‘Garden Ribbons’ – A City Hall and Urban Park / ShaGa Studio. The new municipality building of Netanya, located in the old part of the city introduces a unique public park for the city – a green heart – that like a ribbon gradually transforms from a horizontal landscape to a vertical climatic structure. Designed by the Dutch office ShaGa Studio in collaboration with Shyovitz Architects, they define Netanya’s future identity as a coastal city which truly embraces an urban sustainable lifestyle for its residents, workers and visitors. More images and architects’ description after the break. A unique focal point at the center of town and a counter balance to the sea-side coastal square, the complex’s sustainable public character and its contemporary mix of leisure, culture and civic municipality services will help not only to regenerate the old center but also help complementing and defining this identity.
An Identity – Between Urban Regeneration and a City Landmark. Tower and Sustainability. Hoto Fudo / Takeshi Hosaka Architects. This building is similar to the inside and outside house we previously featured. The project was planned on the site with Mt. Fuji rising closely in the south and the two sides facing the trunk roads. Takeshi Hosaka Architects wanted this building to take on the characteristics of mountains and clouds. It is made from soft geometry, which are not derived from the figures like quadrangles and circles. Architect: Takeshi Hosaka Architects Location: Yamanashi, Japan Structural Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners Japan / Hitoshi Yonamine Project Area: site 2,493.82 sqm, building area 733.98 sqm Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Koji Fujii / Nacasa&Pertners Inc. This building has no air conditioners. When it rains, rain comes in near windows and doors. . * Location to be used only as a reference.
Ponte Parodi / UNStudio. This month, UNStudio’s Ponte Parodi, a waterfront design for Genoa, Italy, will be presented at the MAPIC in Cannes as one of the most iconic waterfront developments currently being realized. The harbor project is part of a larger vision to revitalize the entire waterfront area, and merge the local urban and economic fabric to create a point of interest for Genoa’s varied waterfront users. The juxtaposition of varied circulation typologies creates an innovative extension for the city center which not only organizes the position of the program, but also optimizes pedestrian flows within and atop the building.
More about the waterfront after the break. The proposal emphasizes that the urban intervention must establish connections between the different harbor districts in its proximity, and add programmed spaces that complement the existing infrastructure. Ponte Parodi, Genoa, Italy, 2001-2014 Client: ALTAREA Italia Progetti S.r.l.; (Competition) Porto Antico di Genova Spa Total: 132,200 m2. Oslo Central Station / Space Group. Norwegian architects Space Group won the competition for Oslo´s new Central Station. The project consists on demolishing a big part of the existing station, to build a 4 stories tall structure that will unify the station. It will include 2 floors for offices hanging over the station. Also, an adjacent U-shaped building will be occupied by the biggest conference hotel in Norway. Currently, the Central Station receive 150,000 travellers every day, number expected to double in the next few years, rendering the current structure obsolete.
Space Group´s project will be able to grow in stages. Construction will start on 2013, during 5 to 10 years. Below, more renders by Luxigon sent to us by Space Group. MOS Architects wins the P.S.1 competition. Eco-Sustainable Housing – Parametric Design. Special Mention - 2007 Housing Competition Project by: Federico Rossi This project focuses on the development of new housing typology in Oman, generated through the accumulation of independent variables into a system of relationships, where the interdependencies generate a variation of possibilities that is able to adapt to local conditions. The development of inhabitable units will be dependent on environmental variables and eco-sustainable principles to achieve new spatial and per formative configurations.
The housing unit will use a rhomboid framework constrained within two strips to produce a parametric model. Through the control of the width, length, and thickness of the surface it is possible to create a responsive inhabitable unit that increases the wall thickness in high temperatures and deforms the rhomboid framework according to internal pressure and wind velocity. The proliferation of the units on the site will be driven from a quarry organization. Lambda Table by Gianluigi Landoni for Sovet.
