It's not as if the building is aesthetically unpleasent or uninteresting, in fact the subtlety of the lines that define its identity can cause a positive impression effortelessly in almost anyone, and these so called (or self proclaimed) celebrity architects have proven beyond any reasonable doubt their sensibility towards beauty... enough with this superficial beddazzlement undressed of valuable input. We all know you can do it, but i'm longing for an example of starchitecture that presents some novelty, not the same old repetetition of invention or inovation. It's tiring to perceive over and over again this (almost) agonizing sense of entitlement to the notion of place, as if everything should now morph into what they concocted in their minds, stripping selfishly the site of some characteristics that might have once existed. This is not addition, only subtraction.

Just to ilustrate: not long ago in an interview for The Guardian about Hannah Pool, Zaha Hadid was asked if because of the fuss about the cost, and the recession she wished she had designed a more modest building. She answered:

"No. In these moments of recession, uplifting the spirit is even more important and we should learn from things that were done in the past that were done in a hurry."

This answer reflects plain stupidity and the typical illusion of someone who just gave up on dwelling in this world. I'm exagerating, of course, but this answer is, nonetheless just weak sauce.
"It's quite unfortunate to witness someone who started her career with one of the most challenging approaches to convention and norm, now embracing this impudent architecture of representational power. And practice it without a hint of reflection on plain economic legitimacy, not to mention morality." (quote from a barriga de um arquitecto)

Despite...

Located on the western outskirts of Shanghai, China, it's constructed of concrete, steel and glass. The new corporate headquarters of Giant Pharmaceutical Corp looks for all the world like something between a sci-fi battleship landing on a highway, and a steampunk dragon frozen in time. L.A.-based architectural firm Morphosis is focusing on the building’s sustainability as much as its aesthetics, with a green roof, generous use of skylights, and advanced insulation materials like cement-fiberboard paneling and a double-layer, fritted-glass curtain wall.

Slated for completion in 2009, the project will house executive offices in the cantelievered “head” of the structure, while the remaining elements—additional offices, a boutique hotel, exhibition hall, auditorium, library, gymnasium and swimming pool—will be contained in the “body” which arcs over a four-lane highway.
“In China, you can do things formally you just can’t do in the U.S. — aggressive, uncompromised, out-there ideas” said Morphosis principal and Pritzker Prize 2005 winner Thom Mayne, clearly implying that aesthetic and economic concerns outweigh ethical considerations. Sadly, Mayne’s is the prevailing attitude among today’s brand-name architects.

Roofs are for people, and should be green and accessible. That is what is so exciting about New Heden in Gothenberg, Daniel Andersson's final thesis at Jönköping University, with Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky of Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects. as tutors. The form of the buildings, "built as sliced hills with grass roofs that can be walked upon" brings the green roofs right down to grade, making them accessible; rooftops become terrain.

New Heden looks green from above. Even though denser developed it has a much greater biomass than its predecessor. Local cultivation of fruits and vegetables is a natural part of living in the area. Grass roofs and parks enrich the animal life and plant life and let nature become an integrated part of the city centre. They also absorb rain water that can be purified and reused as household water.

It is interesting to see how the development of green roofs is actually changing architecture and design.

Julien de Smedt Architects also did a proposal for Rimini, Italy that brings green roofs down to the ground and makes the roofscape part of the terrain.


Designboom describes it:
"The powerful and recognisable pattern evokes sand ripples and sea waves and has the incredible ability to allow both longitudinal and transversal connections : to facilitate the meanderings of passers-by strolling along the boardwalk while at the same time integrating the street connections coming from the city."

But the most interesting feature is the way the town connects to the beach by essentially walking over the building.

Remember when we used to plot the construction of our own treehouse with wooden planks, ropes and leaves? Not anymore it seems... Swedish firm Tham & Videgard Hansson Arkitekter designed a fancy new TreeHouse that minimizes its visual impact on Nature. It's an interesting concept though i'm positive it ruins the idea and the magic behind the point of having such a construction. On the other perspective, it also creates an all new dimension of illusion to rejoice upon. Check Tham & Videgard Hansson Arkitekter for more information.

Today I came accross an interesting new blog. Insightful and blunt, its author is a former teacher of mine in FAUP. Make sure you take a peak at Shrapnel Contemporary

In 2009, one of the most eagerly anticipated buildings in the last 20 years was to be completed: The headquarters of CCTV in Beijing, designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA.

