Noor Art & Architecture Studio has completed a digital reconstruction of the Ayine Khaneh Palace of Isfahan, Iran. The project is led by architect Mohammad Yazdi Rad. Based on historic plans and written documents, the project visualizes one of the most important buildings in the city. In 1891, the palace was destroyed by Zello Soltan, governor of Isfahan. The reconstruction was made to create a cultural structure that brings awareness to Safavid era building and Persian architecture.
Flan Studio has created a downloadable library of over 200 free drawings in DWG and PNG format. Established by Cem Ozan Cetintas and Alpkenan Koska, the drawings of people, animals, and nature have been created “to generate free-willed content for architects and designers.” Updated every month, the drawing subjects range from art installations and cooking to movies and vehicles.
The full range of drawings is available for viewing and download on the official website here. The endeavor by Flan Studio follows on from similar ventures such as archweb’s library of architectural drawings, and premium content libraries by Toffu and Studio Esinam.
Architecture practice REX has unveiled the final design for their mirrored Necklace Residence project overlooking Long Island Sound. After winning the competition for the project in 2013, the firm has made a series of changes to their plan. The design includes five private family homes for a husband and wife, their four children, and each of their children's families. Made to be experienced autonomously and as part of a larger whole, each home rethinks archetypal American houses.
Architecture practice Populous has announced plans for a $50 million esports and entertainment venue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dubbed Fusion Arena, the project will be the home of the Philadelphia Fusion esports franchise as the largest esports venue in the western hemisphere. Seating up to 3,500 guests, the project will host a variety of live entertainment programming and events. The arena was made to be the first of its kind for next-generation consumers.
OPEN Architecture’s highly-anticipated Tank Shanghai has opened to the public following six years of design and construction. Located on the banks of the Huangpu River in the city’s West Bund, where five abandoned aviation fuel tanks once served the historic Longhua Airport, the scheme gives shape to a new type of contemporary arts center. OPEN’s design features a seamless combination of art, nature, and urban life, “transforming containers of fuel into containers of culture while paying tribute to the site’s industrial past.”
The scheme’s design centers on a Z-shaped “Super Surface,” forming a new center ground sitting below undulating parklands in between the tanks, and above flexible indoor exhibition and service spaces to connect the tanks to one another. Two open plazas and an urban forest merge with the Super-Surface, featuring greenery, water features, smaller galleries, and public artwork.
Australian architect Corbett Lyon's expansion to the Lyon Housemuseum in Melbourne has opened. The new public galleries, located adjacent to the original museum, offer space for local and international events, as well as exhibitions and installations. After establishing the Lyon Housemuseum in 2009, Lyon and his wife have been been expanding their collection with a range of work from the likes of Patricia Piccinini, Howard Arkley and Brook Andrew.
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Gerkan, Marg and Partners (GMP) has won an international competition for the design of a new tower complex in Shenzhen’s “Super Bay City” business district. Consisting of three distinct blocks linked at the base, the primary tower of the Hengli International Building rises 250 meters to become an impressive landmark and a cultural destination for the new business district.
Located in Shenzhen Bay, to the west of the Chinese megacity, the urban masterplan containing the GMP scheme seeks to become a “high-density urban development with high-rise buildings of up to 600 meters.” Contributing significantly to the area’s skyline, the GMP proposal features three distinct volumes: a 250-meter-high office tower, a 36-meter-high conference center, and an 80-meter-high “culture tower.” Providing a rhythm to the tower’s verticality, “sky gardens” have been designed at various levels to be used as public amenity areas on the main tower, and the adjacent conference center and “culture tower.”
C.F. Møller Architects and EFFEKT has won an architectural competition for the design of the new SIMAC (Svendborg International Maritime Academy) in Svendborg, Denmark. Set to be completed in 2022, the open, flexible, modern learning institution seeks to educate the leaders of Denmark’s future innovative maritime industries. In addition to their role as design team for the academy, C.F. Møller Architects and EFFEKT have also prepared a masterplan for a surrounding district including housing, commerce, and urban green space.
The 12,500-square-meter SIMAC will contain common areas such as a Campus Square, teaching areas including auditoriums, laboratories, and simulator centers, and rooms for administration and support. The SIMAC will also sit within an overall development plan for the area, dubbed the “Harbour of the Future,” also designed by EFFEKT.
French architect Dominique Perrault has revealed the new masterplan and vision for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic village. Located in the city's Seine-Saint-Denis district, the village was designed to integrate with the existing urban fabric along the banks of the river. Combining housing and offices with diverse programs, the project spans over 119,000 square meters across its entirety. At the conclusion of the games, the village is designed to become a new permanent community in Paris.
In the city of Milan, architecture firm LAD identified a busy roundabout with the potential to host a new public square typology. Sovraparco, literally “over park,” is a design by the Italian firm and Hypnos Studio to better utilize an existing area in the city, Piazzale Loreto, by infusing it with greenery and public space. The project intentionally does not impose on the surrounding buildings to revamp the area, but instead inserts itself into the central space and aims to rethink what belongs to the public sector.
Rafael Viñoly's 125 Greenwich Street skyscraper in downtown Manhattan has topped out. The 912-foot-tall luxury condominium skyscraper was designed as a slender structure with exposed concrete columns. Rising 88 storys, the project includes a curved glass façade to enhance the panoramic views of the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center Complex, and the New York City skyline.
The We Company has announced plans to launch a Future Cities Initiative, hiring the head of Studio Dror and a former Google executive to lead the team. Dror Benshetrit and Di-Ann Eisnor will work with engineers, architects, data scientists, biologists, and economists to generate ideas addressing problems raised by globalization, urbanization, and climate change.
