Guosen Securities Tower / Massimiliano + Doriana Fuksas
The latest project from Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas features a dramatic tower shaped by bold diagonal cuts. The proposal was awarded first prized for the competition to design Shenzhen’s Guosen Securities tower, and, typical of the Fuksas pair, the schematic design carries a strong presence with the shear mass of the volume broken down into a more manageable scale thanks to the three-dimensional voids. The tower will be the first ecological tall building to be built in Shenzhen.
More images and more about the tower after the break.
Tianjin R&F Guangdong Tower / Goettsch Partners
Occupying a central parcel in the city’s newly planned business district, Goettsch Partners (GP) has been commissioned by developer Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd. to design a new 294,570-square-meter mixed-use tower in the city of Tianjin, China which is scheduled for completion in 2015 and will be among the country’s tallest at 439 meters. Their design responds not only to the programmatic needs of each function, but also to the decreasing size of the core while creating a relationship with the history of the city. More images and project description after the break.
Studio X Beijing / O.P.E.N. Architecture
Architects: O.P.E.N. Architecture
Location: Beijing, China
Principals In Charge: Li Hu, Wenjing Huang
Project Architect: Yu Qingbo
Project Team: Wang Jianling, Wang Tao, Julia Ting Yan Mok
Project Area: 388 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: ShuHe
Taiwan Tower Design Competition / OODA + OOIIO
Check out this tower proposal designed by Portugal-based OODA Architecture in collaboration with the Spanish and American studio OOIIO for the City of Taichung. The proposal received a merit award from the Taiwan tower competition, which asked participants to developed a conceptual vision for a landmark tower to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of Taiwan, R.O.C. and to celebrate the merger between Taichung County and Taichung City.
More images and more about the tower after the break.
New Chengdu City Center / RTKL
Signaling the growing influence of China’s inland cities, global architecture, engineering and urban design practice RTKL, announced the groundbreaking of the first phase of Pearl River New Town, an 80-acre district in Chengdu that will form the heart of the city’s westward growth and modernization. More images and architect’s description after the break.
The Concave House / Tao Lei Architect Studio
Architects: Tao Lei Architect Studio
Location: Benxi, Liaoning Province, China
Site Area: 5,000 sqm
Project Area: 3,000 sqm
Project Year: 2008-2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Tao Lei Architect Studio
Is China Architects’ New Dubai?
The latest buzz from China is all about the West Kowloon Cultural District, a large performing arts venue incorporating studios, theaters, performance venues, and cultural and public spaces. We’ve brought you coverage on OMA’s proposal as well as Foster+Partners‘ and Rocco Design Architects‘ schemes, and as the master plan develops, we’ll be sure to bring you the latest updates. As CNN reported, China has become “an increasingly attractive territory for leading architects.” And, we couldn’t agree more. Over the past few months, we’ve seen great projects from Holl emerging in China, such as his Horizontal Skyscraper in Shenzhen, as well as Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House, OMA’S CCTV Tower, Vector Architects + CCDIP’s Tianjin Elementary School, and, not to mention, Plasma Studio’s Flowing Gardens. Plus, in terms of experimentation, China’s recent Expo 2010 offered the perfect opportunity for architects across the world to demonstrate their newest concepts about space, materials and performance. This explosion of architecture in the West has brought with it a sense of fresh experimentation of form and analysis of programmatic elements and organization. Together, the buildings are forming a rich and diverse vocabulary of architecture sprinkled throughout China. Koolhaas commented to CNN, “I think that any architect today has to be interested in China.”
What do you think of this growing “architectural playground”?
Shanghai Expo 2010 Draws to a Close
Sadly, Shanghai’s Expo 2010 ended yesterday after 184 exciting days. Throughout the course of the exhibition, over 73 million people experienced great pavilions from countries across the world and we’ve brought you coverage of projects ranging from videos to project descriptions to photographs. In these past months, we’ve shared a few of our reader Seppe’s videos with you (check out his German Pavilion, UK Pavilion, and Denmark Pavilion clips, previously featured on AD) and today we’re sharing his latest bit on the Swiss Pavilion.
