Designed by Bumblebee Spaces, a San Francisco-based startup founded by former Tesla and Apple engineers, this robotic system hides a bed, a desk, and even storage within a ceiling compartment, making the 470-square-foot studio units feel a lot more livable. Mounted to a grid capable of holding several tons of weight, the system also responds to voice commands, so you can simply ask it to move the furniture around at your whims. No need to open an app or even press a button.

Made of stylish light-colored wood, the system blends right into the contemporary style of the apartment interior and boasts built-in LED lighting. When the components are lowered, the surprisingly narrow supports are visible in each corner, maintaining a light and open feel. Taking the automation of the room even further, the system uses artificial intelligence to recognize various objects and remember where you put them. Lost your keys or sunglasses? Just ask. It’ll also learn your daily routine, and can be set to shape-shift at certain times of the day without being prompted.

Another cool feature is the system’s ability to photograph and catalog the contents of the storage bins that retreat into the ceiling on all sides of the bed (an add-on for which you can choose two, four, or six compartments). The Bumblebee app lets you preview your boxes so you know exactly which one you need to access instead of lowering each one and physically sorting through them. Built-in sensors and other safety features ensure the kinetic components won’t put any people or pets in danger.

The studio apartment itself features nine-foot ceilings made of exposed concrete, floor to ceiling windows, and monolithic resin floors, as well as several spacious closets, Italian stainless steel cabinets in the kitchen, and a stainless steel suite of appliances. Needless to say, it’s rare for rentals to have features like the $12,000 to $30,000 Bumblebee system, especially at a rent price that’s not too far from average in New York City. These five apartments will rent for $3,550 a month, and with four months free in a 16-month lease, they average out to even less. The building’s market-rate rentals will go for about $2,056 a month, and the affordable units, which make up about a third of the building, are even less.

BIG’s design for The Smile is a response to New York City’s 1916 zoning resolution, which calls for “stepped facade” towers to allow sufficient light and air to filter down to street level. Other unusual amenities in the building include a game room, co-working studio, demo kitchen, fitness center with Peloton bikes, yoga room, steam room, dry sauna, and “sensory experience showers.”

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“Biofacades” work with the planet in a variety of ways. Since the building materials have been fused with living, photosynthetic organisms, the towers will actually be able to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Additionally, the algae will serve as a clean and efficient form of insulation. In a similar way, it will also depend on the heat generated by the buildings themselves. The architects explain that the towers’ exteriors “allow [for] symbiosis: the biofacade uses the thermal building to regulate the culture temperature of algae and at the same time these facades allow a much better insulation of buildings.”

The project is set to be completed in Hangzhou, China. Since water is a large part of the city’s industry and culture, the architects created the high-rise with that history in mind. More specifically, the towers are located around one of Hangzhou’s central bodies of water. The structures’ natural sloped shapes will also allow for extensive rainwater harvesting. Rainwater will travel down the sides of the twisted towers and accrue in a collective basin below the connected high-rises.

The tops of the highest towers will hold greenhouses, not only for the benefit of the planet, but also for the mental well-being of the building’s occupants. These spaces are expected to provide fresh air in a lush and tranquil area for relaxation and reflection.

Each of the four towers will be dedicated exclusively to “French Expertise,” though the complex will still be a very mixed-use development. A tower centered around “Haute Gastronomie,” meaning “high-end cuisine,” will be full of French, fusion, and bio-fresh restaurants. This section of the complex will also house a panoramic view bar. Another part of the complex will hold the “French Tech Hub,” consisting of offices, co-working spaces, and a digital entertainment cluster. The “Hospitality” tower boasts a hotel, a spa, and a healthcare center. Finally, the “Art Center” will accommodate artists’ residences, farmers’ markets, and galleries.

Such an environmentally and culturally conscious project is very characteristic of XTU Architects. The Paris-based firm was founded by two architects, Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazieres, who firmly believe that biotechnology is the way of the future. Their website outlines their top priorities, noting that the firm “specializes primarily in academic and environmental research in addition to residential and cultural buildings.”

