to Act like an Airport

Designed by Andrew Bromberg of Aedas, the Terminus is a 430.000 square meter structure, equipped with 15 high speed rail tracks that connect Hong Kong to Beijing. The project won the Best Futura Mega Project in MIPIM Awards 2012. Construction will be completed in 2015.It will be the largest bellow ground terminus station in the world. Situated in Hong Kong, the building acts more like an international airport, as it includes custom and immigration controls for departing and arriving passengers.

“Being a gateway to Hong Kong, the Terminus was designed to be an architecture that connects with the surrounding urban context as much as it makes visitors aware of the city’s character whether arriving or departing. To achieve this, the design efficiently compacted all of the supporting space to allow for a large void down into the departure hall below, with added apertures going down to the track platforms. The outside ground plane bends down to the hall and the roof structure above gestures toward the harbor. The result is a 45 meter high volume which focuses all attention to the south façade with views of the Hong Kong Central skyline, Victoria Peak and beyond.”
 

a Mesh of Steel Beams

The Containers Skyscraper is an idea to provide nomad housing to this specific type of urban dweller. It consists of an exoskeleton where regular shipping containers transformed into apartment units plug-in. The main structure provides basic infrastructure as well as recreational areas while the habitable units can be transported by ship, truck, and train to almost every large city worldwide providing a sense of “home” to these modern urban nomads.

The structures will consist of a dense mesh of steel beams. Every 100 feet there will be platforms that, in addition of providing rigidity to the structure, they will create a micro-city inside the skyscraper -an indoor /outdoor space used for recreational and social activities.
 

to Capture plastics

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean sits a mass of garbage that is 8.1% the size of the entire sea. It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), and is estimated to contain over 100 million tons of waste. The debris gathers in that particular location as ocean currents convene in the Subtropical Convergence Region, and is causing grave harm to the immediate ecosystem and those within a broad surrounding swath.

The Plastic Fish Tower, a circular structure floating on the ocean surface within the GPGP, will collect and reprocess plastic, which estimates say comprises 90% of the GPGP and is often ingested by birds and fish, causing their demise. A large fence will circle the structure underwater in a 1 km diameter to capture all the plastic that floats its way. The plastic will be recycled within the structure and processed into plastic patches that can be assembled into fish farms to restore the ecosystem. In addition to helping mitigate the pollution, the fish farm will also have two added benefits: the buoyancy of the plastic fish farm elements will be enough to keep the entire structure afloat since plastic is in fact so buoyant, and it will position the structure as a tourist attraction. Bringing tourists to the GPGP would greatly help in disseminating widely the reality of this manmade ecological catastrophe. The tourists will be transported to and from the site by ships that are fueled by chemicals that will be collected from the processed plastics within the skyscraper in an as-of-yet-undiscovered method of chemical extraction.

The structure itself is a ring that rises above the water and also goes below, but is largely hollow. The outer ring holds residential and leisure spaces, and is connected at intervals by bridges that are enclosed underwater (and one that is open on the water’s surface). Fishing banks made from the recycled plastic funnel up through the middle of the ring, helping to keep the structure buoyant.

the Poetry in a Chair

The internationally acclaimed Studio Aisslinger, with offices in Berlin and Singapore, uses new materials in a way that emphasizes utilitarian and organic aspects of design, and manages to reconcile high aesthetics criteria with contemporary nomadic lifestyles. Their monobloc chair was created for the “Poetry Happens” exhibition in Ventura Lambrate. What is innovative about the design is the fact that it is made of natural fibers, using production methods widespread in the automobile industry to achieve lightness and strength.

The sustainable sheet material of the Hemp Chair allows the use of more than 70% natural fibers in combination with BASF’s water-based acrylic resin Acrodur. Unlike with classic reactive resins, this method releases no organic substances such as phenol or formaldehyde during the cross-linking process. The only by-product of the curing procedure is water. Furthermore, the industrial process of compression molding accounts for low-cost mass production of three-dimensional objects with high mechanical resistance and very low specific weight.

The Hemp Chair is eco-friendly, lightweight and stackable. It is made from a thin layer of material, shaping a soft curved structure reminiscent of automobile aesthetics. It’s a product that aspires to answer some of the current design demands: sustainability, sophisticated appearance and possibility of mass production.

an Energy to Draw

The Tena Tower is a massive 640,000 square meter development project for the town of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Designed by Paris based architect Manuelle Gauntrand, the Tena Tower project is meant to be an entirely energy self-sufficient oasis to draw in foreign and internal investments to Burkina Faso.

