This small scale experimental theater in Taiyuan, China, is one of the latest projects of Los Angeles based practice, Yaohua Wang. Located at a cross road in Taiyuan Yin Ze District, this mechanical wonder is an investigation, setting new standards for theater design. Due to its interactive nature, it offers one dynamic space experience – as the audience climbs up the stairs to get access to the theater, the entire site context around the theater is changing and revealed.

The theater building consists of two main spaces, stacked vertically. The envelope of the performance space is sound proof glass, therefore providing great view to the city and creating exiting relationship between private, art activity and the public space.

The structural system lifts the theater up from the ground, in order to create public outdoor shelter space. The structure of the stage can be lowered down, through a mechanical system so it connects to the backstage, which is under the performance space. Simultaneously, artists can elevate and disappear in front of the audience, through the same system. This active and surprising theater experience opens whole new horizon of opportunities for architects, designing performance facilities. Read the rest of this entry »

This winning proposal for Musée de la Romanité in Nimes, France, by Elizabeth de Portzamparc had to deal with a fragile situation which required respectful and exceptional dialogue – the building is located on the gate of the old city of Nimes, and emerging from the archaeological remains the it had to establish complex relation, made both of opposition and complementarity, with the two thousand years old antique Arenas of Nimes. The creation of the museum building was only a part of wider project, including urban regeneration of the „Grill“ plot, the museography, the archaeological garden landscaping and a feasibility study of a congress center and a hotel.

Two geometries coexist successfully – in contrast with the magnificence of the static, great stone volume, the Museum’s offers light and luminous presence of one fluid architecture. Acting as a gate of an urban promenade, museum reveals the Arenas through its transparent ground floor, which attracts and invites visitors inside. The building of the museum was designed to generate coherence in the city, the inventive museography within it and the archaeological garden that extends it. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago office of SOM | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP won an international competition for the Greenland Group Suzhou Center in Wujiang, China. This 358 meters high split-core tower is their sixth project with the Greenland Group. Key design feature for this high-rise is semi-controlled atrium acting as the “lung” of the building, maximizing daylight penetration and natural ventilation in the public spaces and the lobbies. Series of high efficiency measures were taken along the design process, with the objective to achieve a 60% savings in energy consumption and a 60% reduction in potable water use. This highly efficient landmark is a result of interdisciplinary collaboration and the serious commitment to elegant high performance design.

A set of high performance energy saving strategies include high performance façade – using cooler air at the higher levels for the natural ventilation, natural light harvesting, energy recovery systems, demand controlled ventilation and onsite energy center to capitalize on the overall load diversity of the development. The building is oriented to harness the stack effect and prevailing winds, through the east and west facades of the atrium. 30-story tall operable window provides significant environmental performance of the lakefront development, corresponding with the hotel and residential floors. Read the rest of this entry »

Architects at international office Sériès et Sériès believe that experiencing the drama of opera must begin with its vessel and therefore they advocate new role of opera house in creating a dramatic experience that begins before the curtains draw open and lasts well after. The Opera today not only represents cultural identity but is there to create and shape growing cultural awareness. It is no longer just a passive playground for elite but an interactive experience, responsive to our aspirations and expectations. It is place to meet and socialize in a common cultural context, a spectacle that requires whole new attractive, open and inviting typology.

Their competition proposal for Busan Opera House in South Korea aimed to create an “anomaly” in the sky – through the strategic use of standard building materials, the orientation of the masses and the deployment of specific programmatic sections. Desired castle in the sky is wrapped in a pattern of laminated, mirrored glass panels, creating continuum of illusions – of the public slipping beneath the sky and the building being erased by its own skin. Read the rest of this entry »

Inauguration of the new station took place in late 2012, six years after the restricted international competition was held. First phase of this winning entry is now completed – High speed train station in Logrono, by Abalos+Sentkiewicz Arquitectos, has finally welcomed its excited users.  This is only the beginning – wider redevelopment project consists of bus station, parking, housing, park and urbanization of the area. The park and the urbanization are still under construction.

Advocating the idea that the train station should actually act as a catalyst for urban continuity instead of disruptive element causing urban and social segregation, Iñaki Abalos, Renata Sentkiewitz and Alfonso Miguel designed a successful prototype for the new hybrid typology. Due to the fact that inter-modal station represents great opportunity for city transformation – creation of new public spaces, promotion of various means of mobility and an opportunity to create whole new topography of the given area, architects used this project as a tool for intensifying the experience of the city as a collective process. Read the rest of this entry »

In their design for Helsinki Central Library, PAR | Platform for Architecture + Research and Arup re-investigate public space and its relation to the important city landmarks. Their competition proposal was inspired by Helsinki’s expansive skyline, the urban development of Töölönlahti district and the rich Finnish heritage of social openness.

Prismatic volume of the library building, conceived in careful play of stacked spaces extruded to the maximum height, offers great variety of atmospheres. Public void on the ground level mimics urban surrounding, inviting visitors in. Programmatic strips are superposed and create very narrow building, optimized for Helsinki climate conditions as well as the library program. Six floors of the building are pointing in different directions – positioned along six main axes, all levels afford thoughtfully chosen views.