Previous works of the firm include the French Pavilion at the World Expo 2015 in Milan. That project was dubbed the “Fertile Market,” as living vegetation grew throughout its timber lattice structure. Another example of the company’s innovative style is its work on the Museum of Civilizations on Reunion Island. Because of that area’s dry, hot climate, the museum was given a spiraling arrangement with several meticulously positioned openings. These openings allow natural air to pass through and cool down the building organically.

The post XTU Unveils Proposal for Algae-Covered Towers in Hangzhou, China first appeared on Dornob.

Thomas Lane of Building Design magazine (BD) says of the complex: “The architect, PLP, has attempted to break up the monolithic nature of the scheme by expressing it as a pair of sliced and chamfered towers and jazzing it up with several bright red prows presumably to give it that ‘landmark’ quality.” This scathing critique of Nova Victoria was surely a contributing factor to it’s taking the crown for the year’s worst building, as Lane himself was on the judging panel, along with BD assistant editor Elizabeth Hopkirk, urbanist David Rudlin, and Twentieth Century Society director Catherine Croft.

The Carbuncle Cup has been around since 2006 and is intended to act as a counterpoint to honorable architectural accolades such as the Stirling Prize. The term “carbuncle” came into popular usage in an architectural context after Prince Charles, who is often a vocal critic of contemporary constructions, described an extension to the National Gallery in London as a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.”

For the past six years, the winner of the Carbuncle Cup has been a building situated in the British capital, and Lane says, “It is unfortunate although not entirely surprising that a London building has won the Carbuncle Cup for the sixth year running. The capital is in the middle of a massive construction boom so there is a bigger pool of potential contenders.” London frequently faces criticism for its ill-considered architectural landscape, which has been mired in controversy in recent years thanks to skyline-defining developments such as the Shard and the Walkie Talkie building — projects that have been fiercely opposed by those who feel like the city’s soul and character is being eroded by glazed skyscrapers and rushed construction.

The architects who conceived of the Nova Victoria say “it will contribute to the transformation of one of the capital’s most important gateways…The masterplan ensures cohesion across a series of buildings designed by three leading architectural practices.” They also state that the complex received the largest single planning permission from the Westminster City Council to date. However, neither of these factors were enough to convince the judges not to award it the undesirable prize.

From the unsavory angles of its towers to the crass color of its red cladding and its aspirations to match the architectural mastery of Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind, the Nova Victoria has failed on several accounts. Rudlin gave the final condemnation of the project, explaining, “There’s no variety and you can’t read the floors. It’s got the same proportions as Salisbury Cathedral. For me the spire gives it carbuncular status — otherwise it’s just a bad building.”

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The impressive, bulbous glazed facades of the Silo Hotel occupy the former grain silo’s top floor, below which the museum sits. The original building was formed of 42 tightly-compacted cylindrical silos, and the new museum is spread out over 9,500 square meters, including 6,000 square meters of exhibition space over nine floors and 80 interwoven galleries, a rooftop sculpture garden, a bookshop, art storage facilities, restaurants, and reading rooms. Aside from the exhibition spaces and ancillary facilities, Zeizt MOCAA also provides Cape Town with a costume institute and centers for photography, moving images, performance art, and art education.

Heatherwick Studio’s ambitious concept for the museum has been realized with an astonishing level of care and integrity. Discussions with the museum’s curator made it clear that the building’s existing structure wouldn’t have been able to house exhibition spaces because its chambers were too small and circular in shape. Still, it was a major part of the concept that these silos would not only be preserved, but that they would also become one of the museum’s major features. Heatherwick himself has even called them the “heart” of the project.

