Browsing: Mixed Use

© Armin Hess, Isochrom

Coop Himmelb(l)au has designed a temporary mobile performance space for the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany.  The pavilion will house performances during the annual Opera Festival  in 2010, and once that festival is over, the pavilion will be reassembled in various locations.  Designed to “give the impression of a quieter environment,” the pavilion reduces the apparent noise  to create a ‘zone of silence’ where visitors can sense a change in the soundscape.

More images and more about the pavilion after the break.

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ProjektStudio has designed a multifunctional townhouse at the corner of Dlouhá a Zámecká in Moravian Ostrava.  The townhouse includes commercial spaces on the lower levels while the upper floors can be rented for residential or office purposes.   For the design of the townhouse, the architects have mixed the historical forms of the area with a contemporary expression.   Inspired by the historical horizontal emphasis of the facade treatment, the architects have shifted the facade to creating an irregular textured effect across the building.  This triangulated facade creates a new dramatic effect and provides a break from rows of traditional building faces in that area.  The historical regular window ordering as been modified as windows rotate and combine to form new rhythms in the fenestration.   “Dramatic effect by the view at the proposed new-building is reached with the minimum of devices but all at once in the classical way so that the new building is fresh and progressive, but at the same time it is  accepting  character of its neighbourhood,” explained the architects.

More images of the townhouse after the break. read more »

Another “Part II” Round Up to finish this week. This time, we bring back previously featured mixed use projects. And if you didn’t catch our first part, it’s never to late, check it out right here.

Z Towers / NRJA
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 (read more…)

Dorobanti Tower, Bucharest / Zaha Hadid Architects
Dorobanti tower, a new project by Zaha Hadid Architects in Bucharest moves away from the works we have been seen lately, with a very expressive structure. The 200m tall iconic tower will be located in the heart of the capital city of Romania, at junction of Calea Dorobanti and St. Mihail Eminescu (read more…)

Sugar Cube / KPMB
This mixed-use development project introduces a new strategy for making contemporary architecture within Denver’s historic Lower Downtown Heritage District (LoDo). The design responds to the precise urban design guidelines for LoDo, while helping the local Review Board to expand its guidelines to include contemporary buildings (read more…)

Højblokka_PULS / MAPT + DARK
We looked for a reinterpretation of the urban block typology in combination with vertical multiplication and urban density. The site is situated next to Oslo Central Station and had been formerly occupied by the postal headquarters. Due to its proximity to a variety of infrastructural layers in a dense urban and commercial area (read more…)

Market Hall in Rotterdam / MVRDV
Dutch architects MVRDV strike another one with a new mixed use project in the new inner city heart for the Laurens Quarter, the pre-war centre of Rotterdam. The project, comissioned by Provast, includes an open air market, that due to new hygienic constraints of dutch laws has to be covered. It also includes 246 residences (read more…)

© Damir Fabijanic

Architect: Produkcija 004
Location: Osijek, Croatia
Client: City of Osijek and Panteon d.o.o.
Project architects: Davor Katušic
Project team: Venko Ćurlin, Robert Franjo, Ivana Senjak, Mirko Buvinić, Maja Furlan Zimmermann
Construction: Studio Arhing, Borivoj Pojatina; P&D, Hrvoje Petrovic
Installation: Mario Josipović; Renato Majcunić; Nenad Šutevski
Project area: 14,200 sqm
Budget: 10 mil. Euro
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Damir Fabijanic

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Poland based Tamizo Architects have sent us their latest project, the Kamyk Heritage Park. The idea of the park’s concept was to create a kind of small village with a few different buildings/functions which mix village with contemporary style at the same time.

The plot is located in a small village in Poland called Kamyk. It’s quite big and it’s located in a village landscape plot with two small ponds in the center of it. The main building of the whole concept and a first part of the competition was a restaurant/wedding house building.

More images and full architect’s description after the break. read more »

LAN Architecture’s Mirror Tower contains more than 30,000 identical facets that reflect 14 of the city’s monuments and are orientated to produce smooth transitions between these panoramic viewpoints.  “The starting point of the project was to imagine Beirut in all its complexity. We have imagined the city as an ‘un-finished’ superposition of histories, contexts, architectures and situations; Our project was conceived as an interface, an algorithm that generates new connections and that creates new view axis, ways of observing the history, the present and the future,” explained LAN architects.   The building’s complex envelope reflects changes in surroundings, the seasons and light.  The reflective façade works by globally defining the orientation of each facet of the cylinder’s surface to create the desired reflection.  With the help of specialists, LAN Architecture produced an automated 3D tool that allowed the team to visualize different instances of the facade by changing viewpoints at will, both the reflective area and the position of the reflected images on the tower.

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

Danish architectural company schmidt hammer lassen architects has won a 52,863 m2 mixed-use complex “Konstitucijos Avenue 21” in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

The project is the result of a successful collaboration with Oslo-based Lund+Slaatto Architects, a strategic partner of schmidt hammer lassen architects.

