BBK Bank Headquarters in Bilbao, Spain, by Zaha Hadid Architects is under construction. This 25,000 square meter tower represents the future headquarters for a socially-conscious savings bank and it will be sited at the south-eastern end point of Zorrotzaurre peninsula, facing central Bilbao, offering wide views onto the river and the famous Guggenheim Museum. At Zaha Hadid Architects, they consider this project eventual continuation of what they have started while ago with their master plan for Zorrotzaurre.

The tower will contain office support spaces – shared meeting rooms and seminar rooms, amenities, charitable activities space and an auditorium, in addition to their own office facilities. As the site called for strong architectural statement, the proposal set out very sculptural form derived from two star-shaped plans rotated 45 degrees from each other, at the top and the bottom of the tower. The outcome of their merger is the profile that changes as the view angle changes.

The very visible structural exo-skeleton serves both as primary structure and the sub-structure for the curtain wall. Together with structural core it acts as the only structure needed – interior columns are completely eliminated. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Pure Tension” Volvo Pavilion is a joint venture of Synthesis Design + Architecture, Buro Happold and Fabric Images. This tensile structure is a lightweight, rapidly deployable, free-standing membrane, a portable charging station, commissioned by Volvo Car Italia. The membrane is an experiment, developed through a process of rigorous research that investigated methods of associative modeling, dynamic mesh relaxation, paneling, geometric rationalization and pure material performance. It illustrates the dialogue between design, engineering and fabrication. Read the rest of this entry »

Billard Leece Partnership recently completed the La Trobe University Wodonga campus student accommodation which provides residential support for students studying in rural and regional areas in order to access ongoing studies. A dining room of 175 seats supports new student accommodation for 200 students in Bendigo. The Center caters for all residential students, provides a commercial kitchen to undertake wider campus and off-site catering and generally provides greater campus amenity for students and staff enhancing the Bendigo campus collegiate atmosphere.

The structure of a dining room is conceived as a veranda or treetops space. The dining hall takes advantage of a northerly aspect and has views across the campus, to the city and into bush land. The views out at both ends are framed by, or through, tree canopies. Established trees form an outdoor eating area at the entry.

The dining room building is wrapped in faceted aluminum mesh pyramid-like cells, providing aesthetic quality, shading and sense of privacy, while it actually offers hidden space for outdoor vertical communications. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent years high-rise residential towers is Asia have undergone a significant transformation. No longer only mass replicated tower blocks dot the skyline of most Asian cities, a new generation of bespoke towers now provide aesthetic, singular silhouettes and incorporate comfortable living spaces, attractive landscaped gardens and an array of amenities for residents.

The Ardmore Residence at 7 Ardmore Park in Singapore is one of this new breed of residential towers. Located in a prime location close to the Orchard Road luxury shopping district the Ardmore Residence enjoys both expansive views of the panoramic cityscape of Singapore City and the vast green areas of its immediate western and eastern surroundings.

Living landscape
The primary concept for the design of the 36 storey, 17.178 m² residential tower is a multi-layered architectural response to the natural landscape inherent to the ‘Garden City’ of Singapore. This landscape concept is integrated into the design by means of four large details: the articulation of the facade, which through its detailing creates various organic textures and patterns; expansive views across the city made possible by large glazed areas, bay windows and double-height balconies; the interior ‘living landscape’ concept adopted for the design of the two apartment types and the introduction of transparency and connectivity to the ground level gardens by means of a raised structure supported by an open framework.

Textured facade
The facade of the Ardmore Residence is derived from micro-design features which interweave structural elements, such as bay windows and balconies into one continuous line. The façade pattern is repeated for every four storeys of the building, whilst rounded glass creates column-free corners, visually merging the internal spaces with the external balconies. Intertwining lines and surfaces wrap the apartments, seamlessly incorporating sun screening, whilst also ensuring that the inner qualities of the apartments and the outer appearance of the building together form a unified whole. Read the rest of this entry »

Volcano is a B.Arch thesis project by Joakim Wadenholt, done at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. This proposal investigates how to make the opera in Stockholm popular again by making a new opera house. With different stages, concerts halls and music events –this proposal will reach a much wider target group. Hopefully this mix of music shows and stages attracts more people and makes the opera show more popular as well.

