“We’ve tried to take all the iconic qualities of Quito – such as the enjoyment of living in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, in a city on the equator where the seasons are perfect for both human and plant life – and bring that experience into the vertical dimension,” says BIG’s founder Bjarke Ingels. “IQON is an entire vertical community of individual homes; an extension of La Carolina Park that now climbs all the way up to the rooftop.”

BIG approached the design in characteristically bold fashion. “IQON’s architectural identity is defined by its ‘stripped back’ facade.” the BIG website says. “The raw, exposed concrete simultaneously functions as the building’s structure. Individual ‘pixels’ are stacked 32 floors high and rotated to provide the best possible views while simultaneously creating terraces for the apartments.”

The building consists of 220 residential apartment units ranging from one to three bedrooms in size. Some apartments even have panoramic views of the city and the nearby Pichincha volcano. “Each apartment floor features through-units – apartments that have terraces on both the north and south facades – which not only allows for views across the entire city, but also offers the opportunity for cross ventilation and a sense of openness, ” explains BIG partner Thomas Christofferson.

The country’s rich biodiversity is fully embraced in the IQON plan. “Celebrating native trees and plants, the building integrates greenery wherever possible to take advantage of Ecuador’s temperate climate and ecology – the country with the most plant species per square meter in the world,” the company website says. Trees and shrubs adorn each balcony, and the ground floor features a public vegetable garden.

The building’s ecosystem is intentionally circular. As the company explains, “The building also acts as an urban tree farm; once the vegetation planted on the terraces outgrows its planter, it can be replanted in parks all over the city. In this way, the building becomes part of a green cycle – from park to building, and back to park.”

The lower floors incorporate room for five retail shops and 36 commercial offices, and the inside of the ground floor offers a soft contrast to the building’s sharp-angled exterior. “The ground floor plaza includes generous public spaces, retail units, and public art. This central plaza functions as a new east-west pathway, connecting the park to the rest of the neighborhood,” the BIG website says. “Upon entering the lobby, the material palette transitions from the raw, pared-back exterior to a more refined aesthetic; marble stone pavers complement the custom millwork reception desk, and concrete touchpoints nod to the facade. Deep emerald green tones are utilized on the ceiling tiles, mailboxes, and through to the elevator lobby – an area located beyond a blackened-steel portal.”

IQON also boasts a rooftop pool and terrace, sports and spa facilities, a music room, and a bowling alley.

“IQON…represent[s] the ongoing transformation of Quito into a cornerstone of architecture, design, and innovation,” said Uribe Schwarzkopf’s co-founder Tommy Schwarzkopf. “As the first residents move in and businesses begin to take space in the building, we are looking forward to seeing [it] come to life and become part of the fabric of the city.”

The post BIG’s First South American Project is the Tallest Building in Quito first appeared on Dornob.

It may seem like heavily developed cities don’t have a lot of room for more greenery, but Singapore is proving there are all kinds of ways to integrate it, even within skyscrapers. CapitaSpring by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Carlo Ratti Associati is the latest project to bring beautiful vegetation to Singapore’s extremely dense urban fabric.

Standing over 918 feet tall, CapitaSpring incorporates an incredible 80,000 plants spread across its 51 floors. These green spaces offer a “seamless transition between the garden and the city,” with lushly planted oases concentrated at the base, core, and roof of the building.

“As someone with Singaporean heritage, I have been honored and humbled by the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing evolution of architecture in Singapore as a distinct blending between the contemporary and the tropical,” says Brian Yang, Partner in Charge of BIG. “In our design, this manifests as a seamless transition between the garden and the city, articulated in the facades and a series of lush spiraling gardens connecting between various programs and filled with amenities representing a spectrum of use.”

“Our design seeks to continue Singapore’s pioneering vertical urbanism with the 2800-meter tall diverse neighborhood of places to work, live, and play inside as well as outside,” says Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG. “Due to the unique character of Singapore’s urbanism — both extremely dense and green — we decided to make the design a vertical exploration of tropical urbanism. At grade, the street is closed to form a new linear park and public plaza.”

Ingels adds that “a vertical park in the middle of the tower forms a spiraling promenade ascending among tropical tree trunks and canopies. On top, an urban forest feeds all the restaurants and cafés in the building and allows visitors to enjoy the lushness of the summit.”

The lower eight floors of the building contain residences with amenities like a swimming pool, jogging track, gym, jacuzzi, lounge, social kitchen, and barbecue pits. The upper 29 floors contain premium office spaces. The “Green Oasis” is in between, an open-air garden where residents, office workers, and visitors can all stroll around, gather, and relax.

