ArchtRoom

 

Bregman + Hamann Architects is working with Studio Daniel Libeskind in joint venture partnership on the Royal Ontario Museum's ambitious $270 million transformation project which will ensure its vital growth and development locally, nationally and globally. Libeskind's sculptural Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition transforms the ROM experience, creating a new landmark entrance along Bloor Street and providing dynamic gallery space. Renaissance ROM creates bold new architecture, retrieves the best of the historic architecture, and improves visitor circulation and public amenities. It will result in more than 388,000 square feet of new and renovated gallery and public space overall. Ten renovated galleries opened in the historic buildings on December 26, 2005; the architectural opening of the Lee-Chin Crystal took place on June 2, 2007, and ten more renovated galleries will open in the historic buildings by early 2009.




WorldArchitectureNews

The commission to expand and renovate the Natick Mall in Massachusetts, one of the first enclosed shopping centers built east of the Mississippi River, presented Beyer Blinder Belle with the opportunity to reinvigorate this building type with a new energy. The architects’ approach to remaking this drab suburban mall was to introduce a high standard of design typically found in upscale urban shopping environments. The architects covered the existing mall with a luminous undulating clerestory that runs the length of the building and introduced fine art and high end finishes like wood floors and porcelain tiles throughout. This upscale upgrade together with the developer’s decision to bring in tony retailers like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s and Neiman Marcus is intended to draw shoppers who typically shop in major metropolitan areas to the suburbs. In addition to the 500,000 square foot renovation and expansion of the mall, the redevelopment of the 60- acre site calls for a luxury residential condominium building, an outdoor lifestyle center, parking area and a future luxury hotel. The project opened to the public in September ‘07.





WorldArchitectureNews

UK based Zaha Hadid’s new civil courts building in Madrid is set to become the focal point of the new urban complex which includes designs from fellow UK architects Foster + Partners. So as to create a better collective experience, the design for the Civil Courts of Justice inserts public space in its core - integrating it by connecting it with the campus’s public circulation. As a result, the Civil Court of Justice design shifts from being a component of the overall system to becoming its pivoting point, helping to organise the entire urban masterplan complex. The envelope of the 74,500sqm building is composed of a double-ventilated façade. The exterior layer of the facade is composed of metallic panels which respond to environmental and program conditions. These panels shift from open to closed and from flat to extended depending on the circumstances affecting them. It is also envisaged for the metallic panels on the rooftop incorporate photovoltaic cells. Inside the building, a spiralling semi-circular atrium is developed around the courtyard where all public space evolves. The project is due for completion in 2010




WorldArchitectureNews

With his design for the Tower Verre, Jean Nouvel proposes to take the strict respect of the zoning envelope to the point where its shape becomes the tower itself. Governed by its legal envelope and the steel framing needed to withstand the wind loads, this structure is as unique and singular as the parcel it stands on. From close up, its receding stealth geometry makes it surprisingly discrete and unobtrusive for its height. Seen from Central Park, the bridges and most locations on the river banks, its triangular silhouette stands out and is very recognizable in the Manhattan skyline, inscribing the MoMA unmistakably as one of New York’s most famous and successful cultural institutions. The façades of the tower are a structural glazing in standard glass dimensions and the bracing structure follows the simplest and most economical geometry. Living inside this building feels like inhabiting a power fully present and reassuring structure, similar to that of a large tree. The tower draws its shape from the desire for more daylight in the streets and the same daylight feeds its solar panels with energy. Its character is the structural expression of the wind bracing and the same wind moves its Aeolian turbines. The solar panels and wind turbines fill the narrow triangular top section, putting its unusually thin silhouette to a reasonable use. This tower is a monument to the rules of shadow and light, and to the forces of the wind.





WorldArchitectureNews

Ratoath College is the first significant public institution in the community and accommodates 850 second level pupils. The site is in a landscape of partially completed housing estates and has two points of access. The articulation of the form defines entrances, social areas, external spaces and responds to the presence of two clusters of mature trees on site – one cluster now contained within the south facing garden and the second fixing the south west corner of the building. The articulation is in both plan and section and produces a silhouette, that establishes an appropriate scale contrasting with the neighbouring landscape of two-storey houses. Indentations or cut-outs into the brick form are in exposed charcoal blockwork. Windows are timber. Although non-orthogonal in form, the building provides the standard Department of Education and Science room layouts and uses the circulation and socials space to resolve geometries. The central entrance leads into the GP area – the heart of the school and the focus of the circulation systems on both floors. The GP area is a south facing volume looking into the enclosed garden. There are significant volumes within the building where the overall form reads – the volumes are critical as counterpoints to the horizontal organisation and provide vertical and diagonal visual connections. Materials are used as found – exposed blockwork reinforced concrete piers and sofffits, rendered planes of colour, exposed steel balustrades and benches, precast concrete external seats, exposed pipework etc.. The brickwork is recessed in areas to give depth and filter light (to the PE hall and staircases). Internally colour is used deliberately – against a general background of stained blockwork colour is used for accent, contrast, orientation, and identification. Critical locations for colours are the liners to the glazed screens between classroom and corridor and the coloured rooflights. The building has been constructed within the normal Department of Education and Science costs limits for second level buildings. Floor area is 8,020 sqm, design commenced 2004, construction November 2005 and Practical Completion August 2007.





WorldArchitectureNews

Address: Ørestad Boulevard/Arne Jacobsens Allé, Copenhagen
Client: Copenhagen Municipality
Award: 1. prize in invited competition 2003
Completion: 2006
Size: 12.000 m2
Budget: DKK 200 mio. / € 27 mio / $ 32.5 mio
Architect: 3XNielsen Kim Herforth Nielsen, Bo Boje Larsen, Kim Christiansen
Engineer: Søren Jensen A/S
Adviser: Helle Mathiasen, cand. pæd. ph.d.
Acoustics: Frederik Wiuff
Photo: Adam Mørk

Ørestad College is a new educational building in Copenhagen, Denmark, designed by 3XN architects.The Ørestad College will be the first in Denmark to fulfil new educational visions regarding subjects, organisation and teaching systems.Communication, interaction and synergy has been key issues. The project displays a visionary interpretation of openness and flexibility regarding team sizes, varying from the individual over groups to classes and assemblies, and reflects international tendencies aiming at achieving a more dynamic and life-like studying environment and introducing IT as a main tool. The intention is also to enforce the students’ abilities gradually to take responsibility for own learning, being able to work in teams as well as working individually.The college is interconnected vertically and horizontally. Four boomerang shaped floor plans are rotated to create the powerful super structure which forms the overall frame of the building – simple and highly flexible. Four study zones occupy one floor plan each. Avoiding level changes makes the organisational flexibility as high as possible, and enables the different teaching and learning spaces tooverlap and interact with no distinct borders.The rotation opens a part of each floor to the vertical tall central atrium and forms a zone that provides community and expresses the college’s ambition for interdisciplinary education.