Directions from the surrounding streets and views made the split of the form into the five separate buildings with different context. It is important to give all the different parts of the building the space they deserve. The surrounding park is supposed to be a place where people can meet and listen to music in the summer and spring. The shape of the opera house is inspired from a volcano: a symbol for great power and drama –just like an opera show or concert. When the night has come and it’s time for the show, the building will look like a great volcano with all the lights. Read the rest of this entry »

Shell & Shadow by Zaha Hadid Architects, a project for Nordpark Railway Stations in Innsbuck, Austria, is a unique architectural statement which is inspired, in its fluidity, by natural ice formations. The roof structures are lightweight and organic in its form, as they float on concrete plinths forming a soft artificial landscape that aims to describe the movement and circulation within. The brief required the design of four stations leading to Innsbruck’s chain of mountains and the team thoughtfully studied natural phenomena as glacial moraines and ice movements in order to develop a language fluid enough, like a frozen stream.

As each station in the chain has its unique context, topography and altitude, it was necessary to adapt to these specific site conditions, while still maintaining a unifying overall architectural language. High degree of flexibility was required in order to adjust the shell structures to the variable parameters of each station. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ballart Regional Integrated Cancer Center by Billard Leece Partnership is ambulatory facility that supports a multidisciplinary collaborative approach to patient care. The addition – new glazed tower changes character through the day and with the seasons. Profiled aluminum fins cast shadows across the glass surface façade which reflects the clouds, sky, and trees around the facility. The medical center tower is one of the tallest buildings in the city and its distinctive profile and surface patterning project an image of state-of-the-art care for the people of Ballarat and the region.

The Center provides the latest technology for cancer treatment supported by a radiotherapy facility, Medical Oncology Unit, a satellite pharmacy ensuring immediate access to medication and treatments and a multidisciplinary consultation suite supporting the concept of a ‘one stop shop’ for patients and their families. Education and administrative spaces encourage collaboration and support research with a clinical trials unit closely aligned to treatment spaces. A Wellness Center is included where all those involved in the patient journey can access amenities that offer a break from routine clinical spaces Read the rest of this entry »

Multiplication vs. Unification is a final thesis project by Junfeng Wang, done at GSD Harvard. The starting point of this addition design was to identify a geometric system in the existing building – the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada, which would be further used as a motivation for generating future geometry. This way, the addition inherits the deep gene of the existing one; therefore it is possible to generate a close geometric relationship between the old and the new one.

The addition area is located at the rear side of the building, and it takes two triangular tips as a main geometric motivation, further creating a radial pattern which forms the basic plan shape for the addition. Each floor of the addition part follows this basic geometric system while they are interacting with the existing gallery space.

The idea of the whole research under which this project was done was to create pedagogy which will address several theoretical conundrums of contemporary architecture. Here, particularly, the pedagogy tries to deal with the relationship between multiplication and unification in architecture, namely how to unify different elements in architecture while still preserving the diversity they have produced. Read the rest of this entry »

Inspired by the dolls’ house that Edwin Lutyens designed for The British Empire Exhibition in 1922, twenty British architectural practices were invited to design a contemporary doll’s house in aid of the disabled children’s charity KIDS. The houses sit on a 750mm square plinth and are planned to be auctioned.

Zaha  Hadid Architects were proud to join Cathedral Group and other partners, including David Adjaye, RAAD Studio and others, to create their own house proposal. The design they presented an interpretation of its own Ideal House pavilion from 2007. The design is a puzzle where interlocking elements, reminiscent of rooms, are stacked together to create a singular, unified house. The void which travels through the assembled house is continuous and creates a common space shared by every element and defines circulation from one room to the other. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wondered if you can knit and braid a building and if it could be lightweight as air? The myThread Pavilion by Jenny Sabin was commissioned by Nike Inc. for the International Nike FlyKnit Collective due to its innovative concept which works on the edge between art, architecture, design and science. Fusions of science, art and technology open the door to new ways of thinking about structure and the relationship of the body to technology, while bio architecture and digital architecture deliver solutions, new understandings, new forms and a way for mathematics and generative systems to investigate the complexities of natural form and internal geometries.

Sabin states that she is very interested in probing the human body as a bio-dynamic model that can give us new ways of thinking about issues of performance and adaptation at an architectural scale. In her own words, performance, lightness, formfitting, sustainability become immediately relevant in terms of what we are doing. The body in motion — pure performance itself — is the starting point of Sabin’s New York collaboration for this project. Read the rest of this entry »