Architecture remains in constant tension with natural forces. Designed around gravity, climate, and time, buildings are always part of larger systems. Throughout the world, designers have tried to mitigate natural forces by constructing hybrid spaces and structures, artificial areas where nature meets the manmade. Embodying this relationship, canals reflect a desire to direct nature and its flows. Today, these fluid spaces are opening up to new programs, projects that explore modern life and urban vitality.
KCAP Architects & Planners have designed a proposal for three round, residential towers on the former Brabantbad site in the Netherlands. The team's project includes slender volumes atop transparent plinths adjacent to Prins Hendrikpark in 's-Hertogenbosch. The park embraces the IIzeren Vrouw, a former sand extraction lake, while also aiming to improve upon the current zoning plan.
Scott Brownrigg's 1000 Discovery Drive has been granted planning approval from Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils in United Kingdom. As the second building of the Biomedical Campus in Phase 2, the project includes 100,000 square feet of net internal area across laboratories and office space. The design aims to form a flexible and adaptable design to drive innovation within the scientific and medical community.
Canada Earth Tower is designed to rise 40 stories, and the wooden skyscraper would be the tallest of its kind in the world.. Image Courtesy of Perkins + Will / Delta Land Development
Tall timber buildings are on the rise. Design teams around the world are taking advantage of ever-evolving mass timber technologies, resulting in taller and taller structures. Building off our recent article exploring the future of high-rise buildings, we’re taking a deeper dive into new emerging timber technologies and the advantages of building taller with wood. This tutorial explores how to make tall timber structures a reality.
AutoCamp has announced an expansion of properties with HKS Architects leading the design for AutoCamp Joshua Tree and AutoCamp Zion National Park. Established in California with AutoCamp Yosemite National Park and Russian River locations, the outdoor lodging brand is effectively doubling in size to six bi-coastal locations in the next year. All the properties are designed to bring guests closer to nature.
As architecture has evolved to include advanced building envelopes, innovative structural systems, and hybrid programs, new boundaries have been drawn. Sustainable practices and passive strategies have led architects to re-imagine building skins and the relationship between interior and exterior. While different typologies are designed with varied levels of permeability, libraries demand rigorous attention to performative facades and protected programs. This holds especially true when libraries are placed within radically changing landscapes.
The 50 Hudson Yards skyscraper by Foster + Partners has topped out in New York. As one of the largest office buildings in the city, the project has become the fourth-biggest office tower by square footage. The 58-story office tower includes very large floor plates for up to 500 employees on each floor. The tower is the latest in a series of projects rounding out the Hudson Yards on the western edge of Manhattan.
The new "Spiral" skyscraper by Bjarke Ingels Group has topped out at Hudson Yards in New York City. Rising 66 stories, the project towers over 1,000 feet tall with a series of stepped, landscaped terraces that wrap the building. With over 2.8 million square feet of office space and ground floor retail once complete, the tower will feature open floor plans with views across the Financial District and the surrounding cityscape.
Norwegian-German Studio Viktor Sørless together with Mexican Estudio Juiñi have unveiled Xinatli, a research museum in the Mexican jungle. Rethinking the stepped pyramid form, the project raises the widest layer from its base to the middle of the building and into the surrounding tree canopy.
MVRDV has unveiled their design for Marble Arch Hill, an installation that aims to give Londoners a new perspective on Hyde Park. Sited next to the city's Marble Arch, the project takes the form of a hollowed-out mountain to give visitors rare views over the park. Based on scaffolding structure, the design aims to create renewed interest in the area as London works to emerge from the pandemic.
Courtesy of Honglin Li, Chenyu Huang and Zhaoxuan Wang
Architectural designer Honglin Li has revealed a cottage proposal in Zhejiang, China created along with Chenyu Huang and Zhaoxuan Wang. Located on the waterfront of a historic town named Qixi Village, the project is sited next to the Qianjiangyuan National Forest Park in the southeast of Zhejiang province. Floating above an elevated topography, the cottage is surrounded by uninterrupted views to nearby rivers and mountains in all directions.
Fauzia Khanani is no stranger to challenging the status quo. Working on a range of projects around the globe, from New York and Zurich to Budapest and Geneva, she continues to rethink the process of design across the built environment. Her firm, Studio For, is pioneering new prototypes for the future of work in a post pandemic era. At the same time, she's working on a number of pro-bono conceptual community-driven projects.
Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) has shared new renderings of a tower to replace the Grand Hyatt Hotel next to Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. With over 2.2 million square feet of space, the project is being developed by RXR Realty and TF Cornerstone with SOM, Beyer Blinder Belle and Field Operations. The mixed-use project would rise over 80 stories to 1,646 feet tall, making it the second-tallest building in New York City.
Foster + Partners have shared their new design for the Coral Bloom resort project on Shurayrah island in the Red Sea. Launched by his Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Chairman of The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), the design aims to become one of the world's world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism projects. Made to blend in with the natural environment, the development creates a new vision for Shurayrah.
Technology provides new opportunities for architecture and design. The pandemic has shown how flexible workflows are grounded in building connection across workstations and collaborative platforms, as well as newer ideas like implementing VR over Teams. For Dan Stine, Director of Design Technology at Lake|Flato Architects, theses changes are part of a larger drive to reimagine how technology can shape practice.
Dutch design practice Mecanoo has created a proposal to reimagine a railway zone in Dordrecht, Holland's oldest city. As the first place in the country to receive city rights in 1220, Dordrecht has an extensive history at the heart of the Dutch Delta. The vision for Spoorzone Dordrecht outlines a future vision for the city in 2040. It explores the urban possibilities of accessibility, climate adaptation, socio-economic developments and housing.
Studio Gang and Denver-based real estate firm Urban Villages have revealed a new mixed-use, 13-story hotel in Denver, Colorado. The 145,000-sf building is called ‘Populus’ and will be located next to Civic Center Park. Opening to the city and the Rocky Mountains beyond, the hotel aims to become a new social center in downtown. On it's prominent corner site, the building was made to connect Denver’s civic, arts, and commercial districts.
Ealing Council has approved HOK's masterplan for redeveloping a half-mile-long, narrow stretch of land along Bollo Lane in West London. The team's proposal includes 852 new homes with 50 per cent affordable housing ranging from 4 to 24 floors in height. Delivered by Transport for London (TfL), the scheme culminates in a mixed-use tower near Chiswick Business Park and the Piccadilly line tracks.
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