Browsing: Leisure

It’s Friday. Time to relax. So are these great leisure projects. And in case you missed it, check our first part of leisure Round Up right here.

4 Islands in Maldives / OFIS arhitekti
The government of Maldives runs every few years a bid for the islands that investors can rent for 25 years. The bid has to contain also a concept and architectural proposal for the resort. The extra challenge was developing environmentally friendly, ecologically sensitive and self-sustaining model of 4 different islands (read more…)

Showroom and Leisure Center / Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
French architects Manuelle Gautrand Architecture shared with us their new showroom and leisure center design for Cairo, Egypt. The concrete structure consists of connecting circles and spherical cavities that create a flexible interior allowing users to seamlessly flow through different showrooms (read more…)

Natasha Skin Care / TWS & Partners
The building is about 1,000 square meter building coverage and located at the heart of the city in Bandung. The client want to make something iconic for the architecture as it will be launch as their first new building concept. The program will consist of huge lobby which also serve as a reception and waiting area, a drug store (read more…)

Beachclub / Spanjers Architect
On the beach of Westkapelle, a small coastal town in the Netherlands, recently a new beachclub called ‘Zuiderduin’ has opened its doors for the public. A building with a maximum outdoor floor surface where people can enjoy a snack, a drink and a beautiful view on the beach and the North Sea, when they go to the coast (read more…)

Super Sense Spa 2 / KUU
A few years ago, there were many old buildings being demolished in downtown Shanghai. Walking around the city’s streets, one often saw half-destroyed houses with some of their walls ripped off, exposing rooms with peeling wallpaper, faded pastel-coloured walls, rectangles of ceramic-tiles where bathrooms or kitchens were (read more…)

© Stephan Lucas

Architect: KOZ Architectes / Christophe Ouhayoun – Nicolas Ziesel
Location: Saint-Cloud, France
Project team: Ambrus Evva, François Kharatt
Structural Engineers: EVP Ingénierie
Contractor: Delta Fluides
Acoustic Consultant: Delphi Acoustique
Budget: $3.8M Euro
Project Area: 1,600 sqm
Project year: 2007-2009
Photographs: © Stephan Lucas

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© Manuel Villa

Architect: Manuel Villa
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Collaborators: Arq. Alberto González, Ana María Largacha (Gardens)
Construction: Arq. Manuel Villa
Project area: 7,5 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Manuel Villa / Sergio Gómez

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© Jeremy San

Architects: KUU
Location: Shanghai, China
Project year: 2009
Project area: 220 sqm
Photographs: Jeremy San of stzernstudio

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Architect: Spanjers Architect
Location: Westkapelle, The Netherlands
Client: Fletcher Hotel Group
Footprint: 370 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Spanjers Architect

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Architects: TWS & Partners
Location: Bandung, Indonesia
Principal in charge: Tonny W Suriadjaja
Project team: Inge, Budi Setiawan, Grace Dian, Arianto
Client: Private
Structural engineers: Habitat
Lighting design: TWS & Partners
Main contractor: Habitat
Glass skin specialist: Eztu Glass
Constructed area: 1,000 sqm
Design year: 2006
Construction year: 2007
Photographs: Hartama Barus

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French architects Manuelle Gautrand Architecture shared with us their new showroom and leisure center design for Cairo, Egypt. The concrete structure consists of connecting circles and spherical cavities that create a flexible interior allowing users to seamlessly flow through different showrooms. “Most of the time, the cars are exhibited like art-pieces on those turning platforms. The entire project is imagined around this monumental way of showing cars,” explained the architects.

More about the showroom and more images after the break. read more »

© Paolo Rosselli

Italian based Stefano Boeri Architetti shared with us their latest project: The requalification and recovery of the ex Military Arsenal on the island of La Maddalena, Italy. This project includes a hotel, a congress centre, a conference building, two large exhibition and commercial spaces and a quay for 700 boats.

© Paolo Rosselli

It was conceived as the central point of the G8 summit at Maddalena, event that was recently moved to the earthquaked zone of L’Aquila, and it was developed in only 18 months, thanks to the work of 1600 construction workers, a dozen developers and a large group of professionals and technicians, fulfilling a vision that confirms “the level of distinction of contemporary Italian Architecture”.

The end result is impressive: over 155.000 m2, providing a series of port, receptive, formative and convention infrastructure that will transform the ex Arsenale at Maddalena into one of the principle nautical poles of the eastern Mediterranean. The mixed use project incorporates advanced systems to use solar power and seawater for heating and cooling, reflecting the strong relation of the project with the sea.

