Hadid Tower for CityLife, Milan is one of three towers which represent the future business and shopping district in the heart of city – central historic Fiera area. While other two towers were designed by Arata Isozaki and Andra Maffei – “the straight one” and Daniel Libeskind – “the curved one”, “the twisted one” designed by Zaha Hadid features a dynamic vertical twisting motion that enhances the perception and views of its urban surroundings. Three towers are part of the wider redevelopment program of this historical trade fair area of Milan, one of the largest pedestrian zones in Europe. In order to be enjoyed on foot or by bicycle, the traffic in this district is circulating only underground.

CityLife, new, modern and progressive district, provides its inhabitants with new model for work and leisure. Hadid Tower, currently under construction, creates a portal to Fiera Milano – 43-storey, 190 meters high retail skyscraper is emerging from the site, giving shape to a torsion due to its slow rising and twisting from the base. The aim was to release horizontal energy into vertical, spiraling vector mimicking snaking forms of the housing across. Read the rest of this entry »

Couple of days ago, London Mayor Boris Johnson, joined by building’s architect Renzo Piano, cut a ribbon to the viewing platform, positioned 243 meters up The Shard skyscraper, standing next to London Bridge Station. Recently opened attraction, The View from The Shard, accessed directly from an entrance on the ground level, is expected to attract over half a million visitors each year.

The very building, magic for a number of reasons, as its architect stated, has been completed since the summer of 2012, but officially opened to public of February 1^st, 2013. Formally named “The London Bridge Tower”, this mixed-use skyscraper is home to a large number of programs. Designed as a “vertical city”, this London skylines’ newest addition addresses the city’s growing population and need to maximize the space.

The semi-public, ground level houses a public piazza with restaurants, cafes and areas for art installations. Triangular-shaped, building facilitates 55,000 square meters of offices, three floors of restaurants and 200-room Shangri-La Hotel, which is due to open this summer. Moreover, ten luxury apartments are expected to be priced £50 million each. Ventilated winter gardens add luxury to the exquisite office spaces with striking views.

Generous at the bottom, the building is getting narrower to the top, disappearing in the air almost like a pinnacle of the Gothic cathedral. Its architecture is firmly based in the historic form of London’s masts and spires, elegantly reinterpreted by great Piano. Active envelope is enabled by sophisticated use of glazing – expressive facades of angled panes are designed to reflect light and changing patterns of London sky, therefore the form of the building will change according to the weather or seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Following the long tradition of exquisite Indian Architecture, architects from Dubai based WS Atkins aimed to design a building that would stand as a landmark structure for Mumbai – Namaste Tower represents burgeoning economic and cultural significance of great India. This 62-story, 300m high, newest addition to W Hotel franchise, currently under construction, will include a hotel, office and retail space. The very form of the building is inspired by traditional Indian greeting of “Namaste”, where the hands are clasped together. Reflecting ancient Indian expression, position of two hotel wings represents ultimate symbol of hospitality, welcoming its guests.

Ultra high, the tower will be seen from great distance, therefore the visual appearance of the project is of great importance to the city of Mumbai. The orientation and massing of this skyscraper were designed to benefit from visual relations with the Indian Ocean, Mumbai Peninsula and to adjacent towers, currently constructed.

Guided by the imperative to design the circulation areas of the hotel as impressive as the rooms itself, architects created internal gardens, bringing the greenery into the corridors and atrium spaces. On corridor ends an open spaces offer dramatic and framed view over the city.

As the tower has been designed to offer gala wedding space for Indian Mehndi ceremony, traditional Indian patterns appear as a theme on the building skin. The tower will be clad in fritted glazing, creating sense of transparency and depth to the building, while maintaining required thermal qualities. Regarding the energy efficiency, large scale canopies support solar thermal collectors, with the potential to provide 12% of the energy required to heat the hot water in the hotel. Read the rest of this entry »

The ProtoHouse project was initially developed by Softkill Design, in the Architectural Association School‘s Design Research Lab within the ‘behavioral matter’ studio of Robert Stuart-Smith. It investigated the architectural potential of the latest Selective Laser Sintering technologies, testing the boundaries of large scale 3D printing by designing with computer algorithms that micro-organize the printed material itself. Softkill is now announcing plans for the first actually printed plastic dwelling, which would be assembled in one day.

Market-friendly, one-storey ProtoHouse 2.0 will be eight meters high and fours meters long. This pioneering experiment will be printed in sections in a factory where the fabrication of all pieces will take three weeks. The parts will be small enough to be easily transported in vans and assembled in 24 hours, on site. Extremely light, they simply click together, therefore there’s no necessity for any other material or any bolting, screwing or welding on site.

Due to the ambitions to develop highly optimized prototype, micro-material algorithms were run on sections, in order to test out their performative aspects. The tests resulted with specific density of external branching, which can diffuse light, act as a rain screen or snow collector and insulator. Unlike its precedents in 3D printed structures, which used sand or concrete, Softkill collective insisted on lightweight materials, such as bio-plastics, enabling great level of detail and allows possibility of printing all architectural elements, down to stairs, façade and furniture. Read the rest of this entry »

Ma Yansong of Beijing-based MAD Architects designed latest architectural spectacle in China – the “Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort”, one of fifty new branches planned by Chinese-based Sheraton Hotel chain, as a part of their strategic aggressive expansion in 2013. Probably the most striking, Sheraton in Huzhou is an unforgettable, enormous ring-like structure, form of layered floors, rising from the south bank of Taihu Lake.

