The landmark EXO building by Shay Cleary Architects is the tallest commercial office building in Ireland. A unique engineering challenge, the building features a distinctive and highly innovative external exo-skeleton which forms the main structure, leaving a predominantly column free floor plate and referencing the iconic blue gantries of the Dublin docklands. The building features an extensive 1,000m2 landscaped roof garden to which all tenants have access.
Its pristine form responds to its unique location adjacent to the 3Arena, extending the public realm at ground floor under and around the structure. A highly sustainable commercial development, it was the first building project in Europe to achieve LEED V3 Platinum certification ahead of practical completion.
Gaîté Montparnasse, the MVRDV-designed transformation of a city block just a short walk from Paris’ Tour Montparnasse, is now open. The project has rationalised the existing uses of the mixed-use block – which included a hotel, shopping centre, office space and a library – and densified the area by adding social housing and a kindergarten. In doing so, the building has become more welcoming and accessible to pedestrians, while reusing significant parts of the previous structure from the 1970s following circular economy principles.
Completed in 1974, the original design of the “Îlot Vandamme” by Pierre Dufau was a landmark in its time, with the strong vertical lines of what is now the Pullman Hotel tower creating an unmissable presence in Montparnasse. At the same time, the plinth of rough textured concrete, boxy reflective glass, and red steel lattices epitomised the foibles of its era: surrounded by wide boulevards, the block was dominated by cars, and when viewed from the street looked introverted and unwelcoming.
The project is located in one of the oldest streets in the Aveiro city, where the architectural richness of the old facades is a hallmark of the city. The project is based on the demolition of a degraded building and the construction of a multifamily housing and commercial building. As such, given the context of the place, one of the premises of the project is to maintain and rehabilitate the facade of the existing building, requalifying it and thus preserving its historical and architectural value in the arrangement of Dr. Lourenço Peixinho Avenue.
MVRDV, along with co-architects ALL for real estate developer Groupe Giboire, has completed Ascension Paysagère, a residential complex at the confluence of two rivers in the west of Rennes, France. Occupying a crucial transitional space between the Rennes’ centre and its outer reaches, the 12-storey, 10,550-square-metre complex brings much-needed density in the context of the city’s outward growth, providing 138 homes in a variety of sizes and price ranges – including 37 units of social housing as well as commercial spaces and pleasant new public spaces in a green waterside environment.
Located at the heart of Singapore’s financial district on the site of a former public car park and a hawker center, the 51-storey CapitaSpring is officially completed following four years of construction for CapitaLand Development (CLD), CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. To date, over 99% of the office and retail space has been committed at the 93,000-square-meter, mixed-use high-rise which is defined by a dynamic interplay of orthogonal lines, lush greenery, and contrasting textures. In addition to the abundant sky-gardens and rooftop park, CapitaSpring includes premium Grade A office space, a Citadines serviced residence, a hawker center, restaurants and public spaces.
Located in Caxias do Sul, the building occupies a wide corner, due to the pre-condition of large roads, making them very wide and of great flow. Low-rise and small-scale buildings occupy the surroundings. In this scenario, the building becomes a protagonist, being the focal point for people and vehicles wich pass by.
The commercial building has seven floors: parking basement, three ground floor shops with mezzanine, three floors with four commercial offices each and technical space. The smaller scale of the building (the total constructed area is about 2,000 m²) and the insertion in a corner allowed us to “sculpt” the primary prism and transform it.
Article source: Architectural Bureau G.Natkevicius & Partners
The slope of the plot, also the fact that the location of the plot is half-forest, half-street, while the commercial space requires parking places did not allow to design a standard building. Due to the location, size and relief of the plot, unusual solution of the architectural composition was chosen.
The building of modern minimalism is raised from the ground by one floor and looks as placed on thin columns. This allowed to install parking spaces on the ground floor level under the building along with storage facilities and a lobby. The architects managed to make purposeful use of the space without moving the building away from the street.
Led by the goal of accelerating regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta, the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor linking Shanghai and its neighbouring cities is designed to be an important engine. Aedas has recently won the conceptual design competition for the adjacent G60 Innovation Center, situated at the starting point of the corridor, as a gateway landmark.
Article source: Shanghai United Design Group Co., Ltd. (UDG)
Fall in Love with a City for a Flower
The project breaks away from the rigid image of conventional civic buildings. By blending the building into nature, and art into life, the architects created a public cultural landmark that is graceful, romantic, unique, and exclusive to local citizens.
Being constructed by Brusnika, Mylzavod (Soap factory) is a quarter in the heart of Novosibirsk. The project name references its location. The site was an industrial estate dominated by a soap factory in the early 20th century. Producing over 30 varieties of soap, whose top quality made it a product for export, it was a unique production line in Siberia. Back in the day it was an industrial part of the city, but after the 1950s it was gradually transformed into a residential area. Small houses appeared next to factory shops, but residents were displeased with the industrial neighbourhood. By 2013 the factory production was discontinued and the plot was chosen for the renovation programme of central Novosibirsk and allocated for a new housing estate.