Architects description and more photos by  Paolo Rosselli  after the break.
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The fractional ownership super-yacht company YachtPlus launched its first yacht – The Ocean Emerald – in La Spezia, Italy on April 25 in the presence of Norman Foster.

This contemporary 41 metre yacht has been designed with a strong emphasis on space and light and has five suites for up to 12 guests, who will be looked after by a permanent, highly trained crew of seven. The internal planning of the yacht offers total flexibility to respond to the diverse requirements of the owners and their guests and keen attention has been paid to design and detail ranging from the internal (2,790sqft) and external (2,495sqft) areas to cutlery, crockery, fabrics and crew uniforms. All furnishings and fittings are provided by the Italian manufacturer Cassina and kitchen and galley equipment by Schiffini.

Ocean Emerald will be the first of four identical Foster + Partners designed super-yachts to be launched by the company over the next two years. The second yacht, Ocean Pearl will enter service in the autumn 2009 and the third, Ocean Sapphire in the early part of 2010. The fourth yacht, as yet unnamed, is scheduled to launch in the latter part of 2010.

More information here. More images, after the break.
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Architect: OFIS arhitekti
Location: Maldives Islands
Project Leaders: Rok Oman, Špela Videčnik
Design Year: 2004-2006
Further Development: 2009
Design Team: Nejc Batistic, Martina Lipicer, Marisa Baptista
3d Animations & Realisations: David Lozej, Jaka Zvan, Rok Jereb

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After a week of hard work, nothing’s better than a perfect place to relax. So for this Friday’s Round Up, we bring you our previously featured leisure works. So relax, and enjoy.

Las Palmas de Leyda Spa / Cristobal Valenzuela
The project is organized through the barbecue area, main space, where most of the activity takes place. Other areas like the pool, hot tub and fire place, are connected to the main space, allowing several different ambiences, all of them visually connected. All these areas wrapped as one big space, by the wooden skin, made up from 1×3 inches Ulmo wood planks, gives the interior-exterior feeling that we wanted to achieve. The gym, massage room, and steam bath, are connected with the rest of the program, but where conceived as much more private spaces (read more…)

Dellis Cay: Starchitects in the Turks & Caicos archipielago
Super star architects arrive to the Caribbean, specifically to Dellis Cay, a 560-acre island at the Turks & Caicos archipielago. The project, set to be completed by 2010, will feature works by Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, Carl Ettensperger, Zaha Hadid, Kengo Kuma, Piero Lissoni, and Chad Oppenheim. In addition to the 124 villas and 154 residences, the island will have a 30,000 sq ft Spa operated by the Mandarin Oriental, a five star luxury hotel, a signature restaurant and numerous casual dining experiences (read more…)

Geometric Hot Springs / German del Sol
It’s located in the middle of native forests of the Villarrica National Park, in the 13,5 km of the road that crosses the Park between Coñaripe and Pucón. To bath with pleasure, in the midst of nature, 17 pools were carved along 450 meters, with red wooden paths and ramp without steps that drive the visitors into the pools and lets them walk through the project to pick a pool to bath in. Thanks to the candlelight, you won’t trip. Neither would you slip on ice or snow because the path is heated with the thermal water that runs under it before being distributed to the pools (read more…)

Gleichenberg Thermal Bath / JSA
The project is situated in a protected park and consist of a treatment area with about 50 different rooms for medical treatments, a four star hotel with several different restaurants and cafes, and a public thermal bath for the patients and other guests. The waiting areas in the middle of the treatment rooms for the patients are shaped around courtyards allowing sun and views to the trees, as to give the patients the impression of waiting in the park itself. A full treatment might last for several days (read more…)

RELAXX sport and leisure center / AK2
Einsteinova Road is probably the most frequented artery in Bratislava, situated misfortunately, like a big cut through Petržalka town quarter. But some architects show us it is possible to refine such a busy enviroment. The new RELAXX Sport Centre enters the rush locality, harmonizes and directs the noise and chaos. This house is like a sculpture symbolizing the beauty of restlessness and the poetics of velocity. The tension to produce a piece of contemporary architecture was strong also due to the fact the adjacent Atrium building was a building of the year in local architectural competitions (read more…)

Architects: Saucier + Perrotte architectes
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Project team: Gilles Saucier, André Perrotte, Jean-Philippe Beauchamp, Anna Bendix, Trevor Davies, Yves De Fontenay
Structural Engineer: Stavibel
Mechanical & Electrical engineer: Leroux,Beaudoin, Hurens et associés
Contractor: Société Desjardins-Larouche
Client: Gestion Rivière du Diable
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Marc Cramer

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Built over the only thermal springs in the Graubunden Canton in Switzerland, The Therme Vals is a hotel and spa in one which combines a complete sensory experience designed by Peter Zumthor.