Gauntrand began her design by establishing a 180,000 square meter man-made lake to design the complex about. Although visually dominated by the 96 ft. tower on the northwest side of the development, the Tena Tower masterplan includes 80 villas, a park system, and a number of mixed used facilities to be built around the new lake.

Surrounding the lake in an emulating pattern are 14 massive groves of photovoltaic cells to power the villas and facilities. The pattern of the lake and groves were inspired by the feathers of a peacock. Parks, recreation areas, and promenades surround the lake and weave in and throughout the villa complexes.

The tower itself will house a hotel, 50 apartments, offices, and restaurants. A lace of metallic panels is extended beyond the facade, twisted to efficiently filter light but maintain views to the surrounding landscapes. Between the lace and façade will be periodic terraces to further emphasize viewing. Like a woman’s dress at the ankles, the lace lays outward at the base of the tower to cover the lobby and lower facilities.

The Tena Tower complex is the winner of a 2010 design competition for the site by real estate investment company REAL TACAMA FZE. The shear scale of the project should create hundred of construction and service jobs in the area, but the lasting effect of high end hotels and residences in developing countries is still quiet unclear. It is currently in the study phase and site work is expected to begin in 2013.

to Trike True

Today, more cities and urban centers are building dedicated bicycle lanes on city streets. Cycling is becoming an increasingly viable way to commute to work and make short, local trips around town.  However, cycling is also a fair- weather transportation option and often carrying groceries or other items is relegated to a small wicker basket perched precariously on the handle bars. The reality is that most climates and most cities need a viable alternative to make short distance commuting a reality for self propulsion. The TrikE is designed to be a true alternative to the car for local transportation.

to Cross over Fire

Prechteck’s design for the extension of the National Library of Austria located at the Hofburg in Vienna contains a number of cultural facilities including a 1200sqm underground core exhibition hall, a smaller 600sqm multifunctional hall, creative studios, a restaurant, and shops.

The design is to be seen as an extension of the bordering park and takes off at its north-west end to cross over the fire / drop-off lane with a twist that after crossing arches back to the ground level to melt into the landscape. All the  facilities are housed in one seamless structure, creating at each point a different spatial experience towards the Hofburg and directing its visitors intuitively to the foyer and to the different programs.
 

a Plywood to Mensa

Part of a distinctive plywood collection of furniture designed by Lazerian, the Mensa Collection includes models that use various connecting methods of bolting and self-interlock. With the use of CNC router, these models are further advanced to find structural forms capable of supporting weight. This specific collection uses both raw and laminated birch plywood. The Mensa table is constructed and held together with stainless steel fixings. The modular pieces are bolted onto a stainless steel base and a 6 mm piece of toughened glass.

The name for the collection is derived from two Latin words: mēns, which means ‘mind’, and mēnsa, which means ‘table’ symbolizing the original conception of the society, ‘a round table where no one has precedence’. These light and sophisticated plywood-objects, which get their stability by the artfully patterned and flexible structure, are engaging examples of computer aided design.


 

a Kuma Kengo

Placed second at the Taipei City Museum of Art Competition, the proposal designed by Kengo Kuma+Associates derives its iconicity from emphasizing two distinct design tendencies. The first relates to the idea of connectivity: the museum is a cultural and communication hub, providing a space for gatherings, exhibitions and workshops. An urbanistic attitude is noticeable in the configuration of the structure. The skin acts as a canopy- accessible and welcoming, it shelters a public space below. The pavilion-like programmatic distribution contributes to the overall impression of the museum being part of the cityscape. The main hall is connected to a nearby train station, cable car, riverbank trail, demystifying the museum culture, interpreting it as an integral part of the urban experience.

The Museum’s other striking feature is the double skin system. It has an important role in the sustainability of the building. It is designed as a steel mesh of the structural framework, capped with diverse elements including EFTE cushions, LEDs, ventilation louvers, solar panels and green roof. This highly breathable envelope extends all the way to the ground in places to create shaded spaces. And at night, the building is illuminated by energy-efficient LEDs, creating an impressive lighting effect.

to Art an Egg

Kokuy Housing

This project is a redevelopment idea for the waste grounds in the suburbs of the Russian city of Kokuy. The majority of the existing houses will be restored and three new egg-shaped buildings will provide the new necessary housing. These structures will be covered with solar panels that will move according to the sunlight. Movable screens cover the entire outer skin and are used to regulate the temperature and the illumination. The main structure is formed by four columns that support a secondary structure around the ‘eggs’.