This central idea is best seen in the museum’s atrium, which now essentially carves away massive swathes of the silos to reveal their internal structures. The result is what Heatherwick describes as a “vaulted cathedral,” but it’s unlike any other cathedral anyone has seen before. The effect of exposing the silos is almost like that of abstract sculpture: the shape of the former structures can be read easily enough, but the volumes are utterly unlike anything they were in their previous lives, having been scooped out at unusual angles to create elliptical voids with strangely amoebic properties, at once solid and fluid. The frames left from the cuts boast a double skin of polished concrete and rough aggregate, a lovely contrast in this imposing 27-meter-high space.

The project is estimated to have cost around $40 million and has taken about four years to complete since its announcement in November 2013. The V&A Waterfront is one of Cape Town’s main tourist attractions, with visitors coming to admire its unique collection of buildings and idyllic setting, which sees the iconic Table Mountain in the background while the ocean stretches out in front of it. The entire dockside complex will no doubt become an icon in its own time, and the new museum has a certain utopian quality to it, something that’s sure to stun and inspire visitors for years to come.

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The resource center, a series of towers that twist and contort around each other and are to be clad in Gehry’s trademark silver skin, was designed to echo the mountainous terrain surrounding the site and will be stepped and staggered at several points, requiring observation from many different angles to get a true reading. The landscaping will be designed by Bas Smets, who will be responsible for the creation of a new public park within which the redevelopment will sit. Construction of the project is well underway, with some of the existing railroad buildings already having been successfully converted into art and exhibition spaces. These warehouses have been stripped back to their former glory and renovated in part to accommodate the brief’s various requirements.

The entire project is being led by Swiss collector Maja Hoffman, the executive director of LUMA Arles and director of the LUMA Foundation, whose vision for the complex united Gehry and other big-name artists, critics, and curators such as Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Hoffmann says, “I chose to develop this project in Arles because I want its inhabitants to be the first to benefit from it. This explains why I asked that we create the conditions in which companies from Arles can actively take part in this project alongside us, first for the construction of the site, second for its production and functioning. We have international standards but local roots.”

The site will remain open during construction, and guided tours are still being run daily. Gehry’s contributions to the complex are due to open in stages, which will allow the cultural center to remain active even during their realization, something which will no doubt be of local benefit. Local craftsmen are also being employed to work on the project, and by the end of the year, the center will have created the equivalent of 11 new full-time jobs. One of the complex’ main goals is to sociologically, intellectually, economically, and physically immerse the world of art in a modern context. The idea behind LUMA Arles is to create an environment that encourages discourse and the meeting of minds from diverse sectors and fields to generate artistic responses to current situations. The project is expected to reach completion in the spring of 2019.

Hoffman believes the project will “[allow] us to look at the bigger issues cities face all over the world and to foster a sense of individual and collective responsibility in addressing them.”

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Command of the Oceans by Baynes and Mitchell Architects

This gallery and visitor center is located in one of rural England’s historic dockyards and was chosen for its respectful-yet-striking insertion into the existing complex. Baynes and Mitchell was also praised for its sensitive restoration and incorporation of surrounding buildings into the project. A new entrance to the museum comes in the form of a sharp, black insertion in a row of white, pitched roofs, announcing the project’s modernity to the public and offering them a glimpse of the excitement lurking inside. The museum reveals the life and history of the dockyard to visitors as they progress through a series of spaces. At the end of this journey, you find yourself beneath the floorboards of a ship, a breathtaking space that reinforces the complex’ identity and acts as the high point of this museum experience.

Barrett’s Grove by GROUPWORK + Amin Taha

This London apartment building is situated in a residential neighborhood whose character had eroded away after years of development. On Barrett’s Grove, traditional Victorian terraces give way to isolated educational, religious, and residential facilities, so it’s easy to see how GROUPWORK’s tall, idiosyncratic structure goes a long way toward unifying the street and bringing it into the 21st century. Materially similar to the brick buildings on either side of it, this apartment block also echoes its neighbors by incorporating a steeply-pitched roof, which gives it a residential feel while offsetting its protruding wicker balconies.

