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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Eiffel Tower is currently illuminated by 20,000 exterior LED light bulbs that use approximately 7.8 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. Until September 23rd, the world-famous landmark glowed from dusk until 1 am, putting on a special flickering light show for five minutes every hour. Lightbulbs flash on and off in random patterns to mimic the effect of a fireworks display for visitors.

More recently, The Paris city council decided to turn the lights off every night at 11:45 pm, potentially saving up to four percent of the tower’s annual energy consumption. Originally constructed in 1887, the Eiffel tower was first illuminated by 10,000 gas lights and external spotlights projecting from the base. It was updated to more modern lightning in 1985, with the sparkle effect being added to ring in the millennial year 2000.

Gas and Oil Shortage

The Eiffel Tower’s light restriction comes in response to the growing energy crisis across Europe caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Before the war, Russia had supplied roughly 40 percent of all of the European Union’s gas needs, but now only provides nine percent, causing skyrocketing prices and fuel shortages across the continent. Even those countries that were not heavily reliant on Russia for their energy needs are now feeling the pinch. For example, Germany depended on Russia for 55 percent of its gas needs in the past, but is currently buying more from Norway, reducing the amount available for other faithful customers like Great Britain.

What Else is Being Done?

In addition to dimming the tower lights a littler earlier, the City of Paris is also instituting several other energy-saving measures. For starters, all city-managed buildings will have their temperatures lowered from 19 to 18 degrees Celsius (roughly from 66 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit), except for in elderly care homes and baby day care facilities. Public pools will lower their water temperature from 27 to 26 degrees Celsius (from about 80 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit), and lighting on all public monuments will be turned off at 10 pm.

Around Europe, other countries are taking their own measures to cut energy usage. Germany is turning off spotlights on its over 200 public monuments and government buildings at night, shutting down fountains, requiring all state employees to wash their hands with cold water only, and even cancelling the traditional Christmas lighting along Berlin’s glitzy shopping district.

Spain has put limits on air conditioning and heating temperatures for all shops, offices, and other commercial venues. The Netherlands and Denmark are urging their citizens to take short showers to save on gas. And to ease the burden for their residents, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France have all set caps on electricity and gas prices. Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, average household energy costs have jumped to nearly five times their previous level.

Even if the Eiffel Tower light reduction is largely symbolic in nature, it shows solidarity with people across Europe who are having to cut back on energy use. Despite the latest measures, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has assured the public that nation’s capital “will always be the City of Light.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Built in a densely populated urban area in the middle of Oslo, Norway, the Regenerative High-Rise features a main structural frame consisting of three-story-high decks that can each support either three intermediate floor plates or three levels of versatile, varying-height pods. According to the architects, this design makes the system adaptable both horizontally and vertically. Single, double, or triple-height partitions can be inserted within each level to allow for interior layouts suited to residential, office, hotel leisure, or production uses.

The idea is that the building can be continually modified over time to suit new uses that may come up in the future. The difficulty of retrofitting old buildings is currently a major challenge for developers in cities around the world, especially in high-rises designed for a particular function, like offices or apartments. Haptic and Ramboll’s “triple-height sky villages,” as they call them, aim to bring the sense of community traditionally found in Olso’s suburbs to its urban core through mixed-use buildings that can change along with the neighborhood and the times.

The first fully realized Regenerative High-Rise even makes use of an interesting pre-existing feature onsite, incorporating a disused motor viaduct into its foundations to demonstrate how road infrastructure can be creatively repurposed.

“The natural materials bring warmth to the high-rise while also contributing to the life cycle carbon management of the development,” say the architects. “The building core has a maintenance unit at the top capable of lifting the pods and intermediate floors. This function is expected to be used during the whole life span of the building, not just during its construction. The pods also are designed to be moved and reused throughout the building to allow it to be reprogrammed over time, depending on the needs of the city.”

“The most exciting component of the Regenerative Tower is the idea of vertical land creation,” says Shonn Mills, Global Director of Ramboll High Rise. “With the tower, we are essentially producing volumes that can flex and change in use and character with the needs and requirements of the city. This makes sure the building stays competitive and relevant far longer than the normal building life cycle, which also makes it more sustainable.”

