SOM’s design for All Aboard Florida’s new multi-modal hub for Miami is finally revealed. In addition to the Miami hub, SOM is also planning and designing All Aboard Florida’s passenger stations in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. All Aboard Florida’s 235-mile network of rail lines will connect South Florida to Orlando by utilizing the current rail infrastructure for the Florida East Coast Corridor between Miami and the Space Coast and creating new tracks into Central Florida. The transformational infrastructure project will provide a vital new service for Florida residents, business people, and visitors and eliminate more than three million car trips from the region’s roadways each year.

All Aboard Florida integrates transportation infrastructure with mixed use development to serve as a catalyst for transformation and economic vitality in a city that is quickly becoming a model for urban living today. At SOM, they state that the project is a true celebration of the power and potential of transit-oriented development.

SOM’s three stations will be key portals within All Aboard Florida’s rail system. Envisioned not only as gateways to their respective cities, but also as iconic destinations, the terminals will be filled with spaces to shop, eat, and meet. In downtown Miami, SOM has responded to an extraordinarily challenging and dense site by elevating the railways 50 feet in the air. Retail spaces are vertically layered beneath the soaring tracks and ample use of glass will give the station a shimmering, lightweight quality. This innovative solution allows thru-streets to remain open to traffic and for valuable street front real estate to remain leasable. Moreover, this bold architectural gesture creates a landmark terminal, serving as a symbol of a 21st-century Miami. Read the rest of this entry »

La Tour Bioclimatique office tower by UNStudio was designed as an organizing element for the previously disconnected programmatic clusters within the Issy-Les-Moulineaux area of Paris. In order to find the most optimal placement on the site, a typological study was performed, resulting in a streamlined plan that gives an optimal basic plan.This basic plan of the building has been further optimized into a smart organization by utilizing software driven form-finding processes which take into account optimal floor area in relation to compact core design, optimal facade length and daylight penetration for the offices.

As they state at UNStudio, sustainability is an integral part of the design process as three interconnected entities – passive sustainability which focuses on non-technological parameters such as building efficiency, flexibility and materials; active sustainability which integrates fully the design of technological techniques to advance the operational efficiency and social sustainability which caters on the level of user comfort and the influence of the building on its surroundings on multiple scale levels. Next to building efficiency, flexibility is an equally important factor for ensuring future usability. The floor plan and vertical distribution are designed in such a way that many different tenant scenarios can be realized.

The facade functions as a skin for the building that contains all the key factors of a sustainable high-rise building. The concept of the natural ventilated double facade is limited to a height range of 1-4 floors to prevent the risk of overheating, allowing the system to perform to highest standards in all seasons. The building influences the comfort and well-being of individuals by incorporating working environments with different qualities, such as communal work spaces, concentration work spaces, lounges, meeting centers, team work centers. By connecting floors through the expanded double facades and by planting these spaces, vertical office gardens can be created to provide pleasant working environments. Read the rest of this entry »

Acapulco Chair 60th Anniversary Limited Edition

The Acapulco Chair is one of the most iconic chairs of the 20th Century. This year The Common project is celebrating the chair’s 60th Anniversary with a very special Limited Edition. The 60th Anniversary Edition consists of a chrome-plated frame with a translucent shell. The choice of materials evokes refinement and sophistication and brings the classic design into the 21st Century. It has been transformed from a fun patio chair into luxury indoor and outdoor seating. Only 600 chairs were produced.

The Common Project produces the authentic classic born in 1953 in Acapulco, Mexico and highlights its rich history in the world of design. The chair is also available in the 4 classic colors: black, white, mustard, and turquoise.

The 60th Anniversary Acapulco Chair is available for a limited time at The Common Project. Read the rest of this entry »

DEZACT is pleased to announce Extra Fabrica 2014, a design & build studio-based workshop in Taipei, Taiwan from 28th June 2014 to 09th July 2014.

ExtraFabrica2014, a workshop on digital design and fabrication procedures, is being conducted in June-July 2014 in association with Shih Chien University and Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan. The interdisciplinary workshop provides an opportunity to architects and designers to be a part of the 12 day studio and investigate interactive design and fabrication solutions for dynamic socio-cultural fabrics.

