Hasta La Ideas

Dutch architects UNStudio have designed a concept for a new business district at Tonghzou in Beijing, consisting of skyscrapers linked by aerial bridges (+ slideshow).

The proposal features six towers atop a large podium that are linked by bridges topped with gardens and swimming pools.

The development, proposed for the Tongzhou district twelve miles east of central Beijing, would create a million square metres of retail, apartments, offices, hotels and transportation infrastructure.

Located at the confluence of two waterways, the Tongzhou Central Business District’s waterfront podium would house shops while the towers would accommodate apartments and offices.

Here’s some text from UNStudio‘s website:

Tongzhou, China, 2011-2016

The design of UNStudio’s CBD development is a dynamic composition created by introducing asymmetry in plan, orientation, clustering and façade treatment. This build-up of asymmetries has a far-reaching urban effect whilst simultaneously relating to users on a more personal scale.
The six towers form three lively groups which interact according to a layered choreography.

In relation to the ground and subterranean levels the towers are grouped in three pairs, each standing on a joint platform. As defined by the bridging connections between them, the towers are grouped as a couple, a trio and a single volume.

The silhouette of the towers is derived from a combination of substantial differences between the lower and the upper parts of the buildings and the binding together effects of diagonal wrappings. On the lower parts the towers are marked by dense stacking, whilst towards the top they become smooth and reflective. This textural contrast is mediated by the strong diagonals running the entire length of the towers.

The bridges have numerous roles. They help to cluster the towers and to form interconnections between them which can house many different semi-public functions. They also provide an artificial ground for users of the highest floors.
 In addition to the application of active sustainable measures at different scale levels, passive design tools were incorporated from the initial design of the six towers and the podium clusters. Driving features are the winter gardens and green surfaces.

Client: Perennial Real Estate & Maxon Group
Location: Tongzhou, Beijing, China
Building surface: 1 million m2
Building site: 108,700 m2
Program: Office tower, Hotel, Service apartment, Residential towers, Retail podium, Waterfront Landscape, Transportation hub
Status: Concept

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by UNStudio appeared first on Dezeen.

This Kevlar rucksack with a built-in protective hood by Israeli designer Hila Raam is perfect for anyone who wants to go backpacking in a war zone.

Hila Raam, a recent graduate of Hadassah College in Jerusalem, created the Rhino Skin backpack as a form of personal protection that safeguards the wearer from the debris and impact of missile attacks.

Developed using Aramid, a bulletproof fibre used in military vests, the backpack is designed for people living in areas of the world where terror attacks are a part of daily life.

In the event of an emergency, the wearer simply pulls the side straps of the bag around their chest, hauls the protective hood over their head and lays on the ground for cover.

The shape of the backpack is formulated to protect the vital organs. Raam hopes its use will reduce the number of fatalities associated with terror attacks.

In the video Raam created to explain the project (above) she documents the number of rocket and mortar attacks in Israel in recent years points out that 60% of people were in the open air when the attacks occurred, leaving them with limited options for protecting themselves.

In the event of an air raid warning, people caught outdoors should lie flat on the ground to avoid shrapnel from exploding munitions. Donning the Rhino Skin backpack and hood would reduce the chance of injury, Raam believes.

“This unique bag pack protects the essential life or death body areas,” says Raam. “It protects the head, neck, back and the sides of the body. Most important the brain, heart, liver and kidneys are fully protected.”

Photography is by Noam Sharon.

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by Hila Raam appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a book of photographs showing domestic life in Tehran was temporarily blacklisted by online payments company PayPal for having the word “Iranian” in the title (+ slideshow).

Iranian Living Room, the first self-published title from Italian communications research centre Fabrica, features images taken by young photographers in Tehran in their own homes to create a personal view of everyday life in the Iranian capital.

Yet when it went on sale earlier this week, PayPal added it to its blacklist of forbidden goods and services, meaning customers could not buy it.

Fabrica CEO Dan Hill spent 48 hours trying to resolve the issue with PayPal, only to be told all payments had been blocked “because the book had the word ‘Iranian’ in the title,” he wrote on his blog.

To overcome the issue, an account manager at PayPal suggested removing the word “Iranian” from the book’s title. “Leaving aside the fact that of course we don’t want to change the name of our book in the shopping cart, I find this politically-motivated censorship, willingly if not actively carried out by a corporation, absolutely despicable,” Hill wrote.

After an outcry from followers of Hill’s City of Sound blog and Twitter account, PayPal removed the book from their blacklist on Wednesday night, allowing the book to go on sale.

Iranian Living Room is a project that captures the interior lives of Iranian people, at home in their domestic private spaces. “The book is really a very humble project in a way,” Hill told Dezeen.

Enrico Bossan, head of photography at Fabrica, asked 15 young Iranian photographers to take pictures of their “interior life” in Tehran. “In the West we just don’t see that. With a state like Iran we usually see it framed through the lenses of the BBC or CNN. It’s invariably protests on the street or elections on the street,” said Hill.

