Studio Gang has released images of its first project in Canada, a mixed-use residential and retail tower at the southwest corner of Yonge and Delisle in Toronto. Intended as a “new model for sustainable urban growth,” One Delisle seeks to establish the Yonge and St. Clair district as a “vibrant, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with thriving retail, welcoming open spaces, and world-class architecture.”
The scheme, which was designed in collaboration with WZMH Architects, is driven by a desire to integrate with the local urban context through adherence to existing grid patterns and retention of existing elements, and to provide extensive outdoor space at an important transit node in midtown Toronto.
https://www.archdaily.com/897743/studio-gangs-first-canadian-project-will-be-a-mixed-use-tower-in-torontoNiall Patrick Walsh
Henning Larsen has released images of their proposed urban development for the historic Imperial Shipyard at Gdansk, Poland. The 4.3million-square foot (400,000-square-meter) development seeks to transform the shipyard, built in 1844, into a “powerful financial and social engine building a thriving, mixed-use, inner-city neighborhood by the waterfront that is alive around the clock.”
The old industrial site has played a central role in the economic development of both Gdansk and Poland, serving as a key shipbuilding hub on the Baltic Coast. Through creating spines of public life centered on pedestrian/bicycle-friendly streets, Henning Larsen seeks to maintain the shipyard’s strong presence through waterfront living, work, and recreation.
Eduardo Souto de Moura, in collaboration with META architectuurbureau, has released images of a proposed urban renewal project in the Belgian city of Bruges. The Beursplein & Congresgebouw consists of a new exhibition hall and covered public square on the site of a recently demolished trade fair complex.
The $46million (€40million) scheme seeks to act as a catalyst for urban renewal at the center of Bruges, with a dual role of exhibition hall and conference center capable of receiving business delegates on weekdays, and tourists on weekends.
Benoy has released images of their competition-winning design for a waterfront development in Wenzhou, China. INCITY MEGA will form part of the Central Green Axis masterplan, a dramatic landscaped district cutting through the urban fabric of Wenzhou.
The 2.6 million square foot (250,000 square meter) INCITY MEGA scheme will occupy two of the eight plots on the Central Green Axis, with a mixed-use program including retail, movie theaters, plazas, and gyms. The scheme is in response to a rapidly-growing consumer population in Wenzhou and will join the ranks of previous schemes in the region by Hammer Schmidt Lassen, UNStudio, and HENN.
C.F. Møller Architects has released images its proposed 470-foot-high (144-meter-high) office tower at the Port of Aarhus in Denmark. Intended as a “bright sculptural landmark,” the scheme combines cultural, retail, and business functions to activate the public realm in a former industrial port area.
C.F. Møller’s plans will include the retention of an existing 60,000 square foot (5,600 square meter) industrial complex on the site, which will be opened up to establish a stronger connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. The new tower’s geometry originates from the existing building, forming a dialogue between old and new urban fabric.
Foster + Partners has released details of their proposed comprehensive refurbishment of the Plaza Colón building in Madrid. Located at a historically significant site in Madrid, the scheme will see the transformation and revitalization of the existing structure to “create a new iconic landmark.”
Located at the junction of Madrid’s main north-south and east-west arteries, the building occupies one of the most important intersections in Madrid and forms a key part of the city’s long-term urban vision. The building also faces the bustling Plaza de Colón, one of the largest public spaces in Madrid, while linking three distinct districts containing luxury shopping, finance, art, and historic tradition.
https://www.archdaily.com/896786/foster-plus-partners-reveal-proposal-for-refurbished-axis-of-madridNiall Patrick Walsh
A team comprising Schauman & Nordgren Architects, MASU Planning, and Schauman Architects have been announced as winners of an invited competition for the design of a new exhibition, shopping, and housing scheme in an old customs area of Tampere, Finland. The “Tulli Halls” scheme is defined by a red brick materiality referencing the industrial heritage of the area, and a central tower forming a “beacon and focal point for Tampere.”
The scheme seeks to balance old and new, as well as public and private, with a form which has a “grounding in Tampere’s heritage as well as aspiring future” and public space to improve living conditions of residents and offer meeting places for the general public.
Wickside is a £120m “permeable, mixed-use neighborhood” that will provide 475 homes and 300 jobs for the surrounding community. Designed by BUJ Architects and Ash Sakula Architects, the neighborhood has recently received the all-clear from the LLDC planning committee. Almost nine years in the making, the scheme uses “urban blocks set around ordinary London streets” to create a complex, diverse townscape with a variety of uses. The neighborhood is housed within a 28,800 square meter former waste transfer site in Hackney Wick, London. Integrating the context’s existing buildings and cultural heritage, Wickside aims to develop the existing creative community through “retention and regeneration,” and is one of the largest development sites in the area.