British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

This new addition to the British Museum was chosen for its deft handling of an extremely complicated brief on a site of huge urban importance (within the historical and social contexts of the museum itself). Designed by two-time Stirling Prize winner Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the extension consists of five linked pavilions that house new exhibition spaces and ancillary accommodations for the museum’s logistics, administration, and curation staff. The exhibitions centre’s facade provides a muted contrast to the British Museum’s monumentality, and its translucent quality serves to tie the entire structure together when dusk falls.

Hastings Pier by dRMM Architects

dRMM Architects successfully renovated a declining pleasure pier in the seaside town of Hastings, East Sussex. Many British piers have suffered fire damage over the years and are now seen as depressing relics of the coast’s “golden age.” The firm captured the attention of the Stirling Prize judges by restoring this pier to its former glory in collaboration with engineers and city council. The result of this group effort is an inclusive and contextualized visitor’s center that sits in the middle of the pier. To play on the site’s nostalgic tone, the center has been clad in burnt, salvaged wood from the original construction.

City of Glasgow College — City Campus by Reiach & Hall Architects and Michael Laird Architects

The City Campus fuses six disparate college faculties into a single development. Chosen for its distinguished appearance as a place of higher learning, this campus is immense in its scale — in terms of both the area it covers and the imposing nature of its many volumes. The project was also praised for its demonstration of architectural skill and for providing Glasgow with a new bastion of education.

Juergen Teller Photography Studio by 6a architects

Photographer Jurgen Teller’s pared-back concrete studio makes the most of a dismal plot of land near a highway and an industrial estate in West London. Three buildings are connected by open courtyards that allow natural light into the interiors and provide places of rest throughout the narrow, linear complex. Exposed concrete blockwork and board-marked beams dominate this space and create a blank canvas from which Teller can hang his art. Commended for its attention to detail and site-specific design, this studio will undoubtedly be the envy of other photographers.

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This Japanese dwelling complex embodies the best of both private and public living: four lofted apartments with privacy and views above, and a space for collaboration, gatherings and exhibitions in a covered outdoor courtyard space below.

Support functions (such as storage and restrooms) are situated on the first floor to allow occupants maximum leisure, cooking and sleeping use of their respective upstairs areas via small living-and-bedroom zones and kitchenettes (supplemented by shared appliances below).

A set of  four odd-angled masses form the base for each lofted apartment unit in turn, while partially framing the open-air area below, creating a semi-enclosed common area while leaving it partially public as well.

Each underlying volume has a distinct shape and relationship to the site, creating a sense of artistic individuality within a common architectural language. They are also each accessed via a winding outdoor metal staircase that puts the occupant at once on display but also allows for lovely views down into the center of the complex.

At the same time, there is a structural simplicity to the actual lofts above, making the final project less expensive and more familiar when it comes to core beginning-and-end-of-day functions. Design by ON design partners and located in Kanagawa, Japan.

From the architects:

“Yokohama apartment is a residential complex consisting of semi public courtyard canopied by four one-room units for young artists. The semi public courtyard is a place for exhibition and work. The site is a hilly area with narrow roads where small wooden houses cluster. This is why a sense of distance, which is compact with actual feeling, exists.We thought that by providing a semi public courtyard for exhibition and work and huts for living, the place would become an environment where people can find place and ways to use according to the condition.”

“The semi public courtyard is a modern interpretation apprehending piloti not only as the form of space but also as a condition that encourage a variety of lifestyle adding elements such as staircase and triangular shape which is found out from surrounding environment.”

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Yes, zombies. Well, it might not have been what French urbanist Le Corbusier had in mind, but it may as well have been. The Unité d’Habitation are in many was the ultimate in (physically) defensible space, lofted above an open ground floor, sectionally complex with segmented corridors and split-level dwellings…  and packed with everything needed for (early) survival in case of (partial) apocalypse.

Each “unit of housing” was made to be self-sufficient, featuring shops, hotel rooms, medical and educational facilities and a rooftop deck with a terrace, running track, performance space and swimming pool.

