Part house-part playground, the Peak series is a series of pre-fabricated summer homes by Swedish firm Visiondivision that can be placed in many environments. The Peak series homes are designed to promote close community and leisure.

The interior of the Peak series cabins is divided into three levels. At the base is the main entrance and open social space with a kitchen and living room, above the ground floor is a loft space Visiondivision calls a mezzanine-like space that holds guest bedrooms. The top floor houses the master bedroom and a bathroom.

The Peak series different from other pre-fab homes is its unique wood plank façade design. The planks are left with spaces in between so the entire structure can be climbed and essentially becomes a giant jungle gym. Hatches open up from each floor so people inside can climb out and around on the exterior structure, as well as have convenient fire escapes and views of the surrounding environment. Read the rest of this entry »

One of four entrants to the competition to envision the new Calabar International Convention Center in Nigeria, Mecanoo Architecten took placement to heart by tucking the complex underneath the hilly local topography. The design calls for a grand entrance that run north south through the hillside, feeding a plaza hosting numerous water elements.

The stitching of the convention center to the landscape is furthered by numerous openings at different elevations providing walkouts and daylight. Large skylights provide daylight to the main corridor and upper gathering areas. The main hall has a capacity of 1,500 people with a smaller exhibition area than can hold 600. A series of support rooms, meeting spaces, and a business center provide a diverse set of functions for the facility. Read the rest of this entry »

Lea Ceramiche is taking part in Interni Mutant Architecture & Design with an installation designed by Zaha Hadid.

The installation features Lea Slimtech, the ultraslim slab (just 3mm) available in large sizes (up to 3m x 1m): the chosen site is an 18th century courtyard, one of the most attractive areas at Milan’s University, where the slabs will be used to bring a three dimensional structure to life. It will be a sort of vortex made entirely in porcelain stoneware; a dynamic space demonstrating a flexible and unconventional use of this innovative material.

The project started out as a contemporary take on courtyard architecture. It is a dynamic composition that starts out at the perimeter of the space and then follows the orthogonal shape of the columns and lines, meeting at the centre, creating complex and sinuous geometrical patterns: The 800 m2 area is covered with 7 different colours of Slimtech slabs (from milk white to black coffee) that are 1 metre wide and in various heights ranging to a maximum of 2 metres. The installation transforms the courtyard into a space with a constantly shifting shape and colour depending on the many possible viewing angles. Fluorescent light tubes by Artemide run along the structure, lighting up the building and creating a link between the formal layout of the setting and the flowing lines of the project. Read the rest of this entry »

eVolo Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. This is also an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. The award seeks to discover young talent, whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.

The Jury of the 2011 edition was formed by leaders of the architecture and design fields including: Juan Azulay [principal Matter Management, professor at Southern California Institute of Architecture], CarloMaria Ciampoli [port director Live Architecture Network], Mario Cipresso [principal Studio Shift, professor at University of Southern California], Ted Givens [principal 10 Design], Eric Goldemberg [principal Monad Studio, professor at Florida International University], Jose Gonzalez [principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute], John Hill [editor Archidose], Mitchell Joachim [principal Terreform One, professor at New York University], Andrew Liang [principal Studio 0.10., professor at University of Southern California], Javier Quintana [principal Taller Basico de Arquitectura, Dean of IE School of Architecture], Rezza Rahdian [Architect, Second Place 2009 Skyscraper Competition], Michel Rojkind [principal Rojkind Arquitectos], and Michael Szivos [principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute]. The Jury selected 3 winners and 32 honorable mentions. eVolo Magazine received 715 projects from all five continents and 95 different countries.

The first place was awarded to Atelier CMJN (Julien Combes, Gaël Brulé) from France for their ‘LO2P Recycling Skyscraper’ in New Delhi, India. The project is designed as a large-scale wind turbine that filters polluted air with a series of particle collector membranes, elevated greenhouses, and mineralization baths.