If you see high-rise timber projects like this as giant tinder boxes waiting to ignite, you might be interested to learn that recent research shows materials like glulam, CLT, and LVL are surprisingly resilient in a fire. The charring of wood creates an insulating layer that protects the inner part of the timber, leaving cross-sections of undamaged wood capable of carrying heavy loads after the fire is out. Steel, on the other hand, melts at high temperatures, and concrete collapses without its reinforcement. Produced with extreme precision, engineered wood components are also easy to assemble, and they come from a renewable source.

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These designs are now almost as much of a tourist draw as Miami’s white sand beaches, and when photographer Tommy Kwak saw them in 2019, he decided they deserved to get even more attention. Preserving the towers forever in their prime, Kwak’s series “Lifeguard Towers: Miami” captures the unique personalities of each one. Kwak wanted to catalog the structures as a means of inviting viewers to appreciate and compare their similarities and differences.

The series has been exhibited at Clic Gallery locations across the United States, and collectors have sought out limited-edition prints. Now, Kwak is offering it in the form of a fun photo book of the same name, published by Brooklyn-based specialty publishing house Blurring Books. A June crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter made it possible for Kwak to bring the project to life, and pre-orders are now available at booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with a release date of November 1st, 2022.

If you’re interested in seeing Miami Beach’s lifeguard towers in person, you can expect to get a fair bit of exercise in the process. Kwak says the towers stretch across 8.5 miles of shoreline — and that he burned 13,000 calories in the process of trudging through all that sand. They begin with a striped red and white tower at South Pointe, the most southerly tip of Miami Beach. Along the way, you’ll see fun combos of green, pink, and orange; a funky lime green swirl; an orange one with spiky “hair” reminiscent of Lisa Simpson; a patriotic paint job of Stars and Stripes; and more.

Kwak himself was drawn to Miami Beach by his love of water, which led him to look for unique lifeguard towers first in Miami, then Southern California, and finally in Montauk, New York. Next, he plans to photograph unique lifeguard towers in New England, and says he’s even gotten tips on unusual towers of interest in South Korea and Argentina.

About Tommy Kwak

Kwak’s website explains that his “work explores the transience of landscapes and natural forms through ethereal large-format color photographs. His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in commissions for Louis Vuitton at their locations in New York, Seattle, and Cologne, Germany. He earned a BFA in Graphic Design from California College of the Arts in 2002 and completed photography courses at International Center of Photography from 2006 to 2008.”

“In 2010 and 2016, Tommy participated in the SIM Residency program in Reykjavík, Iceland as well as the international arts festival, Villa Reykjavík. Tommy grew up outside of Chicago, lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY for 13 years, and now resides in Montclair, NJ. He has been a member of Fowler Arts Collective in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and SONYA (South of Navy Yard Artists).”

The post Tommy Kwak Captures the Candy-Colored Lifeguard Towers of Miami Beach in a New Photo Book 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.

The Playground

Designed by architectural firm architensions, “The Playground” is a conglomeration of arched towers, connecting frames, mirrored walls, and ground-level benches and piazzas. The colorful towers reach up 56 feet into the air, creating much-needed shade for festival-goers. Architects Alessandro Orsini and Nick Roseboro, from Italy and Brooklyn, respectively, intended for their art to create connections.

Says Orsini, “It’s a place to gather and a place where we hope that our differences will be at ease.”

Buoyed

In this installation, three 36-foot-tall buoys appear to float over a grassy surface, each incorporating a whimsical mix of design elements. “I needed to build something optimistic,” explains Dutch designer Kiki Van Eijk, adding that “My buoys are joyful totems that metaphorically prevent you from sinking when we come together.” The blue buoy is topped by a Dutch-style windmill, the white one has a neck like Seattle’s space needle and sports a pair of butterfly wings, and the green buoy is capped with a mosque-like dome and mini palm tree.

Circular Dimensions x Microscape

Exploring the significance of water in the desert, Coachella Valley-native artist Christopher Cichocki used 25,000 feet of PVC pipe to create a 50-foot-tall shell-shaped pavilion with three tunnel walkways. Inside the walkways, highly magnified images of barnacles, salt, water, and algae cover the walls, while a soundscape of original musical compositions fills the ears of visitors.

