In less than one year, Martin Luther Church by Coop Himelb(l)au, together with a sanctuary, church hall and supplementary spaces was built in center of Hainburg, Austria. Its shape is inspired by a huge “table” – the entire roof construction is supported by four steel columns – the legs. The ceiling is dominant element – its design is has been derived from the shape of the curved roof of the neighboring Romanesque ossuary. Three large openings in the roof light the interior from above. The aim of the architects was not to design the interior as only a place of mysticism and quietude, as an antithesis of our fast and media-dominated times, but also an open space for the community.

The roof elements of the church building were assembled in a shipyard, as it is usually done with all the projects of Coop Himelb(l)au. Its geometry required specific technologies of metal-processing and manufacturing only available in shipbuilding industry and the construction was delivered in four separate parts to Hainburg, assembled and welded on site. On the interior ceiling, the suspended frame structure was covered in multiple layers of steel fabric and rush matting, which served as a carrier layer for the cladding of the stucco ceiling, following the geometry of three-dimensionally curved shape of the roof. Read the rest of this entry »

Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Art Center is the newest winning design from the Atelier of Zaha Hadid Architects. The complex embodies a unique variety of civic nodes and spaces – Grand Theater, Contemporary Art Museum, Multipurpose Hall and supporting facilities and it broke ground in October. Changsha, the capital of the south Chinese province of Hunan is in the midst of striking population growth and rapid urban development, an at the center of that roller coaster, worth $130 billion, is Meixihu lake, planned as a venue for numerous, ambitious cultural projects.

The Grand Theater will be the largest performance center in the city, and with the capacity of 1800 seats, it is the focal point of the complex. It is designed as highly equipped, in order to host world- standard performances. The building facilitates public spaces, such as lobbies, bars and restaurants, VIP hospitality, as well as ancillary functions – administration, rehearsal rooms, necessary backstage logistics and make-up rooms and wardrobes.

The Multipurpose Hall is structured as flexible, therefore it can be adapted and transformed to different configurations. With its maximum capacity of 500 seats, in can accommodate various functions, from banquets and commercial events, to small plays and fashion shows.

Fluid petal-like form of the Museum, composed around the internal central atrium, is set of patchwork gallery spaces, seamlessly continuing on to another. Building’s composition highlights site’s unique location at the lake waterfront, with the outward views and balconies. External plaza, surrounded by the fluid complex, is a venue for outdoor sculptures, exhibition and events, therefore extending the programs to the outdoor space, as a natural continuation of the interior. Read the rest of this entry »

SOM’s Diagonal Tower in Yongsan International Business District of Seoul, South Korea, is a case study in efficiency – 343 meter tall tower successfully minimizes wind loads, reduces construction costs, provides dramatic views and meets strict energy codes by integrating massing, structure and performance. Moreover, it maintains necessary iconic skyline presence.

The design of this landmark skyscraper, with glazed triangular facets, employs passive environmental control strategies within and on the façade – sunshades are positioned at varying angles on each building exposure, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, thus mitigating heat gain in the summer and permitting direct sunlight to warm the building’s interiors during Seoul’s cold winter months. Triple pane glazed exterior curtain wall decreases energy loss, therefore meeting Seoul Green Guidelines criteria while active chilled beam system surpasses traditional air driven systems, using water as a medium for transferring heating and cooling energy, which results in less energy consumption along with great environmental comfort for building users.

Mixed-use high-rise, located at a prominent corner of the emerging Business District of Seoul, provides more than 170,000 square meters of open office space, sky lobbies with fitness center and cafeteria and a penthouse executive lounge at the top. This prestigious edifice also facilitates two retail pavilions and an ethereal glass multi-functional auditorium, defining pedestrian scale and incorporating the building into its context and the surrounding.

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This proposal for the new Stadium for the French Rugby Union Club Racing 92 is conceived in a successful collaboration between Sériès et Sériès Architects, Agence Search Architects and Van Santen& Associés, and is a symbol of a new urbanity in the Nanterre area of Paris, unifying sport and culture and marking the new era in history of the place.

The aim was not to design the stadium only, but a contemporary and contextual monument, multi-purpose edifice which allows diverse programs to take place. Funding of the arena largely relies on the set of offices, seamlessly integrated into the building, and on the fact that the space of the sport stadium is easily transformable into the hall for spectacles. Instead of juxtaposition or fragmentation of programs which would disrupt readability, functionality and versatility of the building, the architects proposed a radical solution and clear overlay that allows the project to be indentified and recognized at first glance – as a monument, where the diagram of uses becomes the architectural project, without any compromise. Read the rest of this entry »

Ajax Law Ling Kit and Virginia Lung of Hong Kong based practice One Plus Partnership designed Chongqing Mountain & City Sales Office for Chongqing Nanshan District, China. Slanted walls and marble floor pattern are triangular – the geometry is derived from the mounting background and architecture of the clubhouse – the interior represents a valley, surrounded by high hills. The aim was to create highly contextual interior space, which would repeat, in smaller scale, the dominant geological characteristics of the Nanshan area. The feeling of artificial, marble nature is additionally provoked by the LED lighting, hanged from a ceiling, performing a rain.