The studio will investigate digital design and fabrication procedures in relation to the condition and context of Asian cities , Taipei in particular. The aim of the design studio will be to introduce computational design through using generative, algorithmic, data simulation and parametric design based techniques. Design proposals to develop new systems of mass customised building systems will be investigated through both physical and computational methods. Participants will use multiple software platforms for modelling, simulation and fabrication, towards multiple, variable and recursive prototypes for a range of urban conditions, driven by scenarios of future incremental, adaptive growth and change. Scaled prototypes will be fabricated in the studio and selected designs will be constructed at 1:1 scale based on the building systems developed. Participants will get the opportunity to explore advanced fabrication techniques and gain the knowledge of the workflow from design to production. Read the rest of this entry »

The National September 11 Memorial Pavilion opened May 21^st. Snøhetta was commissioned to design the only building on the memorial plaza at the World Trade Center site. The program has changed several times, however it has remained a cultural facility dedicated to visitor comfort and orientation. The design for the building embodies a careful reaction to the horizontal character of the memorial plaza’s design, while also providing the area with a lively organic form that allows the visitor to imagine the site and city in a broader sense.

Snøhetta’s design approach has always been characterized by an exploration of context. The WTC Memorial site carries with it both the power of its history and a new hope for the future. It is a place that conveys the memories and dreams of people around the world who are affected by its presence without forgetting its intimate connection to the people of New York. With its low, horizontal form and its uplifting geometry the Pavilion acts as a bridge between two worlds – between the Memorial and the Museum, the above and below ground, the light and dark, between collective and individual experiences. Inclined, reflective and transparent surfaces encourage people to walk up close, touch and gaze into the building.

Within the atrium there will stand two structural columns rescued from the original towers. Although removed from their former location and function, they mark the site with their own original aesthetic gesture. The Pavilion’s jewel-like, striped façade was developed in collaboration with the Client to allow the building to have a strong resonance for the visitor as well as providing visual and architectural connection to the surrounding urban environment. The flat plane of the Memorial Plaza is pierced by the glass Atrium of the Pavilion, which allows visitors to enter the below-grade Museum and bring with them sunlight from above.

Tom Wiskombe’s proposal for the Kinmen Passenger Service Center is based on the idea that the buildings are not simply a piece of infrastructure, but also a cultural intervention. In order to achieve this, one has to consider the unique history of Kinmen. What is very important now is that Kinmen Island can be re-vitalized and rediscovered through new modes of communication. Its heritage parks, wildlife, historical villages and also its military heritage can be a draw for a new generation of visitors and immigrants. In this context, designing a Port Terminal for Kinmen is great responsibility – it sets the tone for the island both in terms of reflecting its complex identity and affiliations, but also in terms of presenting a vision of its future.

Wiskombe’s design is intended to both symbolize a new era of open communication with Mainland China, and reflect the unique local culture of Kinmen. The design’s strong silhouette is supposed to be visible from Xiamen, and is characterized by dynamic figures arising from the terminal roof. The building aims to be the golden gate of Kinmen Island. The silhouette of the development is rooted in specific traditions of Kinmenese architecture.

The tradition of complex interwoven materials and patterns in Kinmen architecture is included in the project of Passenger Service Center. The envelope is characterized by three interfering but complimentary patterns – free-form seams, maze-like projections, and cross-grain panels. The simultaneity of these patterns produce a heterogeneous overall effect, reminiscent of local Kinmenese brickwork, with its distinctive diagonal striping and unconventional juxtapositions of material scales and orientations as well.

Tom Wiskombe’s design for the Passenger Service Center received Second Place in Stage II of the competition. Read the rest of this entry »

The team of HMC Architects and HOY Architects and Associates, led by HMC’s Raymond Pan, was among the five finalists selected for the Taiwan Tower International Design Competition. Their proposal was envisioned as beacon for the city of Taichung. The iconic 400-meter tall green tower is an evolving column of life that captures and reflects the strength and resilience of the people of Taiwan. Rising from its roots that are infused with its people, place, history, and stories, this column of life is the culmination of the serendipitous lifestyle and inclusive multicultural dynamism of Taiwan. The tower sustains a creative synergy between structure and its context through a physical, visual, and metaphysical morphology.

The aim was that visitors experience the tower as a vertical museum, displaying the history of Taichung as a continuous tapestry of life ascending to 400 meters in height. The form of the tower rotates to provide optimal views of historical landmarks as visitors move upward through the tower and ascend through time.

