RTA Office’s design for Telecommunication Tower for Istanbul is left to the citizens and to their free interpretation – the form suggests it could be a minaret sculpted by the wind or a twenty-first century lighthouse or none of the above. However, architects at RTA office strongly believe that the success of the idea depends on the way the designers understand the site. Therefore their proposal comes as a response to this very specific and strategically important point which bridges the gap between Europe and Asia, merging cultures and continents.

Through the history, Istanbul was characterized by the respect for its geography – for this reason the aim was to offer a proposal which would not jeopardize this relationship, but on contrary that would provide an end to the conquest of the buildings and artifacts at this specific site. That was the reason why the design proposal is not an actual building but more an object that undoubtedly reveals the natural and environmental attributes of the place and doesn’t belong to the city but to the landscape.

The shape to the tower is given by the sum of flexible threads that adapt to the body. As the shape varies so does the floor plan which allows different functions within the same tower.  Regarding the energy sources, the tower works on wind power but as such it also clearly resembles an element that had been shaped by the wind. The texture of the tower changes in perception as the visitor is approaching the object –from solid it transforms into a mesh.

Spatial Practice is the architectural office behind the project of Harbin High Speed Railway west train station Twin Towers. The landmark structure is mixed-use and houses office spaces, residential apartments, retail spaces and a connection to a new underground infra-structural hub.

The Station in Harbin city will become the northern China gateway, linking major cities with daily high-speed links to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Harbin West Station is a transportation hub and the towers fully benefit from sitting on it and being hyper-connected to city’s main infrastructure – distances are shorter and faster business transactions and communication is encouraged.

The Towers are the new icon of the Haxi Business Development Zone and they balance the relationship between empty and full, mass and void, private and public. Each tower communicates specifically with the site, with the north SoHo and Service Apartment tower atrium opening toward the Plaza, and the south Office Tower atrium oriented toward the Business District. Read the rest of this entry »

“The Wave” is the new stand-design and concept for Toyota by German design-agency Déri that had its debut at Geneva-2013. The architecture of the stand reminds one of a wave in motion: dynamic, energetic and pure. Inspired by traditional Japanese paper craft, the idea of The Wave was born by just rolling a sheet of paper. Read the rest of this entry »

This temporary pavilion in Salzburg, designed by Soma Architecture, presents unique venue for contemporary art production in the city known for its classical music events. The main user of the structure was a contemporary music festival – the Salzburg Biennale and during next ten years the pavilion will move and will be used for various art events at different locations.

As the art as a process which involves many participants doesn’t reveal itself at first sight, but demands time and engagement and unfolds slowly, the pavilion’s appearance provokes curiosity and invites visitors to experience the unusual and unknown.

The main architectural concept of the pavilion is repetitive and inherited – rule and variation. The design process is based on repetition of one element and they are aggregated by a set of rules, according to the architectural effect the architects aimed for. Aluminum profiles of uniform length together produce irregular, mass-like conglomerate that changes in appearance during the day, depending on present light condition. Read the rest of this entry »

The competition for young architects on the Andriivskyi descent in Kyiv, Ukraine, aimed to create a concept for the former Yunist factory. The site redevelopment competition terms determined the cultural space as 10-15 per cent of the area linked to the Andriivskyi descent, and the rest of the one hectare was for commercial use. The competition provided the design of multifunctional cultural space with integrated chamber music hall. Read the rest of this entry »

Tetsuo Kondo Architects created playful installation for the Sunken Garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. In collaboration with Transsolar, they designed a small bank of clouds that are captured in the transparent, two-storey container and could be seen from the outdoor plaza, entrance hall, exhibition galleries and other parts of the museum.  This cloud installation is the second one created by this team – trey previously collaborated to produce an indoor cloud at the Venice Biennale in 2010.

When one climbs the stairs beyond the clouds to reach the top of the cube, the museum, the surrounding buildings, and the sky stretch out above the clouds. The clouds are in constant motion and their edges are both sharp and soft. Color, density and brightness are ever changing, depending on the weather and the time of the day. Read the rest of this entry »

Places of culture always form very significant network in every urban center. The city of Sejong in South Korea will strongly benefit from a new Center for the Performing Arts, as the vital part of the city’s emergence and growth. Designed by Asymptote Architecture, the proposal calls for architecture rooted in the contemporary urban life of Sejong as well as it celebrates the contemporary culture as expressed through elegant and sophisticated design principles.

The aim of the designers of this performing center was to capture the spirit and flavors of local architectural traditions therefore the elegant, curved roofs of pavilions, temples and traditional, monumental buildings are transformed in the architecture of contemporary expression, allowing continuity of culture and city’s 21^st century cultural aspirations. Read the rest of this entry »

With their design, von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (GMP) won the 1st prize of the international design competition for the Tianjin Exhibition Centre. Joining Shanghai and Guangzhou, Tianjin will be the third city to have an exhibition centre of internatio­nal importance to be built. With a total square area of 1.2 million square metres and dedicated exhibition floor space of 400,000 square metres, one of the world’s largest exhibition centres will be created in the east of China over the next few years.

The site is located at Tianjin Avenue, the main traffic artery which links Tianjin’s historic centre with the Binhai Development Area at the coast of the Yellow Sea. To the north, the site borders the river Haihe which is instrumental in shaping the character of the city. The exhibition ground’s central access avenue runs between these two poles and generates a spatial connection between the traffic artery and the waterway. Read the rest of this entry »

Mondaine New Classic

The Mondaine New Classic is personified by its straightforward and unadorned case and crystal shape, its luxurious genuine black leather strap with red accent, and, of course, the famed red second hand modeled after the signal paddle used on the Swiss Railway. Available with the wearer’s choice of a brushed or polished stainless steel case, the Mondaine New Classic is also available with a Big Date function at the 3:00, or a Day Date function at the 3:00.

Our increasingly demanding schedules and busy lifestyles require us to keep a close eye on the time. Enter the unique Evo Alarm watch from renowned Swiss watchmakers Mondaine. Form meets function in this innovative design, which combines the iconic “analog” aesthetic of a classic Mondaine timepiece with the decidedly “digital” addition of an easy-to-use alarm. The Mondaine Evo Alarm features a quartz movement with a 40 mm case and a genuine leather strap. The face is available in either black with a stainless steel brushed case or white with a stainless steel polished case.

eVolo has teamed up with Mondaine to give away one Mondaine Evolo Alarm to a lucky reader. Please send your comments to magazine@evolo.us by November 30, 2013 to be entered into a raffle. Read the rest of this entry »