A few months ago we featured an amazing skyscraper by Herzog & de Meuron, that will have a great impact in the skyline of New York. I’m very intrigued by the final result of this project, as it develops a pixelated unit composition that many have propossed, but no one has built.

SHoP Architects PC is a New York based practice we meet a few months ago. We knew a little about them, because of the PS1 Competition they won back in 2000, the Porter House condos in NY -a great example of urban renovation- and the East River Waterfront Renovation, currently in progress.

Something that interested me before getting to know them in person, was the fact that they stated “we believe in both ideas and profitability”, as a middle point between academia and service firms – something that some architects escape from.

During our conversation, they told us something very important for current practices: how to manage the growth of your office, how to work in a multidisciplinary environment and how to get the most out of computer aided design technologies, not just in terms of design, but in streamlining the construction process and create new efficiencies and cost-savings.

After the break, the office profile and some selected works from SHoP.

290 Mulberry is defined by its context through a direct response to zoning and building code regulations. Located in Nolita, New York, this building is bound on the north by Houston Street and on the west by the historic Puck Building on Mulberry Street.  A zoning district requirement specifying a masonry enclosure for the two street walls created an opportunity to respond directly to the Puck Building, one of New York’s most recognizable masonry buildings.  We then focused the idea on the reinterpretation of local laws and regulations with a contemporary response to masonry construction and detailing that doesn’t attempt to imitate the past.

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If you usually take a look at the photo credits on the projects we publish every day, then you already know who Iwan Baan is. But in case you haven’t, Iwan Baan is a dutch photographer that has been documenting works from the best contemporary architects, such as OMA, SANAA, Steven Holl, Sou Fujimoto, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, Michael Maltzan and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, moving away from the traditional static architecture photography.

He’s always moving between London, Amsterdam, Paris, New York or Beijing, where he has been documenting the construction of OMA’s China Central Television (CCTV) building, alongside Herzog & de Meuron’s Olympic Stadium and other 2008 Olympic projects in Beijing.

For those of you in London, the Architectural Association Gallery is hosting an exhibition on Iwan Baan’s work(with installation views by Sue Barr) from Nov 10th to Dec 10th. Also, on Nov 21th Iwan will be at a roundtable at the AA Lecture Hall.

I take this opportunity to thank Iwan for letting us use his photos on ArchDaily, helping us to bring you the best buildings around the world with high quality photos – Thanks Iwan!

More pictures of his work after the jump.

Some time ago we featured a mid rise building by OMA in New York, a cantilevered volume that brings a new concept for tall buildings. A similar approach can be found at a recent competition for the Rødovre Skyscraper won by MVRDV in association with ADEPT: A 116m tall mixed use tower, based on a 60sqm module arranged around the central core of the building.

It´s interesting to see the structural approach for this new typology, as you can see on another render below: the inner core -actually 3 cores to access the different program segments- is made out of concrete, with the units wrapping it around on a steel structure.

Something interesting in times like this, is that the building allows for different configurations responding to unstable markets, flexibility achieved by re-designating these 60sqm units.

Well, here we have another skyscrapper in Dubai, this time in the shape of a giant wind turbine. When I saw this, i thought it had this turbine to generate eolic energy, but actually it’s a structure that holds a panoramic restaurant in the glass capsule at the top of the building, as you can see on the further images.

The 2,15 feet (655m) tall tower includes a mixed use developement with retail, offices, 300 luxury apartments and a 250-room luxury hotel. As you can see on the vertical renderings, it has a tremendus atrium and vertical gardens every 27 floors.

The Anara tower was designed by Atkins Design Studio for Tameer Holding Investment

Construction is set to be started during next year. More images after the break.

b720 architects won the competition for the World Trade Center at Igualada, Spain. The complex will articulate the existing industrial city with the residential zone, completing a new zone of infrastructure for this developing city.

The complex consist of 4 buildings with a total area of 53.000 sqm, including 530 underground parking spaces. This project will hold offices, retail spaces.

Retail space is located on the lower and first level of the first 3 buildings, as a base to the office space above it as you can see on the rendering. The upper levels are wider than this retail base, creating a covered space for pedestrians. Between the volumes, several spaces will allow for future occupation. Galleries on the upper floors will allow an exterior-interior continuity, integrating the mid-rise volumes with the exterior that starts to become more as a neighborhood than with this new relations, thus answering to the city council requirement to turn this project in not just office space, but a new urban centrality.

There’s only a few more images available (after the break), but we will keep in touch with b720 to bring you more on this project as it develops.

Our friends at Inhabitat tipped us on this amazing project, the Folded Bamboo Houses + Paper House by Ming Tang. This structures were conceived as a response to the 7.9 earthquake that strucked China last May.

In order to relocate the people that lost their houses, the Chinese goverment decided to build 1.5 million temporary homes. For this, Ming Tang proposed a shelter that was easily produced, cheap and environmentally friendly, using bamboo. The concept utilizes a system of bamboo poles that are pre-assembled into rigid geometric shapes. The geometry of these forms provides each structure’s integrity, allowing a range of lightweight modular structures to be quickly assembled in factories and transported to their destination. Once constructed, the shelters are then covered by using post and pre-consumer recycled paper.

For this modular system, Tang also proposed a  paper fibers, water, and cement envelope that allows for larger configurations.

