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 »

The Canteen House designed by endemic architecture is a small agriculture housing concept that saves water in a bladder skin for use during dry periods. The home’s exterior is split into quadrants which are lined with a rubberized bladder that can store storm water runoff during the wet season. Each section can hold 17,000 gallons for use when irrigation water is difficult to come by. The home is connected to an irrigation system to distribute the water directly from its storage skin. With a total of 36,000 gallons of storage the architects estimate that the system can irrigate one acre of land for six weeks. The distribution of the water as well as type of crop, soil and weather make the estimate more of an art than science. Using rain collection to feed its water collection system the structures swelling and contracting creates a visual representation of the overall environmental conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

The Lunar Cubit is the winning design by the New York based team of Robert Flottemesch, Jen DeNike, Johanna Ballhaus, and Adrian P. De Luca for the 2010 Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) design competition. Competing firms were tasked with fusing art and sustainable power generation in a pragmatic design for one of three predetermined locations in the United Arab Emirates. The Lunar Cubit will be fittingly located just outside Masdar City, a beacon of environmental friendliness and the proposed world’s first carbon neutral city.

The centerpiece of the design is a 50-meter high pyramid, the exterior of which is entirely covered by frameless solar panels. The main pyramid is surrounded by a circular arrangement of eight proportionately scaled 22-meter tall pyramids that are also wrapped with solar panels. Energy absorbed by the eight smaller pyramids is channeled through buried cables to the center pyramid where it will be connected to the Utility Grid. The Lunar Cubit is expected to produce enough energy to power 250 homes daily. Read the rest of this entry »

The Antarctic Observatory is a small project designed by Borja Abellán, a member of Tada Studio. The project was designed to control Antarctic Icebergs. The form of the observatory allows snow to provide thermal insulation and water supply. It is half-buried and the facade is translucent, because there are 6 months of daylight.

All modeling has been done with Grasshopper through parametric production and to be able to calculate its adaptation to different solutions and facilitate the analysis of structural elements -using CAD-CAM methods the construction is planned to be easier than normal. Read the rest of this entry »

Moshe Safdie took an essentially humanist approach to the design of Golden Dream Bay. Safdie re-imagines the concept of dense urban living with a focus on creating an ideal “penthouse” space of each of the 2,200 residences.

Safdie deconstructs the residential skyscraper and reforms the layout into four repeating geometric vertical structures that are linked by skywalks like a chain. The structures appear as if someone sliced open a skyscraper diagonally. The diagonal design maximizes personal space and allow for many of the apartments to open up into roof decks with picturesque views of the surrounding Qinhuangdao (China) beach setting. The design visually engages the superstructures with one another as well as each individual apartment with its neighbors.

Gardens drape Golden Dream Bay like those of ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon to “create a garden environment combining numerous private and public gardens in the sky”. Apart from the personal gardens that many of the apartments feature, public garden and pool areas are located atop the parking deck, 15^th, and 30^th floors.

Apart from the vertical structures, Safdie incorporates a north/south running boardwalk and an east/west bazaar-like spine to connect the community with the surrounding urban layout and beach front. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cultural Campus designed byKadri Kerge, Jelena Vukmirovic, and Melanie Kotz is to be located near Ismailia, 80km north-east of Cairo, is a self sustainable organism, dealing with extreme climate. The campus consists of a School of Performing Arts (Music, Dance), a School of Visual Arts, a Residence Complex to house students and staff, a Performance Center for Music and Dance and a Contemporary Art Exhibition Gallery. The project is seeking for a new way of creating a modern campus by rediscovering typologies of private and public spaces, and connections between them. Read the rest of this entry »

With a short list of ambitious designs by Akihisa Hirata, Studio Gang Architects, Yves Bachmann and this featured design by Mack Scogin Merill Elam Architects (MSMEA), its fair to say the Kaohsiung City Public Works Bureau did not have an easy choice to make when they decided on a final design for the Kaohsiung Maritime Culture and Popular Music Center. Although MADE IN’s design was ultimately chosen for the Center, many of these other entries are still worth their mention.

With possibly the most “out there” design for the Center, MSMEA sought to create a 24 hour, iconic attraction for Kaohsiung. The eclectic design for the larger component, the Pop Music Center, and the concept for the Center as a whole for that matter is “founded in the vibrancy of Kaohsiung City and its maritime culture, and in the energy and phenomenon of popular music”.

The two main components, the Pop Music center and the Marine Culture Exhibit Center are placed on either side of the Love River and joined by a bridge spanning the mouth of the river.

Of the positioning they said “The Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural and Popular Music Center is not shy. Like a giant vessel moored at the quay, the Center announces and guards the mouth of the Love River and is a gateway to Kaohsiung City and the nation”. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pulse of Sinai Bedouin Development Center is a design by Aly Ahmed Kamal Soliman that was chosen as an entry into the 2011 Archiprix International graduate design competition. It is meant as a monument and celebration of Bedouin culture in the Egypt and as a means of integration into greater Egyptian culture. Soliman captures the Center’s purpose by drawing a remarkable celebration of Bedouin values in the Center’s architectural form.

The structure of the Pulse of Sinai is based entirely on Bedouin culture and society, and is designed to be a sort of journey through history and towards the future. Separate showrooms for each Bedouin tribe all lead to a plaza, a reference to the Bedouin tradition of gathering in a common meeting place to make societal decisions. This plaza emphasizes Bedouin heritage with exhibits and historical information.

Beyond the plaza, visitors move through a connector over a camel race track towards a development center. The camel race track captures the concept of forward societal movement and Bedouin tradition, the synergy that Soliman sought to encapsulate in form. The development center will hold spaces for workshops and exhibitions with the goal of teaching the Bedouins to integrate into Egyptian society by honing traditional crafts, knowledge and resources. The development center leads skyward into th Tower of Hope, a symbol of hope for Bedouin successes and development in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Commended recently by the Mipim AR Future Awards was the Grenelle Tower in Paris, France, designed by Atelier Zündel & Cristea. The skyscraper, from a distance, resembles crinkled white paper stacked high, with brown sheets randomly thrown in every few levels.

The architects dub this aesthetic design “spatial texture,” and it rises a total of 200 meters.

The “brown sheets” mentioned above are actually multi-level floors that are interspersed throughout the building and that bring open spaces and foliage to people working and living inside of the structure. Uniform levels surround these multi-dimensional spaces on all sides: a design that maximizes most space but allows for a myriad of uses.

Housed within the building will be garden apartments, offices, a concert hall, a museum, a swimming pool, a library, and commercial space on the ground floor. Renderings of the interior show angular, stark spaces defined by heavy use of white or gray marble and concrete. Read the rest of this entry »