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First Prize At Taipei Pop Music Center Competition For Reiser + Umemoto

manuel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:50:36 +0000

New York-based Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture PC with their Taiwanese partners FEI & CHENG ASSOCIATES recently won first prize at Taipei Pop Music Center Competition.

Detailed project description from the architects:

Pop music, while a global phenomenon, is regional in its definition. The Taiwanese Pop music scene typifies the phenomenon; while it crosses borders and cultures and dialects, it nevertheless has produced styles and genres with distinct transnational form and appeal. Though many aspects of pop culture exist in a hyper-technological or virtual realm, there is a need for a defined physical hub dedicated to the production and reception of pop.

The Taipei Pop Music Center features a gradient of mixed-use spaces, from the fully public realm to the interior of the auditorium, allows the visitor to partake of the event dynamic however they choose to visit this complex. Whether they plan a night of music or are browsing the myriad shops, markets, cafes, and restaurants, the complex will be a 24-hour attraction independent of the schedule of performances in the theaters. The TPMC features a new elevated public ground, which bridges the two building sites presently divided by Xinsheng Rd. Corridor. The elevated public space is a pedestrian zone creating a coherent public space distinct yet connected to the life of the city, and effectively joining the three major zones of the complex, the Main Concert Hall, Outdoor Amphitheater, and the Hall of Fame. The public space is in itself a focus for outdoor events, surrounded by cafes, restaurants and shops. Here, the spectacle of pop music can be celebrated and broadcast to the world.

The Main Hall features a 3000-seat indoor auditorium and a tower dedicated to the pop music industry. This hybrid of theater and tower will allow direct communication on an everyday basis between producers, artists, and the music industry community. In effect, this hybrid is a cultural incubator bringing the entire music community, production and performance, together under one roof.

The Hall of Fame becomes an ongoing daily destination – an outlet to track the T-Pop industry, linked with performances, hall of fame induction ceremonies, outdoor spaces, and media projections. Within the Hall of Fame is the main exhibition space, digital media center, two lecture halls, and the Sky View Lounge with commanding views from box seats of the entire event space. Lining the street adjacent to the Hall of Fame, live houses provide smaller performance venues and a vibrant street front that is integrally connected to the street life of Taipei.

The form of the Outdoor Amphitheater is a hybrid of circus and city, and with the addition of a mobile stage, The Robot Theater, the design can adapt to a spectrum of event scales, public uses and mass events. The four docking positions of the Robot Theater along the elevated public ground allow for multiple event scales, accommodating a range of audiences from 16,000 people to smaller shows operating simultaneously or with other functions such as day or night markets. In its most compact crystalline form, the Robot Theater docks with the Hall of Fame, creating an intimate performance space for Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and other VIP events. A technological net provides solar screening and LED lighting to the Outdoor Amphitheater, and connects the Hall of Fame, Robot Theater, and Main Hall together.

As opposed to a singular or inflexible performance venue, the TPMC allows both high-end, in-demand performances to coexist with small, up-and-coming artists. This has consequences not only for the diversity of concert-goers that the center will attract, but can also have important collaborative effects on pop music production in Taipei. We envision the Taipei Pop Music Center as a coherent environment, not merely a collection of performance spaces but a vibrant new part of the city itself. As Hollywood is to world cinema so the Taipei Pop Music center will be to Asian Pop.

Images: Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture PC

New US Embassy In London By KieranTimberlake

manuel — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:24:54 +0000

U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis B. Susman, and Acting Director of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Adam Namm, announced today that KieranTimberlake of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has won the design competition for the New London Embassy.

KieranTimberlake’s design met the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century. Their concept most fully satisfied the requirements outlined in the design competition’s mission statement. The concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design. KieranTimberlake is an architectural firm known for its commitment to innovation and environmental responsibility.

Starting with 37 architectural submissions, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations narrowed the list to nine firms. A distinguished jury of both American and British leaders in the fields of architecture, academia and diplomacy selected four firms for the final phase of the competition.

