One essential aspect of the modern office tower is the efficient, open plan found on each level. An office building which attempts sculptural exuberance risks undermining this tried and true logic.
However, simple extruded rectangular boxes lack the iconic presence corporations seek as well as the spatial interest that occupants appreciate. The Ordos Office Complex employs an economical formal idea, avoiding sculptural excess by deploying a hot and cool approach. A neutral skin and efficient floor plans are intensified by spatial incidents deep within the building as well as social spaces that multiple tenants can share.
The Ordos Office Complex represents a new permutation of the “horizontal skyscraper” idea. It is as if a single office tower were cut into four buildings, with their lobbies arrayed horizontally across the site. Because of the topography of the site, this new horizontal datum is suspended in midair.
Located in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a suburb just 13 miles from Boston, this house’s dynamic sculptural form developed in dialogue with the landscape, topography and zoning considerations of a 12-acre site of environmentally sensitive land that bears traces of its former use as a Christmas tree farm. The house is setback from the street on a common driveway shared by two adjacent houses, which preserves the character of the quiet country road and creates a pleasing arrival sequence leading up to the house.
The site is located in a settlement of detached single-family houses, characteristic for the 1970s. the traditional arrangement of functions for each storey: basement/garage; ground floor/living space; attic floor/ bedrooms; has been transformed into a linear order. the so called “streckhof”, the original farm model for this area has been adapted by stringing together different functions in one floor.
The new buildings rise up from the ground and provide spaces which articulate the fusion of outdoor landscape and indoor exhibition. This active ground modulates according to program and location in the park. The endpoints of the buildings blur the line between building and park by offering inside-out spaces as display areas and projection surfaces related to the temporary exhibitions inside. Silhouettes, as groups of land formations, define the unique newly programmed horizon line of Danfoss Universe.
The geometry of the building is based on the footprint of the house that previously was located on the site. Originally built in 1984 and with many extensions and modifications since then, the new building echoes the “family archaeology” by duplication and rotation. Lifted up, it creates a semi-public space on ground level between two layers of discretion.
Tags: Germany, Ludwigsburg Comments Off on Dupli.Casa – House near Ludwigsburg, Germany by J. MAYER H. Architects designed using ArchiCad, MAYA and Rhino
Specially designed for the country’s most prestigious tennis game – China Open, the new China National Tennis Center is located in the Beijing Olympic Zone. As a last addition to the group of national stadiums built before the 2008 Olympic Games, the Center will become Beijing’s largest stadium for tennis games with its state-of-art facilities after the completion in June 2011.
At a place that at the time of the competition had no urban characteristics, Franić took into consideration the strongly stressed orthogonal matrix of Novi Zagreb, from where he continued to develop the project. For Franić, the context is the entire Novi Zagreb, both in the sense of the heritage of modern city-planning culture and the area with specific ambience characteristics, which to a great extent marks the large, even gigantic scale of the architecture of open spaces.
‘Minimal Complexity is the product of an architectural research focused on both the form-finding and the fabrication of minimal surface structures. The process was defined by an alternative algorithmic method based on the computational simulation of virtual soap films. The question that emerged was how the translation from the computational space to the build artifact could be embodied into this dual process.
"Minimal Complexity" by Vlad Tenu
Architect: Vlad Tenu
DipArch. MArch. Msc.
Architectural Assistant,
Surface Architects, London, UK
Teaching Assistant,
Bartlett School of Architecture,
University College London, UK
The future well being of cities around the globe depends on mankind’s ability to develop and integrate sustainable technology.
Masdar City is the city of the future; positioned at the forefront of integrating sustainable technology into modern architectural design. Rome, Athens, Florence; most great historical cities have had the plaza, forum, or square at their epicentre – where the life, values, ideals, and vision of the population evolved. Equally, the centre of Masdar must be an iconic beacon that attracts global attention to sustainable technology.
Perspective Plaza Day - (c) MIR
Architect: LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) l-a-v-a.net
THE CUBE – dining with a view – is a pavilion designed by Park Associati to house an itinerant restaurant commissioned by Electrolux Home Products Corporation N.V. Designed to be placed in unexpected and dramatic European locations, it will be launched in Brussels on April 1st, 2011 where it will sit atop of the Parc du Cinquantenaire, close to the headquarters of the European Community.
The Cube by Electrolux
Architecture and interior Design: Park Associati – Filippo Pagliani, Michele Rossi with / con : Alexia Caccavella, Alice Cuteri, Lorenzo Merloni
Logo and Texture Design: Studio FM Milano – Cristiano Bottino, Barbara Forni, Sergio Menichelli with / con : Libero Corti
Event concept and project management: Absolute Blue, Bruxelles – Patrick Nassogne
Client / Committente: Electrolux Home Products Corporation N.V.