The coolest thing about the Living O’Pod is the fact that it rotates in a full circle, spinning on its base to change up the views whenever you feel like facing a different direction. Depending on where you put it, you could be gazing out at the forest by day and enjoying the moonlight glimmering on a body of water after dark. Though it looks like it a lack of insulation would make it hard to keep cool or heated in extreme weather, UN10 Design says the pod is equipped with a thermal insulating layer and heating system to ensure normal operation in winter.

The interiors are designed to be comfortable enough for two people, featuring a kitchen, bathroom, and living room on the lower level and a curving sculptural white staircase leading up to the mezzanine bedroom, which is itself large enough to include a desk and seating area. The entryway is a circular glass door that appears to be the only part of the pod’s shell that opens to the air. The interior elements are all made of plywood.

The Living O’Pod is hypothetically set within the Repovesi National Park in Finland, one of the country’s most popular parks featuring picturesque hilly landscapes and forests that are now recovering from heavy commercial timber production. It seems that the company hasn’t yet built an actual prototype, but they explain that all of the pod’s components, including the main steel frame, would be prefabricated in a factory and transported to be assembled onsite to ensure the precision of the spherical shape.

UN10 Design doesn’t get into the technical details, so it’s unclear whether this glass living pod is just a beautiful dream or a fully fleshed-out concept ready to hit the assembly line. In either case, it at least seems possible to achieve. Glass dome homes and houses that rotate on a spinning base both already exist, so why not put the two ideas together in a form as captivating as this one?

“Home should be a personal space where you feel secure, creative, and inspired,” says UN10 Design. “The next housing concept should nurture the habitant’s soul, mind, and also be resilient for upcoming social, environmental, and technological challenges. Minimal, decentralized but connected, smart, and functional spaces need to be considered instead of the conventional urban fabric. The Living O’Pod is a space where you can communicate with mountains, trees, the sky, and streams.”

The post Glass Living O’Pod Rotates 360 Degrees for Unmatched Views first appeared on Dornob.

California-based Egyptian artist and architect Hassan Ragab uses the AI art-generating program Midjourney to stimulate his own creativity, and his latest project may be his most surreal yet. “A State of Decay” takes the aesthetics of Art Nouveau architecture and warps them into dreamlike shapes and proportions. While parts of the buildings appear to be solid stone, others look like billowing smoke condensing down into solid, weight-supporting masses. Check out an animated version on Ragab’s Instagram.

The results are eerily beautiful. The characteristic sinuous, sculptural lines and asymmetrical shapes of Art Nouveau are amplified and exaggerated, morphing from the feasibly real to the blatantly unreal. The fact that such structures are not physically possible (at least, not yet) is actually part of the point. If we don’t believe something is possible, we don’t even attempt to work toward it and solve problems that could make it possible along the way.

It’s clear that AI isn’t quite up to the task of designing buildings that are safe, practical, and realistic, and there’s no danger of it replacing architects anytime soon. For artists like Ragab, using AI programs like Midjourney is a way to push their own creative ideas to the next level and introduce elements of surprise. They input text prompts into the program — perhaps something like “Art Nouveau buildings partially consisting of smoke” in this case. That’s the extent of their own control over the results. The AI inserts its own perceptions, resulting in ideas that could actually be feasible as a source of inspiration for wildly creative new architectural forms and materials.

Some users who are new to AI programs like Midjourney might find they’re getting results that are too similar to those of others. Ragab recommends that they get more specific and experimental with their prompts. “Using the right prompts is only one part of the process,” he writes on Instagram. “There are thousands of possibilities that the prompt alone won’t generate. You have to have a process for prompt writing, generating variations, and tweaking your process as you go. And of course not to mention the most important factor (your unique idea).”

In previous projects, Ragab has used AI to help envision conceptual green facades inspired by nature, organic Gothic facades resembling the work of artist H.R. Giger, an interplay of glass walls and red feathers, and many more awe-inspiring images.

“The more I work with Midjourney the more I know there is more to it,” Ragab adds. “As creatives we always have the moment where we stop. Sometimes because we need to, but most of the times we can’t go any further because we are bored, tired, or because it’s time consuming. And therein lies the true power when working with AI. It allows you to make that push, to add something to your limits in the same way [the] plane allowed us to fly. It’s another barrier that we are breaking. And although there are doubts and too many unknowns, I think we will carry on and time will reveal itself to us with even crazier scenarios than the ones we already have about the future.”

The post A State of Decay: AI-Generated Architecture Envisions Surreal Art Nouveau Structures first appeared on Dornob.

