During their first visits to the site, the architects were struck by the look of the large orange gantry cranes, which reminded them of “living alien creatures with a sense of surrealism.” That led them to a vivid color scheme and a sci-fi-flavored vision for elevated buildings that feel like a futuristic, free-walking city, “seemingly arriving here from elsewhere, and perhaps traveling elsewhere once again someday,” says lead architect Ma Yansong.

Working with the China Academy of Building Research (CASR), MAD Architects plans to transform the current cargo terminal in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area into a new city complex and tourist attraction. The most visually striking part is called the Yangtze River Skywalk, a 1400-foot-long complex made up of six separate but interconnected buildings that seem to rise and fall in an organic line when viewed from a distance. This mimics the rhythm of the industrial freight terminal cranes in both form and color, while their elevated positions preserve open views of the river.

An aluminum curtain wall lends a surreal feel to the building, which also hosts mixed-use retail spaces, restaurants, and other commercial areas. Beneath the “floating” skywalk is a new Cruise Ship Landscape Park and Cruise Ship Hall that extends the Cuntan Central Golden Axis Pier to form a new link between the adjacent Pier Park and Century Cuntan Park. Together, they’ll create a massive new urban green space offering scenic views of the river and city from a place that’s currently unpleasantly industrial.

“Chongqing has mountains and waters,” says Yansong. “However, the Yangtze River is more than just a natural landscape in Chongqing. Because of human activities such as shipping traffic and industrial transport, this mountain city is also full of energy and movement. We want to transform this energy in Chongqing from traces of industry into an energy that stimulates the imagination. People can feel the kinetic energy of the city here, but also imagine the public spaces of the future.”

MAD says the scheme will create a new urban landmark while shifting the feel from industrial to a greener, more attractive vision of urban life. The Chongqing Cuntan International Cruise Center is part of a larger effort by local officials to transform the area for tourists and residents alike. In fact, they imagine that this stretch of the Yangtze will become “the world’s preeminent river cruise port” with an unusual mix of ship, port, city, tourism, shopping, and entertainment attractions. Construction is expected to begin in November 2022, with completion by 2027.

The post MAD Architects’ Cruise Ship Terminal Brings Futuristic Alien Vibes to Chongqing, China first appeared on Dornob.

So what does this bustling medieval city have to do with the dynamic and foward-thinking Zaha Hadid Architects? While Tallinn itself remains beautifully preserved, its layout has been described by some as somewhat problematic for being isolated from its own very important port.

Enter the Tallin Port Masterplan 2030: a design competition aimed at better connecting Tallinn to its port, improving under-built areas, creating better opportunities to utilize existing resources, and bringing the whole town into the modern age.

And who better to complete this ambitious project than Zaha Hadid Architects? The firm has long been known for its futuristic bend and geometric shapes that often seem to defy the laws of physics. Among the firm’s most famous recent projects is the Zugló City Centre in Budapest, a mixed-use development that connects green spaces with urban residential and commercial areas, seamlessly blending the two into a oasis that’s both sustainable and synchronistic. That project, announced in 2017, is set for completion in 2029, according to the firm’s website.

Much like the Budapest City Centre project, the focus for the Tallinn Port seems to hinge on connectivity. “Our vision for the harbor redevelopment master plan is to create a new recognizable and distinct gateway to the city of Tallinn, a new city fabric interconnected with the adjacent city districts,” ZHA recently said in an official statement.

The new area will consist of mixed-use structures including residential, commercial, and leisure-focused properties meant to revitalize the Old Town area, though none of the oldest buildings will themselves be changed. Dubbed “Streamcity” by ZHA, the area will, like many of their other projects, also contain a green space, this time in the form of a public park.

According to reports, the famed architectural firm plans to work with several other firms to bring the project to fruition, including landscape design consultant Tyrens UK and Latvian firm RemPro. Also working closely with the Port of Tallinn, ZHA will transform the Baltic Sea port and the surrounding area into a modern, dynamic space that will most certainly bring the UNESCO World Heritage Site into the 21st century while still maintaining its medieval charm and character. While there have been no recent updates for the city’s Masterplan 2030, we can most likely expect this dynamic project to be completed sometime in 2029 or 2030 — yet another feather in the Zaha Hadid’s world-renowned cap.

The post Zaha Hadid Architects Wins Contest to Modernize One of Europe’s Oldest Ports first appeared on Dornob.