The four firms explored the symbolism of the embassy, its presence and position in the cityscape of London. Their goal was to create a building and site complex with a timeless quality to appropriately represent the United States of America in the United Kingdom.

The four competing architectural firms, KieranTimberlake, Morphosis Architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Richard Meier & Partners, worked for nearly a year and made presentations to the jury which then recommended the winning design.

As KieranTimberlake moves forward with the design of the building, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and KieranTimberlake will be actively engaged in the consultation and planning process involving the Mayor’s office, the Wandsworth Borough Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, as well as residents in the area to ensure that the new embassy provides an appropriate home for the United States of America in London.

The anticipated ground breaking on this landmark embassy will be in 2013 with a goal to complete the construction in 2017.

The United States Department of State announced today that KieranTimberlake has won the design competition for the New London Embassy. In statements given at a press briefing today in London, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis B. Susman, and Acting Director of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Adam Namm, remarked, “KieranTimberlake’s design meets the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century. Their concept most fully satisfied the requirements outlined in the design competition’s mission statement. The concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design.”

Concept

• The concept for the New London Embassy is the result of KieranTimberlake’s efforts to resolve, in architectural terms, what an embassy aspires to be and what present realities dictate it must do.

• The expressive challenge is to give form to the core beliefs of our democracy – transparency, openness, and equality – and do so in a way that is both secure and welcoming. At the same time, the building must confront the environmental challenges all nations face with leading edge sustainable design.

• The team included Olin as Landscape Architect; Arup for Sustainability, MEP/FP and Civil Engineering; Weidlinger Associates for Structural and Blast Engineering; Gensler for workplace design; Davis Langdon for Cost Consulting; and Sako & Associates for Technical Security.

Urban Park

• The design places the embassy building at the center of the Nine Elms site and develops the surrounding area into an urban park. The new embassy meets all the required security standards while honoring the English tradition of urban parks and gardens as the context for many civic buildings. The new embassy, with its gardens, will establish a strong framework for the urbanization of the Nine Elms redevelopment zone.

• There are two major east-west pedestrian and vehicular paths, one existing and one to be improved, and the other proposed as part of the enabling infrastructure for the Nine Elms development. The existing infrastructure is along the south Thames embankment and is composed of a river walk paralleled by Nine Elms Lane. The proposed new infrastructure to the south of the embassy site is a pedestrian greenway that will connect the embassy site to Vauxhall Station, the nearest tube stop to the east, and on to the proposed new Battersea developments to the west. Poised strategically midway between these parallel paths, the embassy becomes part of an urban park that connects the Thames embankment to the new pedestrian way to the south.

• The paving about and within the embassy site utilizes the familiar limestone used in many London walks and parks. London Plane trees provide shade and form at the perimeter and along Nine Elms Lane as well as the proposed new walk to the south that connects the site to Vauxhall Station.

• Seen from the north along the Thames embankment and Nine Elms Lane, the new Embassy Park contains a pond with walks, places to sit and landscape along its edges, all open to the citizens of London.

• Trees near the pond are to be North American species, such as the Weeping Willow and the Bald Cypress. Others, while native to North America, were long ago brought to England and are now common to the English landscape.

• Viewed from the north at the proposed plaza, the embassy grounds will provide the prospect of an open park, a landscape of grasses rising gracefully to the new embassy colonnade, with the required secure boundaries incised into the hillside and out of view. Instead of a perimeter-walled precinct, the site to the north and south is a welcoming urban amenity, a park for the city that fuses the new embassy to the city of London. Alternatives to perimeter walls and fences are achieved through landscape design.

• The spiraling form of the landscape is expressed through grading, walks and plantings in a way that simultaneously opens out to the city beyond and spirals inward as it envelops and then moves up into and through the embassy building. As a choice of form, the spiraling garden is meaningful as it represents connections of site to landscape to building.

• The connections to the surrounding urban context, both existing and proposed, begin in an open geometry well beyond the site at the Thames embankments and the proposed Vauxhall-to-Battersea pedestrian way.