“We envision a potential new stadium that makes our community proud and enhances the reputation of our great city and state,” says Titans president and CEO Burke Nihill. “We’re focused on designing a stadium capable of hosting a prestigious international event on a Sunday and a steady flow of impactful community programming later that same week. This is a building that would serve Nashville and Tennessee for generations.”

The new 1.7-million-square-foot stadium will have room for roughly 60,000 guests, a decrease from the current venue’s 69,000 capacity and a move that would make it the smallest in the entire NFL. However, the reduced size is a strategic business decision. “It’s an industry best thinking at this point,” Nihill explained during a recent Metro city council meeting. “It’s a little bit of a painful experience because it’s my job to make sure we sell out the stadium. We don’t sell out the stadium for most of our games.”

Additionally, the NFL has adjusted their requirements when it comes to where the Super Bowl can be held. It is no longer simply a matter of seat capacity, but also whether the local area has nearby hotels, venues, and other fan experiences to support any travelers to the game. By building a newer stadium, lots of prime riverfront real estate will be freed up for the city of Nashville to develop into exactly those types of spaces.

Even though there will be fewer seats at the Titans’ new stadium, they will all have excellent visibility. “Every seat has been pulled further forward and slightly steeper. That means the views are closer and better to the game or the concert than they are in the existing building. In fact, the entire upper deck is pulled about 30 feet closer,” says David Manica, head architect at Manica Architecture, the firm tapped to create the initial design and mock-ups for the stadium.

Manica Architecture is no stranger to designing professional sports venues. In March, David and his team were commissioned to lead the initial design for the Chicago Bears’ new NFL stadium. The firm previously designed the Las Vegas Raiders’ “Death Star” stadium, as well as the team’s headquarters and training facility.

The rest of the $2.1 billion Titans stadium specs include exterior terraces and porches with panoramic views of the city that will offer prime mingling space during events. The stadium will also be weatherproofed with a circular ETFE (lightweight glass substitute) translucent roof. Immediately adjacent to the new stadium will be a 12,000-square-foot community plaza that can be used for “educational opportunities, non-profit events, and other community-minded purposes,” according to the Titans.

It looks as if the Titans’ stadium is already attracting the notice of non-NFL groups. The WWE has reportedly made a verbal agreement to bring Wrestle Mania (its biggest event of the year) to Nashville as long as an enclosed stadium is constructed.

The post New Tennessee Titans Stadium Will Be State of the Art, but Smallest in the NFL first appeared on Dornob.

The Pioneer station will have a capacity of 28 guests, with areas for work and recreation. The Voyager will be much larger, with room for 400 guests, and will open sometime in 2027. Both space resorts will offer some semblance of gravity for patrons, thanks to their spinning circular designs.

“The station rotates, pushing the contents of the station out to the perimeter of the station, much in the way that you can spin a bucket of water — the water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place,” said architect and Orbital Assembly COO Tim Alatorre in an interview with CNN. This engineering will allow for comfortable dining and bar experiences as well as traditional sleeping positions.

However, the fun of weightlessness will still be an option for extraplanetary travelers. The gravitational pull will decrease as one moves along the station’s spokes toward the center. The degree of gravity will also depend on the hotel’s rotation speed.

“The interiors of Pioneer station, in particular, are designed to function in both zero gravity and partial gravity,” Alatorre explains. “They are highly flexible to respond to the needs of a variety of tenants on the station.”

The Voyager plans also call for a zero-gravity basketball court where guests can fly through the air and dunk like their favorite NBA stars.

In terms of the length of stay, the company envisions guests coming for a long weekend among the stars. “We expect the duration to be as little as four days or as long as two weeks,” says Rhonda Stevenson, Orbital Assembly CEO. “It depends on cost and also the ability to acclimate to a space environment.” Both space inns will include office areas for those seeking longer-term accommodations.

While no daily price has been announced, it is likely to be prohibitive in the beginning. The Voyager Station itself will run $200 billion in construction and launching costs. Travel + Leisure reported that a three-and-a-half-day stay might be as much as $5 million. However, that may not be as outrageous as it sounds, as it currently costs $55 million to stay at the International Space Station for any length of time. And Virgin Galactic is planning to charge $450,000 for a trip into the Milky Way that lasts just 90 minutes.

Orbital Assembly maintains that space travel will eventually become accessible to enough people that prices will be comparable to those of cruise tickets. Alatorre assures, “The goal has always been to make it possible for large amounts of people to live, work, and thrive in space.” The Pioneer hotel especially will allow “people [to] start to experience space on a larger scale, faster.”

