An innovative new housing model dubbed ReGen Villages (short for regenerative) has been developed in response to some of the world's most pressing environmental, social and economic issues. Helmed by Dutch holding firm ReGen Villages B.V. and Copenhagen-based architecture firm EFFEKT, the new model facilitates off-the-grid, self-sustaining communal neighborhoods that can be deployed across the globe. The first project site will be in Almere, the Netherlands, with work starting this year.
Aedas has unveiled the plans for its Chongqing Xinhua Bookstore Group Jiefangbei Book City mixed-use project, a complex of retail, residential, office, and hotel space with a Xinhua Bookstore at its core. Based on an ancient Chinese prose that states “knowledge brings wealth,” the project aims to integrate the concept of a book with the cultural elements of Chongqing to create an interactive commercial space.
A team comprised of Chinese architects Hang Guo and Shanshan Li have used the history of theatre and circus to drive their proposal for a new Moscow Circus School. The design, dubbed Dome and Circus, was developed for the recent Architectural Competition Concours d'Architecture (AC-CA) competition, which encouraged participants to consider the ways in which their design could generate discussion about the relationship between architecture and culture.
Just as the competition to design the official Obama Presidential Library in Chicago was heating up, Arcbazar orchestrated a simultaneous, open-call for ideas competition asking “What sort of Presidential Library would the people design?." Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio (RTDS) led by Raynaldo Theodore, Ryan Ridge, and Kalvin Widjaja responded with a proposal that focuses on Obama's peaceful and inclusive spirit to create a place of welcome and community. Dubbed The V-House, their design is comprised of a series of indoor/outdoor sequences which reference Obama's life and significant points in its Chicago context.
Open Platform for Architecture (OPA) has released designs for the latest in their series of cliffside buildings: Lux Aeterna / Holy Cross Chapel. Similar to their previous project, Casa Brutale, the chapel employs a style referred to by OPA as “Transcendental Brutalism,” and has been embedded into the side of a cliff. The front profile of the building takes the shape of a cross, to be a seen as a spiritual beacon as it is approached from the water.
Studio Pei-Zhu has unveiled plans for the Yang Liping Performing Arts Center in Dali, Yunnan, China. Located at a low latitude and high elevation, Dali features a dramatic terrain and a unique climate that create a boundless relationship between earth and sky. The project site is located in the heart of this landscape, on a fertile plateau between the Cangshan mountain range and Erhai lake.
In designing the Performing Arts Center, Studio Pei-Zhu has drawn inspiration from these natural variations in landscape and climate, employing a large canopy roof and a flowing form to invite users into the complex.
The Skellefteå Kulturhus competition provided a critical opportunity to shape the cultural landscape of Skellefteå in northern Sweden, and the brief elicited a range of exciting responses. Stockholm-based architecture studio Norell/Rodhe have now unveiled their entry, titled "Supergroup."
LYCS Architecture has released designs for Hangzhou NO.2 School of Future Sci-Tech City, a kindergarten, primary and secondary school complex in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Encompassing 44,900 square meters, the design takes inspiration from a child’s drawing of his ideal school – a small town filled with child-scaled spaces and “happy” streets. The complex is broken up into 15 gabled volumes, which gradually increase in size and scale to accommodate the range of student ages.
The success of a temporary pavilion has seen Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL) commissioned to realise a more permanent version of their original design. Situated on the HuangPu riverside in the West Bund district of Shanghai, the new arts and events space - dubbed the "Cloud Pavilion" - has been designed to appear as if it is floating along the waterfront. Comprised of two white surfaces and 20, 000 pieces of white rope, the pavilion has a sense of weightlessness and ephemerality which contrasts to the heavy industrial machinery nearby.
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The relationship that humans have with death is complex and ever-changing, this is inevitably reflected in the architecture of spaces related to death. To interrogate the contemporary role of these spaces, architect Sanchit Arora of Indian firm Renesa Architecture Design Interiors used his thesis work, "The Shadow Spaces; Invisible Sacred Landscapes of Indian Cities" to analyze the place of crematoriums within Indian society.
