Designed by Kubota & Bachmann Architects, the Klaksvik City Center proposal aims at creating an environment describing the essence of Klaksvík with the new layer of today´s life. They do so through the design of an urban space for people to meet, engage, and live a modern lifestyle. As a result, the center defines itself as a place for communication, for the experience of individuality, of social diversity, urban density and productive discussion. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The design proposal by SANGRAD Architects + AVP Arhitekti for the Badel Block Complex, a mixed-use project within the city center of Zagreb, Croatia, consists of enclosing the continuity of the existing block and positioning the vertical into its center. Following the instinct of creating a free, public space as large as possible, and yet also in keeping with the proposed program, with uniform treatment of the existing urban archaeology, represents the main guidelines of this concept. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Gustafson Guhrie Nichol (GGN) and produced in collaboration with Landscape Forms, UrbanEdge is a collection of landscape framing and furniture elements for urban spaces. The project responds to the demand for more outdoor public spaces with an interest in less formal, more welcoming and effective use of urban locations. UrbanEdge pairs GGN’s experience in designing urban spaces with Landscape Forms’ expertise in developing beautiful site furnishings that address issues in urban environments; built to perform and endure under conditions of high-usage. More images and architects’ description after the break.
With a request from the client for a contemporary and timeless design in order to match the Institution that it would represent, h2o Architectes transforms this “technical tool” into a space of representation and communication for the Minister and its politicians. As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture now has a performing tool which combines poetry and rigour in a flexible and controlled environment. More images and architects’ description after the break.
3XN Architects, in collaboration with HKS Architects, Arup, ME Engineers and Planit, won the first prize in the competition for the Copenhagen Arena, which is expected to be completed in the fall of 2015. Located in the Ørestad-area, a short metro ride from the city center of Denmark’s capital, their design combines two key ambitions: to create state of the art and flexible multi-purpose arena that can attract spectators from near and far, while ensuring that the building’s presence will be a win for the entire neighborhood. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) shared with us their design proposal for Block H of the Yongsan International Business District (YIBD) in Seoul. The goal of YIBD is to create a new symbol for the 21st Century city; a new urban center that will include international business, living, entertainment, and shopping. Scheduled for completion in 2016, Block H consists of a luxury 5-Star hotel and high-end serviced residential building containing 167,225 square meters of space. More images and architects’ description after the break.
As a part of the exhibition “Water Brick” held by the Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) in The Architect’12 Expo this last April, Shma shared with us their Water City proposal. Their visionary project focused on a response to the severe flood that inundated most of central plain of Thailand in 2011. They focused on Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand and the UNESCO’s World Heritage, in the project named “2050 Ultra Flood Plain”. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Focusing on Paris and its diversity, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, the center for information and exhibition for urban planning and architecture, has invited fifteen European agencies that question the way that modern-day cities are built to participate in this exhibition.
The winning proposal by C. F. Møller Architects for a new 10,000 m2 ward building for Haraldsplass Hospital in Bergen, Norway has been described by the jury as, “a whole new kind of hospital”. Gone are the traditional hospital corridors, to be replaced by open common areas and efficient logistics. The new building will lie at the foot of the Ulriken mountain, with the river Møllendalselven in front. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for a community housing development in Tomisato city, a small town close to Narita Airport in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture, takes as its point of departure the Japanese concept of Engawa or verandah space that can be found in many forms of traditional housing types. Designed by INDEX architecture, the competition called for the design of eight detached houses on a semi rural plot that questions the validity of suburban expansion. Therefore, their design proposes a new approach to living on the fringes of the Tokyo ‘megacity’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Chartier Dalix Architectes recently won a competition for a primary school and student residence located in Ivry, Framce, just outside of Paris. The school is organized in the form of a terraced landscape welcoming successive vegetation and its general implantation, facing south, offers maximum sunlight to the playgrounds, corridors, and classrooms that take full advantage of this landscape in height. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for the new city center of Klaksvik by studio BÄNG and Sebastian Schroeter focuses on the center’s ability to work when public life can be guaranteed at any weather condition. The key task is to create a clearly composed city center. Going ahead from this parameter, a center is created that is not only formal but also functionally designed. The value of this concept is even stronger, when the urban sprawl around the new center increases in density. In contrast to the powerful but silent inner town square. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Salon2 shared with us their winning design in an invited competition for their Platea Residences proposal. Located in Fikirtepe area of Istanbul, their design strategy blends green and the conventional tower blocks into each other with climbing gardens almost like ivy climbing the trees. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Cannon Design, a leading international architectural, engineering and planning firm, recently announced that it has joined forces with Peter Ellis New Cities, expanding the firm’s urban planning and city design practice. Currently, they have been working on a master plan for the new Sports City in India, a comprehensive city plan for 1,000,000 inhabitants on 5,000 acres. Ellis and his New Delhi staff will be an integral part of Cannon Design’s planned expansion in India while his U.S. based team has joined the firm’s office in Chicago. More images and architects’ description after the break.
2DEFINE Architecture, with local partner Dalian Urban Planning & Design Institute, recently won an assignment to lead the design of an extraordinary new convention center in Yingkou, China. The project consists of a four-story, 70,000-square-meter (750,000-square-foot) facility in a city of 2.2 million people located in the northwest province of Liaoning on the Bohai Sea. A unique, sea urchin-shaped building created to reflect its natural environment, the facility will be the centerpiece of a new harbor created off of a satellite central business district in the port city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This year’s Daylight Award, a prestigious prize awarded by the Living Daylights Foundation that honors projects that reach an optimum result in combining daylight, artificial light and design, has been given to the Kaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers’ Museum on the Dutch island of Texl. Designed by Mecanoo Architecten, one can almost feel the weather because of the transparency of the building, according to the jury. “Sun, clouds, thunder and rain: outdoors comes inside as perception and emotion and this is a core quality for a building with the Wadden Sea at your doorstep.” More images and architects’ description after the break.
The design by davidclovers for the Bama Eco Resort includes two key areas of an eco-tourist resort project that intends to be a flagship project for China demonstrating how architecture can both re-work and reinvigorate sensitive habitat sites. Using innovative construction methods and design processes, both projects “farm” the existing terrain of the site finding its latent potentials. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Well known for their visionary architecture that people love to visit and go back to time and again, The Jerde Partnership has set out to attract more people through a realistic framework by transforming Atlantic City into the preferred coastal resort destination of the Northeastern United States. By creating a clean, green, safe city that pays homage to its storied history and takes advantage of its unique island setting, the new Atlantic City Tourism District master plan will offer a wide range of attractions and experiences for all ages. By promoting a strategy for redevelopment, phasing, and district-wide improvements, the master plan will serve as a catalyst for Atlantic City’s economic and social uplift. More images and architects’ description after the break.