MAD Architects envisions a fluid, reflective staircase that will pierce the roof of the pre-existing Fenix warehouse, soaring through a new atrium on the building’s first and second floors and up toward the sky to act as a sculptural overlook. Renderings depict the staircase as a dramatic blue swirl gleaming in the sunlight, adjacent to an enormous abstracted seagull perched on the edge of the warehouse’s roof.

In selecting the Chinese firm to bring the project to life, the Droom en Daad [“Dream and Do”] Foundation honors both the merits of the firm’s striking design and the fact that its location was once home to one of Europe’s oldest Chinatowns. This project marks the first time a public cultural building in Europe has been designed by a Chinese architectural agency.

“Around the 1900s, it was here that one could find opium kits, and that the first Chinese restaurant opened its doors in the Netherlands, and possibly in Europe,” explains the MAD team. “By choosing MAD Architects for this project, this forgotten part of history will be brought to life once more.”

Droom en Daad also commissioned the Rotterdam-based company Bureau Polderman to restore the historic warehouse, which used to be among the largest of its kind in the world. Built in 1923 by Dutch architect CN van Goor, its contained within an expansive concrete building once used for the storage and shipment of commodities. Two railway lines cut right into the building — an especially remarkable feature given the time period.

Parts of the complex were damaged during World War II, and though they were later rebuilt, port activity eventually relocated to the west, rendering it obsolete. Now, on the eve of their rebirth, the Fenix name seems more fitting than ever before. The new structure creates an eye-catching silhouette at the water’s edge, acting as a fresh landmark for the city of Rotterdam.

The firm went on to explain that the facility’s first floor would soon function as a museum highlighting Rotterdam’s history of migration, as millions of migrants left Europe through this port on their way to new lives in the United States.

“We are proud to realize a dynamic transformation of the historical warehouse that will encourage people to move through the space, and be enjoyed by the community,” says Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects. “It will lift body and mind and be a place of pleasure and contemplation. The Fenix will inspire wonder and exploration about the past, the present, and the future.”

Wim Pijbes, Director of the Droom en Daad Foundation, says MAD was his first choice for the job from the very beginning, mostly because he knew they’d be able to come up with something organic and feminine to soften the industrial skyline of the Katendrecht borough.

“The Fenix Warehouse will become a landmark for all those millions who left Europe from the banks of the Maas, and for everybody arriving today,” he adds. “It offers a great future for Rotterdam’s past.”

The post A Spiral Staircase Pierces the Roof of This Historic Warehouse Turned Landmark first appeared on Dornob.

The house was initially two stories tall and built using brick masonry that had begun to leak and crumble in the twenty years since its construction. High winds, salt water, and sand erosion are no joke! To make the home more structurally sound and protect it from further exposure to the harsh coastal elements, the architects surrounded the original brick in a five-inch layer of concrete.

The design team also noticed that the captain’s house was relatively squat compared to the surrounding buildings and that its bathrooms occupied most of the interior space closest to the ocean—an arrangement that they felt was wasting some gorgeous vistas. To make the most of the home’s seaside location, the architects rearranged its layout so that common areas like the living and dining rooms could overlook the sea and have more access to fresh air and natural daylight. They also equipped the house with a rounded, lookout-like third floor.

The third story is undoubtedly one of the renovation’s most spectacular additions. The textured concrete of the room’s vaulted ceiling beautifully contrasts with its wooden floors. Up a small ladder, this new area houses a loft that the family can use to gaze out over the land or sea, unobstructed by the roofs of neighboring houses. Vector explains that the balconies on the each end of the vault tie the home to two drastically different worlds: “one being the serene sea [and] the other one being the noisy port.” The roof’s rounded shape encourages rainwater to run off the sides of the house, reducing the potential for leaks. More symbolically, the arched ceiling simulates the feel of a temple, in which the captain’s religious family will be able to meditate and pray. Of course, the space has been left relatively open to accommodate changing needs and is also ideal for working out, playing games, and entertaining guests.

Downstairs, new concrete window frames that protrude from the house have been installed as part of a “window-furniture” system. Aside from being windows, these extended areas can also be used as couches or lounge chairs and contain several cabinets for storage. Plus, the overhang of their concrete envelopes will help prevent water and unwanted wind from entering the house. In the living room, family members can climb into one of these padded window seats to read, draw, or daydream. The master bedroom even hosts an extra-deep windowsill that doubles as a desk!

