“The pier design we share here is a series of experience, including where it meets downtown, at the municipal marina, at the warm waters where the manatee swims, and at the unbelievable horizon of Tampa Bay. The experiences along the way provide an unfolding journey, and a part of the fun getting to the pier’s end. The People’s Pier culminates at what we call the St. Petersburg Eye – a totally unique structure that has four levels, each with infinite views, exceptional experiences, open-ended settings, and inspiring vistas.”

When we started the design process we noticed that the site was a so-called terrain vague, urbanistically speaking a no man’s land with remnants of industrial installations. While it had some elements of exterior design like the sculpture garden on its west boundary with the prominent sculpture feature, on its south east boundary the amphitheater and on the north east boundary the art resource center. These facilities although present within the strong boundaries of the site appear disconnected and the site gives the image of a vacant land. According to the established schedule the site was to become a part of the architecturally organized and well defined city. Our aim was to convert this area into a prominent and recognizable district within the urban landscape of Tai Pei. For that reason we decided that we wanted a building that will act as landmark within the city and could become an icon for the new image of Tai Pei.

We decided since the beginning that we did not want to merge the two programs in one but instead we wanted two separated programs consecutively two separate museums that will develop a dialectic relationship between them.

We followed different patterns of organization for the two museums. The children’s art museum is organized and structured in a free fluid manner in comparison with the more rigid ortho-kanonic organization of the art museum located below it. The reason is that we felt that it was more appropriate to give its users the children the freedom of exploration and the spontaneity of discovery.

The starting conceptual model for the children museum was a pencil sharpening of a children crayon pencil. We thought of this object because it exemplifies the first artistic explorations of all of us and because of its unmistakable familiarity with our youth. We proceeded by making a shell of the sharpening from which the children museum roof was developed. This roof became the sculptural element situated within the landscape.

The main art museum was envisaged as a rectangular volume a casing, a chamber with clear and recognizable circulation and orientation. We lifted the park ground and carefully placed our volume underneath. That way the much larger adult museum does not domain the landscape but it manages to become the landscape as the only visible features are the glass facades that open along the east west axis. The children museum becomes the crowning of this artificial topography elevated form the rest of the landscape.

The ‘crown’ is directed connected to the urban fabric via the bridge. This elevated walkway not only connects the landscape to the city but also becomes an architectural promenade connecting the train station with the developed site. The train station in urban and physical terms is the nearest and busiest connector of Tai Pei to the rest of Taiwan thus making the new park the preferable destination. In the same axis that bridge and museum form also lies the cable car lines that connect the park to the southern part of the city establishing it as a middle ground, the stasis between moments the resting point between destinations

We wanted the museum to be a formal and spatial experience that announces to all who enter that this is the place for experiment, a place to leave behind assumptions and conventions , a place that lays to its users open to the surprises and challenges that are necessarily presented by the new art.

The entry level of the adult art museum was designed as a connector of the two programs. It is the level which the user can visit without the need to visit any of the exhibition spaces. It becomes a real place not only a space, a place for meetings for rest for communication and exchange of ideas and information. Because of the commercial part of the program situated here and the opening of the level to west It becomes a sunken square bursting from activity and life.

On September 8th, Mario Cucinella Architects will break ground on his One Airport Square project in Accra, Ghana’s capital city. Accra, capital of Ghana is swiftly becoming one of the strongest economic hubs in West Africa. The Italian design studio Mario Cucinella Architects (MCA) has been commissioned to envision a 17,000 sq m mixed use complex to be situated in the heart of the city.

Actis Boston & laurus development partners commissioned a 21,000 sqm mix used development with retail facilities and an office bock. According to the particular topography of the site, the project is organized in order to create a public square towards the north east side of the area, concentrating the building mass on the opposite side.

The poor actual conditions of the surrounding area justifies the idea of a public or semi-public open space, to be mainly used by employees and potentially become a shopping plaza Main entrance to the office building and to the retail are located at the upper level.