ADJAYE

The location for the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt’s Ostend district has the potential of adding a new landmark to the Frankfurt skyline that will be visible at great distances. The starting point for the design of the towers was the urban perspectives of the city of Frankfurt. At a height of around 185 metres, the double tower, with its polygonal shape and east-west orientation, has a striking profile that is visible from all important reference points in Frankfurt’s city centre, as well as from the river Main. Thanks to its form and presence, the double tower will become a characteristic feature of the Frankfurt skyline. The atrium between the office towers becomes a “vertical city”. Through platforms we are creating spaces, plazas and pathways between the towers, just as they exist in a city. The connecting and transferring levels divide the atrium horizontally into three sections of different sizes, with heights ranging from around 45 to 60 metres. These connecting platforms, bridges, ramps and stairs form a network of links between the office towers. They create short paths between the individual office floors in each tower and thus enable larger, interconnected usable office spaces on one or more floors in both towers, thereby also promoting informal communication. This new typology supports a dynamic development of form and enables differentiated office spaces with different panoramic perspectives. 





WorldArchitectureNews

 

Slovenian architects Ofis have completed Tetris Apartments, a social housing development in Ljubljana.A little bit of text from the architects:“The building stands on the edge of the 650 apartments development which was finished year ago. By urban rules the block is 3 floors high and 65 meters long. Since the orientation of the apartments is towards the car road the apartment areas together with balconies are orientated to the quieter south side.” 




OFIS

 

Architect Jean Nouvel has restarted work on The Landmark, a large mixed-use development in central Beirut, Lebanon.The project features a 42-storey tower containing a hotel and apartments a horizontal commercial and leisure block with a raised pedestrian street.Nouvel won the project through an international competition in 2004 but the project was later put on hold. Nouvel has now revised his designs.

 


Ateliers Jean Nouvel

program Faculty Offices and Graduate Student Offices, Seminar Rooms, Periodicals Library and Lounge with a Ground Floor 120-seat Auditorium.
client New York University
size 30,000 sf
status completed
completion date Sept. 1, 2007 

The Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and a committee of Philosophy Professors collaborated in the selection of Steven Holl Architects to design the complete interior renovation of a 1890 corner building at 5 Washington Place for the consolidation of the NYU Department or Philosophy within a concept which organizes the new spaces around light and phenomenal properties of materials. A new stair shaft below a new skylight joins the 6-level building vertically with a shifting porosity of light and shadow that change seasonally. The Ground level, utilized by the entire University, contains a new curvilinear wooden auditorium on a cork floor. The upper level floors contain Faculty Offices and Seminar Rooms which are done in different shades and textures of black & white, according to the texts in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s book “Remarks on Colour”. 




Steven Holl Architects

This science building for teaching of biological, health, sports and GIS science contributes to the dialogue of an institutional subtropical architecture in its reinterpretation of the collegiate colonnade and vernacular verandah. 

A two-storey colonnade suspends bridges linking battened rooms as entry lobbies to large flexible labs. The externalisation of the circulation brings student activation of the university central mall and a strong sense of connection with the campus urban landscape. Controlled clerestory lighting animates sculptured ceilings whilst allowing glare control in the audiovisual intense labs. 

Ground floor labs gather around a two-storey foyer space whilst a Sports Motion lab appends the building as a magnetic field free structure in recycled timber.





WorldArchitectureNews

Ground preparatory work on Mossessian & Partners’ scheme for Merchant Square at Paddington Basin has begun. This major scheme by Michel Mossessian, former Design Lead at SOM London and his first since starting his own practice, forms the commercial element of phase one of European Land’s development plans for the site and is due to complete in November 2009. Design principal Michel Mossessian said; “We are delighted that our first major scheme in London forms part of the prestigious Merchant Square development. This marks a significant milestone in the ongoing regeneration at Paddington Basin and in the development of our practice.”Building E, Merchant Square is a slender, elegant and sculptural building comprising 260,000 sq ft of office space, with public lobby areas, retail on the ground floor and a health club in the basement. mossessian & partners led the design with Perkins + Will as executive architects. Composed of three contrasting triangular elements, its dynamic form presents an animated façade on all sides, enlivening the canal frontage, addressing the existing office buildings to the west. The building envelope features varied textures and patterns, including bold use of colour, to emphasise lightness and improve energy efficiency. mossessian & partners have also designed an adjacent building at Merchant Square - a residential scheme of 226,000 sq ft which also has planning approval. 

The Merchant Square development comprises six architecturally diverse buildings in total, accommodating a mix of retail, restaurant, leisure, commercial and residential functions spread over a total area of 1.8 million sq ft. The scheme includes 559 residential units, 30% of which will be social housing. The buildings are set within a high quality public realm with a major new canal side square as its focal point.

WorldArchitectureNews

FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium, one of the world’s greatest football venues, is to be extensively remodelled. Following an international competition, Foster + Partners have been selected as the architects for this renewal of the stadium, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. 

The stadium, already the largest in Europe, will be enlarged to accommodate over 106,000 fans, together with extensive new facilities including hospitality and public areas. A new roof will also be created to shelter the fans. The stadium will be enclosed by a brightly coloured mosaic outer skin that wraps around the building and continues over a new roof. The multi-coloured enclosure comprises overlapping translucent tiles in the club colours. The myriad of tiles can be seen as symbolising the loyalty and devotion of FC Barcelona’s fans worldwide. 

