Herzog & de Meuron has unveiled plans for the modernization of the Roche pharmaceutical company’s Basel headquarters. With the first tower already under construction, the overall vision is to consolidate and update all existing facilities, including a historic Otto R. Salvisberg-designed office building, as well as construct a new, four-tower research center and 205-meter tall office tower by 2022.
"The planned consolidation of the existing industrial site will eliminate the need to build over green zones", emphasizes Jürg Erismann, Head of the Basel/Kaiseraugst Site. "Instead, Roche will be making more efficient use of those parts of the site that have already been developed but cannot be expanded.”
Rogers Partners (formally known as Rogers Marvel Architects) and PWP Landscape Architecture’s redesign for the National Mall’s neglected Constitution Gardens has received unanimous approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). The 50-acre project, which was originally won through a competition in 2012, will now move forward with its first phase.
Edinburgh-based 7N Architects has revealed their masterplan for Shawfield in Glasgow, a development containing 1.2 million square feet of "flexible business space" next to the River Clyde. Produced for the Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company, the scheme aims to capitalize on the growth and investment that was brought to Glasgow by this summer's Commonwealth Games by providing "a nationally significant business district which will play a strong role in contributing to growth in Scotland's economy."
Gehry Partners' "Prospect Place" Building, with Prospect Park Below. Image Courtesy of Battersea Power Station
The Battersea Power Station Development Company has revealed new images of the buildings on "Electric Boulevard," designed by Foster + Partners and Gehry Partners. As phase three in the development of the Grade-II* power station and its surroundings, the buildings will form the primary entrance to the site, connecting the planned Battersea Underground station with the power station and forming one of London's most distinguished high streets.
The released images show both the exterior and interior features of Foster's "Battersea Roof Gardens" Building (formerly called "The Skyline") and Gehry's "Prospect Place" and "Flower" buildings. Read on after the break to see all the images.
Global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm HOK has recently been selected as lead designer and masterplanner for the redevelopment of Fort Regent, a former fortress turned community center in St. Helier on Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands of the English Channel.
The redevelopment of the 22-acre (9-hectares) site will make Jersey’s largest leisure and entertainment venue a premiere destination, and includes a masterplan that aims to strengthen the economic value of the site and encourage public funding for the redevelopment.
ASTOC and HPP have been announced as winners of a two-stage competition to masterplan “New Moscow’s” International Financial Center (IFC) in Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye. The phased, 460 hectare development will capitalize on the Moscow River’s greenbelt by extending the river landscape throughout the IFC to achieve a balance between nature and city.
More information, images and a video about the winning proposal, after the break…
British urban design consultancy URBED (Urbanism, Environment, Design) have been announced as the winners of the 2014 Wolfson Economics Prize for their proposal to reenergise the Garden City (GC) movement, first conceived by Sir Ebenezer Howard in 1898. David Rudlin and Nicholas Falk's submission argues that forty cities in England, including Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Rugby, Reading and Stafford, could benefit from 'GC status'. The award comes in the wake of polling conducted for the prize showing that 68% of the 6,166 Britons polled thought that garden cities would protect more countryside than the alternatives for delivering the housing we need.
Read about URBED's submission, and the fictional town of Uxcester, after the break.
BDP and SOM have submitted plans for 'The Garden' a new market which will be the largest new development in the Nine Elms area around Battersea Power Station in London. The £2 billion plans replace the existing New Covent Garden Market, the UK's largest fruit, vegetable and flower market, in addition to adding a mixed-use neighborhood of 3,000 homes and over 200,000 square feet of office and retail space.
View of the first phase of the development. Image Courtesy of HTA Design
Developer Notting Hill Housing Trust have selected HTA Design to lead the regeneration of London's infamous Aylesbury Estate. HTA will work on the masterplan for the entire site, and have also been selected as the lead architects for the first stage of the , working alongside Hawkins Brown and Mae Architects.
