Friday, August 17, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
IDEA Awards 2007 - Verdi Landscaping Systems
“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
Porsche Design Towers by OMA/Porsche Design
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
"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
" EMERGENT designs the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art in Shenzen, China
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."
Saturday, July 21, 2007
RAk Gateway- Ras el khaima by OMA
"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
" 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
" 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
" 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
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
The hydroponic garden
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.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Top 5 Weirdest ways to power your house
Source: Inhabitat
Friday, July 13, 2007
North Sydney Bus Stops by Super Colossal
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."
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sustainable Public Housing by FOA
Monday, July 9, 2007
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
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.
Source: World Architecture News
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Event: Design for the other 90%
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
"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