Interested vacationers can sign up on the company website to reserve a spot on the Pioneer station.

The post Need a Post-Pandemic Getaway? Check Out the Luxury Space Hotel Opening in 2025 first appeared on Dornob.

Located in the heart of city next to the Chénghuángmiào (or City God Temple) and Bund waterfront area, Yuyuan Station is an essential transportation hub for passengers traversing Shanghai’s 2,400-square-mile area. It is especially important for delivering tourists to nearby cultural landmarks. While the busy metro station was once simply a place to wait, XING’s renovations have transformed it into an immersive, entertaining experience.

With the help of a specialized design software, the architects cut, bent, and spliced together thousands of aluminum sheets in wave patterns. They were then suspended in cascading swells, adapting their shapes to fit perfectly between support columns. The resulting undulations are reminiscent of both the waves of the neighboring City God Temple and the ripples of the Huangpu River, which flows above the metro station.

Because Yuyuan is the deepest-underground station on the line, bringing ample light to the space was crucial. The waved ceiling panels were fitted with customized LED lighting that courses through a program of colors, pulsating like the symbolic heartbeat of the city the station has come to represent. The lights ebb and flow from one bright hue to the next, moving in sync with the rhythms of passenger traffic.

The LEDs can be programmed to perform specific color and pattern sequences for special occasions and holidays. Chinese Red throbs overhead for National Day and the Spring Festival, while pinks and other floral colors flash on Valentine’s Day.

XING Design has been creating innovative designs in the realms of architecture, interiors, landscape, and urban planning since it was founded in 2016. The name has a double meaning, being both the moniker of its founder, Xing Xiong, as well as a common abbreviation for “crossing.” The studio’s work has frequently been at the intersection of different disciplines, finding inventive solutions all across the creative spectrum.

Xiong brought extensive training and experience with him to XING Design. After obtaining a bachelors and master’s degree in architecture from Tsinghua Univsersity in Beijing, he went on to earn another master’s degree in architecture from Harvard. Before founding his own firm, he worked for notable companies like Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, BIG in Copenhagen, and UNStudio in Amsterdam.

XING Design has completed numerous noteworthy urban architecture projects, but they are also well-known for their art installations. The Yuyuan metro station beautifully embodies the firm’s name with a design at the crossroads of art and functionality. It went on to be a jury winner in the 2022 Architizer A+ Awards category of Transport Interiors.

The post Shanghai’s Yuyuan Metro Station Gets a Light Show Makeover first appeared on Dornob.

Located within the newly revitalized Steigereiland neighborhood, the first of the IJburg islands when approaching from central Amsterdam, the Sluishuis references the industrial and maritime heritage of the area, as well as its vernacular architecture. The architects wanted it to feel like a traditional European courtyard house was enlarged, modernized, and adapted for the canal-centric landscape of Amsterdam. The 527,000-square-foot building juts out over the waterfront on the outskirts of the city, with a triangular opening acting as a “gate” through which 54 boats can dock at an inner port.

The units on this cantilevered side of the building feature glass balconies over the water, giving them incredible views looking either outward at the city or inward at the courtyard and its gardens. The apartments at the rear of the building step down to the docks, each with its own spacious outdoor terrace. A promenade winds around the building, inviting visitors — including the public — to climb all the way up to the rooftop gardens and gaze out at the new neighborhoods on the IJ. It also connects to an archipelago of public program elements like mooring points for 34 houseboats, floating gardens, and a sailing school.

Native plants emerge from giant planters and climb the facades throughout the complex, and large windows draw daylight into all corners of the building. Untreated aluminum reflects the play of light across the water, helping the Sluishuis blend into its environment. The units include duplex penthouses, urban studios, and premium apartments, and all of the homes are accessed through the central courtyard. All 442 apartments are energy-neutral, and power for the building comes from 2,200 square meters (about 75,347 square feet) of solar panels.

“With iconic architecture, as well as new housing typologies, high-quality outdoor spaces, and breathtaking views of the IJmeer, Sluishuis is a new landmark for IJburg as well as Amsterdam,” says Dirk Peters, a founding partner at Barcode Architects. “We have tried to design a building with a surprisingly changing perspective and a unique contemporary character, which reflects the identity of the future residents and all users of Sluishuis.”

“Having spent my formative years as an architect in Holland at the end of the 20th century, it feels like a homecoming to now get to contribute to the architecture of the city that I have loved and admired for so long,” says Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of BIG.

The post Ship-Shaped Apartment Complex by BIG Rises from Amsterdam’s Revitalized Waterfront first appeared on Dornob.

