Hong Kong Alternative Car Park Tower Competition
The parking structure has captured the imagination of novelists, photographers and film-makers, and yet it remains peripheral to our culture – best understood as a forbidding fictional setting or often as an imposing silent building that we encounter along the way. Car parks are not very appreciated by users (too cold, too dark, too insecure etc.) and this competition hopes to offer a new take on this type of building that is far too quiet.
The aim of this international competition, hosted by [AC-CA], is to design an iconic and alternative car park tower in the heart of Hong Kong. The new tower will include several possibilities for events such as concerts, art exhibitions, fashion shows, ceremonies dinners, cinematic projections, etc. More competition information after the break.
AD Classics: Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank / Foster + Partners
Envisioned during a perceptive period in the former colonies history, the brief for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters was simple: to create the best bank building in the world. Through a meticulous process of questions and challenges, including the involvement of a feng shui geomancer, Foster + Partners addresses the temperament of banking in Hong Kong and how it should be expressed in built form. By doing so, it virtually reinvented the office tower. More information after the break.
Wuxi Elementary School Re-Design / Atelier XÜK
Collaborating with Tongji Architecture Design & research Institute , Atelier XÜK has won a design competition for a renovation project of a historical elementary school in Wuxi. Additional images of XÜK’s winning design after the jump.
Shanghai’s Pudong District on the Rise
With nearly 23 million people, Shanghai is China’s biggest and most populous city. It is the financial and commercial capital of the country and a leading cultural center in Asia. Throughout the 1990′s and 2000′s the city underwent immense growth and redevelopment, thriving on international business. The futuristic and ambitious skyline of Pudong is the heart of Shanghai’s business district, and is growing swiftly with towering skyscrapers and an advanced urban environment. More pictures and information after the break.
Dug by Topotek1
For the 2011 Xi’an International Horticultural Exposition, the Berlin-based landscape architecture office Topotek1 “dug” a hole to the other side of the world. From its edges visitors to this garden in China can peer into a real or imagined world at the end of the tunnel. Whether these are the cows from the pampas of Argentinas, commuters rushing among transit through New York City, the maritime life of Stockholm, and layers of history so audible among the streets of Berlin. These soundtracks pique the imagination of the visitors, transferring them away from China, away from the garden,” and into a far-off place.
Foreign Development in China’s Growing Cities
With China’s high level of exports and booming real estate market, it is predicted that the country is on its way to becoming the world leader in economic performance. As a result, the Chinese government has been taking steps to show the world its growing economy and the newfound modernity that has come with it. China’s largest cities have already spent hundreds of billions of dollars on new development and infrastructure projects, ranging all the way from from roads, bridges and buildings to new financial districts. In fact, the country is expected to lay down a total of 4.7 billion square feet of construction in this year alone. More information after the break.
Qingdao Science and Technology City / KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten
KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten were awarded first place in the international competition for the Qingdao Science and Technology City the company’s design for the approx. 600-hectare site in the north of the port city of China. The primary objective of the project was to create a sustainable urban living space for the 100.000 inhabitants, in which a high quality of life with ecological equilibrium is achieved. Come back after the break for more about this project.
Ningbo Digital / Synarchitects
Synarchitects has shared with us their forward thinking design for Ningbo Digital in Ningbo, China. A skew of images can be seen after the jump in addition to a brief description from the designers.
Facade Planning for the Hangzhou Congress Center / Peter Ruge Architekten
After perennial design and construction phase the congress center of the new city administration of Hangzhou, China is completed. The concept and design of the facade was made by Peter Ruge Architekten in collaboration with Prof Wang Xiaosong from DBH GmbH. Completed images of the facade and a brief description from the architects is available after the break.
Shanghai Oriental Sports Center / gmp architekten
The Shanghai Oriental Sports Center (SOSC) just celebrated its opening for the 14th FINA World Swimming Championships from 16th to 31st July 2011. The sports complex was designed and built by architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp), who won the competitive bidding in 2008, and constructed it in under two and a half years. It consists of a hall stadium for several sports and cultural events, a natatorium (swimming hall), an outdoor swimming pool and a media centre. In keeping with a sustainable urban development policy, the SOSC was built on former industrial brownfield land along the Huangpu River. The individual venues are designed so that after the Swimming Championships, they can be used for a variety of other purposes.
