Johan Voordouw is a member of the research network Horhizon, a London based collaborative that conducts research through design. This project seeks to establish urban communities through the re-interpretation of existing urban typologies.

Like many mid-sized cities across Western Europe the loss of manufacturing has resulted in continual economic decline. Leicester is but one of the many examples of cities in the United Kingdom that has increasingly suffered from the loss of industry and the inability to attract service industries due to its close proximity to larger centres such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

This project seeks to build a vertically integrated community with a common purpose away from a service led economy and assert a new, small-scale industrial complex intimately linked to housing and retail. The community is a re-interpretation of traditional typologies such as the scale of the Victorian terraced house, the layout of the urban mansion block and the programme of the traditional market village. Bounding the site are urban vectors such as a High Street, and pedestrian pathways along the canal network.

This community will simultaneously densify the city while retaining all the facets for a viable community as a place to work, live and play. Read the rest of this entry »

Kubota & Bachmann Architects unveiled their masterplan for Niderfeld, Dietikon Switzerland. In order to improve the district’s performance, the future identity of Niderfeld shall be developed gradually and reflect the district’s diversity. Wherever required by the districts’ identity, leading principles shall govern the arrangement, the volumetry as well as the formation. This regards the housing, the landscape and public space. Concerning the urban development and architecture, conditions shall be set that motivate the residents to lead a sustainable lifestyle. The objective to allow Niderfeld a multiple identity is achieved by the interaction of different development scenarios. To honor those identities, a multidimensional public space surrounds the buildings. By promoting a differentiated social as well as urban development, those measures will ensure Niderfelds’ success. Not every accumulation of buildings constitutes a city in itself. To create a harmonious overall concept contributing to the districts’ identity, every building has to be understood as part of an urban master plan. Thus, the development process takes account of the existing buildings and integrates it in the big picture.

The typological diversity of the concept and the gradual development facilitate the integration of existing structures (i.e. the Grabacher building). The development may respect individual needs of real estate owners and start from out different places. Through the intended ecological efforts, Niderfeld meets future environmental standards. The concept incorporates possible changes of sociological and demographical nature and adaptation is possible in the course of time. The multi-story car parks might be converted given that they are built above ground. Buildings and their façades might be produced out of wood. So instead of emitting carbon, it will be sequestrated in the building material. Roofs shall either serve as vegetation surface or be equipped with solar panels. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Jakob + MacFarlane as a part of an urban planning project to replenish the docks of lyon, the five-storey orthogonal cube plays off the fluid movement of the river saône, exploring the effects of subtraction and voids on the quality and generation of space.  Built on a regular framework of 29 x 33 m, the structure stands autonomously on the site, a wharf with a predominantly industrial background. The most noticeable element of the design – its bright orange shade – is an abstraction of lead paint, an industrial color often used for harbor zones. The external skin is a light facade, punctured with a pixilated pattern that resembles trailing droplets, a reference to the adjacent river’s flow. This porous envelope allows sightlines and natural daylighting while establishing a distinct identity for the building.

The structural regularity of the cube is broken on the north-west corner which faces the river. Conic in form, the large, diagonally-running void generates new space: a large atrium is created which is circumscribed by a series of outdoor corridors that connect the office platforms together. The facade is pulled into the depth of the volume, resulting in a shift in interior/exterior relations, as well as facilitating light and views. Another volumetric subtraction on the entry and roof level establish direct relations between the building, its users, and the site.

Featuring a double-height layout, the ground floor accommodates a design showroom. The display concept, which was also created by jacob + macfarlane architects, was developed as an extrapolation of the ‘orange cube’s architectural language. taking the treatment of the facade, a three-dimensional volume was generated for an L-shaped wall that wraps around the space. Sixty ‘alvéoles’ are used to display furniture pieces, while the unit as a whole define the circulation of the floor.

Images ©Nicolas Borel

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Gardens typically need little more than plants and flowers (and the critters they attract) to awe and inspire visitors, but the Orquideorama botanical garden in Medellin, Colombia takes wonderment one step further through the construction of a steel and wood “flower and tree” canopy.

The Orquideorama was renovated in 2008 by Medellin firm plan:b arquitectos. Felipe Mesa and Alexander Bernal with plan:b wanted the botanical garden’s 14 interconnected modular structures, known as the flor-árbol (flower-tree), to accommodate a diverse range of uses. The space can be used to host events, or act as a butterfly reserve.

The idea was an organic one, with the architects envisioning each flor-árbol growing next to the rest, as flowers would sprout in a garden, or trees grow in a forest. Each new flor-árbol is connected, through its hexagonal, leaf-like top, to the garden of structures with a woven pine roof, and is braced at the bottom with steel stems. Read the rest of this entry »

Last month, Los Angeles based Ehrlich Architects won the international design competition for the United Arab Emirates Ferderal National Council’s New Parliament Building Complex in Abu Dhabi. Ehrlich’s design was picked of a group of 14 internationally recognized firms. The firms submitted entries on invitation only, the list included major firms Foster + Partners, Massamiliano Fuksas Architects and Zaha Hadid Architects.

Ehrlich teamed up with Emirates based architecture firm Godwin Austen Johnson and landscape architecture firm ValleyCrest Design Group during the second phase of the competition to create their design.

Ehrlich said the design “melds familiar Arabic design language with contemporary form and the latest technological advances, creating meaning, maximum functionality and environmental sustainability”. The centerpiece of the Complex is a cylindrical rotunda surrounded by an arched dome topped with colored glass. The colored glass will cast Islamic patterns into the rotunda, which houses the Assemby Hall.