• The walks and landscape forms begin their inward spiral at the outer boundaries of the site. They sweep past the pond to the entry court that opens to the Main Lobby for staff and their guests. At the opposite side of the Main Lobby, the Gallery spirals down to the north culminating in the large Multi-Purpose Hall that merges with the grade of the spiraling Consular Walk above.

• At the main entry, the site spiral continues beyond to the great arc of the Consular Garden, carrying the visitor up the Consular Walk and into the Consular Lobby and promenade overlooking the pond and the Thames embankment to the north.

• The visitor continues this spiral within the embassy, revolving about the core and up to the consular floor above, pausing along the way to overlook the Main Lobby, a significant moment where the necessarily separate worlds of the embassy – consular visitors and staff – visually intersect.

The Chancery

• Internal gardens continue vertically within the new embassy as the spiral continues upward about the core toward an ever more focused, secure and enclosed center atop the structure. These gardens provide places to meet and additional vertical circulation. The plantings for each garden are chosen for their capacity to thrive in specific orientations, for their representation of the diversity of the American landscape and for the appropriateness of each type to its use.

• The chancery is a transparent, crystalline cubic form atop a colonnade. The crystalline form is simultaneously efficient and evocative.

• It represents the optimum ratio of maximum volume within minimum perimeter with resulting cost and energy management benefits. Its precise dimensions have been selected to afford the optimum distance for visitors and occupants to daylight and view.

• As a pure geometry, the cubic form is an ancient signifier of solidity, strength and permanence, all qualities of our democracy.

• Its surface is given form through the interface between a faceted external solar shading and collection system and the blast resistant glazing.

• This crystal-like ethylene-tetrafluroethylene (ETFE) scrim has been optimized to shade interiors from east, west and south sun while admitting daylight and framing large open view portals to the outside. Its pattern visually fragments the façade while it intercepts unwanted solar gain and transforms it into energy by means of thin film photovoltaics positioned in the ETFE foils. The design of this scrim works vertically, horizontally and diagonally to eliminate directionality from the building’s massing. The scrim also renders the largely transparent façades visible to migratory birds to discourage bird-strikes.

• At each façade, an ETFE enclosed pressurized air pocket further insulates the glazing from thermal transfer.

• The top of the building is sheathed with a crystalline photovoltaic array on the entire roof, screening mechanical equipment from view. The total array of crystalline and thin-film photovoltaic on the building measures 8,300 square meters with a significant output of over 345,000 kWh of energy.

• A four-sided colonnade forms the base of the building. Through both custom and the openness and accessibility of its sheltering form, colonnades have long evoked the architecture of democracy.

The Diplomacy of Art

• Luminous ‘light art’ wraps the core wall in a prominent location behind the colonnade.

• At the Main and Consular Lobbies the art inside is visible through glazing from the main entry court and the pond. To the south and southwest are external art walls. As it unfolds about the central core, the art can be experienced both within the major public spaces and from the outside as part of the continuum of spiraling walks and landscape form.

• In the Main Lobby, the art wall stops at the center to inflect toward a stone wall in which the names of prior ambassadors to the Court of St. James are inscribed.

Landscape

• Rather than employing a plinth to accommodate the large programs located at the lowest levels of the building, the colonnade sits atop a gently rising earthen mound. Within this landscape form are parking garage ramps and basement service and mechanical areas to the south, and the lower level of the Gallery and Multi-Purpose Meeting Space to the north and west.

• Instead of fragmenting the embassy into a plinth and tower, this strategy transforms the large footprints of the lower levels along with the entrance pavilions into earthen landscape form to enhance the prominence of the embassy colonnade and transparent building.

• The visual presence of the whole is that of a beacon that is a respectful icon representing the strength of the U.S.-U.K. relationship.

• In the form and expression of the New London Embassy, KieranTimberlake seeks a holistic fusion of urbanism with site, of building and landscape.

