Leading idea of Vistula Waterfront design was to refer to existing urban site by providing a composition opening towards the Vistula River and reinforcing the links with Khal’s Square. Architects wanted to create specific character of particular parts of the boulevard by alternating different kinds of temporary urban space and park areas. The boulevards were designed concerning variable water levels in the Vistula River. In result the bank changes its shape with the height of the water in the river.
Demokratos is a project for renovating “St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ school hall in Sveti Vlas, Bulgaria, and transforming it into a democratic space within a traditional school. The new multifunctional hall embodies the principles of freedom, equality, and pluralism, typical of democratic education. Demokratos is always accessible and can be used for educational and extra-curricular activities proposed by the students. The flexibility of the hall allows its transformation into a social hub, a debate hall, a theatre hall, a cinema, a presentation hall, a training center, a canteen.
In 2013, the Fuzhou Government hosted an international invited competition for the Strait Culture and Art Centre with the goal of strengthening the cultural image of the city and the Mawei New Town development area. PES-Architects’ winning proposal aims to offer an extraordinary experience for ordinary users by creating a new type of “cultural shopping mall”. The cultural programmes of the Centre are complemented with commercial and family-oriented entertainment services to create a modern hybrid complex. This format is typical of the new phase of cultural building in China.
Project: Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre (SCAC)
Location: Mawei New Town, Fuzhou, China
Photography: Marc Goodwin, Zhang Yong, Virgile Bertrand
Software used: Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, ODEON
Client: Fuzhou New Town Development Investment Group Co.,Ltd.
Lead Designers, Architecture and Interior: Pekka Salminen (chief designer), Martin Lukasczyk (project architect), Lai Linli (project manager)
Main Design Team: Li Wei (project coordinator), Guan Xiaojing (project manager), Yizhou Zhao, Masahide Nakane, Matti Kankkunen, Anna Blomqvist, Clara Juan, Uros Kostic, Antonio Barquinha, Martin Genet, Dou Jian
Team Members: Dragan Jevtic, Pauli Rikaniemi, Tuukka Päivärinne, Timo Kujala, Piercarlo Torri, Sami Lauritsalo, Yin Liang, Tuomas Pinomaa, Fan Yujing, Siiri Murtola, Beatriz Redondo, Jazz Fu, Tristan Hughes, Jarkko Salminen, Karla Diaz, Mia Bungers, Marcelo Diez
Singkawang Cultural Center is located in Singkawang, a small city in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The city has been a home to ethnically diverse community for many generations, with three major ethnic groups of Tidayu: Tionghoa (Chinese-Indonesian), Dayak & Melayu. This diversity enriches Singkawang with abundant art & culture. The annual cultural events are later developed as Singkawang tourism highlights, such as: Cap Go Meh Festival, Gawai Dayak Naik Dango, Ngabayon Dayaknese Festival, Malay Art Festival, and Ramadhan Fair.
Basilea Station showed the typical problems of all stop-and-go train stations that stand parallel to railway lines. The proposal for its transformation assigns this important piece of infrastructure its new urban role: as a gate for travellers that reach the city and as a connection between neighbourhoods that until now had no direct link.
The sculptural form of a house made of concrete, metal and glass is conceived as an art object among private buildings.
The house is located on a small plot, on a slope with panoramic views of the surroundings.
The gallery space of the house with flowing zones is filled with modern art objects, which more like a museum, rather than a private house in which one can wander from one zone to another.
The interior and architecture of the house is aimed at producing an abstract impression on the guests and residents of the house. But despite this the house has everything necessary for comfortable living: gym, swimming pool, home theater, study, many bedrooms, technical and utility rooms…
Arada has announced Phase One of the Central Hub in Sharjah will complete in the first quarter of next year. The focal point of the US$6.5 billion Aljada development in Sharjah, the Central Hub by Zaha Hadid Architects is a new leisure and entertainment destination for the UAE that defines Aljada’s role as a transformational project for Sharjah.
The Central Hub’s design conceptualises the first moment a water droplet strikes the earth’s surface, captured in an array of elliptical buildings that are designed to channel prevailing winds into public spaces and courtyards to aid natural cooling.
Arada’s commitment to sustainability and smart technologies is integrated within the Central Hub. The complex’s natural ecosystem, irrigated by recovered and recycled water, is designed to sustain a microclimate at ground level for gardens featuring plant species native to the region, while the Central Hub’s lighting requirements will be entirely provided by smart solar power.
More than 25 football fields in size (1.9 million square feet), the car-free Central Hub is focussed around its large central plaza and public observation tower.
The intersection of Old Street and Great Eastern Street is an iconic landmark in East London. The ancient Roman street widens on the western side after crossing what is being called the Silicon Roundabout, the intersection of City Road, and opens the doors of Shoreditch at Haggerston.
This junction is not only significant from the morphology of the urban fabric but also for becoming a regeneration catalyst in this old industrial area influenced by the City of London that has experienced an important creative and artistic boom.
The Rola-Moça State Park is one of the most important green areas of the State of Minas Gerais. Located in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, it houses some of the sources that supply the capital, as well as the natural habitat of species of endangered fauna such as the brown jaguar, the ocelot, the maned wolf, the wildcat, the macuco and the stag So the Park is situated in a transition zone from Cerrado to Atlantic Forest, rich in ferruginous fields, which are very rare, being found only in the iron and iron quadrangle and in Carajás.
One Blackfriars, London is a mixed-use complex located near the southern bank of the Thames River that includes a 170-meter residential tower, low-rise hotel, and a three-story basement with a pool, spa, cinema, and other amenities. WSP worked with their client St. George to build and design the project, including the unique geometry of the residential tower. To develop the structural framing that would maximize apartment layouts, every floor and apartment had to be a different size and shape. Not only did WSP need a structural solution for the varied floor plans, but it also needed to design support columns that offered unobstructed views without intruding on the apartment spaces.