After a qualitative analysis, Arora has proposed an extension to the Green Park Crematorium in South Delhi. With this project, he aims to provide an example of an architecture which marries poetry and functionality to create spaces which are respectful, experiential, and user-friendly.
GRAFT has designed a new residential complex, called WAVE, on a former harbor along the Spree River in Berlin, Germany. Drawing inspiration from the waterfront site, the two L-shaped buildings are situated parallel to the river and facing one another, creating an inner courtyard and providing units with views of the river and “The Molecule Men,” the iconic sculpture by artist Jonathan Borofsky.
Dutch firm de Architekten Cie. have revealed their design for the Galileo Reference Centre, a new data collection center for the Galileo satellite system in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Primarily housing office space and computer rooms, the center has been designed as a highly efficient and resilient building which can be adapted into the future.
A combination of geographical features has seen the city of Sivas remain one of the greatest focal points of settlement and transit in the Greater Anatolia Region of Turkey. The region is divided in two by the Kızılırmak River, the longest river entirely within Turkey, and it has long been regarded as a barrier to unification. Due to access and safety concerns, Kızılırmak River has been separated from Sivas, perceived as something outside of the city perimeter. Now, advancements in flood mitigation have opened up the possibilities for the river to be re-integrated into the city fabric.
To investigate the possible role of the river in holistically reuniting the two halves of the area, the Sivas Municipality opened a competition to design a six million square meters of land adjacent to the waterfront. A scheme from a team comprised of ONZ Architects and Mdesign took an approach which equally considered the site in terms of its biological and cultural possibilities. Their design establishes the Kızılırmak River Corridor as an "ecological and recreational spine," managing the floodplain and integrating vital public program throughout.
Within the sprawling metropolis of Seoul lies an island "forgotten by time." Sitting beneath the Hangang Bridge on the River Han, the floating lot is now nothing but a relic of a bygone era. Formerly a popular man-made beach and recreational area, the past forty years have seen the site erased from the collective consciousness of the city. To breathe new life into the island, the Nodeul Island Dream competition was opened, and Seoul-based MMK+ and Taehyung Park's proposal 'Reconfigured Ground' took first prize.
The proposal looks at the evolution of the island from constructed paradise to overgrown void. Throughout this evolution, an ecosystem has developed and gradual formal changes have taken place. The remote character of the island - currently accentuated by its abandonment - is to be transformed into a positive condition, as it becomes a cultural haven within the bustling city. The architects' design aims to "restore the wild nature of the island while re-programming its natural features as a cultural venue," once again making it a destination point for inhabitants of the city.
Urban Agency and Group-K have placed 3rd in a competition for a “Wood Experience Center” on the island of Jeju, South Korea. The project location is an area of the island called Redorum, a wild natural environment containing a dense cedar forest and a tranquil lake. The architects responded to this unique site by designing a building that both preserves the unspoiled beauty of the landscape and creates an iconic building containing an exhibition hall, workshop and library.
The Boston office of Perkins+Will has been selected to design a new mixed-use sports complex in Dubai. The development's centerpiece will be the 60,000-seat Mohammed bin Rashid Stadium, which when completed will become the largest stadium in the UAE. Other facilities will include training facilities, a practice pitch, warm-up areas, a 5,000 space car park, a museum, and a multi-purpose sports hall, as well as retail, restaurant and public plaza areas.
MAD Architects has conceived a new design center for international fashion group Xinhee in the coastal Chinese city of Xiamen. Designed as six petals growing from a central atrium, the 61,000 square meter building will sit on a 15,000 square meter site, and will serve as the home of Xinhee and its six subsidiary brands.
“We envision it as a building with skin-and-bones,” reveals MAD founding principal Ma Yansong, “the correspondence of clothing and architecture is they both explore the relationship between the interior and the exterior.”
The largest football club in New Zealand, the Three Kings United Football Club, is set to receive a new headquarter and community center at Keith Hay Park in Auckland. Designed by Copeland Associates Architects (CAA), the single storey pavilion sits on a raised plinth to elevate it from the flood plain and gives spectators a greater vantage point over the surrounding sports fields. Comprised of predominantly lightweight, prefabricated elements, the building has a sense of lightness which increases in accordance with its greater transparency at the northern end.
