Offices: The Latest Architecture and News

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This 33-story SOHO Hailun Plaza is currently being constructed in the dense city of Shanghai. Located at the intersection of two metro lines, the plaza will include a 130-meter office tower and five mixed-use podiums. The design, by UNStudio, treats each structure as a set of objects shaped by the flow of commuters. Each facade will be cloaked in a similar, faceted texture that will “change in appearance when approached from different directions.”

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Developed for the architectural competition organized by real estate company, STI Immobilienmanagement, HENN's design for the Glazed Software Factory was just announced as the winning proposal. The company's new office building, located in Karlsruhe, consists of open, transparent spatial structures allowing for a varying range of office types. This strategy combines areas of communication and concentration with one another to provide a bright and diverse working environment for customers and staff. More images and architects' description after the break.

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Captured by JA+U, this short film takes you on a tour through a 2011, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates-designed office space in Shibaura, Tokyo. Open and transparent, the five double-height, split-level floors are designed to visually connect movement throughout the space, from the ground level public cafe to the generous outdoor terrace on the fifth floor.

The Portland Building, by architect and product designer Michael Graves, is considered the first major built work of Postmodernist architecture. The design, which displays numerous symbolic elements on its monumental facades, stands in purposeful contrast to the functional Modernist architecture that was dominant at the time. As Graves explains of his architecture: it’s “a symbolic gesture, an attempt to re-establish a language of architecture and values that are not a part of modernist homogeneity.”

Read more about this controversial building after the break... 

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