“My art calls attention to the natural world and industrial mutation. This I want to reflect upon the permanence of change and transience, where visual and aural elements transform between levels of perception,” Cichocki says. “Are we looking through the microscope or the telescope? I find these elemental perceptions become indistinguishable at times.”

Cocoon (B.K.F.+H300)

The designers at the Argentinian firm Estudio Normal used their installation to honor the iconic B.K.F. Chair that was initially conceived in Buenos Aires in 1938 by designers Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy. Over time, the origin story of the now ubiquitous sling-back chair has been obscured. “For us, it’s very important because it’s going back to the place where everything happened and the chair became very popular,” says Estudio Normal’s Martin Huberman. “But at the same time, it got copied and the original names behind it vanished, which were two Argentinian architects and one from Catalonia, Spain.” The studio combined 400 reproductions of the B.K.F. chair to create a nine-story white cocoon to be appreciated in 360 degrees.

Mutts

When brainstorming ideas for her art, Romanian architect Oana Stănescu pondered on the unconditional love and support of her dog, Perry. She constructed three dog outlines in primary colored steel, the tallest of which stands 18 feet high. The insides are stuffed full of indigenous greenery in a celebration of nature.

La Guardiana

A 30-foot-tall statue of a woman topped with horns and a club in her hands towered over Coachella as a guardian looking out for the world’s refugee populations. The sculpture, created by LosDos (husband-and-wife Ramon and Christian Cardenas), was based on previous artwork made in collaboration with the band Rage Against the Machine.

“We definitely want to send a message of solidarity for the refugee and migrant communities with what’s happening every day and all around the world due to many different things,” says Ramon Cardenas.

Spectra

“Spectra” by UK-based design studio NEWSUBSTANCE has been in place at the Coachella festival since 2018. By day, the visitors can climb the spiral tower’s seven stories to get a different colored view of the event from every floor. By night, LED lights illuminate the structure, leading guest up to the top for a full bird’s-eye view.

The post 7 Stunning Art Installations from Coachella 2022 first appeared on Dornob.

Not only does the Tower of Light make this industrial facility a lot more beautiful on the outside, it puts on light shows by day and by night in two very different ways. When the sun shines on it, polished reflectors inside it move in the wind, reflecting patterns of light into the tower’s chambers to create a natural sparkling effect. After dark, LED lights directed at the reflectors amp up the drama with animated, programmed light sequences every 15 minutes to mark the passage of time.

The tower’s unusual form derives from “Shell Lace Structure,” a biomimetic structural technique developed by Tonkin Liu in collaboration with engineers at Arup. This innovative technique uses digital design, engineering analysis, and advanced manufacturing tools to achieve complex organic shapes without compromising structural stability. The technique is inspired by the structures of mollusk shells, which gain their strength from optimized curvilinear geometry. Strategically placed perforations give the shell a lightweight quality while spreading loads in multiple directions. The Tower of Light is now the largest Shell Lace Structure ever built.

“The Shell Lace Structure technique represents an adaptive approach to architecture that allows for enhanced means of expression as well as additional opportunities to respond to site, structure, and climatic requirements,” say the architects. “The technique is multi-faceted and by involving both the hand and the machine in its design process, Shell Lace Structure enables us to regain intuition whilst wielding the speed, craft, and precision inherent in digital tools.”

The architects call the street facade enclosing the new energy center “Wall of Energy.” Visually complementing the tower, this facade features glazed ceramic tiles to reflect light and movement from clouds in the sky as well as human activity on the street to give it an ever-changing appearance. The shape of the tiles is inspired by “the dynamic energy of earth’s movements, as seen in patterns left in the sand by ocean waves,” Tonkin Liu explains.

The energy center itself is known as the Civic Quarter Heat Network (CQHN) and Energy Center, providing the neighborhood with low-carbon energy. It’s powered by an engine and two gas boilers, and designed so that future energy technologies can add or adapt to the power supply without disrupting the flow of electricity. Heat from the power-generating engine is harnessed to create hot water, which then runs through insulated district pipework across the city network, improving energy efficiency by as much as 45 percent.

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With a mind toward producing less waste while also creating new, useful, and beautiful things, repurposing has become an important part of how those in both fashion and design have come to reevaluate their respective industries.