New terminal for Stockholm / C. F. Møller Architects. C. F. Møller Architects has just won the competition for a new terminal for Stockholm’s permanent ferry connections to Finland and the Baltics. The terminal will be a landmark for the new urban development Norra Djurgårdsstaden at the Stockholm waterfront. See more images and architect’s description after the break. The terminal, which will have a facade covered with expanded mesh, recalls the shape of a moving vessel and the architecture – with large cranes and warehouses – that previously characterized the ports. At the same time, the terminal has an ambitious sustainable profile, characteristic of the entire development.
The main idea has been to create natural links between central Stockholm and the new urban area in connection with the terminal, so that city life will naturally flow into the area. The aim is that the ferry terminal will be predominantly self-sufficient in energy and thus stand as an environmental model for public construction. Architects: C. Yeoju Golf Club, 2008. Digging on Shigeru. I’m fascinated by Shigeru Ban’s Nine Bridge Club house. The projection of the a rectangular grid down into these funnel shapes is such a simple idea on a large scale and totally mind bending in the details.
For my sketch, I made a quarter of one funnel with a revolve, cut it down to a square edge, divided the surface, then turned off the U and V grids, and used intersects projected from Level 1. The panel is just a half step pattern with this geometry. Plenty of flaws in the lattice (intersect based gridlines can get a little funky at the edges, particularly in tangency conditions) but it’s getting there. Voussoir Cloud. This project called Voussoir Cloud is a site specific installation created (2008) by IwamotoScott Architecture and Buro Happold for the Southern California Institute of Architecture gallery, Los Angeles.
Voussoir Cloud explores the structural paradigm of pure compression coupled with an ultra-light material system. The design fills the gallery with a system of vaults to be experienced both from within and from above. The edges of the vaults are delimited by the entry soffit and the two long gallery walls. Spatially, they migrate to form greater density at these edges. Structurally, the vaults rely on each other and the three walls to retain their pure compressive form. The overall design draws from the work of engineer/architects such as Frei Otto and Antonio Gaudi, who used hanging chain models to find efficient form. The three dimensional petals are formed by folding thin wood laminate along curved seams. Width="525"/> Design, fabrication and assembly: IwamotoScott. Building in South Africa - james. Web.mit.edu/masonry/papers/Mapungubwe_Holcim.pdf.
Equilibrium y’all !! Web.mit.edu/masonry/papers/Block_PhD_2009.pdf. Area. The Flying Carpet is a piece of microarchitecture that converts a long, narrow volume of space in Angell Elementary School into a reading, writing, lounging, and play space for the children occupants of the building. Located on the second floor among the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms, the Flying Carpet was designed to retain the existing programmatic uses of the space but give them beautiful and lively accommodation. Folk stories in many cultures tell of a mythical flying carpet that transport their riders to distant places faster than the wind. Recalling these stories from our own childhood, the flying carpet became the apt poetic metaphor for the space’s primary activities: reading, writing, and imagining… the fastest ways we know to travel elsewhere.
The computer script we wrote to generate the final form for the piece had to be able to produce widely varying sectional shapes, but also had to conform precisely to children’s body dimensions. Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Terminal Competition proposal / HMC Architects. Los Angeles-based HMC Architects shared with us their proposal for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Terminal Competition in Taiwan.
They were selected as one of the five finalists. More images and press release after the break. The proposal by HMC Architects envisions an iconic gateway to the City of Kaohsiung, and a lens into the outer-world visualized from within. It creates a new urban datum—an inviting gesture—to allow a new connection between visitors, citizens, and the City of Kaohsiung. This gateway is designed to serve as a physical and economical impetus to the City’s goal of transforming its waterfront from its industrial past into an inviting future. The proposed 300,000-SF, eight-story terminal is efficient, adaptive, and lucid while fostering a poetic and interactive space that embraces a vibrant urban serendipity.
