This curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that demonstrate the use of organic shapes in various forms of architecture and program use. Many times, organic architecture stands as a testament to what we are able to make in 2024, innovating in structural and material technology. From Vincent Callebaut’s HospiWood to Zomorrodi & Associates’ Cadence Art Center, these instances showcase this shift in desigin thinking. Whether its a residential villa in the United States or a resort centered around a curved pool in the Netherlands, organic architecture has been trending globally.
The Copenhagen Harbour Ring – “Kronløbsringen” / Third Nature. Image Courtesy of JJO By Tredje Natur
Through urban renewal projects, architects, urban planners, and designers can infuse new life into dilapidated urban landscapes by upgrading the infrastructure, introducing new functions into the urban fabric, and reimagining the character of open public spaces. These types of projects present interest due to their dual character: on the one side they offer an opportunity for reimagining the potential of the city, but the areas they affect are already well-ingrained within the urban fabric, raising challenges of integration and contextual adaptation.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that enhance functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability of urban areas while respecting and embracing the existing fabric of the city. From a residential neighborhood that prioritizes self-sufficiency and circularity in the Netherlands, to a highway ramp transformed into productive spaces in California, United States, or a new elevated path designed to alleviate urban congestion in the harbor of Copenhagen, his selection features projects that highlight the ever-changing character of our cities. Featuring projects from both emerging and established architectural offices such as Benthem Crouwel Architects, Space&Matter, and Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the projects demonstrate the variety of approaches needed to adapt urban environments to the needs of their residents.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights designs submitted by established architecture practices, featuring conceptual works, competition entries and projects in different stages of development. From a pollinator park designed for an EU initiative to a greenhouse residential project in Germany, to a museum in the Arctics or an innovative proposal for harvesting renewable energy in the Netherlands, the following showcases a variety of design approaches, programs and scales.
Featuring firms like Vincent Callebaut Architectures, 10 Design, Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, or Sweco, this week's selection of unbuilt projects highlights worldwide interventions that illustrate a variety of ideas, from new models for collective housing and community-living, to design for ecology and sustainability, to community-oriented cultural architecture.
Titled "The Green Arch", the Belgian pavilion at the 2020 Dubai Expo highlights the emergence of connected green cities through its industrial, technological, and scientific knowledge. The pavilion, which is part of the Mobility district of the exhibition, consists of an arched, floral monolith that combines "Latin romanticism in the field of art and Anglo-Saxon technical precision in the industrial branches". The pavilion is designed by Belgian architects ASSAR ARCHITECTS and Vincent Callebaut Architectures, and will be represented by BelExpo, an autonomous department under the Belgian Ministry of Economy.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has created “The Green Line”, an inhabited garden footbridge prototype that “generates its own energy from renewable sources, recycles its own waste and wastewater, and optimizes its needs thanks to Information and Communication Technologies”. Inspired by a fish skeleton, the proposal links the Bercy Village to the Masséna district in Paris, restoring urban connections and connecting the 12th and 13th arrondissements.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has imagined The Rainbow Tree, a modular mass timber condominium tower in Cebu City, Philippines. Revealing the cultural and natural Filipino heritage, the project, named after an iconic and colorful tree from the Philippines the Rainbow Eucalyptus, was entirely conceived in a way to reduce the carbon footprint of the building.
One month on from the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the architectural community as generated a bounty of responses focusing on the future of the landmark. While some have taken the opportunity to re-imagine the purpose of the monument, from urban farming to recreational parkland, others have focused on sensitive restoration.
https://www.archdaily.com/917531/4-visions-for-notre-dame-cathedralNiall Patrick Walsh
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has unveiled images of their tribute to Notre-Dame Cathedral following the fire that badly damaged the historic structure. A transcendent project that forms a symbol of a resilient and ecological future, the project is inspired by biomimicry and a common ethic for a fairer symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.
https://www.archdaily.com/916514/vincent-callebaut-architectures-reveals-tribute-to-notre-dame-with-rooftop-farmNiall Patrick Walsh
In a design proposal for Soprema’s new company headquarters in Strasbourg, France, Vincent Callebaut Architectures envisions an 8,225 square-meter ecological utopia. The building, called Semaphore, is described in the program as a “green flex office for nomad co-workers” and is dedicated to urban agriculture and employee well-being.