The block contains retail, shops, restaurant, cafeterias making the area live during day and night time. Main facades of the building are oriented towards north and south; east and west facades, which are most problematic in terms of solar control, have been reduced. Overhanging slabs protect all facades from direct solar radiation and vegetation creates a microclimate. The efficiency of natural ventilation is increased by an internal court. A concrete external structure support the slabs and creates a decorative motif on the facades taking inspiration from African typical patterns.

The envelopes of both biomes are critical to their success. Both are designed to allow as much light as possible to enter so that the plants within can flourish; the hybrid structure of a gridshell supported by giant steel arches was informed by extensive daylight analysis.

A central on-site energy centre will provide cooling and power to the biomes and the primary energy source for this will be waste wood. The National Parks Board is responsible for some 3 million trees in Singapore which generate about 5000 tonnes of timber clippings a month. Instead of being dumped this will be be chipped and burnt in a steam biomass boiler and used to drive the CHP system. Ash from the boiler will be re-used in the garden whilst heat from the CHP unit will be used to regenerate a liquid dessicant.

This dessicant will be used to remove moisture from the fresh air supply. This helps cut power consumption; dry air requires far less energy to cool it than moist air does.

Waste water from the dessicant circuit will be exhausted to the atmosphere through a flue concealed in the trunk of one of the on-site ‘Supertrees’. These giant steel and concrete sculptures will have planting around their trunks creating striking vertical gardens whilst their branches will also support solar hot water collectors, PV panels and rainwater harvesters. The tallest trees will contain lifts for access to a high level walkway and a treetop café.

The iconic centerpiece of the project, the tower, is wrapped in a ‘lace’ of metallic panels that filters the direct sunlight and allows the use of the terraces and open air spaces. A similar screening strategy is appropriated in the design of the villas creating terraces and sheltered open spaces. Green dominates the project, from the elaborate plantation to the green-coloured sustainability-oriented ‘lace’ shed of the tower, imposing the overall sustainable design of the project.

Before the shows as the seating fills what the viewer observes is a perfect water cube that seems to be a fountain in the bay. At the times indicated, certain sides of the reservoirs will be dammed and no water will flow over that particular side leaving an opening in the water cube. Just as a traditional curtain in a theater opens revealing the stage setting, the wall or curtain of water parts and recedes to expose the stage setting and the performers.


The design concept builds on the notion that a theaters success is associated to the strength and quality of the relationship between the audience and the performer. Acoustics amplify sound, lights direct visualizations but most other architectural elements or design features should become negligible once the performance begins.
The floating stage attempts to add a layer of this water vocabulary by resembling a cube of water. The intention of the cube is to evoke thoughts of the long standing tradition of man-made islands and waterways throughout the bay. The water cube, while being made of natural materials cries out its man-made origins. Through the use of gateways and dams, waterfalls provide the stage with curtains, backdrops, privacy screens and even a surface on which to project. The unique quality of water to absorb and mask sound and it’s amazing reflective and refractive qualities allow it to enhance the experience.

The Coral Reef project by Vincent Callebaut Architects plans a matrix to build a three dimensional and energy self-sufficient village from one and only standardized and prefabricated module in order to rehouse the refugees from such humanitarian catastrophes. This basic module is simply made of two passive houses (with metallic structure and tropical wood facades) interlocked in duplex around a transversal horizontal circulation linking every unit.

Inspired from a Coral reef with fluid and organic shapes, the overall project presents itself as a great living structure made of two waves dedicated to accommodate more than one thousand Haitian families. These two inhabited waves undulate along the water on an artificial pier built on seismic piles in the Caribbean Sea. From concave curves to convex curves, the housing modules are aligned and piled up by successive stratums such as a great origami. Between the two inhabited waves is created a sumptuous interior canyon in pixels with terraces and cascades of food gardens.

Actually, the laying-out in staggered rows of the plane-parallel base modules enables to superimpose the passive houses in cantilever and to multiply the vision axes towards an endless number of perspectives. Each roof of each module becomes then an organic suspended garden enabling to each Creole family to cultivate its own food and to use themselves their own wastage as compost.

