Today FIFA announced that the 2018 World Cup will be held in Russia and the main stadium has been designed by Erick van Egeraat.  Egeraat and Russian partner Mikhail Posokhin, architects of Moscow’s new VTB Arena are thrilled to hear of this decision. “What wonderful news! What a start for this new Russian masterpiece to be the center of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™!”, says architect-director Erick van Egeraat when presented with this latest news. “The VTB arena will be more than a soccer-arena; the multitude of functions will ensure enjoyment for its visitors for decades!” With a 300,000-m2 development surface the VTB Arena Park is one of the largest projects that will be developed in the Russian Federation in the coming years.

VTB Arena Park comprises the redevelopment of the Dynamo Moscow stadium and an articulation of the surrounding park. In contradiction with mono – functional sports arena’s Erick van Egeraat designs multifunctional urban regenerator,that will play a key role in transforming its wider surroundings. Erick van Egeraat’s 300,000-m2 multifunctional culture, health and sports centre will be developed on a 116,000-m2 site and will comprise a 45,000-seat Stadium Arena for Dynamo Moscow, a 10,000-seat Arena Hall, a Retail and Entertainment complex, restaurants, parking and other facilities. This careful mix of functions will ensure a self sustaining character. Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architects unveiled their design for the new Library & Learning Centre (LLC) for the University of Vienna, Austria which rises as a polygonal block from the centre of the new University Campus. The LLC’s design takes the form of a cube with both inclined and straight edges. The straight lines of the building’s exterior separate as they move inward, becoming curvilinear and fluid to generate a free-formed interior canyon that serves as the central public plaza of the centre. All the other facilities of the LLC are housed within a single volume that also divides, becoming two separate ribbons that wind around each other to enclose this glazed gathering space.

Images ©Zaha Hadid Architects

Mirko Daneluzzo unveiled his proposal for a music center to be located on the waterfront in Toronto, an evident part of the city’s skyline, representing the vibrant on growing music scene. The project uses the preexisting Canada Malting Silos industrial building to convert it into the contemporary form of a cultural contamination beacon. The project is defined by a series of layers that have different performative qualities embedded that modify the character of the building as a person flows seamlessly through the space and experiences the curated environment of the building.

The layer system generates a collection of musical experiences, from the strong typology of the theaters characterized by a clean geometry, to the eroded geometry that conforms the spaces in-between, research and education institutions, and knits the project to the surrounding context. The place gives you something to build the script to design something unique: Toronto is characterized by severe winters and hot summers, then the external layer works as a protective skin in winter thanks the slow formation of an artificial ice barrier in between the fissures, and wind catchers to allows a natural ventilation in summer.

The eroded geometry is dealing with the aesthetic idea of “matte”: matte is the finishing of dull and flat, without a shine surfaces. Matte stores the time’s patina, it absorbs the context, it becomes the context.

via suckerPUNCH

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The Cairns Institute, the new hub for tropical research is set to re-define teaching and learning in climatic conditions. Proposing a concept that will celebrate the rainforest setting, and enrich the place experience was a winning formula for Queensland based practices, Woods Bagot and RPA Architects who have been awarded the design of The Cairns Institute, headquartered on the James Cook University (JCU) Cairns campus.

A AUS$25 million project, the Institute, located in the north of Queensland, Australia, will be a research hub, housing specialists in the social sciences, humanities, law and business sectors to examine the issues of importance to people in the tropics.

Putting The Cairns Institute and JCU on the international stage to attract post-graduate students from around the globe; and to enable the university to draw a high calibre of researchers was key to the winning design. “Attracting the best researchers was the central aim of the university – it was crucial that our proposed building design would create an environment that optimises the working experience to a point that people would love engaging with the building,” Mark Damant, Principal, Woods Bagot said.

Cradled on three sides by rain-forested slopes, the landscape setting was inherent to the idea of a tropical campus – drawing the rainforest into the campus, enriching the urban campus heart, and in turn stimulating thought leadership from the students. “Intrinsic to our design proposition, was a concept that celebrated the rainforest setting and enriched the place experience. The proposed facade is layered and evolutionary – landscape is encouraged by shape – the building is blurred into the landscape itself,” David Derbyshire, Director RPA Architects said. Read the rest of this entry »

Panit Limpiti, a student from Thailand, has designed the “Permaculture Floating Tower,” a skyscraper to be located in Omval, Amsterdam that will cater to the region’s worst-case-scenario situation: a flood.