The second place was awarded to Yoann Mescam, Paul-Eric Schirr-Bonnans, and Xavier Schirr-Bonnans from France for a dome-like horizontal skyscraper that harvests solar energy, collects rainwater, and preserves the existing urban fabric at ground level thanks to its large skylights and small footprint.

The recipient of the third place is Yheu-Shen Chua from the United Kingdom for a project that re-imagines the Hoover Dam in the U.S. as an inhabitable skyscraper that unifies the power plant with a gallery, aquarium, and viewing platform that engages the falling water directly.

Among the honorable mentions there are “waterscrapers” that clean oil spills and desalinate sea water, inverted skyscrapers for a floating Olympic villa, recycling towers, research skyscrapers that harvest lightning power, vertical cemeteries and amusement parks, sports skyscrapers, fish farms, and “living mountains” for desert climates. Other proposals use the latest building technologies and parametric design to configure environmentally conscious self-sufficient buildings.

eVolo Magazine would like to acknowledge all the competitors for their effort, vision, and passion for architectural innovation and the members of the Jury for their knowledge, time, and enthusiasm during the long review process.

eVolo Magazine is also pleased to announce the publication of a Limited Edition  book (only 500 copies) that celebrates the sixth anniversary of the prestigious international Skyscraper Competition. With more than 3,000 projects received, we are showcasing the best 300 proposals from the past six years, including 2011, in a large-format hardcover book. Our goal is to edit a true gem of contemporary architecture printed in over one-thousand full-color pages.

ORDER LIMITED EDITION BOOK

Zaha Hadid Architects announced the completion of the Guangzhou Opera House. The opening ceremony was held this weekend with representatives from various countries around the world. Like pebbles in a stream smoothed by erosion, the Guangzhou Opera House sits in perfect harmony with its riverside location. The Opera House is at the heart of Guangzhou’s cultural development. Its unique twin-boulder design enhances the city by opening it to the Pearl River, unifying the adjacent cultural buildings with the towers of international finance in Guangzhou’s Zhujiang new town. The 1,800-seat auditorium of the Opera House houses the very latest acoustic technology, and the smaller 400-seat multifunction hall is designed for performance art, opera and concerts in the round. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the 14 finalists for the 2011 Brisbane Ideas Competition (BIC) organized by the Heise Pty. Ltd. Group, Waterground by French firm Collectif MAP is a complete re-imagination of the Brisbane, Australia. Entrants were asked by Heise two quite broad questions, “What is missing from Brisbane?” and “What does Brisbane need for the future?” Heise hoped that the broad entry requirements would solicit broad entries, and judging by their 14 finalists the diversity exceeded expectations.

For their top 14 entries, Heise chose a great mixture of entries, ranging from studies and solutions for Brisbane’s pedestrian routes to proposals for towering water collection/sprinklers to be strewn throughout the city. Waterground however, is perhaps the project that would change Brisbane, the third largest city in Australia the most.

Waterground is a proposal to create a network of canals to run throughout the city off the Brisbane River, which runs directly through the city. Waterground would expand the network of the already well-known and widely used ferry service that already operates 26 vessels in its fleet. The project would use existing passages as well as construct new passages to create a more efficient water transport platform. Read the rest of this entry »

Boston’s TREEPODS INIATIVE proposes to embody, and artificially enhance, the most important biological characteristic of natural trees: the capacity to clean the air, taking the CO² and releasing O².

Boston’s TREEPODS INIATIVE is a sustainable project leaded by Influx_Studio and ShiftBoston. The aim ff this collaboration is to allow the achievement of Boston’s global goals in terms of carbon reduction programs in the short time, giving us enough time to make the change from the present fossil fuel economy into a new Zero carbon energy economy.

