Browsing: Office Buildings

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 »

© Coop Himmelb(l)au

Coop Himmelb(l)au’s House of Music in Aalborg, Denmark is a  shared hybrid space that becomes a center of inspiration, “both of the shared-synergetic behavior and of the form and expression of the architecture..” Cultural and educational functions are interspersed between shared public and performance spaces, creating a network of interaction among the public, artists, students and educators.  Situated in a dynamic urban grid, the House of Music becomes a full extension of the  city, linking the character of the city with the new opportunities the Music Hall provides.

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Architects: J. MAYER H. Architects
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Architect on Site: Imhotep, Donachie und Blomeyer
Sturctural Engineers: Lydia Thiesemann, CBP
Building Services: Energiehaus, Sineplan
Light Engineers: Andres – Lichtplanung
Landscape Architects: Breimann & Bruun
Project Year: 2007
Constructed Area: 5,436 sqm
Photographs: fotografieSCHAULIN, Hiepler Brunier, Dirk Fellenberg & Schraubverschluss

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Architects: Jasmax
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Client: IAG New Zealand
Building Owner: M6 Investments
Project Area: 9,250 sqm
Project Completed: 2009
Photographer: Simon Devitt

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Greeen! Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their Eco Towers, an office building in Hamburg, Germany for the Building and Environment Authorities.  The office will accommodate 1400 people and will include several public areas as well as green gardens to “give room to nature and a create a green ambiance to all workers and visitors.”

More about the Eco Towers after the break. read more »

Architect: Amanda Levete Architects
Location: London, England
Project Director: Ho-Yin Ng
Project team: Gidon Fuehrer, Chris Geneste, Soren Aagaard, Alan Dempsey – Project Architect, John O’Mara, Michael Mitchell
Client: Clarendon Properties
Main Contractor: Powells Group
Façade: Frener & Reifer
Interiors: Windsor Workshop Ltd.
Constructed Area: 14,220 sqm
Project year: 2007-2009
Photographs: Gidon Fuehrer

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Exterior render

The skylines of the world´s most important cities (except for Dubai I guess) are shaped by the typical office tower. The reason is simple: it provides a flexible floor plan, with an economical structural system. “Bang for the buck” if you want to call it. To address lighting and cooling issues that these tower traditionally have, electric lighting and air conditioning were the solution.

But in times when energy is a big issue, we can no longer design buildings that depend on high consumption to provide a comfortable working environment, specially in tropical weathers. And this is what BIG had as a design principle for the Shenzhen International Energy Mansion competition they just won, proposing a tower based on an efficient and well-proven floor plan, enclosed in a skin specifically modified and optimized for the local climate.

Exterior render

We propose to enhance the sustainable performance of the building drastically by only focusing on its envelope, the façade.

We propose to make the Shenzhen Energy Mansion the first specimen of a new species of office buildings that exploit the buildings interface with the external elements – sun, daylight, air humidity, wind – as a source to create a maximum comfort and quality inside.

The Shenzhen Energy Mansion will appear as a subtle mutation of the classic skyscraper – a natural evolution rather than a desperate revolution.

More details on how this facade works, along with more information after the break:

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