Over 100 meters high and 116 meters wide, this outstanding hotel experience covers an area of 75 acres, providing 321 rooms – 40 suites, 37 villas and presidential suites. The investment of 1.5 billion dollars shows the importance of this endeavor, resulting with total floor area of 95 000 square meters.

Thoughtfully designed, this impressive hotel represents the optimal response to the site parameters and the context in general. Fundamental to the logic of the unique shape of this impressive yet bold design is the idea that the building is comprised of hotel rooms that demand ample natural light and cross ventilation. Moreover, its horizontal section and form ensure view of the lake for every room, regardless of its position. The metal façade becomes live at night – LED light system on the envelope displays colorfully animated textures and patterns, further reflected on the lake surface, creating playful and aesthetically pleasant atmosphere. Read the rest of this entry »

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Infinity Tower in Dubai began construction in 2006 and seven years later the works are almost complete. In architects’ own words, the design for the Tower exemplifies their belief that the exterior form of a high-rise should be a direct expression of its structural framework. In their understanding, great architecture must be more than skin deep and that is reflected as powerfully today in Infinity Tower as in such SOM 20th century landmark designs as Lever House, Sears Tower and John Hancock Center.

The building’s unique, elegant form is its most visually striking feature, reflecting ever-changing shapes of the deserts, winds, and seas that surround it. Positioned perpendicularly to the sea, the building gradually rotates 90 degrees – each floor is rotated 1.2˚ to create a full twist from bottom to top, while maintaining a consistent floor plate. The design had to overcome extreme climate conditions, by efficiently controlling intense desert heat and this winding shape protects interior from the sun, while helps providing excellent views for its residents. Metal panels and screens cladding ensures additional shade from the intense Arabic heat.

The structural system of this 73-storey high skyscraper is a high-strength reinforced concrete column superstructure, cast-in-place. The shape and size of the columns were determined by wind tunnel testing and three dimensional computer modeling to analyze the building’s stresses. Read the rest of this entry »

Tucked into the coastal hillside near Kavarna, Bulgaria the newly completed Equinox House by Ignatov Architects explores a novel approach to achieving passive house energy performance. The home’s celestial name sake is well deserved for the careful consideration of solar orientation of the large, super efficient windows, angled to shed summer heat but absorb the fleeting winter energy. Extremely airtight construction testing at 50% better than passive house standards and super-insulation provides a 90% reduction in heating needs. Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to inform you our collaboration with node to produce the 7th Annual Progressive Architecture Symposium in Mexico City. The event will be held on April 25-26, 2013 with the participation of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Mark Goulthorpe (dECOI), Paul Lewis (LTL), Ashley Schafer (Praxis), Tod Williams + Billie Tsien (TWTA), Javier Sanchez (JSa), and Patrik Schumacher (Zaha Hadid + Patrik Schumacher Architects).

Since 2006 the Progressive Architecture Symposium is one of the most important architecture events in Latin America with the sole objective of celebrating and sharing the most innovative architecture and design thinkers around the world.

Furthermore, node, in collaboration with the architecture academia in Mexico award the Kalmanani Prize (master builder in Nahuatl – Aztecs language) to a living architect whose body of work transcends the test of time and improves the way in which we live. In 2010 Toyo Ito received the first Kalmanani while Shigeru Ban followed in 2012. The winner of the 2013 Award will be announced soon and the ceremony will be held in Mexico city. Sebastian, the most celebrated contemporary sculptor in Mexico, has designed the Kalmanani Award. Read the rest of this entry »

Designer Saleem Khattak combines his fascination with light and modernist form in Archilume, a luminaire that evokes the best qualities of incandescent lighting: warmth, comfort and intimacy. Archilume’s unassuming simplicity masks a visionary design that transforms energy-efficient LED lighting. A clear cylindrical lens with a conical diffuser emits an elegant glow without the glare of a visible light source. It radiates a gentle light, evoking ripples on water, and represents a revolution in the use of LEDs.

A study in the science of lighting, Archilume uses the principles of light transmission, reflection and diffusion to create a sleek, sculptural form suitable for modern or heritage-style interiors. The transparency of the fixture’s design suits it to a variety of design palettes. Read the rest of this entry »

Chromatic Energy Landscape, a land art proposal by Barker Freeman Design Office for Dubai, UAE, generates a spatially and chromatically variegated landscape that engages, protects, and seeks to restore the natural biodiversity of native plants and animals. The proposal is organized as layered fields of photoresponsive energy generation systems that are also iridescent, phosphorescent surfaces intersected by a system of viewing platforms. Local renewable materials–native algae and vegetation, recycled glass and low-tech methods of construction– reshape the existing site into a colorful textured landscape. Read the rest of this entry »