This canyon is a true tropical ecosystem for the local fauna and the flora. Ode to the urban biodiversity, it is also the central axis of the communitarian life of this futuristic village and respectful of its environment. Between the waves of these ecological housing, the sinuous lines of the anti-seismic basement (absorbing the vibrations in case of earthquake) integrate the public functions of the social life. Aquicultural farms welcome pisciculture pools whereas the purification plant lagoons recycle the used waters before rejecting them in the sea.

The Master Plan can evolve and extends itself according to the «plug-in» principle. The urban framework of this ecological village remains thus undetermined, flexible and develops itself continuously according to the time and the space. New extension modules, also prefabricated in factory and brought by cargo will be actually added such as a giant meccano set to correspond to the needs of inhabitants completing the basic matrix.

The visible sinuosity of this built landscape is structured by eight spine columns integrating all the vertical circulations linked together by two horizontal storeys crossing through a straight line the whole village from end to end. The whole set forms a compact orthogonal system that distributes all the flows through each module. The project is eco-designed and integrates all the bioclimatic systems as well as the renewable energies. Actually, the sea thermal energy conversion is made in the coverage of the pier by using the difference of temperature between the superficial waters and the deep waters. The kinetic energy from marine currents is converted by hydro-turbines under the pier into electrical energy; the sinusoidal pergolas on the roof attract the solar energy by photovoltaic panels and a park of spiral wind turbines is planted in the great tropical garden that covers the logistical basis.

Taking advantage of the same natural and climatic conditions from the beginning as its neighbor island, Dominican Republic, Haiti is one of the countries that profits from one of the biggest potentials to reinvent a new sustainable urbanity and to implement the biggest challenges of reconstruction as a matter of urgency. The Coral Reef prototype project is in this context of humanitarian crisis a positive and dynamic answer fighting for the sustainable industrialized and standardized rebuilding of collective social housing of humanitarian and environmental high quality in disaster area.

Vincent Callebaut Architect

Eco-city 2020 is a proposal for the rehabilitation of the Mirniy industrial zone in Eastern Siberia, Russia designed by the innovative architectural studio AB Elis Ltd.
The city, named Eco-city 2020, would be constructed inside the Mir diamond mine, the second largest excavated hole on the planet. It's a quarter-mile wide at the top and over 1,700 feet deep, which is so big that air flowing into the hole can actually suck helicopters out of the sky. If the project gets going, the mine would be completely covered over with a glass dome to protect the city from the weather in Siberia (which is apparently lousy almost all the time), and solar cells embedded in the dome would provide power for the entire structure.

Eco-city would be constructed of multiple levels, with a huge central core. The main floor would hold parks and recreation areas, with residential areas terracing up around the walls of the mine. Underneath would be space for vertical farms and forests, subsiding on light piped down the central core. An estimated 100,000 people would be able to live in Eco-city, and architects are hoping that it would help to attract tourists to Eastern Siberia.

So, what’s the likelihood of Eco-city actually being constructed? Probably not great, at least not anytime soon. At the same time, settlement like this (on a much smaller scale) might be the perfect design for a colony in a crater on the Moon or Mars.

AB ELISE, ltd
Via [DVICE]

Geotube is a building proposal designed by the California based architecture Firm Faulders Studio for the unique environment of dubai. Born from unique environmental conditions, GEOtube is a new kind of urban sculptural tower. Gravity-sprayed with adjacent Persion Gulf waters, its building skin is entirely grown rather than constructed; is in continual formation rather than fully completed; and is created locally rather than imported.

The world’s highest salinity for oceanic water is found in the Persian Gulf (and the Red Sea) – local salt water is supplied to GEOtube via a new 4.62 km buried pipeline and misted onto the tower’s exposed mesh. As the water evaporates and salt deposits aggregate over time, the tower’s appearance transforms from a transparent skin to a highly visible white solid plane. The result is a specialized habitat for wildlife that thrives is this environment, and an accessible surface for the harvesting of crystal salt.

Faulders Studio imagines that after 15-30 years, the salt accumulation would make the skin nearly opaque. At this ‘mature stage’, sea salt could be harvested for commercial use. It’s a visually stimulating, sculptural, ever-evolving approach to architecture, tailored to a specific location, and would certainly add yet another weirdly wonderful building to Dubai’s growing collection.

