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.
Seeking to give insights into the architectural creative centers of the world, Rainer Taepper created an architectural book that doesn’t feature buildings and plans. Looking behind the scenes, the architecture photographer highlighted both the working spaces of international design firms and the creative people, who contribute to the conception of a building.
Foster + Partners has revealed images of InnHub La Punt, a new center for innovation in the heart of the Engadin valley, in the Swiss Alps. The 6,000-square-metre project, set for completion in 2022, is comprised of a 3-story building encompassing work and seminar spaces, sports facilities, retail shops, and a restaurant. Based on the idea of the ‘third place’, the intervention creates a space for collaboration and creativity.
Foster + Partners has revealed its latest project for Qatar, a 1.1 million-square-meter landmark development consisting of four high-rise buildings. Part of a larger masterplan also designed by the architects, to be completed ahead of the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar, Lusail Towers is envisioned as a “catalyst for a new central business district in the city”.
In November of 2020, Foster + Partners announced a collaboration with the robotics design company Boston Dynamics. Together, the two have been testing Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, Spot, to help capture and monitor progress on construction sites. The robot boasts the dexterity to climb stairs, avoid obstacles, and traverse rough terrain, allowing it to monitor building sites and collect data quickly and easily. In this way, designers and contractors can remedy errors rapidly and at minimal cost, ensuring that projects progress according to their set timeframes and budgets. With manual data collection, errors might be noticed at a much slower rate and communication between contractors may suffer as well. Thus, Spot optimizes construction monitoring and on-site collaboration.
Dallas is home to a high concentration of structures by world-renowned architects. With some of the most iconic architecture per square mile of any American city, Dallas boasts designs by six Pritzker Prize Laureates, all within close distance to the up and coming Arts District. From Norman Foster’s Opera House to Thom Mayne’s Museum of Nature and Science, these projects are emblematic of a larger city-wide design culture.
Foster + Partners has just unveiled its winning design scheme for a new urban destination in China, the Guangming Hub located on the high-speed rail connecting Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. In fact, the Transport Oriented Development proposal generates a “smart city that supports the flow of people and goods with robust infrastructure, effective transport networks, reliable public services, and lush greenery”.
Foster + Partners has shared a series of updated images for The Tulip, a 305-meter-high tower and attraction in London. The latest renderings show more details of the tower’s base, as well as the project interiors. The design features a “bud-like scheme” and is intended to become a new public cultural and educational resource for Londoners and tourists alike.
Foster + Partners have begun construction on Avenida Cordoba 120, a new 35-story office tower in Buenos Aires. Sited between the traditional city center and the main entrance to the Puerto Madero harbor area, the project is designed to become a landmark building along the city's skyline. Balancing structure and nature, the tower is made to create a new standard for office design in Argentina and the larger region.
With one year to go until Expo 2020 Dubai, the organizing committee of the event has revealed new images of the main pavilions under construction. While the majority of the work in 2020 was focused on landscaping and the main Expo buildings, the construction of the 192 national pavilions is back on track, to conclude by the end of the year.
Foster + Partners has begun construction on the new Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre in Cairo, Egypt. With views of the Pyramids of Giza, the hospital site borders the Zewail City of Science and Technology as part of an integrated health and medical research zone. The design was made to respond to the needs of patients, their families and the staff that care for them while decreasing recovery times.
A new mixed-use waterfront development is set to start construction in 2021 after receiving approval by the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne Committee. Designed by Foster and Partners, Fender Katsalidis and Oculus, the project is backed by WMW Developments, a venture between Perri Projects and Qanstruct. Located along the Maribyrnong River, the design is made with a series of buildings that span retail, residential, commercial and community uses.
Foster + Partners has revealed visuals for its Pitt Street OSD and metro station design in Sydney, Australia. Stretching out underground across an entire city block, the over station development in the center of the city puts in place a 39-story office building and “creates a vibrant mixed-use hub offering flexible space with an elevated lobby and retail plaza in the heart of Sydney’s retail, dining, and entertainment precinct”.
Foster + Partners has completed and reimagined the Apple store in Sanlitun, an urban quarter in Beijing, China. Originally built in 2008, Apple’s first store in China has relocated, in proximity to the older building, taking on more social aspects, and generating a “new dialogue with the surrounding pedestrian streets, addressing the large open square that is a social focus for the district”.
For several years, Rosi Pachilova has been looking into and building upon the tools we use to analyse and configure layouts for our built environment. Together with Dr Kerstin Sailer, a reader in Social and Spatial Networks at the Space Syntax Laboratory, UCL, she has developed a tool that can assess spatial proposals for their impact on the quality of care of healthcare providers. In 2019, their work was awarded the RIBA President’s Award for Research in the Building in Quality category.
The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the way we live our lives. Significant and long-lasting repercussions will be felt across society and industry, many of which are sure to influence the way we approach the design of our buildings and cities. Over the past few weeks, the Urban Design team at Foster + Partners has been exploring how recent and fast moving developments in urban planning – instigated and encouraged by the current crisis – will affect and shape the future of London and others worldwide.
In Belval Luxembourg, ICÔNE, the Foster + Partners-designed office development has broken ground. Tackling the future of workspace, the design generates flexible layouts and addresses the current tendencies for safe working environments.
Foster + Partners has created a series of architectural challenges for kids, to learn and have fun during the lockdown. Available templates and activities include making paper skyscrapers, creating your own city, drawing trees, and imagining the future.