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Architects: AK2
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Designers: Andrea Klimková, Peter Kručay
Project Year: 2008
Site Area: 5,418 sqm
Construction Area: 9,271 sqm
Photographs: Andrea Klimková, Ľubo Stacho

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Architects: Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor
Location: Bad Gleichenberg, Austria
Design Period: 2005-2007
Construction period: 2005-2008
Client: HCC/Kappa
Project Architects: Olav Jensen(pl), Børre Skodvin (pl), Ane Forfang, Carl Patrik Larsson, Helge Lunder, Minna Riska, Dagfinn Sagen, Thomas Knigge, Torunn Golberg, Torstein Koch, AnneLise Bjerkan
Collaborating Local Architect: Domenig Wallner, Graz
Landscape: Kim Wilkie
Budget: 1.000.000 EURO (US $31.52 millions)
Constructed Area: 17,500 sqm
Photographs: JSA

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UPDATE: We wrongly credited the whole project to AS+GG, but they were only comissioned to design the three main towers, on a master plan designed by SOM Chicago.

It seems no one told Dubai about the financial crisis, as new projects keep being unveiled. This time, our green friends over Inhabitat tipped us on a mega development, owned by Maraas Holding: The Jumeirah Gardens. The master plan for this project was designed by SOM Chicago, and consists of  a mixed-use development that incorporates low, medium, and high-density zones for business, residences, retail, leisure, and recreation – a city within a city, with an estimated cost of US$95 billion.

The three main towers were comissioned to Chicago based architects AS+GG (Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill), The most impressive one -and the third tallest tower in the UAE- is 1 Dubai, pictured above. The tri-partite skyscraper will be 3218 ft (981m) tall, and the towers will be connected by a series of glass suspension sky-bridges. This bridges are so big, they even grow palms on them as you can see on the further renderings. At the base of the buildings, grand arched entrances allow boats to travel underneath the building and into a central atrium space. The mixed-use development includes a hotel, residential, commercial retail and entertainment space totaling 800,000-900,000 square meters.

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© Paul Ott photografiert

The “House Place Jordan “contains structural interferences in an existing garden plant of a single family house in Klagenfurt – Viktring (Kärnten/Austria). Geometrical existing ways leading through the garden and extended in their function of ways – understood as linear surfaces of spatial possibilities – detaching, consolidating themselves, forming spatial compressions, into the earth disappearing or to the sky striving. Always co-ordinated as some kind of service to the user.

More info & photograph by Paul Ott after the break

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Architects: German del Sol
Location: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Structural Engineer: Fernando del Sol y Enzo Valladares
Contractor: Salfa S.A.
Electrical Consultant: Renato Lorca
Sanitary Consultant: Francisco Cervantes
Site Area: 3,8 ha
Constructed Area: 88,5 sqm (changing rooms and bathrooms) / 493 sqm (Pools) / 501 m long (wooden path)
Photographs: Guy Wenborne

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Architects: German del Sol
Location: Villarica National Park, Villarica, Chile
Project team: José Luis Ibañez G., Carlos Venegas, José Instroza
Contractor: José Luis Ibañez G.
Structure: Fernando del Sol V.
Project year: 2002 – 2004
Construction year: 2005
Photographs: Guy Wenborne

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Super star architects arrive to the Caribbean, specifically to Dellis Cay,  a 560-acre island at the Turks & Caicos archipielago. The project, set to be completed by 2010, will feature works by Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, Carl Ettensperger, Zaha Hadid, Kengo Kuma, Piero Lissoni, and Chad Oppenheim. In addition to the 124 villas and 154 residences, the island will have a 30,000 sq ft Spa operated by the Mandarin Oriental, a five star luxury hotel, a signature restaurant and numerous casual dining experiences.

Below you can see further images of the individual projects, done by d-box.  There aren´t too many images available, but you can certainly notice the hand of each architect on this projects, specially the Zaha and Chipperfield ones.

From this project, two houses took my attention. First, a house by Chad Oppenheim, pictured above. I really like the public area of this house, which reminds me of contemporary brazilian houses: A unique concrete volume covering the open public space and an enclosed area for the bedrooms. You can really feel outside while being covered by the structure, which has a big span with no elements that block the views.

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