Though only a few were actually built, scattered around Europe, some versions of the plan called for a whole series of these structures interconnected by suspended pathways – a Utopian city in the clouds, as it were, allowing residents to remain aloft indefinitely.

At the ground level, the building is raised up on think outward-sloping piloti (piers), which even the savviest zombie (with some brains – just not yours, hopefully) would have a tough time scaling.

And should the zombies reach one level, the alternating corridors (allowing multi-level units to span from one side to the other) would make a retreat to higher floors far more feasible.

In all seriousness, though, this classic Modernist work was a turning point in our understanding of cities, and also represents a curious point in history where some architects imagined we would all lift in lofted mini-cities in a not-too-distant future. While urban designs have deviated from that course somewhat over time, we might all regret it should the undead ever rise to reclaim the planet.

Contemporary zombie fortress connoisseurs should at least see the resemblance to the current emblem of zombie-fighting forces. If you’re a fan of “The Walking Dead,” “28 Weeks Later” or any of the iconic zombie horror films by George A. Romero, you’re probably already seeing that as you look at these photos and walk around your own city.

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Japanese architecture ranges for elegant to humorous and somber to strange; this bizarre set of stacked housing units is easy to slot in at one end of those scales, dressed to look like individual homes angled and dropped on top of one another. It gets weirder.

One might guess that each individual volume was a single apartment unit, but in fact they are all multi-floor homes that intersect and overlap in odd ways, connected by a series of ladders and staircases woven throughout.

A combination of skylights and windows are interlaced with the rooftops and angular walls, facing in every direction you could imagine from straight up, down and out to various angles in between.

The resulting patchwork provides surprise glimpses within and between the various parts of this piecemeal creation and views back to the outside world.

The stated purpose is complex, and arguably does not add to the experience of the residences … this may be one of those design ideas that you simply have to love or leave.

If you’re an appreciator of contemporary Japanese architecture, you probably already recognize the Tokyo Apartments as the work of famed architect Sou Fujimoto. 

Here’s his descripton:

“Collective housing built in the residential section of the center of Tokyo. It consists of four dwelling units including owner’s dwelling unit. Each dwelling unit is made with two or three independent rooms of prototypical ‘house’ shapes. And the two rooms exist, separated like combination of the room of the first floor, and the room of the third floor and they are connected by outside stairs.”

“That is, it can be said that each dwelling unit is realized by experience of two rooms and the city when passing along outside stairs. When you go up outside stairs, you will have experience that it is a wonder climbing a big mountain such as a city. It seems that you have your own house in the foot and summit of a mountain, respectively. And by the act which rises and gets down the mountain, mountain = the whole city will be experienced as its own house.”

“This collective housing is the miniature of Tokyo. ‘Tokyo which never exists’ is made into a form. I meant making an infinite rich place which is crowded and disorderly.”

Photography by Edmund Sumner

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Worried about the end of the world? For those who can afford them, one company is creating apocalypse-proof subterranean housing complexes. That’s right: these are modern-day super-bomb-shelters located across the United States, designed to survive any doomsday scenario yet imagined.

Killer comets, pole shifts, super volcanoes, global tsunamis, extreme earthquakes, biological and nuclear war – each are scenarios supposedly covered in the design plans by Vivos of these luxury underground homes to be built in 120 locations in range of most major US cities. Of course, buyer beware: you have to arrive before lock-down to be let in – otherwise, you may be on your own outside of a thick steel bank-vault door.

Secret locations, high elevations and remote installations are part of the project plan. On-site power and water wells make these sites energy-independent for long-term off-the-grid living. Abundant (one year or more) supplies of medicine, food and fuel make for health and safe living while waiting for whatever disaster is befalling the wider world to presumably subside.

Community spaces are provided to alleviate tedium by replicating city social life and a medical center is prepared to care for people sick or injured during or after the disaster that (literally) drove them underground. Each system of ten units is built to house a total of 200 or so residents – space for your friends and family.

