The Zooraji Rooftop Garden in Daegu, South Korea, is the third in a series of roofscapes that Design Principal Alan Maskin has created in the country. Zooraji explores aspects of scale and storytelling through an interactive set of outdoor experiences. Located on the 9th floor of a shopping and transit center, the rooftop park is an urban oasis with unusual and engaging spaces for visitors to explore.
“In my work, story informs design, and sometimes a built project is later turned into a story. Fiction to non-fiction and back again.” –Alan Maskin, Design Principal
Article source: gmp · Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner
To the west of the city center, at the bay of Shenzhen, a new business district known as Super Bay City is being developed. The urban zoning plan for the area between the bay and the Beizhoushan Wetland Park specifies a high-density urban quarter. In future, a broad north-south axis referred to as Central Park will link the oceanfront park with the wetlands to the north and include landscaping, plazas, and cultural facilities. In the block structure of the masterplan, the China Telling Communications Building occupies the north-east corner plot at the interface between Central Park and the wetland park.
Kashirskaya Plaza features a multitude of public amenities, conveniently blending retail, fitness, cinema, entertainment, food & beverage, and a supermarket. The result is a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood destination that celebrates its existing natural surroundings, including an adjacent public park. Organic elements are drawn into the project to create a place of comfort and leisure, locally inspired and linked to its environment. Connections to the natural world are also seen throughout the interior of the project. Four main atriums are designed thematically to link with the natural elements of water, air, fire, and earth.
This base is a high-end commercial complex with 6 high-rise towers containing offices, hotels and business apartments. Adjacent to the CBD district, it is also located between two central parks in Shenzhen. URBANUS’ design task was to construct a 100,000 m2 loft of apartments and offices on top of a shopping center larger than 60,000 m2.
To release the enormous pressure from the vertical dimension of the high-rise tower, we take advantage of the large area of the LOFTs, creating two artificial mountain volumes, in response to the huge scale of the towers. At the same time, the design connects the project to the natural form of the surrounding Lianhua and Bijia Mountains. This design also encloses a quiet space, by connecting the 3-4 level high-density office LOFT through exquisite sidewalks, creating a small town with rich spatial variation. There are also some public spaces, such as the LOFT Theater and the Trading & Exhibition Center that gradually transform the “big” and “solid” periphery space to the “small” and “dynamic” inner region. The Loft Town has accommodated a shopping mall, business offices and apartments, creating a new model of settlement which integrates residents, offices, shopping malls and cultural spaces.
Team: Su Yan, Zhang Haijun, Lin Junyi, Wang Yanping, Sun Yanhua, Zang Min, Cao Jian, Han Xiao, Zhang Ying, Wang Ping, Li Nian, Chen Guanhong, Yu Xinting, Xie Shengfen, Liu Kan, Silan Yip, Darren Kei, Sam Chan, Neo Wu, Danil Nagy, Daniel Fetcho, Yuan Nengchao, Lian Lili, Wang Lianpeng, Chen Hui, Zheng Zhi, Li Weibin, Milutin Cerovic (Architecture) | Fang Xue, Liu Nini, Chen Biao, Li Xintong, Li Yongcai, Zhu Yuhao, Gao Jieyi, Chen Zhenzhen (Interior) | Lin Ting, Zhang Yingyuan (Landscape) | Xu Luoyi (Technical Director) | Wang Fang, Wang Yingzi, Wen Qianyue, Tang Disha, Guo Xusheng, Su Wushun, Tian Ye, Wang Jiahui, Tian Tao, Li Jiapei, Yu Kai, Shi Xianlin, Zhang Zhimin, Lin Xiaoyan (Internship)
Paris, Lisbon and Shanghai-based practices Jacques Ferrier Architecture and Sensual City Studio have turned what could have been an ordinary ‘office plus car park’ into an opportunity to radically reassess the surrounding urban district of Xujiahui in Shanghai.