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Highways have been operating in largely the same way since the early twentieth century. In the Bao'an District in Shenzhen, China, rapid urbanization and industrialization within the built environment is not mirrored in its infrastructural spine, the G107 highway. In order to investigate the possibilities for this strip and its adjacent areas, a visionary open competition was organized earlier this year. A team lead by Avoid Obvious Architects (AOA) and TETRA Architects and Planners presented a redefinition of the highway typology, with a system complex enough to properly service the rich productivity it is connecting.
AOA and TETRA's new G107 is a multi-modal transport system, focused on allowing futuristic modes of transport as it is on implementing cutting edge levels of sustainability. Also referred to by the consortium as an "organic highway," the proposition aims to foster and connect a network of "green manufacturing," with the strategic vision of making Bao'an a carbon neutral city by 2045.
Vo Trong Nghia Architects has released plans for The Signature Spa on Phu Quoc, one of the major islands of Vietnam. Nestled into surroundings of vast forests and pristine beaches, the spa will serve as an addition to its neighboring 5-star hotel. The project has been tucked into the corner of the site to provide a serene atmosphere aimed at establishing “a compact and autonomous place of solace, wherein one can immerse themselves within the lush mangrove reservoir whilst nestled inside the bamboo [structure].”
Overpopulation, pollution, congestion and inflated land prices are putting an increasing amount of pressure on the urban functionality of Bangkok, Thailand. Renowned for its cultural vibrancy and constant activity, the city is struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of its sprawl. In order to ease the pressure and reinsert the public realm back into the metropolis, a new proposal transforms the spaces below major highways in the city into a public network dubbed "The Thailine."
Jon Sealy, the Global Design Director of London's Marques and Jordy (M&J) spent three years interrogating the ways in which existing space in the metropolis could be repurposed to provide inhabitants with vital public space and amenity. Initially appearing as a playful intervention, the colorful project addresses a myriad of social, economic and ecological concerns. Envisioned as a pedestrian and cycle path which interlaces ecologically sustainable initiatives with lively public space, the project would see green areas within Bangkok increased by over 200%.
A soaring new skyscraper dubbed the "Brickell Flatiron" is set to rise 213 meters above the skyline in Brickell, Miami. Designed by Luis Revuelta, the tower features an organic floorplate profile with wide elliptical terraces, maximizing sweeping views of Biscayne Bay and downtown Miami.
These curvilinear, flowing lines are complemented by the interiors, designed by acclaimed Italian architect and designer Massimo Iosa Ghini of Iosa Ghini Associati. The Italian craftsmanship and renaissance-revival air of Iosa Ghini's design together with the clean functionality of Revuelta's architecture, presenting two harmonious elements of design in Miami; old school glamor, and contemporary luxury.
HENN has won a competition to design the new Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Building for the Technical University of Munich at the Garching research campus, which is Europe’s largest research campus. The design features four rectangular buildings encircling a central glass hall envisioned as a beacon and hub to promote interaction among students and academics.
Forum Studio has released plans for “The Pearl of Istanbul”, a mixed-use development situated along a natural bluff overlooking the Marmara Sea that will provide residential, cultural and retail venues for the city of Istanbul. The project’s centerpiece will be the new marina, a string of man-made islands for boat parking that will function as an alternative to a seawall, protecting the development from harsh weather.
.jpg?1471951511 "Courtesy of Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio")
.jpg?1471571666 "Photography by Peter Dixie. Image Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects")
.jpg?1471571446 "Photo of the completed Cloud Pavilion by Peter Dixie. Image Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects")
.jpg?1471571693 "Photography by Peter Dixie. Image Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects")
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.jpg?1471493321 "The Electric Crematorium. Image Courtesy of Sanchit Arora of RENESA ARCHITECTURE DESIGN INTERIORS STUDIO")
.jpg?1471493334 "The Funeral Space. Image Courtesy of Sanchit Arora of RENESA ARCHITECTURE DESIGN INTERIORS STUDIO")
.jpg?1471493273 "Gathering Space. Image Courtesy of Sanchit Arora of RENESA ARCHITECTURE DESIGN INTERIORS STUDIO")
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