Ma Yansong of Chinese studio MAD presents a masterplan for Nanjing, China, where buildings are designed to look like mountains and public spaces overlap with the natural landscape, as part of the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.
The Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza proposal is the latest in a series of projects by MAD based on Yansong’s Shan-Shui City concept – an urban strategy based on a style of Chinese landscape painting and named after the Chinese words for mountains and water.
The masterplan, which encompasses an area of approximately 60 hectares, envisions an assortment of buildings and spaces that mediate between the city’s urban centre and its surrounding landscape of mountains and lakes.
“We need to rethink how to define the boundary between the nature and the urban on this piece of empty plot in the new city development area,” says MAD. “Is it possible to combine the high-density city with the atmosphere of the nature to create an energetic urban public space for the future, so people will reconnect their emotion with the nature?”
Expected to complete by 2017, the masterplan includes a set of high-rise buildings with unique curving profiles intended to avoid the “height competition” associated with most skyscrapers.
At ground level, pathways and plazas will be integrated with a mixture of manmade and natural landscaping.
Ma Yansong Featuring ‘Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza’ in Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen
Ma Yansong presented his work, ‘Shanshui Experiment Complex’ in the Border Warehouse of Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen. This is an artwork in-between architecture model and landscape installation, created based on MAD’s latest project, ‘Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza’. The total area of this urban design project is about 600,000 sqm and it is expected to be completed in 2017.
The historic city Nanjing is famous for the mountain and water landscape around the city, as well as its modern prosperities. With the culture, nature and history considered, we need to rethink how to define the boundary between the nature and the urban on this piece of empty plot in the new city development area. Is it possible to combine the high-density city with the atmosphere of the nature to create an energetic urban public space for the future, so people will re-connected their emotion with the nature?
The installation approaches those issues by creating a green open space spreading on the ground level of the city, where the natural and man-made landscape cross over with each other, existing in different dimensions both indoors and outdoors. The clear boundary of the site thus becomes blurred. While walking to their urban destination, people will feel as if they are sometimes walking in the nature. Above that, a series of buildings rise in the fog with flowing lines, changing smoothly as integrity, resolving the vertical power and the height competition, and the city skyline that used to be controlled by technology and power is now back to the artistic mood of faraway-so-close that our ancients have perceived in the nature.
News: Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have designed a 56-storey cylindrical skyscraper as part of a nine-hectare masterplan proposed for London’s Canary Wharf.
The residential tower is one of five new buildings proposed at Wood Wharf, the eastern end of Canary Wharf, in the first phase of a major mixed-used development submitted for planning approval today by London architecture firm Allies and Morrison.
Herzog & de Meuron and London studio Stanton Williams are working on the three residential buildings of the proposal, providing a total of 884 homes, while Allies and Morrison has designed two office blocks targeted at creative media, technology and telecommunications companies.
Later phases of the masterplan aim to surround the new buildings with a network of public squares and parks, as well as over 100 shops, restaurants and cafes at street level. Additional buildings will accommodate education and healthcare facilities, while more residential accommodation will bring the total of new homes up to 3100.
George Iacobescu of property developer Canary Wharf Group commented: “This is an exciting new project for Canary Wharf Group which represents the continued redevelopment of east London almost 30 years after the original transformation of Canary Wharf began.”
“The revised masterplan will create a strong and complementary mix of uses, and provide new homes, offices and retail spaces set within a network of streets and public spaces, designed to support the social life of new residents, employees and the surrounding community,” he added.
If planning approval is granted, construction of the phase one buildings is set to commence next year, with completion scheduled for 2017.