“And of course in Tehran, like many other cities, those conversations go on in people’s living rooms or domestic private spaces,” he added. “And in those living rooms people are not a million miles away from where we are. It was a very simple idea that we could show someone falling asleep in front of the telly. Or people together or cooking food. And in doing so it would highlight this other side of Iran than people don’t see.”

Fabrica is publishing the book itself and selling it via the internet, rather than collaborating with a mainstream publisher as it has in the past, in order to “move on from very 20th Century model of publishing that most people are still engaged with,” he added.

Hill said he was tempted to investigate PayPal’s secret blacklists as his next project. “I’d like to do another Fabrica project about these hidden blacklists,” he said. “That would be an amazing thing to do.”

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PayPal tried to ban appeared first on Dezeen.

News: London architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) have been appointed to design a new terminal at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport at Lyon in France.

The terminal will double the size of the airport, which is one of two that serve France’s second-biggest city, and increase capacity from 10 to 15 million passengers per year by 2020.

RSHP were asked to design a terminal that “didn’t detract from” Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s TGV station, which is next to the airport. Their circular design features shops and gardens at its centre.

RSHP founding partner Richard Rogers, whose company also designed Heathrow Terminal 5 in London and Barajas airport in Madrid, is the subject of a major exhibition that opened at the Royal Academy in London this week. See all our stories about Richard Rogers.

Here’s some info from RSHP:

Lyon airport commissions Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, architects of Heathrow Terminal 5 and Barajas Airport, for their new European gateway

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) are pleased to announce their appointment to design the Future Terminal 1 project at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport. The new terminal will cover roughly the same area (70,000m2) as all of the existing buildings combined and will enable the airport to welcome an extra 5 million passengers by 2020 (taking the total from 10 to 15 million).

The brief for the project was challenging: to create a new identity for the site that remained in keeping with the high-calibre existing campus and didn’t detract from the distinctive TGV train station, designed by Santiago Calatrava. RSHP’s solution is a circular building made up of bold, simple and elegant structural elements.  The terminal will offer a spacious and clearly defined entrance, a hanging garden and large shopping area at the centre, which will enrich the travelling experience for passengers.

Graham Stirk, senior partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, designer of the project said:

“We are very pleased to be involved in the new terminal for Lyon Airport. The existing airport campus has a very distinctive structural and architectural language in both form and colour. This ‘DNA’ determines the character of the new proposal. We look forward to working with GFC Construction and Aéroports de Lyon to create a new European gateway to the city and its region.”

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terminal at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architecture firm OMA has been selected to design a major mixed-use public building featuring angled blocks stacked like dominoes for downtown Santa Monica, California (+ slideshow).

The stepped development will fill an entire city block at Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue, a site which is currently occupied by a car park and a public ice rink, which will be retained.

The building will contain a bit of everything, from shops and offices to apartments and a hotel. There will also be a hub for tech businesses while the open terraces atop each block will be given over to gardens, markets and venues for events.

Each of the angled horizontal blocks will have a distinct use, with the top level containing a 225-room boutique hotel and the one beneath that housing residential and live/work spaces. Below that are two office blocks, with the ground levels given over to retail.

OMA‘s design was recommended by city planners and their choice will be reviewed by the City Council next month, with construction starting next year if the project is approved.

Yesterday, OMA were declared winners of a competition to renovate Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida. See all our stories about OMA »

Here’s more info from OMA:

City Staff select OMA New York, led by Shohei Shigematsu, for major design competition in Santa Monica

Santa Monica’s City Staff has announced their recommendation of OMA’s competition proposal for a mixed use development that encompasses civic plaza, cultural venue, retail, residences, offices and a boutique hotel in the heart of downtown Santa Monica.

The selection panel praise OMA’s approach, commenting: “The proposed design delivers iconic architecture from all elevations, as well as a highly flexible interior space design that could most easily accommodate potential design modifications and adjust to market demand changes in the future. Additionally, the site design maximizes the public view corridor toward the open plaza areas and integrates within the framework of downtown and adjacent properties.”

Shigematsu commented: “Our ambition was to contribute to Santa Monica’s diverse network of public spaces, from the recreational plazas at the Pier and Palisades Park to contained commercial centers like Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place. Our design provides residents, tourists, and entrepreneurs a dynamic new public realm – a stepped building that achieves a strong interaction between interior program and exterior environments.”

The building integrates a ground level plaza and elevated terraces that provide an additional 56,500 sf of programmable open space compared to the original site. These public spaces are capable of hosting a wide range of outdoor programming, including a market galleria and the existing public ice rink. A cultural venue is embedded at the heart of the building, with street level access and a dedicated park.

The site will be anchored by office spaces designed to create a hub for the growing tech industry within the greater Los Angeles area. The office complex will be supported by a boutique hotel offering 225 rooms with unobstructed views of the city, beach and mountains. The project will also provide pedestrian improvements such as wide sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping, street furniture and additional public parking.

The recommendation will be reviewed by Santa Monica’s City Council on August 27th before the project formally proceeds in 2014.

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Santa Monica project appeared first on Dezeen.