Hengli Group Headquarters. Image Courtesy of Mecanoo
Dutch practice Mecanoo has created a new skyscraper design for the Hengli Group Headquarters in Shenzhen, China. In the city's dense urban context, the design will host the world's largest weaving enterprise in two volumes above a commercial plinth. Inspired by the Hengli Group’s textile tradition, a bronze metal grid wraps the transparent volumes like threads on a loom. As a Shenzhen Bay landmark, the project was designed to display the company’s culture and embrace new urban design strategies.
Frankfurt Grand Central. Image Courtesy of Mecanoo
Dutch design practice Mecanoo has won the competition to design the new Frankfurt Grand Central Tower in Germany. Sited in the country's fifth largest city, the residential tower will rise within walking distance of Central Station where a former post office once stood. Developed by Phoenix and Gross & Partner, the skyscraper hopes to meet the city's increased housing demand across all market segments. The glass and copper-colored metal tower was inspired by the surrounding industrial context.
Nieuw Land National Park. Image Courtesy of Mecanoo
Dutch design practice Mecanoo has created a masterplan for the world's largest man-made nature park at Nieuw Land in the Netherlands. Last month, the Provincial Government approved the plan with an overwhelming majority. The National Park is located near the metropolitan region of Amsterdam and covers over 29,000 hectares. The new masterplan integrates four nature reserves to secure and protect the future of the National Park.
Photographer Sytze Boonstra has captured the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan through a series of new images. Bringing Mecanoo's work to life, Boonstra turned his lens to the part-landscape, part-architecture building with four performance halls tucked underneath a 35-acre artificial terrain. As the largest performing-arts center under one roof, the project was made to blur the boundaries between indoors and out, solid and void.
For those in the northern hemisphere, the last full week in January last week kicks off with Blue Monday - the day claimed to be the most depressing of the year. Weather is bleak, sunsets are early, resolutions are broken, and there’s only the vaguest glimpse of a holiday on the horizon. It’s perhaps this miserable context that is making the field seem extra productive, with a spate of new projects, toppings out and, completions announced this week.
The week of 21 January 2019 in review, after the break:
Mecanoo has unveiled their design for the Qianhai Data Center in Shenzhen, China, from which they received second prize in an international design competition. The 63,000-square-meter scheme, imagined as an urban beacon, consists of an opaque tower atop an open plinth with offices and support spaces.
The 113-meter-tall “digital lighthouse” is to be located within the 15-square-kilometer Qianhai Free Development Zone, where it will mark the arrival to the district and symbolize its innovative ambition.
Architecture is a profession deeply dependent on the visual. It’s imagined, sold, critiqued and consumed almost entirely on the strength (or lack thereof) of drawings. We pick and prod at images presented at angles we’ll never be able to see, admiring the architectonic qualities of elements we’ll never actually experience.
https://www.archdaily.com/904318/this-week-in-architecture-more-than-visualKatherine Allen
Opened on October 13th 2018, the scheme is set across a subtropical park in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, occupying a former military training base to symbolize the city’s transition from a major international harbor into a rich, diverse, cultural hub, connecting local and international artistic talent.
Mondorf-les-Bains Velodrome and Sports Complex. Image Courtesy of Mecanoo
Mecanoo and Metaform Architects have won a competition to design a new Velodrome and Sports Complex in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg. Sited in the countryside outside the city, the project was designed as a destination for recreation. The new project will include a new national velodrome with an aquatic centre, multisport hall and climbing wall. The design aims to be a sporting hub that could host national and international cycling events while also remaining open to the community and future international school on site.
Confirmed speakers at the 2018 World Architecture Festival.. Image Courtesy of World Architecture Festival
Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect and founder of the Rotterdam-based firm OMA, has been announced as the closing keynote speaker at the World Architecture Festival. The event will take place in Amsterdam at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre on from 28-30 November.
https://www.archdaily.com/901662/rem-koolhaas-to-give-closing-keynote-at-2018-world-architecture-festival-in-amsterdamKatherine Allen
That’s the goal, at least. Mecanoo has released designs for a large-scale development in Utrecht inspired by “blue zone” regions - areas where residents tend live atypically long and healthy lives. Currently there are only five recognized blue zones worldwide: Sardinia, Nicoya, Loma Linda, Okinawa, and Ikaria.