The remodelled stadium retains the essential elements of the original Camp Nou, designed by architects Francesc Mitjans-Miró, García Barbon and Soteras Mauri, which was inaugurated in 1957. 

On match nights, the stadium will glow, providing a new architectural icon for the city. In the same way that FC Barcelona is ‘more than a club’, the new Camp Nou will be much more than a stadium.




WorldArchitectureNews

Asymptote’s design for the PGCC complex is centered on the idea of creating a new and powerful image for the city of Penang and the new initatives associated with the development of the Northern Corridor of Malaysia. The design achieves its elegance and stature through the simultaneous embrace of natural landscapes and contemporary urbanism. The PGCC will become a vital new precinct that complements and enhances the unique characteristics that typify Penang as a remarkable island metropolis. The design of the iconic towers in particular draws inspiration from not only the lushness and drama of the surrounding mountains and seascapes, but also from the rich and diverse cultural heritage that makes up the Malaysian nation and Penang in particular. The forms of the two towers are comprised of both horizontal and vertical elements: sculpted horizontal components move across the plinth, rise up and transform into articulated vertical structures. Set against the backdrop of the nature reserve of Penang Hill, the twisting, glass façades of the towers “perform” various surface effects—reflecting, refracting and distorting views of Penang, the surrounding landscape and the seascape beyond. The vast, cascading plinth, which functions as a public plaza with multiple gathering spaces, are venues for the performing arts center, convention center and various facilities for residential, office and urban life.





WorldArchitectureNews

The Capricorn House Medienhafen Düsseldorf forms the new entrance at the southern point of Düsseldorf harbour. The special feature of this eye-catching new building with its red glass panels is the so-called i-modulFassade, which was designed by GATERMANN + SCHOSSIG. The building’s location, greatly subject to sound pollution, lead to the devel-opment of a multi-functional facade module that contains the necessary technology for controlling the building’s temperature and air quality. It is fitted with an air-conditioning system for cooling, heating, ventilation and heat recovery. The facade panel also has integrated lighting, sound absorption and room acoustics elements. The decentralised concept eliminates the need for traditional technology, which leaves greater scope for interior architectural design. As a result, a more flexible floor plan allows the implementation of all office shapes. 





WorldArchitectureNews

Maya 8.5 在mental ray render上有了新的功能，physical sun and physical sky 兩天前測試了一下，render效果蠻好的，計算的時間也不會很長，真是Maya使用者的福音阿...，之後可以考慮嘗試mental ray, 就不用轉到max使用vray了= =..

The Foster + Partners and URS team has won an international competition to build the first private spaceport in the world - The New Mexico Spaceport Authority Building. The sinuous shape of the building in the landscape and its interior spaces seek to capture the drama and mystery of space flight itself, articulating the thrill of space travel for the first space tourists. Making a minimal impact on the environment, the scheme will be the first facility of its kind and a model for the future. The Spaceport lies low within the desert-like landscape of the site in New Mexico. The astronauts’ areas and visitor spaces are fully integrated with the rest of the building to convey the thrill of space travel. The more sensitive zones - such as the control room - are visible, but have limited access. Visitors and astronauts enter the building via a deep channel cut into the landscape. The retaining walls form an exhibition space that documents the history of the region and its settlers, alongside a history of space exploration. The strong linear axis continues on a galleried level to the ‘superhangar’ - which houses the spacecraft and the simulation room – through to the terminal building. Designed to have minimal embodied carbon and few additional energy requirements, the scheme has been designed to achieve the prestigious LEED Platinum accreditation. The low-lying form is dug into the landscape to exploit the thermal mass, which buffers the building from the extremes of the New Mexico climate as well as catching the westerly winds for ventilation. Natural light enters via skylights, with a glazed façade reserved for the terminal building, establishing a platform for the coveted views onto the runway.




WorldArchitectureNews

Work has recently completed on a £6.9 million, mixed tenure residential scheme on Barking Road, Canning Town, which combines the latest high-quality design and materials technology with more traditional techniques. Architects and urban designers, Stock Woolstencroft, designed the scheme for One Housing Group, and it is the first part of a multi-phase project. The building is designed as three distinct cubic structures: one as a transparent form, one as a gold ‘box’ and one as a ‘cast’ box. A protected London plane tree became a key design driver, helping to separate out and distinguish the cubic forms and contrasting finishes. The striking modern design brings together a palette of rich materials, including glass and aluminium panels finished in deep bronze, silver and gold. The first and second layers use progressive alpolic rain screen cladding, whilst rendered block work is used on the third. Balconies are set within, whilst a staggered frame gives an identity. The result is a highly individualistic, essentially twenty-first century design, which demonstrates a successful combination of high quality urban housing and contemporary, dynamic architecture. The scheme, on a former unused petrol station site, dovetails with the Canning Town and Custom House Masterplan and is a precursor to the area’s wider regeneration, making a strong statement about its future vibrancy and success. The exciting, innovative development brings forward a truly unique mixture of social and intermediate rent, New Build HomeBuy and private units, all within one building. Additionally, the development of a new, active commercial frontage will contribute to the vitality and diversity of the area and complement regeneration plans for the market area and shopping parade.





WorldArchitectureNews

A major new performing venue is planned for the French capital. The Philharmonic Society of Paris, with the associated support from the State and the Town of Paris will construct this stunning 2400 seat concert hall in the Park Villette in Paris. Mainly devoted to the reception of great symphonic formations, the Philharmonic society of Paris will present other forms of musical expression, in particular calling upon wiring for sound, the such jazz or the musics of the world. Located at the north-eastern entry of the capital in a district in change, registered in a park with cultural, visible vocation since the periphery of Paris, this equipment will be been useful by a innovating architecture. On the acoustic level, the concert hall will meet the international standards most demanding. It will dissociate strictly frontal models and will privilege an envelopment of the scene by the public in order to reinforce the feeling of intimacy between the interpreters and their audience. True house of the orchestras, carrying a teaching and cultural project extremely, the Philharmonic society of Paris will accomodate several musical formations in permanent or temporary residence. The equipment will develop on a surface of approximately 20 000 square meters useful. It will include/understand, in addition to the large concert hall, its hearths and its spaces of repetition, of the administrative buildings for several orchestras, an educational pole, spaces of exposure, a restaurant, as well as the infrastructures necessary to logistics and the technical equipment and a car park. Specimen on the control of the environmental stakes, construction will fall under a step of recognized certification. The delivery is envisaged in 2012.