Singapore is one of the 100 most crowded cities in the world, with a population of about 6 million. It’s also one of the greenest. In 1965, in the aftermath of British colonial rule, Singaporean leaders decided the nation-state would focus on becoming a “Garden City,” prioritizing green spaces and creative ways to introduce plants to the urban environment.

With limited land supply, Singapore builds upwards, encouraging architects and developers to allow skyscrapers and gardens to intertwine. Projects like Marina Bay Sands, Raffles City, Changi Airport, and now CapitaSpring serve as role models for the world, demonstrating the value of creative green spaces in growing cities.

The post BIG and Carlo Ratti Complete a Beautiful Biophilic Skyscraper in Singapore 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.”

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The restaurant design is impressive from the moment visitors walk in the door. The cocoon-like vaulted lobby is surrounded by a wooden space divider that takes its shape from the Ling Ling logo, which is rendered in neon. A low ceiling consisting of bunched illuminated textiles helps foster an atmosphere of suspense before guests are ushered into the surprisingly grand interiors, where trailing greenery frames a full-sized tree strung with outdoor lighting.

“The restaurant’s interior design concept started out with the idea of generating a space recalling the grand courtyards and terraces so characteristic of Mexican architecture,” the architects explain. “This was one of the greatest challenges in the design of the project, with the formal approach and the design process using structural elements and construction methods that helped to blur the boundary between architecture and interior design. As a result, the idea emerged of a triple-height space with a porticoed structure and lush vegetation of the terrace.”

Ceilings consisting of neutral-toned wooden louvers give the restaurant the appearance of a natural landscape, “carved” out to envelop the dining areas and give them an intimate feeling despite the expansiveness of the space. Though abstracted, the result mimics the feel of adjacent buildings, mountains, and trees surrounding a courtyard and generates a natural traffic pattern through the restaurant’s many rooms. With natural light and views providing the space’s dominating features, the architects focused on a palette of vegetative hues.

“The space benefits from the triple height and corner location to surprise guests with a glazed atrium structure offering 270-degree views across the whole city,” the firm adds. “Meanwhile, the inner salon and dining room are enclosed within a vaulted structure constructed using wood stereotomy techniques, highlighted by gentle illumination, and fitted out with custom-made furniture. Under this wood structure, the Sushi Bar recreates an Asian atmosphere that will bring the guests face-to-face with the preparation of the cuisine, giving a more personal touch to their experience. On the other hand, the main bar encloses a perfect frame of the skyline of the city through an item of dynamic furniture.”

Ling Ling Restaurant and Chapultepec Uno are located in the historic Reforma neighborhood, steps away from popular Mexico City landmarks like the Diana the Huntress Fountain and the Angel of Independence. If you want the best views in the house, reserve the Tres 60 table, a banquette sitting at the point of the dining room so you feel like you’re floating above the city.

The post A Tree-Filled Courtyard at the Top of a Skyscraper: Ling Ling Restaurant in Mexico City first appeared on Dornob.

Located at 111 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, the skinny spectacle is almost like a shiny finger pointing to the heart of the verdantly green Central Park. And its location on Billionaires’ Row is certainly appropriate — the reflective exterior fits right in with nearby statuesque structures like Central Park Tower. Home to some of the most expensive residences in the world, many of these buildings are also some of the tallest in the world, and SHoP Architects’ lanky newcomer is no exception, being the second tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

Also known as the Steinway Building, the extravagant edifice is itself a residential space that’s ready to welcome prospective tenants to a real-life “Jack in the Beanstalk” living experience. But despite its alarming height, the Steinway Tower won’t be blowing over any time soon. According to SHoP, it was built using the strongest concrete in the world.

The tower accommodates one residence per floor and includes such luxe amenities as an 82-foot swimming pool, a private dining room, and a double-height fitness center with its own terrace. Grandiose and glamorous, the interiors were designed by Studio Sofield and pair perfectly with the stunning park views visible through the building’s many north-facing windows.

A project almost 10 years in the making, the skyscraper’s construction stalled in 2017 due to budgetary problems, and it was unknown whether it would ever be completed. Fast forward to April 2022, and the adding of the final exterior touches finalized its completion. Today, the slender spire has truly earned its name as it takes its place among some of the most luxurious structures on the planet.

Also responsible for The Brooklyn Tower, SHoP Architects have really outdone themselves with the super skinny Steinway Building. Impressively tapered and immaculately mirrored, the tower majestically stretches its pencil-thin way to new heights in the NYC skyline.

The post 10 Years Later, the World’s Skinniest Skyscraper is Finally Complete first appeared on Dornob.

