KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten recently won the international competition entitled “Blue Sky Building Project” for the Air China headquarters in the major west Chinese city of Chengdu. With its design for the high-rise, the international team from Frankfurt/Main and Beijing headed by Johannes Reinsch, Managing Director of KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, saw off five other entries. The office boasts a gross surface area (GSA) of 124,000 m² and offers space for a total of 5,470 workspaces. The fact that the high-rise design should serve as a role model with regard to energy efficiency and sustainability is of major concern to the developer. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Steinberg Architects, an international design firm, recently announced they will manage the design of the extensive Changsha Songya Hu mixed-use project in China after winning an intensely competitive bid process. Key aspects of the project include a waterfront business district, an entertainment district, and an ecological model community mixing residences and green public spaces. More images and project description after the break.
JET Design Group was invited by JCI Architects along with Terraplan Landscape Architects, to joint venture in the design of the Green Leaf project. After winning the commission earlier in 2011, in December, the final negotiations were completed to enable the project to move forward quickly. The team will be working together, helping Bangladesh to design a sustainable community with an innovative green concept. Green Leaf is green landscape architecture and built form which takes full advantages of the local natural resources to create a hybrid habitable space combining architecture and nature. The concept is inspired by adopting current and green innovative technology to make the design construction economic and feasible. More images and architects’ description after the break.
LYCS Architecture won an invited competition for a 32,000 sqm testing and assessment research center in the city of Shenzhen. It is a mixed-use building including offices, residential and commercial. The project conceptually begins with the traditional Chinese urban design idea of a ‘miniature city’ and divides the site into 10 equal volumes. Then, the volumes are aligned corresponding to the scattered programs across the landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Hrvoje Sedlić shared with us a proposal for a mixed use design in an industrial area in Croatia.The project site is on the east part of Zagreb`s horizontal axis. It`s located next to an industrial area of “Janko Gredelj”, but due to a ghetto type organization of that still active industry (a big wall surrounding it), these two spaces were never perceived as one. But like any other industry infrastructure being so close to the city center, it will be dislocated . At that moment, a huge amount of space (20 ha) is opened to be integrated to the city, with a size potential to house any activity and content. More images and project description after the break.
The multi-use office complex proposed by FGMF (Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferras) Arquitectos for this 32.000m² lot aims at creating not only a new architectural reference for the region, but also a new destination for the city. Adding three different uses – retail, office buildings and modular offices – the new complex creates a landmark in the landscape, values the surroundings, and establishes a new shopping destination. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This Helsinki’s new South Harbor proposal, designed by Macyauski Research & Design, is envisioned as the iconic gateway into the heart of the city that serves its tourists and travelers aesthetically and effectively. Its strong urban connection between the waterfront and the city has been simplified to efficiently activate Helsinki’s South Harbor. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Two overarching factors feed into the overarching principle of urban design: the vicinity of the terrain to a traffic-intensive street axis and the western railway line and the requirement for a high density of the resulting building. In response, Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, which won the competition for this urban master plan, characterized the new interpretation of the historic district as a compact block structure, which will enter into a dialogue with their environment and be well-connected with the surrounding urban fabric and its functional characteristics. More images and architects’ description after the break.
SHoP Architects has shared with us the B2 Bklyn building which will be the first of the residential developments for Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, New York to break ground, scheduled for 2012. Standing at 32 storeys, it will be the world’s tallest pre-fab building, saving both on cost and waste.
Alison Brooks Architectshas won the competition to design a `third quad´ for Exeter College at Oxford University. The “third quadrangle” is just a ten minute walk from the historic 700-year-old Turl Street campus in the heart of Oxford.
For the International Conceptual Design Competition of The Two Towers – CDB Tower & Minsheng Financial Tower, Saraiva + Associados focused on a unique and harmonious force, along with a modern and innovative approach to create a building of intense character. The essence found in this project was the result of an international competition in which Saraiva & Associados reached the six finalists: The Two Towers in Shenzhen. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in the Xiaguan District in Nanjing, China, W2Y2L was required to design a high rise complex which included entertaining, sport, commercial and official parts. Hence the major concern of the design was how to merge this “huge complex” into the existing circumstances and get a brilliantly transitional connection with the landscape there. The distribution of architectural volumes in this design follows the idea of traditional Chinese Gardens, which transforms the elements of water, stones, hills, bridges and flowers into significant urban shapes animating and vitalizing the daily life of the entire district. More images and architects’ description after the break.