Here’s the full press release from Canary Wharf Group:
Canary Wharf Group submits new Planning Application for Mixed Use Urban Neighbourhood on Canary Wharf’s Eastern Edge
» Revised masterplan by Allies and Morrison will broaden Canary Wharf’s appeal as a working and living urban district
» New Wood Wharf neighbourhood will be defined by a network of high quality parks and public squares with a kilometre of dock-edge walkways
» The new neighbourhood will offer a range of homes from park-side townhouses and affordable housing to luxury penthouses in some of London’s tallest residential buildings designed by world-class architects
» New offices will appeal to a range of tenants but with a focus on creative media, technology and telecommunications
» Over 100 new shops, restaurants and cafes are planned at street level that will attract a range of new concepts and products
» The Masterplan provides for: – 3,100 residential units – 240,000 sqm (2.57 million sq.ft.) (GIA) of commercial offices – 31,000 sqm (340,000 sq.ft.) (GIA) of shops, cafes and restaurants – 3.6 hectares (8.9 acres) of interconnected public spaces
» Illustrative design information for Phase I to include 884 residential units in 3 buildings designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Stanton Williams totalling 100,379 sq. m (1,080,179 sq ft) (GIA); and 2 office buildings totalling over 20,000 sq. m (216,000 sq.ft.) (GIA) designed by Allies and Morrison. All three architectural practices are internationally acclaimed and award winning firms of the highest calibre (see notes below).
– Planning application submitted today to London Borough of Tower Hamlets – Extensive public consultation has been undertaken over the last 12 months – Details can be found at www.shapingwoodwharf.com – New images of development released alongside revised plans
Continuing the redevelopment of East London
Canary Wharf Group plc (“Canary Wharf Group”) today announces that it has submitted planning applications for, a new 9.23 hectares (22.8 acres) mixed-use urban neighbourhood immediately east of Canary Wharf in central London. The new masterplan proposes the development of more than 3,000 homes and over 240,000 sq. m (2.57 million sq.ft.) (GIA) of commercial offices offering a range of floor plates that will appeal to a wide array of occupiers including the fast expanding TMT sector.
Commenting on the plans, Sir George Iacobescu, Chairman and Chief Executive of Canary Wharf Group plc, said:
“This is an exciting new project for Canary Wharf Group which represents the continued redevelopment of East London almost 30 years after the original transformation of Canary Wharf began. The revised masterplan will create a strong and complementary mix of uses, and provide new homes, offices and retail spaces set within a network of streets and public spaces, designed to support the social life of new residents, employees and the surrounding community. It is a reflection of the demand we are seeing in the market, and is an opportunity for us to further expand the appeal of Canary Wharf by creating a new and exciting mixed use neighbourhood at Wood Wharf which will offer greater diversity and amenity and a richer urban fabric for the fast emerging City Centre of Canary Wharf.”
A range of house types are proposed for 3,100 residential units, including town houses and mid and high-rise apartment buildings. Housing tenure will include private housing for sale and rent and intermediate and affordable housing for rent. The planned offices will be capable of accommodating a wide range of company sizes and types, in line with the mixture of demand we anticipate including the expanding TMT sector in East London. This vibrant, new development is expected to create over 17,000 new jobs, of which we expect around 3,500 will be taken by local residents.
Building a Community
The broad range of public spaces, homes, offices and shops is designed to offer a rich and diverse working and living environment. This diversity is a key element of the new Masterplan. The shops and restaurants will include a range of names new to London to further expand Canary Wharf’s broad retail offer. The Masterplan provides for two hotels and serviced apartments. The scheme also includes 3.6 hectares of interconnected public spaces with two squares and two parks, one based on a typical London square, the other lining the southern dock edge of Wood Wharf with 1km of dockside boardwalks.
Plans for Wood Wharf include a two-form entry primary school, a multi-purpose sports hall and a healthcare facility. The highly successful Arts and Events Programme at Canary Wharf will be expanded and will offer a range of cultural activities and events in new venues and the planned public spaces at Wood Wharf.
Transport considerations include the installation of London Cycle Hire bicycles, a new bus route through the site and improved pedestrian connectivity to London Underground, DLR & Crossrail. Two car clubs are planned along with parking for 1,100 spaces.