Mount Tirana takes inspiration from Albania’s distinctive mountains, celebrating the national identity and cultural heritage of the country on Southwestern Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. Its 70,000-square-foot interior will include housing, a boutique hotel, offices, a business area, commercial facilities, restaurants, cafés, and parking facilities. The ground floor, connected to adjacent parklands, will act as one big “urban living room” for the city. Mount Tirana is set within the city’s core downtown area close to the National Theater of Opera and Ballet of Albania and the National Historical Museum.

“Mountains are one of nature’s most impressive features,” said Mikkel Frost, Founding Partner and Architect at CEBRA. “Everlasting, awe-inspiring, and beautiful, they are the original landmarks. By using the mountains of Albania as our main source of inspiration, we tap into the local history, the cultural heritage, and the identity of Albania. This symbolic landmark will create an elegant connection between the ever-transforming urban fabric of Tirana and the natural surroundings — an architectural hybrid between a tower and a mountain and an international typology, which is locally anchored.”

Coming to a sharp point at its pinnacle, the new biophilic skyscraper will certainly stand out in the Tirana skyline, even with so many new and interesting architectural projects taking shape around it. The city is in the midst of a major construction boom, with other big developments in the works including MVRDV’s Downtown One Tirana, a mixed-use building with a pixelated facade; BIG’s new National Theater of Albania, which resembles a giant bow tie; and a new iteration of Stefano Boeri’s Vertical Forest, which will be covered in over 3,200 shrubs and bushes (the first two are located in Milan).

Mount Tirana was chosen by an international jury, including Albanaian Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Mayor of Tirana, four internationally acclaimed architects, and the client, Nova Construction 2012. Construction will begin immediately.

Founded in 2001 by architects Mikkel Frost, Carsten Primdahl, and Kolja Nielsen, CEBRA is an architecture and design practice based in Aarhus, Denmark. The firm employs a multidisciplinary international staff of more than 65 architects, urban planners, landscape architects, academics, and administrative personnel. They’re known for their sensitivity to the landscape, ecology, and cultural history of each site, developing projects that are visually striking yet harmonious with their surroundings.

“Empathy is at the core of how we create architecture, and we listen to the world around us to gain a deep understanding of local cultures, conditions, climate, and building traditions,” the firm states. “At the same time, we focus on creating architecture for the senses. In interdisciplinary teams we practice artistic leadership and speak up for emotional impact to create architecture that is both bold, beautiful, and useful.”

The post CEBRA’s Mount Tirana Claims the Title of Albania’s Tallest Landmark first appeared on Dornob.

Dubbed “Moon World Resorts,” the idea is to recreate the Moon on a grand scale right here on our home planet, no rocket trip required. As Moon World Resorts co-founder Michael R. Henderson recently told CNN Travel, the moon is a “recognizable brand…seven and a half billion people know it, everybody loves it.” He hopes his ambitious idea will spur travelers everywhere to flock to the spacey, ultra-luxurious new hotel.

Though the project itself has been in development for nearly 20 years, artist renderings envision a futuristic space where guests can enjoy all the perks of a traditional top-notch resort while pretending they’e floating in a far-off space station. Of course, no trip to the moon would be complete without a space walk. A lunar experience inside the hotel will allow guests to simulate the feeling of actually walking on the moon. As Henderson says, “we will give you the ability in your lifetime to walk on what you believe will be the lunar surface.”

Unfortunately, as with most architecture projects of this scale and scope, Moon World Resorts has also come with its share of “tremendous technical challenges,” according to Henderson. He’s currently working with co-founder Sandra G. Matthews alongside “independent engineers and architects to make the concept a reality,” according to CNN Travel.

If all goes according to plan, the Canada-based entrepreneurs plan on eventually expanding Moon World Resorts to other continents, too. This will depend largely on securing licensees willing to invest in the project — but as we now know all too well, it’s pretty hard for rich people to say “no” to space.

For his part, Henderson remains hopeful that Moon World Resorts will eventually get past the conceptual stage and become a full-on reality. He believes that the first hotel could open as early as 2027 as “a destination in its own right,” drawing visitors from around the globe who want to experience the thrill of the final frontier from the comfort of the planet they know and love.

The post Dubai’s Moon World Resorts Take Us One Step Closer to Space Travel first appeared on Dornob.

With the help of their team, Lead Design Partners José Cláudio Silva and Peter Barrett effectively created that image with the curved, double-paned glass superstructure. And thanks to lower semi-circular tiers, the profile of the resort also closely resembles the silhouette of a luxury yacht.

