AGi Architects, in collaboration with Bonyan Design, recently won the competition to design the General Department of the Information System in Kuwait. The winning concept is clear in its duality, derived from technology, innovation and transparency on one side and security, due to the fact that the main occupant of the building is Ministry of Interior Affairs, on the other. The building is created in superposition of two contrasting layers and seen from afar, it is floating, elevated from the ground and light in its presence. However, closer approach reveals the massive stone plinth.

Despite its massive presence, the building is wrapped in transparent glass envelope of the offices, as a second skin which protects the building from the radiation of the direct Kuwait sun. That secondary skin actually creates a new façade, while enabling building’s ventilation. During the day, the façade works as a chimney and at night it is used to cool the building, using traditional methods. The dominant skin is designed in metal louvers with a polished finish, placed perpendicular to the radiation, deflecting the heat from the building, while allowing the views to the outside.

Due to the primary function of the building, it was extremely important that the circulation and spatial organization enhance clarity and effectiveness. Therefore, the lobby is conceived as an interior urban space where the interaction between public and private occurs. Read the rest of this entry »

The Blade, 300 meter-high landmark piece by Dominique Perrault Architecture, is one of many statement designs chosen to be built and represent the power of the future Yongsan International Business Center in , whose master plan was designed by Daniel Libeskind. The Yongsan International Business Center, ambitious program of nearly 3 millions square meters, is organized as an archipelago of vertical buildings inter-connected a by large park. A year later, according to Business Insider and several real estate development outlets, the “Dream Hub” as the archipelago was named, is on the verge of collapse. The information is still speculative, but the $28 billion real estate wonder faced difficulties in raising funds, due to the real estate slump and the global financial crisis.

Due to its silhouette, dynamic allure and mysterious shape, The Blade establishes itself as a geographical reference point. This rhomboid prism-like building is arranged in a way that its perception is constantly changing, depending on the angle of approach. Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architects won the competition for The King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This organic, amorphous metro station will be located on the edge of the Financial District and will serve as a major hub between most important city’s metro lines. The station will is planned as integrated within the urban context of the district, responding to the functional challenges of one multimodal transport center as well as the district’s future vision. The smoothly curved station spreads over six platforms over four public floors and two levels of underground car parking.

In order to emphasize the building’s importance as a multi-functional, mixed-use, dynamic public space, the project of the The King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station extends beyond the simple station typology. Not only that the station will act as an intermediate space perceived through quick transitions, but it will also provide great and dramatic public space for the city of Riyadh. Read the rest of this entry »

The international architectural competition for Central Prishtina Mosque, held in March 2013 still doesn’t have a clear winner. This proposal by OODA + AND-RÉ is one of over seventy entries, and the design is a result of an intense research on the mosque theme, ranging from a profound historical study of cultural heritage, to analyzing the evolution over time, both in program and in the materiality and form, understanding the social and urban factors as well as the different geographical characteristics.  The proposed dome-like mosque is an affirmation of all the values studied, and outcome which is a landmark design in its conceptual, coherent solution and bold, clear and logical structure.

Monumental design of OODA + AND-RÉ’s proposal accomplishes set standards and conditions, responding to the proposed goals. It stands as a landmark, but still being able to be responsible and objective. It is human-related by the form and scale and is conceived for the future, as all well-designed and thoughtful architecture should be, in terms of materials, capacity, configuration and innovative concept. The bipartite design solution embodies tradition but in a contemporary manner and stands out in the landscape, respecting the surrounding. The architects created space that strongly enhances spirituality, while promoting and embracing a wider social role. Read the rest of this entry »

Find(&)MERGE by SVEN is a project derived from the research of a coherent strategy, enabled to be implemented regardless of changing conditions. SVEN are Andrea Barbieri, Filippo Conti, Giulia Mariotti and Beatrice Scardovi from University of Bologna, Italy and their aim was to obtain a model that could both fit and change the area configuration where the system acts by exploiting systems of emergent behavior.

The project is done following a “bottom-up” approach where the system grows and evolves up to the event of an emergent and self-organized behavior, obeying the simple rule about the interactions of an agent-based system. The external parameters affecting the system are related to environmental and urban planning data.

The complex process of a digital fabrication is done in stages. As a result of a continuous change of existing conditions through the release of a pheromone trail a pattern of aggregation is obtained, where basic topological structures are modeled as a function of this gradient. Then the structure that can be coherently propagated and the whole site get analyzed. In next stage second category of agents generates trails on wrapping, using information about solar radiation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Golden State Warriors recently announced that Snøhetta and AECOM have been selected as the architecture team to design the Warriors’ new sports and entertainment complex on the San Francisco waterfront. Designed to replace the team’s existing home at the Oracle Arena in Oakland when the lease expires in 2017, Golden State Warriors’ Stadium is scheduled to debut on San Francisco waterfront site for the 2017-18 NBA basketball season. This landmark design will offer expensive open space with the 728.000 square foot arena, along with retail space, ferry and cruise ship access and waterside fire station. 18.000-seat venue will welcome music concerts, conventions and wide range of cultural events.