• KieranTimberlake seeks a new embassy that is both evocative and that performs, one that represents our democracy and our relationship with the United Kingdom and at the same time conserves and produces energy.

• All elements are purposeful in multiple ways: from image and expression to the environment and urbanism, to the productivity and comfort of the users. The architects at KieranTimberlake do not believe these objectives can be segregated. They must work together, holistically providing new synergies that make the form of the new embassy resonate deeply.

Credits

Architects: KieranTimberlake Architect
Landscape Architect: Olin
Sustainability, MEP/FP and Civil Engineering: ARUP
Structural and Blast Engineering: Weidlinger Associates
Workplace design: Gensler
Cost Consulting: Davis Langdon
Technical Security: Sako & Associates

Renderings: Studio amd

975 Meter High Tower Planned For Miami

manuel — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:48:56 +0000

Plans have been floated for a new superscraper in Miami that could steal the world’s tallest crown from Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Despite Miami’s financial woes, having a reported 100,000 plus properties in foreclosure according to the Miami Herald, KOBI KARP has submitted designs for Miapolis – a “city within a city” planned for Watson Island.

The 160 story building would be more than 183 meters higher than the Burj Khalifa if built and would house an amusement park, observatory, restaurants, 1.96 million sq ft of shops, over 1000 apartments, 1 million sq ft office space and a 792 room hotel.

The official Miapolis website claims that the superscraper will create 35,000 permanent jobs, pay off $39 million debt owed to the City and inject $2.5 billion annually into the local economy.

“Miapolis is an economic engine…and a sensible and rational solution for the local economy by resolving the Jungle Island debts while producing $942 million annually in tax revenues, and no taxpayer funds required. More importantly, Miapolis creates 46,000 construction and 35,000 permanent jobs.”

Miapolis will be on the cutting edge of sustainable design. This project will be the largest LEED-certified structure at any rating level in the United States. As green buildings are recognized increasingly by LEED and ENERGY STAR, the marketplace is expected to follow with a system of preferential pricing. Tremendous value is created for Miapolis because it is being built to the hig-hest standards.

The project is currently looking for funding from investors.

Design: KOBI KARP, architects

Engineering: Thornton Tomasetti

Landscaping: EDSA

Hong Kong Pavilion For Shanghai 2010 By Ida and Billy

manuel — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:56:41 +0000

The theme of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo is “Better City, Better Life”, and the special theme for the Hong Kong Pavilion is “Hong Kong – a city with unlimited potential“. A concept design competition was held in 2008 and received some 80+ submissions. Ida & Billy’s submission was awarded the Frist Prize, and formed the basis for the final design and execution by the government and another architectural firm.

Their design is driven by the functional needs of the pavilion, that is how to provide the required exhbition space and other facilities within a limited space and with a height limit; and to make the Hong Kong Pavilion, which is much smaller in size than the other pavilions, to still have its own attraction and uniqness.

This struggle between limited physical space and unlimited super-physical potential becomes the basic elements of the Hong Kong Pavilion. The pavilion represents a city with a physical boundary slashed to unfold its infinite dimension – the imaginative VOID where ideas go beyond any physical boundary.

This infinite dimension is made by infinite reflections generated by reflective membrane on its sky and floor, which also brings in the surrounding environment to give unbounded space. This VOID forms a distinctive visual element on the pavilion’s appearance and catches the visitors’ attention at distant.

The Pavilion’s sensuous skin made of polyethylene non-woven textile waves with wind and subtly altering its texture and lighting, adds a dimension on the intangible relationship between man and nature.

Vertically the VIOD divides the pavilion into 3 parts, which from bottom up represent the 3 levels of city development of Hong Kong.

The first level represents Hong Kong’s infrastructure as the foundation of Hong Kong’s success. Here visitors will first get a taste of the dense city fabric of Hong Kong by walking through large scale models of the existing and future superstructure and infrastructures.

The 2nd level represents the infinite creativity and idea exchange. Infinite reflections, interactive monitors embedded on the undulating platforms interact with LED lights on the columns, turns the space into a transparent space for information exchange. Also, this is an open platform for art performance and cultural exchange of different cultures.