Located in the Bai Trao District on the northwest edge of Hon Thom Island, the resort will be owned and operated by the Sun Group. Its “integrated resort and hospitality” features will spread along 50 acres of the tropical archipelago, picturesquely nestled between coastal beaches and lush mountain jungles.

The resort’s visual beacon, the tower sail will house luxury suites across the curvature of its double-skin glass facade, giving guests premium views of both the watery horizon and the forested hillside slopes. Visitors can also enjoy a ship deck-shaped viewing area and native gardens on lower floors, connecting the fluid sailing vibe of the tower to the resort’s main levels.

Guests will be able to access the resort through multiple travel methods: there are dozens of private and VIP marinas, a public jetty, a helipad, and a cable car route connecting the island to the larger neighboring island of Phu Quoc.

The greater resort will include luxury hotels, townhouses, beachside and clifftop residential villas, as well as beach clubs and water sports, all with stunning panoramas of the Gulf of Thailand. A host of infinity pools, gardens, linear parks, and coastal promenades helps to “blur the boundary between nature and architecture.” Public spaces, pool decks, and retail stores will be covered in rustic shingled roofs, exposed woodwork, and natural stone to further obscure the line between the natural and the manmade. At its northernmost end, a Fisherman’s wharf will support retail shops and walkways, designed into glass volumes attached to stone blocks made to look like they are rising out of the sea.

10 Design is an internationally renowned studio with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Edinburgh, Dubai, Miami, London, Shenzhen, and Singapore. Since its founding in 2010, the company has completed masterplanning, landscaping, and interior work in over 60 cities across four continents, winning more than 80 awards and major design competitions in the process.

The firm is particularly proud of this latest design as it marks “an important milestone” and the “first major project completed by our 10 Design Singapore studio,” explains Barry Shapiro, the group’s Managing Partner in Asia. “We are excited to complete the masterplan and concept design for Hon Thom Island, which will serve as one of the beachside jewels of the local Phu Quoc region as well as the world-class waterfront hospitality and lifestyle destination.

The post Thailand’s Latest Resort Looks Like the Billowing Sails of a Luxury Ship first appeared on Dornob.

ZNera Space sees the Downtown Circle as sustainable and self-sufficient vertical urbanism. The mega-complex stands an incredible 550 meters (1,804 feet) off the ground on five relatively narrow supports as an alternative to a bunch of unconnected skyscrapers. Containing housing, retail stores, offices, and schools as well as public spaces like parks and museums, the ring-shaped tower even has its own transportation system. Theoretically, residents wouldn’t ever have to leave the tower if they didn’t want to.

Downtown Circle contains five levels, including two main rings held together by a continuous green belt the architects call Skypark. Spanning the multi-story vertical space between the structure’s two rings, the Skypark is its own self-contained ecosystem full of swamps, waterfalls, canyons, sandy dunes, and tropical vegetation. It also incorporates rainwater harvesting, solar power, and agricultural production, so the community can grow some of its own food and produce its own energy. And with full-size trees capable of storing carbon, the Skypark also helps to offset the ring’s greenhouse gas emissions.

To get around the ring, residents and visitors will travel in a fleet of suspended peripheral pods that transport them from one node to another. The vessels follow tracks along the structure’s bottom tier. An elevated heliport on the roof of the inner ring lets inhabitants travel down to the city and back up again. An outer layer of louvers protects the facade from intense sunlight and helps reflect light to areas that get shaded by the geometry of the building throughout the day.

“We wanted to go down to the basics of how gated communities were established as a very horizontal built environment,” says Najmus Chowdry, co-founder of ZNera Space. “But you can’t have that here because of the dense urban fabric of Dubai. The best way to explore and practice this concept was in downtown itself.”

“The concept was of a vertical city,” says Nils Remess, the firm’s other co-founder. “When COVID-19 hit hard, we thought a lot about sustainability and how can we change things and how we can create better urban planning. We looked at aspects such as garbage disposal, food production, traffic problems, and pollution. We put all these things together and came up with a concept.”

Concepts like the Downtown Circle could definitely help with the challenge of packing more people into cities as the global population continues to grow amidst the threats of climate change. One thing few of them seem to address, however, is the question of whether such structures would contribute to further segregation of economic classes within cities, leaving poor residents on a ground level that would feel downright subterranean when shaded by megastructures that elevate richer people into the sky above. In that case, higher-density cities will only feel livable for some people and not others.

The post Massive Ring-Shaped Structure Could Encircle Dubai’s Burj Khalifa first appeared on Dornob.

Towering 1,640 feet above sea level, the city will be 656 feet across and occupy a total of about 13 square miles, according to a recent article by CNN.