The project will be constructed in four stages and will accommodate recreational areas for the community. A new transportation system will communicate the new development with the city in less than ten minutes. Artists will be invited to decorate the facades and contribute to exhibitions in the new galleries.
 

to Green the Clouds

Imagine a skyscraper which is not an apartment block or an office building. Instead it is a vertical park that rises into the sky having its head in the clouds.

It’s a place for dreaming, playing and breathing. A peaceful place where in the middle of the hectic city on the 22nd floor there is room for birds chirping, rustling of leaves, lying on the grass and hearing your heart beat.

The vertical park is not a solitary skyscraper. It is a new urban typology which would emerge in several places from the midst of monotonous blocks of the city. Any city of the world lacking green space, but with an abundance of asphalt streets and concrete blocks would be an ideal location for vertical parks. Where there is no place at all at ground level they would anchor on top of buildings and simply rise into the sky.

The height of a vertical park would depend on the density of population in a particular neighbourhood and a number of people missing a green place to dream and play in. Everyone would have a chance to find their own little world.

The vertical park does not intend to compete with the surroundings. It enriches the modern city environment by bringing back nature into the artificial urban world. It’s an ecosystem in symbiosis with the city infrastructure.

As a piece of nature it completes the city and its inhabitants, thereby spiritualizing and elevating both.

to Sunlight a Room

This remodeling project was executed within a Hong Kong’s public rental building, in the attempt to merge two typical existenzminimum units and enhance their spatial qualities, regarding natural lighting, ventilation and privacy.

The project was designed by Kwok Tung Chun. He elaborates on the process:

“On the original plan, it is not possible to create two rooms which have widows toward outdoor, so I curved the new created wall for setting a window and door on a 45 degree in order to introduce sunlight and air flow into one of the rooms. In the other room, I patterned the wall with specified openings which insulating the sight but light and air-flow still be able to get into the room. Therefore the nature lighting and ventilation are able to happen in these two rooms.

The entire creation is consisted of customized furniture, reflective wall penals and a hollow partition wall. All of them were fabricated in factory and then assembled in site, especially the partition wall which was assembled from wooden boards and manufactured by CNC machine as a outcome of contouring process. All the pieces of boards would be assembled into several large components, and finished with polishing and painting before shipment to the site. Hence, this is a low budget and experimental project which testing the capacity of pre-fabrication in a interior design by utilizing CAD and CAM tools.”

to Live above Seven Rivers...

Housed within 55,000 glaciers in the Himalaya Mountains sits 40 percent of the world’s fresh water. The massive ice sheets are melting at a faster-than-ever pace due to climate change, posing possible dire consequences for the continent of Asia and the entire world stand, and especially for the villages and cities that sit on the seven rivers that come are fed from the Himalayas’ runoff as they respond with erratic flooding or drought.

The “Himalaya Water Tower” is a skyscraper located high in the mountain range that serves to store water and helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the mountains’ natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for future use. The water distribution schedule will evolve with the needs of residents below; while it can be used to help in times of current drought, it’s also meant to store plentiful water for future generations.

The lower part of the Himalaya Water tower is comprised of six stem-like pipes that curve and wind together and collect and store water. Like the stem of a plant, these pipes grow strong as they absorb their maximum water capacity. In each of the six stems, a core tube is flanked by levels and levels of cells, which hold the water. The upper part of the building – the part that is visible above the snow line – is used for frozen storage. Four massive cores support steel cylindrical frames that, like the stems below, hold levels that radiate out, creating four steel tubes filled with ice. In between the two sections are mechanical systems that help freeze the water when the climatic conditions aren’t able to do so, purify the water and regulate the distribution of water and ice throughout the structure.

At the bottom of the structure, surrounding the six intertwined water tubes is a transport system that regulates fresh water distribution to the towns and cities below. The curving channels connect the mountains to the villages, and are also hold within them a railway for the transport of people and goods.

water Sky earth

This project is a winning entry conceived by architects Chi Wai Chan, Xinyu Wan, and Geng Ke for a competition to design an arts and cultural square at Lake Sanyon in Daqing, China. The project examines the relationships between the elements of water, sky, and earth. A waterfront promenade that ensues the formal attributes and fluidity of the water, a 1,394 m long canopy with LED display that transpires the form of the clouds, and a ground condition of self-similar marine lifeform that establishes view corridors to the lake. These three design elements serve as the organizing  apparatus for the design of the square.