On the importance of public space, Robert Maguire, Project Director for Wood Wharf said:
“With an extensive new network of public spaces and water’s edge boardwalks, the Wood Wharf masterplan places high quality public space at the heart of the design process. The principle achievement of the masterplan – the ‘glue’ which holds the neighbourhood together – will always be its well-considered network of streetscapes, squares, parks and water spaces. We are building a community that will both support, and be supported by, the success of Canary Wharf and the 110,000 people that work and visit Canary Wharf each day.”
Next Steps
Herzog & de Meuron and Stanton Williams have been appointed to work alongside Allies and Morrison in designing the first phase buildings within Wood Wharf. If planning permission is granted, construction is expected to start in Q4 2014 with the first buildings to be completed in 2017.
Dubai also saw off competition from Brazilian city São Paulo and Yekaterinburg in Russia, and will become the first Middle Eastern city to host the international exhibition in its 150-year history.
“This win is a testament to the commitment of the UAE citizens to create a prosperous future for their country and region,” said HOK Dubai’s Daniel Hajjar. “We are proud to have led the design of the Expo site and to be associated with producing a winning entry for Dubai so that this great country can continue to boost its reputation on a global stage.”
With the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, HOK’s winning masterplan encompasses a 438-hectare site in south-west Dubai, close to the new Al Maktoum International Airport and Jebel Ali Port.
The design features three major pavilions connected by an “iconic photovoltaic fabric structure” that will provide a gigantic canopy of solar panels across the main connecting walkways.
“Dubai’s win elevates its status as a global city with world-class infrastructure and highlights its commitment to sustainable energy,” said HOK president Bill Hellmuth.
The exhibition will be organised into three zones that will branch out from a central plaza modelled on the traditional Arabic marketplace, known as a souk. Larger pavilions will be positioned at the outer perimeter and smaller exhibition stands will be located nearer the centre to encourage visitors to explore the entire site.
Architecture firm Populous acted as venue planning and participant design consultants, while engineering firm Arup advised on the infrastructure and transportation systems included.
A nomadic city moves from place to place like an enormous tank in this conceptual proposal by architecture graduate Manuel Domínguez.
Entitled Very Large Structure, the futuristic megastructure is designed to wheel itself from one location to another to find better economic and physical conditions. Rather than using up the resources of the places it visits, it would be able to produce its own energy and establish new buildings before moving on.
“The VLS is a territorial manager, a synergistic machine within its environment,” explained Domínguez. “It is not a machine that uses the local resources until it finish them and then leaves to the next one, in fact is the other way round, since its aim is to restore the territory.”
With a length of 560 metres, the city would be made up of three levels. The lowest would function as a warehouse and construction area, while the middle would accommodate mechanical functions such as waste disposal and air conditioning, and the top storey would be used as a living deck where new architectural structures can be tested.
Domínguez says the project could actually be built, as he based it on preexisting systems and technologies that include mining machinery, transport infrastructures, eco villages and robotics.
“I think it’s feasible because it’s made with existing technology but I’m not sure if it’s desirable,” he said.
The structure is based on a giant gantry crane. A total of 36 oversized crawlers would allow it to move, propelled by the kinds of electric engines used in large sea vessels.
“VLS is a theoretical utopian project trying to be as realistic as it can get, and even though everything is technically calculated as if it was going to be constructed, I perfectly know and assume it’s just an assertive investigation,” said the designer.
Australian architecture studio Room 11 has created a three-kilometre riverside pathway in Tasmania where brightly coloured boardwalks are punctuated with public pavilions (+ slideshow).
Named GASP!, an acronym of Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park, the project was conceived as a community park that combines an arts programme with a play space for young children.
Room 11 was given a stretch of land along the banks of the River Derwent and developed a phased proposal to create the park.
For the first stage the architects established a gently arching walkway made up of three boardwalks, which bridge between headland along the southern edge of the river.