A striking, integral piece of that complex was the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Sadly, it looks like the hotel has almost completely burned down this morning.

"Flames 20-30 feet high shot out of the building, just north of the landmark CCTV tower designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The flames were reflected in the tower, which itself appeared to be untouched. No one appeared to have been in the building, a policeman on the scene said, adding he had no immediate knowledge of any casualties. The destroyed building housed the Mandarin Oriental hotel in eastern Beijing, which was supposed to open in 2009. The fire department did not immediately comment on the suspected cause of the blaze."

Reuters

Here's a video of the entire complex, and a series of views of the MO Hotel:

We are certainly facing an economic crisis like most of us have never seen before, and the signs can be seen all over the world, but are we reaching the extreme of offering valuable services for close to nothing? Or is this a clear case of a genius idea that we have never thought of before?

"I'm serious," John Morefield said, laughing when asked about his booth, which has appeared two weeks in a row at the open-air street market in old Ballard. "I'm here to answer questions. And I do charge a nickel. I've made a dollar today so far."

Twice laid off from architectural firms in the past year when work dried up, the 27-year-old was inspired by a public radio program's "Ask an Iraqi" show and Lucy's psychiatric help stand in the comic "Peanuts." Morefield decided to set up a booth, offer cheap advice on home remodeling - and hope the contacts would turn into design jobs.

So he built the small stand and painted his sign. He packed up his draftsman tools and laptop (for mapping research that extends beyond the top of his head) and set out. He secured space with market organizers, and brought a stool and a warm coat.

The more I think of it, the more I realise that it was an excellent idea. "It will never pay off", you might say; but the truth is that this guy has already had news coverage from the blogosphere, some newapapers... and on top of this discreet fame and attention he is getting, he still has the chance of finding some job opportunities amongst the people he talks to in the street. So, in a way, it has paid off already.
A genius is an individual who successfully applies a previously unknown technique in the production of a work of art, science or calculation... according to wikipedia, this guy is Einstein. Lets wait and see.

Check out his website here: Architecture 5¢

Carbon Neutral master plans are being adopted in several countries, in times when energy and emissions are becoming very important.

And that´s exactly what Azerbaijan will do to develop Zira Island on the Caspian Sea, located in the bay of the capital city Baku. The master plan was developed with danish BIG Architects and Ramboll engineers, with an architectural proposal based upon the country’s dramatic natural setting.

In the words of Bjarke Ingels, the proposal for Zira Island [...] is an architectural landscape based on the natural landscape of Azerbaijan. This new architecture not only recreates the iconic silhouettes of the seven peaks, but more importantly creates an autonomous ecosystem where the flow of air, water, heat and energy are channeled in almost natural ways. A mountain creates biotopes and eco-niches, it channels water and stores heat, it provides viewpoints and valleys, access and shelter. The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan are not only metaphors, but actual living models of the mountainous ecosystems of Azerbaijan.

This mountain concept may sound strange, but BIG has developed this in the past as you can see on Mountain Dwellings.
As you can see on the images, this urbanized peaks that Bjarke describes are derived from the geometry of famous mountains in the country, and each peak becomes a unit of private and public mixed uses. The result is an organic skyline that merges buildings with the natural topography of the island. Among the peaks, there´s a public central valley that connects a series of private resort villages and the beaches. Also, a public trekking path connects the mountains and allows the visitors to scale up to the top. It also includes 300 private villas that take advantage of their setting with panoramic views out over the Caspian Sea.

But the main highlight of this masterplan was to make the Zira Island completly independent of external resources, achieved through the mix of traditional Azerbaijani building tradition and new technologies. The aim is to provide a high-end living wiht a minimum usage of the resources.

This strategy includes several aspects:




SUN
The buildings of the island are heated and cooled by heat pumps connecting to the surrounding Caspian Sea. Solar heat panels integrated in the architecture create a steady supply of hot water, while photovoltaics on strategically located facades and roof tops power daytime functions as swimming pools and aqua parks.

WATER
Waste water and storm water is collected and led to a waste water treatment plant, where it is then cleaned, processed and recycled for irrigation. The solid parts of the waste water are processed and composted and finally turned into top soil, fertilizing the island. The constant irrigation and fertilizing of the island supports the lush green condition of a tropical island, with a minimal ecological footprint.

