iconic Promenade

The competition challenge consisted in designing a 100 meters high tower-museum, containing exhibition areas of 20th century fashion history and becoming a landmark for Tokyo. For this purpose, the site was located at Omotesando Street, since this avenue gathers the world’s most important fashion houses, at their maximum magnificence. Cre8 Architecture’s proposal reacts to both the specific nature of the site, as well as the visual impact of the building.

Le Mannequin stands as a new landmark on this iconic promenade. The alabaster facade draped in a black concrete robe unveils itself to its audience – invites the visitor to cross a bottom lit cat-walk within a large entrance atrium space that respects the scale of the existing Omotesando Street buildings. The 20’s – 60’s exhibition spaces tumble over each other allowing glimpses into and from adjoining genres. The runway space articulates the building form between the 60’s and 70’s spaces and provides an exhilarating skyline to the street. The crimson spine – zipping the fabric of the building together allows visitors to meander between spaces whilst high speed 3D dynamic lifts whisk you up to the rooftop Japanese garden and sky bar.


 

Houses in Thessaloniki, GREECE

in Thessaloniki, in front of the sea, appartments to rent and buy, all in a building, special view and
facilities.
the hole Building, is to be sold for a million euro, three stages, shops, appartments, garage, marbles, tiles, beautiful architecture, in front of the sea in Peraia, where somebody can also swim.
a Building to invest, also for offices and families on vacation.
there is interest from Russia and Bulgaria.
Contact, Miss Magda Kalaitzi, for fotos and details
meg.windsurfing@gmail.com
only serious proposals

OMA Books

The Architectural Association School is mounting the first ever retrospective of the books produced by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture – a practice co-founded by a writer, Rem Koolhaas, largely on the basis of a book, Delirious New York (1978).

The centrepiece of the show is a specially-made 40,000-page book, binding together hundreds of OMA’s pamphlets and books made over 35 years of architectural thought, work and provocation.

OMA Book Machine: The Books of OMA runs from 8 May until 4 June 2010 at the AA School Gallery.

Many OMA books – like S,M,L,XL (1995) and Exodus or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture (made by the founders of OMA in 1975, and submitted by Koolhaas as his fifth-year thesis at the AA) – have had a decisive impact on architectural practice and book publishing in general.

Others, like MoMA Charrette, made for the (lost) competition to expand New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1997, have remained hidden in the OMA archive.

By compiling and presenting the depth and relentlessness of OMA’s dedication to the making of books as a still-revolutionary architectural form, OMA Book Machine reveals how central books remain to architecture today.

a Passive House

Under the current economic pressure, cities are no longer able to develop the way they used to, especially in the regeneration of unused industrial areas, which have become increasingly in demand due to lack of housing and infrastructure. Although nearby, they represent disconnected areas from the city centers. Considering that city expansion and large regeneration schemes remain as unrealized masterplans due to shortage of public funds and lack of incentive to private initiatives, its now a challenge to devise schemes which could trigger progressive regeneration in harmony with existing urban structures. From an environmental perspective, large amounts of infrastructure and many buildings, which could have been adopted and reused, have been destroyed. The destruction of heritage and memory, the environmental cost of willful demolition and the scale, speed of erection and brutality of the new are most of the time too much for communities to absorb. Therefore, revitalizing bits of the city that need repair, that need healing is becoming increasingly important.

The main feature of the proposal by Evgeni Leonov Architects is minimization of the A/V ratio of the building. Minimal external surface means minimal heat losses. Egg shape is used as inspiration to this project. As known, the egg is one of the most energy-efficient forms of nature. To make A/V ratio minimal, we blocked houses together, linked walls, chose effective dimensions, delete corners, using egg shape in section, and adopted form to site. The result is twice reduced A/V ratio (0,39).

Isover materials used in proposal allow meet the Passive House standards – specific annual heat demand for the building is only 3.33 kwh/m2.

Another feature of the proposal is the design of sustainable neighborhood. Local community core is planned in the center of the development. The core is a common recreation space to all people living in the neighborhood.

The common playground, swimming pool, garden and common underground parking is a cost-effective solution and as well the place for communication and socialization between the neighbors.

Sustainable community advantages: no cars inside the block, common underground parking with a common entrance, common opportunities for recreation – swimming pool, garden, playground, sustainable environment for common living, working and socialization, Built-in services in some homes: shops, galleries, offices, common space for picnics and celebrations, common kindergarten in historic building of Trent Villa.

residual Spaces

Evgeni Leonov Architects is the winning proposal for the Tablet ‘Rethinking Hotels Ideas Competition,’ which asks entrants to challenge the notion of what it means to be an ‘exclusive’ hotel and to do so with an eye towards human psychology and physical experience. Connecting Rooftop focuses on creating ‘Mix-Zones,’ where visitors and locals can engage in a variety of experiences and activities along a variety of programmatically-unique zones.

Connecting Rooftop takes the shape of  a deformed donut, with portions of the structure touching the ground at two points. Inhabitable areas are created by the interstitial spaces, a product of the digital morphogenesis inherent in Connecting Rooftop’s design. When the structure soars into the air, access is provided to a central courtyard on the ground while elevating the occupied interior space above it. Glass walls along the perimeter of this interior dining room -as well as an occupiable roof terrace and ‘skyline bar’- provide 360 degree views to the city. Again, programmatic spaces result from the shifting geometries of the structure on the roof, where stepped terraces provide dining platforms while the hyperbolic shapes above the ground help to frame an open air amphitheatre. A swimming pool takes shape along the ground level, where the structure is raised.

This project is an attempt to create a programmatically- and formally- complex structure out of simple geometric shifts in structure, with program being inserted into residual spaces.