Yazdani Studio shared with us the Ordos Restaurant they are building in the Mongolian Desert. As I told you before on our interview with Mehrdad Yazdani, Yazdani Studio was one of the first practices working on the new city, with one villa finishing construction  and also a Concert Hall and this restaurant (also nearing completion), public programs required by this huge development.

During the interview, Mehrdad told us about the importance of the central courtyard for passive cooling, required on this harsh climate. More details about the project after the break:

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© Shu He

Architect: EXH Design – (Erich Diserens, Xi Zhang, Peter Becker, Kenan Liu)
Location: Beijing, China
Constructor: Beijing Shouhua Construction Group
Existing area: 104 sqm
Extension area: 213 sqm
Project year: 2007 – 2009
Photography: Shu He

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DeStefano and Partners have created a new commercial center for Ninbgo, China.  Extending the existing canal system, the Yinzhou Fantasy Island master plan fuses the current wetlands and parks with the commercial aspects of the city as a way to balance the ecological with the cultural.  The plan will not only include retail areas, but also entertainment, business, leisure and cultural facilities placed strategically along pedestrian boulevards in close proximity to mass transit systems.

More about the plan after the break. read more »

courtesy of Mass Studies

This villa is located in plot #57 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Mass Studies
Project Team: Minsuk Cho, Kisu Park, Joungwon Lee, Hyunseok Jung, Sanghoon Lee, Cheonkang Park, Joonhee Lee, Kyungmok Park
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

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Jacques Ferrier Architects were selected to design the French Pavillion at Shanghai Expo 2010. Their project ‘The Sensual City’ is a simple building with a big style French garden inside. Surrounded by water it appears to be floating.

The 6000 square meter pavillion will use advanced building materials and environmental protection technology including solar panels on top of the roof.

Seen at designboom. More images after the break. read more »

© Nacasa & Partners

Last week, we featured the Quingpu Pedestrian Bridge designed by CA-DESIGN. The project received many good reviews from you, so they sent more images of the bridge, taken by Nacasa & Partners. See all the fantastic images of the project by day and night after the break. read more »

Chaired by Arata Isozaki, the jury unanimously chose Steven Holl Architects as the winning firm for the design of the Shenzhen master plan (We recently shared Morphosis’ proposal earlier on AD).  Holl’s concept is based on tropical skyscrapers as “Shade Machines with a Social Bracket” which connect the towers and the street level using a horizontal structure containing public programs and a rooftop water garden.

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

Morphosis Architects

Morphosis just shared with us their proposal for the Four Towers in One Competition.  The competition (which Steven Holl Architects ultimately won) asked participants to design an office tower complex for the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters in the Futian commercial business district.  The area was in need of a unified urban plan that would include the Headquarters for the new office towers of Shenzhen Media Group, China Construction Bank, China Insurance Group, and Southern & Bosera Funds.  For Morphosis’ proposal, rather than creating various disconnected vertical skyscrapers, the project aims to create one “cohesive, interwoven district.”  By conceiving the sites as 3-dimensional envelopes rather than flat 2-dimensional footprints, the buildings can be interwoven to “facilitate a network of interlocking forms reminiscent of the venerated Chinese puzzle.”

More images and further project description after the break. read more »

The Pavilion of Ideas, designed by Heatherwick Studio, beat five other short-listed designs, including plans put forward by the creators of the London Eye – the largest Ferris wheel in the world – to becomes the winner. The pavilion looks like a box with thousands of spines that hover without visible support above a public square.

All the spines, which can swing in the breeze, are tipped with tiny colored light sources which can display a variety of images together.

Inside the pavilion, visitors will see an enormous digital screen showing various contents. The outside area of the pavilion will be an exhibition space and auditorium as well as a cafe and shops surrounded by two strips of grass. The pavilion will be as ecological as possible and the designers are trying to make all the aspects recyclable and carbon-neutral. It is light, without heavy concrete foundations and will “touch the ground softly,” according to the introduction by Heatherwich.

Seen at Archtracker. More images after the break. read more »

The Spain Pavilion will have a steel structure and a wicker cover. Spanish handcrafters will weave out different patterns by using different colors of wicker, said Benedetta Tagliabue, designer of the pavilion. The wicker will be covered by a special material that is water-proof. It will also keep the pavilion at a comfortable temperature, said Tagliabue.

Also, the pavilion of course is very strong, she said. The designers have considered the possibility of bad weather during the Expo period such as typhoons or the summer Plum Rain season, said Tagliabue. The Spanish government is going to invest 1.8 million euros (US$2.6 million) in the pavilion, said Javier Conde de Saro, Spain’s commissioner general for World Expo Shanghai.

The pavilion, with a total floor area of 8,500 square meters, will have both open squares for cultural performances and an indoor area for exhibitions and cafeterias.

Seen at Archtracker. More images after the break. read more »

KSP Engel und Zimmermann Architekten has shared their winning proposal for the new Art Museum for Nanjing, China.  The museum lies near the cultural axis which is comprised of Changjiang Road to the south and the “revolution road”, Zhongshan East Road, to the north.   These roads are slightly angled toward one another creating a “trapeze-shaped plot of land”.    This distinct site inspired the team to respond  to its critical surroundings.   Components in the museum such as the Revolution Cube and the Culture Cube, are strategically placed to honor the project’s location.