WorldArchitectureNews

The town of Yusuhara in Kochi Prefecture, known for its urban development using “Japanese Cedar”, has a new starting point for its community with the “Kino-machi Hall” (Town Hall), the largest scaled “Wooden” town hall in Japan. Considering the snowing weather conditions, a large atrium is inserted, and an indoor plaza was created to connote facilities necessary by town members in everyday life such as bank, the Agricultural Cooperative Society, and the Chamber of Commerce. This atrium also functions as a space for traditional performances and festivals. Local Japanese cedar has been used fully to the regulations, which made possible to create a double lattice girder structure with an 18 meter long span. While making possible to visualize how cedar structural parts sustain the structure, this building aims to build an architecture capable of making people reconfirm the excellence of Japanese wooden structures. The indoor plaza and exterior plaza, separated by a large sliding door used for hangars, becomes one only space which is used during spring festivals.





WorldArchitectureNews

While Nestlé’s chocolate Factory in Mexico City (located in Paseo Tollocan near Toluca) was in need of an inner pathway for visitors to witness the production of their favorite chocolates, a group of experts put together by rojkind arquitectos and Traqs suggested bigger plans for the company. 

Why not create the first chocolate museum in Mexico and have a 300-meter long façade along the motorway as the new image of the factory. So the first phase took shape and required a 634m2 space that could accommodate the main entrance for the children to have the most pleasant experience and to start the voyage into the chocolate factory as soon as they enter this playful yet striking space, the reception area, the theater that would serve as preparation for the Nestle experience, the store or museum shop, and the passage to the tunnel inside the old existing factory.

WorldArchitectureNews

The design marks a new generation of Marni store designs and a direct shift in emphasis on product with the ever increasing collection of accessories. Like a modern temple this boutique plays with texture and light on a large sale with the use of hard materials for the walls and floor such as concrete and stone. Interlaced and scattered within the polished floor areas are a series of random stone and marble colours that play an important role to define various areas of the store. The shuttered concrete walls are injected with a series of bespoke display case of varying finishes (leather, plastic, fibreglass) for the display of shoes, lingerie, bags and accessories. These units have their own integral lighting and serve as a rich contrast with the concrete floor and walls. Certain areas of the walls are covered with brightly coloured high gloss fabric upholstery to create varying themes throughout the shop. The fluid stainless steel rails carry the ready-to-wear collections and glide up the grand concrete staircase to a curvaceous and separate shoe display room. A large stainless steel cloud hovers over this space and provides the lighting for the elliptical shoe display cases upholstered in Marni’s own leather. This area is carpeted with a large circular rug where a unique rotating circular display sits with perimeter leather pod seating. The fitting rooms have their own personal stainless steel rails and leather rugs on the floor. Upstairs one encounters a line of floating mannequins where the clothes shimmer and move with the use of fan units below them. Along the windows towards the front a long stainless steel rail continues the display of the ready-to-wear collection and opposite houses a display wall of many randomly placed cases for the display of jewellery and smaller accessories. The play of daylight and stone materials within this shop together with signature bespoke furniture pieces give this new Marni store a truly new adventure that should not be missed.




WorldArchitectureNews

Goettsch Partners has been commissioned by Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. to design a new 1,000-foot-tall mixed-use building in Guangzhou, China. The project totals 1,878,000 square feet and features a 180-key Park Hyatt hotel, 430,000 square feet of offices, 65,000 square feet of retail, 24 condominiums, 174 serviced apartments, and underground parking for 700 cars. The 66-storey building is located in the Zhujiang development, planned as Guangzhou’s new city center, near the Pearl River. The tight, two-acre site sits over a transit station at the intersection of two subway lines, with neighboring buildings that include the Grand Hyatt Guangzhou, also designed by Goettsch Partners; the city’s new opera house; the new Guangdong Museum; and what will be China’s tallest twin towers at more than 1,300 feet. The Park Hyatt tower is designed as a single volume that pinches in at the corners in relation to the changing programmatic functions stacked within. The field of staggered vertical strips on the façade stretches and compresses like tendons in response to the varying floor-to-floor heights required for each distinct function. The approximately $150 million project is currently in the schematic design phase and is expected to be completed in 2010.




WorldArchitectureNews

The Social Condenser project is located at the base of the Superstition Mountain Range in the town of Superior, Arizona which was founded in 1882 and has strong ties to mining of copper, silver and gold. The project is a renovation and expansion of an existing two-story block building and addition of an exterior dining terrace. The lower level is developed into kitchen, mechanical and storage spaces and the upper level is designed as an open gathering space. The south-facing wall of the upper level of the existing building is removed to expose the volume within. The remaining form is rendered to closely match the shadow tones of the surrounding hills and acts as both backdrop and anchor for the new addition. The project was informed by the concept of the “ public house”. The project is envisioned to be the living room of the community; a place to congregate, socialize, view work of provincial artists and enjoy the breathtaking landscape vistas that envelop the region. The project utilizes a reduced palette of cool-toned materials. Expanded aluminum panels, with fine openings, sheaths the street wall and entry canopy and draws the visitor to the stair tower that subtlety rotates to orient the visitor to the adjacent parcel and the new main entry door. The tower is wrapped in the same aluminum material and conceals an open expanse of grey glass behind it. Upon entry, the visitor is greeted by the expansive view of the creek and identifies that the twist of the floor plan geometry now aligns the building with the axis of the wooden footbridge and the creek. The visitor then continues the spiraling journey around the open common space, through a large operable glass wall panel out to the dining terrace prow with a sweeping view of the full extent of the creek in the foreground and Apache Leap rock formation in the distant hills.