Found at the junction of two famous roads, the Shoreditch Hotel reacts with its unique context in a striking, ship-like form that preserves, and creates, public space for the surrounding area. Designed by AQSO Arquitectos, the proposed scheme includes a hotel at its front, while a cinema and various retail outlets are separated by a public atrium at its rear. The mixed-use facility “explores a formal response to the site conditions with an alternative contemporary language," the resultant blending of perspectives creating a gateway to London's creative heart.
Belatchew Arkitekter has released images of their proposed mixed-use residential tower in the Nacka City district of Stockholm. Named “Discus,” the tower seeks to form a new landmark for Nacka, directly above the district’s metro station.
Comprising approximately 500 apartments and 30 residential floors, the scheme will also include commercial and public facilities to form an active street front.
https://www.archdaily.com/895477/belatchew-arkitekter-releases-images-of-proposed-discus-tower-in-stockholmNiall Patrick Walsh
As self-driven cars are being introduced to our city streets and tech companies have expanded their influence far beyond the boundaries of our computer and smartphone displays, a new generation of architects are charged with imagining how to employ the technology of tomorrow in ways that will advance and improve the world’s built environments. With autonomous transportation, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence promising unprecedented tools for revolutionizing human infrastructure in a future that no longer feels particularly distant, present-day data gathering and analysis capabilities have already transformed our ability to understand trends on an unforeseen scale.
Taking full advantage of modern data science capabilities and semi-automated robotic technology currently deployed in factory settings around the world, Masters candidate Stanislas Chaillou from the Harvard GSD imagines how today’s new tech could help realize the longtime architectural ambition of creating flexible buildings capable of adapting to variable uses.
OMA has been announced as one of four firms to win an international competition for the design of Unicorn Island in Chengdu, an “innovative masterplan specifically designed for New Economy companies.”
As Chinamoves from a production-orientated economy to a knowledge and service-based economy, the masterplan seeks to provide a variety of working and living conditions for both start-up firms and “Unicorn” companies, those with a value of over one billion US dollars. Along with OMA, the four winners also included Morphosis, who were recognized for their walkable scheme integrating business, green infrastructure, and lifestyle.
Landmarks Illinois has released new images of a proposed radical extension to the James R, Thompson Center in Chicago. The images seek to portray the building’s versatility to be privately redeveloped as a mixed-use hub, featuring an eye-catching “super tower” at the southwest corner of the site, as proposed by the scheme’s original architect Helmut Jahn.
The shortlist for a new landmark project in Melbourne has been announced, comprising award-winning global architects such as Bjarke Ingels Group, MVRDV, and OMA. For the “Southbank by Beulah” mixed-use development, the shortlisted architects will engage in a design competition working in collaboration with local Australian firms, each producing a design proposal for Melbourne’s BMW Southbank site.
With an end value in excess of $2 billion, Southbank by Beulah will be the first large-scale private project adhering to the Australian Institute of Architecture guidelines, while the design competition will be chaired by a jury of seven regarded individuals from academic, architectural, property and government sectors.
https://www.archdaily.com/893437/big-oma-and-mvrdv-among-shortlisted-firms-for-melbourne-landmark-competitionNiall Patrick Walsh
Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects (MBB) has recently revealed its competition-winning design for the final phase of Garitage Park, a 41-acre complex in a growing district of Sofia, Bulgaria. The extensive mixed-use development by Garitage Investment Management, among several other major multinational companies developing nearby, will provide residences, a school, office, commercial, retail and event spaces to a large international population of residents.
In partnership with Lendlease and the University of Melboure, Woods Bagot designed an architectural reflection of the university itself. Named the Carlton Connect Initiative, this masterplan will be a mixed-use precinct where not only university students and staff, but also international business professionals, researchers, and start-ups can come participate in idea exchange. In order to attract the best and brightest for the university, Woods Bagot is pursuing the highest standard of cutting-edge, sustainable design.
Dubai Nhabitat, a mixed-use tower proposed by Ankara-based firm rgg Architects, utilizes its own unique formal system to create "permeability through different materials and building tectonics." The tower is an aggregate of individual modules that can be enlarged or shrunk by an "8mx8m grid" based on programmatic needs, creating views and outdoor spaces unique to each spatial arrangement.