WIND
Zira Zero Island benefits from the fact that Baku is “the city of wind”. By harvesting the wind energy through an offshore wind farm, the island will have its own CO2-neutral power supply. Further by locating the wind turbines on sea, it transforms the existing offshore oil industry’s platforms & foundations in Baku into a more sustainable future of wind turbine platforms.

LANDSCAPE
The landscaping of the island is derived from wind simulations of the microclimates created by the mountains. Swirly patterns created by the wind moving its way through the Seven Peaks inform the planting of trees and the design of public spaces. Where the winds and turbulence are strongest the trees becomes denser, creating lower wind speeds and thus a comfortable outdoor leisure climate.

For her thesis project at Rice University, a student, Chin, proposed ten "waterscrapers" that would slice across the urban space of Manhattan, cutting through buildings, through parks, and through the urban grid itself, forming strange aquatic intersections with the city.
Inside would be routes for scuba-diving, new aquariums, and multi-seasonal sites for public swimming.
These above-ground pipes of water – like hydro-boulevards, or one might say the hydrological Haussmannization of Manhattan – are less an actual proposal for construction than a sort of architectural dream: the city cross-cut by amniotic utopias through which people can wander at all hours of the day.


As you can see in the short comic strips that accompanied the project, it is themed around overlapping idea of excess, self-indulgence, and addiction, as if these Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture-like scenes might be therapeutic, a mass psychotherapy of space.
It's 3am and you're depressed; you can't sleep. You go out wandering across Harlem, inside one of the Annexes, completely alone, not a single other person in sight – when a group of people goes scuba-diving over your head. As if they've attained flight through an artificial river in the sky.
In a city of insomniacs, the city itself becomes the dream.

as seen in bldgblog

Verb Crisis examines architectural solutions to the extraordinary conditions of an increasingly dense and interdependent world.It presents innovative projects and research through original photos, essays, and exclusive interviews with key figures from architecture and urban planning to environmental, economic, and global affairs. Confronted by shifting densities and uncharted urban transformations, Crisis tackles the conflict between the physical limits of architectural design and the demands on the practice for an updated social relevance. Featuring: FOA, Teddy Cruz, Shigeru Ban, Elemental, Boris B.Jensen, Hilary Sample, John May, Jacobo García Germán, Markus Miessen, Interboro Partners, MVRDV, and Takuya Onishi.

as seen in Charneira

A new green complex from world renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners will be adding more than a dash of green to the Singapore skyline. As sustainability becomes an essential ingredient to development in this island nation, the UK-based firm is leaving no stone unturned to make good use of alternative energy sources in this 150,000 square meter mixed-use project. As the winning design from an international competition, Singapore’s new eco-complex from Foster + Partners is pushing the green envelope from top to bottom in this sophisticated downtown design.

The complex will fill an entire city block between Singapore’s Marina Center and the Civic District with commercial, residential, retail, hotels, and a ‘green’ link to an Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. All facades will be fitted with solar cells and, to help control solar gain, direct sunlight will be filtered through ribbon-like canopies rising from the base of the entire complex to the exposed east and west elevations of the towers.

The canopies will form vertical louvers at the elevations and provide more renewable on-site energy with integrated thin-film solar arrays. Vertical green spaces, and extensive sky gardens are also important components of the towers, further greening the whole structure with natural vegetation and ambient temperature moderation.

The slanted facades are designed to catch the wind and direct it downwards for natural cooling of the ground floor spaces. A rainwater harvesting system, geothermal heating system, chilled beams and ceilings, and an ice storage system for cooling are further enhancements planned for the complex.
While it looks intensely complex, the design takes advantage of simple green building principles like passive solar, natural ventilation and natural cooling. Foster + Partners’ dynamic design will function in sync with the surrounding climate, and just might be the perfect merger of elevated architecture and grounded green build thinking.

The green building movement in Asia may be lagging behind the U.S. and Europe, but it is slowly gaining momentum. Today’s Wall Street Journal features a piece that highlights eco-architecture projects taking shape in Asian cities across Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. One project is Ocean One, a 91-story beachfront residential high-rise in the Thai resort town of Pattaya.

