© Tim Harris

Tim Harris just shared with us some photos of the Doha Office Tower in Qatar, a 45-story tall tower by Jean Nouvel currently under construction, with an interesting skin.

Tim says: The Tower is in the West Bay area of Doha, close to the iconic pyrimidal Sheraton hotel, built in the 1980′s when it was alone and terminated the view of the prettiest corniche’s in the Middle East.

Now there is a frenzy of building and this area has become the financial and business hub of the city. Nouvel’s tower stands amid a mixed bag of buildings some dating back closer to the Sheraton but most built in the last few years.

The adjacent cylindrical building that expands at the bottom and top, is the ‘Tornado Tower’, and has just won the best tall building award in the Middle East and North Africa.

The ‘Tornado Tower’ lacks shading and becomes very dusty. Nouvel’s tower acheives the opposite with effortless ease, elegance and elán.

Expect this building to be winning awards soon.

More pictures after the break:

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Architects: MAD
Location: Beijing, China
Structural Engineers: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD)
Mechanical Engineers: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD)
Façade/cladding consultants: King General Engineering, SuP Ingenieure GmbH
Interior Designers: Lim.Teo + Wilkes Design Works Pte Ltd
Landscape Designer: Earthasia Design Group
Site Area: 7,779 sqm
Constructed Area: 56,994 sqm
Building height: 106 meters
Images: MAD

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Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

To make this possible, the central core of the building slants in the opposite direction to the lean of the structure, and it straightening as it grows. It sits on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building.

A gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground, has been constructed on the 17th and 18th floors, the halfway point of the 35-story, 525-foot tall tower.

Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi’s first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury, 5-star hotel and will provide 200 hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi and will serve ADNEC’s (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company) visitors and exhibitors as well as international business and leisure travelers.

Architects: MAD
Location: Erdos, Inner Mongolia
Director in Charge: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun
Design team: Shang Li, Andrew C. Bryant, Howard Jiho Kim, Matthias Helmreich , Zheng Tao, Qin Lichao, Yang Lin, Sun Jieming Yin Zhao , Du Zhijian
Collaborators: China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, The Institute of Shanxi Architectural Design and Research
Site Area: 27,760 sqm
Constructed Area: 41,227 sqm
Status: Under Construction
Client: Erdos Municipal Government
Images: MAD

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Architect: Jesse Reiser + Nanako Umemoto
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Design Team: Mitsuhisa Matsunaga, Kutan Ayata, Jason Scroggin, Cooper Mack, Michael Overby, Roland Snooks, Michael Young
Assistants & Interns: Tina Tung, Raha Talebi, Yan Wai Chu
Structure: Ysrael A. Seinuk , PC, New York, NY
General Contractor: Dubai Contracting Company (DCC), Dubai, UAE
Client: Creekside Development Corporation, Dubai, UAE
Site area: 3,195 sqm
Constructed Area: 31,400 sqm
Project year: 2006
Construction year: 2007-2009
Photographs: Reiser + Umemoto

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The extension of the fira de barcelona in montjuïc is planned half inside and half outside Barcelona’s municipal term, at the back of the Montjuïc hill, following the Gran Via avenue straight to L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

Japanese architect Toyo Ito won the competition for the masterplan of the project.

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This project by young Latvian architects NRJA (previously featured on AD) is currently under construction. The complex, in Riga, Latvia, includes 2 towers (29 and 30 stories each), connected by a floor bridge. It also includes a 4-stories podium. Completion is expected durin 1st quarter 2010.

Architect´s description, more renderings and construction photos after the break. You can also watch the construction site via webcam.

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Architects: PLAN 01 architects
Location: Rennes Métropole, France
Project team: Jean Bocabeille, Anne-Cécile Comar, Philippe Croisier, Christophe Ouhayoun, Stéphane Pertusier, Ignacio Prego, Dominique Vitti, Anne-Charlotte Zanassi, Julien Zanassi and Nicolas Ziesel
Project manager: Daniela Miccolis
Project year: 2005-2009
Site Area: 1,100 sqm
Budget: US $2,72 M
Photographs: © Stéphane Chalmeau

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This building reuses an existing structure to receive a new program, through the addition of a new complex core, that doesn´t end up like a parasite, rather than a whole.

The glass skin shows an innovative work, that results in a very light skin.

Architect´s description:

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The Wyly Theatre in Dallas is almost finished. This project is very interesting, and REX/OMA show once again how designing a building goes way beyond that working on the volumes and the skin, but to rethink the program itself.

Anyone familiar with a theatre knows the program order hasn´t changed much, as it´s pretty much the same you find on Neufert. But REX/OMA take this a step further, by re-studying the program relations and adjacencies, resulting on a unique building. Perfect for the client, as the Dallas Theater Center (DTC) is recognized as one of the country’s few innovative theater companies located outside the triumvirate of New York, Chicago, and Seattle. On the top of that, an interesting aluminium skin adds to make this building unique.

The facade is being installed this days, opening expected during 2009.

Now, the architects description:

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Museum Plaza is -in my opinion- one of the most amazing mixed-use project of our time. It makes all the variables (economical regulations, community, local authorities) fit together, on an pure volume – with a Mies-ian look.

But REX, and the following video, explain it better:

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Photos on the construction of a new house by Toyo Ito in “Ocho al Cubo“, a project with 8 houses by contemporary chilean architects in Marbella, plus international guests. All houses are required to be made out of concrete. This one features a big rounded inner patio. See more pictures after the break.

See also our previously featured house by Sebastian Irarrázaval at Ocho al Cubo.

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290 Mulberry is defined by its context through a direct response to zoning and building code regulations. Located in Nolita, New York, this building is bound on the north by Houston Street and on the west by the historic Puck Building on Mulberry Street.  A zoning district requirement specifying a masonry enclosure for the two street walls created an opportunity to respond directly to the Puck Building, one of New York’s most recognizable masonry buildings.  We then focused the idea on the reinterpretation of local laws and regulations with a contemporary response to masonry construction and detailing that doesn’t attempt to imitate the past.

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Right next to their VM Housing project, BIG is currently finishing their new project: Mountain Dwellings. But this time, the client asked for a specific program with 2/3 parking and 1/3 living. Rather than doing 2 separate buildings, BIG decided to combine the splendours of the suburban backyard with the social intensity of urban density, resulting on a terraced housing over the parking area.

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If house design is a challenge, imagine designing a house for elephants. Foster + Partners took the challenge and is currently finishing the Elaphant House at the Copenhagen Zoo, for a group of Indian elephants.

The Elephant House is covered with lightweight, glazed domes that enclosure spaces with a strong visual connection with the sky and changing patterns of daylight.

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