The program consists of cruise and international ferry terminals, 700-space subterranean parking garage, and a Port Bureau office. Ferry Terminal / F451 Arquitectura. Kaohsiung Port Terminal Competition Proposal / Asymptote Architecture and Artech Architects. Asymptote Architecture and Artech Architects were awarded a close second place finish for the Kaohsiung Marine Gateway project. The project proposes a 200m long structure situated between two 14 story towers located at the cities newly developed harbor edge. The proposal calls for a new urban intervention at the cities waterfront combining both cultural and commercial aspects with the port terminal functions the building is designed to house.
The buildings technological envelope and architecture and is designed to be a striking and elegant addition to the quickly changing city of Kaohsiung and to act as a catalyst for unique and sustained urban development over the coming years and decades. Further description and renderings of Asymptote Architecture and Artech Architects proposal after the break. For the winning proposal by Reiser + Umemoto click here. Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center Proposal / JET Architecture, CXT Architects & Archasia Design Group. JET Architecture in joint venture with CXT Architects and Archasia Design Group earned an Honorable Mention for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center International Competition in September 2010. Their entry, “Openair,” ranked in the top five, advancing the scheme to the second stage of the competition.
Now, they decided to submit their competition entry for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Center International Competition to Azure’s AZ AWARDS, the magazine’s first annual international competition recognizing excellence in design. The project was chosen as a finalist for the AZ AWARDS in the Concepts: Unbuilt Competitions Entries category and is eligible for the AZ People’s Choice Awards. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The continued success of Taiwan as one of Asia’s prominent economies lies in the ability of its cities to adapt and evolve in order to compete within the global trade network. Concept Architectural Concept Light, wind and openness. Cruise Ship Terminal in Bilbao / [baragaño] Architects: [baragaño] Location: Bilbao, Spain Architects in Charge: Sergio Baragaño [baragaño], David García [Modultec], Mario Hernáez [Autoridad Portuaria], Enrique Muga [Satie Arquitectos], Joseba Ugarte [Arquitecto Técnico] Project Team: Ana López, Inés Suárez, Verónica Carreño Project Year: 2010 Project Area: 1,482 sqm Photographs: Mariela Apollonio The Port of Bilbao, launches a competition at the end of 2009 in order to build the new Terminal of Cruise ships in Bilbao. A damp city, with a metallic memory, of shipyards, cranes, postindustrial areas, the suspension bridge of Portugalete.
We start from a metallic orthogonal prism, and working in it, as it was a sculpture. The building starts to open to the sea, with it’s large crystal facade. To the south, to the city, enclosure is much more opaque, framing the arrival square and attracting the northern light that comes in the building through the big skylights. Text provided by [baragaño] Ferry Terminal by C. F. Møller. Danish architects C. F. Møller have won a competition to design a new ferry terminal in Stockholm, Sweden. The terminal will service Stockholm’s ferry connection to Finland and the Baltics. The massing of the new building is inspired by traditional maritime architecture and its exterior will be clad in expanded mesh. The new terminal will form part of Norra Djurgårdsstaden, a residential and commercial development in the Stockholm city suburb Hjorthagen.
Click above for larger image The terminal will be raised to the same height as the neighbouring development and linked to it via a bridge. The roof of the terminal will be landscaped to become a public green space and embedded with solar cells to generate power for the self-sufficient structure. Here's some more from the architects: New terminal for Stockholm’s permanent ferry connections to Finland and the Baltics At the same time, the terminal has an ambitious sustainable profile, characteristic of the entire development.
See also: Kaohsiung Port Terminal by Reiser + Umemoto. New York practice Reiser + Umemoto have won the first prize in a competition to design a new port terminal for the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Kaohsiung Port Terminal will feature a series of undulating horizontal structures, each with glazed facades at the ends, merging together towards the centre and shooting up to form a tower at the opposite end. The building's facade will feature an array of slim glazed slits, following the curves of the structure. An elevated boardwalk at street level will provide pedestrian access in and around the building. This will be separated from the arrival and departure areas for the ships and ferries, which will be located below. Construction is due to start in 2012.
Click for larger image The following information is from the architects: Reiser + Umemoto Awarded First Prize in the Kaohsiung Port Terminal Competition About the Project See also: