Liège-Guillemins station by Santiago Calatrava. Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has completed a station with a vaulted glass and steel canopy in Liege, Belgium. Called Liège-Guillemins station, the project links two areas of the city previously divided by railway tracks. Calatrava aimed to enhance this permeability by creating a building without facades, relying on the roof for shelter and the building's identity.
The canopy covers five platforms and extends over 145 meters. Below ground level a series of pedestrian bridges and walkways connect one end to the other. The station accommodates new services for Belgium's high-speed rail network. Photographs are copyright ELTGV/Alain Janssens. Here's some more information from the project managers: At the same time as meeting key railway requirements to position Liege at the heart of the North European high speed network, Euro Liege TGV SA wished to make the station’s aesthetics a central concern. Railway modernization first The various weaknesses were thoroughly reviewed: Ny Anstalt Correctional Facility Winning Proposal / Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, in collaboration with Friis & Moltke, just won the competition to design the Ny Anstalt correctional facility in Nuuk, Greenland. The 8,000 square meter facility is the first such facility in Greenland, focusing on the contrast between beauty and roughness as a guiding theme for the project. This concept is also present in the choice of materials: concrete, wood and corten steel, which is rooted in a desire to adapt the complex to the landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break. Openness, light, views, security and flexibility are the leading values behind the design. Our project matches the unique and beautiful surroundings and supports the focus of the Danish Prison and Probation Service on the balance between punishment and rehabilitation.
The whole idea behind the project is to add qualities to the complex that will enhance rehabilitation and diminish physical and psychological violence. TJAD New Office Building / TJAD. Architects: TJAD Location: Shanghai, China Project Director: Ding Jiemin Head Of Design: Zeng Qun Project Architects: Zeng Qun, Wen Xiaoqin, Wu Min, Sun Ye, Chen Kangquan, Zhang Yan, Wang Xiang Area: 64,522 sqm Year: 2011 Photographs: Courtesy of TJAD Interior Designers: Zeng Qun, Wen Xiaoqin, Zhang Hongwu, Sun Qian, Li Yujing, Wang Xiang, Chen Yanjuan, Wan Shaoqiu Structural Enginners: Wan Yuerong, Chen Xi, Xu Xiaoliang, Hong Wenming, Wu Shuxun, Zhang Zhun, Yu Hui, Di Liuxun Design Concept With its clear geometric mass, RC structure and continious horizontal lines, Parking Garage of Bus No.1 suggest of stability and weightiness. The new design has preserved its general standing as the vessel carrying all kinds of change. The free and flexible space division, the application of delicate and moderns materials and the concise vertical facades form an interesting contrast with the original architectural form and gain in each other’s presence.
Parking Is Hell (But Designers Can Help) Most parking is free – but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a high cost. A recent podcast from Freakonomics Radio (which you can listen to at the end of this article) examined parking in US cities, investigating the “cost of parking not paid for by drivers” – a cost paid not just by the government, but by the environment – due to congestion and pollution caused by people searching for kerbside parking. For example, in a 15 block area of Los Angeles the distance traveled by drivers looking for parking is equivalent to one trip across the USA per day.
One potential solution which they discuss is a San Francisco project called SF Park, which makes use of sensor technology to measure the demand for parking in certain areas of the city and adjust price according to demand. In theory, this would create a small number of empty spaces on each block and dramatically reduce the time that many drivers spend cruising for parking spaces. Statoil regional and international offices by A-Lab. Five aluminium-clad volumes are stacked up like a pile of horizontal skyscrapers at this office complex outside Oslo by Norwegian studio A-Lab (+ slideshow). Above: photograph by Luis Fonseca Located on the Fornebu peninsula outside the city, the building is a workplace for 2500 employees at Norwegian energy company Statoil, which asked A-Lab to design an iconic structure amongst the scenic landscape of the Oslo fjord.
"Large office complexes like this are usually made out of one solid volume," the architects told Dezeen. "Our concept was to deconstruct the 'office machine' into five smaller volumes. " The five 140-metre-long wings are piled up in a criss-crossing formation, with two at the bottom, two in the middle and a final one at the top. "Deconstruction into smaller volumes optimises the distribution of light conditions and views for each lamella," explain the architects, comparing the structure to that of a leaf.
Above: photograph by Trond Joelson Above: photograph by Trond Joelson.