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

Architects: CA-DESIGN / Architecture and Urban Planning
Location: Quingpu, Shanghai, China
Director in charge: Pedro Pablo Arroyo Alba
Collaborators: Yki Fo (project leader), Chen Junquan, Yang Yixiu, Wang Fan, Wang Xin, Pablo Sendra Fernández, Eva Jiménez del Río, Luo Wei.
Client: Shanghai Qingpu New City Construction Development (Group) Co. Ltd.
Engineering: Bridge Structures Department of Tongji University
Contractor: Shanghai Greenland Construction (Group) Co. Ltd.
Project year: 2004-2008
Site Area: 1,000 sqm
Photographs: CA-Design

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The 6,000-square-meter Canada Pavilion, among the biggest at the site, will feature an exhibition themed “The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative.” It is expected to welcome up to 5.5 million people or 30,000 visitors per day during the six-month Expo period.

The pavilion will be anchored by an open public place and surrounded by three large structures. The square will be a performing area, where visitors can watch the performances of Cirque du Soleil before checking out the pavilion, said Gregson.

The overall budget for the Canadian pavilion will be 45 million Canadian dollars (US$43.57 million), she added. Canada has also given environmental protection consideration into the pavilion. Part of the pavilion’s exterior walls will be covered by a special kind of greenery and rainwater will be collected by a drainage system for use inside the pavilion.

Cirque du Soleil created the concept design for the Pavillion and will also create public performances, organize cultural programs and develop strategic corporate alliances for the pavillion.

Seen at archtracker. More images after the break. read more »

This villa is located in plot #52 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Tatiana Bilbao
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

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UNStudio‘s new mixed-use Raffles City is situated near the Qiangtan River in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, China.   This Raffles City marks CapitaLand’s sixth large-scale shopping center, including those in Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Bahrain.  For UNStudio’s design, a sleek twisting tower will provide residential and hotel accommodates in its 300,000 square meter total floor area.  The project aims to highlight the area and attract visitors, “In the chain of events and attractions of Hangzhou, like the West Lake area and the commercial centre, the Raffles City project will be at the core of the Qianjiang New Town area and contribute to the recognition of this area as a new destination in the city,” explained the architects.

More about Raffles City and more images after the break. read more »

KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten recently designed a 77,000 square meter library extension to accommodate the existing National Library of Beijing.  The new addition will hold approximately 12 million books and be used by an estimated 12,000 people per day.

More about the library after the break. read more »

This villa is located in plot #67 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos
Project Principal: Michel Rojkind
Project leader: Agustin Pereyra
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Project team: Juan Carlos Vidals (3D massing) Alejandro Biguria, Moritz Melchert, Mónica Orozco, Phillip Jung, José Moreno, Laura Rodriguez , Roberto Gil Will, Tere Levy, Alan Rahmane
Structural Engineer: Juan Felipe Heredia
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

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KSP Engel und Zimmermann Architekten was awarded first prize for their Tianjin Art Gallery proposal.  The Chinese government has been investing in new cultural buildings in an effort to battle the economic crisis by creating this new form of investment plan.  The 33,000m2 art gallery will be one component in the city’s 90 ha cultural and leisure quarter, which will also include an opera house and other recreational centers.

More about the gallery after the break. read more »

Bert from Moving Cities (a blog  focused on contemporary architecture in China)  just told us about a new project by Zaha Hadid in Beijing: Chaoyangmen Soho.

The announcement was made by Pan Shiyi, a real estate mogul  chairman of SOHO China. Pan has been working on huge developments, such as the Commune by the Great Wall and several commercial projects in central Beijing.

What’s interesting on SOHO’s developments, is that they invite renowned architects to participate, under heavy budgets restrictions in order to delivery quality projects for the “stylish middle class”.  They also have a great corporative culture as you can see on their website.

But back to this project, Bert points us out to a recent interview with Pan Shiyi:

Q: Which development project is your favourite?
A: Chaoyangmen SOHO. It is our latest development. I asked British architect Zaha Hadid to design a creative project, and she did. The project is unique, like the Beijing bird´s nest [Beijing National Stadium].

Read more about this project at Pan Shiyi’s blog. More images after the break.

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by Studio Pei-Zhu

Chinese Studio Pei-Zhu has designed the Xixi Wetland Art Museum located in a rural nature preserved near Hangzhou, China. The concept stems from the interaction between building and nature. As leaves fall from trees they arrive naturally on the ground. The resulting form creates shelter against the earth.

This design creates the genuine qualities of scattered, fallen leaves and shelter through five buildings. Some leaves overlap and attach with other leaves. One leaf remains separate, yet still unites in visual language with the linked leaves. The four linked structures house functions for business, recreation, a hotel, restaurant, and reception. The single standing leaf is the art museum.

The buildings are covered by light colored, reflective zinc panels that have a brushed finish, resulting in a diffused and soft reflection of their interactions with people and nature. this blending influences a person as they experience the museum. All colors, light, and details merge into a continuous representation that is not recognizable as individual objects, but are distinguished as a uniform and natural image.

Seen at designboom. More images after the break. read more »