3 World Trade Center, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, has opened for business in Lower Manhattan, New York City. At 1079 feet tall, and 80 floors, the scheme is the fifth-highest in New York, and the penultimate tower to be opened on the World Trade Center site. Construction of the tower saw over 4,000 union workers apply millions of hours.
The Dutch city of Eindhoven is to host the world’s first commercial housing project based on 3D-concrete printing, with the first of five planned houses due to start construction this year. The units were developed by a collaborative team including local firm Houben & Van Mierlo Architecten, and the Eindhoven University of Technology. The pods will be purchased and let out by a real estate company upon completion.
The first house will be a single-floor, three-room house measuring 1000 square feet (95 square meters), to be followed by four multi-story units. The irregular shape of the buildings is based on “erratic blocks in the green landscape,” made possible due to the flexibility of form permitted by 3D-printing.
https://www.archdaily.com/895597/worlds-first-3d-printed-concrete-housing-project-to-be-built-in-eindhovenNiall Patrick Walsh
Morphosis has released images of its proposed Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in California. The scheme hopes to create an “open and engaging urban presence within Orange County’s largest center for arts and culture” when it opens in 2021.
At 52,000 square feet, the museum will allow OCMA to organize major temporary exhibitions alongside spacious installations. The museum will contain nearly 25,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, representing a 50% increase on their current location in Newport Beach.
Aldo Amoretti has released new photographs as construction continues on Europe's first underwater restaurant in Norway, designed by Snøhetta. The structure is currently being built on a floating barge in close proximity to its final location. Upon completion, the scheme will also house a marine life research center, teetering over the edge of a rocky outcrop, semi-submerged in the ocean.
Built from concrete, the monolithic structure will come to rest on the seabed 16 feet (five meters) below the water's surface, fusing with the ecosystem of the concealed shoreline. Below the waterline, the restaurant’s enormous acrylic windows will frame a view of the seabed.
Polished concrete is a versatile material that is easily customizable in its appearance, using stunning aggregates, quartz, and colors to create a sense of industrial sophistication in both homes and commercial buildings. Its reflective surface creates an evocative quality under light, which can be suitable for a variety of programs.
3XN and GERNER GERNER PLUS have released details of their competition entry for the design of a new aquarium in Schönbrunn Zoo, Vienna. Developed in collaboration with aquarium specialists ATT, “Poseidon’s Realm” was designed to be “elegant, simple and mysterious, lying across the landscape like a great veil.” The scheme was awarded second place in an international competition for the aquarium’s design, with the winner yet to be announced.
The “Poseidon’s Realm” scheme is defined by a spacious green roof landscape embedded in the zoo’s path network. The aquarium covers a total area of 65,000 square feet (6,000 square meters), divided across four levels, with a large, glazed, wave-shaped entrance enticing visitors to transition between outdoor greenery and a “softly undulating waterworld.”
In March 1972, an article in The Architectural Review proclaimed that this structure was “probably the best building in Paris since Le Corbusier’s Cité de Refuge for the Salvation Army.”[1] The article was, of course, referring to Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer’s first project in Europe: the FrenchCommunist Party Headquarters in Paris, France, built between 1967 and 1980. Having worked with Le Corbusier on the 1952 United Nations Building in New York and recently finished the National Congress as well as additional iconic government buildings in Brasilia, Niemeyer was no stranger to the intimate relationship between architecture and political power.[2]
Studio Gang has released details of their proposed condominiumtower in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. “11 Hoyt” has been designed with an emphasis on nature and community-building, responding to a lack of comfortable outdoor space in Brooklyn through the creation of an “outdoor-indoor environment."
The Studio Gang scheme, designed in collaboration with Hill West Architects, reclaims a former parking garage site in a rapidly-densifying area, where the population has increased by 40% in twenty years. 11 Hoyt is set to transform the site into an elevated green podium anchored by a 770,000-square-foot (71,000-square-meter) residential tower featuring a “scalloped” façade.
https://www.archdaily.com/892945/studio-gang-unveils-images-of-rippling-condominium-tower-in-brooklyn-new-yorkNiall Patrick Walsh
Sand is the most-consumed natural resource in the world after water and air. Modern cities are built out of it. In the construction industry alone, it is estimated that 25 billion tons of sand and gravel are used every year. That may sound a lot, but it’s not a surprising figure when you consider how everything you’re surrounded with is probably made of the stuff.
