Browsing: Arup

City as Living Factory of Ecology, winning entry by ARUP, Sauerbruch Hutton, Experientia and Galley Eco Capital.

In my opinion, the best sustainable projects have been in small scales. Urban scale projects have been more difficult to get going, due to the their inherent complexity.
But I am confident that recent initiatives are about to make the step forward, specially the ones that are being produced on countries that have the have their governments focused on this.

On of this examples is the recently awarded Low2No design competition, organized by Sitra (Finnish Innovation Fund) and the City of Helsinki, to find a on design a large building complex on a reclaimed harbour at the western edge of Helsinki’s central business district.

Given that the repertoire of sustainable urban development models is still in its infancy, the question of “who & how” is our question of first order. WHO: We believe that identifying the best team and approach is the key factor impacting the robustness of the final solution. HOW: Our competition is designed to seek approaches for four central objectives applied at the scale of a city block:

1. low- and one day no- carbon emissions
2. energy efficiency
3. high architectural, spatial and social value
4. sustainable materials and methods

The finalists included top practices and consultants such as ARUP, Sauerbrunch  Hutton, Space Syntax, Transsolar, ARO, REX, Front, BIG, among others.  The award went to C_Life by ARUP, Sauerbruch Hutton, Experientia and Galley Eco Capital.

Videos and boards for the winning and finalists entries  after the break.

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Hamburg-Harburg Harbor, Germany, is on the cusp of it’s first nearly entirely sustainable creative-industrial complex.  The development ECO CITY, designed by tec architecture with the help of ARUP, aims to attract industry, entertainment and pedestrian life back to the neighborhood.  ECO CITY’s ten major structures, ranging in size from studios to large warehouses, offer a variety of “different spaces for different purposes, bringing both large-scale industry and creative start-ups together in one, cooperative, and eco friendly business community.”

More about ECO CITY after the break. read more »

Architects: Coll-Barreu Arquitectos – Juan Coll-Barreu & Daniel Gutiérrez Zarza
Location: Jaca (Huesca), Spain
Collaborators: Pablo Castro, Gorka García, Estibaliz Sanz Reyero, Jorge Bilbao
Project year: 2004-2005
Construction year: 2005-2008
Constructed area: 18,123 sqm
Budget: 24,418,149 EURO (US $32,97M)
Structure: Arup
Ice Production: Ati
Contractor: Vías
Photographs: Aleix Bagué

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Architects: Baulderstone Hornibrook Queensland & Cox Rayner Architects
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Design year: 2007
Construction year: 2008-2009
Structural Engineer: Baulderstone Hornibrook Queensland Pty Ltd and ARUP Engineers
Budget: $63,3 million
Images: Cox Rayner Architects

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Architects: J. MAYER H. Architects
Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Project Team: Juergen Mayer H., Andre Santer, Julia Neitzel, Sebastian Finckh, Wilko Hoffmann, Marcus Blum
Client: Vermoegen und Bau, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Amt Karlsruhe
Project Year: 2005-2007
Constructed Area: 3,500 sq
Architect on site: Ulrich Wiesler
Multidisciplinary Engineers: ARUP GmbH
Landscape Architects: Karl Bauer, Karlsruhe
Photographs: David Franck

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The last 2 times I went to San Francisco, I saw the progress of the new California Academy of Sciences building, by italian architect Renzo Piano. It was amazing to see how the 2.5 acre green roof took shape. The building is now complete, it was opened to public yesterday.

The building recovers two and mixes it with a whole new structure, which is actually very transparent, connecting it visually with the Golden Park, away from the old conception of dark museums. Shade will be provided by a canopy that goes around the bulding, with solar panels on it.

Sustainability was a key aspect of the design, as this project is one of the ten pilot “green building” projects of the San Francisco Department of Environment, aiming to get platinum LEED certification. Actually, the building will consume 30-35% less energy than required by code.

