1000 dwellings for the 'Ant Tribe'

The project ‘housing with a mission’, featured at the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Biennale on architecture and urbanism, is designed as a co-production by five Chinese and five Dutch architectural offices and aims at building 1000 dwellings for the ‘Ant Tribe’ in Beijing. This is the Chinese name for the generation of millions of young graduates who live in cramped conditions in the outskirts of cities and work in low-paid jobs.

The Chinese offices include Standard Architecture, Urbanus, O-Office, Node and CAFA. The Dutch firms include aronsgelauff, Next, KCAP, NL architects and Barcode. More images and project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of ADEPT and Urbanus

The winning design of a large international architectural competition, ‘The Two Towers’, was recently announced in Shenzhen, China. The team selected to design this new Shenzhen landmark – comprising 100.000 square meters in total – is a constellation of ADEPT (DK) and Urbanus (CHN) with VSA (HK), Max Fordham LLP (GB) and Beijing CCI Architectural Design Co, LTD (CHN). The jury meeting was hosted at the Shenzhen Municipal Planning Building with Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne as chairman of the jury. More information on the competition winners after the break. read more »

© Courtesy of URBANUS Architecture & Design Inc

Chinese practice Urbanus (previously featured at ArchDaily with their Jade Bamboo Culture Plaza, the Integrated Teaching Building in the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Tulou Housing Guangzhou) shared with us the exhibition design for the city Shenzhen at the UBPA (Urban Best Practice Area), an exhibit aligned with the Expo 2010′s main theme “Better City, Better Life”, which tracks how major cities around the world are coping with the new problems arising from their urbanization processes,  as well as their effective and creative solutions, making it as highly specialized exhibition space.

The city of Shenzhen evolved from a small fishing village to an international center in only 30 years, a complex process presented at this pavilion:

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© Meng Yan

Architects: URBANUS Architecture & Design Inc.
Location: Shenzhen, China
Design Director: Meng Yan
Project Manager: Xing Guo
Designers: Ding Yu, Wu Kaimao, Liao Zhixiong
Client: Luohu Development & Reform Bureau, Shenzhen
Site Area: 6,870 sqm
Design Period: 2005-2006
Construction Period: 2008-2009
Photographs: Meng Yan

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URBANUS was awarded with the 1st prize on the competition for the new integrated teaching building at the Chinese University in Hong Kong.  Entitled “Windows on Community,” the building strives the link the two parts of the campus together, while also providing a visual connection with those who approach.  Through the implementation of a Moebius Strip, the design mixes the inner circulation of the building with the exterior circulation of the streets.  “This loop of circulation and urban internal street for us is not only a vertical linkage but more the heart of the college-a lively community space at the center of it all,” explained the architects.

More about the University after the break.

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Shenzhen Crystal Island @ OMA / Ole Scheeren

Shenzhen is one of the most active cities in China, and was recently appointed “City of Design” by the UNESCO (2008).  A recent competition for Crystal Island, located in the center of the city, envisions the envisions the Shenzhen Creative Center, an iconic project in front of the city hall.

The project, won by OMA in collaboration with chinese firm Urbanus, includes  a major new cultural center, transport hub, and public landmark. The Shenzhen Creative Center takes advantage of such a central location, and disaggregate the program over a 20-hectare landscape of parks and gardens, on which clusters of pavilions and small buildings form “Design Villages” creating a micro urban system which includes buildings for Design Administration, Tourism Center, buildings for design retail and expo and a design campus. It also includes a big open space, the Ceremonial Plaza.

All these buildings and open spaces are connected by an elevated pedestrian system, the “Ring Connector”, which also connects to existing and future train and subway stations.

At the center of this circular project, a spherical void becomes a landmark for the city: the Shenzhen Eye.

The disaggregation of the program on such an active area has the potential to mix the creative industry with the rest of the city’s activities, potentiating  multiplicity, permeability, and openness towards creative activity.

The project collaboration between OMA and Urbanus includes the young Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas, and Urbanus partner Meng Yan, with a team lead by OMA Associates Dongmei Yao and Anu Leinonen.

After the break, a schematic model of the program relations and another rendering.

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Architecture photographer Iwan Baan once again shared with us an impressive photo set on a social housing project by Chinese architects Urbanus.

The commission was to design a 220 apartment housing complex for people for low income families in Guangzhou. Urbanus decided to give the complex a nice and intimate atmosphere, by reinterpreting the traditional Hakka Houses. This housing typology correspond to 300 year old houses in the south of China, and as you can see on some pictures after the jump, they are basically a large housing project where complete families live as a community (aunts, nieces, nephews, etc.)

You can take a look at the Urbanus’ complete photo set over here, and the Hakka Houses photos over here.

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The Tulou affordable housing project by Urbanus was the subject of the 5th Solos Exhibition at New York’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.

This 245 apartment structure is currently being built in Guangzhou, China. Besides the normal residential programming, the building also has a dormitory, hotel, retail space, gym, library, and a variety of communal and public spaces.

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