The architecture of the individual buildings experiments with a contemporary aesthetics attainable  through digital design.  Tools such as Maya, Rhino and Grasshopper were utilized during the  design process. But considerations were also given to achieving a balance between buildability and creativity. The architecture and the aesthetic affects were shaped by the materials and construction methods available, and by considerations of the process and fabrication technologies available in translating a digital model into reality.
 

the Landscape of an Opera

How do we rethink an Opera? There is no lack in ambition.The constant all consuming urge for innovation can be destructive and self serving. But there is no mistaking the impact of creative processes fuelled by these seemingly undesirable traits . To dissect the traditional opera, gnawing away at the foundations of the sacred opera house till that threshold is reached when the hierarchies are disintegrated, when the instrument becomes the artist, and artist the facilitator.

The attempt was to transform the notion of a designed space into that of a designed intent. Performative spaces were achieved through articulations of the skin, the surface and the structure. Starting from a simple module, the articulations rise in complexity and hierarchy to sprout a new opera and concert hall in the middle of the Stadtpark in Vienna. The landscape is a manicured english garden which is transformed by the growth of the bionic music pavilion progressively mutating into an Opera. A relationship fluctuating between symbiotic and parasitic exists between the landscape and the opera in such a way that the boundaries are blurred.

The interstitial spaces are colonized by a matrix of semi flexible biotic cell which undergoes mutation according to its specific situation. These cells exist in a state of flux between calcified structural cells, transparent circulation clusters, and lush botanical cells.

The opera as a music instrument that has a kaleidoscopic effect on the performances. The sound is selectively propagated into 4 quadrants based on the urban conditions. The opera is also an urban condenser, facilitating the streamlining of the multi modal flows surrounding stadtpark. Creates new vistas and flow patterns and thus sculpts the urbanscape.

The project was designed by Hend Almatrouk as part of the Urbanstrategies Excessive studio at the Universität Für Angewandte Kunst, Wien.

the Future of Housing

Architecture Redefined

All throughout history people have attempted to redefine the basic meaning of life.  How do you design for the future?  What is the future of housing?  When looking back on history, pre-fabrication became a popular process of mass production of similar units that could be easily assembled.  This process was invented during the industrial revolution when it became crucial for guns to have inter-changeable parts. Now, in an era of mass customization what does being pre-fabricated really mean?

In the past, machine like processing has always had a direct correlation to human musculature, and making things easier and quicker to build.  Could a machine be based on conscience instead of muscle… like a computer science program?

Changing the role of the architect is a possibility as well; instead of an architect designing a specific building, the architect develops the interface for people to interact with.  This design machine creates a constraint and a new born freedom.  The design machine becomes the interface system with which home owners can customize a home without an architect by their side.   

Computation based design and morphological processes allow for many different kinds of variations and mutations which can easily adapt to different constraints set forth.  What will tie these iterations together?  The answer is topology.  Houses written of the same base original equation will always have the same topological relationships, even when it is mutated, as long as the equation is always additive, without subtraction of original elements.  The Classic Klein Bottle seems like an ideal topology as it already begins to create openings and spatial continuity.  The way in which it is one continuous surface suggests certain structural performances.

What kinds of spaces will be in this mutated Klein bottle?  The machine will not design bedrooms, family rooms or any specific programmatic room. Instead, a home will consist of soft spaces, hard spaces, transparent spaces and wet spaces.  Depending whether a surface is sin-clastic or anti-clastic will determine what kind of structural system will be implemented. 

Another question that one must consider when designing for the future is where people will be living in the future.  How can one develop a new lifestyle of the future?  With global warming increasing and dense populations continuing to rise, where will people live?  With fewer desirable climatic regions and with an increase in population, the areas of inhabitable land diminish.  The new suburbia will not be on land but on water.  Mobile house ships may become the lifestyle of the future.

rainbow Panorama

ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark’s second largest city’s is newly crowned with a glass rainbow ring that transforms the cities vista into ever changing hues. Olafur Eliasson’s “Your rainbow panorama” is the final level of the museums symbolic ascension through Dante’s 9 circles of hell in the Divine Comedy. The circle, set above the rooftop, is the crescendo of that journey into light. Measuring 52 meter in diameter and 150 meters long the skywalk is entered from a roof deck. The full spectrum of colors is achieved by sandwiching up to 6 colored sheets in-between two plates of glass. The effect of the circular walk and slowly transitioning changing in color acts as a visual meter of the city view.