Wooden slats form the surfaces of the walkways, while more timber balustrades have been painted in vivid colours to create striped patterns.
Two timber pavilions are positioned at the start and midpoint of the route, offering sheltered seating areas that can be used for various activities.
The second stage, completed this year, comprises a third pavilion at Wilkinsons Point. Constructed from concrete and red glass, this larger structure forms an end point to the trail and includes public toilets.
The third and final stage will involve construction of a cafe and studio building, but is currently only in the concept stages.
“We moved on from nostalgic visions of place making and embraced interstitial spaces with relish,” said architect Thomas Bailey.
GASP! is the first public architecture project completed by Room 11, which has offices in Melbourne and Tasmania.
The Glenorchy Arts and Sculpture Park, GASP!, is Room 11’s first foray into public architecture. Along the River Derwent in Glenorchy, Tasmania, Room 11 has built a colourfully calibrated public walkway which deftly links previously marginalised, but surprisingly beautiful sections of foreshore.
Abundant birdlife and the silky surface of the river are able to be closely inspected as one walks the gentle arc which links an existing school, playground, major entrainment centre and rowing club.
Punctuating the arc are two carefully crafted pavilions which offer shelter, seating and a location to pause and consider the water plane and sky.
GASP stage two is the penultimate gesture of the Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park (GASP!). It is composed of architecture that responds to the scale of the surrounding landform.
Blunt forms frame and command the superlative Tasmanian landscape. Colour and architecture have been used as a vehicle for re-evaluation and re-appreciation of place. The re-forming of the shoreline embraces the expanse of Elwick Bay, the bay becomes integral to the experience, a unity has been created.
GASP! has been conceived as a ribbon along which contemporary art events and installations can occur, the new architecture is an important feature of this.
Turner Prize winning Artist Susan Phillipz was commissioned by GASP!, to undertake the inaugural art project, The Waters Twine an 8 channel sound project embedded into the boardwalk in March 2013. Further events and installations are now underway.
The staged project was the result of a limited design competition in 2010.
Length: 3km Materials: Timber, stainless steel, concrete, glass & paint Client: Glenorchy City Council Funding: Australian Government, Tasmanian State Government, Glenorchy City Council
Smith and Gill, who are currently also working on construction of the world’s tallest skyscraper, will masterplan a 173-hectare site in Kazakhstan’s capital. It will include a 25-hectare exhibition centre to host the world fair, alongside housing, schools, healthcare facilities, shopping centres and parks.
A spherical Kazakhstan Pavilion will form the centre of the exhibition, surrounded by International, Theme and Corporate Pavilions. Once the exhibition is over, everything inside the new buildings could be either dismantled or adapted to accommodate new functions, meaning no demolition would be required.
Jeremy Rifkin, chairman of the technical committee of the competition, said the winning scheme is “the most practical in terms of both sustainable development and architectural and artistic design”.
Bearing the title Future Energy, the Astana Expo 2017 will be centred around the promotion of sustainable energy sources and technologies, so all the energy consumed by visitors to the exhibition will be generated from renewable sources including solar panels and wind turbines.
Following on from Milan’s Expo taking place next year, the 2017 exhibition be hosted for three months during the summer of 2017 and will feature pavilions from over 100 participating countries. The most recent Expos held were the Yeosu Expo 2012 in South Korea and the Shanghai Expo 2010, which featured Thomas Heatherwick’s Seed Cathedral.
Welsh designer Kieren Jones has devised a concept for harnessing the destructive power of erupting volcanoes by using lava flows to cast components for buildings.
Scale model of building elements
Having discovered that the current method for controlling lava from the world’s most volatile volcanoes is to redirect it using huge concrete barriers or cool it with sea water, Kieren Jones developed an alternative scenario in which the lava pours into casting beds excavated in the shape of structural building blocks.
“Not only would these casting beds protect the population at the base of the volcanoes but they will also provide them with a constructive material in which to aid the recovery of a community post eruption,” Jones explained.