Designed by Australia-based firm Woods Bagot, the building (set to be completed in 2010) will be the first eco-friendly high-rise and tallest building to be built in Thailand. Energy efficient appliances will save residents as much as 30% on electricity bills and up to 80% of the water used will be recycled for toilets and then treated for use outdoors. “A highspeed elevator will zip visitors to an observation deck, generating enough electricity as it descends to light the deck at night. Solar panels on the roof of an adjacent commercial building will power shops and restaurants.” Excess energy will even be fed into Thailand’s electricity grid.

Riding the wave of new development in China, Studio SHIFT recently won a competition to design a new landmark in Miyi County. Miyi Tower will sit on the edge of the Anning river as a symbol of the new face of Sichuan provence. The tower’s most striking feature is its whimsical latticework skin, which suffuses the structure with daylight and “evokes the shimmering surface of the river below.” This connection is reinforced by the project’s goal of filtering and transforming the polluted Anning river into a lush landscape of wetlands, lakes, leisure and agricultural areas.

The Miyi Tower itself will be a state-of-the-art community space providing a multitude of educational, entertainment and community programs aimed at promoting the region’s heritage and natural amenities. Ambitiously redefining the term multi-use, the tower will feature “an auditorium, exhibition spaces and restaurants featuring local cuisine on the interior while open-air floors are used as event spaces, gardens and an observation deck. The pairs of lower and upper enclosed spaces are joined by structures which act as light monitors. These light monitors, of which there is a third at the highest level, are aligned to take advantage of different lighting conditions throughout the day. The tower is sheathed in a very porous yet continuous skin that gives the various programs their unified form. As porous building skins are often treated as opaque modules with subtracted holes (i.e. perforated skins) Studio SHIFT deliberately created the inverse.“

Masdar, the new sustainable super-city being developed by Abu Dhabi, recently announced that it is building the largest grid-connected solar plant in the Middle East. The 10 MW solar plant will be half thin-film and half crystalline silicon photovoltaics, with 5 MW of thin film solar panels being provided by Arizona-based First Solar. The Masdar solar power plant is expected to reduce emissions of 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually and cost around $50 million.

Designed by Foster + Partners, Masdar is poised to be the world’s most sustainable city. Their masterplan envisions a development that is zero-waste, car-free, and carbon neutral. Solar power will be an essential resource for the city, as the sun will also power their Rapid Transit System.


Abu Dhabi-based Environma Power Systems Designed and developed the new power plant, which will support ongoing construction activities in Masdar and later will provide energy for the Masdar Institute, which opens in late 2009. Any excess power from the plant will be fed into the Abu Dhabi electric grid.

First Solar’s thin film photovoltaics utilize Cadmium Telluride as a semiconductor, which enables them to use only 1-2% of the semiconductor material required for traditional photovoltaic panels. Manufacturing a thin film panel takes around 2.5 hours from start to finish using First Solar’s process. The efficiency of these panels is estimated to be around 9%, and costs are expected to be below $1 per peak Watt per module. Currently, commercial efficiencies for traditional photovoltaics are above 20%, but costs rise above $1.5 per peak Watt.

How crazy are our concepts of habitation getting? Is it a possible design or is it just pure fiction?

Council House 2 (also known as CH2), is a green office building located in the CBD, in Melbourne, Australia. It is occupied by the City of Melbourne council, and in April, 2005, became the first purpose-built office building in Australia to achieve a maximum Six Green Star rating, certified by the Green Building Council of Australia. CH2 officially opened in August, 2006.

Comparing to a building with a Five Green Star rating, CH2's emissions will be 64% lower. When compared to the existing Council House next door, it is expected to:

-reduce electricity consumption by 85%
-reduce gas consumption by 87%
-produce only 13% of the emissions
-reduce water mains supply by 72%

Features include new LCD computer monitors, which will consume 77% less energy, and new T5 light fittings which should consume 65% less energy. The building also houses 48 m2 of solar panels, which provide 60% of hot water, as well as a gas-fired cogeneration plant which provides 40% of the building's overall electricity, with reduced carbon emissions.

Check the Pdf for detailed info and some pics.
Build Melbourne

The Daewoo Consortium and the municipality of Gwanggyo announced the MVRDV concept design for a dense city centre winner of the developer’s competition for the future new town of Gwanggyo, located 35km south of the Korean capital Seoul. The plan consists of a series of overgrown hill shaped buildings with great programmatic diversity, aiming for high urban density and encouragement of further developments around this so-called ‘Power Centre’, one of the envisioned two centre’s of the future new town.