WorldArchitectureNews

清華大學餐廳競圖設計案, 新竹, 2007

這個案子是公司(清沐設計)首次協助角度設計一同參予清華大學的餐廳競圖，設計部分主要由角度設計的負責人，我們的大師『發哥』掌控，清沐設計負責表現圖的呈現，這個案子不管是在建築的外觀或者是空間串聯都是非常有趣的作法，平面圖礙於還在比圖中沒辦法提供出來，清沐這邊提供3D的部份給大家參考。

White Noise / White Light was one of 9 temporary interactive urban installations commissioned and installed for the Athens 2004 Olympics at base of the Acropolis as part of the Catch the Light Program. The project inserted a luminous interactive sound and landscape within the plaza to create a constantly choreographed field in flux. Semi-flexible fiber-optic strands responded to the movement of pedestrians through the field, emitting white light and white noise. Activated by the passersby, the fiber optics transmit light from white LEDs while the speakers below the raised deck emit white noise. Just as white light is made of the full spectrum of light, white noise contains every frequency within the range of hearing in equal amounts. This field of white noise creates a unique sound-scape in the city and masks out the noises from the immediate context, forming a place of sonic refuge within the bustling city. Each stalk unit contains its own passive infrared sensor and microprocessor. If motion is detected, the white LED illumination grows brighter while the white noise increases in volume. Once motion is no longer detected, the microprocessor smoothly decreases the light and fades the sound to silence. The movement of pedestrians creates an afterglow effect in the form of a flickering wake of white light and white noise, trailing and tracing visitors as they cross the field. Depending on the time of day, number of people, and trajectories of movement, the project is constantly being choreographed by the cumulative interaction of the public. The field becomes an unpredictable aggregation of movement, light and sound.




WorldArchitectureNews

Following the lineage of the Schindler house as an experiment in modern living in close relation to nature, our proposal "Fake Plastic Trees" is an attempt to investigate the formal, spatial and atmospheric potential of a vertically sustainable garden in synch with the most advanced technology for plant growth. The garden is composed of a branching circuitry network made of plastic PVC tubes. These tubes circulate and distribute water with a nutrient solution that nurtures aerial vegetation of different kinds. The section of the tubes diminishes as the trajectories they describe move up and away from the ground. The flow of water is induced by water pumps from several reservoirs located in the ground. Water is distributed directly to the plants base by pumping up from the reservoirs or indirectly down by dripping from the upper branches and then moistening down. Depending on the section of tubes, their capacity to carry more or less water, different scale of plants can grow from and within them. The artificiality of plants growing directly on water, the modulation and scaling of them as they detach from the ground, the dynamism of the branching and choreographed vegetation and its likely wind induced oscillation, and the occasional forms of animal life negotiating temporary shelter within the garden, amounts to an advanced living ecosystem that both challenges and amplifies the assumed relations between the architecture of The Schindler House and its surrounding “natural” environment.




WorldArchitectureNews

Based on a radical geometric contextualism, our concept for the 8746 Sunset Blvd attempts to produce an architecture of subtle sensations by inducing a physical and optical dynamism that both challenge and enhance the movement of the body. The formal logic of the facade is the outcome of a productive negotiation between geometric operations governed by the column grid of the existing building and driven by spatial conditions allowed by the singularity of the adjacent context. The spatial performance of the store is based on the bending effect of two reciprocally ruled surfaces: the façade that bends inside up and the pliant stair that bends outside down, create a magnetic field that gravitates towards the interior. The bent façade operates as a responsive skin that by means of local inflections senses the dynamics of pedestrian activity on the sidewalk and nearby strip. The interior bent surface fluidly shreds into steps allowing the emergence of a differential hybrid that operates as a stair and display system at the same time.




WorldArchitectureNews

Svärmisk Resort Apartments are located at the end of the picturesque Kiewa Valley at the foot of Victoria's Alpine Resorts. At the edge of the Mt.Beauty township, on what was known as the 'old Chalet site', covering a 5 acre sloping site. The landscaping and architecture carefully respect the sites mixture of exotic & indigenous trees, natural contours and state forest surrounds. The dilapidated Mt.Beauty Chalet & accommodation wings were largely removed but recycled as materials to be used in the new works. This submission involves the completion of the first six of twelve planned self contained units, along with general site establishment, roads and services. Based on a simple 6.0m X 6.0m footprint the units are a flexible accommodation model, 2 or 3 level, free standing or attached with internal zoning options for various uses. They are a compact yet articulated form with projecting decks, carports and offsets adding an expressive vitality. 5-6 Star energy ratings have been achieved. Colours and materials have been developed to produce an honest, economical, low maintainence, environmentally responsive design fully integrated with the landscape principles for the whole site. For instance storm water runoff collection, base gabion rock retaining and feature walls add to the rich existing landscape and site reponsive design. The northern orienatation, offering spectacular views down the valley, present the 'face' of the development to passing traffic heading to Falls Creek Alpine resort. Internally, almost all features are built in, utilizing an array of materials from plywood, recycled timber, fibreglass, to the colours of ceramic tiles, upholstered seats & simple laminated surfaces. Svärmisk Resort Apartments are a compact, site responsive and adaptive accommodation model with just a twist of scandinavian. 





WorldArchitectureNews

Construction has begun on a new Foster + Partners project in Jordan. 'Living Wall' is a 150,000 sq m mixed-use complex at the heart of Amman, close to the new Al-Abdali city centre. The site, an extraordinary carved-out rock shelf, its geology and history have been the inspiration for the scheme’s unique concept. Set against a sheer 30m backdrop, the project presents physical challenges that are not unlike those faced at ancient Jordanian sites such as Petra, where the buildings were carved out of the rock itself. A rough-hewn podium has been inserted with strong, vertical cuts into a line of natural rock. Grouped together on this podium will be a set of six inter-connected, sculpted towers.They include a boutique hotel, a variety of residential units, and offices. The podium on which they sit contains shopping and leisure activities. The deep spaces between the towers house a variety of sheltered public spaces, including a sunken amphitheatre and a large, sheltered piazza. The towers have double-skin façades with screens whose horizontal lines again recall delicate rock strata. The screens’ function is to stimulate air circulation and to provide shading, and these become denser where the potential heat gain is greater. The spaces behind the screens provide balconies and terraces where people can enjoy outdoor space – thus helping to animate the complex as a 'Living Wall'. With transparency both at the higher levels and at the base of the towers, views across the city are unimpeded; there is a strong sense of place and, with so much permeability and connectivity, both laterally and vertically, the scheme also creates a vivid sense of community.