Scale model of building elements
The designer believes that the accuracy with which volcanic activity can be predicted using sophisticated geological data could enable the casting beds to be positioned at the most effective points to capture the molten rock.
“Lava as a material is naturally light and thermally insulating and has the potential to be a strong building block,” said Jones.
Models of the 16 Decade Volcanoes
Models of 16 of the world’s most active and researched volcanoes, known as the Decade Volcanoes, were presented alongside drawings and scale models at an exhibition called Blanks in Between, curated by Workshop for Potential Design during this year’s London Design Festival.
Model of Mount Vesuvius
Here’s some more information from the designer:
The Volcano Project By Kieren Jones
In 2013 there are 16 volcanoes that have been identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior of being of particular interest to study due to their history of destructive eruption and proximity to populated areas – these 16 volcanoes are known as the Decade Volcanoes.
Traditionally people have toyed with living at the base of volcanoes, as the ground is highly fertile fuelled by the ash and molten lava of past eruptions. Within the immense destruction of these often vast and bubbling mounds lies potential for a constructive future.
The United Nations are currently able to predict with relative accuracy when each Decade Volcano is likely to erupt and determine the direction in which the lava will flow. At present the method for mitigating the destruction of lava flows is to place large concrete blocks in the predicted path of the flowing lava and spraying it with sea water in order to try and cool this molten material.
Intrigued by the potential that these destructive happenings have and keen to find a way to harness this powerful flow into something constructive I have been investigating the potential of creating architectures from the flowing lava. Lava as a material is naturally light and thermally insulating and has the potential to be a strong building block. In fact the early Romans created some vast domed structures using this molten material.
Therefore instead of placing large concrete blocks in its path, I propose to create large casting beds into which the lava can flow, creating building blocks for future shelters. Not only would these casting beds protect the population at the base of the volcanoes but they will also provide them with a constructive material in which to aid the recovery of a community post eruption.
On the occasion of the Blanks in Between exhibition during the London Design Festival 2013, I presented a series of experiments and investigations into the potential that the Decade Volcanoes have to build future architectures providing constructive solutions out of natural destruction.
“This was the first botanical garden in Australia, if not the world, that is for Australian natives only,” Adams says.
“There has been a strong bush garden movement [in Australia], which started off in the 1970s and 1980s. But this takes it to another level. It’s not just about using native plants, but really celebrating the qualities and properties of them.”
The structure of the garden is based around the flow of water, Adams goes on to explain.
“Australia is an island surrounded by water with desert in the inside,” he says. “We wanted to tell the journey about the water moving from the desert to the coast, so the botanical garden is set up to form a narrative for the Australian landscape.”
There is limited signage at the garden, a decision Adams says was designed to increase visitors’ sense of discovery.
“We wanted the visitor to take home their own experience, rather than to have signage to tell them what they should be feeling or what they should be seeing,” he says.
“You go there and you make your own journey, and your own discoveries, and take home your own findings.”
World Architecture Festival 2013 took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2-4 October. Next year’s World Architecture Festival will take place at the same venue from 1-3 October 2014. Award entries are open from February to June 2014.
Gabion walls, concrete staircases and huge rocks frame the spaces of this public park in Zaragoza by Spanish architects Héctor Fernández Elorza and Manuel Fernández Ramírez (+ slideshow).
Venecia Park spans a 415-metre stretch beside a ring road on the outskirts of the city, forming a gateway to the residential neighbourhoods to the south.
Architects Héctor Fernández Elorza and Manuel Fernández Ramírez, who previously teamed up on a park elsewhere in the city, were asked to overcome three issues – a 14-metre level change across the site, regular flooding caused by heavy rainfall and noise from the adjacent road.
The largest space in the park is a sunken concrete plaza in the south-west corner. Staircases lead down to it from all four corners, while the surrounding walls offer protection from the strong prevailing winds.
