aims to raise awareness of energy resources, energy efficiency and environmental protection as well as to seek innovative engineering and architectural solutions to critical global issues. The symbol of EXPO-2017 will be the monument which will outlive the exhibition and will be immediate landmark of Astana.

Zaha Hadid Architect’s proposal for EXPO-2017 Astana placed energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and sustainability at the forefront of the design. The result of the process, which consisted of thoughtful analysis of cultural and physical landscape of Kazakhstan, traditional patterns and ornaments, is informal fluid interface of urban pattern, landform and architecture inspired by combination of local culture and renewable technologies.

The proposed urban grid came logically and the urban morphology evolved forming a multiplicity of geometries and orientations that connect to adjacent areas. Building mass is fluid and the contour addresses the neighboring urban conditions, height regulations and importance of adjoining streets. Read the rest of this entry »

Jean Nouvel designed quite an impressive addition to the skyline of gulf city Doha, Qatar. In his own manner, French architect created the Burj Doha as bold and elaborate and this iconic cylindrical form, a continuation of what has started with Torre Agbar, culminates in an elegant dome. The tower is completed last year and includes 46 floors above ground as well as 3 floors above. The high-rise aims to express the local culture, connecting contemporary and very modern aspirations with ancient Islamic designs.

The most unique feature of the structure is the lattice cladding, designed as a reference to the shanasheel screens which are common in the Arabic area; therefore the envelope consists of a delicate, lace-like layered façade. This decorative screen around the whole building has double function – it acts as protection from the intense summer sun and it guards the glazing from the high winds which bring the desert sands into the city.  This feature brings a pleasant working environment for the occupants of the complex and as well it creates a playful network of shadow designs on the interior. Read the rest of this entry »

On Space Time Foam, a project by Tomas Saraceno created for Hangar Bicocca in Milan, Italy, is a multi-layered habitat of membranes suspended 24 meters above the ground that is inspired by cosmology and life sciences. Argentinean Tomás Saraceno is well-know visionary artist, famous for his inflatable and airborne biospheres with the morphology of soap bubbles, spider webs, neural networks, or cloud formations, which are speculative models for alternate ways of living. Saraceno is also inaugural Visiting Artist at MIT’s new Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST).

If you have ever wondered what it would feel like to walk on clouds, now you can. Based on quantum physics and theories on the evolution of the universe, On Space Time Foam was realized thanks to references to various kinds of knowledge, from science to art. The architecture is turned into a sort of a lively organism, enabled to live by movements of all the people that walk on it. Read the rest of this entry »

RTA Office’s proposal for Taichung Cultural Center Competition is rooted in the idea of the container – with the special attention paid to low impact development and directions of the sustainable design, the architects kept the building compact, the parking is planned underground, with the vertical façade and roof vegetation wherever possible. Building’s footprint is further minimized by maximizing the open space and the aim was to propose one successful synergy between natural environment and the built landscape. The ground floor therefore provides smooth and seamless transition from Taichung Gateway Park to the street.

The inspiration for the very skin of the cultural center is derived from the traditional Taiwanese basket weaving and the final outcome is a transparent skin that provides the idea of the complexity inside. The envelope is designed of recycled ceramic elements and gently filters the light that comes in. The skin has a double role – while increasing the aesthetic dimension of the building, it also reduces its impact on the natural environment by incorporating passive strategies such as solar shading and natural daylight. Read the rest of this entry »