The tower acts as a carbon sequester that responds and is adaptive to its location and climate. The characteristic form allows wind to pass through the super-tall structure, decreasing structural loads and harvesting the energy via integrated turbines. Modular, energy producing fins shade the tower from the tropical sun, and can be moved, updated, or enhanced as green technology continues to evolve. As a result, the tower produces 185 percent of its own energy needs, exporting the surplus renewable energy to the surrounding city. Read the rest of this entry »

Angkasa Raya is situated directly across from the well-known Petronas Twin Towers in the heart of Kuala Lumpur City Center. The new tower by Ole Scheeren presents a new typology in high-rise skyscraper design that overtly expresses the inhabitation of diverse urban activities in a tropical environment and captures the vibrancy of the city’s multifaceted culture.

Angkasa Raya is comprised of five distinct elements – three floating elevated tower blocks and two multi-level zones of open horizontal slabs – that are autonomous yet connected to one another in a uniquely stacked and shifting configuration of varied functional and urban typologies. Rather than competing with the Twin Towers in the form of another “twin” or blending into the surrounding context of singular towers on a podium, Angkasa Raya offers a new contemporary reading of the capital city and stands as an icon of the harmonious and dynamic balance of Malaysia’s cultural multiplicity and diversity.

The tower Angkasa Raya accommodates Premium Offices, a luxury Hotel, and high-end Service Residences. Each function occupies one of the three rectangular volumes which, through their mutual support and delicate balance, generate a unity that is both multiple and symbiotic. A series of open horizontal slabs, bring urban life into the building and unfold two interconnected spirals of vehicular and pedestrian circulation, mixing signature retail, restaurants, cafes, a food court, and prayer rooms with abundant outdoor greenery and urban street-scape. The plural trajectories weave through the open levels and offer multiple street-like experiences of interconnected urban activities, injecting public spaces into the heart of the building.

At the virtual intersection between the three tower blocks, 120 meters above the city, are four levels of tropical greenery and metropolitan activity – the Sky Levels. Catapulting the public energy of the Ground Levels skywards, a signature bar and restaurant with outdoor dining terraces, an infinity edge pool, as well as a multi-function banquet hall, business lounges and meeting rooms offer premium work and leisure space in a lush environment with spectacular elevated views of the dramatic skyline. Read the rest of this entry »

AT Design Office has developed sustainable concept for an ocean metropolis, as a healthy alternative to destroying the earth’s valuable countryside. The existing landmass on earth has been built up so extensively that the remaining free land is under extreme pressure and needs to be preserved as much as possible. Therefore news settlements should be planned in such a manner that important social and environmental conditions are improved and can provide for better future living. Environmentally adaptive measures, higher densities, mixed uses and efficient, smart designs and infrastructure strategies need to be considered.

The floating city has a perfect internal and external traffic system, linking it within but also with the outside world. A cruise dock serves giant ships; a yacht dock serves private vessels and civilian submarine traffic. Submarines and electric vehicles are the main means of transport on the island – keeping the island free form air pollution and congestion caused by automobiles. The main traffic flows and facilitated via the water canals above and below the water surface.

Vertical gardens are interconnected with the public greenery system above and below the water. The Floating City will provide world class facilities, as well as additional supplies of new areas, in order to satisfy the long-term demand for human habitable land. Environmental impacts will be managed via innovative strategies. The proposed development and the associated infrastructure will bring positive change to the community and its economy; therefore the design will meet long-term infrastructure and sustainable development need, while bringing new opportunities to various city activities. Read the rest of this entry »

Between Earth and Sky Gate by Penda Design is the design for an entrance sculpture to the Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology. It is a metaphor of formal contrasts to design a campus landmark. There is a Chinese saying parents tell their children when they leave home for university, which means roughly translated: “ride on the wings of an eagle to your success”. Therefore the wing-shaped design for the sculpture is a formal translation of this saying.

The sculpture serves as an entrance gate and is a connection of two opposites: the fluid, lower part connects the gate to the gentle hills of the landscape in the background and carries a grid of lights, which can be seen as a connection to the cosmos – a contrast of the earth and the sky. Furthermore the landmark should symbolize a freedom of thinking on one hand and certain guidelines on the other hand, which stand for a system and order in science – a contrast of endless possibilities and technical limitations. With those opposites, the sculpture describes what a modern Technical University should stand for – a symbiosis of nature and technology.

Penda Design is a young office, established in 2012 and located in Vienna and Beijing. Their credo is to see architecture as a statement that always starts with questions about the content and the context, about identity, density and the community of a specific site. The office is formed by Chris Precht and Dayong Sun. Read the rest of this entry »