The circular building is wrapped in large areas of glazing around the facade, in order to provide visitors with a view from outside into the practice facility and the arena during games. The large disc-like roof is designed to be covered with LEDs and will be used for the projections.

The Arena will serve as a model for a 21^st century digital sports and entertainment center, due to its innovative, sustainability and technology oriented design. The architects believe that the design lives up to the importance of this very unique waterfront site and it’s a successful compromise between the vision of the Golden State Warriors, the landscape of the bay and the very important community input they have collected over months.

The aim of the architects was to provide a place for everyone – fans, pedestrians, cyclists, tourists, local residents and the diverse community of San Francisco.

The high-rise, named Elevator B, is an urban habitat for a colony of honeybees, designed by architecture students from the University at Buffalo. The tower is a winning entry of the university’s Hive City competition, which asked students to design a habitat for the bees. This unique skyscraper has generated great public curiosity, due to its residents and bold design. It is located in Silo City – a group of abandoned grain elevators and silos on the river. The project acts as a symbol of the site’s economic and environmental regeneration.

Clad in perforated stainless steel panels, parametrically designed to protect the hive and the visitors from the wind, while allowing solar gain in winter and shading in summer, the 22 feet tall tower is a steel structure, build using standard steel angle and tube sections. The internal layer of the bees’ house is done as a cypress box, with a laminated glass bottom, through which the bees can be observed. The box is attached to a system of pulleys so the beekeepers can bring it safely down to ground for maintenance. The project is named Elevator B, due to this mechanism. Read the rest of this entry »

This uniquely shaped private residence by Tom Wiscombe Design consists of two main components – the crystal figure and the pedestal. The crystal figure is a strong statement design, containing semi-public functions of the house, such as living, dining and kitchen area. The pedestal is supporting figure and contains private functions – bedrooms and studios. Inspired by two-part Brancusi sculptures, two shapes inter-operate, but retain their own character. However, the connection seems weak at the first glance, therefore allowing the crystal figure to appear to float.

The very fragile relation between transparent and opaque is a critical site of speculation in this project – it had to be investigated how to retain the mass effect despite the significant change in material. For that purpose, 2d unfolded drawings were used as an operative base, in order to find a way to smoothly blur the edges. The solution was in pattern of loops and lines on opaque surfaces become patterns of standing seams and deep black channels, like tattoos, which are carved into the skin with chisels rather than drawn on smooth skin with needles. Therefore, views out from inside the living room are not pure but heavily mediated. Read the rest of this entry »

Successful collaboration between US firms SO-IL and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson resulted with a winning proposal – Grand Canopy was awarded first prize on a competition to design an art museum at the University of California’s Davis campus. Their design envisions uniting indoor and outdoor spaces beneath a large steel roof – the canopy. Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art is therefore conceived as a landscape of galleries and workshops, referencing the flat plains of California’s Central Valley.

In the words of Florian Idenburg, of SO-IL, the museum of the future will be the one that needs to be able to accommodate a lot of change, therefore a museum on campus should be seen as a testing ground for new ideas. Their aim was to propose a building that would act as a platform, offering a stage on which different things can happen.

Their design proposes 50,000 square-foot permeable cover, named “Grand Canopy”, over both the site and the building. This distinct shape is predestined to become a new symbol for the campus. Extending over the site, the roof blurs the edges of both natural and artificial landscape, creating a new, sensory one, of activities and scales. The Canopy works in two important ways – it generates a field of experimentation, an infrastructure and stage for the events, while acts as an urban device, creating a new locus of activity and center of gravity on campus. At night, canopy is illuminated and becomes a beacon within the campus and to the city beyond. Read the rest of this entry »

Olafur Eliasson, in charge for the building’s radiant façade, together with Olafur Eliasson team, Henning Larsen Architects, and Baterii∂ Architects wins 2013 Mies Van Der Rohe Award for the collaboration on the design of Harpa – Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Mies van der Rohe Prize is reserved for excellence in the field of architecture and recognizes important contribution of European professionals in the development of the new concepts and technologies.

Harpa stands out as a radiant sculpture on the border between land and the sea, reflecting harbor space and the vibrant life of the city. The facades are spectacular – Eliasson’s works are usually inspired by his visible obsession with atmosphere and light. This particular, variegated glass façade of the concert hall was inspired by Iceland’s dramatic scenery and famous Northern Lights. Since its opening two years ago, this mountain-like massif building has become central cultural destination for the city and it has welcomed more than 1.7 million guests. Read the rest of this entry »