The 3rd level is the highest level, the envisaged future of integration with nature and sustainable development. Under sunscreens with gentle natural light and ventilation are large projections of real-life videos of the natural wonders of Hong Kong. A video room also features documentaries on Hong Kong’s urban renewal and sustainable city development.

Through the distinctive experiences through the three levels, the visitors are called to rethink on the position of cities and the true meaning of better city and better life.

The plans resemble city blocks packed closely together. Small, scattered columns of different orientations are used to disolve the rigidness of structure and to enhance “floating” effect.

Steckelhörn 11 By J. Mayer H.

manuel — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:25:43 +0000

The German architectural firm J. Mayer H. have completed the Steckelhörn 11 building in Hamburg, Germany.

From J. Mayer H.:

‘The project “Steckelhörn 11” is located in the old centre of Hamburg, close to the prominent new “Hafen City” development. It replaces a ruinous building and fills the gap between two historic premises.

The triangular-shaped lot stretches across the city block, thus allowing for a narrow façade of about 1.3 m width facing the harbor and a main elevation of about 26.4 m oriented toward Steckelhörn street.

The vertical design and soft setbacks of the latter pay tribute to the massing of the surrounding structures, as well as to local building-height regulations. Cantilevered elements in the main facade create a series of specific spatial qualities on the inside and outside.

The top floors provide additional outside space, offering a spectacular panoramic view over the city of Hamburg. The particular geometry of the floor plan is the basis for the organization of the building, which architecturally and programmatically presents itself openly to Steckelhoern street while at the same time forming a characteristic landmark when perceived from the historic “Speicherstadt” and new “Hafen City”.

As the ground level is conceived either as a spacious lobby for the main tenant or a public cafe, the upper floors provide for generous, flexible office space, most of it allowing a view of the “Katharinenkirche” and/or the “Hafen City”.

The top floors provide additional outside space on balconies/loggias and a roof terrace, offering a spectacular panoramic view over the old and new city of Hamburg.’

Sauerbruch Hutton’s Winning Entry For BSU Hamburg Competition

manuel — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:10:55 +0000

Earlier this fall, Sauerbruch Hutton was announced first prize winner in the international competition to design a new home for Hamburg’s Behörde für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt/BSU (Office for Urban Development and Environment). The new BSU building will be erected in Hamburg Wilhelmsburg and is slated for completion in 2013.

The design entry by the Berlin-based practice lastly won over 24 other design teams in the first round of the competition and three in the second round (comprising rasmussen | brunke | sauer, Behnisch Architects and GAP).

A description from Sauerbruch Hutton:

‘The new building for Hamburg’s Behörde für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt/BSU (Office for Urban Development and Environment) consists of one high rise and two wing buildings. Public BSU facilities, like areas for exhibitions and restaurants, are located in the street level floors.

The foot of the high rise structure will house a central lobby. Like an amphitheater, it is envisioned to host the exhibition of Hamburg’s urban model which will be highly visible through the large glass facade. From here, the library and conference center can be accessed as well.

Besides the high rise, the concept is structured in seven separate ‘houses’ which are connected via an access ‘road’ that is lit with natural light. Each house has its own open staircase atrium which enhances easy orientation, efficient vertical access, good distribution of natural light into interior spaces, and natural cross-ventilation. Reducing the building’s energy consumption by combining passive and active measures was one of the key ideas behind the concept. Besides enhanced thermal insulation, reasonable transparency, and protection from intense sunlight in the facades, the compact building volume uses renewable resources like natural lighting, natural cross-ventilation, and sun-powered heating. Energy harvested from geothermal and solar equipment is being combined with a gas-powered combined heat and power unit.

The design of the building’s spaces and surfaces supports the quantitatively measurable comfort with an architectural and environmental quality that is appropriate for the agenda of sustainability.’

