The future Ski Village will transform the existing Levi ski resort into a world class destination, offering top quality accommodation and leisure services for skiers of all levels and demands. The proximity to the Kittilä airport ensures easy access to the resort attracting international visitors to Levi village and the whole Lapland region. The Finland-based developer Kassiopeia Finland Oy is investing in its local region as it currently owns and operates Hotel Levi Panorama, Levi Summit Congress Center and Hotel K5 Levi and above and beyond has interests in developing the exquisite Koutalaki area.

“BIG’s visionary approach of combining unique types of accommodation and amenities along with the leisure activities offered at the resort, left the jury in awe. BIG’s ambitious plan challenges traditional thinking and we believe that the collaboration between Kassiopeia Finland and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group will rise to the occasion.” Jury, Kassiopeia Finland Oy.

Located on a gentle slope, the existing Levi ski center provides the framework for the future Koutalaki Ski Village which is conceived as an extension of the summit and the existing cluster of buildings in Koutalaki. BIG proposes to create a series of buildings that radiate out from a central square and whose ends touch the ground to create four freestanding buildings that each provide access to the roof and allow the skiers to descend from the resort’s rooftop downhill in any direction. The soft curves of the undulating roofs of the four buildings create a visual continuity of the natural land–scape while lending the whole village the unique character of a skislope skyline that creates an inhabited mountain top.

“The Koutalaki Ski Village is conceived as an extension of both the summit and the resort. Grown from the natural topography rather than dropped from the sky – the architecture extends the organic forms of natural landscape creating an inhabitable as well as skiable manmade mountain. As a result, our design for the Koutalaki Ski Village creates a new hybrid integrating distinct identities such as village and resort, shelter and openness, cozy intimacy and natural maj–esty, unique character and careful continuity – or simply – architecture and landscape.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Partner, BIG. Read the rest of this entry »

Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane have created a light sculpture composed of blades and LEDs, a luminaire specially designed for Moaroom, a Paris-based furniture and art gallery. Since 2004 Moaroom works with designers and artists from New Zealand and presents a selection of creations from the world of design and visual arts. Aimed to explore design beyond the usual scope of trends and patterns, these works are inspired by nature and its needs, and are created in order to respect the environment.

“Both transparent and opaque, this fixture is conceived as a creature from the depths of the sea newly discovered, both unknown and unnamed. It belongs to a dark world, where new sounds, new experiences can be imagined and lived, “say the architects. Read the rest of this entry »

Two residential towers in Seoul, Korea, designed by MVRDV, are connected in the centre by a pixilated cloud of additional program offering amenities and outside spaces with wide views. Positioned at the entrance of Libeskind’s Yongsan Dreamhub master plan project, the adjoined structures represent pixilated volumes with their rigid compactness disrupted at the connecting point. With a total surface of 128,000m2, the towers are expected to be completed in 2015.

Two structures are linked at the 27th floor with a volume spanning ten floors, evoking the image of a geometric cloud. The cloud comprises residential and commercial functions, along with the sky lounge, a wellness center, conference hall, fitness studio, pools, restaurants and cafes.  The square floor plans contain four corner apartments per floor. All spaces are rich with daylight and are well ventilated. Except for the grand lobby, used for accessing both towers, the rest of the ground level floor is divided into town houses. Read the rest of this entry »

This piece of public art was chosen as the winning proposal among three finalists for the new transit center being built in North Redondo this year. Located at the entry plaza location at Kingsdale Avenue, designed by Marc Fornes/THEVERYMANY in cooperation with Volkan Alkanoglu, the project is a piece of urban furniture, announcing the city of Redondo Beach to arriving visitors.

“Gate Wave” is designed to serve as a communication device, allowing the public to interact and engage with the variety of moiré effects within the colorful pattern and ephemeral qualities of light and shadows.  The design is 13.5 feet at its highest and almost 50 feet wide at its base. It will be constructed using concrete footings, a timber frame structure, and anodized aluminum in four total layers, with cyan and lime colorations on the interior aluminum and white on the outside. Read the rest of this entry »

UNStudio’s design for The Scotts Tower in Singapore has been designed to conserve space whilst maximizing live/work/play areas, The Scotts Tower presents a new dimension of functional and flexible vertical space. The Scotts Tower high end residential building is situated on a prime location in Singapore, close to the Orchard Road luxury shopping district and with views encompassing both nearby parkland and the panoramic cityscape of Singapore City.