A radical reimagining of a densely urban site on Shanghai busiest intersection
The project features elevated planted pedestrian walkways above the street
An ‘urban oasis’ from which to observe the dynamic scene below
The resulting structure, on the site of a former hotel, combines office, civic, commercial and cultural space with green ribbons of public walkways, connecting the streets and buildings of China’s busiest intersection with peaceful arteries from which to escape the tumult.
Construction on the Loop of Wisdom has officially begun and is scheduled to be finished in September 2019. Designed by Powerhouse Company as part of the Unis Chip City in Chengdu, China, the Loop will showcase the ambitions of the city of Chengdu and the Unis Group. The main feature of the innovative design is a red, walkable, curvy roof which follows the landscape and twists through a lush and vivid park, promoting the themes of health and beauty. As a public landmark, the Loop of Wisdom will house the Exhibition and Reception Centers for the masterplan. The unique design reflects the great traditions of Chinese culture as well as three key elements that define the masterplan development: people, nature and technology.
Designed by Safdie Architects, Jewel Changi Airport, the newest development at Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport, will commence a phased opening in April 2019. Jewel Changi Airport combines an intense marketplace and a paradise garden to create a new center – “the heart and soul” of Changi Airport. Once open, Jewel will establish a new paradigm for community-centric airport design, extending the airport’s principal function as a transit hub to create an interactive civic plaza and marketplace, combining landside airport operations with expansive indoor gardens and waterfall leisure facilities, retail, restaurants, and a hotel as well as other spaces for community activities.
Linked to the city’s public transportation grid and with open access to Terminal 1, and to Terminals 2 and 3 via pedestrian bridges, Jewel engages both in-transit passengers as well as the public of Singapore. Entirely publicly accessible, the 135,700-square-meter (1,460,660 sq.ft.) glass-enclosed toroidal building asserts a new model for airports as a destination for community activity, entertainment, and shopping.
“Jewel presents a new building prototype for connecting the city and the airport,” said Jaron Lubin, Principal at Safdie Architects. “Like an Ancient Greek ‘agora,’ it aligns social and commercial values to create an animated public realm destination.”
Project Team: David Foxe, Seunghyun Kim, Benjy Lee, Dan Lee, Peter Morgan, Reihaneh Ramezany, Laura Rushfeldt, Isaac Safdie, Damon Sidel, Temple Simpson, Lee Hua Tan, Andrew Tulen.
Environmental & Sustainable Design: Atelier Ten
Retail Interiors: Benoy
Building Structure and Facades: Buro Happold Engineering
The project was selected to participate in the 2nd round of the Open Architectural Competition “Kursk 2032” to create a concept for the restoration of the historical and cultural appearance of the central part of the city of Kursk.
Located in Odessa, Ukraine the Jeanne Labourbe Park is a transit space between historic residential area at the level of a plateau and Primorskaya Street lying along the foot of the hill, which is a main road of a predominantly industrial dock-side district. For decades the Park situated on a hillside remains an abandoned and unsafe place.
The main purpose of the project is to develop the recreational and entertaining role of the Park, while preserving the elements of the unique historical environment, wildlife and the landscape.
To engage the public deep into the Park we propose a set of magnets – various points of attraction for every target audience: e.g. playgrounds, sports grounds, an open-air theater, places for cultural actions, exhibitions spaces, observation decks, recreation areas as well as public amenities and lavatories.
The site contains ruins that form part of the UNESCO Pearling Path. The entire building functions as the entrance to the cultural heritage and the foyer for the medina. It is an urban room for the people of Muharraq with the scale of a public park. Concrete elements are placed along the property boundary to form a new locus in the dense city. A large space is created in which a forest of columns and wind towers hold a horizontal plate 10 meters above ground. A roof, understood as an archaic gesture, donates vital shadows for the people of Muharraq in this very hot climate and produces a new and unique situation through its different scale. Slightly set back in the shadow is an enigmatic house in which the museum of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage is located. As a totality the building creates a universe in itself that is the entrance for the Pearling Path and the city beyond.