WorldArchitectureNews

Erick van Egeraat has won the international competition for the National Library in the Republic of Tatarstan's capital, Kazan. The new National Library has a gross floor area of 81.000 m2 and is situated at the Tukay square on the South-Eastern edge of the city centre. Besides offering all traditional facilities of a state library, Erick van Egeraat wants to "invite citizens to explore and experience knowledge. The building provides a home to all modern ways of accessing information, but its flexible setup allows for future forms of working with knowledge, too." Erick van Egeraat designed the building as a covered extension of the city centre. A multi-functional, 18 metre-high atrium serves as a portal between the library and the city. "The building becomes part of the public domain, a portal between the city and the library, a place where the collective and cultural qualities of downtown spaces are combined." The entrance space can be meeting point, boulevard, gallery, living room, garden and educational facility at the same time. Embedded into a hill, the building continues the shape of the landscape and offers a park on top of the building. By linking the existing Hermitage Park, the new library park and the National Library to the adjacent Tukay square, Erick van Egeraat transforms the area into a vibrant hub of Kazan city life. Consequently, Erick van Egeraat proposes to extend the proposed site and allow for the development of the Headquarters of the National Bank, for high-quality offices, luxury apartments and retail. The project is a cornerstone in the urban redevelopment of Kazan and sets an example for other urban regeneration schemes throughout the Russian Federation.





WorldArchitectureNews

This project provides the opportunity to develop two themes: one on the geographical anchorage of the structure on the river, the other on the sign of modernism attached to the technological and artisanal capacities of contemporary China. The project combines a complex structure fashioned by multiple arches developed in space according to the unchanging necessities but also developed on the essential links between these arches which were labeled in the project as “the petals”. These petals have two objectives: to connect the arcs to form a rigid structure resistant to the buckling of the very fine members of its arches, and to capture the light day and night along with the movements of the sun , and in function with the orientation of the cars on the roadway. The 9 arches of the central span consist of box-girders welded together, where their dimensions are reduced to 40 cm wide by 55 cm high for a span of 127 m. They are shaped along the curves developing in the space permitting a global variation of the inertia of the structure according to the needs of the course of the forces. 128 petals link these arches to align and account for the internal stiffeners of this spatial structure. They are of 64 different types, varying between 2 m x 3 m and reaching up to 9 m in their maximum dimension. They form double curvature surfaces aligned by the geometric links between the arcs and their position in space. The tailoring of these petals is a very particular expression of the connection between very advanced technology (reinforced polymerized fiberglass resin and metallic structure) and learned crafting in the fabrication of 64 molds of complex and elaborate geometries. By day, the petals capture, in their east-west orientation, the movements of the sun in the Tianjin sky. By night, they serve as large diffusers of light and transform the structure into a succession of orientated and separated reflectors floating above the river.




WorldArchitectureNews

Thom Faulders has created an exterior building skin for a new four storey multi-family dwelling unit with photography studios in Tokyo, Japan designed by Hajime Masubuchi of Studio M. Located in the Kitamagome Ota-ku district, the site was previously occupied by the owner’s family with a residence uniquely wrapped by a layer of dense vegetation. Since the entire site is to be razed to accommodate construction for the new larger development, the design invents an architectural system that performs with similar attributes to the demolished green strip and creates an atmospheric space of activity. Conceived as a thin interstitial environment, the articulated densities of the new open-celled meshwork are layered in response to the inner workings of the building’s program. AirSpace Tokyo is a zone where the artificial blends with nature: sunlight is refracted along its metallic surfaces; rainwater is channeled away from exterior walkways via capillary action; and interior views are shielded behind its variegated and foliage-like cover. The complex pattern for Airspace Tokyo is developed in collaboration with Proces2 Design in San Francisco using parametric software. The dual-layered skins are constructed of an aluminum and plastic composite material often used for large billboards. 





WorldArchitectureNews

The two buildings are organised around a central square next to the existing cultural centre. In opposition to that centre, they appear as smooth volumes, covered with an articulated and semitransparent skin of pivoting mesh panels - open buildings, clearly readable for every visitor. The building of the administrative centre tries to push the concept of durability as far as possible. Modular open-plan offices on concrete floor slabs, without beams and without false ceilings, maximise the flexibility and allow free positioning of partition walls. All technical equipment is recessed in access floors. The same type of construction will be used for the library (phase 2, completion 2007 - 2008). Pluvial water from the roof is stored in concrete tanks in the basement, from where it is recycled for toilet flushing, as fire fighting water, and as a source of cooling in the summer. Hot water is provided by solar panels in the glass shed roof of the central atrium. Auxiliary electric power is generated by photovoltaic cells. A fine tuned system of free cooling and night cooling allows affordable thermal comfort in the summer combined with very low power consumption.




WorldArchitectureNews

This building is located in a 10 mts. wide plot, in a typically urban block in Buenos Aires. The 12 two-storey residential units are split in two compact blocks bridged by a lightweight steel tower which connects them. This structure contains the lift shaft, the main stair and the connecting bridges. Due to the fact that the street was so narrow, the building was recessed to gain privacy from its neighbours, but recomposes the street front with a light frame. This steel grid with wooden deck floors attached to the building façades act both as the apartment expansion terraces and as louvers that guarantee filtered natural light and heat control. During the night the building interacts, turned on as a light box, with the steel frame making it look like a Chinese shadow puppet. Both blocks float over the ground floor, resting on eight concrete columns and gaining lightness and visuals from the street entrance through the rear yard, which was kept like a small garden.





WorldArchitectureNews

Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice, visited the new Manchester Civil Justice Centre as Denton Corker Marshall’s Guest of Honour at a special preview on Wednesday 30th May 2007. Founding Directors John Denton, Bill Corker and Barrie Marshall will fly from Melbourne to Manchester today to host the event which marks the practice’s first major civic building in the UK. John Denton, Founding Director of Denton Corker Marshall added, “We are delighted that Lord Falconer is able join us in Manchester to celebrate our practice’s first major public project in the UK.

We wanted to create a building that would not only signal and display the transparency and accessibility of the courts and courts system, but that would also become a strong sculptural urban marker for the city. It forms an integral part of Allied London Properties regeneration of the Spinningfields area in the city and we hope that in time, it will help promote civic confidence and pride in this part of Manchester.” Stuart Lyell, Allied London Development Director said: "Outstanding architecture lies at the heart of all Allied London developments. The international design competition for the new Civil Justice Centre has resulted in a truly world-class signature building and Denton Corker Marshall are to be congratulated on realising their vision. 

This magnificent civic building gives Manchester a new iconic landmark an important contribution to the huge success of Spinningfields, one of the most significant office-led mixed use developments in Europe." Manchester Civil Justice Centre is the largest court complex to be built in the UK since the Royal Courts of Justice in the 19th Century. It will be the new HQ for the Ministry for Justice in the North West, providing accommodation of around 34,000m² on 15 levels. It houses 47 courtrooms, 75 consultation rooms, in addition to office and support space. Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council said: "The Civil Justice Centre is an exemplar of how cutting-edge architecture can be incorporated within the existing city fabric to provide a building of world-class design quality for a world class city. The building provides an exciting addition to the city's skyline and is a key contributor to the regeneration of Spinningfields."




WorldArchitectureNews

Takei-Nabeshima-Architects (TNA) architects have designed a striking mini-tower on spec for a planned community in the town of Karuizawa, some 185 miles northwest of the Japanese capital. The Ring House is wrapped in rings of glass and wood and has an uninterrupted 360-degree view of the forest. In an area that was dark, on uneven land and with no neightbours this plot of land was originally unmarkable. But TNA Architects were undeterred by the conditions and set about designing the house. TNA designed rings around the facade so that areas of private space and utilities could be met. The height of each ring was decided by the function concealed behind it. The glass between the rings allow you to look straight into the forest, so the whole house appears to dissolve into the forest. Built on Owners' Hill, a resort in the Karuizawa forest near Tokyo, Ring House occupies one of the hundred or so plots set aside for city dwellers to build weekend retreats.




WorldArchitectureNews

Blizzard Entertainment® announces highly anticipated sequel at 2007 Worldwide Invitational event in South Korea 

SEOUL, South Korea – May 19, 2007 – Blizzard Entertainment® today unveiled StarCraft® II, the sequel to its award-winning real-time strategy game StarCraft, at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Seoul, South Korea. The announcement took place inside the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, in front of thousands of attendees, who received a presentation that included a StarCraft II cinematic trailer and a gameplay demonstration by the development team.

Designed to be the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game, StarCraft II will feature the return of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races, overhauled and re-imagined with Blizzard's signature approach to game balance. Each race will be further distinguished from the others, with several new units and new gameplay mechanics, as well as new abilities for some of the classic StarCraft units that will be making a reappearance in the game. StarCraft II will also feature a custom 3D-graphics engine with realistic physics and the ability to render several large, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously.

"With StarCraft II, we'll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more," stated Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy."

StarCratII

The new Austin City Hall and Public Plaza is located at the edge of the dynamic Warehouse district on the shores of Downtown Austin’s Town Lake. The project is dominated by landscape and incorporates limestone, copper, glass, water and shade to create the city’s living room. The 118,000 square foot building contains several city departments along with the Mayor, City Manager, City Council offices, Council Chambers, and a café and city store along urban Second Street. Austin’s Warehouse District is rapidly being transformed into a tight grid of restaurants, nightspots, housing, and mid-rise office spaces. A massive, arcing Lueders Limestone wall, emerging from bedrock at the lowest level of the parking garage below, anchors the project to the site. Morphing out of this wall is a limestone base that encloses the first two stories. A copper skin, resting on the limestone base and capped with a folded copper roof, shelters the upper levels. As the arcing wall cuts through the building, it creates an open four-storey lobby transected by catwalk-like bridges at each level. A reflective copper ceiling over the lobby bounces light into the gathering space below. The plaza winds its way around the limestone peninsulas of the terraced building. Water runs through a group of monumental limestone boulders in the plaza to symbolically return to Town Lake through a vortex. Amphitheater seating spilling down from the terraces can be used informally or to view performances on a Limestone stage. The amphitheater is protected from the sun by a photovoltaic glass trellis, supplying ten percent of the building’s power. The environmentally intelligent approaches in this project earned it a LEED Gold Certification.




WorldArchitectureNews

Foster + Partners has revealed these images of what it claims to be the first zero carbon, zero-waste city in the world. 

The Masdar development in Abu Dhabi is a 6 km sq, car-free “walled-city” scheme. The development is being driven by Abu Dhabi’s Future Energy Company and will include a new HQ for the company as well as a new university. Norman Foster said: “The environmental ambitions of the Masdar Initiative – zero carbon and waste free – are a world first. They have provided us with a challenging design brief that promises to question conventional urban wisdom at a fundamental level. Masdar promises to set new benchmarks for the sustainable city of the future.”

Unveiled today at the Cityscape conference in Abu Dhabi, Foster + Partners said Masdar would be a dense, walled development constructed in two stages. The first phase would see the construction of a large photovoltaic power plant, which would later become the site for the second phase. The surrounding land will contain wind, photovoltaic farms, research fields and plantations, so that the city will be entirely self-sustaining, the architect said. he development is set to open in late 2009.




ArchitectureWeek

I have been living with a shadow overhead
I have been sleeping with a cloud above my bed
I have been lonely for so long
Trapped in the past、I just can not seem to move on

I have been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in case I ever need them again someday
I have been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can not make it through without a way back into love
Oh oh oh

I have been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I have been searching but I just do not see the signs
I know that it is out there
There is got to be something for my soul somewhere

I have been looking for someone to shed some light
Not just somebody just to get me throught the night
I could use some direction
And I am open to your suggestions

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can not make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I am hoping you will be there for me in the end
There are moments when I do not know if it is real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I want to do is find a way back into love
I can not make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart to you
I am hoping you will show me what to do
And if you help me to start again
You know that I will be there for you in the end



我活在陰影之下
烏雲伴我共枕
一直孤單好久
困在過去，似乎就是無法往前走

我把所有的希望和夢想藏起來
只為了有一天可能又需要他們
我總留些時間
淨化心裡的小角落

我只要重新找到愛的感覺
若沒有愛的感覺我辦不到
我留心觀察然而繁星不願發亮
我一直搜尋但看不到任何徵兆
我知道它不在那裡
但一定有個為我靈魂而生的東西在某處

我一直尋找著讓我發光的人
而非只是個陪我過夜的傢伙
我能使用一些指示
而且我可能是你的暗示

我只要找到重新愛的感覺
若沒有愛的感覺我辦不到
若我再次敞開心房
我想我希望最後你會在那裡等我
有時候我不確定它是不是真的
或許有人和我心有戚焉
我需要妙計
而非又一個妥協

我只要重新找到愛的感覺
若沒有愛的感覺我辦不到
若我為你打開心房
希望你會告訴我該怎麼做
若你幫我重新開始
你知道最後我會在那裡等妳

Florida based architectural firm Glavovic Studio, recently unveiled The ArtsPark at Young Circle, a new public art project that takes the form of a ten-acre park. Located in downtown Hollywood the ArtsPark was conceived as an integrated artwork that transforms from an organic landscape into a constructed landscape, The ArtsPark provides daily, interactive, cultural experiences for the general public and comprises multiple activity spaces without walls designed for the activities that occur within them including a place designed for sedate activity, a highly interactive Children’s Play Area The ArtsPark is a civic landmark that was created through strong female leadership; many women contributed to the realization of the project including Mayor of Hollywood Mara Giulianti and is now open to the public.




WorldArchitectureNews

The project was launched last year and, when complete, will consist of three interlinking towers containing offices, apartments and a hotel. The towers, which share a single podium, will form the centrepiece of the Business Bay development. Zaha Hadid’s design for the Dancing Towers confirms the role of Business Bay Development at the very forefront of Dubai’s rapidly changing future. The three towers rise above the creek and project themselves as an icon for the surrounding developments and for the gulf region.

The tower’s striking design creates a new presence that punctures the skyline with a powerful recognizable silhouette. The fluid character of the towers is generated through an intrinsically dynamic composition of volumes. The towers are inter-twinned to share programmatic elements and rotate to maximize the views from the site towards the creek and neighbouring developments. The design quality of the towers to act as a symbol and icon extends beyond their scale and location. These qualities are derived from the boldness of the architectural concept, from the ‘choreographed’ movement that combines the three towers in one overall gesture and ‘weaves’ with a series of public spaces through the podium, the bridges and the landscape beyond.




INTERNATiONAL DESiGN FORUM blog

　計画敷地は、高台にある壇上なった新しい造成地の一角で、形状は13m*11.8mと正方形に近い。南側隣地から1.5m、東側隣地か1.0m低く、西側、北側は6m道路に接道している。北側道路から擁壁（既存地盤面）は、1.5mの高低差があり角地であるが、いわゆる北向き敷地である。
　
「前面道路と地盤面との1.5mの高低差、建ぺい率の角地緩（10％）を最大限に活用すること」と「陽射しの射し込みにくい敷地での計画の提案」を出発点としている。日照・通風を確保するために、南側隣地の建物をかわし可能な限り西側道路にボリューム寄せて配置している。さらに、この2層（1F,2Fの分）で容積率が最大となるのボリュームを建ぺい率が最大になるまで、2階部分をスライドさせている。そこに生じたずれを内部では吹抜け空間に、外部では駐車スペースの庇として利用している。この天空光で明るい吹き抜け空間に各部屋が面するように計画し、明るさ・通風・空間の広がりを確保している。また、1.5mの高低差を利用し、半地下スペースを差し込むことにより、フロアレベルの1.5mスキップが変化に富んだ空間を生み出している。プラン構成は、玄関から水周り（コア）を中心として、回遊するように計画し、緩やかに空間が繋がっている。回遊する程、プライベート性の高い空間となる。



Designerhouse

奥沢の良好な環境の住宅地に建つ専用住宅。建物を半地下とし斜線制限の中で必要な室内空間を確保した。地下1階はご夫婦のための多目的室と寝室、1階は子供室・予備室と洗面浴室、2階は斜線を生かした大きなリビングダイニングとロフトが収められて、トップライトを設けた螺旋階段によって地下まで日照を導いている。将来、お子様が増えたとき、あるいは親御さんが同居されたときなどを考え、1階には伝統的な日本の田の字型プランを採用し、間仕切りのフスマのはめ方によって自由なプランニングができるように工夫している。　小さなかわいらしい家型の各所にさまざまな細かい工夫を施して多様な使い方に対応している。デザイン的には白とシルバー色、ナチュラルな木の色に限定してミニマルな表現としている。



Designerhouse

四方を住宅に囲まれた、都心の住まいの提案。建物が密集した環境でも、開放的で明るい住宅に住みたい。というのがお施主さんの強い要望であった。そこで、プラーバシーを確保しつつ、光と風をたくさん取り入れる住宅を考えた。２枚の曲がった壁：穴をたくさん開けたり、半透明の所もあったり、植栽をして緑化したり：そういう壁によって、環境をコントロールしている。この壁は、外部だけでなく室内にも貫入し、キッチンとダイニングの新しい関係をも生み出している。この2枚の壁は、設計者・施主・工務店にいつの間にか”グリ－ンウォール”と呼ばれていた。




Designerhouse

Zippers are both functional and sexy, holding things together while offering the promise of revealing what’s hidden inside. At La Maison Unique Longchamp, a three-story retail facility in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, the London designer Thomas Heatherwick applies zipper principles to architectural space, teasing shoppers to come inside and see what’s upstairs. 



Archrecord

The envelope of the Jellyfish House, designed by San Francisco-based IwamotoScott ArchitectureArchitecture, acts not just as a physical enclosure, but as an active, smart technology engaged in the remediation of its own environment.  But unlike “smart” homes of the past, this technology is embedded in the structure without user interface. The house therefore presents a condition where architecture is simultaneously structural and ambient.



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