Awards like the Design Prize recognize such efforts through their “Social Impact” category. Since 2017, this annual award has helped shine a spotlight on extraordinary design achievements that make an impact through thoughtful and eco-conscious projects.

This year, the Design Prize 2021 for social impact was awarded to Bangkok Project Studio, a Thailand-based firm led by Boonserm Premthada. Primarily based in Thailand, Bangkok Project Studio is known for their outstanding nuanced designs that often underscore the importance of nature. Past projects include an elephant museum made of upcycled bricks (themselves created from elephant dung), “The Walk,” an elevated walkway meant to highlight the importance of the often-overlooked natural world beneath our feet, and an observation tower at “Elephant World” in Thailand.

The latest project, and the winner of this year’s social impact Design Prize, is yet another feather in the cap of the Thai firm, this one in the form of a nine-meter rice tower. While this in itself may not sound very exciting, there are several things about the project that stand out and make it award-worthy. Located in a zoo in the country’s northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, the imposing nine-meter tall rice tower was constructed through the intentional repurposing of five timber barns that were set to be demolished. The firm, led by Premthada, took apart the existing barns and reassembled them into something new, with an “[aim to] give new architectural language to the word ‘barn’ or ‘rice storage’ commonly found and used after the harvest season,” according to designboom.

This rethinking and reimagining of existing structures or objects has always been an important consideration for the firm, who often aims to merge their structures with their natural surroundings and connect them in some way. Here, the rice tower was created using the wood from the deserted barns, maintaining the overall essence of the their original purpose. Rising up from the ground in a new and exciting form “connecting the ground and the sky,” the tower is a testament to the importance of rice in Thailand, specifically in this northeastern region, which produces the best quality rice in the largest quantities. The repurposed wooden spire is also a monument to rice farmers, who nurture, grow, and harvest the crop while acting as its caregivers.

Through a mindful repurposing of dilapidated rural barns, Bangkok Project Studio “was inspired to give new language to the wooden barn,” creating a structure that’s multipurpose in both its messaging and practical uses. Serving as a playground for children by day and a habitat for local birds and animals at night, the structure is truly meant to be welcoming to all. Now, one of the area’s most signature features has become something new and impressive that’s not only symbolic, but symbiotic, working in tandem with its natural surroundings to create something beautiful and useful.

The post New Rice Tower in Thailand is Made from Repurposed Barns first appeared on Dornob.

Here’s a little taste of what the next year has in store in the world of building design:

Merdeka 118

Conceived by the Australian design firm Fender Katsalidis, Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka 118 will soon claim the title of the world’s second tallest tower. When completed, the 118-story edifice will reach 2,227 feet high, complete with a double height observation deck to provide stunning views of Malaysia’s capital city. The inside will house a mix of residential, retail, and hospitality offerings while the exterior is comprised of a geometric prism of windows, all set at angles that mimic traditional Malaysian craft patterns.

University of Illinois Campus Instructional Facility

This 122,000-square-foot educational building is blazing trails for colleges everywhere, mostly in that it’s designed to be completely carbon neutral. With a commitment to full campus net zero carbon operation by 2050, the University of Illinois has pulled out the stops with all-electric construction. Additionally, a ground source heat exchange system buried underground will meet roughly 65 percent of the structure’s energy demand.

Designed by global architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the interior features a multi-story staircase with surrounding stadium seating for informal gathering and collaboration. Additionally, there are classrooms of all sizes to accommodate classes of between 24 and 500 students, where subjects revolving around the future of education and its support technologies will be taught.

Abrahamic Family House

Located on Saadiyat Isalnd in Abu Dhabi, the Abrahamic Family House is the fruit of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity’s work to increase tolerance and interfaith understanding. Shiek Ahmed el-Tayeb was one of the signers, alongside Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, of the February 2019 Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. This inspired him to commission the project, a religious complex made up of worship centers for Christians, Jews, and Muslims with a shared garden space.

Designed by Adjaye Associates, each building is distinctive in its architectural features but stylistically similar enough to produce a unifying effect. Said principal architect Sir David Adjaye, “I want to create a building that starts to dissolve the notion of hierarchical difference – it should represent universality and totality – something higher that enhances the richness of human life.”