“At dusk, the gentle light comes out from the[se] translucent glass blocks,” read the architects’ project notes. “We hope the house gradually becomes the carrier of emotion for the captain’s family, and gives deserved dignity and decency to the daily life of ordinary people, which is particularly meaningful under the current circumstance of China.”

The post Renovation of a Captain’s House: Unusual Seaside Home Design first appeared on Dornob.

In our endless quest to simplify and slim laptop computers and other portable devices, sometimes functionality gets sacrificed in the name of sleek efficiency.

Instead of suggesting you add more USB ports to your ultra-thin device, Gonglue Jiang proposes you simple stack more USB devices into a single port.

A color-coding system helps keep track of which cord is running which extension, though beyond three of four this otherwise-brilliant solution could start to seem a tad awkward. A neat extension (no pun intended) of this idea would be to have the first in line be a storage device – something you might leave plugged in much or most of the time anyway, and that wouldn’t add another cord to the mix.

The post Stackable USB Solution Lets You Do More with Just One Port first appeared on Dornob.

In difficult economic times, repurposed architecture takes on new meaning and immediacy. Two Greek design students at the University of Thessaly, Yorgos Rimenidis & Michalis Softas, took on the task of imagining how waterfront cranes could be converted into residential spaces.

Cranes are unwieldy urban creatures – massive, expensive, and often occupying significant and valuable downtown space. This idea incorporates these old structures into the existing urban fabric with minimal alterations, and could bring fresh capital to failing cities via high-end real estate.

The design also utilizes existing functionality of the crane, allowing residents to rotate their habitat to take maximum advantage of solar power, for instance, or use the crane’s lifting capabilities to pick up shipping containers and expand living spaces.

Of course, this is a student concept design – it has pragmatic limitations in the real world. Nonetheless, as a short-term solution in unused ports or simple a rhetorical device for engaging urban reuse it is rather brilliant and quite beautiful.

Via Archdaily:

“The lofts are also a self-sufficient infrastructure with sustainble ideas: photovoltaics would provide the energy needed for warm water and heating, a wind catcher is placed, for summer ventilation and winter heating in the central axes of the building, in addition to a combined collection of rain and grey water system.”

“The control room of the automation of the CRANELOFT is placed to the preexistent crane control room. From that point the rotation system of the crane, the container’s movement, and the inclination of the photovoltaic panels can be programmed. In addition, this is the point from where the light and water consumption can be controlled.  The whole structure can rotate 360 degrees due to a mechanism in the structure’s base.  This controller orientates itself with the use of solar sensors so that, in collaboration with the electrical shadowing system on the glass surfaces, the sunning or shadowing depending on the needs, is granted.”

The post Craneloft: Making a Home Inside Urban Heavy Equipment first appeared on Dornob.

Sometimes something begs for a simple solution. The nearly-ubiquitous USB port is perhaps the technological poster child for an obvious failure to work both ways (right-side-up or upside-down) despite looking perfectly symmetrical on both sides. Thankfully, and finally, this has been tackled from two directions (appropriately enough): one more idealistic, one more realistic, but both ingenious.

Ma Yi Xuan is a student designer who has solved the problem in theory, and in reality by UltraTek‘s new Flipper. These answers have been a long time coming. This author, for example, has bend more than one USB plug (and port), though fortunately only destroyed one to date.

In the student version, there is a piece on either side of the interior that slides out of the way to reveal a data connection – which half moves depends on what way the plug is placed into the accepting slot. Simple, but vital for making this work both ways.

If you have not encountered the error of normal-style USB plugs, well, it is becoming a bigger issue the more we compute on a daily basis. In short: while there are sometimes visual indicators on the exterior housing of a plug-in, a forceful failure to insert the cord in the correct way can damage the socket permanently. Having a switchable solution could save many people from painfully expensive hardware fixes and replacements.

The post Double-Sided Design Solves Painfully Universal USB Problem first appeared on Dornob.

Multi-functional transforming furniture design can fantastic and secret rooms add mystery – but what about entire convertible spaces Perfect for the well-to-do but tight-on-space professional urban dweller, this creative custom car elevator by Cardok turns a residential patio into a hidden parking space.

Of course, the design can carry a great deal of weight, making the top platform suitable for traversing and gathering when not in use. It is powerful enough to even tun one parking space into two as shown above.

While many of us may not be able to afford such a luxurious hydraulic design of this kind for our own cars it is certainly a good space-saving solution in dense urban areas where space can cost more than the clever technologies developed to save it.

The post Secret Agent Style: Stealth Lift Patio + Car Elevator first appeared on Dornob.