The Expo, which opened on May 1st, allowed visitors to experience a taste of different cultures all arranged within the Expo’s 5.28-square-kilometer site. From the beginning, the Expo was a hit. Thousands flocked to the site on a daily basis, with the largest daily attendance hitting more than 1.03 million visitors on October 16th – breaking the record attendance set at the Osaka Expo back in 1970 for 844,000 on a single day. As Yang Jian reported for the Expo, “Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said the Expo has made China and the world come closer together, and that a more open, inclusive and culturally advanced China that steadily moves forward will join other countries to usher in an ever brighter future for all.”
Only five structures will remain (the China Pavilion, the Culture Center, the Expo Center, the Theme Pavilions and Expo Boulevard) and with all the dazzling lights, amazing forms, and elaborate material skins dismantled, the site will now become a cultural, business and commercial center.
Zhixin Hybrid Office Building / P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S
Architects: P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S
Location: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Client: Chengdu Qingyang Suburb Construction & Development Co.
Firm Principal/Partner in Charge: Marcelo Spina and Georgina Huljich
Project Manager: Courtenay Bauer
Project Designers: Rick Michod and J. Travis Russet
Project Assistant: Jeeyea Kim
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S
Non-Linear Architecture Parametrics Workshop 2010 at Tsinghua University
171 Students from around the world attended the one-week workshop at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. In association with the AA summer school and sponsored by Gehry Technologies the workshop taught students how to generate, parametrically control, and fabricate complex geometry.
After the break, you can see a few projects from the 37 Advanced Design studio students which Daniel Gillen co taught with Xu Feng, Nikolaus Wabnitz, Rob Stuart-Smith, Raymond Lau, Xiaowei Tong, and Zhang Xiaoyi.
Images and more information after the break.
Latent City / Yaohua Wang
Yaohua Wang shared with us his thesis work, “Latent City”, which received Sci-Arc’s Best Thesis Award and was also selected for the Venice Biennale. One of the many highlights of this projects is that there is no “dead end” as Wang demonstrates with his circulation loop throughout the city.
The core of the design is held within the top and bottom infrastructure layers, which are the most important layers of his design where he creates a series of solid and void spaces. Wang is able to create not only a city with endless opportunities, but a city that takes advantage of its environment by maximizing daylighting strategies and natural ventilation. Wang then goes beyond architecture and takes into account the socio-political impacts his Latent City would have over China’s current conditions. These highlights, and more, have earned him this honorable recognition. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Can Cube / Archi Union Architects Inc
Can Cube’s facade is a system of aluminium carbonated drink cans which are enclosed in an aluminium frame. The façade saves the energy wasted during recycling processes by reusing the cans in their current form, without the need for recycling or further processes. For more about this sustainable mixed-use design, photographs and drawings, following the break.
Architects: Archi Union Architects Inc
Location: Shanghai, China
Project Area: 1,000 sqm
Project Year: 2009-2010
Photographs: Sheng Zhonghai
NFU and SZU Advanced Technology Park / Jaeger and Partner Architects + sa_i
Shenzhen based Jaeger and Partner Architects, Ltd. and Chicago based saltans architects intl, ltd have collaborated on the winning design solution for the NanFanG University of Science & Technology and New Shenzhen University Technology Park.
The site for the competition is in the rapidly developing Nanshan Dashahe Innovation Corridor in Shenzhen, PRC and directly adjacent to the New Shenzhen University Campus and will comprise of R&D office and light manufacturing, IT incubator space, outsourcing facilities, and business support services. The concept for the master plan is an integral environment for entrepreneurs, researchers and students within an environment for technological innovation and discovery in an above ground building area of 528,000 m2.
More images and descriptions after the break.
Yuwan Restaurant / Nota Design Architects + Engineers
The Yuwan Restaurant is a 5-star contemporary restaurant in Shenyang, China serving western and eastern fusion delicacies. The restaurant consists of a few important primary areas and programs namely, the Main Dinning Hall (with light stage), the Side Dinning Hall (with main stage), VIP Room 1, VIP Rom 2, VIP Room 3, Buffet Counters, Serving Counters, Seafood Counter, Entrance Hall (with waterscape features), Service Storage Zone and Kitchen Zone.