Itself part of the Neom project (a larger mega-development backed by billions from the Saudi government that began in 2019), the Line is just the latest in a series of developments, architectural projects, and cultural reforms collectively referred to as “Vision 2030,” a plan aimed at making Saudi Arabia a vacation hotspot on par with its neighbors Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Critics have repeatedly cited the country’s human rights record as a somewhat disturbing backdrop to this rebrand.

The crown jewel of Vision 2030 was the earlier announcement of the Red Sea Project. Itself a plan to dramatically transform the desert into a luxe island and mountain resort with its own airport, the development would undoubtedly become a bastion for billionaires, and a huge boon for the Saudi economy.

But The Line may even outshine this mega development. A high-tech paradise featuring its own high-speed rail, the vertical city will also be largely sustainable. “Powered by green energy and run with the aid of artificial intelligence…robot maids, flying taxis, and a giant artificial moon” are just some of the proposed features mentioned in the press release.

Ambitious? Yes. Dystopian? A little. Imminent? Probably, though undoubtedly years into the next decade. As Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently said in a press release, “[The Line] designs…will challenge the traditional, flat horizontal cities and create a model for nature preservation and enhance human livability.”

Whatever the outcome, it’s clear that Saudi Arabia is carving out a path for itself to be a world leader in both sustainable development and global tourism with this towering techno dream that even George Jetson would approve of.

The post Saudi Arabia Announces Plans for 100-Mile-Long City in the Desert first appeared on Dornob.

The poetic vision of Studio noa* treats the library like a modern Garden of Eden wherein knowledge may be found. The look of the library from afar is meant to be almost like a mirage, too strange and beautiful to be real. Passersby in the park are tempted to approach and see what this unusual building is all about, drawing them into a world of books in the process. The lushly vegetated library design seamlessly blends into its parkland environment, and although the facility features a total of nine floors, all are accessible via a ribbon-like walkway that leads from the ground level all the way up.

The library is crowned by a circular study room for 300 people with a 360-degree view of Milan. To reach it, guests ascend an elevator contained within a glass tower of books, rising from the building’s layered levels into the open air before reaching the ring-shaped floating element. This ring is flanked on either side by billowing structures resembling trees or giant mushrooms. All around them, green roofs undulate, segueing into both open-air outdoor spaces and protected interiors.

“The project’s starting point was the research into the meaning, usage, and features of a 21st-century library,” the firm explains. “Studio noa* reimagined it as a hub of creativity, aiming to create a stimulating environment for freeing the mind and acquiring new knowledge. As a prerogative, a relaxed and quiet atmosphere, as an added value, the possibility of moving in a hybrid environment breeding new ideas, where the line between inside and outside becomes blurred. Therefore, the design of a complex architectural structure was flanked by the creation of the natural landscape, which permeates all spaces.”

“It feels like climbing a tree after having walked through a lush garden. And not by chance, since the archetype that inspired the team of architects is the Garden of Eden, where the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil grows. The biblical episode linked to it is perhaps one of the narratives philosophers have drawn on most to portray humanity. According to Hegel, by eating the forbidden apple from the Tree of Knowledge, Eve was the first person to stand apart from the animals, acquiring consciousness and intentionality in doing. When Eve became interested in the unknown, paraphrasing, libraries found their raison d’être. On the roof of the BEIC, Studio noa* wanted to recreate an earthly Eden, where to celebrate the beauty of knowledge and continually encourage people to reach out to unknown worlds.”

Check out more visionary projects by Studio noa*, including a geometric modular building system, a stunning modern bed and breakfast in Italy, and a theatrical spa in the Alps.

The post Studio noa’s Tree of Knowledge Library Attempts to Recreate an Earthly Eden first appeared on Dornob.

“The opening of Air-One, backed by government funding, will revolutionize the way people and goods travel across the nation,” said Robert Courts, the UK’s minister for Aviation. “This step forward puts Britain at the vanguard of clean transport, bringing investment and high-skilled, green job opportunities to the nation.”

Urban-Air Port founder and executive chairman Ricky Sandhu agrees, adding: “The opening of Air-One is a momentous moment — the starting gun for a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier, and more connected than ever before.”

The airport was constructed in just 11 weeks across a 17,000-square-foot plot sectioned off into different zones. At its center is a 56-foot circular platform that can raise 19 feet into the air for vertical vehicle takeoff and landing. Surrounding that locus are zones for a vehicle hangar, a cargo and logistics base, a command center, a security screening area, a passenger lounge and café, and retail pop-up sites.