This project was presented on the RE:Construct competition, a call for a ideas on temporary housing. This project was selected as a notable entry, but i think it should have been awarded since it address a on going problem with a local solution in an innovative way.

This are the kind of projects that I wish were being built right now! What do you think? Do you have more examples on innovative temporary housing?

More pictures after the break.

Rural Studio has been a good teaching model, which made students get involved on communities as they learn architecture, a good approach to form architect’s that are part of the society. This model, first initiated by Sam Mockbee in 1993, is still being used in schools in the US. A good example of this is DesignBuildBLUFF, a studio taught by Hank Louis (AIA) through the University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning.

I was very eager waiting for the mail man on this one, because as i stated before, Mark Magazine is one of my favourite publications when it comes to new projects.

The October/November issue has a very nice texture on the cover, featuring Sou Fujimoto´s Log House. This issue´s central theme is “House Rules”, with 7 amazing houses on the inside.

But lets start by the beginning, with the section Notice Board.

Interesting conversation between Peter Eisenman and Wolf d.Prix on architectural education during a studio presentation. What do you think?

The Burj Dubai by SOM hasn´t been finished yet, but it´s currently the world´s tallest structure. Meanwhile, the Shanghai World Financial Centre by KPF has been opened a few weeks ago, which is (as for now) the tallest building in the world when it comes to roof height with 492m (1,614.2ft). The Taipei 101 in Taiwan is 509.2m (1,670.60ft) if you count the antenna, but its roof is only at 449.2 m (1,473.75 ft).

The building took almost 11 years to be completed, delayed by the Asian Financial Crisis of 97-98 and change on design, but it was finally opened to public on August 30, 2008. You can see an interesting tour of the building on the video posted above.

The observatory on the 100th floor is amazing, with a transparent floor.

Also, I found an interesting documentary by National Geographic on the construction of the World Financial Center, posted it below. Enjoy!

UPDATE: We wrongly credited the whole project to AS+GG, but they were only comissioned to design the three main towers, on a master plan designed by SOM Chicago.

It seems no one told Dubai about the financial crisis, as new projects keep being unveiled. This time, our green friends over Inhabitat tipped us on a mega development, owned by Maraas Holding: The Jumeirah Gardens. The master plan for this project was designed by SOM Chicago, and consists of a mixed-use development that incorporates low, medium, and high-density zones for business, residences, retail, leisure, and recreation – a city within a city, with an estimated cost of US$95 billion.

The three main towers were comissioned to Chicago based architects AS+GG (Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill), The most impressive one -and the third tallest tower in the UAE- is 1 Dubai, pictured above. The tri-partite skyscraper will be 3218 ft (981m) tall, and the towers will be connected by a series of glass suspension sky-bridges. This bridges are so big, they even grow palms on them as you can see on the further renderings. At the base of the buildings, grand arched entrances allow boats to travel underneath the building and into a central atrium space. The mixed-use development includes a hotel, residential, commercial retail and entertainment space totaling 800,000-900,000 square meters.

Architect Jacques Rougerie -an expert when it comes to space and underwater structures- has designed the soon-to-be first underwater museum. It will be located off the coast of Egypt, near the new Library of Alexandria, where Cleopatra once had a palace on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world back in the day, submerged by earthquakes in the 4th century.

The ruins were discovered years ago, and include several sphinxes, statues, roman and greek shipwrecks and pieces believed to be from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world).

This ruins haven’t been moved, since it would be a tremendous effort that could damage the ruins in the process. Also,  it follows the 2001 UNESCO convention for the preservation of underwater heritage.

With that in mind, the museum is designed as both inland and submarine. The building will have four tall structures shaped like the sails of fellucas, the traditional sailboats used in the Nile. From the inland building, underwater fiberglass tunnels will take visitors to structures where they can view antiquities still lying on the seabed.

eVolo Skyscraper Competition 2008 Winner – Elie Gamburg

eVolo Architecture was created by a group of international architects in New York as a forum of discussion of new ideas. One of their strategies have been architectural competitions, held since 2005.

For the last 3 years (2006-2008) the competition has been inviting architects around the world to explore the future of skyscrapers. The 2009 Skyscaper Competition looks to continue exploring new ideas and concepts for vertical density. And to really give you the freedom to explore this kind of project, there´s no restriction on site, height and shape. But always being technically feasible,  enviromentally responsible, aware of its urban context and define new programmes for a vertical structure.

With that freedom, contestants can focus on on pushing the concept of skyscrapers beyond the concept we are used to.

The competition is opened to students, architects, engineers and designers. Registration deadline is on January 12, and submission deadline on January 19, 2009.

LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) unveiled the design of the Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower in Dubai, the first project of a series of branded towers, a new concept by PNYG:COMPANY, a company focused on branding. I´ve heard about branded towers such at the Porsche Towers by OMA, but it´s the first time i hear about a building branded after a Formula 1 champion.

LAVA is a practice formed a year ago by associate architects of the Mercedes Benz Museum and the Watercube, who decided to start their new practice focused on new technologies and innovation.

According to the architects, the design of the 59 storey luxury tower is abstracted from the geometric laws of snowflakes and Formula 1 aerodynamics, in order to obtain an effficient/minimal structure, maximum views and optimal light and air distribution.

Something that took my attention were the first levels of the tower. Since the tower wides on the base, which emerges from the water, the lower level has been reinterpreted as a series of wharf apartments, terraced similar to a cruise ship deck.