NACO, its Saudi Arabian branch SADECO, and global architect HOK were just awarded the contract to design the expansion of King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The design consists of the expansion of the existing terminals 3 and 4, which will enable the airport to handle 20-25 million passengers per year. Currently, the 30-year-old airport is handling approximately 15 million passengers annually. NACO, Netherlands Airport Consultants, a Royal HaskoningDHV company, and HOK will lead the design team for this prestigious project. More architects’ description and their press release after the break.
Confronted with an original form of the pyramid, the shape of the Operlab Theatre Pavilion proposal, designed by UGO Architecture and Design, is the result of a consistent analysis of the building of the Grand Theatre. The character and function of a row of interior spaces, including the entrance, auditorium, and stage, finds its reflection in the arrangement of forms composing the body of the building. The pavilion then becomes a repetition of this arrangement and gives it additional meaning. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Slums, shanty-towns, favelas - they are all products of an exploding migration from rural to urban areas. Over the last half century, people living in or near metropolises has risen in proportion to the global population. Migrations from rural areas to urban areas have grown exponentially as cities have developed into hubs of economic activity and job growth promising new opportunities for social mobility and education. Yet, with all these perceptions holding fast, many people who choose to migrate find themselves in the difficult circumstances of integrating into an environment without the proper resources to accommodate the growing population. Cities, for example, like Mumbai, India's largest city and 11th on the list as of 2012 with a population of an estimated 20.5 million. According to a New York Times article from 2011, about 60% of that number live in the makeshift dwellings that now occupy lucrative land for Mumbai's developers.
Designed by Studio Alfirevic, their proposal for the Operalab Theatre Pavilion competition represents ‘live’ theater, in which different performances and experiments take place in the field of art. The suggested position of the pavilion is in the fringe area of the park, in the direct vicinity of the building of the Great Theater. The circular form of the pavilion is a subtle response to the conditions of the natural environment and it allows an equal visual experience from all sides. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by architect Dina Hadi, the proposal for the Beirut Multi Art Use project represents a total art mass from the city with different rhythms and patterns. It becomes a live scene from local artists that is captured into this box. With a focus on art as a foundation base for cultures, this project becomes a model for global art beyond. Her study was also awarded the best prize at the Oslo School of Architecture under the title, ‘Excellence in Professionalism’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Synthesis Design + Architecture Inc. and Shenzhen General Institute of Architectural Design and Research Co. Ltd have been awarded first place in the invited international design competition for the Shanghai Wuzhou International Plaza. Their scheme, entitled “Urban Canyon”, embodies the energy and vibrancy of the cities distinct urban environment. Inspired by traditional Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang, the project is organized as two nested rock-like volumes which have been broken apart to reveal a flowing canyon condition which connects the project to the urban fabric of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
With much awaited anticipation, Steven Holl‘s Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, China has just been completed. Forming giant public plazas with a mix of various functions, the group of five towers is intended to be seen as more of a public area despite its towering design as already witnessed in the site. 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. The large public space framed by the block is formed into three valleys inspired by a poem of Du Fu (713-770). In some of the porous openings chunks of different buildings are inserted.
We have already brought you images of the project as it was under way, but the latest images from Hufton + Crow truly capture this inviting public realm in the heart of this metropolis like no one else!
Check out all the latest images of Steven Holl’s Sliced Porosity Block after the break.
As a designer, architect, artist and founder of the Mediated Matter group at MIT’s Media Lab, Neri Oxman has dedicated her career to exploring how digital design and fabrication technologies can mediate between matter and environment to radically evolve the way we design and construct our built world. In this article, which was first published by CNN, Oxman discusses the future of 3D printing buildings with five tenets of a new kind of architecture.
Aimed to support educational, cultural, and artistic projects based on the knowledge of the marine environment and its comprehension, the Jacques Rougerie Foundation recently announced the winners of their 2012 competition. The Foundation’s ambitions are to encourage young architects’, designers’, and engineers’ creativity, by promoting groundbreaking projects that will have an impact on our future lifestyles. The purpose is to imagine unprecedented solutions to current challenges, and to work in compliance with sustainable development. More images and the descriptions of the winning projects after the break.
Make Architects was just granted planning permission by the Crown Estate for the £450million St. James Market development plan located in the heart of Westminster, UK. Also given the go ahead by Westminster Council, their plan also includes three associated residential developments, hinging around the creation of a new public square and two new buildings. One building sits on Regent Street and retains an historic facade while the other presents a completely new facade to Haymarket. More images and architects’ description after the break.
STUDIO architecture and urbanism magazine is currently accepting proposals for our forthcoming issue TRANSFORMATION. This issue aims to investigate which were, are, and will be the dynamics and the transformation processes of the cities. Through their decisions, men repeatedly adapt space to their necessities, in a path of programmatic choices and transformations caused by uses and customs that are always different. The city is a place involved in a continuous Transformation where man is the main creator and user. The city withstands continuous changes in its form, generating new and different landscapes. Abstracts are due January 31st will final pieces due February 28th. For more information, please visit here.
Designed by Aflalo & Gasperini Arquitetos, the Trump Towers is an innovative project that will contribute to the development of the port area of Rio de Janeiro, the future home of the 2016 Olympic Games. Defined as five rather slender towers, with broad front to Francisco Bicalho Avenue, they are similar, equal in height and in geometrically tessellated form. This development is carefully arranged creating a sinuous line suggested by gardens occurring at different heights in each tower. This language gives a sense of order that connects with the landscape and stimulate diversity. More images and architects’ description after the break.
I remember the smog in Beijing rendering the most beautiful skies. There was an innocence to the air pollution back then, before the engines of economic development really got going.
It was just a pretty sunset, or a delicate brown haze that romantically softened the edges of things—while wrecking your lungs, of course. But, like the sand storms, pollution gave the city a different, rarified quality.
Going back to where it all started, TEX-FAB will be holding their Parametric Design and Digital Fabrication Conference at the University of Texas Arlington School of Architecture from February 28 to March 3. The event will include their largest selection of workshops and a full day symposia, which will culminate in the exhibition opening of the APPLIED: Research Through Fabrication competition winner. Ranging from basic for beginners to advanced for the experienced user, a broad spectrum of cutting edge workshops will be offered for this year’s conference by industry leaders. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Opening tomorrow, January 17, at the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, the ‘In Dialogue with the World’ exhibition, which runs until March 10, will show how architects today engage far beyond aesthetics when designing buildings. schmidt hammer lassen architects, along with Henning Larsen Architects, and ADEPT will invite visitors to listen to their accounts of what it is like to work in the field of architecture in the 21st century. With the title Give more, the schmidt hammer lassen architects’ part of the exhibition uses eight selected projects as examples of how buildings, aside from being beautiful, give more. More information after the break.
Designed by STAPL Architects at the popular diving hub of the Philippines, the Oceo Drive tourist resort is a beachfront property which has multiple dwelling options ranging from single studio rooms, suites, sky villas, bungalows and beach facing villas. With the intention to be on an axis which aligns all its rooms and public spaces towards the overwhelming view of the beach and sea beyond, the resort makes for a perfect summer getaway. More images and architects’ description after the break.
