Mixed Use: The Latest Architecture and News

Heatherwick Studio has designed a mountainous mixed use plan for Shanghai's main arts district. Named M50, the 300,000-square-meter project was conceived as "a piece of topography" that takes the shape of "two tree-covered mountains" populated by "400 terraces" and "1000 structural columns."

“Normally, the large-scale projects that we are quite used to seeing have big boxes, and the role of the designer is figuring out what pattern of architectural wrapping paper to put on these boxes,” said Thomas Heatherwick, according to Architectural Digest. “We wondered if there was a way to make better working spaces by also making access to outdoors.”

Ctrl+Space has announced the winners of their Hamburg Hybrid Housing Competition, which prompted participants to design a mixed-use residential building in the St. Pauli neighbourhood of Hamburg, Germany. Entries were expected to reflect on the typology of the mixed-use building, exploring the set of relationships present with the city, the public, the time of day and the different programmatic areas. See the three winners after the break.

Plans have been unveiled for a "skinny Shard" in London's Paddington area. Designed by Renzo Piano, the 65-story skyscraper is the focus of a £1 billion plan aimed at revitalizing the "soulless" district.

"At the moment you only go to Paddington for two reasons - to catch a train or to see someone in hospital. It is soulless and has no life and yet it is only five minutes from Hyde Park and seven or eight minutes from Marble Arch," Sellar Property Group chairman Irvine Sellar told Evening Standard. "It is a fantastic location but it is stuck in a Fifties time-warp. We intend to create a place for people to go, where they will want to live, work, eat and shop."

The City of Amsterdam has selected MVRDV and OVG Real Estate to realize a new mixed use development in its Zuidas Business District - "P15 Ravel Plaza." Chosen through an international competition, the design calls for three asymmetrical towers grounded by office and retail, topped with housing and intertwined by an expansive public green space that wraps itself in and around the building.

"This plan effectively increases the attractiveness of Zuidas," said Klaas de Boer, director of Zuidas, Amsterdam City Council.

Today in Moscow, Asymptote Architecture unveiled plans for the new Hermitage Modern Contemporary, alongside a 150-meter tower planned for ZiL - the city's oldest industrial area and former Soviet automotive factory. The State Hermitage Museum's newest outpost, the 15-story satellite facility was said to be inspired by El Lissitzky's "Proun" painting, which informed the building's "terraced interior."

“With so much museum work over the years, we’ve dress-rehearsed for the Hermitage,” Hani Rashid of Asymptote told the New York Times back in July. “We’ve done a lot of thinking about how art might be seen in the future, about how the museum building itself can provoke artistic responses.”

The government of Luxembourg has announced that Miami-based firm Arquitectonica has won the competition to design a major mixed-use project in Luxembourg City. Set in the new district of Kirchberg in Luxembourg, the 40,000 square meter complex design by Arquitectonica won the bid over notable names in architecture like Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Massimiliano Fuksas, and Neutelings Riedijk Architects.

MVRDV’s Markthal in Rotterdam has received a High Commendation in the category of “Mixed-Use Architecture” at the 2015-2016 European Property Awards.

Rafael Viñoly and OLIN have unveiled plans to transform Cupertino's Vallco Shopping Mall into a new mixed-use neighborhood that boasts the "world's largest green roof." The current plans call for a 15-block sustainable town center with 625,000-square-feet of retail, two-million-square-feet of office space and 800 residential units. All this, if approved, would be topped by a 30 acre public green space with a 3.8 mile trail network that runs through orchards, vineyards, an amphitheater and play areas.

Images of Souto Moura Arquitectos' first US project has emerged. Aimed to replace a former gas station at 2715 Pennsylvanian Avenue NW in Washington DC, the five-story red brick and concrete building will feature a ground floor restaurant and eight 2,000-square-foot apartment units with balconies, a gym and penthouse terrace.

As BizJournals reports, the proposal is being pitched by EastBanc Inc. as the new "entrance to Georgetown." The Portuguese architect chose red brick "because it seems to be the most appropriate for this part of the city."

Atkins has broke ground on a 460-meter skyscraper in Vietnam that is set to be country's tallest. The 81-story development, Vincom Landmark 81 will rise in Ho Chi Minh City's Vinhomes Central Park, near the Saigon River, as a cluster of 25 extruded cubes capped with roof gardens. It will be comprised of serviced apartments, a hotel and retail anchored by a large shopping center and landscaped corridor.

In the latest episode of Monocle's Section D, Josh Fehnert talks to Ben van Berkel, co-founder and principal of Amsterdam-based UNStudio, about London's new Caneletto residential tower. The office, which was founded in 1988, has completed projects around the world ranging from Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge to the Mercedes-Benz Museumin Stuttgart. With over 81 built projects, and 54 currently in progress (including Raffles City in Hangzhou and Scotts Tower in Singapore), London’s Canaletto Tower (which is due to be completed in 2015) marks the practice’s first major project in the UK. The tower, located at the confluence of two London districts — Islington and Shoreditch — marks a significant moment for the Dutch practice's œuvre.

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Foster + Partners has won the competition to design Cardiff Interchange, the city’s central bus station. Part of the wider Central Square regeneration masterplan for the area, also by Foster + Partners, the interchange is being relocated closer to the Cardiff Central train station in an effort to allow greater integration of all transportation networks and accommodate future growth in passenger traffic.

AECOM has designed a preliminary study for a mixed-use transportation development in Solana Beach, California, as part of a response for a RFP (Request for Proposal). Located near major roads and connected to railroads, the project proposal consists of a combination of retail stores and restaurants, providing transit users with leisure spaces on their travels, in addition to parking for the nearby AMTRAK train station.

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Association Bureau A2M, Jaspers-Eyers Architects and Bureau d’Architecture Greish's (BAG) proposal for an “eco-neighborhood” in Liège, Belgium, has been unanimously selected by a jury in a competition to design a mixed-use real-estate project. Dubbed “Paradis Express,” the design incorporates offices, housing and local shops and will occupy a 35,000m2 site located along a future esplanade across from Guillemins station, and next to the new Finance Tower. The competition was held by Fedimmo, in consultation with the city of Liège and the Walloon Region.

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