The new regional head office of the United Nations is designed with clear references to the UN’s identity and values; it is a building that physically reaches out to all parts the world, while the sculptural staircase in its core reflects the UN’s work to create global dialogue.

Bringing together the various agencies and functions of the United Nations regional offices in Copenhagen, the new UN City is located at Marmormolen (The Marble Pier) north of Copenhagen’s city center. 3XN’s design is a response to the UN’s wishes for an iconic building expressing the organization’s values and authority. It reflects the independent, efficient and professional nature of each UN unit. Located on an artificial island the building is naturally separated from its immediate surroundings, while still being highly visible from both the city and the water. Read the rest of this entry »

This strong and straightforward design proposal comes from based SANE Architecture studio. Their design for Taichung City Cultural Center involve a courageous environmental approach and it challenges the common notion of a cultural center in general. However, the program objectives were ambitious – the cultural center had to combine a public library and municipal fine arts museum—the cultural flagships of a city—into one area, synergizing art, education and recreation in one location. Besides serving the public functions of reader service, exhibition and guided tour, the two institutions had to be also each fulfill policies and objectives related to reading promotion, artistic development and collection and research of artifacts. The competition required the design which would, as a showcase of Greater Taichung’s distinct cultural ambiance exemplify her intelligent residents, history and urban identity.

As a response to competition requirements, SANE Architecture proposed light structure with the key idea of permeability. Their proposal offered innovative mix between natural and artificial and a new landmark for the area. The building combines the library and museum functions with the park, as a third one, therefore the unique public experience is offered to the visitor. Read the rest of this entry »

What happens to be an outcome of not so rare marriage of architecture and fashion? This latest joined venture of two famous architects – Zaha Hadid and Dutch Rem D Koolhaas, has resulted with the NOVA shoe, for United Nude – it is limited edition haute couture experimental piece which combines innovative material and ergonomic consideration with the striking dynamism of their architectural language and expressive sense of movement.

Koolhaas stated that he couldn’t resist working with Zaha and that they gave themselves the greatest degree of experimentation while using the latest digital design and manufacturing technologies in order to create one of the most innovative shoes ever produced. On the other hand, his collaborator Zaha confessed that she always appreciated those who dared to experiment with materials and proportions and that she understands their collaboration with United Nude as a request to reinterpret the classic shoe typology by pushing the boundaries of the possible, without compromising the integrity. Read the rest of this entry »

This proposal concerning a housing scheme for the homeless and the creation of an agricultural park, located in the northern suburban area of Athens comes from Dionysis Gonatas and Vangelis Lantavos of Greece.

Lately in Greece, the debate regarding the state-owned property has been intensified. In the case of buildings, many of them are unfortunately in poor condition due to lack of maintenance or complete abandonment. On the other hand as a result of the economic crisis, a large number of citizens are at risk of poverty, while the number of homeless people, especially in large urban centers, has increased dramatically according to recent statistics. Read the rest of this entry »

In the recent, well known two-staged competition for Helsinki Central Library, the jury decided not to award the second price, but to give a shared Third, to entries “LIBLAB” by Playa Architects and “Kasi” by various authors.

The Playa Architects’ concept for the Library is clear and straightforward – it presents simple but strong form of joyful architecture, modern and innovative, yet functional and human. The design has strong and respectful relation to the surrounding, taking into consideration both the small and the big scale of the built environment and the logic of the urban tissue in which center it is placed. The design preserves positive aspects of the existing situation and creates new covered spaces in smaller scale, while providing an active and distinctly recognizable addition to the city-scape, in bigger scale.

The sculptural maneuver of preserving the long view from south, towards the Aalto’s Finlandia Hall, by sculpting the southern edge of the block, creates a welcoming and easy-to-locate entrance to the new urban point from the main directions of approach. The main spaces of the Library are superposed – the vertical organization allows the quieter spaces to be situated on the very top, while the noisier rooms and halls are closer to the most public function and the city center itself. Read the rest of this entry »

International architectural practice Aedas has designed mixed-use development and a new hotel in China. The complex is located outside of Guangzhou at an island within the Pearl River, and the project comprises of four distinct uses split between two different sites. The first site features a large retail exhibition area in the podium and a large office showroom building on top. The other site, 1401, contains a traditional multi-floor exhibition center in the podium with a 500-key 5-star hotel.