An eco-futuristic building, Semaphore is inspired by biomimicry and intended as a poetic landmark, as well as aiming to serve as a showcase for Soprema’s entire range of insulation, waterproofing, and greening products. The design is an ecological prototype of the green city of the future, working to achieve a symbiosis between humans and nature.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released details of their competition-winning “Metamorphosis of the Hotel Des Postes” in Luxembourg City. The Paris-based firm’s proposition centers on propelling the historic site into a contemporary era, and to “reveal the intrinsic heritage qualities of the building.”
The scheme, which centers on the historic stone and concrete Hotel Des Postes designed by State Architect Sosthène Weis between 1905 and 1910, will be transformed by the addition of a domed “chrysalis” volume in the heart of the building’s courtyard.
For the "Imagine Angers"international design competition, Vincent Callebaut Architectures worked in collaboration with Bouygues Immobilier group to submit a proposal for the French city at the intersection of social and technological innovation, with a focus on ecology and hospitality. Named Arboricole, meaning “tree” and “cultivation,” this live-work-play environment gives back as much to the environment as it does its users. Although WY-TO prevailed in the competition, the Callebaut scheme succeeded in winning the public vote.
In Iraq, as an estimated 900,000 people return home to the city of Mosul after liberation, many of the returnees will only find desolation. The Tamayouz Excellence Award, Rifat Chadirji Prize focuses on bringing global awareness as well as global talent toward addressing the social issues Iraq faces through design.
This year’s theme, “Rebuilding Iraq’s Liberated Areas: Mosul’s Housing Competition” asked applicants design prototypes for affordable housing. The winning housing proposals selected by the jury are practical, inspiring, and scalable, while adding capacity and density. The competition received 223 submissions from 42 countries. The Top 20 entries will be featured in a traveling exhibition that will visit Amman, Baghdad, Boston, Beirut, Milan, and London. Read on to learn about the three winning proposals and seven honorable mentions.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released a design proposal for a new eco-tourism resort in The Philippines inspired by natural coastline forms. Making extensive use of cradle-to-cradle and other sustainable design principles, the resort features a series of spiraling apartment buildings and shell-shaped hotel buildings, themselves positioned on two Fibonacci spirals of land in a coastal lagoon. At the center of the ensemble, a mountain-like complex combines a school, recreational swimming pools, sports halls, the resort's kitchens, and a suite of laboratories for environmental scientists.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures have developed a design plan reimagining the riverbank of Yeouhido Park, Seoul. The park is envisioned as an experimental urban space dedicated to sustainable development through a series of interventions - including a floating ferry terminal. Named the “Manta Ray,” the ambition of the proposal is to transform the park into an ecological forest of trees, enhancing its natural irrigation and strengthening the banks from floods. The “permeable landscaping” seeks to reduce floods and rehabilitate urban ecosystems that have become fragmented through Seoul’s rapid built expansion. The vegetation-dominated strategy also seeks to reduce the urban “heat island” effect Seoul has been experiencing due to climate change over the past decades.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released plans for the development of a radical eco-neighborhood at Tour & Taxis, Brussels, Belgium. Covering an area of 135,000 square meters, the proposal will see the redevelopment of the early twentieth-century Gare Maritime, and the construction of three residential “vertical forests” reaching 100 meters in height. The architect’s ultimate vision is a neighborhood which embraces technological progress, sustainable building principles, and renewal of the built heritage.
Situated northwest of Brussels city center, and constructed in 1907, the industrial park at Tour & Taxis originally operated as a shipping and customs complex. Whilst the lifting of European customs borders has rendered its original function obsolete, the Gare Maritime (Marine Terminal) still embodies the architecture of the industrial era.
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has released in-progress images of their Tao Zhu Yin Yuan sustainable tower, under construction in the Xinjin District of Taipei City, Taiwan. The tower’s rotating form draws inspiration from the double helix structure of DNA and will be covered in 23,000 trees in its aim to become a pioneering sustainable residential eco-construction that finds “the right symbiosis between the human being and the Nature.”
Agroecologist Amlankusum, together with Paris-based Vincent Callebaut Architectures, has created Hyperions, a vertical, energy positive eco-neighborhood proposed for Jaypee Green Sports City in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) in India. Aiming to “reconcile urban renaturation and small-scale farming with environment protection and biodiversity,” the project combines low-tech and high-tech elements with the “objective of energy decentralization and food deindustrialization.”
Vincent Callebaut Architectures has envisioned a radical underwater colony for "climate change refugees" 3D printed from recycled materials taken from the ocean's floating garbage patches. This particular proposal of "oceanscrapers" is sited off the shore of Rio de Janeiro. It's aim is to provide a sustainable habitat with 10,000 housing units, office and work space, sea farms, gardens, community orchards and much more, while fostering marine life.
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