Eliasson’s intention is to blur the distinction between contemporary art and architecture, using the entire city as an active part of the experience. His goal of mixing the inside with the outside is further emphasized by using natural light to power the retinal experience, where intensity is sensed by hue and sunlight levels. At night the ring is internally lit from the floor, becoming a beacon in the city.

“Think of ‘Your rainbow panorama’ as an expectation machine. Even before entering ARoS and ascending to the work, you may look upon the city as if through coloured glass. Your expected gaze. What you know from the street then emerges from above as strangely real, in a continuous interplay of colour saturation and desaturation. Suspended between the city and the sky, this viewing platform insists on your sensory engagement. You feel the view. Perhaps your memory of the art collections below, through which you just made your way, infiltrate your experience.”- Olafur Eliasson.

to Sound San Lorenza

The Soundscape Towers, the creation of Roman architects Alessandro Di Clemente, Martina Mattia and Carmen Pia Scarilli, are proposed for a very specific and historic location. Nestled into the dense urban fabric of the San Lorenza neighborhood of Rome will be three modern skyscrapers, and their design will not be entirely unwelcome, say the artchitects: though the neighborhood is part of the once walled-in old city, the building stock today is a mixture of history and modernity as much of the town was bombed in WWII (and subsequently rebuilt).

San Lorenza is located near the busiest train station in southern Italy and is home to the largest university campus in Europe, giving the towers a diverse array of community needs to meet. The architects studied the estimated growth rate of the region to calculate the use of the towers. Each tower has a different blend of units within: the buildings house a mixture of offices, student and family housing, commercial spaces for shops, restaurants and pubs, post offices, pharmacies, museums, theaters, a library, and relaxation areas, such as parks and sport fields. The towers are all accessible from the ground, but are also connected to one another with “sinusoidal bands.”

The towers also serve another purpose: they both absorb and dampen urban noise, and transmit is as well, as if giant speakers. The concept, say the authors, is to filter the urban noise pollution into serene sounds city dwellers wish to hear, to rework startling sirens and alarms into harmonic sound waves.

Using the ideas of energy transmission, sound wave traveling and complex geometry, Di Clemente, Mattia and Scarilli have created towers that help make urban life more peaceful for residents of the San Lorenza neighborhood both inside the buildings and out.
 

de Facto eCology

The student housing on rue Amelot designed by Stephane Malka is a project that inserts itself into an urban interstice: the thickness of a blind wall. It’s within the thickness of these walls that this thin building is constructed. The urban form is a strict extension of the blind walls, which houses using the existing. No building is destroyed, and no pollution generated. The skin consists of an existing module: the wooden pallet.

Held using horizontal hinges, the pallets contract towards the top, allowing privacy or large openings. The modularity of the various palettes creates varied geometries, which are based on use and constantly regenerated. The reappropriation of materials recycles the existing without additional processing, which would cost energy in terms of production and create byproduct pollution.

The real environmental approach consists not in destruction, but in superimposing interventions upon our built heritage. It consists of a new land strategy, unreferenced on a parcel, constructed in a de facto “ecology” of means.

folded CITY

How to live vertically? Building higher and higher does not seem to change the way we live. Most people wish to live in single-family residences, but the problem is the lack of diversity and density. How to have the benefits of suburbia combined with the intensity of living in the city?

The history of the skyscrapers goes back to Elisha Otis, who invented the elevator in the 19th century. This invention promoted the conquest of the sky with projects competing for prowess and size.  What would happened if within a house the elevator is used as a remote control to move from one floor to another, from one program to another?

This new “object” would challenge the function of living. The house becomes smart and incorporates multiple applications – one application per floor. The elevator is for the house what that Internet is for a smart-phone. A necessary parameter! Now you can “zap” your life spatially. Imagine yourself in your room, put on your slippers, go in your elevator, and zap! You will be in your living room, your garage, your favorite bar or business place; the park where you go jogging!

