Urban Planning: The Latest Architecture and News

Foster + Partners’ City Park proposal has recently been selected for the 40-hectare masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District. Since this past August, we have been sharing the three competing shortlisted projects – OMA’s Three Villages, Rocco Design Architects’ Cultural Connect, and Foster’s City Park – and your comments have sparked great discussion concerning the advantages and disadvantages of each. The selection process for the cultural district was quite unique as the three projects, that were selected from 12 proposals, then entered a public consultation exercise. For three months, the people of the West Kowloon district had the opportunity to review and comment on the projects, which then had a strong impact on the panel’s final decision.

Imagine a vibrant, connected and green Kansas City region. Highlighting local communities, Imagine KC discuses how members of the community are working together to provide a more sustainable and vibrant place to live, work and play. Episode 2: Energy Efficiency and Conservation aired in January and is the latest of the 12 part series from Kansas City Public Television.

Tune in March 24th at 7:30 p.m. for Episode Three: Quality Places and Vibrant Centers. More information about Imagine KC following the break.

Norwegian design team, Eriksen Skajaa Architects has shared with us their urban study for the redevelopment of a former industrial site in Strusshamn, a Norwegian coastal settlement. Follow after the jump for additional images and a brief description by the architects.

For their latest master plan in Xinyang, WORD with SWA Group Los Angeles have developed a framework that responds to the town’s predicted swift population growth. As Chinese communities, such as Xinyang, begin to expand at rapid paces, the existing infrastructures must be re-thought and re-organized, as the demand for new development adds stress to the current systems. Working with a site measuring over 36 kilometers in length with varying topography – a mountainous region in the south to plains and plateaus to the north – the firms resorted to a solution “requiring calculated sensitivity and ingenuity” based on the region’s natural systems.

A great set of diagrams, and more information about the project after the break.

mossessian & partners have won the MIPIM Architectural Review Future Projects “Overall Winner category” Award for their element of the Musheireb scheme, a sustainable downtown regeneration project in Doha, Qatar for the Dohaland development group.

Woods Bagot Architecture and HOK Planning have worked together to generate the master plan for Langfang Eco-Smart City and shared its announcement with us here at ArchDaily. Additional renderings, watercolors and the official press release after the break.

Jean Nouvel was chosen as the lead urban architect and coordinator for the Seguin Island project in July of 2009. Here we are sharing with you the Ateliers Jean Nouvel team master plan for Seguin Island in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.

A diverse group of programs will make up the spaces, total surface area of 300,000 sqm, including cultural, retail, social facilites, parks, gardens, terraces serving as a destination for both residents and tourists. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2010 and final completion is expected for the end of 2023.

Follow the break for a video and renderings by Ateliers Jean Nouvel.

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Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel Location: Seguin Island, Boulogne-Billancourt, France Project Area: 300,000 sqm Renderings: Courtesy of Ateliers Jean Nouvel

Swedish architects Jagnefält Milton shared with us their proposal, awarded with the third prize in an open international master plan competition for the city of Åndalsnes in Norway.

A little description and more images after the break.

Dutch urban planners POSAD, shared with us their proposal for the Solar Park South Competition in Italy, for which they received an honourable mention. More images and press release after the break.

Department of Unusual Certainties is a Toronto-based research and design collective working at the interstices of urban design, planning, public art, spatial research and mapping have shared with us their contribution to the John Street Ideas Competition, held by the Toronto Entertainment District BIA, entitled StairSpace. The competition called for a new public space concept as the center point of what has been dubbed a major cultural axis in the Toronto – John Street. More details of DoUC’s submission after the break.

HENN ARCHITEKTEN‘s design and research studio, HENN Studio B, has been awarded first prize in the international competition to design the new central Business District in Wenzhou, China. They have kindly chosen to share with us their winning proposal, providing additional images and a succinct description after the break.

The CDR-CDU Master plan by Nabito Arquitectura is directed by the desire to create self-sufficient enclosures in the proposed Blocks in order to fight against the abusive urban texture that has developed over the past 50 years on the site. The architects have tried to create an operational space within each of the Blocks in the master plan in hopes that future development of each individual Block will link with one another.

More images and description after the break.

When I visited Chicago, I had to visit one of the key actors on shaping a city that breaths architecture, from big part of the skyline to the Millenium Park: SOM.

I have visited SOM before, to interview Craig Hartman at the San Francisco office, but Chicago was were it all started back in 1936 with Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, and John O. Merrill who joined in 1939.

This time I interviewed Philip Enquist (FAIA), the partner in charge of urban design and planning. Philip has been involved in development and redevelopment initiatives for college campuses, existing city neighborhoods, new cities, rural districts, downtown commercial centers, port areas and even in a master-plan for the entire nation of Bahrain.

It was amazing to hear from him on different processes that have been shaping the most important cities in the world, such as Beijing’s Central Business District or the master plan for the Millenium Park. But I was also surprised about a project we presented to you earlier, the vision for the Great Lakes area, a project that shows a lot of responsibility as an architect and an example that we still have a very important role in our society.

After the break, the usual questions a bonus with what’s a good city, and some photos of the office.

“(Driver)less is more”, BIG’s proposal for the Audi Urban Future Award was one of the five finalists of the competition won by J. Mayer H. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Here’s the third proposal by Rocco Design Architects Limited for the West Kowloon Cultural District (be sure to view OMA’s proposal and Foster + Partners’ proposal previously featured on AD). Rocco’s concept, entitled ”Cultural Connect: Key to Sustained Vitality,” started with two basic questions - Have we ever wondered why we are fascinated by Qing Ming Riverside? And, why exactly do we want a West Kowloon Cultural Dsitrict. Using these questions are a starting point, the proposal seeks to design a place where different groups of people can enjoy different activities “in the same space and at the same time.”

More about the proposal including images after the break.

Continuing with our coverage of the West Kowloon Arts District, here’s Foster+Partners’ proposal entitled City Park. The proposal is based around a 23-hectare Great Park which will hold a sampling of cultural buildings of varying scales. From the large Arena, Opera House and Exhibition Center to the smaller teahouses and small temples scattered throughout the landscape, the park will be a welcoming entity programmed to provide for the public. Lord Foster, Founder and Chairman, said, “Hong Kong is a great city and this project captures what is important about its DNA: the civic spaces, the squares, the parks, the greenery, the avenues and the small side streets. At ‘City Park’ we have created a world class setting for a new cultural city for everyone.”

More images and more about the master plan after the break.

On Monday, we shared OMA’s master plan proposal (a series of 3 villages that re-think traditional arts components) for the West Kowloon new arts district. As we mentioned, OMA’s plan is competing with two other master plans – Foster + Partners and Rocco Design Architects Limited. We’re excited to share these two master plans with you this week and get your feedback for the plan that you feel is most successful.

This past week, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority of Hong Kong unveiled OMA’s conceptual master plan for a new arts district (Koolhaas’ plan is one of three competing proposals). Divided into three villages, the 40 hectacre waterfront site places strong emphasis on the quality of the street life and the “cultural production where all aspects of the creative process are nurtured and made visible.” The master plan has been years in the making, as Koolhaas established an office in Hong Kong to better understand the culture and context, as well as collaborate with financial and culture experts to design a feasible plan to positively affect the communities involved. Rem Koolhaas commented, “Using the village – a typology every citizen of Hong Kong is familiar with – as the model for our plan allows us to absorb the massive scale of WKCD’s ambition into manageable portions and forge deep connections with Kowloon, whose vital urban energy will be the lifeblood of WKCD.”

Images and more information about the master plan after the break.