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 »

Led by Santiago Parramón, RTA-Office’s inspiring design for Museum of Troy at Çanakkale, Turkey, was carried out in collaboration with local Turkish studio DOME Partners (Istanbul). The idea was to create a generator for social activity, culture and research. The task was complex and demanding – design had to be the complement to the ruins of Troy, reflecting the magnificence of the civilization, while it still had to be a jewel, valued for its uniqueness. The outcome was successful: respecting the dignity of the natural environment the lines of the museum are reminiscent of the geometry of Troy. The designed piece captures movement and a single form is creating a continuous space. Read the rest of this entry »

The design for Peoples Meeting Dome in Bornholm, Denmark was practical response of young Danish architects, Kristoffer Tejlgaard and Benny Jepsen, to a debate about future of housing. Their ambition was to create outstanding and highly optimized architecture, yet site-specific and contextual as possible. The proposal was deconstructed geodesic dome – still rational and mathematically generated, but with the improved aesthetic qualities and towards attractive, humanized and inviting architecture.

Structural frame of their intriguing edifice, a meeting place and the exhibition tent for the Danish National Association for Social Housing, is triangular and adaptive – sacred geometry is flexible so the dome could be shaped by the local surrounding and the particular uses of the project. The envelope consists of translucent greenhouse membranes on the sphere surfaces and transparent PVC film, used for windows.

Primary structure of the pavilion is system of steel nodes, which can build demanding “lettuce” arrangement in combination with wood. Skeleton is alterable – it is designed to be adaptable to given parameters, dissembled and reassembled and placed in new design. It is column-free, with no load bearing interior walls, great clear space with multiple possibilities of interior design and windows placement. Read the rest of this entry »

Urban Roots is a project designed by Francisco Nunez and Kyle Duvernay to facilitate water access and management by means of biomimetic solutions congruent with architectural design and technology. By carefully analyzing a region in which water is not a local resource, we took on the challenge of designing a new water management headquarters for Downtown San Diego which will implement bio-inspired technologies such as dew harvesting facades, water transfer by capillary action methods and clean water filtration and storage innovations. Read the rest of this entry »

The project by Nash Waters was initiated by looking at the geometry and climatic response of natural systems to build formal and operative logics. The natural ladscape was studied in terms of topography, climate, and material conditions, both analytically through their microclimates and expressively in a response to their horizons.

By studying the biological conditions of foliose lichen, the project was able to utilize various characteristics in order to become a performative structure that is integrated into the landscape. The openings vary in size and thickness on each directional side, optimizing conditions for natural lighting, ventilation, and solar heat gain. Read the rest of this entry »

In their competition entry for Helsinki Central Library, Portuguese practice OODA aimed to transform the space for reading into a social hub with multiple responsibilities. The focus of the concept was to reexamine common library experience and incorporate a combination of personal and social cultivation, culture enhancement and entertainment. OODA is proposing attractive yet bold design – impressive building which acts as a gathering place and important cultural cluster.

This progressive library design was aiming to overcome issues of traditional concepts – individual organization and lack of complementing contents by redefining the image, proposing the dynamic space of cultural activation, information and place where all media forms are equally presented. Flexibility of vertically connected programs creates the impression of continuity of space while encourages socializing and knowledge sharing atmosphere. Read the rest of this entry »

“Urban Canyon” is recently awarded entry for colossal, 180,000 square meters mixed-use complex in Shanghai, China. Expressive and dynamic design for Shanghai Wuzhou International Plaza is a result of successful collaboration between Synthesis Design + Architecture and Shenzhen General Architectural Design Institute. The very form of the complex was inspired by traditional Chinese concept of Yin and Yang – massive development is broken in two pieces, allowing circulation flow between. Both volumes are organized as a collection of two 30 story towers and series of detached retail units. Northern block houses 4 story luxury retail shopping center and a 5 star hotel tower, while southern part facilitates two office towers and lifestyle and entertainment complex. This urban sculpture is new landmark for the city and iconic celebration of luxury, wealth and good life. Read the rest of this entry »

SDA | Synthesis Design + Architecture’s design concept for Xiamen Dream City in China challenges the conventional notion of the city waterfront. This monumental artificial landscape facilitates 300,000 square meters of programs. Almost continuous contour line of natural topography of the complex is activated by careful placement of the main programmatic elements. The result of this strategic arrangement is pleasantly chaotic – endless play of surfaces generates undulating dunes, canyons and valleys. Dynamic effect of cascading openings creates articulated network of continuously connected spaces. Final line of the waterfront is a joined venture of view vectors, programmatic forces and pedestrian circulation.

Due to the selection of materials of the envelope and its seamless transition between the ground, the facade and the roof of the complex, the enormous structure is perfectly embedded within the context as it seems to be emerging from the beach itself.

Contents of the low-rise buildings are revealed beneath the surface, therefore conserving precious ground level for a gradient network of public plazas, linear gardens and pathways. Below rests a vast, underground, multi-level concourse, facilitating numerous entertainment venues, luxury retail and dining, lit by sculptural north-facing glass surfaces on the roof, providing diffuse, north skylight. Read the rest of this entry »