Kunstmuseum Basel Announces Its Competition Winner(s)

manuel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:38:07 +0000

The winners for the international architecture competition Extension Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland have been announced. The jury decided to award the project of Swiss architects Christ & Gantenbein the 1st prize.

The 2nd prize goes to fellow Swiss firm Diener & Diener.

Both project teams have now been invited to further develop their very highly regarded proposals before the final decision will be made. Basel’s art museum urgently depends on an extension of its premises since consistent lack of space makes it currently impossible to exhibit numerous pieces of its renowned collection.

Among the 23 participating teams were five Pritzker laureates, such as Peter Zumthor, Zaha Hadid, Rafael Moneo, Tadao Ando and Jean Nouvel.

The awarded teams are:

1st prize: Christ + Gantenbein, Switzerland
2nd prize: Diener & Diener Architekten, Switzerland
3rd prize: SANAA K. Sejima R. Nishizawa, Japan
4th prize: ARGE HHF Architekten, Switzerland + Ai Weiwei, China
5th prize: jessenvollenweider, Switzerland with Kuehn Malvezzi, Germany
Honorable mention: Made IN, Switzerland

Diener & Diener’s entry was ranked 2nd but has been invited with Christ & Gantenbein to further develop their designs until the final winner will be announced:

An exhibition showing all competition entries runs until Sunday, December 20, 2009 at Maiengasse 7/11, Basel, Switzerland.

Mikou Design Studio Wins Competition To Redesign Dunkerque Theater

manuel — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:18:56 +0000

Paris-based Mikou Design Studio has recently won the competition for the renovation of the Bateay Feu Theater in Dunkerque in the northernmost tip of France. The theater’s program foresees a big concert hall with seating for 500, a black box theater space, foyer, cafeteria, loges, practice hall, dressing rooms, backstage areas, storage space, café, bar, gift shop, and offices on a gross floor area of 4,500 square meters (48,440 square feet).

How Mikou Design Studio explain their concept:

“A theatre as an open, structuring urban venue.”

‘We conceived the new Bateau Feu theatre in Dunkirk both as an open urban venue – which is welcoming by the diversity of the complementary programme of events and activities that it provides and their strategic orientation in the urban space – and as a structuring civic building and arts amenity located on the Place du Général de Gaulle square.

By its location on Place du Général de Gaulle, the Bateau Feu theatre orchestrates several scales and dimensions, with four free façades that face onto and react to various different urban situations: an intimate domestic scale on the west for housing and the planted garden, a public scale on Rue du Jeu de Paume, a developing future major thoroughfare onto which the shops of the future shopping centre face, and a non-institutional scale on Place du Général de Gaulle which questions the expression of a new contemporary theatre in the city.

On the east, the façade of the theatre’s large hall faces onto the urban space in an architectural and spatial composition which links together the inside and outside of the amenity.

On the south, the theatre “enters the city”, welcoming the public in the flow of spaces designed on the urban site. The open, generous entrance foyer – which is itself in dialogue and spatially connected with the large hall on the ground floor – and the small hall, the café bar, the bookshop and the lounge areas on a south-east diagonal which links together these social meeting-places.

The glazed monumental staircase leading to the raised foyer and to the upper entrance to the large hall, placed on the south façade on the side of the entrance esplanade, also participates in this spatial scenography of the theatre’s significant spaces. Visually, it opens the space on the underside of the forum pierced by large voids, allowing through top lighting and revealing the volume of the large hall. A chandelier designed like a lighted canopy increases the theatrical effect and corresponds to the vibrations of the internal space.

Expression and Materiality

The renovated theatre is a unified building that is arranged in steps that descend to the square in a succession of light, vibrant volumes from the stage-house to the foyer.
The architectural expression chosen for the theatre’s façades is a perforated metal cladding in a range of luminous ochre tones which matches the mystery and magic of the theatre.

The successive setbacks of stepped volumes reveal a series of large illuminated “frames” that face towards the square. An artificial lighting system shall be placed in these frames, between the rain barrier and the perforated metal cladding, to create night lighting and to visually enhance the theatre and the square.