Ben van Berkel: “An interesting facet of The Scotts Tower is the way that it reacts to the urban context of Singapore. Instead of the more usual means of planning a city horizontally, we have created neighbourhoods in the sky; a vertical city where each zone has its own distinct identity.” The 18,500m2, 31-storey, 231-unit tower consists of 1 to 3-bedroom apartments and 4-bedroom penthouses; expansive landscaped gardens, sky terraces, penthouse roof gardens and diverse recreational facilities.

Neighborhoods in the sky
The concept of The Scotts Tower is that of a vertical city incorporating a variety of residence types and scales. In addition, outdoor green areas in the form of sky terraces, penthouse roof gardens and individual terraces form an important element of the design. The vertical city concept is interpreted on the tower in three scales; the “city”, the “neighbourhood” and the “home”. The three elements of the vertical city concept along with the green areas are bound together by two gestures: the “vertical frame” and the “sky frames”.

The vertical frame organises the tower architecturally in an urban manner. The frame affords the tower the vertical city effect by dividing the four residential clusters into different neighbourhoods.

The sky frames – at the lobby (Level 1 & Level 2) and sky terrace (Level 25) – organise the amenity spaces and green areas of the tower. Read the rest of this entry »

As one of three shortlisted proposals for the St. Petersburg Pier International Design Competition, the Wave tries to connect the water and the city of Petersburg by emphasizing the possibility of achieving unity through physical contact. Its undulating form creates a narrative that merges the pier structure with the entire bay area. BIG’s project is divided into three parts: Tributary Park, Wave Walk and the Wave. The first phase of construction will include The Wave and Wave Walk. Tributary Park will be realized in the second phase. Read the rest of this entry »

This TV-Radio tower designed by architects Ahmet Unveren and Seckin Maden will be located on the great Camlica Hill – Istanbul, which has an altitude of 240 meters above  sea level. The site consists of 120.000m²  in a natural reserve protected  by the government. The project aims to be an innovative 350 meter high tower that would clean the overall mess of the current TV and radio antennas on the site.

The project is based on the duality of the natural protected site and the tower. This duality comes up with: functional trauma, formal trauma, and spatial trauma. Instead of accepting the disconnection and fixing it; the intention is to utilize the tower as the functional and formal continuation of the natural protected site. Read the rest of this entry »

Umicor, a materials manufacturer for clean technologies, built their new offices in the middle of their manufacturing campus which is part of a much larger industrial park in Hoboken, Belgium. The design by Conix Architects is intended to integrate the plant better with its surroundings, adding a fresh scale and materiality to the site and create a sense of place amongst the brick industrial buildings. The project is also a retrofit of a mid-century 8 story brick office, with a fresh wing unrolling from one end, an interesting design narrative connecting with the plant’s mission to recycle and reclaim raw materials. Read the rest of this entry »

Architects at Manuel Ocaña Architecture and Thought Production Office were asked to design a rather unusual spatial concept, one that would ensure the survival of 20 families and thousands of books for three years after the 2012 Apocalypse. The design was commissioned and promoted by a Belgian foundation and would be located at a mountain slope in Sierra Nevada, Spain. It is conceived as a “culture ark”, after a suddenly precipitated climate change with tsunamis, earthquakes, and a global chain of disasters, nuclear or otherwise.

The initial idea for the project was to use a more organic approach of atomization and circulation strategies. Several dome-shaped areas are interconnected and manifest the underground configuration of the system upon the landscape. In the light of ever-rising number of religious beliefs and, as the architects put it, “the “scientificisim” religious looking for immortality”, the project can also function as an Apocalyptic Resort. Read the rest of this entry »

Winning the Hong Kong Alternative Car Park Tower Competition, the proposal attempts to integrate the Hong Kong City hall, the second-floor pedestrian system and the streets on the second floor. It provides a network of public spaces with atriums and multifunctional areas placed at the top floor, along with great views of the Victoria Harbor and Kowloon. Designed by Mozhao Studio, the Car Park Tower is a public building, transforming the typical parking facility into an urban landmark. Read the rest of this entry »