Strips feature 11.5 meters deep plates which enable flexibility in collections layout and maximize diffuse natural light – of crucial importance for the ideal reading environment of the library. The broad, undulating shape of the roof rises to a total height of 31.8 meters, sloping down to the northwestern end, where the roof is 22 meters lower.

The program of this glacier-like library is flexible, due to constantly changing, almost immaterial ways of accessing and sharing knowledge. Flexibility of the interior affords necessary level of adaptability to future alternatives. Open plan zones and freestanding shelving enable spontaneous configurations of the used space.

Led by zero carbon emission objective, the design of the Library was directed by package of necessary environmental analysis, aiming to optimize sustainable performance of the building form and crystal envelope. Used passive and active strategies such as site integration, natural light autonomy, high thermal performance facade, micro turbine cogeneration, recycled materials and natural summer ventilation reflect highest level of environmental awareness.

Inspiring entry for the Taiwanese Keelung Harbor Building competition by LA-based PAR | Platform for Architecture + Research and SES | Sériès et Sériès was one of five finalists, along with four international teams – Neil Denari, Asymptote, Mecanoo and ACDF. The aim of the architects was to propose highly contextual design solution which would generate and structure the open space it was part of. The outstanding form is a successful outcome of combining maximum efficiency with serious artistic aspirations – cantilevering edifice of the tower frames the space of the harbor, becoming its landmark.

Located at the end of Keelung’s harbor master plan, this proposal for the Terminal provides continuous open space, linking public and waterfront facilities. Green roof of the Terminal building generates landscape condition. By establishing continuity of the network, the waterfront and the port terminal development are planned to be within easy reach of many residents in the central city.

Prismatic structure of this proposal articulates permanently changing scenery and multiple angles of vision, therefore providing engaging and interactive user experience. Second architectural element, the Marine Plaza, is designed to bring the outside in, while the third – Harbor Tower, dominates the space, acting as a gate for the harbor. Terminal interiors and the roof are conceived as hybrid spaces, flexible and adaptable to various programs. Elevated public plaza encourages pedestrian flow, enabling continuous circulation. Read the rest of this entry »

42 thousand square meters of museum space in new center of Ordos, inner Mongolia, is designed by MAD Architects.  Driven by booming economy, Municipal Government of Ordos decided to create brand new city, far away from the current one, on the site of Gobi Desert.

Conceived as a reaction to the rigid and conservative geometry of the Master plan, inspired by symbolic image of “The ever rising sun on the grassland”, brave new Museum building drastically confronts inferior urban grid, existing only as a pattern on the paper.  Although the design may seem unengaged in the historical context, it actually investigates the future of local culture.

It may seem that amorphous and solid 40 meters tall building has landed on the ground out of nowhere, windowless and dune-like, evoking the memories of the ex desert site. Static in its appearance from the outside, Museum is unexpectedly vivid and playful on the inside – disharmony of heights, sinuous surfaces and holes buckled upwards are the artwork themselves. Diffuse natural light is provided through the skylights, uniform and blurring the boundaries of interior space. Read the rest of this entry »

RTA-Office’s entry for Kaohsiung Port Terminal Competition reinvents the topography of this Taiwanese waterfront. Building emerges as a colossal geographical element, establishing the idea of a new and improved landscape. Santiago Parramon’s stunning new architectural statement re-examines relationship between contemporary user and the object – being obsessively engaged into condensed and constantly changing scenery, users actually avoid devoting themselves to anything in particular. In order to overcome the issue, overwhelming geometry, along with restless skin of the building, requires additional attention of the consumer and higher level of mental engagement.

The proposal is dominantly voluminous and promotes great resemblance to sand dunes, embedded into continuous seafront. It is designed to be the place of escape and contemplation, place for meditation and almost apocalyptic need for solitude. The inside of the building offers space vertigo and multi-level experience. Service areas are located below the ground which leaves upper levels open and free while the comfort of the user is optimized. Read the rest of this entry »

New Dalian Planning Museum in China, by 10 Design, is a modern, first-class venue for offices and exhibitions in the heart of the government district, advocating cultural engagement within the city. It is one of seven municipal civil projects funded by Planning Bureau – along with library, urban planning exhibition, scientific center, museum, and teenage activity center. Building’s sculptural appearance is in a direction of promoting landmark architecture in Dalian. Striking edifice is also a temple of technical innovations and progressive sustainable concepts.

Clearly inspired by nautical forms, the design also aims to become a symbol of technological perfection and green architecture. Museum’s envelope is active and maintenance-free – the building uses photo catalytic nano-coating of titanium dioxide on the outer zinc rain screen to neutralize air pollution and remove dirt. UV lights powered by photovoltaic cells perform the cleansing reaction at night, while incorporating a figure of a blooming flower, an important symbol to this Chinese city. The great fact is that this dramatic performance comes at no cost – nano-coatings are simple paints in a very thin layer.

A layer of polymer coating of the inner aluminum façade increases thermal insulation up to 20 percent, while also providing fungal resistance. Read the rest of this entry »