Hybrid and holistic, Social House by Xintiandi is a multifunctional space comprising retail, F&B, and lifestyle elements. Positioned across two floors of the recently renovated Xintiandi Plaza in Shanghai’s central business district, the venue has been designed for openness and exchange, bringing the vitality of outside, in. Elegant and feminine in aesthetic, it takes visitors on a layered journey that caters to mind, body, and soul. From the group behind Xintiandi, a pioneering urban renewal project and car-free commercial district in central Shanghai, Social House immerses visitors into a narrative crafted through circulation and flow, punctuated by focal points of activity. Together, these elements create a unique, constantly evolving destination that is fast becoming a cultural and lifestyle hotspot in China’s most dynamic metropolis.
The new €37.5m (£27.6m) Transfer Terminal at Arnhem Central Station in the Netherlands has now completed.
The station is the result of an ambitious 20-year project – masterplanned by UNStudio – to redevelop the wider station area; the largest post-war development in Arnhem. Backed by the Dutch government, this transfer hub rewrites the rulebook on train stations and is the most complex of its type in Europe. The station will become the new ‘front door’ of the city, embracing the spirit of travel, and is expected to establish Arnhem as an important node between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The new terminal houses commercial areas, and a conference centre and provides links to the nearby office plaza, city centre, underground parking garage and the Park Sonsbeek. The area around the station will become a place in of itself, with 160,000m2 of offices, shops and a cinema complex.
The Tide will be a 5-kilometre network of public spaces and gardens embedded into the daily rhythms of Greenwich Peninsula. Both an elevated and at-grade walkway, with programming split across both levels, The Tide activates spaces above and below to provide a layered network of recreation, culture, and wellness. The Tide will stitch together diverse ecosystems, emerging neighbourhoods, and distinct cultural institutions, connecting north to south, east to west, centre to periphery, and city to river. The Tide is both fast and slow. It is simultaneously a running track, a walking promenade, a series of quiet gardens, and a network of social and cultural hubs.
Lead Designer: Collaborators include Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Designers: Diller Scofidio + Renfro (Lead) in collaboration with Neiheiser Argyros
Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Ben Gilmartin (Partner-in-Charge), Elizabeth Diller, Charles Renfro, Ricardo Scofidio, Anthony Saby, Bryce Suite, Ning Hiransaroj, Alex Knezo, John Newman, Swarnabh Ghosh, Erioseto Hendranata
Neiheiser Argyros: Ryan Neiheiser (Partner-in-Charge), Xristina Argyros, Giorgio Piscitelli, Eleni Vagianou, Danae Haratsis, Nikolas von Schwabe, Athina Zafeiropoulou, Catarina de Almeida Brito, Thalia Chrousos, Chris Yuan, Kevin Larson
The new City Hall in Nancagua, a small rural town in Central Chile, aims to create a space able to accommodate various public situations and events. Because of its location, close to an old public park and to several historical buildings, it also makes possible the recovery and enhancement of the local heritage, both natural and manmade.
The project, winner of a public competition, focuses not on the construction of an iconic volume, but rather on the creation of a memorable and public void that effectively connects the city with the valuable, but previously overlooked public park. As with other spaces with a high civic spirit, like the agora of Assos in Greece or the Piazza San Marco in Venice, the project emphasizes the construction of a void over the construction of isolated buildings. Spaces with a public void is created and “charged” so that it becomes a catalyst for public life.
The first part of the long-awaited revitalization of the Prague riverfront area called Náplavka is coming to completion, making it one of the most attractive public embankments in Europe.
In autumn 2019, nineteen vaults on the Rašín and Hořejší Embankments will be put into use. Six will feature the biggest elliptical pivoting windows in the world, connecting the inner spaces with the riverfront area in a unique way, through the diagonal rotation of the five-meter wide glazed “lenses”. The other spaces will have distinct steel sculptural entrances.
You can wander through the Dutch polder landscape while at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The landscape was the main source of inspiration behind the new Holland Boulevard, an international departures hall designed by NEXT architects and that now comprises various typical Dutch-inspired sitting rooms. These rooms are separated by low walls; together, they form the horizon of this vast space of 5,000 m2. Each room has its own atmosphere and ambiance and so the Holland Boulevard takes visitors on a real voyage of discovery.
The Maison de la littérature (House of Literature) is located in the historic neighbourhood of Old Québec, a site part of UNESCO’s World Heritage List. In this particularly dense urban setting, Chevalier Morales designed a contemporary annex, a simple and refined volume, to the Wesley Temple, a neo-Gothic heritage church. Since its opening, the Maison de la littérature has rapidly become a vibrant home to Québec literature and a popular touristic destination in Old Québec.
Stemming from an architecture competition, the winning project by Chevalier Morales proposed an unforeseen solution, a response exceeding the initial commission’s expectations. The architects chose to move part of the program into a new annex outside the church space to provide a more transparent and universal entrance.
Within the framework of the Capilla País project, during the first weeks of the summer of 2019, more than 500 university volunteers traveled to different locations in Chile to build 15 chapels to provide meeting and prayer spaces for people in small and vulnerable communities in the country, where people practice their faith collectively, simply and honestly, far from the institutional crisis of the church and its hierarchies. The proposed and executed project is based on the following design principles:
Symbolic Character: A structure clearly recognizable as a chapel, encouraging prayer as well as the realization of social activities. Using the most elementary image of a church, based on a symmetrical structure with a gable roof.
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)
The project was the refurbishment of one of Budapest’s busiest downtown transport hubs, and the most visited public square on the Buda side. Due to the strict order of tramlines and roads, the main architectural and landscaping goal was to clean up and rationalize the inner parts, making the square a pedestrian priority public space with as many green areas as possible, in a way that does not interfere with the transferring crowd. The placement of the resting areas, filled with shrubs, trees, fountains and benches is based on an analysis of the crowd movement, providing the shortest route for each transfer and utilizing the least loaded patches, while leaving the heavy connections empty.
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