The £1.5 billion redevelopment will see the iconic post-war estate torn down and reconstructed in stages over the next 20 years, with different architects working on the detail design for each stage. In total the masterplan provides for 4,200 homes, a significant increase over the 2,704 in the existing estate.
Chief Architect of Moscow Sergei Kuznetsov yesterday announced MVRDV as the winners in the competition for the refurbishment of the Serp & Molot (Hammer & Sickle) factory in Eastern Moscow. The design by MVRDV is respectful of the history of the 19th-century steel factory, reinterpreting the existing fabric of the site into 1.8 million square meters of mixed-use space, including housing, offices, retail, schools and a local hospital.
Read on after the break for more project description
amphibianArc has been announced as winner of the Ningbo Yinzhou Southern CBD Portal Planning competition. Commissioned by the same developers of the Ningbo Museum designed by Wang Shu, the "transit-oriented" proposal aims to become the "driving force" of urban life in the masterplan's fourth and final phase.
Three teams have been chosen to advance in the third and final round of a competition to masterplan the new International Financial Center (IFC) in "New Moscow." Once complete, the 460 hectare mixed-use development will add offices, housing and hotels, as well as commercial and social infrastructure to the area of Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye. The finalists are...
"The Skyline" on "The Electric Boulevard" / Foster + Partners. Image Courtesy of Battersea Power Station
As phase three of London’s Battersea Power Station regeneration, Foster + Partners has collaborated with Gehry Partners to design the 42-acre development’s primary entrance. Together, the duo has envisioned “The Electric Boulevard” - a massive gateway connecting the Northern Line Extension station to the Power Station, which will be formed by an undulating Foster-designed tower known as “The Skyline” and Gehry’s five-building “Prospect Place.”
Housing more than 1,300 homes and over 350,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, the boulevard is expected to become one of London’s most distinguished high streets.
A scheme to paint a whole favela in Rio de Janeiro, successfully funded via Kickstarter in October. Image Courtesy of Favela Painting’s Kickstarter Page
In this interview with Grasp Magazine Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, explains his belief that in order to develop solutions to the complex problems found in cities, the only successful approach is from the bottom-up. In order to make this possible, he says, we need to democratize the design process by encouraging and empowering more people to engage in design, by operating with 'codes' rather than 'blueprints' which invite further contribution. Platforms like Kickstarter are one way that this process is already in motion. You can read the full article here.
Italian Practice RRC Studio has released designs for new residential and commercial quarters in Al Dhakira, Qatar. The design will roughly double the size of the small city, situated 60km outside the capital of Doha, providing new housing blocks, villas, hotels, and a new commercial district.
London-based practice Farrells will be teaming up with UK developer Stanhope and commercial developer ABP China (Holding) to regenerate London’s historic docklands into a thriving, mixed-use business district. The deal, which represents one of the first direct investment by a Chinese developer in London’s property market, will act as a platform for financial, high-tech and knowledge driven industries looking to establish their business in UK and European markets.
More on the Farrells' masterplan after the break...
In order to accommodate the expansion of the local tram system, La Fabrique Métropolitaine de la Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux has commissioned OMA to design a new major urban development in the southern district of Bordeaux, France. Over the next five years, the masterplan will regenerate the neighborhoods of Bègles and Villenave d'Ornon by forging new connections to Bordeaux's central station and unlocking the potential for both city development and public space.
This project is part of the new identity for the "Porte Sud de Bordeaux" (Bordeaux south gate) and continues OMA's intensive recent engagement in Bordeaux, as the office has been working since 2010 on the masterplan for 50,000 new housing units in the city.
More on OMA’s Bordeaux masterplan after the break...
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.jpg?1412679206 "Gehry Partners' \"Flower Building\". Image Courtesy of Battersea Power Station")
.jpg?1412679411 "Electric Boulevard with Foster + Partners' \"Battersea Roof Gardens\" on the left and Gehry Partners' \"Prospect Place\" on the right. Image Courtesy of Battersea Power Station")
.jpg?1412679200 "Residents' Lounge in Gehry Partners' \"Flower\" Building. Image Courtesy of Battersea Power Station")
