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Casa del Bosque - F3 Arquitectos

Via Plataforma Arquitectura

Please Note that all photos are owned by Plataforma

IDEA Awards 2007 - Verdi Landscaping Systems

Verdi landscaping systems has won 1st place in IDEA 2007 in the design concept group. below is the explanation of the system as posted on IDEA

" Verdi is a low-maintenance modular landscaping alternative to traditional grass lawns. The pre-seeded interlocking tiles with built-in irrigation practically eliminate the need for high-pollution mowers and inefficient water usage. The entire system is connected to a pump that circulates gray water through the tile network. Modular accessories, such as solar-powered light tiles, shrub planters and path tiles, give Verdi a versatility unavailable to most backyard do-it-yourself enthusiasts. The tiles can be fitted with a variety of inserts, including recycled glass composite, bamboo or molded recycled plastic, to extend the aesthetic possibilities, transforming any space into a beautiful, environmentally sensitive oasis.
“This is a completely new idea, and a truly great one: a garden you can easily design and assemble like Lego blocks on your terrace, roof, or even your bedroom.”
Richard Sapper, Consultant
Contact: Tara Prasad tprasad@insightpd.com 773-907-0100 x255
Credit: Insight Product Development"

The tallest tower in Latin America by OMA

- Via Dezeen

The Tallest Tower in Latin America, Mexico City was designed by OMA. Below are set of photos on the project and you can check the press release of OMA on the Project here

Porsche Design Towers by OMA/Porsche Design

- Via Dezeen

The Porsche Design Towers I and II, are jointly designed with Porsche Design.

The two towers, one cylindrical and one a hollow slab, are being built at Business Bay in Dubai.

More photos and text on Dezeen

Cape Schank House by Jackson Clements Burrows - Australia

Via Arkinetia blog

Below is the description as posted on Arkinetia:

"This house is located on a high dune at Cape Schank Victoria. The primary program is elevated to take advantage of expansive views across the Mornington Peninsula. from Bass Strait to Port Phillip Bay. The house engages with the landscape in both form and materiality. The upper level extends westwards towards the views appearing to emerge from the Ti-tree over an artificial escarpment formed by the lower level."

Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art - China

- Via World Architecture News

" EMERGENT designs the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art in Shenzen, China

The design is based on integrating the MoCA and PE programs into a single unified project with a distinct presence in the city. The programs are easily unified due to their similar typology and functional requirements. Unification of the programs also allows for a greater efficiency due to reduction of redundant circulation and public amenity spaces.

All of the exhibition space for both programs is located in loft-like spaces in the L-shaped volume. These are open-plan spaces with high clear ceiling heights which can be reconfigured easily as exhibits change. Support spaces for these exhibition spaces, including administrative spaces, the PE Library, and a restaurant, are all located in this part of the building as well. A crystalline Foyer connects these spaces together via escalators and elevators. This Foyer acts as an environmental buffer between the Garden Plaza outside and the more controlled exhibition spaces, in terms of temperature, humidity, noise, and light levels.

The Garden Plaza is a hub connecting the Foyer to the Landscape as well all of the related public functions such as Cultural Services, Auditoriums, Conference Rooms, VIP Entry, and the underground parking garage. This space is accessible from all sides and will become an urban destination for people just passing by as well as Museum visitors. It is spatially defined on all sides by topography, plantings, furniture, and the Plaza Roof, creating a highly specific and integrated environment. The Plaza Roof, in combination with plant-life and water features, creates a high-performance urban microclimate."

RAk Gateway- Ras el khaima by OMA

- Via Dezeen

Another Project by OMA in the Middle East.. Check the description and more photos below as posted on Dezeen

"Ras Al Khaimah is the furthest north of the UAE’s seven emirates and is in terms of population the fourth largest. The emirate is endowed with a wealth of natural resources and occupies a prime position on some of the world’s most important trade routes.

The city of Ras Al Khaimah, the capital of the emirate, is divided into two parts by a water gill, the Khour Ras Al Khaimah. The western part is known as the Old Ras Al Khaimah and comprises Ras Al Khaimah Museum and some of the governmental departments. While the eastern part, known as Al Nakheel, comprises the Ruler’s office, governmental departments and commercial companies. The two parts are connected via a large bridge built across Al Khour that facilitates traffic between them.

Recently, Ras Al Khaimah began an ambitious phase of development including investments in infrastructure improvement, tourism, shopping, and efforts to attract industrial and commercial enterprises. By studying the program sprawl of RAK developments, OMA has discovered an obvious layering perpendicular to the coastal resort and residential areas to create a dynamic gateway into the city.