Even though this breakthrough airport is officially open, the aircraft to carry all the future loads of passengers and cargo aren’t quite ready for business. There are plenty of zero-emissions drones in the works and even some that are operational, but there is not yet a commercially viable eVTOL fleet.

While building the airport, Urban-Air Port also teamed up with Washington, D.C.-based Supernal, and has the company’s concept S-A1 eVTOL on display in the Air-One hangar. “The Coventry demonstration is an important first step forward to reimagining how people across the world will move, connect, and live,” says Supernal Chief Commercial Officer Mike Whitaker.

Coventry Air-One is currently more of a model, and the first of what the company intends to be a 200-site network of global air pads for eVTOL vehicles, including projects already underway in the U.S., Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Southeast Asia. It envisions these unmanned aircraft charging from off-grid hydrogen fuel cells as part of the “coming green air transportation revolution.”

Their versatility will also aid that trend, as the designs call for versions to be built on land, on water with inflatable pads, and even on top of skyscraper roofs. These tiny airports in otherwise inaccessible aircraft spaces can allow air traffic into more areas, potentially reducing automobile use along with its congestion and air-polluting emissions.

“Our patented technology allows for an ultra-compact but high-capacity infrastructure,” explains Sandhu. “Precisely what is required in complex, dense urban locations – where the demand lies, where our passengers and members work and live.

The company has also designed models for emergency or disaster management, as well as for military defense operations in remote regions.

Visitors to the Covington area can order tickets to visit Air-One and get a glimpse of the future of air traffic.

The post UK Opens the World’s First Airport for Flying Cars first appeared on Dornob.

Commissioned by the Taipei City Government in 2009, the project was led by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect and OMA founding partner Rem Koolhaas alongside OMA managing partner David Gianotten. Their goal was for the center to stand out from “standardized” contemporary theaters in major cities around the world, and it looks like they’ve achieved it.

Located at Taipei’s vibrant Shilin Night Market, the complex includes a Public Loop that’s free to access, so visitors can tour the interior even if they aren’t there to see a performance. It starts in the landscaped plaza outside and runs through the infrastructure and performing arts production spaces that are typically hidden. Portal windows open to view inside the three theaters.

“The configuration of three theaters plugged into a central cube has resulted in new internal workings of the performing spaces to inspire unimagined productions,” says Gianotten. “The Public Loop exposes visitors with and without tickets to these new works and their creative processes. We are excited by how the building constantly generates new relationships between artists, spectators, and the public.”

Rather than having a front and back like a typical performing arts center, OMA’s creation features multiple facades defined by the protruding volumes. The way these monumental metallic elements interact almost makes the complex look like a spaceship that crash-landed into the heart of Taipei. The 840-seat Blue Box theater, the 1,500-seat Grand Theater, and the spherical 800-seat Globe Playhouse all have mysterious opaque facades, appearing to be “docked” against the animated and illuminated central cube clad in corrugated glass.

The entire building is lifted off the ground, creating a public plaza underneath. Up until now, its true form has been disguised by the scaffolding clinging to its exterior during the construction process. But upon its completion, we can finally get a sense of how surprisingly light and otherworldly it appears, with the three dramatic theaters seeming to float.

“This new building not only presents itself to the world as a brand new and unique configuration of theater complexes, it also sits perfectly in its location — right at the center of where the plebeian life of Taipei happens,” says Kris Yao, founder of KRIS YAO | ARTECH, the Taiwanese design collaborating architect. “It’s informal, unpretentious, and raw architecture spaces echo the spirits of how citizens of Taipei approach art.”

“Theater has a very long tradition,” explains Koolhaas of OMA’s vision. “We have seen contemporary performance theaters increasingly becoming standardized, with conservative internal operation principles. We want to contribute to the history of the theater. Here in Taipei, we were able to combine three auditoria in a particular way. We are interested to see how this architecture will have an impact in terms of extending what we can do in theater.”

The post OMA’s Sci-Fi Performing Arts Center in Taiwan to Open This August first appeared on Dornob.

As part of the £9 billion (roughly $11 billion USD) Battersea Power Station revitalization project, Gehry’s Prospect Place building is the first residential structure the Canadian-American architect has ever created in the UK.

“I love London. It has culture, history, and diversity and the buildings we have created at Battersea Power Station are designed to stand artfully on their own amongst all of that, whilst also framing an internationally recognized icon,” said the 93-year-old starchitect. “It is important we create social places for future generations, and our goal from the start has been to create a neighborhood that connects into the historic fabric of the city of London but also has its own identity and integrity.”