Architects: gmp architekten
Location: Shanghai, China
Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Nikolaus Goetze with Magdalene Weiss
Project Leader: Chen Ying
Team: Jan Blasko, Lü Cha, Lü Miao, Jörn Ortmann, Sun Gaoyang, Yan Lüji, Jin Zhan, Fang Hua, Martin Friedrich, Fu Chen, Ilse Gull, Kong Rui, Lin Yi, Katrin Löser, Ren Yunping, Alexander Schober, Nina Svensson, Tian Jinghai, Zhang Yan, Zhou Yunkai, Zhu Honghao
Project Year: 2011
Client: Shanghai Administration of Sports
Photographs: Marcus Bredt
SuperStadium / Alan Lu
A proposal for an Olympic complex for Harbin’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, SuperStadium, designed by Alan Lu, seeks to integrate the multitude of Olympic arenas and villages into one continuous entity. Consequently, this design allows for a seamless transition between programs and events. More images and project description after the break.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture Win Competition for 4th Tallest Building in the World
Chicago-based firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture recently announced that it has won an international competition to design the Wuhan Greenland Center, which will likely be China’s third-tallest building, and the fourth tallest in the world, when completed in about five years at 606 meters (1,988 feet) high. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer in Wuhan near the meeting of the Yangtze and Han rivers.
More images and project description after the break.
Red Town Office / Taranta Creations
Architects: Taranta Creations / Enrico Taranta, Juriaan Calis, Giorgio Radojkovic
Location: Shanghai, China
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 120 sqm
Photographs: Shen Qiang / Shen Photo
LIA Passenger Terminal Building / Edit!
The LIA Passenger Terminal Building for Hong Kong, China by Edit! was developed to respond the surrounding urban structure, and to create a visually striking landmark that will act as a gate point for the city. It is designed with the intention to become an iconic character for the city while becoming an environmentally-efficient structure.
Read on for more on this project after the break.
Matsu Flagship Store / EXH Design
Architects: EXH Design
Location: Zhaojiabang Road, Shanghai, China
Project area: 1,800 sqm
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Meng Studio
Fine Arts School / Synarchitects
Architects: Synarchitects
Location: Beijing, China
Project Year: 2007
Project Area: 136,000 sqm
Photographs: Courtesy of Synarchitects
NJFS CEO Office / EXH Design
Architects: EXH Design
Location: Ruanjian Avenue, Nanjing, China
Project area: 3,200 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Meng Studio
Architects in Mission Architecture Competition: “Post- Industry Age, Green Transformation”
This year the Architects In Mission (AIM) competition committee is hosting its annual competition for architecture students and young professionals to demonstrate their design skills and abilities. The topic this year is “Post-Industry Age, Green Transformation” where participants will be asked to redesign a Beijing steel factory, the biggest in China.
The site is a part of the Central Business District of China and is heavily influenced by the rapid urbanization. Green Transformation aims to make use of the land resource, spatial quality and other conditions of the old industrial zones, and transform the previous heavy industrial production to new industries with low-pollution and low-energy consumption. It is geared toward the rehabilitation of brownfields, and creating diverse cultural spaces within the developing cities.
For more information on the competition visit AIM’s website
waa Wins 1st Place in Xian International Wetland Park Competition
waa and Xian university of Technology and Architecture institute is pleased to announce their recent successful pitch to design XIAN’s new cultural hub. The Scheme incorporates 9 museums 3km south of central Xian. The Council envisages the project as an investment for future growth in the rapid modern technology’s and design sector to benefit the next generation of young Artists, designers and Animators. It is hoped that Xian can progress from the success of the recent Ecological world expo and fuse itself in the minds of the International consciousness.
In Progress: Sky Courts / Höweler + Yoon Architecture
Sky Courts is a 20,000 sqf corporate club house that incorporate short-term housing, office space, and entertainment facilities utilizing the logics of the courtyard and sloped roof. The project packs several courtyards into a defined perimeter and utilizes the sloped roof to accommodate program in the wedge between courtyards, allowing the project to read as 100% courtyard from above. The complex lacks a single center; instead it is a network with multiple centers, and multiple paths, edges and liners. The sequence through these precincts creates a series of layered spaces that line exterior spaces, and views from one courtyard might look through perimeter spaces and into other courtyards.