This will be MAD’s second US project to date, the first being the “Gardenhouse” in Beverly Hills. A combined residential/commercial space, that project is the perfect representation of the firm’s “Shanshui City” philosophy, meant to inspire, stimulate, and fulfill both the spiritual and emotional needs of its inhabitants through a connection with their surrounding urban environments. These connections are based on creating an urban setting that integrates nature with clean lines and plenty of natural light. Impactful, luxurious, and harmonious, these spaces are meant to elicit physical and emotional connections through architecture and design.

And the new Star building looks to be a continuation of this dynamic philosophy, from its unusual, curvilinear shape to its tree-filled terraces and gardens that are strategically placed throughout. Like the Gardenhouse, it’s also meant to create community connections for not only its inhabitants, but for the pedestrians that frequent the adjacent Sunset Boulevard.

Though MAD took inspiration from some famous Hollywood landmarks for the design, the Star is exceptional in its own right Towering above its neighbors, the 500,000 square foot high-rise will be immediately recognizable among the Hollywood skyline due to its unusual shape and construction. Similar to The Gherkin in London, yet even rounder and more egg-like in appearance, the Star is essentially an enormous glass dome supported by three pipes running through the center of the main structure. But the real draw here is the thin band running across the glassy giant which doubles as a funicular track. On top of that, the new building will also house an enclosed rooftop restaurant, an event space, and a 360-degree observation deck

Of course, special thought was given to the building’s relationship with its biggest users: namely, the employees that will eventually be housed within its shimmering ovoid walls. With an eye toward a “post-COVID reality,” the Star will be designed with its inhabitants’ well-being at the forefront, as seen in the plans for several outdoor spaces and curated gardens scattered throughout the facility for workers to enjoy. Environment was also a key factor in the design process, with the designers aiming to underscore the building’s light, airy qualities for a decidedly approachable feel.

With its dynamic shape and curvature, MAD Architects’ new Star building is destined be a beacon of architectural amazement in the heart of Hollywood. Even better, its futuristic form will house an environment designed to enhance the well-being of the people working inside it — a continuation of the firm’s singular philosophy of integrating nature into forward-thinking design concepts that encourage community involvement and healthy living for all.

The post A Star is Born with MAD Architects’ New Hollywood Office High-Rise first appeared on Dornob.

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Celebrity invitees to the exclusive live-streamed debut received “black boxes” containing kits to build their own miniature Louis Vuitton-embossed wooden planes along with the invites, presented as Louis Vuitton-branded airline sick bags.

The presentation itself is a video inspired by “Stranger in the Village,” a 1953 essay by novelist James Baldwin, featuring Saul Williams wandering through a snow-covered landscape with embossed luggage in hand before entering a marble-clad set inside the Tennis Club de Paris (modeled after Mies Van Der Rohe’s iconic 1929 Barcelona Pavilion). Models chat on benches, casually lean against walls throughout the space as if they’re waiting for flights, or stride around with purpose, all showing off their ensembles in the process.

Notably featuring an unusually high number of Black models, the presentation also explores Abloh’s feelings about appropriation of Black culture. Performances include spoken word poetry by Williams and British poet Kai-Isaiah Jamal, whose poem includes the line “As Black people, and as trans people, and as marginalized people, the world is here for our taking, for it takes so much from us.” Rapper Yasiin Bey, better known as Mos Def, closes the show.

“In ‘Stranger in the Village,’ Baldwin draws parallels between his experiences as an African-American visitor in the Swiss mountain village of Leukerbad in the 1950s – the only person of color – and his life as a Black citizen of America,” the show keynotes read. “It deals with the experience of being recognized and gazed upon as different, illegible, even alien. Emblematic of this circumstance, ‘Stranger in the Village” also illuminates the experience of being Black in Europe, and being a Black artist in the birthplace of European art. The performance embodies the physical confrontations with the psychological conflicts explored in Baldwin’s essay.”

According to the keynotes, the figures we see include male archetypes such as “the Artist, the Salesman, the Architect, the Drifter, etc.” The collection, they say, asks, “Who can claim art? What defines low vs. high? Who gets to make art? Who gets to consume it?”

The clothes are as sharp as you’d expect from Abloh and Louis Vuitton, consisting mostly of crisp suits, puffer jackets, vibrant patterns, and silhouettes that bust gender norms, like skirts and pleated dresses. References to travel pop up all over, too, including oversized buttons and handbags shaped like planes.