The client had requested cross-scandinavian architect teams for the task which led Lund+Slaatto to invite schmidt hammer lassen to join them. Architect’s description and more images after the break. read more »

The Jerde Partnership’s Namba Parks, in Osaka, Japan, was just named one of the winners of the Urban Land Institute’s 2009 Awards of Excellence: Asia Pacific competition.  When asked to create a gateway to redefine Osaka’s identity, the architects responded with this project that would become a natural intervention in Osaka’s dense and harsh urban condition.  The rooftop park offers a sloping park plane that is “bifurcated by a sinuous, open-air ‘canyon’ path that reinforces the connection with nature while forming the primary circulation pattern.”

More about the park after the break. read more »

The city council of Weilburg, Germany, a dense medieval city, organized a design competition upon the demolition of an existing parking structure.  ACME’s terrace design is a contemporary spin on the Baroque terraced-landscape building typology found nearby in the Weilburg Castle Gardens.  The form becomes an integrated part of the landscape, allowing the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create “specific urban character towards some if its city context”.

This project won the first prize from the voting public and the second prize from the professional jury.

More images and more about the project after the break.

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The flexible mixed use design of KLab architecture’s Emerging Landscapes allows the project’s function to change as the seasons progress.  The project is a small convention center for the winter months, and switches to become a summer camp for children during the second half of the year.

More about the project after the break. read more »

Graft Lab’s latest addition to Dubai, entitled Vertical Village, is a cluster of mix-use buildings that emphasize reducing solar gain and maximizing solar production.  The buildings are self-shaded on the northern side and on the east-west axis to reduce long-angle sun penetration.   Solar collectors on the south end automatically pivot to maximize solar-energy aggregation.   The multi-use building, which is expected to earn a LEED Gold Certificate, offers an appealing aesthetic which will easily make its mark 0n Dubai’s dynamic skyline.  The “futuristic” angular forms create a shared central space with large pools, while the compositional assemblage of the individual buildings form a cohesive whole.

More images after the break. read more »

MAD Architects shared their recently completed design for the Taichung Convention Center with us.  Conceived as “a continuous weave of architecture and landscape that blurs the boundary between architecture, public space and urban landscape, proposing a futuristic vision based on the East’s naturalistic philosophy,” the convention center is the first project in Taiwan commissioned by the Taichung city government.  The project is meant to surpass the traditional metropolitan landmark to become something that pushes Taichung “into the arena of world class cultural cities…. through unique architectural concepts and proposing a new kind of architectural philosophy.”

More about the convention center and more images after the break. read more »

Allied Works Architecture was selected to design the National Music Center project in Calgary’s East Village.  The firm, led by Brad Cloepfil, will have the opportunity to “invent a new kind of institution,” as the center will be the first of its kind for Canada and will be part museum, part education and part performance.   The proposal is comprised of a five-storey building that will incorporate the historic King Edward Hotel, a legendary house of blues, and provide 80,000 sf of new space for the Cantos Music Foundation’s growing collection.  This project marks the first stage of the redevelopment of Calgary’s East Village and the creation of a new music district in the historic heart of the city.

More images and more about the winning proposal after the break. read more »

Resting on the outskirts of Naples, Renzo Piano latest Volcano Buono is a mixed use center  that aims to become integrated into the landscape, rather than just occupying it.  The central piazza of the Volcano includes a 150 meter-wide space that holds an outdoor theater and market, while a series of concentric rings form the center’s commercial areas.  Piano explained that the Volcano  is “a contemporary take on a Greek marketplace, a void as a place for events, meetings, dialogue and the gathering of people”.

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

Renzo Piano’s latest project, the Shard, has recently moved to the construction phase.  The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will be the tallest building in Western Europe and will provide amazing views of London.  The mixed use tower, complete with offices, apartments, a hotel and spa, retail areas, restaurants and a 15-storey public viewing gallery, will sit adjacent to London Bridge station as part of a new development called London Bridge Quarter.  Replacing the 1970’s Southwark Tower on Bridge Street, the Shard is a welcomed addition to the London skyline, and its central location near major transportation nodes will play a key role in allowing London to expand.

More about the tower after the break. read more »

Once completed in 2010, the Bread of Life Global Ministries’ headquarters in Nei-hu, Taipei will be the largest church in Taiwan. Totaling over 12,000 square meters, the structure will be complete with commercial space, offices, cafe, roof deck, and of course, prayer rooms.  Only in the early conceptual stages, Bittoni Design Studio is looking to better the design with constructive criticism from people outside the design team, and who better than you!

After a little more about the project, critique their start after the break. read more »

The Office for Design and Architecture has designed a new Jewish Community Center for Long Island, New York.  Sharing the site with an existing land mark synagogue from 1930, a school center from 1948 and a new wing of social facilities from 1966, the JCC’s space was limited.  Yet, the firm aimed to create a center that would serve as “an iconic sculptural statement in a moderately conservative community” even in the tight space.

More about the JCC after the break. read more »

Internationally recognized practice RMJM Architects have recently announced their groundbreaking $1 billon mixed-use complex for the Atasehir district, the growing residential and business area of Istanbul, Turkey.  RMJM’s complex will allow the new business center to flourish by serving 20,000 people and providing for a variety of their needs. The project will be revolutionary for Turkey as it will become the country’s first LEED-certified mixed-use development upon its 2011 completion date.

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