ArchtRoom

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.



Archrecord        Video

This design for a house on a Washington state ranch by Peter Macapia, the principal of Brooklyn-based Design Office for Research and Achitecture (DORA), applies his interest in the relationship of formal geometries and energy relations. 



Archrecord 

Approaching the Louvre Museum in Abi Dhabi from the city, the white, low cupola seems a flattened echo of the round cupolas found in Arab architecture.

Approaching from the water, the shaded space shows its scattered light, which continues the sparkling light of the water onto the architecture.

On a more abstract level, the museum is a ‘city’ with houses, streets and plaza’s that is ‘protected’ from the sun by a Buckminster Fuller kind of dome. If we fold it a bit further: if ‘protection’ becomes ‘conservation’, we could also read in it all a small Pompeii. The cupola becomes the ash that conserves a civilization.



Eikongraphia

The new Science Center in Hamburg designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA looks just like an amethyst. As Rem Koolhaas despises the explicit use of iconography in architectural design, the amethyst analogy is not deliberately meant. The Science Center measures 14.000 square meters and features an aquarium, an academic theater, and probably also a planetarium.



Eikongraphia

Favoritearchitecture

The existing construction primarily started as an office building; the building is re-designed as a residence bearing the Loft concept. The long, thin planned building is located on a total 3.870sqm area, the front block consists of 11 stories above the ground floor, and the rear block is ground-floor +7 stories. Lofts are at various sizes and types; differing from 68 to182sqm; including duplexes; with terraces or gardens. The façade is perceived as an assortment of boxes; also, each unique module shall be distinguished from outside due to the curtain system, a range of colors and light will be reflected from inside, as a method of benefiting functional solutions for esthetics purposes. Offering an efficient, tranquil, life style in modern-day standards in “downtown”, the complex is supported by the recent technologies; the car park, storage, central heating and ventilation, security, maintenance services and “intelligent house” system grant a user-friendly environment and easy access. The building is not only programmed as a housing facility but also it is planned to be a high quality social venue; the entrance is made through the lobby on the first floor where meeting rooms, a health center, cafés and restaurants and the other common areas take place. Total site area is 3.456 m² and the construction area is 30.159 m².



Architectureweek

The Philharmonie de Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel, will be located in the northeastern Paris neighborhood of La Villette and inaugurated in 2012. Above, a model of the northeast view of the concert hall.


NYtime

A dramatic new wing of Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) designed by Daniel Libeskind is set to open 2 June. Dubbed the Lee-Chin Crystal, the 175,000 square foot aluminum and glass clad building will house seven collection galleries on two levels, two special exhibition spaces, new retail and dining facilities and a new main entrance and lobby. Libeskind’s ‘Crystal” is comprised of five interlocking, self-supporting prismatic structures that interface with the historic buildings that embrace it. With hardly a right angle anywhere, its sloping walls create unique interior spaces with soaring volumes and such distinctive details as the “Spirit House”, a void at the heart of the building that is traversed by criss-crossing bridges. Slashing windows fill the rooms with natural light and create uniquely framed views of the cityscapes outside. The new wing is the centerpiece of the Museum’s $250 million expansion and renovation project to be completed by 2009.


WorldArchitecturenews

 

Perceptive Pixel, Inc. was founded by Jeff Han in 2006 as a spinoff of the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences to develop and market the most advanced multi-touch system in the world. 



A five-months-old child lying in his cradle, looking upwards with curiosity and interest at a group of toy bees hung over the cradle, flowing around in the air; the neonate stretches his arm in order to grasp the bees, but doesn't reach them. Those colored moving stimuli are very attractive for the newborn, and he acts expressing his interest. 

Natural Interaction is the investigation of the relationships between humans and machines following this vision: we create interactive artifacts that respect and exploit the natural dynamics through which people communicate and discover the real world.

Our research is aimed at creating technology-enhanced spaces that sense and understand human behaviors and expressions, and present digital content as it was real, physical stuff.





Multi-touch update      NaturalInteraction      iO      Sensitivefloor      Sensitivewall

LAb[au] is happy to announce you its new urban interactive installation Touch on the DexiaTower and Place Rogier in Brussels, Belgium. The project takes as a starting point Brussels 145 m high DexiaTower, from which 4200 windows can be individually colour-enlightened by RGB-led bars, turning the facade into an immense display.

Instead of considering this infrastructure as a flat screen (surface) displaying pre-rendered video loops, the project is working on the architectural characteristics of the tower and its urban context. The characteristics of the building; orientation, volume, scale… are used as parameters to set up a spatial, temporal and luminous concept, which moreover allows people to directly interact with the tower.On Place Rogier, at the bottom of the tower, a station is mounted where people can interact either individually or collectively with the tower through a multi touch screen.


MediaArchitecture      Video

Kunst oder künstlerisch - imposant auf jedenfall! Die Fassade des Parkhaus KaDeWe, ausgestattet mit über 100 farbigen Perspexkanälen und dem idee. Schriftzug mit LED animiert, macht ordentlich was her.


Roomdividion

NOMADE has been retained as finalist in the international competition for the Shenzhen Nanshan Sports and Cultural Complex located in Shenzhen, China. Other finalists(4) include Arat Isozaki. Architect of record is BIAD, China.

The Governor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan announced that Mecanoo architecten has won the design competition for the new National Performing Arts Centre. At 100,000 m2 the National Performing Arts Centre is to become the largest theatre complex in Taiwan. An important source of inspiration for Mecanoo’s building design were the existing one of the world’s largest trees, the banyan trees on location. The partially grass and plant covered roof creates natural and efficient building cooling in the subtropical climate. The large roof also provides an informal public space where the city residents can stroll, practice Tai Chi, mediate or just relax. The design also consists of a concert hall of 2,300 seats, an opera house with 2,000 seats, a theatre hall with 1000 seats, an experimental Black Box with 500 seats, an open-air theatre and park design. Work on the 200m Euros is set to begin in early 2009 and to be completed by 2012.


WorldArchitectureNews

Frank Gehry is adding a much-needed touch of lightness to the Manhattan skyline just as the city finally emerges from a period of mourning.

IAC headquarters building.
March 22, 2007, Manhattan, New York.