None of the clothes are more dramatic than a pair of “wearable miniature cityscapes,” which blur the lines between sculpture and clothing. Crafted as detailed 3D models rendered in typical puffer jacket materials, they include the “Paris Skyline Puffer,” featuring monuments like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre, and Arc de Triomphe, and the “New York City Skyline Puffer,” featuring skyscrapers from New York and other cities.

Abloh became Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Artistic Director in 2019. An artist, architect, engineer, creative director, and designer, Abloh completed a Master’s Degree in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in a curriculum founded by Mies van Der Rohe, an influence that comes through more clearly in this collection than perhaps any other in his career.

The post Architecture Meets Fashion in Virgil Abloh’s Fall-Winter 2021 Collection for Louis Vuitton first appeared on Dornob.

But how do we house all of those people and meet all their needs? Most experts say the answer is vertical expansion. Urban architecture is set to grow taller and taller, and that’s not just limited to offices and apartment buildings. A new concept by architecture firm Carlo Ratti Associati illustrates how even sporting complexes will soon reach up into the clouds, to potentially dazzling effect.

“Playscraper” is a tower of eight stacked tennis courts, each one offset from the one below it for visual interest and alternating views of the city. Developed for RCS Sport, the sport and media branch of European multimedia publishing group RCS MediaGroup, this isn’t just some visionary idea created without a care for whether or not it could really be built. Its architects worked with a team of engineers and technical consultants to come up with a practical design based on a new construction technology that allows for ultra-tall but extremely strong structures. Inspired by the outer shell of a spacecraft, the B-Core slab structure consists of several prefabricated layers of lightweight stainless steel.

Eight of these steel boxes (each featuring transparent walls on two sides) are stacked to a height of 300 feet, offering 60,000 square feet (5,500 square meters) of total playing space. Each floor contains one stand-alone tennis court with a 35-foot ceiling height. As matches are played inside, the action can be streamed outside via electronic facades running along the long sides of each box, letting the public take part in the fun.

“This project would not just create a new icon for sports lovers,” says architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, founder of CRA and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab. “It also experiments with a new type of public space, extending vertically instead of horizontally. The tower is easy to install and dismantle and can be easily moved. This flexible approach fits the circular nature of today’s sports competitions, which move from location to location throughout the year.”

B-Core technology, developed by Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), is the key component of this skyscraper’s likelihood of eventually being built. The B-Core CTS slab consists of two steel panels clipped together with thin-walled internal tubes, with the gaps between the tubes filled with rock wool for thermal insulation.

These panels can be prefabricated and then assembled quickly and easily onsite. In fact, BSB used them to demonstrate how a four-story building could be erected overnight. CTS slabs are ten times lighter than reinforced concrete for far greater earthquake resistance, have 100 times more corrosion resistance than carbon steel, and boast a nearly limitless lifespan. It’s safe to say we’ll see a lot more structures built with this technology in the near future.

The post Playscraper: Eight Stacked Tennis Courts with Transparent Walls first appeared on Dornob.

It definitely doesn’t look like anything New York City’s ever seen. With its undulating facade rising 2,418 feet into the sky, “Mandragora” is powered by 36 wind turbines and nearly 23,000 square feet of solar panels. Its elongated base is almost as wide as Roosevelt Island itself, which lies in the East River between Manhattan Island to the west and the borough of Queens to the east. In fact, the bottom of the structure looks a lot like a cruise ship docked in the river, albeit one that’s been stretched vertically to almost comical proportions.

The organic shape of the tower is a striking contrast to the more rectilinear, symmetrical architecture that surrounds it. The architects wanted it to visually represent a connection between humankind and nature despite its location in one of the world’s biggest metropolises. Developed as a response to the idea of “the city of tomorrow,” which would theoretically become carbon neutral by 2050, the 160-floor tower also incorporates organic materials like wood. 83,000 square feet of “plant walls” bring a whole lot of greenery to the exterior, supporting 8,300 shrubs and 1,600 trees.

The tower combines both residential and commercial functions, but it’s also counting on its residents to achieve its lofty eco-friendly goals. For instance, each apartment will include an office, with occupants encouraged to work from home if possible to save the carbon emissions associated with commuting.

Rescubika named the tower Mandragora after the mandrake, a plant with a curious root shape resembling a human form. “The symbolism of the body confronts us with our own destiny, the one that reminds us that we must preserve our environment in order to live in symbiosis with nature,” they explain.

New York City’s local NBC station got reactions to the tower from some of their viewers, and many were skeptical. One woman said: “By the time they build it, I’ll be dead.” But how likely is it really that this tower will ever be built? Not very, and even if construction started tomorrow, that woman’s assessment still seems accurate. It’s definitely an out-there concept that’s still probably a few decades away from being considered realistic.

