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 »

In order to bolster Taichung’s cultural industry after the merger of Taichung City and Taichung County, Taichung City Government planned a new cultural park in the Gateway City district. Taichung City Cultural Center, as it is called, will comprise a public library and fine arts museum. The facility will help the city adapt to post-merger changes in population, urban development and cultural environment. A facility satisfying the cultural, artistic and recreational needs of Taichung’s residents will further propel the cultural industry, link tourism and city marketing resources and enhance the city’s cultural brand.

The architecture of the Center should become a piece of art in itself and demonstrate Taichung’s creativity, aesthetics and cultural sophistication. With cutting-edge and trend-setting construction technology, it will become a landmark residents can appreciate and identify with both from up close and afar, attracting local as well as international visitors.

The architecture of Kubota & Bachmann Architects proposal combines a public library and municipal fine arts museum—the cultural flagships of a city—into one area, synergizing art, education and recreation in one location. Besides serving the public functions of reader service, exhibition and guided tour, the two institutions must also each fulfill policies and objectives related to reading promotion, artistic development and collection and research of artifacts. They will be tasked with integrating the resources of Taichung’s branch libraries and art exhibition spaces, with an eye to augment the city’s cultural services and facilities. Read the rest of this entry »

Exciting in form and amusing in the way the wrapping is twisted along the building, the new Art Museum for Buenos Aires, Argentina. Designed by former Austrian architectural studio PRECHTECK and now Penda Designhouse is the proper architectural statement. The beauty of the piece lies in the fact that the twisted surface of the façade is not just randomly curved but it creates one aesthetically pleasing architectural signature of wrapped cloth. The conceptual design deals with the revitalization of Puerto Madero. The viewpoints and the main parameter of the building are highlighted, as it resembles the waves of the waterfront or the sail setting. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in the 2010, MAD Architects won the competition to design the cultural center of Harbin. Recently, in August 2013, the structure of the Cultural Center was completed and the project finally began to take shape. The city of Harbin has the reputation as the musical capital of the north and is influenced by both Chinese and Russian culture. MAD’s cultural center, unlike many public facilities of the similar kind, wasn’t designed to be the lonely landmark in the city center, but the natural continuation of the human spirit.

The Cultural Island embraces the riverbank and appears as a glacier stretching and connecting the banks into a cohesive whole. The movement of the terrain strategically directs the flow of people from different directions to the entrance of Harbin Theater and Harbin Labor Recreation Center. The ramp of the Grand Theater guides people in, resembling a mountain path. The entire building acts as an undulating snow covered mountain, following a natural rhythm.

The cladding of the Cultural Center is custom-made, in pure white aluminum. Mimicking ice and snow, the white stone and concrete are also used as for the part of the wall. During the day, the need for interior lighting can be completely satisfied with energy-saving and special lighting effects. Read the rest of this entry »

Competition entry at first, Ocean North’s design for Jyväskylä Music and Art Center was later, in phase 02, redesigned for Venice Architectural Biennale. Second phase was a joined venture of Ocean North and Achim Menges, researcher and professor at the University of Stuttgart where he is the founding director of the Institute for Computational Design, and it retained the principle design ideas of the competition scheme, while redefining its spatial, geometric, material and ambient articulation.

The aim of the project was to generate differentiated event space as well as the extension of the landscaped town square into an animated interior multi-purpose landscape space that serves for formal and orchestral events, art exhibitions and less formal cultural activities. The structure of the interior and the surfaces that articulate it are derived through iterative growth processes, informed by performance requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

Vertical Velocity is an experiment in conceiving and organizing a piece of architecture solely based on the climatic parameters of the site. This is achieved by investigating three basic types of heat transfer, or thermodynamics – convection, conduction, and radiation, and manipulating their respective behaviors accordingly, in relationship to the climatic site condition of the site, in order to create a predominantly passive architectural system. The design by Glenn Hajadi of HighStreetStudio, is conducted as a final project in Thermodynamic Somatism, core studio by Inaki Abalos and Renata Sentkiewitz, at Barcelona Institute of Architecture.

In establishing Mediterranean coast city Barcelona as the site, two essential external climatic conditions immediately surfaced. First, high annual solar insolation and second – a mild external natural temperature throughout the year (14 – 24 degree Celsius range). The first is to be avoided, and the second is to be desired. This means interior space can be completely ventilated to the exterior with very minimal architectural intervention.

The resulting form is a manipulation of cubic massing to reach these two objectives. Courtyard typology is implemented as a traditionally used passive system in tropical and sub-tropical regions to ventilate interior space, taking advantage of the wind velocity to travel through the thin interior space (no more than 13m deep) with the void in the middle to perform suction. The height of the building is determined to optimize the rising wind velocity in higher elevation.

A residential complex layered with a gaming and computer center is a key combination for a contemporary hybrid typology, chosen due to the amount of energy produced in 24 hour cycle, thus allowing the transmission of heat. The objective was to achieve zero energy balance building. Internal organization is constructed to optimize energy production – consumption by vertical multi layering. Heat producing programs are located below absorber programs – programs using heat. Read the rest of this entry »

New Contemporary Art Museum for Buenos Aires, Argentina, designed by Batay-Csorba Architects, surely takes advantage of the long but narrow dockside of the renewed waterfront. Building’s skin is mirrored therefore the envelope mimics the surrounding while representing a clear sign of the renewal of the neighborhood.

This museum on the docks of Puerto Madero traded the introverted and expected role of an institutionalized public art facility for a role of a catalyst for public space and interaction with the public realm. Due to the special requirements regarding light in the museums, as well as the access and views, most buildings settle for blank facades and the aim of the architects at Batay-Csorba Architects was quite the opposite – they designed engaged envelope in order to bring the museum to the public and not the vice versa. The design erased the exact border between the museum proper and public space, the walls of the urban gallery have been elevated and extended to the edge of the water so that the pedestrians actually walk through the gallery space. The large exhibition spaces are using latest technologies for continuous daily projections and the high gallery space enables big scale installations. Read the rest of this entry »