Beijing: The Latest Architecture and News

ADP Ingeniérie (ADPI) and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) have unveiled designs for what will be the world’s largest airport passenger terminal - the Beijing New Airport Terminal Building. The Daxing scheme, based off the bid-winning planning concept by ADPI, hopes to alleviate traffic from Beijing’s existing Capital Airport, which is operating beyond its planned capacity.

“Initially accommodating 45 million passengers per year, the new terminal will be adaptable and sustainable, operating in many different configurations dependent on varying aircraft and passenger traffic throughout each day,” stated ZHA in a press release. “With an integrated multi-modal transport centre featuring direct links to local and national rail services including the Gaotie high speed rail, the new Daxing airport will be a key hub within Beijing’s growing transport network and a catalyst for the region’s economic development, including the city of Tianjin and Hebei Province.”

Inspired by the recent popularity of amateur photography in China, People’s Architecture Office (PAO) + People’s Industrial Design Office (PIDO) repurposed reflective photography panels to create multipurpose Pop-Up Habitats. Incredibly lightweight and comprised of only flexible steel rings and a soft fabric, the Pop-Up Habitats can fold quickly and form self-supporting structures when expanded.

The Pop-Up Habitat has been exhibited in numerous architecture and design festivals around the world -- including Beijing Design Week and the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen -- and in numerous forms. The Pop-Up Habitats have been turned into an auditorium, a gallery and a canopy, in addition to “an unintended but apt backdrop for selfies" at one exhibition. A consumer version has also been developed as a “weatherproof modular tent.”

Check out some of the exhibitions the Pop-Up Habitats have been featured in after the break. 

+ 23

+ 39

+ 31

+ 23

+ 2

+ 14

The Royal Architecture Institute of Canada (RAIC) have announced that Li Xiaodong has been awarded the inaugural Moriyama International Prize, named after esteemed Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama. The prize, which comes with a monetary value of CAD$100,000, has been established to recognise buildings that are judged to be "transformative, inspired as well as inspiring, and emblematic of the human values of respect and inclusiveness."

The jury deliberated projects submitted from nine countries: Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Tajikistan. According to the citation, the jury was "impressed by the breadth of international interest in the prize and encouraged by the high level of engagement with the aims and objectives of the program revealed in the submissions." The prize is open to all architects irrespective of nationality and location and seeks to recognise a single work of architecture (as opposed to a life’s work), celebrating buildings in use.

+ 7

ADP Ingénierie (ADPI), part of the French airport authority Aéroports de Paris (ADP), has won the competition to design Terminal 1 at Beijing's new Daxing Airport, beating both Foster + Partners, and a team composed of the China Civil Aviation Construction Group Corporation (CACC) and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design. The design competition for the 700,000 square meter airport was announced in July 2011, with Beijing New Airport Construction Headquarters (BNAH) putting the submissions through "a long and rigorous selection process," according to ADP.

Foster lost out on the competition despite having designed Terminal 3 at Beijing's main airport, which at the time of completion in 2008 was the largest airport terminal in the world. However owing to the rapid rise in use of air transport in China that airport is already running at full capacity, necessitating the creation of another airport at Daxing, 60 kilometres south of Beijing.

+ 20

The architects of Emerging Objects have devised a scheme for a 3D printed house made from locally harvested salt and concrete. Known as the “3D Printed House 1.0,” the case study residence was commissioned by the Jin Hai Lake Resort Beijing. It integrates traditional construction methods with renewable 3D printed materials, manufactured by Emerging Objects, to build a house that is sustainable, structurally sound and beautiful.

LaMIPA, a non-profit "architectural exchange platform" dedicated to exhibiting art and culture, will be part of the 2014 Beijing Design Week (BJDW) with a launch event on September 25th 2014 and following events on the 26th and 28th. Exhibiting seventy documentaries by Spanish and Portuguese architects, and organised in conjunction with the Spanish and Portuguese Embassies to China, the unique audiovisual LaMIPA collection will be part of the main section of the Beijing Design Week festival. Alongside the exhibition a series of lectures from a number of renowned practices including Souto de Moura and OAB Ferrater will also be taking place.

+ 6

The Beijing city district of Wanjing has traditionally been a gateway for people entering the city. Its name literally translates as “Looking Towards Beijing.” J. J. Pan and Partners seek to renew that title with the design of Beijing Automotive Group’s new Research and Development Center. Taking inspiration from the character 北 (bei), which signifies openness, as well as Beijing itself, this mixed use building is meant to become a symbolic landmark both for Wanjing and for the company it houses.

+ 19