However, New York City is among the many cities working toward ambitious climate goals. The Climate Mobilization Act aims to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030, which will require some innovation in architectural design and city planning. If nothing else, Mandragora could help inspire other forward-thinking designs.

Rescubika has a lot more visionary concepts where this one came from. The firm’s portfolio includes similar vegetated towers, picturesque floating cities, upcycled shipping container architecture, spiraling treehouse structures, and other unique designs. The team consists of lead architect and founder Benoit Patterlini, Camille Libeyre, Stéphane Reulier, Nicolas Deburge, and Paul Daireaux.

The post 2,400-Foot-Tall Futuristic Tower Proposed for Roosevelt Island first appeared on Dornob.

Planned by Israeli-born Canadian architect Moshe Safdie in collaboration with CapitaLand, one of the largest diversified real estate groups in Asia, Raffles City is truly a feat of engineering. The site is exposed to strong winds, so the glass conservatory known as “The Crystal” features an advanced system of frictional pendulum bearings and seismic dampers to make it more flexible. The promenade alone is made of 12,000 tons of steel, 3,000 sections of glass panels, and 5,000 aluminum panels.

Located in an urban district between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, the 1.12-million-square-meter project contains a shopping mall, offices, 1400 residential apartments, and a luxury hotel in addition to the themed observation deck, sky gardens full of mature trees, infinity pool, and food and beverage zone found in the public areas.

“Projects of this scale and density can easily be overbearing and imposing, impenetrable and seeming to turn their back on the cities of which they are a part,” says Safdie. “Raffles City Chongqing, although vertically organized into a series of towers, strives to connect to the city’s existing network of streets and systems. It also transforms the site podium into a network of public and open spaces. Additionally, a sky conservatory, which bridges between four towers, draws the active public life high up into the project.”

“This historic site in Chongqing is located at the center of the city, in the heart of a densely developed existing city infrastructure,” says Safdie. “We carefully studied and incorporated the city street organization, engaging the historic shopping streets and using their organization to help arrange and bring order to the complex programming of the project.”

Safdie took inspiration from the area’s waterway transportation culture, envisioning the overall structure as a giant sailboat, with the two tallest, most prominent skyscrapers slightly curved against the wind as the complex points its nose into the water. As you may recognize from its shape, it’s also reminiscent of one of Safdie’s best known projects, Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands hotel.

The skybridge, also known as “The Crystal,” transforms into a giant beam of light after dark, illuminating the sky with nightly light shows. It features the glass-bottomed “Exploration Deck,” which juts out at one end, and two additional aerial walkways connecting it to other skyscrapers. Tickets to experience The Exploration Deck, the first major attraction to launch in Chongqing since the lifting of the country’s nationwide lockdown, sold out almost as soon as they were made available.

“More than just a building, Raffles City Chongqing is a landmark urban renewal project that expresses and shapes Chongqing’s global city aspirations,” says Lim Ming Yan, President and CEO of CapitaLand Limited. “As the master planner of this important site, CapitaLand fully appreciates the historical and cultural significance of Chaotianmen [bridge] to the people of Chongqing. We have thus gone to great lengths to imbue the project with the highest standards of livability, connectivity, and sustainability by carefully studying the needs of the community and the unique attributes of the site. Our goal is to create a vibrant riverfront urban district that serves as a dynamic city gateway befitting of Chongqing’s growing economic influence.”

The post Horizontal Skyscraper by Safdie Architects Opens in China first appeared on Dornob.

Thanks to surprisingly simple processes that form chemical bonds between atoms in cellulose, some types of engineered wood now outperform tried and true (but environmentally harmful) materials like steel and even high-tech titanium alloys when it comes to strength, fire resistance, and impact resistance. Now, ultra-tall wooden projects are in the works all over the world, including the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower.

The Atlassian Sydney Headquarters in Sydney, Australia will be 40 stories and 590 feet tall once complete in 2025. Designed by SHoP in partnership with structural engineering firm BVN, the skyscraper will serve as a new headquarters for technology company Atlassian, which develops software and collaboration tools. Set to house thousands of workers, the building will feature a timber core wrapped in a glass facade, and will include a mix of outdoor and indoor spaces with access to large planted terraces and natural ventilation.

