Sincere Property, MVRDV and Aedas have started construction on a Central Business District at Shanghai’s mostly domestic airport Hongqiao. The 4.5ha site is located near Hongqiao Airport train station at the corner of Shenhai Express Way and Shenbin Road. The plan comprises ten office towers, an underground shopping centre, cultural program, parking and a sunken plaza which will bring a more intimate form of urban life into an area currently dominated by large boulevards and urban expressway’s. The project’s completion is planned for 2015.
The site is positioned in the heart of Bantry Bay in Cape Town, on the slopes of Lion’s Head overlooking the bay. The brief was to create a home with all the spectacle of an Atlantic Seaboard showpiece but also to respond to the practical needs of family life and to create a feeling of sanctuary.
Our proposal for the Italian Pavilion at the Milan 2015 Expo is a light cage where the technical innovation is embedded within the structure: revolutionary glass columns sustain traditional slabs clad in marble. The building is simple and elegant in its structural system. Marble and glass are intertwined expressing the Italian architectural tradition of proportion and elegance.
Nature makes its way through the thin marble: tress are allowed to grow tall through holes in the slabs, recalling the central role of nature in a healthy feeding culture. These holes let the light from above reach the ground level where the covered plaza stands. The latter is trimmed by a thin water layer which creates small “islands” and a mirror-like surface. Water and shadow cool down the temperature of the plaza so offering a shelter from the sunny space before the circular pond at the end of the Cardo.
The owner’s brief for his residence seems at first rather simple – his bedroom on ground floor, another bedroom for his mother and sister on second floor, a large interior living space, and an outdoor terrace for the mother who enjoys outdoor leisure. However, a great challenge comes with the site location. The plot is situated at a busy 3-street intersection in an up-scale residential estate that forbids the use of any kinds of fences.
A ceremony has been held today, attended by German Culture Minister, Mrs Wanka; the Mayor of Munich, Mr Ude; Lord Foster and Dr Helmut Friedl, Director of the Lenbachhaus Museum, to mark the completion of a major project to transform the experience for visitors.
Client: City of Munich, Cultural Department and Building Department
Design Team: Norman Foster, David Nelson, Stefan Behling, Christian Hallmann, Ulrich Hamann, Klaus Heldwein, Florian Boxberg, Leonhard Weil, Judith Kernt, Henriette Hahnloser, Eike Danz, Diana Krumbein, Simon Weismaier, Christopher Von Der Howen, Inge Tummers, Jörg Grabfelder, Katrin Hass, Tillmann Lenz
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