Located south of the power station — which gained worldwide notoriety in 1977 when it appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Animals album — the complex comprises 308 homes, including a variety of studios, multi-bedroom apartments, townhouses, and penthouses. The open plan units start around £510,000 ($635,000 USD).

The exterior’s white-washed curves and ripples were inspired by the traditional bay window, but their peculiar angles were intentionally designed to allow as many residents as possible views of the adjacent historic power station. Those random-looking twists also ensure that no two homes are identical here, though all of them do have access to either a winter garden or terrace.

Inside, residents have a choice of two color palettes: the “London” or the “LA.” While the London is characterized by metal finishings as a nod to the area’s industrial past, the LA embraces natural wood and light colors for a more relaxed vibe.

Because the entire project was intended to foster community and interaction, the residents of Prospect Place are also allowed access to the neighboring Battersea Roof Gardens, designed by Foster + Partners. The building itself boasts an enormous private Sky Lounge, gym, lounge area, workspaces, sunset bar, and theater room. They also have use of the exquisite rooftop gardens conceived by James Corner and LDA Design.

The 42-acre former industrial site also includes a children’s playground, restaurants, retail spaces, and will soon have a unique tourist attraction called the Battersea Power Station Chimney Lift. Visitors can venture into a glass elevator inside one of the station’s obsolete chimneys for a 328-foot ride up to the top, where they can enjoy 360-degree views of London.

The power station developers had high praise for Gehry’s Prospect Place construction. “Frank Gehry and his team have gone above and beyond in the delivery of world-class buildings at Prospect Place,” said Chief Executive Officer at Battersea Power Station Development Company, Simon Murphy. “It’s an honor that Frank’s first UK residential project is at Battersea Power Station, and its completion marks an important milestone in the development.”

Even though this is his first residential design in the UK, Gehry’s work is well known around the world. He founded his eponymous architect studio in California in 1962 and quickly became famous for his avant-garde style, designing Spain’s Guggenheim Museum, Prague’s Dancing House, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. His firm is currently working on the projects like Facebook Campus in Menlo Park and a new Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi.

The post UK Gets First Frank Gehry Residential Design at Battersea Power Station first appeared on Dornob.

Norman Foster of architecture firm Foster + Partners met with Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov in April to offer his support and discuss a vision for a masterplanned reconstruction of the country’s second largest city. During that meeting, he submitted his “Kharkiv Manifesto,” promising to put his best efforts into making the city state-of-the-art in both infrastructure and layout.

“I undertake to assemble the best minds with the best planning, architectural, design, and engineering skills in the world to bear on the rebirth of the city of Kharkiv,” Foster wrote. “In the spirit of combining a planetary awareness with local action, I would seek to bring together the top Ukrainian talents with worldwide expertise and advice.”

Mayor Terekhov has also laid out his vision for the city, in which at least a quarter of the housing, hospitals, schools, and cultural centers have been destroyed. He hopes to see their investments in technology and healthcare restored, as well as the repair and preservation of historic buildings, many of which were styled in traditional Art Nouveau style.

Due to the centuries-long conflict with Russia over the Ukrainian border, the mayor also wants to see the city prepared for future attacks. Specifying that their urgent needs were for hospitals, schools, kindergartens, and offices for their robust IT businesses, Terekhov wants each of those places to have built-in bomb shelters. He also suggested that residential buildings should have underground parking lots that could be converted into emergency shelters.

The next step from Foster’s perspective (once the city is safe from more Russian attacks — Russian forces are still close enough to shell Kharkiv regularly from their current position) is to create a city masterplan that would include combining “the most loved and revered heritage from the past with the most desirable and greenest elements of infrastructure and buildings.” Foster hopes to “deliver the city of the future now” as well as to “plan for its life decades ahead.”

The 86-year-old Foster has had plenty of experience building the future. His is well known as one of the principal figures in British modernist architecture, having designed the Gherkin and Millennium Bridge in London, the Reichstag in Berlin, and the Apple Park campus in Silicon Valley. His firm was among many that protested the Russian aggression with not only words but actions. On his Instagram account in March, Foster posted, “We deplore the Russian invasion of Ukraine and as a result, we have stopped work on all our projects in Russia.”

Terekhov seemed pleased with the direction Foster wants to take. In Facebook footage from their video meeting, the mayor said, “I’ve seen your work and I would really like to see this new, progressive style in our city. I would like us to get a city center that would become one of the highlights of Europe.”

The post Norman Foster Partners with Mayor of Destroyed Kharkiv to Rebuild the “City of the Future” first appeared on Dornob.