The architects explain that “the building is cutting-edge in its application of Mass Timber Construction (MTC). MTC is one of the most hopeful technologies in moving the construction industry toward real solutions to the global climate crisis. The novel hybrid timber structure is significantly lower in embodied carbon and offers a substantial reduction in the building’s carbon footprint. This is assisting Atlassian’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

“SHoP/BVN found an elegant way to tie a structural element of the building to one of the building’s most aesthetic attributes: the facade. The tower includes a steel exoskeleton that supports the mega floors between neighborhoods. The current design also incorporates an electricity-generating system with self-shade capabilities to reduce direct heat gain internally. Combined with the use of mass timber, the innovative facade enables the project to leverage Sydney’s temperate climate to help reduce carbon emissions and generate on-site energy.”

The project aims to achieve 50 percent less embodied carbon in construction compared to conventional building, and 50 percent less energy consumption using solar panels in the vertical facades to generate renewable power on-site. That means it can operate on 100-percent renewable energy from day one, while also making use of fresh air and Sydney’s temperate climate to keep itself cool.

The race to build “the world’s tallest timber tower” has grown increasingly tight in recent years. One building might achieve the title only to be supplanted by another within months. The current record holder is the 18-story, 295-foot-tall Mjøstarnet by Voll Arkitekter in Norway, completed in 2019, and the one before that was the 18-story, 174-foot-tall Brock Commons Tallwood House in Vancouver, British Columbia. Once complete, the Atlassian will be nearly twice as tall as either of these projects.

The post World’s Tallest Hybrid Timber Building Set for Construction in Australia first appeared on Dornob.

The open-air observation platform aims to take visitors “out of their comfort zone,” not only by virtue of its sheer height, but also through a partial glass floor and angled glass walls. Designed by architecture firm KPF/Kohn Pederson Fox, along with the rest of the 30 Hudson Yards skyscraper, the deck can be accessed through the shops and restaurants within Hudson Yards’ indoor shopping mall.

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Visitors entering the complex are treated to a multimedia “arrival experience” designed by LAB at Rockwell Group before zooming up to the outdoor viewing area via a 52-second elevator ride. The deck itself extends nearly 80 feet from the building, spiking out in an angular shape, with the glass floor set at the very edge. Daredevils can lean against the deck’s nine-foot-tall glass walls to enjoy what’s probably the closest to a bird’s eye perspective of New York City you can get without a parachute.

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In a recent press release, Hudson Yards stated that “a champagne bar, located on the 100th Floor, will offer a glass of champagne or signature cocktail and light bites to enjoy indoors or outdoors on the sky deck. The champagne bar will be operated by London-based rhubarb hospitality group. Rhubarb will also operate Peak, the restaurant, bar, café, and event space located on the 101st Floor. Peak will serve lunch and dinner offering a one-of-a-kind dining and social experience.”

“Designed by William Pedersen and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) and extending out 80 feet from the 100th floor of 30 Hudson Yards, Edge redefines the New York skyline. A marvel of modern engineering and structural design, the 765,000-pound observation deck is comprised of 15 sections, each weighing between 35,000 and 100,000 pounds, all bolted together and anchored to the east and south sides of the building. The 7,500-square-foot outdoor viewing area is surrounded by 79 glass panels, each weighing 1,400 pounds, manufactured in Germany and finished in Italy. [The] interiors of Edge and Peak are being designed by Rockwell Group.”

“Edge will be a major focal point of Hudson Yards, the 28-acre neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side that brings together fashion, dining, and cultural experiences along with the headquarters of dozens of leading corporations, thousands of residences, 14 acres of public parks and open space, and interactive public landmarks including Vessel designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio.”

“Edge” was open for a mere two days before temporarily closing to visitors on Friday, March 13th due to COVID-19, but those thrilling views aren’t going anywhere. You can get more info and reserve tickets for the reopening at EdgeNYC.com.

The platform is the latest tourist attraction to open at the new $25 billion complex Hudson Yards. “Vessel” by architect Thomas Heatherwick is a beehive-shaped public sculpture full of virtually endless staircases to nowhere in particular, with over 2,000 individual steps and 80 landings.

The post NYC’s “Edge” is the Highest Outdoor Sky Deck in the Western Hemisphere first appeared on Dornob.

The Leeza SOHO is positioned just above an underground subway service tunnel, with a rails station next door. Though its envelope is shaped like a rounded cylinder, the interior has a dynamic layout, with the atrium twisting to create continuous convex openings all the way up to the ceiling.

“This rotation of the atrium intertwines Leeza SOHO’s two halves in a dynamic ‘pas de deus’ with connecting skybridge on levels 13, 24, 35 and 45, its glazed facade giving panoramic views across the city,” say the architects. “Leeza SOHO’s atrium acts as a public square for the new business district, linking all spaces within the tower and providing varying views due to its twisting, sculptural form, creating a fantastic new civic space for Beijing that is directly connected to the city’s transport network.”