The Spiral

Perhaps the tallest building going up in Manhattan in 2022, the 1,031-foot-tall Spiral tower is the brainchild of Danish architectural group Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Its most distinguishing feature is the corkscrew of open-air terraces twisting around the building from top to bottom. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced plans back in 2018 to move its world headquarters to the Spiral, while the other floors will be occupied by other global businesses, as well as restaurants and hospitality services.

Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture

In an effort to raise up a generation able to solve their own food scarcity problems, the Howard G. Buffet Foundation is installing a new academic and research campus for the surrounding inhabitants of Gashora, Rwanda. Designed and built by nonprofit MASS Design Group, the Rwanda Institute of Conservation Agriculture (RICA) is located in one of the country’s most drought affected areas, with minimal farmland and a population expected to double in the next 30 years.

The teaching facility will be energy-independent and carbon neutral, thanks largely to its solar farm (the largest in the nation), and 90 percent of the labor and materials will be sourced locally. The structure is arranged in two connected circles that will have space for education, storage, research, and housing for both students and employees.

The post A Sneak Peek at 2022’s Best Architecture Offerings first appeared on Dornob.

The nearly 1,000-foot tourist attraction. designed by renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners, was originally submitted and approved in 2018, but then blocked in mid-2019 by London mayor Sadiq Khan, who had serious qualms about its look and practicality. Now, UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove seems poised to overrule that decision as soon as the middle of November.

If approved, the towering futuristic turret would be planted next to the bullet-shaped Gherkin office space, designed by the same studio and also once the source of public controversy. The Tulip would also become the tallest structure in the city’s financial district, as well as the second tallest in western Europe.

Designed to bring in 1.2 million visitors a year from around the world, the spire-like building would feature public observation decks, bars, restaurants, and classroom space for visiting school groups, as well as moving pods that would allow tourists to ride around the outside of the building for incredible views.

Promising £1.6 billion in economic benefits to the city and the UK, project-backer City of London Corporation has said the Tulip Tower would also create over 1,000 new jobs and help bring the city back to life after the pandemic.

“The Tulip would play an important role in further realizing a vision for the Square Mile as a vibrant 24/7 world-class destination, and that the building would send a powerful message that London remains open to all,” a City of London Corporation spokesperson told The Telegraph.

London Architecture chairman Peter Murray agrees, adding that: “the whole of London needs a strong center if we are to remain a competitive global city. If it is to do so it needs investments like The Tulip more than ever.”

And a 2019 independent poll found that 69 percent of Londoners would consider the Tulip iconic to their city, with another 65 percent believing it would be an attractive addition to the local skyline.

But there are plenty of vocal detractors, too. Back in 2019, when Mayor Khan refused permission for the skyscraper, he said it “would result in very limited public benefit,” and that “the design is of insufficient quality for such a prominent location, and that the tower would result in harm to London’s skyline and impact views of the nearby Tower of London World Heritage site.” He went on to disparage the Tulip’s “unwelcoming, poorly designed public space at street level.”

Historical preservation organizations are also in opposition. “This building, a lift shaft with a bulge on top, would damage the very thing its developers claim they will deliver – tourism and views of London’s extraordinary heritage,” said Historic England CEO Duncan Wilson in April 2019. On top of this, eco-friendly groups have protested that the project’s natural resource cost would far outweigh the benefit of tourism.

If the Tulip does move forward as expected, it will undoubtedly be revolutionary in its shape and construction, acting as a symbol of urban evolution while providing remarkable views of the city’s ever-changing landscape and culture.

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Designed to help revitalize the Ba Gua Ling industrial zone at the heart of Shenzhen, the 55-story construction features a retail podium on the first few levels, with two towers that grow upward before splitting into four above a sky-park level. Calling it Shirble – The Prime (after the Chinese Department store that would be housed below), one of the building’s towers would be for offices and the other three for residential apartments.

The basic design inspiration for the high-rise was the Golden Winged Great Peng, a Chinese Buddhist eagle guardian who redeemed himself from his evil ways after listening to the Buddha’s teachings. He was then made the spiritual uncle to the Buddha and was said to have watched over all the world as he guarded the exalted throne of the great teacher.