To establish interesting conditions of future RAK Gateway project emplacement, OMA proposes four main locations within (and on the border of) the site area. A theme and function based experience (industrial, residential, community, residential, old town) follows from the state border until the RAK old city." Dezeen

OMA: Jeddah International Airport

- Via Dezeen

"Located between Jeddah and Mecca, the airport will cater for the two million pilgrims who make the journey to Mecca during the holy Hajj period and features a special terminal for the Saudi Royal Family.(image below)"

" The main terminal is in the shape of a ring with an oasis at its centre and is configured to cope with a massive increase in visitor numbers during the Hajj, while the smaller Royal terminal echoes the form of the larger building. (image below)"

FIRST ECO-FRIENDLY HOUSING PROJECT in Singapore

- Via Inhabitat

" Singapore’s Housing and Development Board has unveiled designs for what will be the first eco-friendly residential project on the island. While this is not the greenest residential project we’ve seen to date, it is a step in the right direction, as over 80% of Singaporean households live in HDB apartments and they will soon have a more environmentally friendly living option.

Treetops@Punggol embraces nature and utilizes green technologies including solar panels, roof gardens and grey water recycling systems for effective energy, water and waste management."
More on Inhabitat

mkLotus at West Coast Green

- Via Inhabitat

" Michelle Kauffman, prefab designer extraordinaire, is at it again. Her newest mkLotus design, a modular prefab home with a long list of green features, will debut at this September’s West Coast Green conference in San Francisco with a full-sized showhouse for visitors to ooh-and-aah at to their hearts’ content.

The mkLotus features a green roof, LED lighting, green building materials, and the same indoor/outdoor living integration featured in her Glidehouse and Sunset Breezehouse..."
Read More

Kuwait Al-Rai masterplan by OMA

You can check below set of photos of the new OMA project in the Middle East-AL Rai Masterplan-Kuwait.

Full explanation text and photos on Dezeen

Source: DEZEEN

The hydroponic garden

" LA PATTERNS, INC design the Fake Plastic Trees project in Hollywood
Following the lineage of the Schindler house as an experiment in modern living in close relation to nature, our proposal "Fake Plastic Trees" is an attempt to investigate the formal, spatial and atmospheric potential of a vertically sustainable garden in synch with the most advanced technology for plant growth.

The garden is composed of a branching circuitry network made of plastic PVC tubes. These tubes circulate and distribute water with a nutrient solution that nurtures aerial vegetation of different kinds. The section of the tubes diminishes as the trajectories they describe move up and away from the ground. The flow of water is induced by water pumps from several reservoirs located in the ground. Water is distributed directly to the plants base by pumping up from the reservoirs or indirectly down by dripping from the upper branches and then moistening down. Depending on the section of tubes, their capacity to carry more or less water, different scale of plants can grow from and within them. The artificiality of plants growing directly on water, the modulation and scaling of them as they detach from the ground, the dynamism of the branching and choreographed vegetation and its likely wind induced oscillation, and the occasional forms of animal life negotiating temporary shelter within the garden, amounts to an advanced living ecosystem that both challenges and amplifies the assumed relations between the architecture of The Schindler House and its surrounding “natural” environment. "

Source: World Architecture News

Top 5 Weirdest ways to power your house

From Poo Power to sound energy to..even spinach.. check at Inhabitat the 5 weirdest ways in powering your house.
Source: Inhabitat

North Sydney Bus Stops by Super Colossal

Location: North Sydney

Though the project is on hold i found it very interesting with its impact on its surrounding as well as design strategy.

below is the explanation as it appeared on Super Colossal Site

" Won in competition in association with Tribe Studios, this is a scheme for a new bus and train interchange in the North Sydney CBD. This proposal aims to serve the dual purpose of consolidating North Sydney’s major public transport interchange and providing North Sydney with a tangible and defining marker.

The scheme comprises a thin steel roof that links the three sites and provides a continuous covered way from the train station to the bus stops. At the top of Mount Street Plaza the plane of the roof folds up into a series of slender towers. Beneath these towers is the entry to the train station and a proposed flower market.
Along Miller Street the continuous flat roof plane is supported by slender steel columns. This covered way acts as a platform that allows a variety of uses to take place beneath it; small cafes and coffee carts, fruit stalls, seating for adjacent cafes, newstands and the like.
At the top of the Mount Street plaza the roof folds up to provide a canopy to the Train Station entry and the North Sydney Flower Markets. The reflective underside of the roof over the flower markets would create a field of flowers on the underside of the canopy. Commuters would rise out of the train station tunnel into a canopy filled with flowers. We think this would be a very pleasant way to greet the working day."

