MVRDV Transforms a Former Oil Refinery into an Energy-Neutral Cultural Park in Hangzhou, China

Maria-Cristina Florian — Tue, 16 May 2023 06:30:00 +0000

Following an international competition, MVRDV has been selected to lead the design of the Hangzhou Oil Refinery Factory Park, an extensive project aiming to transform the former industrial district into a cultural center set in a green environment. Complete with a new art and science museum, offices, retail, and a wide variety of cultural offerings, the redevelopment demonstrates a way forward from an oil-based infrastructure to more sustainable alternatives, while retaining the memory of the past technologies. The park sits alongside the southern end of China’s Grand Canal, the world’s longest and one of the oldest man-made waterways created to strengthen economic connections between the south and the north of the country.

AD Classics: Palazzo Santa Sofia / The Ca d’Oro

Luke Fiederer — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 05:00:00 +0000

Sitting on the northern bank of Venice's Grand Canal is a great house whose ornately carved marble facade only hints at its original splendor. The Palazzo Santa Sofia—or the Ca D’Oro (House of Gold), as it is also known—is one of the most notable examples of late Venetian Gothic architecture, which combined the existing threads of Gothic, Moorish, and Byzantine architecture into a unique aesthetic that symbolized the Venetian Republic’s cosmopolitan mercantile empire. Built to serve as the grand residence of wealthy Venetian businessman and politician Marin Contarini, the palazzo has seen a number of owners and renovations over its lifetime before ultimately coming to serve as a museum for medieval painting and sculpture.[1]

Tag: grand-canal | ArchDaily

MVRDV Transforms a Former Oil Refinery into an Energy-Neutral Cultural Park in Hangzhou, China

AD Classics: Palazzo Santa Sofia / The Ca d’Oro