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 »

inFORM’s design for a multi-purpose pedestrian bridge beat out designs from 47 other firms in a competition to design a pedestrian bridge to replace what used to be the main artery bridge for interstate 195. A new more efficient I-195 bridge has since been constructed and so Providence looks to take advantage of the prime location with a pedestrian connector.

inFORM’s bridge is more a landmark than a means of passage, what they are calling an “urban intervention”. The boardwalk design includes gardens, spaces for sculptures, a sundeck, outdoor seating and even a built in café. The bridge will integrate with existing and planned green space along the river as well as with the existing riverwalk.

inFORM designed the Pedestrian Bridge to coincide directly with existing programmatic elements. The bridge will integrate with the perennial WaterFire events held along the Providence River, provide space for popular on shore fishing activities, local street vendors, buskers, and street entertainment. It will connect the Fox Point and College Hill areas with downtown Providence and the Knowledge District, areas Providence hopes to vitalize with the Pedestrian Bridge and other future projects. Read the rest of this entry »

The Lantern Pavilion by firm AWP / Atelier Oslo blends the avant garde with traditional woodworking in a see-through gathering space raised on stilts.

In 2008, the cities of Sandes and Stavanger, Norway were chosen as cultural capitals of Europe, This led to the Norwegian Wood competitions, which were held to promote creative use of timber in architecture – with the hopes the new cultural capitals could showcase the designs.

Sandes, the second-fastest developing city in the country, asked in particular for a square and sculptural design that could serve as a hub for the pedestrian area of Langgata and help revitalize its core. The Lantern Pavillion hopes to do just that – it was completed in 2010 – by providing shade and protection from the rain, and a large, open space that could potentially be the site of gatherings, concerts, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

Art has a great role in showing what happens in human beings’ life. Soul, intelligence and the emotions are the reflections of the community, and Art forms the social identities of communities. It also shows us the difference between the various social identities. Global influences effect the types of knowledge acquisitions or the social values in the art, and the artists determine the standards of modern life.

Thus, art centers have many roles beside their fundamental functions that should be participant, shared with society and create a modern level in connection between the citizens and the artists’ works. This concept is the key criteria for the Izmir Opera House Project designed by Emrah Cetinkaya. The project should be reflecting the history, the culture and the modern life in Izmir, furthermore it should be an identity for the city of Izmir.

And competition area also allows us to create an identification or a symbol for a city that because the area can be seen clearly from near surroundings and specially from sea side areas. This situation came to the forefront. So we considered important in it.

Izmir opera house has been designed for being a symbol for izmir. In this way, we thought that izmir will be a center of attraction and also first recognizable preparation place for all domestic and foreign tourists. Read the rest of this entry »

The competition for the Center for Promotion of Science of the Republic of Serbia (CPSRS) has received some incredible designs. Sadar and Vuga envision the Center as a sleek, streamlined, modern building to accompany the existing buildings of the Faculty of Drama Arts.

Sadar and Vuga’s Center is a one storey building that touches the ground with four outstretched legs in each corner, connected by four arches. The modern design presents a futuristic form to contrast with the landscape atrium at the center of the building, blending science with nature, the major theme of the CPSRS. The atrium was created to be the focal point of the design.

Sadar and Vuga say of the atrium: “Conceptually, it positions Nature and natural systems as an ongoing source for scientific development. We, as human beings, are invited to start exploring Science from Nature. From the Big Lawn surrounding the building we enter the atrium under four arches. We are, as visitors, in the centre on the building, in the nature, surrounded by science”. Read the rest of this entry »

Ambitious Illinois Institute of Technology B.Arch students Seth Ellsworth and JaYoung Kim were inspired by the good, the bad and the ugly in their design for the TATA Tower in Mumbai. The good: The TATA company manufactures the world’s cheapest cars (they cost $2,500), some of which run on alternative fuels. The bad: Mumbai’s infrastructure is old, and public transportation can’t handle the city’s swelling population. And the ugly: Thanks to that last fact, estimates say 25 percent of the city’s landmass will be used as parking space by the year 2030.

The TATA Tower has several ambitious goals. First, it seeks to house both residences and offices for the TATA employees in Mumbai.  These employee’s cars (TATAs, no doubt) will be housed in a parking garage the full height of the tower – one that the students hope will be a prototype for high density parking in other cities to free up ground space. They estimate that 930 residences can fit in the tower, as well as 4,050 parking spaces. Read the rest of this entry »

Located at the site of the former central ferry landing Angfarjan in Helsingborg, Sweden, the Schmidt Hammer Lassen designed Salt Crystals Hotel and Congress Centre is imagined as a cultural center and bridge between the nearby Helsingborg historical architecture and a new architectural future.

The Salt Crystals is modernist in both structural form and design philosophy. SHL molded form for function, modeling the outward form for each component of the Crystals for reception, a lobby, a hotel, a conference centre, a café, a restaurant and a catering centre. The chalky looking crystalline exterior appearance is an expression of the local block structure and building grid.

The Crystals will be connected to a mixed residential plot on the north side of the building which will house shops and retail on the ground floor. SHL wanted each residential unit to have unobstructed views of the waterfront, so the unit is orientated so the tallest units are withdrawn towards the street and the lower units are closest to the waterfront. This way all units have a waterfront view and receive sunlight from the south. Read the rest of this entry »

BOOM Community is a $250 million desert oasis planned for Palm Springs, California. The 300 residence development is the brainchild of BOOM Communities, Inc. real estate investment company and a group of 10 architects set on creating not just a community, but a piece of modern artwork. The firms involved in designing BOOM are: J Mayer H, L2 Tsionov-Vitkon, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Hollwich Kushner, Rudin Donner, Joel Sanders Architects, Lot-Ek, Sadar + Vuga, Arakawa + Gins, and SurfaceDesign.

At its core BOOM is envisioned as a desert village designed for the retired gay community, but developers are encouraging all to apply for residence. According to the BOOM website, BOOM “showcases inspired architecture, world-class entertainment and nightlife, as well as stimulating sports and activities… BOOM is about living, not retiring – about inclusion, not seclusion”.

BOOM has the dream homes of architecture and design lovers. There are Dr. Seuss-like apartments by J Mayer H, wave inspired residences by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and grove-like residences by Sadar + Vuga. But residences are just the beginning in this architectural oasis in the desert. The 10 architects each designed unique buildings to serve as community hubs in BOOM. BOOM was designed with health and fitness in mind and designers included space for an outdoor track, sports center, climbing wall, gyms, spas, swimming pools, and even a “healing funhouse”. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Headquarters will be one of Sweden’s most modern and innovative office buildings – focusing on transparency, Scandinavian simplicity and dynamic social environments. Behind the project is the Danish Architect 3XN in collaboration with Humlegården Fastigheter, representing the property owner Länsförsäkringar Liv.

By the end of 2013 no less than 2.500 co-workers will move into the innovative building at Sundbyberg Stad near Stockholm. The Headquarters is designed by the Danish studio 3XN with direct reference to Swedbank’s core values; openness, simplicity, care and durability.

3XNs Principal Kim Herforth Nielsen explains: “The building is conceived and designed from the inside out. We have literally translated Swedbank’s core values into the creation of a modern and groundbreaking head office. Swedbank has conveyed the importance it places on creating an open social environment, which happens to coincide with 3XNs design beliefs and ideology. It has been a very interesting process and we look forward to getting to work on the project.”

With its innovative and transparent expression formed in an unconventional triple-v structure the building will become a landmark among Swedish office buildings. The large volume is broken up to create spaces on a human scale. This makes the building inviting on the inside as well as on the outside. Read the rest of this entry »