The project conserves two limestone walls from the previous building (1934), and houses a planetarium, a rain forest habitat and an aquarium, and several exhibition spaces to house the several Academy collections.

The planetarium and the bubble that contains the rain forest habitat are the two big spheres that shape the green roof. The roof becomes a landscape with California native species, that won´t need extra maitenance or water, attracting local species to occupy it. Thus, the green roof won´t be fully accesible to visitors, who can only walk through a small path.

All the pictures on this post are © Tim Griffith. Check out his website for great architecture photography.

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In  my opinion Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, is one of the best architects when it comes to give shape to the interests of an “unspoken” client on public buildings,either representing the values of a country or a culture. All with exceptional syntax and presentation skills.

And BIG’s latest project (in collaboration with Arup and 2+1), the Danish Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo, does it again, by taking the best of living in Copenhagen and placing it on China for visitors to experience.

Basically, the pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion there’s a big pool with fresh water from Copenhagen’s harbor, on which visitors can even swim.

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¿Remember GreenPix, the 2,200 sqm LED media wall powered by solar panels we featured some months ago? Alexandra Lerman published a  documentary about the GreenPix on which Simon Giostra, founder of Simone Giostra & Partners. Giostra explains the challenge to design and build this gigantic media wall, with the help of engineering experts ARUP.

Actually Giostra  is trying to convince the chinese goverment to display user generated content on the media wall, which is currently under the curatory of the authorities. This will make if fully interactive.

You can also download a software -available for Mac and PC- to simulate the media wall on your computer using Quicktime videos.

Reminds me of the display on the stage where Beck played at the Oulands Festival in San Francisco last week.

It’s not a rendering but an actual photo of the completed facade of the CCTV Building by OMA in Beijing. The visible face of this iconic building was finished just in time for the olympics, after 6 years of hard work between OMA, ARUP and chinese partners ECADI.

Quite impressive, isn’t it? Hopefully the next pictures we publish with the CCTV finished will be taken by me.

Architects: Steven Holl Architects
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Architects: Steven Holl, Chris McVoy (design architect), Chris McVoy (partner in charge), Martin Cox, Richard Tobias (project architect), Masao Akiyoshi, Gabriela Barman-Kraemer, Matthias Blass, Molly Blieden, Elissavet Chryssochoides, Robert, Edmonds, Simone Giostra, Annette Goderbauer, Mimi Hoang, Makram El-Kadi, Edward Lalonde, Li Hu, Justin Korhammer, Linda Lee, Fabian Llonch, Stephen O’Dell, Irene Vogt, Urs Vogt, Christian Wassmann (project team)
Local Architect: BNIM Architects
Project Year: 1999-2007
Structural Engineer: Guy Nordenson and Associates
Mechanical Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners / W.L. Cassell & Associates
Glass Consultant: R.A. Heintges & Associates
Lighting Consultant: Renfro Design Group
Landscape Architect: Gould Evans Goodman Associates
Artist: Walter De Maria
Budget: US $200,000,000
Constructed Area: 15,329 sqm
Photographs: ©Andy Ryan

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Architects: 3XN / Kim Herforth Nielsen, Bo Boje Larsen, Kim Christiansen
Location: København, Denmark
Client: Tivoli
Year of Design: 2004
Year of Construction: 2005
Engineering: Arup, BIrch & Krogboe
Contractor: NCC (partnering process)
Constructed Area: 4,000 sqm
Photographs: Adam Mørk

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The 2008 Olympic Games aren´t just a gathering of athletes, it´s also a showcase of the most innovative buildings and technologies like GreenPIX, the Zero Energy Media Wall by Simone Giostra & Partners and ARUP, pictured above.

This curtain wall covers the front of the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. It features the worlds largest color LED display, powered by a photovoltaic system integrated into the glass curtain wall.

This Media Wall will showcase a selection of specially commissioned video installations and live performances by artists from China, Europe and the US, starting in May. Pictures, construction progress, diagrams and videos after the break.

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