The Forest House is an exploration into materiality, light and the integration of architecture into the landscape. Situated in an exclusive forest estate in Durban, South Africa, the forest house strives to frame the landscape with clean horizontal lines.
The home celebrates raw materials, which helps soften the transition between built form and the precious landscape that surrounds it. This raw materiality reinforces the honesty behind the architectural tectonics of its construction.
An ambitious urban infrastructure project in Auckland, New Zealand, known as The Waterview Connection, unconventionally put people, not cars at the forefront of its design.
Designed by New Zealand-based architects Warren and Mahoney, alongside Boffa Miskell and the Well Connected Alliance, the structures of the Waterview Connection are crafted to reflect the city’s distinct volcanic landscape and Māori culture.
Waterview Connection is shortlisted for an award at this month’s World Architecture Festival in the Transport category, recognised in particular for its combination of beauty and functional design.
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.
Located in Tianhe District of Guangzhou City, the Shadong village, where sits the buildings of this project, was erected in December 1995. The local economic corporation in the late 90s constructed on the commune’s fringe land a 4-storey warehouse leased to the Guangzhou Book Center for their new book storage. Eight years ago, the company constructed a new five-story warehouse building on the northern side of the previous one. The status quo of the site is now one new and one old vacant multi-story warehouse building. The compound’s accessibility from the city is poor, but they own the beautiful scenic view of Baiyun Mountain.
Parque Colinas del Sol consists of the revitalization of the plazas and parks pertaining to the Unidad Habitacional de Colinas del Sol in Almoloya de Juárez. In order to optimize the two-hectare area, the site has been divided into different thematic areas — from the playground to the meditation spot, the skate ramp and football court to the pavilion for public events, enabling spontaneous and effective architectural interventions.
The Center for Early Education, designed by Johnson Favaro, has completed its first new building – phase I – and broken ground on its second new building – phase II – after almost two years into a 3 ½ year comprehensive redevelopment of its 2 ½ acre campus in West Hollywood, CA. The two new buildings will replace two existing buildings in various locations on campus as well as adjacent recently purchased commercial and residential properties.
The site is in a built‐up area. The site is on the corner, and about half of the lap length of the site contacts with a road.Because a nursery school is a public building, it is necessary to mind the environmental consideration to the neighborhood in the house crowd place.
We placed the first floor in the road side of the site and placed the second floor in the depths side. It is a courtyard-shaped plan.This form can get lighting effectively from the outside space of the building’s center. And it was effective for the ventilation.The road side considers the scale feeling of the one-storied house. The sense of oppression to those who pass in the building has been softened by continuing wood wall of red Cedar along the road. An external sash and the louver in the exterior stairway also adopted a wooden sash and the uniformity of the facade was aimed at.
Achievement Preparatory Academy is a high-performing, college preparatory school located east of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. Founded to close the achievement gap and address the educational needs of the community, Achievement Prep is an award-winning school that has been recognized for having an immediate impact in closing the achievement gap between low-income and affluent students in Washington, DC. Achievement Prep scholars have been among the top performing scholars in the District, often outperforming their peers in more affluent neighborhoods. The new middle school is a building designed to close the achievement gap in the District’s Ward 8 Community.
Multi-purpose sports space for athletes with disabilities
Handisports is a company that manages and provides sports services to handicapped people, whether intellectual, physical or sensory impairment, and at risk of social exclusion. In late 2014 the company commissions us to build its new headquarters to host their offices and classrooms at a location of 80 m2.
The project responds to the client demand by offering a playing field where they can not only make the work of management and training but also where they can host sports activities, normally performed in other rented places. In this way, the office work becomes another game in a space designed to be transformed depending on requirements, days and times.
A new school in the city park of Zaventem. The design idea is to plant the building as modest as possible on the site to preserve the existing trees and green space. The location of the building is determined by giving solution at the least pleasant edge zone of the park. The park gets a new ‘hoek’ [angle]. The building becomes an extension of the park by a dubious play of inside/outside bounderies.