The Shinjuku Sumitomo Building was built in 1974 in Tokyo’s Nishi Shinjuku district. The site’s expansive “Sankaku Hiroba” (triangular plaza) atrium roof, along with associated renovations, offer a sustainable model for addressing an emerging problem for Japan’s cities: how to carry out renovation projects on large-scale buildings using good maintenance practices. The project also represents a greater societal effort to enliven the urban business district and enhance its value as an accessible gathering place.
Bergsvåg is designed around a vision of creating small-scale public spaces inserted in harmony with nature, where the building volumes strengthen the existing topography and the park structure and create informal connections and paths. The project comprises two new curved buildings with housing, an open playground and a pre-school with four departments.
The first apartment sales have been closed for the ‘O’, an MVRDV-designed high-rise that – as one of four letter-shaped apartment buildings that together spell out the word HOME – forms one of the standout elements of Mannheim’s Franklin Mitte neighbourhood. The 15-storey building mixes 120 apartments with ground level commercial units and a bar and terrace. With its playful shape, the building also functions as a local landmark, and a key contributor to the character of the neighbourhood at large.
Design Team: Jeroen Zuidgeest, Markus Nagler, Christine Sohar, Philipp Kramer, Johannes Pilz, Mateusz Wojcieszek, Thomas Grievink, Eleonora Lattanzi, Dex Weel, Manuel Magnaguagno, Mikel Vazquez, Magdalena Gorecka
The design for K31 Courtyard marries together two typical residential building typologies; a stepped podium which surrounds a private courtyard, and two towers that face each other diagonally in such a way as to provide the best possible view corridors for all the residents and enable increased daylight for the apartments.
The podium design, with its stepped terraces, is designed to provide sufficient sunlight for the apartments that face the inner courtyard. These stepped terraces also create a unique feature for this residential project, as they can be used for additional amenities for the adjoining apartments.
Situated in an entirely new building complex in Shibuya, Tokyo, Digital Garage’s tranquil co-working space creates a sanctuary contrasting the busy neighborhood ten floors down. The new co-working space is created as an inspiration for future co-working spaces in other Digital Garage office locations around the world.
Once circumscribed as one continuous landmass, the supercontinent Pangaea acted as the conceptual starting point and also became the name of for the new Digital Garage co-working space. As a boutique office space for digital nomads, the space commemorates a time and place where geographical, political, and national constructs were not an obstacle.
The mixed-use Zugló City Centre in Budapest’s 14th district integrates new civic spaces surrounded by nature together with homes, shops and offices on a site of nearly seven hectares between Bosnyák Square and Rákos Creek. Developed in phases by Bayer Construct Group in Hungary, the project will begin construction early next year and is scheduled for completion in 2029.
ZHA Competition Team: Millie Anderson, Sara Criscenti, Harry Spraiter, Shi Qi Tu, Carlos Bausa Martinez, Pierandrea Angius, Anat Stern, Vishu Bhoshaan, Henry Louth, Federico Borello
ZHA Project Team: Zsuzsanna Barat, Sara Criscenti, Shi Qi Tu, Damir Alisphahic, Alessandro Cascone, Benedetta Cavaliere, Juan Pablo Londono, Gabriele De Giovanni, Luciana Maia Teodozio, Yaseen Bhatti, Lara Zakhem, Alexandra Fisher, Dilara Yurttas, Rotem Lewinsohn
Landscape: LAND Italia srl
Sustainability and Energy: BuroHappold, Engineering
The project entailed the restructuring and elevating of an existing unfinished structure into a largescale smart building. A new project, a new program, the building becomes SOMEONE, a formation center, and incubator for the sectors linked to innovation and design, led by the l’Agence de Développement de Sèmè City in Cotonou, Benin.
The constructive challenge of this project lay in delicately intervening in this build, which was largely unfinished for years, and that had to undergo major structural modifications. To ensure a subtle and cautious approach, a spirit of urban ecology and bioclimatic conception was adopted. In this specific case of a deteriorating building, set in an environment where technical means and materials were difficult to access, we proposed our concept and our innovations while always taking care to conserve and to reemploy the existing to the maximum. The structure is made of columns and beams with hollow floor slabs. The latter is stabilized by hollow chipboard. The whole is braced by the staircase ribs and concrete elevator shaft.
An early modern icon of its generation, this historically significant building is undergoing a sensitive and carefully considered program of restoration, modernization, and improvement.
The repositioning of 1271 Avenue of the Americas comprises five interdependent and parallel projects: facade replacement, lobby restoration and upgrade, plaza improvement, elevator modernization, and significant MEP system upgrades throughout the building.
Like a moored cruise ship, The Line fronts onto the IJ waterway in the Overhoeks district of Amsterdam. Sitting on private verandas behind the refined grid that wraps the building like a veil, residents enjoy views of the water just in front of them and of the city centre. The verandas are real outdoor rooms, their ceiling design making them feel like an extension of the interior space.
OMA’s only built project in Japan up until 2012 can be found in Fukuoka. The Nexus World Housing complex was completed more than twenty-five years ago. Local developer Fukuoka Jisho commissioned Arata Isozaki to develop a masterplan that introduces a “new urban lifestyle,” for which OMA was invited as one of six architects to design a freestanding housing block.
Fukuoka is the seventh biggest city in Japan, known for its distinct cultural identity. Its central location among major cities of East Asia positions the city as a gateway into Japan, contributing to its standing as the economic center of Kyushu Island. The city has been thriving over the last decade, ranking highly in livability, ratio of younger population, and percentage of start-ups.
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