Most of the time this space can function as a pedestrian space, but it also doubles as an overflow basin for rainwater, reducing the impact of flooding to the surrounding residential areas.
To create a sound barrier and deal with the level change, the architects designed a system of rammed-earth banks to run along the north-west border of the park and fronted them with four staggered gabion walls, made from steel cages and stones.
Another sound barrier was required along the south-west side so the architects specified a wall made from oversized rocks, which they refer to as the “cyclopean wall”.
“This wall is conceived as an icon that characterises the new neighbourhood,” they said.
Young trees have been planted along some of the pathways, while metal shelters mark the location of viewpoints and ramps lead on towards the nearby canal.
“Venecia Park is a carefully planned topographical operation that complements the acoustic functions and flow-forming processes, in addition to providing green spaces to the city,” added the architects.
The green space within sector 88/1, known as Venecia Park, is located at its north-western limits, running parallel to the Ronda Hispanidad Avenue between the Calle Zafiro Roundabout and the historic channel of the Imperial Canal of Aragón. The project encompasses a linear urban infrastructure, averaging 415 metres in length and 60 metres in width: a surface area of approximately 2.5 hectares. It was required to address three issues: the resolution of an acoustic problem, the evacuation of rainfall deposits and the question of topography.
The sound issue caused by road traffic on the Ronda Hispanidad (Third Ring Road) affecting neighbouring dwellings, requires the establishment of a sound barrier to include the whole north-western border of the park. The existing topographical ground level difference between ground-level of the new residential quarter and the ring road reaches a maximum height of 14 metres, where the containment of the terrain is resolved by means of a system of reinforced earth walls. This is made up four steps set apart from one another by 1.50 metres, composed of a galvanised steel mesh and large gravel stones, thus forming a sound barrier that will protect future residential developments in the area.
To the far south-west of the park, where no significant topographical difference is noticeable, the issue of sound containment is resolved by means of a Cyclopean wall 100 metres long with a maximum height of 10 metres. This wall is moreover conceived as an icon that characterises the new neighbourhood and also provides access to the underground square or mill basin situated in its extrados.
This laminar flow basin is designed to cope with the intense rainfall that affects the area, thus preventing floodwaters from emptying into the municipal network, whose diameter and capacity are insufficient to deal with such heavy quantities of rainwater. This compound with its large surface area (3,150 m2), whose use as a laminar flow space will be conditioned by the frequency and intensity of local rainfall, has been conceived and designed as an urban space or pedestrian square for most of the year and a welcome area of shelter from the unpleasant Cierzo wind which blows in this upper area of the city. Four stairs situated at the corners provide access to the underground square, connecting with the adjacent neighbourhood and the city level. The incorporation of sufficiently wide ramps situated within the sound barrier wall gives access to service and maintenance vehicles and a more ample use of the compound.
Finally Venecia Park is a carefully planned topographical operation that complements the acoustic functions and flow-forming processes described above in addition to providing green spaces to the city. All this is structured spatially over the Ronda Hispanidad by means of staggered interconnecting platforms in a linear or extended link-up of little squares (hard and soft), viewing points protected with light metallic pergolas, extensive groves of pines and pedestrian ramps leading to the historic heritage site of Aragón’s Imperial Canal.
Situated in a former sand quarry in Cranbourne, outside Melbourne, The Australian Garden was designed by landscape studio Taylor Cullity Lethlean and plant expert Paul Thompson.
The garden is laid out as a journey through Australian fauna, from the desert to the coast, set among buildings and beside artificial lakes.
The garden showcases 170,000 plants across 1700 species, and is used by both researchers and the public.
“This garden brilliantly summarises the great variety of Australian flora as well as the large part of the country which is arid desert,” said the panel of judges. “Like a botanic garden, it is a collection of difference, but with a strong unifying set of journeys through the various landscapes.
“This landscape stood out with its originality and strong evocation of Australian identity without having to use any signs or words – just the beautiful flora of Australia’s countryside.”
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