Shenzhen’s Ba Gua Ling district used to be a hub for the printing industry but has since seen a lot of urban blight and increasing vacancy rates. By calling on the Peng imagery, Shirble – The Prime hopes to make the area prosperous and desirable place once again. The roof lines of the towers mimic the wings of the Great Peng spreading up to the sky, while the lower levels incorporate lined details reminiscent of a bird’s feathers. And with its sheer height (about 820 feet), the complex looks out over the city just like the protector eagle watching over all from the top of the world.

The new complex has been thoughtfully laid out relative to the surrounding landscapes and transportation systems, taking into account both cross-ventilation and the maximization of interior views.

The housing options include various unit sizes from large apartments to small lofts, while a “sky park” (itself situated about 500 feet above ground) provides outdoor space for walking and gathering. Also on that level will be a gym, clubhouse, sky garden, and other recreational amenities. Residents, employees, and shoppers can also find spaces to socialize in the retail podium, which will feature both indoor and outdoor common areas.

The architectural details of the structure are geometric, dissected by the more organic shape of the retail pavilion and sky park levels. The rounded rectangle balconies of the residential towers, decked out with silver-white aluminum finishes, contrast with the asymmetrical, flowing lines of the tree-topped pavilion and park.

Greenery adorns several other levels as well, providing a connection to the natural world as well as creating a little extra oxygen for the residents and employees. For its innovative design bringing so many aspects of life under one roof, Aedes won the 2020 International Property Award for Best International Residential High-Rise Architecture.

The firm was founded in 2002, with headquarters in Hong Kong and more than 1,200 employees spread among their 12 offices around the world. Their mission is to let their design practice be driven by the global sharing of research, knowledge, and practice to tailor their developments to local needs.

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The architects identified three major needs in the city of Pune, which itself is one of the fastest-growing cities in all of Southeast Asia. With a burgeoning population, a thriving IT industry, and increasing demand for education, high quality schools are a top priority. Though it’s quite compact in size compared to other major Indian cities, with decent access to public transit, few areas are walkable, and there are no cycling tracks to speak of. Like many industrialized cities around the world, Pune also struggles with poor air quality.

NUDES’ design addresses all of these common urban issues. Forest School can accommodate a large number of students and help boost Pune’s reputation for both innovation and high quality of life. A double-height auditorium occupies the lower two floors, while the rest are dedicated entirely to classroom space. The rooftop cycling track, which features two bridges for crossing between the towers, offers a fun place to ride a bike with unforgettable views.

The infinity symbol on the roof may be this project’s standout feature, but those stepped balconies covered in plants are definitely eye-catching, and they’re functional, too. NUDES envisions them as one big “green living skin” that can help remove pollutants from the air through phytoremediation.

“The design explores the relation between nature and pedagogy in dense urban settlements built on the foundations of ‘Grow,’ ‘Learn,’ ‘Reuse,’ ‘Plant’ and ‘Play,’” explain the architects. “Sited in Pune approximately three hours by road from Mumbai, the city has witnessed dramatic urban growth in the last decade. The project harbors two ‘green’ cylindrical volumes stitched by a rooftop ‘infinity’ loop track.”

“Each cylindrical volume represents the stage of phased construction with planned programmatic activities. The project explores the dynamics and logistics of a vibrant space for student-centric interaction and learning. The ‘green’ skin can be serviced and maintained by a peripheral service track that is accessible from both landing and mid-landing levels on every floor by horticulturists.”

Forest School is just the latest unusual educational design from NUDES. The firm previously designed a conceptual school in Malawi with sinuous curving walls made of stacked straw bales in response to an architectural competition by Archstorming on behalf of an NGO called Active Africa. The brief called for the use of local materials and construction systems, a focus on sustainability, and a modular solution that can be built in phases. Straw Bale School features a modular “ladder” component to form a structural system that’s fluid and easily expanded.

NUDES is led by architect Nuru Karim, who received his Masters in Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association London in 2006 and has previously worked for Zaha Hadid Architects. He explains that “NUDES operates within the realm of cross-disciplinary cultures of art, architecture, and computational design powered by digital ‘making’ tools addressing larger social, cultural, and environmental networks.”

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Debuting a tabletop model of their design at the 17th International Venice Biennale, SOM’s “Moon Village” features a grouping of connected research stations and associated solar power grids.