The proposal could be define as a CO2-scrubbing living machine. Treepods may well redesign in an urban radical new way our polluted urban environment, interacting with natural trees, and enhancing its carbon absorption capacity. In that way, those artificial trees don’t replace the natural ones, but they act like small urban “air cleaning infrastructures”. Advanced technologies are actually already developed that allow the capture of the atmospheric carbon dioxide from ambient air in an efficient, economic and sustainable way. Developed by Dr Klaus Lackner, Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University, this revolutionary process is based on the discovery of the ‘humidity swing,’ a technology that enables the energy-efficient capture of CO2 from air, allowing to close the carbon cycle and creating a valuable product for beneficial use. Read the rest of this entry »

The Emperor’s castle designed by Thomas Hillier originates from a mythical and ancient tale hidden within a woodblock landscape scene created by Japanese Ukiyo-e printmaker, Ando Hiroshige. This tale charts the story of two star-crossed lovers, the weaving Princess and the Cowherd who have been separated by the Princess’s father, the Emperor.

The story begins with four acts that explore the relationships between these characters. Act I introduces the characters illustrating the moment the Princess and the Cowherd fall in love. As time passes the happy couple begin to neglect their duties. The Emperor being a stern ruler who does not tolerate idleness decided to punish the lovers, separating them by a deep and swift lake unassailable by any man. In the final act the Princess’s flying friends the magpies form a feathery bridge across the lake allowing the Princess and Cowherd to renew their pledge of eternal love.

These characters have been replaced and transformed into architectonic metaphors creating an Urban Theatre within the grounds of the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo. The Princess, a flexible, diaphanous knitted membrane, envelopes the spaces below and is fabricated using the surrounding Igusa rush to knit itself ever larger in aim to reach the grass parkland perimeter representing the Cowherd. Linked within this skin is a series of enormous folded plate lung structures. These origami lungs of the Emperor expand and contract creating the sensation of life. The lungs, deployed around the site act as physical barriers that manipulate the knitted skin as it extends towards the outer parkland, these manipulations are controlled and articulated by the Emperor’s army using a series of complex pulley systems which pull back the lungs and the surrounding skin. Read the rest of this entry »

Award-winning Mexican firm BNKR Arquitectura just completed a stunning chapel that overlooks the famous Acapulco Bay in Mexico.

“Our first religious commission was a wedding chapel conceived to celebrate the first day of a couple’s new life. Our second religious commission had a diametrically opposite purpose: to mourn the passing of loved ones. This premise was the main driving force behind the design, the two had to be complete opposites, they were natural antagonists. While the former praised life, the latter grieved death. Through this game of contrasts all the decisions were made: Glass vs. Concrete, Transparency vs. Solidity, Ethereal vs. Heavy, Classical Proportions vs. Apparent Chaos, Vulnerable vs. Indestructible, Ephemeral vs. Lasting…

The client brief was pretty simple, almost naïve: First, the chapel had to take full advantage of the spectacular views. Second, the sun had to set exactly behind the altar cross (of course, this is only possible twice a year at the equinoxes). And last but not least, a section with the first phase of crypts had to be included outside and around the chapel. Metaphorically speaking, the mausoleum would be in perfect utopian synchrony with a celestial cycle of continuous renovation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Varyap Merkez is Emre Arolat Architects‘ (EAA) contribution to the RMJM designed Varyap Meridian luxury development currently nearing completion in Atasehir, Turkey. The sleek design earned EAA a commendation in the “Retail and Leisure” category at the 2011 MIPIM AR Future Project Awards, and was the only Turkish firm to win a MIPIM award.

EAA designed the Varyap Merkez with the goal of dissolving both the physical and figurative barriers that divide many modern buildings. And because environmental sustainability is a key goal of the larger Varyap Meridian development, green space and natural lighting were fundamental parts of the design theory. Like in many of their past designs, EAA created green space by incorporating green roofing. The roof slopes upward along the outside of the footprint and around a central open courtyard. The open design connects the interior space, green “hill” space, and the surrounding Varyap Meridian cityscape. Read the rest of this entry »