Via [Weburbanist]

Two young Swedish architects, Maria Poll and AnnaKarin Stråhle have made a proposal for a new prison in the city center of Gothenburg suggesting that architecture can be a helping tool in the rehabilitation of prisoners. And that a central location of the prison can help the prisoners get in contact with the society and vice versa, creating a mutual trust between the citizens and the prisoners.


This project is a conceptual project that we made in our master program at Chalmers Architecture in Gothenburg.
During the course we investigated new and extreme ways of living. The assignment for the course was to create residential housing but me and Maria started to discuss really extreme ways of living and our discussion ended up in a prison. Some people in our society spend parts of their lives in prison. How do you compare the living standard between an inmate in prison and a free citizen? Should the architecture and design of a prison be different from a regular housing project? This was questions we asked ourselves when we made this project.






Via [POST]

“URCOMANTE,” House has been built by the team group of dedicated students and teachers from the University of Valladolid, Spain. The project has been presented at the Solar Decathalon Europe 2010. URCOMANTE is a word composed of the various individuals to whom the living spaces of the house can be adapted to(urbanite, cosmopolitan, manager, immigrant, and dilettante).


The logic behind this idea is that there must be flexibility in terms of options for building the house as well providing the capacity for it to adapt to its occupants

The Urcomante house features walls and a roof covered in photovoltaic panels, while the inside is amply sunlit and adaptable, with interchangeable rooms.

The Urcomante’s rooftop solar array produces an impressive 10 kWhrs of energy and also features evacuated tube hot water heaters. The side louvers can adjust to let the winter light in and block the harsh summer glare. The Inside is broken into six “modules” that can be reorganized to fit the occupants’ needs. The inhabitants will probably spend a lot of time on the veranda.

URCOMANTE
Via [Inhabitat]

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Communication between the various levels of the residence is made by a central core that contains an elevator. It connects directly the first level of the gallery to the residence level. In an intermediate level, it connects the service and garage floor, the mezzanine of the gallery.

In the existing vertical gap (10 meters in total), the first action: different uses in different levels. In the lower level, the gallery, the stereotomic volume. With the need for an air-conditioned closed space, the volume arises from the ground like a big rock, a big platform. At the top level, the residence, the tectonic volume. And the second action: to get the most of the existing views, the residence is distributed under a continuous roof (81 meters), constituted by a reinforced concrete portico. This portico sets the residence´s built volume. And the residence is distributed under the roof, according the needs of each space: access , recreation area, kitchen, living room, bedrooms. The existing views guide the various openings: from every room one sees the mountains.

The main entrance is marked by a void at the beginning of the portico. From there, different occupations under the cover create the enclosed areas (sauna, kitchen and bedrooms) and the opened ones (porches). These opened spaces are extended over the gallery coverage through a large deck, a pool and garden areas.

Architects Xavier Vilalta Studio have won the competition with the theme : tower for Doha, Qatar. Called Alpha Project, the design is based on tha patterns of ancient Arabic tiles.
It would be designed as an independent ecosystem to ensure stable living at places with harsher climes with the use of sustainable renewable energy measures.


The design is generated and melded by the surrounding environment, which works in harmony to utilize the available natural resources. The towers will incorporate passive design elements inspired by the vernacular architecture to harness energy from wind, water and sun. The outer façade of the energy-efficient towers is embedded with photovoltaic panels to harness solar energy while the entire organic framework works to facilitate natural pressure ventilation.

The design of the tower’s skin is based on the patterns of ancient Arabic GIRIH tiles that define and shade the semi-outdoor spaces from the interiors of the structure and then move towards the outside. The exterior pergolas shade the pathways that wind through the landscaped gardens.

The structure and planning of the scheme is designed to be efficient, advanced and sustainable. The accessibility and efficiency of the tower is improved with the use of connections made across the towers. The towers and bridges blend together to work as a whole and frame the core, public space. These also create a new typology of high-rise buildings.