“The project presents a completely new challenge for the field of architectural design,” said Design Partner Colin Koop in a statement. “The Moon Village must be able to sustain human life in an otherwise uninhabitable setting. We have to consider problems that no one would think about on Earth, like radiation protection, pressure differentials, and how to provide breathable air.”

Working in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), SOM designed this moon community to be situated near the lunar South Pole, on the rim of Shackleton Crater, a part of the Moon that receives almost continuous daylight throughout the year. All that light could be channeled for energy storage, enabling the settlement to be self-sufficient.

The site is also close to water-ice deposits in shadowed depressions that could be harvested to produce oxygen for breathing. Additionally, that water could help create rocket propellant for transportation needs, and offer support for the daily industrial functions of the base.

Each research station tower will be three to four stories tall, with room for workspaces, living quarters, life support systems, and environmental control units. In terms of the construction, each tower module will be “a hybrid rigid-soft system, made of two key elements: a rigid composite perimeter frame and an inflatable structural shell that integrates a multi-layer assembly with an environmental protection system.” Each one is crafted to inflate and expand to increase interior volume as future needs dictate. The outer shells, made of open-foam polyurethane and double-aluminized Mylar insulation, will be formulated to resist extreme temperatures, solar radiation, regolith dust, and space projectiles.

The inner support structure will be fashioned from titanium alloy for maximum strength. The rigid-soft system will allow for optimal airflow, unobstructed foot traffic, and large, transparent work spaces.

Life at the Moon Village would consist of scientific research into sustainability and food production as well as into the materials and history of the lunar surface. At some point, the colony could even accommodate space tourism for those looking for a truly exotic holiday.

The members of SOM hope and believe the Moon Village “is an opportunity to explore the Moon in its entirety, to spur research and commercial growth, and to serve as a stepping stone to achieve even greater ambitions: extending the human footprint to Mars and beyond.”

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP has been creating innovative solutions in architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning for over 80 years. They have received over 2,000 industry awards and maintain offices around the globe from New York to Hong Kong to Mumbai.

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The lake was emptied to perform maintenance for the systems of a nearby power plant, allowing visitors a chance to see a piece of forgotten history. Located at the juncture of Italy, Austria, and Switzerland, the sunken village of Curon in the South Tyrol area was purposely flooded in 1950 to create a lake to provide hydroelectric power for the surrounding territory.

South Tyrol was annexed from the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, turning the region’s native German speakers into Italians overnight. The government of dictator Benito Mussolini immediately started plans to produce more energy in the area by merging two natural basins in the Resia Pass, wiping out Curon, and installing a hydro-electric power facility. World War II delayed those blueprints, buying the 150 families in the town a little more time.

But despite resistance from the city’s roughly 1,000 inhabitants, the project to submerge the town moved forward some five years after the war ended. With most of the villagers speaking only German, they were confused by the Italian communications relating to the plans and were only offered small sums of money to move to the neighboring town of Curon Ventosa. In the end, more than half the residents left the area entirely.

Today, all that remains of the life that existed there over the past centuries are some hollowed-out cellars, stone steps, and debris like rusted gates and pipes. The most striking feature is the beautiful bell tower dating back to 1357, the top of which has always been visible above the surface of Lake Resia. In fact, when the water freezes over in winter, tourists come from all over to walk up and touch the medieval structure. The tower is so iconic for the area that it was even chosen as the centerpiece for the Curon Ventosa coat of arms.

The unsettling story of the underwater town was the inspiration for a 2018 novel by Italian author Marco Balzano entitled Resto Qui, in which he states that the drowned city represents “a problematic memory that spreads from that tiny village to the rest of Italy, taking us back to difficult times.” And in 2020, Netflix released the supernatural drama series Curon, based on the same eerie setting.

With the last residents walking the streets more than seven decades ago, there are few left who remember life in the village, even among the 2,500 inhabitants of nearby Curon Ventosa. Those who visit the ruins mostly come out of curiosity rather than any personal attachment.

Unfortunately, this peek into the past did not last long. The power company started releasing water back into the valley in mid-May, and the entire lake was refilled within a couple weeks. Once again, the rising bell tower stands as the only sign that the lake is home to more secrets below.

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