Surrounding the Assembly Hall is a complex of traditionally inspired government offices. The exterior architecture is inspired by the historic sun dried mud brick architecture that exemplifies Middle Eastern traditional design. Traditional influences are a theme in many Godwin Austen buildings. The interior of these offices will be modern 21^st century offices for the leaders of one of the world’s fastest growing nations. Read the rest of this entry »

Built to symbolize the turbulent trials of immigration and the furies of the sea that brought the immigrants to Florida, the Miami Pier Museum of Latin American Immigrants building is symbolic and artful in its reflection of the struggles of Miami’s immigrants.

The museum, designed by architect Maciej Zawadzki, who is based in Copenhagen, is thoughtful to the immigrants it is honoring in all aspects of its design. The exterior’s twists symbolize the complicated emotions involved with leaving a motherland and coming to a land of opportunity. Simultaneously, the building’s interior features twisting elevations, reminding visitors of the effort needed and hills that are climbed in the immigration process.

The building also honors and mimics the sea that brought immigrants from Latin America and the extreme weather that affects it, with Zawadzki naming hurricanes as an inspiration for the museum’s façade form. The building itself resembles a giant wave, and its positioning on a pier over the ocean, off a beach front enhances this likeness. Interestingly, the building has been designed to be resistant to the very force it resembles: construction materials that are resistant to high winds and water will be used, and the aerodynamic design itself seeks to protect the museum and its content from South Florida’s extreme weather. Read the rest of this entry »

BIG + TNT Nuuk + Ramboll Nuuk + Arkitekti is the winning team to design the new National Gallery of Greenland in the country’s capital Nuuk, among invited proposals totaling 6 Nordic architects.

Located on a steep slope overlooking the most beautiful of Greenland’s fjords, the 3000 m2 National Gallery will serve as a cultural and architectural icon for the people of Greenland. The new museum will combine historical and contemporary art of the country in one dynamic institution The winning proposal was selected by a unanimous museum board among 6 proposals, including Norwegian Snøhetta, Finnish Heikkinen‐Komonen, Islandic Studio Granda and Greenlandic Tegnestuen Nuuk.

“The Board has a clear vision: to work for the establishment of an internationally oriented highly professional institution that communicates the continuous project of documenting and developing the Greenlandic national identity through art and culture. Our dream is a national gallery where historic and contemporary art meets circumpolar pieces, Nordic and world art in general. Our dream is an institution that stimulates our curiosity, awake our excitement with its thought‐provoking design and where we all feel at home. Selecting a prominent architect as BIG, I am sure that our chances of realizing that dream are good”, Tuusi Josef Motzfeldt, Greenland’s National Gallery of Art.

As a projection of a geometrically perfect circle on to the steep slope, the new gallery is conceived as a courtyard building that combines a pure geometrical layout with a sensitive adaption to the landscape. The three‐dimensional imprint of the landscape creates a protective ring around the museum’s focal point, the sculpture garden where visitors, personnel, exhibition merge with culture and nature, inside and outside. Read the rest of this entry »

The brief called for the design of two prototype Villas for a new Golf and Spa Resort in Croatia overlooking the old town of Dubrovnik. The total development comprises 400 villas, two 5* hotels, luxury apartments, retail facilities, a spa and an 18 hole golf course including a golf resort club house. A recently developed master plan determines the perimeter and size of the parcels, which range from 12,000m2 to 20,000m2. The site of the prototype villas is located at the edge of the plateau with picturesque views. The prototype villas shall define the overall architectural design of the resort.

The area of development is located north of Dubrovnik, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The land comprises 430 hectare and is located on a high plateau approximately 300m to 400m above sea level, north of the old town of Dubrovnik. At the southern edge of the project site, the terrain slopes steeply towards the sea. The terrain also slightly slopes from west to east. The elevated level of the site allows for magnificent views in all directions. Towards south the owner will enjoy sea views and views of the old town of Dubrovnik. In north direction one can enjoy picturesque mountain and landscape views. Zaha Hadid Architects architectural proposal is a distinct and unique structure with a strong sense of identity and character. It has a highly expressive, sculptural quality, infused with a sense of light and space. Light and views are the driving forces of the house. The design is inspired by the Croatian karst topography. Read the rest of this entry »

Urban food production is not a new concept. We’ve seen countless designs here on eVolo for vertical farms, urban ecosystems, and arcologies, but French firm Zundel and Cristea has taken the urban farm concept in an entirely different direction. Instead of proposing a monumental project like a vertical farm, they put together a design for smaller urban farm centers planted throughout a city.

The centers are designed to grow food, process it, and some to even serve it in on site restaurants. On the inside bowls of the spiraling structures is the green space where various types of food and greenery is grown. Visitors and urban farmers would go out to the spirals to harvest and enjoy the green space. Food would then be taken into the superstructure and processed where it could be served or packaged and brought to market.

The small scale of each of the double spiral structures allow for Zundel and Cristea’s urban farms to be regional centers for the districts they individually serve, a sort of park and bazaar in one. Placing them in urban landscapes also reduces the green house emissions that would normally be needed to transport produce from rural farms to city centers. Centers would be topped with wind turbines as well, to create an energy sustainable landmark that is economically, socially, and agriculturally productive. Read the rest of this entry »

Rather than taking the “true” or literal approach to materials, this project designed by Dave Bantz and Michael Gross attempts to adopt techniques mastered by artists and apply them at an architectural scale. Material in art is used as a representational device for effects and a gateway to sensation. The”Artificial Matters” studio, run by SCI-arc professor Elena Manferdini, aims to provoke new sensations through texture, geometry, coloration, and finish. The studio began by 3D scanning literal materials (in this case a sliced peach) and modifying the raw data to produce a synthetic material with the potential to create new sensations. Read the rest of this entry »