The design is highly consistent – the stairs connecting the floors are designed as passing through the cave, highlighting the natural, mountain experience. Sharp and boldly designed, gold stone-like furniture is integrated into the overall design, resembling of small pieces of the rock. Read the rest of this entry »

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art | SFMOMA’s expansion works commence this summer – the new 235,000-square-foot building is designed by Norway based practice Snøhetta. The expansion will seamlessly join the current Mario Botta’s museum building. When the new museum opens in 2016, it will provide greater art experience for visitors and offer more free public spaces, extended education programs for schoolchildren, more flexible galleries for live performances and large-scale works of art.

In words of Snøhetta’s principle architect Craig Dykers, their transformative design for the museum responds to the demands of the site, as well as the terrain of San Francisco. The scale of the building will finally meet the SFMOMA’s mission, while Snøhetta’s approach to the neighborhood strengthens museum’s engagement with the city.

The new museum building includes seven levels dedicated to diverse art experiences, a programming space and three housing enhanced support space for the operations. SFMOMA’s current capacity of gallery space will be more than doubled – 130,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space for presentations of art maintains the sense of intimacy, while connecting the museum to the urban surrounding. Read the rest of this entry »

This seductive and vibrant, active, no energy façade is a prototype, developed by young Catalan architects Adrià Escolano and Maria Ubach, and is the outcome of their investigation on the contemporary, smart envelopes and their successful integration. The aim was to design not only a skin that performs successfully, but also a responsive envelope that actively interacts with exterior and interior conditions.

This specific prototype is developed for Mediterranean countries, in this particular case for Barcelona region and the design is a progressive and refreshing solution for the traditional interior courtyard glass façade – the gallery. The active envelope directly reacts to the amount of solar radiation on vertical surface, therefore using the most constant and powerful energy source in Barcelona, confirming that the Spain is one of most advanced countries in the development of solar energy.

Consisted of watertight plastic 90x30x25cm containers on a steel substructure, façade is a set of elements which store differently colored liquids, forming dynamic and amusing proposal for interior façade of a typical Barcelona building. Reacting to the different amounts of solar radiation, façade elements rotate, providing necessary natural ventilation to the inner courtyard-oriented rooms. The rotation of façade units is based on principle of equilibrium – when temperature increases, the liquid in the container reaches its evaporation state and its centroid gets shifted. The container further rotates until reaching stability again. The number of units reacting is defined by different pressures inside the unit, so the façade openings vary. Read the rest of this entry »

Winners of the international competition for the visitor complex at the Paleolithic cave paintings were recently announced – Casson Mann, Duncan Lewis and Snøhetta are the authors of the awarded entry for Lascaux IV. The proposal – subterranean complex of chambers and tunnels, is conserving the integrity of this historic site, while affording great exhibition spaces for visitors.

Low-rise structure, folding up from the landscape, gives the shelter to 17,300 years old historic paintings. Interiors of the complex are dramatically lit by shafts of sunlight. The images, discovered in 1940, have been closed to the public since 1963, due to the carbon dioxide emission from visitors, which caused severe damages to the paintings. The complex design process was happening simultaneously in two parallel realms – exhibition designers at Casson Mann were creating the architecture of the spectacle, while the architects at Snøhetta and Duncan Lewis were developing protective environment for the cave paintings. Read the rest of this entry »

Rui Liu | L-U-D Studio’s design for UN Environmental Conference Center for Latin America, in architect’s own words, highlights the negative outcome of the rapid urbanization throughout fast growing countries, such as Brazil, India or China – the indifference to integrated-design of how we utilize water. In the research, Liu went step back, in order to re-investigate the need of the built environment to engage with the requirements of water management, at a local scale. The design is a part of the final theses at Bartlett School of Architecture.

The investigation is set in Rio de Janeiro – one of the most dramatic cities in the world, culturally diverse, with great economical potentials, and social identifications. Versatile Conference center, whose form and spatiality is governed by water construction and dissipation can be easily modified to serve numerous requirements, from meeting spaces, cultural performance platforms to private conferences. Using the recycled water, metaphorically and functionally, materializes the challenges of the developing country’s political transparencies. Read the rest of this entry »

Skidmore, Owings & Merill was invited to re-imagine New York’s iconic Grand Central Terminal, in honor of its 100^th birthday. Led by partners Roger Duffy, FAIA and T.J. Gottesdiener, FAIA, SOM’s proposal, presented at the MAS 2012 Summit, highlights three solutions: pedestrian corridors for increased circulation, additional levels of public space and most groundbreaking of all – circular floating observation deck, rising above the Terminal, providing 360-degree panorama of the city. This design challenge happened at the moment when the rezoning proposal from the New York Department of City Planning took place, which, if approved, would encourage increasing the density around the station, along with the development of new office towers.

The surprising moving deck, sliding up and down the sides of two new skyscrapers, has actually been presented as a logical response to New York’s present urban condition – Roger Duffy argued that throughout the history of the city, urban growth has always been matched by grand civic gestures. At SOM, they further suggested that the hovering deck would necessarily provoke the improvement of the public space around the office buildings, while offering a new iconic landmark. The suspended deck would move vertically, bringing people from Grand Central up to the top of New York’s skyline, offering striking experience and view over 21^st-century Read the rest of this entry »