The site is surrounded by a beautiful lake and forested hills, the design aims to create a landscape on top of the new program that enlarges the green qualities and that links the surrounding parks by turning the site into a park.
The shifting of the floors causes as a counter effect hollow cores that form large atriums. They serve as lobbies for the housing and offices, plazas for the shopping center and halls for the museum and leisure functions. In each tower a number of voids connect to the atrium providing for light and ventilation and creating semi-public spaces. On the lower floors the atriums are connected through a series of public spaces on various levels linking the towers and serving the outdoor facilities of the culture, retail and leisure program. The Power Centre creates a dense urban program with a green regard.



Said in a simplistic and immediate kind of way (without any form of profound analysis), it's almost (sort of) a symbiosis between the Lego habitation complex in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Montenegro residences in Budva (both) by BIG.


Lego residences


Montenegro residences in Budva


Nevertheless, it's (still) an interesting concept. What do you think?

This one is for Ricardo.



The Opera Building - Oslo from Morten Jacobsen on Vimeo.

The movie above illustrates a preview of Oslo Opera Hus in Norway, produced by C3.


Oslo City Hall - Sesam 3D map from Morten Jacobsen on Vimeo.

The movie above illustrates a preview of Oslo city Hall in Norway, produced by C3.


Trondheim 3D demo in HD from Morten Jacobsen on Vimeo.

The movie above illustrates a preview of 3D Trondheim in Norway, produced by C3.

The modelling process is automated, with the textures and mesh produced purely from imagery and not from the more traditional LiDAR approach. This means that from a simple image, the software produces a 3D model. So, it`s now possible to create models of entire cities from GoogleEarth (for example). C3 is a company to watch out for in terms of 3D city models.

Connected Home from MIT Mobile Experience Lab on Vimeo.

The visualisation above comes out of MIT's Mobile Experience Lab in collaboration with Cisco Systems - Internet Business Solutions Group.

The Connected Home of the future, according to the lab, will incorporate an integrated approach to buildings and their interaction with occupants, the local community, and beyond. The demonstration above of the Connected Home of the future incorporates smart energy solutions, automated services and efficiency measures to aid citizens lead more sustainable lives.

Technologies such as a Personal Travel Assistant, energy monitoring tools, TelePresence and social networking interactions, and energy grids for micro generation of energy across the urban community illustrate how citizens can play a positive and sustainable role in their urban landscape.

Softmirage 3D Animation Demo Reel v4.0 from softmirage on Vimeo.

The movie above comes from Softmirage a visual communications company located in Orange County, California. The company focuses on the architectural, construction, real estate, and urban planning community visualisation.

Recently, Taiwan held a competition for a Performing Arts Center in the city of Taipei.

The main purpose of this project is to build a Performing Arts Center to serve a variety of large-scale performances, including dramas and operas. The main structure will contain three theaters: a 1,500-seat Grand Theater, and two 800-seat theaters for repertory performances. These performance spaces must fulfill the specific needs of many different styles of performing arts. The Taipei Performing Arts Center will be a professional-level facility that meets international standards, providing a world-class performing arts venue for the Taipei area.
For the past two decades, there hasn't been one performance venue built in the Taipei area that meets international standards. Local performing arts groups must submit proposals at least one and half years prior to performance, to be wait-listed for the National Theater or National Concert Hall, and often these performance spaces are unavailable to many groups. In addition, after 20 years of operation, the facilities of National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center are worn out and somewhat unreliable.
The aim of this project is to establish a world-class professional performing arts center for arts lovers, whether they are creative artists, performers, or audiences. Moreover, the center will foster arts education, support arts commerce and employment, and improve the standard of living from the artistic perspective.

Architects from all over the world submited their work and the winners were:

1. Number: Morphosis Architects / Thom Mayne
Nationality: USA

2. Number: Jose Ignacio ABALOS, Spain
Joint Tenderer: Renata Sentkiewicz, Spain
(ABALOS+SENTKIEWICZ ARQUITECTOS)

3. Number: Office for Metropolitan Architecture(OMA) STEDEBOUW B.V / OLE SCHEEREN, Netherlands

Their proposals are not known yet, still, here are some other participations:

V.L.B.
(This is the proposal from my atelier...)






One remarkable competition entry that didn’t make it among the top 7 is this proposal by Vienna-based Architects Collective:




DOSarchitects


Mafredi Nicoletti (former teacher of mine during my Erasmus year in Rome)