On the west, in the garden, the building melts into the intimacy of the housing with an anthracite brick plinth that matches the scale of the block of housing and creates a visual distance from the perforated metal elements located in the background.

This new theatre is open to everyone. Its extension and rehabilitation provides an opportunity for experimenting the effects of architectural and urban renovation on the public.
It offers a variety of spaces and provides a multitude of possibilities for using, occupying and experiencing the various spaces related to the theatre and its annexes, to cater for different types of people and allow different circulation flows of people at the same time.

Dunkerque Theater – Fact Sheet:
Competition: November 2009
Position: 1st Prize
Client: City of Dunkerque
Design Team: Mikou Design Studio (Salwa Mikou, Selma Mikou, Cécile Jalby, Iskra Pencheva, Trevor Ablott, Lorenzo Donati, Lieselotte Huyghe, Mickael Courtay)
Area: 4,500 sqm (48,440 sqft)
Program: Concert Hall, Black Box Theater, Foyer, Practice Hall, Dressing Room, Backstage, Storage, Café, Bar, Gift Shop, Offices
Budget: 14.55M Euros (21M US Dollars)

Modern Desert Escape // Half Moon Bay // Saudi Arabia // R204DESIGN

Harvey — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:59:40 +0000

On a prominent site fronting the scenic Half Moon Bay in Saudi Arabia, the Northstar Resort will offer a world-class waterfront hospitality experience. The site lies at the northern apex of the cove, giving rise to the concept of establishing the project as a wayfinding landmark for the region.

Among its program elements are an indoor entertainment center, serviced apartments, a variety of restaurants and cafes, a health club, a mosque, and a 5-star hotel. A portion of the site will be devoted to private chalets with male and female clubhouses, all with grand views of the surrounding water. The center of the project will feature a mixed-use retail and commercial center.

One of the primary challenges was addressing the harsh climate and intense sun typical of the region. Through deep openings, massing and patterned screens, the design reflects the traditional aspects of vernacular architecture, while fusing modern details appropriate to the given functions.

When the weather permits, the pedestrian experience features a boardwalk experience, lined with shading devices, traditional pools and fountains to abate the microclimatic conditions. With the application of passive and active climate control and energy strategies, the new complex is also being designed to achieve LEED certification.

Another challenge was the explicit standards of privacy of the local culture. Physical and visual separation between units, as well as between various male and female activities provided additional layers of complexity in an already complex program aiming to convey an open and inviting atmosphere.

In the end, the design aims to respect the local culture and traditions through its use of regional materials and patterns, while providing a waterfront resort experience of international stature, giving the entire bay a refreshing new identity.

Perkins+Will Awarded First Place At International Architecture Biennale

manuel — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:09:10 +0000

Perkins+Will’s masterplan for SANY Beijing was selected as the first place winner in the “Conceptual Design” category at the 8th International Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The judging committee based their award selection on four central themes of the exhibition: spatiality, connectivity, originality and sustainability.

The Perkins+Will submission featured the SANY Beijing masterplan which consolidated existing plans into one. SANY, the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in China and one of the top 10 heavy equipment manufacturers in the world, wanted to achieve a higher degree of efficiency in their manufacturing process and create a memorable visitor experience. These elements along with a great degree of environmental efficiency were major guiding principles behind the design.

Perkins+Will’s solution came from a truly collaborative and interdisciplinary effort, led by the Urban Design group, Corporate + Commercial + Civic architecture group and the Shanghai office. They worked under one umbrella goal: the campuses should exist in harmony with nature.

By following this concept the team achieved the following:

* Created and preserved wetlands
* Protected sensitive watersheds
* Buildings designed for optimal solar orientation and community interaction
* A distinctive brand image defined for SANY, while providing for exponential growth in their manufacturing base

The design also took local culture into consideration by emulating the Peng, a Chinese mythological bird. Perkins+Will used the Peng as inspiration to unify the three main buildings for both design and operational functionality.