The project fronts directly onto one side of the water while the location affords views to the water from both directions. The design responds to the surrounding context and its direct and unapologetic reaction to the passive middle neighbor is the driver of both the volumetric placement of the towers as well as the articulation of both towers and their podium. Read the rest of this entry »

The Life Aquatech project by THINK Tank investigates relationship between the building systems that mediate between interior and exterior and architectural design, via shifting from air based to water based systems. The initial research started with a general concern about poor development of building systems over time which has huge impact on human comfort and its relation to architectural form. The authors advocate that the buildings can be seen as a layering of architectural design and structural support, similar to skin and bones. However, the systems that allow for human comfort act as mediators between interior and exterior operate like grey matter which lacks real interaction with the design and architecture.

As the research aims to find an ideal relationship between the user’s comfort in relation to temperature and how the building can self-regulate in order to provide it, it focuses on the behavior of fluid as part of both generative design methodologies and evaluation tools for functional criteria. The Life Aquatech proposes the deployment of a building system where water plays an integral role in the building tectonic. Read the rest of this entry »

The Confessional Church, winning design by GRAFT, lies in the landscapes of Wuensdorf. Until the fall of the Iron Curtain, this beautiful area in Germany, occupied by the Russian Army headquarters, was left alone to flourish. Today, it is the site of an enormous new development for health, sports and recreation which is currently underway. The competition called for a spiritual center – a church for confession but designed as multi-functional space – possibly used as an opera house or assembly hall.

The background of the location required that the architects question the value of the traditional form, existing typologies and institutionalized solutions for the project. GRAFT aimed to offer the proposal which would provide a new framework for very complex and various forms of belief systems. They advocated positive change and inclusion instead of exclusionary practices of the traditional religious establishments.

What they wanted to avoid in GRAFT is a clear and fixed typology for a church, mosque or theater, which would dominate the shape of the building. On contrary, the architects used those directions to inform the design, in order to create a new typology. The outcome is the building whose formal language communicates different religions and visual typologies, without being literal. Read the rest of this entry »

This project of a Model Home Gallery by NADAAA Inc, is designed for Seoul, South Korea, where the study, design and sales of housing have developed into a discipline serving an ascendant middle class with amenities and technologies that are significantly sophisticated. As a direct product of society we live in, the Model Home Gallery is adapted to house all the needs of consumer society, therefore offering not only sales offices with model homes, but also a large variety of public amenities, such as art galleries, restaurants, cafes, auditorium and other public open spaces which would bring in the residents of the area, in order to expand the customer base and boost the housing economy.

As we are living in an era of iconic architecture, we are witnessing the rise of architectural spectacles even in the housing market. Being the dominant approach, highly themed icons and surfaces serve as a mask for typologically simple diagrams. Normative requirement for these types of buildings ask for public base which supports a black box of exhibition space for full-scale models above. Read the rest of this entry »

Monumental and golden, Emporia, designed by Wingardhs, is an architectural statement – a shopping mall for Malmo, Sweden, is actually an urban planning project which further includes offices, housing and retail spaces on the Hyliie Boulevard 19, on the south side of Sweden capital. The project is the winning entry for the competition and the main idea was to hide inward-looking retail behind a wreath of residential and commercial buildings. The aim was to create the preconditions so the whole shopping complex would eventually become fully integrated into the existing city fabric.

The strong form was needed in order to attract visitors from Station Square to come and spend money. The composition is bronze-ochre combination of vaults from the previous competition proposal along with a memory from the Pantheon. Double-bent glass encloses the diagonal slit that cuts through the building. Here the weather of the Öresund Strait, its fast-moving clouds chasing glimpses of sun, becomes present and tangible.

The development is colossal and it will be built in parts – for now, only one part of Emporia is completed – the corner building with the Amber Entrance, a gate which would be, at the end, the only visible part of the shopping mall. The retail will further be organized around a figure eight pattern which will cover three floors and the shops will be grouped around atriums with different themes. Read the rest of this entry »