Avenida Central is the most beautiful street in the city not only because of the annual blossoming of its big Jacaranda trees but also because of its avant-garde urbanism. Developed in the late 60’s, Chapultepec Norte neighborhood is located 3km east of downtown Morelia and contrasting with the colonial urbanism and architecture of the historic center, some Modern ideas were stated in this area. However, the uniqueness of this street comes from its wide sidewalks and its thick landscape parkway, two important concepts that slows traffic and create an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
For us, architecture was an excuse to revalue these urban concepts and include other ideas of the ‘New Urbanism’ through a mixed-use building.
Strathcona Village is a mixed-use industrial and residential development that occupies an entire city block on East Hastings Street in Strathcona, one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods. The $112M mixed-use development, the first of its kind in North America, opened in July 2018 on time and on budget. The 300,000 square foot building accommodates market housing with much-needed affordable housing and job spaces for light industry.
The development stands as a model of revitalization without displacement in a neighbourhood that strives for meaningful development policies that enable economic inclusion coupled with safe and adequate housing. This model for mixed-use projects that retain light industrial businesses is scalable to other urban centres across the country.
Architect Team Members: Daniel Eisenberg (MRAIC), Stu Lyon (FRAIC), Eric Stacey (MRAIC), Theresa Wong, Rod Forbes, Barry Hyde, Emily Milford, Rodrigo Cepeda, Jonathan Toronchuck.
After 30 years of fast urban growth, Shenzhen has achieved the size of a world-class metropolis. At this point, the city is searching for new models for urban and architectural innovation to replace the traditional model of large-scale indoor shopping malls and focus on flexible development. The new Kang Qiao Jia Cheng development will provide an urban regeneration paradigm that is welcoming at street level as well as an imposing icon that fits Shenzhen’s skyline.
London based architecture practice AI studio has received planning approval for a mixed-use tower in Latvian capital Riga, which has been designed in collaboration with local office DoStudio.
The 18,000 square metre mixed-use development will occupy a triangular site next to Skonto football stadium, just outside the Old Town of Riga (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and adjacent to historic Riga Fire Station. The design will feature class A office spaces, ground floor retail opportunities and a rooftop restaurant, in addition to creating a public area in front of the building.
MODAA was originally developed by our office beginning in 2003, and it was a project initiated by studio co-founder Judit Fekete-Pali. After several years of renting offices around Los Angeles, she felt it was finally time SPF:a owned the building it occupied. While her first thought was to buy a property and renovate it, Judit had by chance come across an empty lot advertised for sale along Culver City’s Washington Boulevard. The price was too good to pass up and she drafted a scheme to erect from the ground up. Today, this building holds not just our design studio, but a global modeling agency, a co-working space, and the SPF:a Gallery.
The Reflets de Loire project is located on block 6 of the ZAC du Pré Gauchet (joint development zone) in the center of Nantes. The mixed-use program is comprised of a base of two office locations on the ground floor atop which 90 apartments have been built. The meticulous treatment of the façades has resulted in a simple and expressive architectural style achieving three main criteria for success: first, meeting the quality expectations sought by the developer; second, taking into consideration the existing neighboring buildings as a reference for sizing volumes; third, ensuring a high quality of life in the apartments and the related spaces created.
The brief called for a 75,000 sq.ft. mixed development project inclusive of a supermarket, fashion & other retail outlets , a food court, car parks and 4 furnished apartments for short term stays. The design intended to fit into the street scale of mostly 2-3 story buildings while highlighting it’s retail functions. It responds to the corner plot with an attractive triple height entrance. In addition to stairs both elevators and escalators encourage vertical transportation within the retail floors. The top floors are being set back from the street edge allowing for scale adjustment and create an open terrace with breathtaking ocean views towards the Indian Ocean. This terrace acts as the alfresco area of the food court. The apartments have been designed to allow for a complete detachment from the busy business functions below. Each unit has an entrance courtyard flooded with natural light from top and a textured red brick wall separation, adding to the sensation of tropical living. Considering the short stay concept, the service apartments feature a spacious living and dining area, created overlooking a large terrace with tropical plants and breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean.
Seven-theater cinema with cultural space, community center with concert space and dance studios, 342 residential units, a shared garden,bespoke artwork, and retail space Three residential buildings offering exceptional views of the great Parisian landscape anchor three corners of a mixed-use block. At the heart of the project is a cultural center for the new ZAC Clichy-Batignolles district in Paris’ 17th arrondissement: a seven-theatre cinema and a community center. These public volumes, anchored to the ground, give way to the public realm and are crowned with hanging gardens. Three residential blocks emerge from this base, climbing up to 50 meters. This simple distribution of masses effectively resolves the inscription of a complex program on a high-density site. Thickened facades permit a band of generous loggias around the residential blocks. Architectural precast concrete on the buildings’ facades situate the project within the material tradition of Parisian stone and concrete and gives each of the three buildings a singular expression from the ground to the sky: the twisted form with its torqued effect (sand colored), the chiseled bar with continuous balconies (in white) and the pleated tower with its progressive fold (in white).
Typically, Sydney’s southern Sussex Street precinct is the home of historic masonry warehouse buildings. But a new apartment building by Tony Owen Partners seeks to fit in by making a colourful statement. Mosaic, just completed, is a 14 Storey mixed use residential/commercial building. It consists of a 4 storey retail/commercial podium with 37 units above.
Standing dominantly at the second largest CBD in Beijing, the Da Wang Jing Mixed-use Development designed by Andrew Bromberg at Aedas, is a dynamic commercial gateway at junction of the arterial expressway from the airport to central Beijing and the North 5th Ring Road, where it can be seen from distance like a shining urban oasis. The design juxtaposes the staid image of Grade A offices and corporate headquarters together with an amicable spatial experience to all users, making a vivid interpretation on Andrew Bromberg’s concept of “co-existence of people and nature”.
The five towers of the development are sensibly distant from one another, providing generous public spaces with greenery extending all the way to the Wangjing Park north to site. The design aims to accentuate its relationship to the surrounding greeneries, guaranteeing maximum permeability and encouraging public access. With its soft flowing garden-like temperament, the development easily distinguishes itself from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding commercial neighborhood as a truly human-scaled architectural expression.
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