Source: Super Colossal

Sustainable Public Housing by FOA

The City of Madrid commissioned Foreign Office Architects to create a sustainable multi-unit residential alternative for its new public housing development at Carabanchel.

Source: Inhabitat

the new National Library and Bank in Kazan in the Russian republic of Tatarstan

Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat has won a competition for the new National Library and Bank in Kazan in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
More details and photos on Dezeen

Libya's New Government Building, Tripoli, Libya

"Libya government district win for Buro Happold and Léon Wohlhage Wernik
Buro Happold in collaboration with architect Léon Wohlhage Wernik and a team of international specialists has won the competition to design the new government district in Libya’s capital Tripoli. Together with consulting engineer Buro Happold, the German architect developed a concept for a highly efficient use of conventional energy, combined with renewable sources of power. Léon Wohlhage Wernik has outlined details of the successful proposal below. Buro Happold’s sustainability concept integrates the energy, water, waste and transportation systems to target a 50 per cent improvement in resource inputs (utility demands) and outputs (waste and emissions) compared with conventional systems. New infrastructure will be built for the efficient, safe and secure servicing of the site with standby facilities for use in an emergency.

A central Energy Farm containing all technical facilities will be connected to the administration building’s local equipment rooms by a full access service tunnel. Key features of the environmental concept include: A central tri-generation plant within the Energy Farm to meet the site base electricity, cooling and heating demands supplemented by a proportion of distributed renewable energy systems, making full use of the sun - potentially Africa’s greatest marketable energy resource - for generating energy, water conservation and re-use to reduce demand for city water, a waste management centre for the sorting of man made materials such as paper, glass and metals for recycling, a transport strategy that responds to short-term dependency on car use but makes full provision for the future integration of public transport networks, such as high-speed rail network and metro systems and optimising energy demand with the integration of simple, effective building management control systems to ensure responsive but energy efficient work spaces."
Source: World Architecture News

Event: Design for the other 90%

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.” —Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises

Exhibition catalogue Designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the globe are devising cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them. And an increasing number of initiatives are providing solutions for underserved populations in developed countries such as the United States.Encompassing a broad set of modern social and economic concerns, these design innovations often support responsible, sustainable economic policy. They help, rather than exploit, poorer economies; minimize environmental impact; increase social inclusion; improve healthcare at all levels; and advance the quality and accessibility of education. These designers’ voices are passionate, and their points of view range widely on how best to address these important issues. Each object on display tells a story, and provides a window through which we can observe this expanding field. Design for the Other 90% demonstrates how design can be a dynamic force in saving and transforming lives, at home and around the world.
On view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum through September 23, 2007

Source: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Panoramic Garden of CCIS

- Via A Daily Dose of Architecture

"The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia in Ljubljana, completed in 1999, was a very important project for the Slovenian architects Jurij Sadar and Bostjan Vuga, who started Sadar Vuga Arhitekti after winning the design competition for the office building in 1996. The project was a finalist for the 2001 Mies van der Rohe Awards.
In 2003 the client asked the architects to modify their design, to add a VIP room for receptions, award ceremonies, and special meetings of the managment board.

The architects noticed that since completion employees had brought in plants for their desks, eventually the green finding its way to the corridors and the front of the building. Coupled with the total lack of green in their initial design, the architects used the new-found lushness as an inspiration for the renovation, deciding on a Panoramic Garden as a concept for the space...." read more

Fast Cities 2007

From Chicago to Shanghai, urban centers that are shaping our future.

"You're smart, young, newly graduated from a university with the whole world before you. You could settle in a small town with well-tended lawns, pancake suppers, and life on a human scale. Or you could truck it to the big city, with all its din and dog-eat-dog lunacy. Your choice?
There is no choice. For all the challenges cities face--congestion, crime, crumbling infrastructure, environmental decay, plus occasional issues with basic civility--they are still where jobs and youth gather, where energy begets even greater energy, where talent masses and collides. Worldwide, the pace of urbanization is only accelerating. This year, for the first time, more of the earth's population will live in cities than in rural areas--a cool 3.2 billion, according to United Nations estimates. "In a world where we can now work anywhere, we're tending to concentrate in fewer and fewer places," says Carol Colletta, president of CEOs for Cities, an advocacy group. "Smart people are choosing to live near smart people." ..read more

Source: Fast Company