But it’s running out.
This is a scary fact to think about once you realize that sand is required to make both concrete and asphalt, not to mention every single window on this planet. The United Nations Environment Programme found out that from 2011 to 2013, China alone used more cement than the United States had used in the entire 20th century and in 2012, the world used enough concrete to build a wall around the equator that would be 89 feet high and 89 feet thick (27 by 27 meters).
On a hillside forest outside of Moscow, amongst 65-foot-high (20-meter-high) pine and birch trees, sits the only private house to be designed and built by Zaha Hadid in her lifetime. With a form defined by its natural surroundings, the Capital Hill Residence is divided into two components, one merging with the sloping hillside, and another “floating” 72 feet (22 meters) above ground to unlock spectacular views across the Russian forested landscape.
It's fundamental that architects know about structures, not only to bring their designs to reality but also to be able to discuss their projects with engineers in order to find the best solutions for construction. Structural pre-dimensioning is crucial to the initial design of the structural components, revealing the restrictions and the possibilities of the spaces.
One of the main loads that a structure must support is its own weight, so it's essential to know this information so that the different parts of the building can be dimensioned. When starting a structural project, the engineer doesn't yet know the dimensions of the different pieces that make up the structure, and therefore, can't know their own weight. A paradox appears without a solution: to know the weight it's necessary to know the dimensions, but, to know the dimensions, it's necessary to know the weight.
During the development of the project the architect finds himself in the curious situation of having to design without necessarily knowing the size of each of the parts of the building (such as the size of the pillars, for example). These important elements directly affect functionality and aesthetics of the project.
https://www.archdaily.com/891880/learn-to-pre-dimension-a-reinforced-concrete-structureJoão Carlos Souza
Modernity certainly does not have to be characterized by ugliness, but we may well have to make some revisions in our standards of beauty. — Edward J. Logue
pinkcomma gallery is proud to present Brutal Destruction, photographs of concrete architecture at the moment of its demise. The exhibit is curated by Chris Grimley of the architecture office over,under. The exhibit opens 12 April, 2018 from 6–9 p.m., and the will be on display through May 03, 2018.
The white concrete museum is inspired by an adjacent fortress. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl
Steven Holl Architects has won an international competition for the design of the Angers Collectors Museum and adjacent hotel in the historic city of Angers, France. Working in collaboration with developers Compagine de Phalsbourg, Holl’s scheme draws inspiration from the nearby 9th century Chateau d’Angers fortress, and seeks to form a new cultural gateway to the city.
In the 3rd Arrondissement of the French city of Lyon, construction has begun on Lyon Part-Dieu, an MVRDV-designed scheme seeking to transform the city’s main shopping center. Featuring partly-transparent glass and a public green roof, the MVRDV scheme will revitalize and integrate what was formerly an introverted complex built for an era dominated by the car.
At 166,000 square meters, Lyon Part-Dieu is the largest downtown shopping center in Europe, built in 1975. In order to improve the existing outdated complex, MVRDV worked with co-architects SUD to produce a design that offers a contemporary update to the existing façade and a re-organization of the interior program.
https://www.archdaily.com/890665/construction-begins-on-mvrdvs-redesign-for-europes-biggest-urban-shopping-centerNiall Patrick Walsh
Concrete blocks are a prefabricated material mainly used to build walls. Like bricks, the blocks are stacked together and joined with a mortar, usually consisting of cement, sand, and water. The blocks are hollow inside to allow for steel bars and mortar filling.
These blocks come in a variety of dimensions and textures, from traditional smooth surfaces to fluted or rough finishes, as well as special units for corners or for beams with longitudinal reinforcements. The dimensions of these blocks range from the classic 8x8x16 inches (approx 19x19x39 cm) which is meant for structural use, to a size of 8x3.5x39 inches (approx 19x9x39 cm) for partitioning walls. How can we incorporate them creatively into our designs?
Courtesy of Lapyote Prasittisopin, Chanita Chuaysiri / Siam Research and Innovation
Siam Research and Innovation Company (SRI) is a Thailand-based cement manufacturer that has been developing innovations to push the limits of 3D printing in architecture. Their project 'Triple S' –developed in 2017– is based on traditional Thai craftsmanship to generate Surface, Structure, and Shelter in a single process; its specific artisanal form creating beautiful framework for structural purposes, easily building living spaces.
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