Not only does the atrium draw natural light all the way down to the building’s lowest levels, it also acts as a “thermal chimney” with an integrated ventilation system to maintain positive pressure and keep internal temperatures regulated. The double-insulated glass curtain wall system draws outside air through narrow openings, offering strategic ventilation and protecting the interiors from Beijing’s hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters.

It’s also designed to achieve LEED Gold certification by the US Green Building Council, with features like an advanced energy management system that monitors energy and resource efficiency using pumps, fans, boilers, smart lighting, water collection, and low-flow fixtures. It’s hard to see from outside, but the Leeza SOHO tower also boasts a green roof that helps insulate the building, as well as an array of solar panels.

The architects add: “At the forefront of 3D Building Information Modeling (BIM) in design, construction management, and building operations, Zaha Hadid Architects and SOHO China have implemented proven technologies to reduce the energy consumption and emissions at each of their four collaborations, totaling 15 million square feet (1.4 million square meters) of mixed-use urban space in Beijing and Shanghai.”

Everything about the tower aims to appeal to the business community of Beijing, from its prime location adjacent to public transit to its 2,680 bicycle parking spaces, shower facilities, dedicated charging spaces for electric and hybrid vehicles, and impressive views.

It’s also close to the new Beijing Daxing International Airport, which is currently in the process of opening. The Fengtai business district is considered integral to Beijing’s plan to accommodate growth without impacting existing networks of infrastructure.

The exterior of the tower is a bit subdued compared to many of the firm’s typically fluid, dramatic, and sculptural works. But step inside, and there’s no question as to who designed the Leeza SOHO. Check out Zaha Hadid’s ultra-thin concrete pavilion, architectural 3D-printed chairs, kitchenware collection and, of course, the Beijing Daxing airport.

The post Zaha Hadid’s Leeza SOHO Skyscraper Features World’s Tallest Atrium first appeared on Dornob.

Tall timber structures are safer than you might think. Recent advancements in manufacturing and engineering have produced mass timber that performs just as well (or better) than steel or concrete, and successful fire tests have alleviated concerns about combustibility. In response, many cities around the world are changing their building codes to allow for super tall timber buildings.

But sustainable architecture is much more than just “eco-friendly materials” and a few measures to save water and energy. Its design should also be holistic, looking at the building’s entire lifecycle and how it will impact its surrounding community. For “The Farmhouse,” Studio Precht developed a modular system “that investigates the connection of people with their food and creates a building that connects architecture with agriculture.”

The design is visually striking, with the geometric framework of the structure fully visible from outside. The individual triangular modules are stacked and capped with glass on their ends, revealing an abundance of greenery growing inside.

The prefabricated A-frame housing modules that form the core of the design combine living spaces with farming so residents can grow food for their own personal use, or to share with neighbors and the community. Each one is customizable, allowing families to choose the interior elements and layouts that work best for them, including bedrooms and balconies, while the water supply and farming items are stored within the outer part of the modules.

”Our motivation for ‘the Farmhouse’ is personal,” write the architects. “two years ago we relocated our office from the center of Beijing to the mountains of Austria. We live and work now off the grid and try to be as self-sufficient as somehow possible. We grow most of the food ourselves and get the rest from neighboring farmers. We have now a very different relation to food. A tomato from your garden tastes different then the one shipped around the globe. We are aware that this lifestyle is not an option for everyone, so we try to develop projects that brings food back to cities.”

“But food and shelter are human needs and architects can rethink their relation. There is an opportunity to reconnect architecture and agriculture and change them to the betterment of both. I think we miss this physical and mental connection with nature, and this project could be a catalyst to reconnect ourselves with the lifecycle of our environment.”

The notion of living inside an indoor mini-farm may seem strange. But once you look at images of the interior layout, it’s clear that the living conditions are modern and beautiful, and the planted spaces offer not just food, but also a tranquil place to connect with nature, which can be hard to come by in urban areas.

What do you think? Would you live here?

The post The Farmhouse: A New Vision for Sustainable Wooden Architecture of the Future first appeared on Dornob.

When the Woolworth Building was first built in 1912, it was the tallest in the world. Now, it’s been eclipsed by many others throughout the city, from the Empire State Building (1931) to One World Trade Center (2014), but it remains one of the city’s most iconic structures. With a price tag of $79 million, its penthouse far eclipses other luxury condominiums in the building, which average around $25 million, but it’s easy to see why, especially with these views.