So maybe it sounds extreme, and some of these disasters sound far-fetched, but to those with the spare funds to purchase one: why not? It is a bit like fire, flood or other natural disaster and emergency insurance for you home, just on a much larger scale. The biggest worry, it would seem, would be your neighbors: after all, you might be stuck under the ground with them for a good long while!

Exactly how much does this cost, though? Well – the peace of mind of owning this property you’ll probably (hopefully) never have to use will set you back a $25,000 deposit plus a 99-year land lease of $1,000 a year.

More info from Terra Vivos

“Within a 24 hour drive from virtually all points within the United States. Vivos xPoint is strategically and centrally located in one of the safest areas of North America, at a high and dry altitude of 3,800+/- feet, well inland from all large bodies of water; and, 100+/- miles from the nearest known military nuclear targets.”

“It’s difficult to capture the enormous scale of Vivos xPoint, nearly 3/4 of the size of Manhattan, NYC. Standing at one end of the complex, you cannot see the furthest bunkers on the horizon. This former Army Munitions Depot, with 575 hardened concrete military bunkers is the largest survival shelter community on Earth, with accommodations for more than 5,000 like-minded survivalists to ride out ‘the event’ and the aftermath to follow. The Vivos security team can spot anyone approaching the property from 3 miles away with just one road in and out.”

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Like another living layer on top of the core concrete structures and wooden support buildings, this extensive (and intensive) green roof system is more than just a sustainable building strategy – it is a way of connecting people and places within this curious and layered complex.

The site itself is dotted with a series of independent buildings for various functions and members of the family. The roofs provide insulation, clean air and even edible produce but are also linked together by a system of bridges and stairs. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), this critical design choice would not be possible in places with stricter building codes (this dwelling was designed by RA Architects and built in Japan).

The ‘core’ functions are contained at the corners of the plot in concrete bunker-like boxes, including the master living quarters and spaces for cars. The ‘secondary’ uses expected to change over time – such as living, dining and rooms for children – are housed inside of in-between structures of more temporary materials (mainly wood).

The complex that arises from these connected-but-distinct elements feels almost more like a small co-op or community dwelling system than a family home, combining elements of privacy with spaces for public connection. Yet on top of it all, there is the direct experience of literally living together under a single (very green) roof.

“From the surrounding environment, we thought that combining small volumes would be more in harmony with the surrounding environment than one large volume. As a result, we read the owner’s request and planned 12 one-story boxes with different volumes and colors according to their functions. , They were arranged in a ring. Residents can live while wandering around this ring-shaped plan. A garden is created in the center of the ring of boxes arranged in a row, and gardens of various sizes are created between the border with the rectangular adjacent land. The plan is to connect the inside and the outside in various places.”

“And above all, the feature of this plan is the orchard on the roof. Considering the heat insulation of the room, most of the roofs of the one-story houses were greened, and trees and vegetable gardens with fruits were planned. This rooftop orchard is a garden for families to grow while enjoying the fruit, and at the same time a landscape that neighbors can visually enjoy through the windows on the second floor, and the residents can enjoy it. It is also a community garden that provides the fruits harvested to the neighbors and celebrates the harvest together. And birds and insects will gather and their songs will be fun for everyone living here.”

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Manufactured mobile homes are rarely made-to-order and, when they are, the options for sale on these standard caravans are often a limited and rigid predetermined set. What if you could buy a trailer home the same way you do a custom house, with an architect to design and detail it around your camping, moving or living needs?

Reflected in the complex geometry of the finished structure, the steps for creating these custom mobile living spaces is designed to be incredibly personalized. Customers are not just buying a product but this process as well, complete with a complex series of detailed questions and an actual team of architects to complete the design using a vast array of modular parts, accessories and awnings available from Merhzeller manufacturers

The end result is a unique and futuristic portable house with niche living, lounging, dining, working and/or sleeping space manufactured to be completely custom and entirely dependent on client needs for their particular motorhomes. With an increased focus on design at the intersection of customization and standardization, this modular camper van concept seems timed perfectly from an architectural standpoint.

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