The new tower is born, or rather, the first cell. We must now find the idea of “Tower”. This cell is only anecdotal, but multiplied and intensified, it marks its existence. It is now clearly identifiable as an “object”.  The idea of “Tower” is inseparable from the idea of city, so we have now an object in the city, which looks like a city.  Perceptions are distorted. The object in the city became literally the “city-object”.

toxic Garden in Continuum

Toxicity/contamination/mutation/distortion is a hybride which synthesizes a library and garden into a one spacial continuum. The project designed by Kadri Kerge at the University of Applied Arts Vienna is located in the Burggarten, Vienna – which served as a private royal garden for the Habsburg family. It is situated between the Austrian National Library and a large greenhouse called Palmenhaus that sits at a right angle to it. The roots of the plants from the greenhouse grow out of the container, break the sealed ground and as a mutants combine nature and building. They overlap with the context in housing part of the program of institutions nearby like The Austrian Film Museum, the National Library, and the Albertina Museum.

Toxic Garden is a self-sustainable building generating heat and power through the plants which are growing in the building. The energy design concept provides a range of microclimatic conditions as interfaces between user, information and nature. The building of the Austrian National library is an opulent baroque structure that has housed the Imperial book collection between 1721 and 1918, that was then nationalized.

Since 2011 the National Library archive has been fully digitized, and therefore the physical space of books has been abstracted. The extension of the library is a new type of social environement. It creates different types of atmospheres forreading, working, discovery and community.

The Toxic Garden is an integration of nature and the artificial, of garden and information that has no body. The vegetation of the Burggarten becomes part of the library space and according to the four seasons it transforms atmospheres and functions. In the could season when the Burggarten is naked, the library becomes a green house. In summer the building is naked and opens the program to park activities .
 

a Plant to Read

LAVA has unveiled their EVOLUTION lamp in collaboration with Philips, the global leader in lighting. The lamp is on display at Handmade during the fair.

Chris Bosse, Asia Pacific Director of LAVA says: ‘the challenge was to re-imagine an object that everybody knows, to break up preconceived ideas. The playful reinterpretation of a sculptural table lamp resembles a plant rather than a desk light’.

Rogier van der Heide, Chief Design Officer at Philips Lighting, says: “With the EVOLUTION desk light, Chris Bosse of LAVA has created a new design language in luminaire design. The desk light is also a great representation of Philips’ people-focused approach to lighting: a friendly product, based on a humanistic design concept while delivering state of the art LED technology, all of this in a very attractive way. The design posed many technical challenges such as thermal management and a complex double curved shape – however, close collaboration between LAVA and Philips has ensured that the EVOLUTION lamp exceeded our expectations in terms of design and engineering.”

EVOLUTION is inspired by the growth in plants. LAVA’s design and architectural concepts emulate the structural principles of nature such as cells and leaves in order to be more efficient – lighter, stronger, and ultimately more beautiful.
LAVA imagines the design at many scales, from a living room lamp of human height to a desk light.

LAVA has designed a number of furniture and lighting objects on various scales. ‘But design in that sense is scale-less, the scale can be transferred up and down. The organisational pattern of a leaf can be the same as that underlying a plan for an entire city,’ adds Bosse.

The Handmade show at the Brioni Palazzo celebrates collaboration with leading international designers, manufacturers and craftsmen creating a unique collection – cape suits, jet seats, bottled books, a very modern makeup kit, a pop-up barbers shop and a lunch box.

the Ocean as a Living organism

The Oceanic Pavilion designed by Emergent Architecture and Kokkugia for the Yeosu 2012 Expo in Korea is a structure “which celebrates the ocean as a living organism and the co-existence of human culture and ocean ecosystems. The building is based on an aggregation of soft membrane bubbles merged together with a hard monocoque shell. The two systems are characterized by patterns of surface articulation which are specific to their materiality”. Deep pleats and mega-armatures that create structural stiffness are generally associated with the fiber-composite shell, while fine, double-pleated ‘Air-beams‘spread over and stabilize the vaulted ETFE membranes. Micro-armatures transgress thresholds between shell and membrane, creating structural and ornamental continuity between systems.

to Produce oXygen

Natural disasters, the threat of technological meltdown and even the possibility of visitors from space all present a need for cities and even countries to reorganize to implement infrastructure that can protect people from possible catastrophes.