Designed by award-winning architect David Hotson, The Pinnacle is certainly unique, partially because of its unusual shape. Before Hotson came on board, real estate developer Ken Horn had a hard time figuring out how to market the enormous cylindrical space, which itself is surrounded by four turrets.

Originally pricing it at $110 million, Horn lowered the price to $79 million and tapped Hotson to create renderings for the penthouse so buyers could imagine what it might be like to live inside. Hotson is famous for making magic out of odd and quirky spaces like “Skyhouse,” another awkwardly laid-out penthouse in Manhattan.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal explains that “one prospective buyer wanted to turn it into an enormous one-bedroom bachelor pad. Another wanted to install a small office on a hydraulic lift so that, by pressing a button, he could raise himself up to the level of the observation deck while he worked. One architect wanted to designate some of the space as cold storage, so owners could stash their fur coats. ‘Even architects couldn’t necessarily conceive of the space,’ Mr. Horn said. ‘We realized this is way too complicated for 80 percent of the people who are going to see it.’”

“[Hotson’s] concept for the penthouse calls for a large two-story yacht-like living room with a 360-degree mezzanine level reminiscent of the upper deck of a ship, a separate quirky library level with a collection of scattered windows situated both at eye level and overhead, and a central staircase that would allow the owner to peer down from the main level of the penthouse to the lower levels.”

The Pinnacle has been sitting on the market since 2017 as a result of a cooling period in the New York City luxury market. Sales of the other units have picked up since the renovations were completed, however, since buyers could actually tour the finished apartments. Over 30 percent of the building’s 32 units are now sold or in contract, but The Pinnacle is still waiting for just the right billionaire to come along and snatch it up.

The post Inside the NYC Woolworth Building’s $79 Million “Pinnacle” Penthouse first appeared on Dornob.

Large vertical diaphragms facilitate the buildings’ air intake and outtake systems, contoured into atria that bring in oxygen and release carbon dioxide using natural elements to limit the need for electricity. This remarkable design contradicts the common belief that tall buildings cannot be sustainable due to an inability to use wind patterns. Bucking that philosophy, the SkyHive was built following extensive research regarding geometric design elements, solar insolation, and CFD analysis.

Wind effects on different-shaped buildings (circular, square, triangular, and hexagonal) were analyzed using CFD simulation software. The team ultimately found that a hexagonal design and twisting features would allow the building to self-shade, helping cool the interiors all throughout. And with two towers side by side, the buildings offer each other even more shade as the day progresses. Three wind scoops on each tower take advantage of wind patterns, funneling the wind inside at prime times. The windows were designed to contribute to optimum air flow in conjunction with the rest of the system.

Creating a breathing building requires more than a twist here and an atrium there, of course. To capture all of the natural elements key to sustainable design, the architects also had to consider the buildings’ respective orientations. In addition to taking advantage of natural winds and building in shade, the buildings are positioned to avoid direct solar heat. The design also reduces glare into the office spaces.

The top of the skyscraper defies the traditional architectural design typically used to house heating, cooling, and electrical systems. Instead, the SkyHive offers an expansive green space on each tower. Working to be part of the solution for the effects of a high-density area that contributes to air pollution, the gardens here further enhance the living design in an area where tropical heat directly contributes to a reduction in air quality. The public green observatory filters pollutants and carbon dioxide while producing oxygen for the building and surrounding area. Plus, it’s a lot more pleasing to look at than massive air conditioning units.

Designer Suraksha Acharya said the design stemmed from multiple inspirations, with the goal to challenge the belief that a building of this size couldn’t be naturally ventilated. He went on to say, “The Aero Hive Office tower was developed as a part of Skyhive Skyscraper Challenge, which examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city.”

In an interview with Frank Scott from DesignPRWire, Acharya discussed the challenges of working sustainable design into a building thought to be outside the realm of possibility. He explained: “In wind climates like Hong Kong with very directional extreme winds, building shapes that are directionally sensitive are more effective than traditionally-shaped buildings. Developments in [the] structural systems of high-strength materials with increased height-to-weight ratios but reduced stiffness have become greatly affected by wind. Major structural and aerodynamic modification in the design development includes tapering, sculptured building shape, openings, and [the] twisting of the building [itself]. In addition, along with advances in visco-elastic materials like tuned mass dampers as well as structural systems like trussed tubes, the shapes of the towers become distinctly modified by the micro-ecology. To drive the natural currents to enhance air volume exchange, pressure differentials between windward (up-wind) and leeward (down-wind) faces of [the buildings] were analyzed using CFD for thorough ventilation and surface wind flow acceleration.”

The post Midori Architects’ New Breathing Skyscraper Brings Nature to Hong Kong first appeared on Dornob.