Known for pioneering works such as their vegetated biosphere in Montreal, Studio Dror has been creating visions for designing without boundaries since their inception 17 years ago. Working at the intersection of art, design, and architecture, Dror has led a team of designers, artists, architects, researchers, and communicators to create holistic design solutions for everything from a vase to a city masterplan, a lightbulb to an island, and a collaboration with NASA.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced plans for a $10 billion coastal resilience project, designed to protect Lower Manhattan from flooding. In an editorial piece in New York Magazine, Mayor de Blasio outlined the ambitious plans to alter the waterfront of the Financial District, constructing a major infrastructural element up to 500 feet into the East River.
Part of the Lower Manhattan Climate Resilience Study, and designed in collaboration with climate scientists and local offices, the Mayor describes the scheme as “one of the most complex environmental and engineering challenges [New York] has ever undertaken and will, literally, alter the shape of the island of Manhattan.” The multi-billion dollar project is designed to protect Manhattan through the year 2100.
As a space to unify and reveal, the Wangari Maathai Center in the Saint-Blaise area of Paris was made to break free from constraints. Designed by Bruther, the center was created so inhabitants could appropriate the space. Now photographer Alexandra Timpau has captured the sports and cultural center through a series of new photographs. Through the images, Alexandra worked to show how the building adapted to the needs of the people living inside, through decoration, new temporary enclosures, and through the facade.
Architects often find inspiration from the most unexpected places and objects. For Kalliope Kontozoglou, the C6th Cypriot Sphinx in the Louvre Museum and its tilted head were great influence behind her proposal for the International Architectural Competition for the New Cyprus Museum.
To honor the country’s rich historic archeology, and frame Nicosia’s topography, Kontozoglou proposed a multidimensional museum, which aims to weave the city’s topography, the exhibitions, and the public spaces all together in a sequence of ‘narrative landscapes’, promoting dialogue between the visitors, Cyprus’ landscape, and the country’s heritage.
Dutch practice Mecanoo has created a new skyscraper design for the Hengli Group Headquarters in Shenzhen, China. In the city's dense urban context, the design will host the world's largest weaving enterprise in two volumes above a commercial plinth. Inspired by the Hengli Group’s textile tradition, a bronze metal grid wraps the transparent volumes like threads on a loom. As a Shenzhen Bay landmark, the project was designed to display the company’s culture and embrace new urban design strategies.
Architectural bureau Tsimailo Lyashenko and Partners have unveiled their concept for "Brodsky", a new residential building on a high-density plot in the central district of Moscow. Situated along a river embankment, the scheme seeks to create a strong functional and visual connection between itself and the surrounding context.
The 14-story scheme named after the famous Russin poet seeks to enhance the public realm by creating a courtyard with a pedestrian alley, weaving around the scheme’s arch façade to connect with the embankment. The positioning of the courtyard alley also establishes a new visual experience not currently realized: a two-point perspective from the courtyard to the river.
3XN has released details of its plans for T3 Bayside, the first office building in Toronto’s emerging Bayside community, and the tallest timber office building in North America. Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, the structure stands at 42 meters in height and serves as part of the 2,000-acre revitalization initiative to transform Toronto’s waterfront.
The scheme is designed to reflect and emphasize the emerging neighborhood in which it sits, intertwining principals of life, work, and play. A continuously-activated ground level is abundant with retail opportunities, bleeding into a central plaza, exhibition spaces, flexible office spaces, and coworking facilities.
“The Dragon of Tarapacá,” a new project for Museo Antropológico Regional de Iquique (Regional Museum of Iquique) that will overlook Playa Huayquique, is moving forward with the design presented by Daniel Libeskind. The proposal comes after extensive work that began in December of last year, when the American-born architect visited Chile to familiarize himself with the the project, originally proposed by Mauricio Soria Macchiavello, the local mayor.
The first inklings of the project started almost 30 years ago, as the city sought to optimize the spaces along the coastline, allowing residents better access to the sea and optimizing the community's public spaces.
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced some of the most influential names in international architecture as the members of the jury for its 12th awards programme, which is to be held in Amsterdam from 4-6 December 2019.
Design studio Space Encounters has partnered with Creative Holland to build a temporary museum for Milan Design Week. The installation is made to combine room for art and design, with atmospheres that promote relaxation, contemplation and focus amidst the pace of the Salone di Mobile. The Museum was designed as a journey through different spaces in which visitors constantly interact with Dutch creativity.
Responding to the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai, “Beauty Unites People,” a team led by Dodi Moss imagined a multi-layered architectural experience evoking Italy’s history and identity. The design pulls apart the pieces that make up architectural space, separating the building into its structural volume and its tactile, material components. The proposal won third place in Invitalia’s competition to design the Italian Pavilion at the Expo, behind carlorattiassociati and Gianluca Peluffa & Partners.
As Headline Media Partner of the World Architecture Festival and INSIDE, we are offering you the chance to win one of 10 free entries for this year’s awards programme. Simply complete your details here to be entered into the free prize draw for a free WAF or INSIDE awards entry. All submissions for the prize draw must be entered by Friday 5th April and you will be informed on Tuesday 9th April if you have won.
Danish studio Henning Larsen has won the competition to design a new four-star hotel in Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands. The project centers on a new social commons and grand foyer made to create connections and give the hotel an active role in city life. The design taps into the Faroese landscape to create a heart of new activity in the city center. The project was made to be an inviting landmark for guests and an active commons for Tórshavn’s locals.
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