The “Citadel Skyscraper” project is imagined for Japan because of the numerous natural and manmade disasters that have struck the region in recent years. The project proposes a three-part implementation of new structures with an end result of protecting the island with a fortress-like defense shield. The first part involves a restructuring of the land use of all of the country’s major cities as residents are moved out of the city proper. Businesses and commercial endeavors will stay located within the cities, but residents will move out to sea and live in self-supporting residential skyscrapers, or citadels. The second part specifies the location of these citadels: They will be lined up as a single “sheet”, creating a barrier 2-3 km from the shoreline that can protect the mainland from tsunamis. The skyscrapers themselves are connected by a system of breakwaters and drainage channels, and are able to withstand waves up to 50 meters tall. These are further bolstered by a connected series of fiber sails, buried as deep as 1,200 meters, that surround the island. When the waves hit the sails and meet the oscillations of its stretched fibers, such a dissonance is created that the wave is reduced to nothing.

The third part of this plan involves a skyscraper design that can protect its inhabitants. The prototypical skyscraper for this project has a metal frame; its foundation is poured at a depth of 1,200 meters and it reaches 500 meters into the sky. By burying the structure so far into the earth, it is protected from seismic activity (earthquakes up to a magnitude 11), waves (up to 40 feet tall) and man-made disasters (such as the explosion of atomic weapons). A system of bars forming a single, one-piece shield around the building serves as its protection system. They are energetically self-sustaining, using wave power for energy generation, and they have live fish tanks to provide food for residents.

The citadels mainly function as residential structures, but every 50 meters there are recreation areas and mini parks. The buildings also feature restaurants, cafes, shops, cinemas and laundromats. If the citadel’s outer shield is closed completely in anticipation of disaster outside, the building is ventilated by blowers located every 100 meters that are connected to a system of niches filled with hydroponic algae that produce oxygen by absorbing carbon dioxide. The citadels are connected with the city and the coastal zone by above ground, high-speed trains that run through 4 systems of tunnels.

platonic Space

Russian architects Gagarinskaya Anastasiya and Gaydukova Varvara from the Moscow Institute of Architecture propose a three-hundred meter tall space station on the western side of Moscow. The strong architectural forms are inspired by the Russian Constructivists of the early 20th Century with the use of platonic forms and clean lines. It consists of a main multifunctional round platform with additional horizontal landing strips. The station is linked to the city on the other side of the Moscow River by a pedestrian bridge where a hotel and other amenities would be located.

between Public and Private

The project attempts to integrate the homogenous structure of public housing with the urban fabric by blurring out the boundary between public and private. It uses the example of Seoul as the architectural paradigm for a contemporary Asian city. The program of the project relates to a unique building typology in Korea called “Keunseng” (community building), which consists of retail spaces, after school classes, and various “Bangs” (rooms). Both are unique to Korean culture. Since there is limited space for leisure activities inside the apartment, different kinds of Bangs emerge to provide space for leisure and entertainment.

The design involves three ways in which Bangs are assembled. Each of them directly engages with a particular condition and at the same time, draws people into the in-between plaza where the most intensive interaction take place. Each building transforms its internal programs into a public plaza, activating interaction within the community. The diversity of Keunseng is therefore disassembled and reorganized into a larger context. It is deployed as an instrument for connecting the residential unit to the street, landscape and adjacent buildings.

By triggering the latent network between homogeneous apartment buildings the project rethinks the concept of urban habitation and reestablishes the sense of community. The bathing Bang penetrates through the apartment tower, creating a unique space where residents and bathing customer and interact. The street interface transform the typical Karaoke room into different typologies from typical room into loft space, to auditorium and final an outdoor performance space.
 

Περαιτέρω Πτώση στα Ακίνητα

Περαιτέρω πτώση σημείωσαν το 2011, σε σχέση με το προηγούμενο έτος, οι τιμές των ακινήτων σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία του δικτύου της RE/MAX. Συνοπτικά, οι μέσες τιμές των μεταχειρισμένων / παλαιών ακινήτων ήταν κατά 18% χαμηλότερες σε σχέση με το 2010, ενώ των νέων / νεόδμητων κατά 10%. Το 2011 αποτέλεσε μία από τις πιο δύσκολες, αν όχι τη δυσκολότερη χρονιά για την ελληνική οικονομία. Αναπόφευκτα επηρεάστηκε σημαντικά και ο κλάδος της διαμεσολάβησης ακινήτων.

Σημαντικοί παράγοντες που επηρέασαν αρνητικά την κτηματαγορά ήταν το πάγωμα των στεγαστικών δανείων από πλευράς τραπεζών, καθώς και η πορεία της οικονομίας με την οποία σχετίζεται τόσο η ψυχολογία των αγοραστών όσο και η αγοραστική τους δύναμη. Η επιβολή έκτακτων φόρων και το κλίμα ανασφάλειας για την περαιτέρω πορεία της οικονομίας ενίσχυσαν την αναβλητικότητα εκ μέρους των αγοραστών και δημιούργησαν υπερπροσφορά ακινήτων.