The area above sea level in the Omval zone is quickly decreasing. With the ability to withstand high water levels, and through the design of a floating landscape, this building will stand strong, no matter the weather forecast.

The building will utilize desalination to create drinking water, and will harness wave energy. A bio-digester cooks gas to also produce energy. Bio-diesel is also produced on site. The building is comprised of residential units and an urban park. Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel Simmons unveiled his design for a series of structures small enough to be collected as artworks. They can be disassembled and transported to a variety of venues for exhibition, both outdoors and in gallery spaces. As new structures are acquired, they can be clustered together in configurations freely decided by their owner, forming the fragment of a laneway or small courtyard. Read the rest of this entry »

Rugel Chiriboga, Brad J. Bartholomew, and Allison Elsaesser from Little have proposed a sustainable skyscraper complex for one of the world’s most dense urban landscapes: Mumbai, India.

With its large population and the richness of the wetlands that surround the city, what Mumbai’s new construction needs to focus on, say the designers, is sustainable practices that can protect the environment surrounding the city, but also nurture the people who live there. A new complex needs to also be fully connected to its surrounding urban fabric, says the group.

The Dharavi Building complex will feature a multitude of uses: it will have two residential towers, which will feature both indoor gardens and outdoor rooftop gardens, and vertical farming sections. With live plant life, the façade performs a green function, and the building as a whole serves as a sustainable icon, a new gateway for the city. In the complex will be a new market square and a new community plaza that will be surrounded by storefronts that offer social services to the public. Read the rest of this entry »

Lee Sang-ho, graduate student from Busan, South Korea, has designed the “Vertical Sprial,” a skyscraper that will serve as the “green energy landmark tower” for the city of Busan.

Busan is the second largest in Korea, and is the largest port city. It is also considered to have the second-largest solar radiation levels in the country, and the highest wind levels, making the building perfectly situated to utilize solar and wind technologies to generate energy.

The building will generate energy through several means, including the rotation of solar energy panels that will move throughout the day to capture the maximum sunlight in the day.

The building will have an observation deck from which to admire the ocean views. The tower is split into three sections according to use, and each section has a cafeteria to accommodate the people working there. Spiral walkways will feature greenery, and twist throughout the building to create calming paths to lift the spirits of those inside. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Slum Dweller,” a skyscraper designed by architects Monica Copaja and Angel Tenorio , is a project  that seeks to “bring light” to the city of Lima.

The city has, in recent years, been rapidly expanding, the architects say, growing in a disorganized manner, with density creating a “desperate” need amongst the people for private ownership of land. What the architects propose is to build an inspiring tower of many important uses in the San Cristobal Hill area, one that has long inspired awe: the Hill was a sacred ritual site for the native pre-Columbian people of Lima, and has remained a favorite spot in the city thanks to its impressive skyline vistas.

The lower levels of the skyscraper will be used to better the social services of the city, and will feature uses such as a communal kitchen, a children’s nursery, and a sports hall. In the middle zone, workshops and a school will educate people of all ages. And on the top levels, a cultural zone with art galleries, auditoriums, conference rooms and a library will enrich the lives of those who visit. Read the rest of this entry »

Three Copenhagen architects and a graduate student in Los Angeles have collaborated to create a new landmark for the Harbor of Copenhagen. A skyscraper that houses a mixture of uses, including, “public, private, pauses, passages and parks,” this tower, conceived by Mathias Juel Christensen, Neel Gøbel Andersen, Søren Hansen, and student Bjørk B. Christensen, serves as a lighthouse, a beacon that welcomes ships to the great city of Copenhagen, and simultaneously harkens to the harbor area’s rebirth from abandoned shipyards to thriving residential district.

The industrial shipping zone in Copenhagen’s northeast section that has been in a state of decay since the 1980s is experiencing a housing boom, and this skyscraper will cater to that need by housing units for all ages: families, students, the elderly. Not only will all be welcome, but all will also get to enjoy the stunning views the harbor location brings: the tower will be constructed as a stack of rings with dwellings attached to the façade so that all units can enjoy panorama views. This also allows the core of the building to stay more open, creating a common space, or “neighborhood.” Though the unit designs will be diverse, a sense of continuity will be maintained through the common core. Read the rest of this entry »