Designed by Huston-based MA2 Studio, the project is a proposal for a multifunctional urban structure located on Saadiyat Island, UAE. The main purpose of the design is to create a center for gathering and storing knowledge. It attempts to avoid the typical appearance of contemporary libraries and establish a strong relationship between distinct programmatic contents. In line with this, the resulting structure emerges as a mix-use facility, comprising a media center, exhibition spaces, offices and housing capacities. Various platforms that surround the zones are articulated as public and semi-public spaces, markets and green roofs. Read the rest of this entry »

Through the implementation of year round programming strategies, including hop plant farming, beer making and providing flexible vending market spaces, this 3^rd Prize Winner proposal for the Farmer’s Market Competition aims to strengthen West Highland’s local identity. The project combines agricultural spaces with venues for art and music performances, acting as an entrance to the Denver cultural scene. Designed by Lorene Faure and Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, the Brewerymarket design is based on the natural properties of the hop plant.

“Hop plant (Humulus Lupulus) is vigorous climbing vegetation and hops are used primarily as an important flavoring and stability agent in the beer making process. The proposal creates the sensual experience of a vibrant ‘garden’ where the hops are farmed on hop poles to create the building’s main green facade. The adjustable assembly systems of the modular vending bins are inspired from the natural material properties of hop pods. Read the rest of this entry »

Black Narcissus highlights the importance of encompassing all methods of fabrication; digital and analog in terms of technology, management efficiency and time towards the production the project. The piece is constituted of 1,000 pieces including the 644 pieces of CNC routed syntra, 50 large flowers with jewel like crowns and 100 small flowers. The idea was to produce a structure that combines a parametrically designed large form ornamented and gardened with nonparametric flowers. Through this gardening process of aggregation, the flowers produce a sensation of excess in a garden of delight. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Dalian library conceived by Architects Collective is designed to become the center and heart for the local community with a strong relationship to the ocean and the bay. The building is placed in a park setting and aims to be a landmark for locals and visitors and a symbol for the creative and environmentally friendly future of New Pulian. It is a place for the public to read, contemplative and come together. The basic architectural form for the new library is the rose petal since the Monthly Rose is the city flower of Dalian. The new Pulian branch is one of several library branches in the Dalian region with each branch symbolizing a petal and forming a rose flower. Read the rest of this entry »

This tower designed by award-winning firm FXFOWLE, the tallest on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, makes a memorable presence for the headquarters of a dynamic construction and development company. Occupying an “edge-city” context at the intersection of two major highways, the tower is completely freestanding and seen in the round. Functioning like an obelisk, it marks the end of long vistas and announces the entrance to the city from the east. Read the rest of this entry »

This proposal designed by Brandon Martella is for a mixed use dormitory facility at the New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego, California.

The primary purpose of 3 block is to hold a group of modules within a fluid ribbon of vertical community for 360 students at New School of Architecture and Design.  The vertical sprawl of greenscape is a continuation of the balboa to bay park that runs along park blvd. dividing the New School campus.  Through a division of city, home, and community a new realm of San Diego is created.

Whether its tight rope walking the twin towers or using Renzo Piano’s louvered New York Times Building as a ladder, people around the world see buildings as urban terrain, wanting to feel like a kid once more with imaginative ambitions afloat on the playground. With 3 block these treasured experiences are made real again, a vertical hiking path integrated into the buildings southern exposure, enables the adventurous to finally use the cityscape as their playground.  With various green spaces and local shrubbery the walkways become a shading device to reduce the high-rises overall solar gain, plus the exploration of the building can be turned into an entire day adventure. Read the rest of this entry »

DCPParquitectos proposal for the New Taipei City Museum of Art is an open and welcoming design that erases the barrier of exclusivity normally surrounding the world of art, patrons, and experts.

As such, the architecture of the New Taipei City Museum of Art is one that embodies this idea of erasure through eliminating the traditional borders between exhibition space and circulation, as well as exterior and interior. Every part of the museum is represented by a space without limits that can hold any type of expression.

Put together, each space is part of a large connected organism that expands and extends itself through the site, acting as a filter and transitional space between public and art. Read the rest of this entry »

1oAM Architecture unveiled their design for Istanbul’s Disaster Prevention Centre. The emotional influence of the facade is a reflection of the nature conditions during the seasons, the day and the night. The climate features: rainfall, wind, air humidity, temperature amplitude ,and sunshine create dynamic facade effects. Polarization, reflections, steam, scatter… bred by the interaction of water and sun. Crying facade, a metaphor of contextual presence of the building, is dematerializing the shape. The facade absorbs humidity and energy from the air by its mossy surface and electrochemical process, it recognizes the presence of people in the space of the building by means of the air exchange of heating ventilating installation. The facade tectonics is developed by the authors in collaboration with Bulgarian academy of sciences / institute of physical chemistry.

Metro Station 20 designed by StudioATM is part of “Metro Line 1” which connects the center of Sofia with the International Airport.The new Metro Station and public plaza transforms a former local, non urbanized area into an invigorated center. “Metro Station 20” integrates infrastructure and civic space, synthesizing a diverse range of public, retail, commercial and transportation programs. Read the rest of this entry »

The cellular Shadow Pavilion is the result of simple materials lightly manipulated and connected to dramatic effect. More than one hundred aluminum sheets, laser cut and rolled into cones of various sizes are attached in pre-assembled clusters from offsite. The lowest row buried in the soil of Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Ann Arbor, Michigan anchors the project. PLY Architecture developed the self supporting structure using software modeling to determine shadow patterns, material efficiencies, geometric tethering and assembly. Read the rest of this entry »