Στην Αττική οι μέσες τιμές των παλαιών ακινήτων έπεσαν κατά 21%, ενώ των νέων σε ποσοστό 7%. Στη Θεσσαλονίκη η πτώση στα παλαιά ήταν 20% ενώ στα νεόδμητα 10%. Στην υπόλοιπη Ελλάδα η μείωση τιμών για τα παλαιά κυμάνθηκε γύρω στο 13%, ενώ για τα νεόδμητα στο 17%. Όπως έχει αναφερθεί και σε αντίστοιχες έρευνες προηγούμενων ετών τα επίπεδα τιμών διαμορφώνονται από πολλούς παράγοντες.

Ιδιαίτερα τη συγκεκριμένη περίοδο οι τιμές επηρεάζονται από τις διαπραγματεύσεις και από τις ιδιαίτερες συνθήκες που δημιουργούνται εξαιτίας της οικονομικής κατάστασης, όπως επίσης και από τα χαρακτηριστικά της κάθε περιοχής, τη ζήτηση αλλά και τα ποιοτικά χαρακτηριστικά των ακινήτων.

Προοπτικές αγοράς

Για τους επόμενο χρονικό διάστημα, η πορεία της κτηματαγοράς θα εξαρτηθεί σημαντικά από την πορεία της ελληνικής οικονομίας. Η σταθεροποίηση της οικονομίας και η αποφυγή εντονότερων πιέσεων προς τους καταναλωτές θα δημιουργήσει κλίμα ασφάλειας και θετική ψυχολογία, παράγοντες που θα δώσουν ώθηση στην αγορά ακινήτων. Επιπλέον παρουσιάζονται ιδιαίτερα ελκυστικές ευκαιρίες σε πολλές περιοχές, τόσο στα αστικά κέντρα όσο και την περιφέρεια και σε συγκεκριμένες κατηγορίες ακινήτων που θα τονώσει ακόμη εντονότερα το αγοραστικό ενδιαφέρον.

Το 2011, το ενδιαφέρον των αγοραστών επικεντρώθηκε όπως και τα δύο προηγούμενα έτη σε παλαιές κατοικίες / διαμερίσματα τα οποία πωλούνται σε πιο χαμηλές τιμές σε σχέση πάντα με τα αντίστοιχα νεόδμητα και σε ακίνητα μικρότερου εμβαδού. Από την άλλη πλευρά, σε χαμηλά επίπεδα κινήθηκαν τόσο τα επαγγελματικά ακίνητα (γραφεία, καταστήματα κτλ.) όσο και τα οικόπεδα / αγροτεμάχια.

Την ίδια χρονιά, τα ακίνητα που πωλήθηκαν πανελλαδικά μέσω του δικτύου της RE/MAX ήταν σε ποσοστό 80% κατοικίες (διαμερίσματα και μονοκατοικίες/μεζονέτες), ενώ τα οικόπεδα/αγροτεμάχια έφθασαν το 12%. Τα επαγγελματικά περιορίστηκαν σε ποσοστό 8%.

Στην Αττική η συντριπτική πλειοψηφία των πωληθέντων ακινήτων (88%) αφορούσε σε κατοικίες. Το 9% επί του συνόλου ήταν επαγγελματικά ενώ το ποσοστό των οικόπεδων / αγροτεμάχιων στο 3%. Στη Θεσσαλονίκη οι αγοραπωλησίες επικεντρώθηκαν σχεδόν αποκλειστικά (97%) στις κατοικίες και το υπόλοιπο ήταν επαγγελματικά ακίνητα.

robotic Arms Behind

We have seen the financial outcome of the Real Estate crash in 2008. What sometimes we overlook are the urban voids left by unfinished buildings. That is the case of the Filene’s development in downtown Boston which construction was halted in November 2008.  Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Squared Design Lab think this as an opportunity to explore new ways of producing architecture. They have designed a prefabricated ‘Eco-Pod’ that proposes to stimulate the economy and the ecology of downtown Boston. “The pods serve as bio-fuel sources and as micro-incubators for research”. The idea is that these pods will generate enough energy to control a series of robotic arms that will continue the construction of the building – once it is completed, the pods could be transported to other sites to build more structures.