More on the design of interior spaces, materials, plans and photographs after the break.
Architects: Nota Design Architects + Engineers Pte Ltd
Location: Shenyang, China
Design Consultant: Nota Design International Pte Ltd
Design Team: Keat Ong, Gary Zeng, Zhigang Sun
Client: Jin Xiang Yu Group
Project Area: 8500 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Jian Long
In Progress: Sliced Porosity Block / Steven Holl Architects
Sliced Porosity Block, CapitaLand China’s new Raffles City in Chengdu, is a hybrid of different functions like a giant chunk of a metropolis. It will be located just south of the intersection of the First Ring Road and Ren Min Nan Road. Its sun sliced geometry results from required minimum daylight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribed by code and calculated by the precise geometry of sun angles.
Architects: Steven Holl Architects
Location: Chengdu, China
Design Architect: Steven Holl, Li Hu
Associate in Charge: Roberto Bannura
Project Architects: Lan Wu, Haiko Cornelissen, Peter Englaender, JongSeo Lee
Project Designer: Christiane Deptolla, Inge Goudsmit, Maki Matsubayashi, Sarah Nichols, Martin Zimmerli
Project Team: Justin Allen, Jason Anderson, Francesco Bartolozzi, Guanlan Cao, Yimei Chan, Sofie Holm Christensen, Esin Erez, Ayat Fadaifard, Mingcheng Fu, Forrest Fulton, Runar Halldorsson, M. Emran Hossain, Joseph Kan, Suping Li, Tz-Li Lin, Yan Liu, Jackie Luk, Daijiro Nakayama, Pietro Peyron, Roberto Requejo, Elena Rojas-Danielsen, Michael Rusch, Ida Sze, Filipe Taboada, Manta Weihermann, Ebbie Wisecarver, Human Tieliu Wu, Jin- Ling Yu
Model Photographs: Iwan Baan
Under Construction Photographs: Steven Holl Architects
Hangzhou Xintiandi Factory H / Serie Architects
In an adaptive re-use project, Serie Architects, Grimshaw of London and Pysall Ruge Arkitekten of Berlin were asked to renovate four factories in Hangzhou that would form a new urban core for the city center. For Serie’s factory, the firm decided to preserve the unique16 ft tall main hall of the factory and to “accentuate the industrial drama of this massive void by restoring the concrete truss roof structure and by bringing additional light down through a newly glazed lantern.” The design truly feeds upon the existing conditions, as the newer programs are situated on a large plinth, respecting the historic presence of the factory.
More about the project after the break.
Raffles City Ningbo / SPARCH
International architecture practice SPARCH shared with us their new mixed-use development Raffles City Ningbo, consisting of an office tower, a residential tower and a retail podium. It is located to the east of the Yuyao River, within the Jiangbei district, next to the Ningbo historical downtown, China. More images and architect’s description after the break.
AU Office and Exhibition Space / Archi Union Architects Inc
Architects: Archi Union Architects Inc
Location: Jungong Road, Shanghai, China
Project Area: 1,200 sqm
Project Year: 2009-2010
Photographs: Sheng Zhonghai
NewBud Eco-School / ZHU Jingxiang Architects
A research team led by Prof. Zhu Jingxiang of the School of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has developed an advanced architectural system for the construction of the New Bud Study Hall in Sichuan, China, this summer. See more images and architect’s description after the break.
Tianjin Elementary School / Vector Architects + CCDI
Architects: Vector Architects + CCDI
Location: Tianjin, Xiqing, China
Design Architect: Gong Dong
Partners of Vector Architects: Gong Dong, Chien-ho Hsu
Collaborating Architects of CCDI: Qiang Lv
Project Architect & Site Architect of Vector Architects: Nan Wang
Client: County Government
Project Area: 18,000 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: ShuHe
