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News: British firm Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won a competition to design a $1.5 billion hotel skyscraper on the harbourfront in Sydney, Australia.

The proposal by last year’s World Building of the Year winners beat submissions from international firm Kohn Pedersen Fox and Chicago practice Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, which recently unveiled plans for Mumbai’s tallest tower.

The news comes two months after plans were announced for what will be Australia’s tallest building, a 388-metre-high tower in Melbourne, while last month British architect Grimshaw submitted plans for a 90-storey skyscraper in a suburb of Sydney.

Wilkinson Eyre’s planned 235-metre-tall skyscraper, located in the Barangaroo South area near Sydney Harbour Bridge, will be occupied by a six-star luxury hotel, The Crown Sydney Hotel Resort.

The winning design is inspired by nature, according to the architects. “Its curved geometry emanates from three petal forms which twist and rise together,” said Paul Baker, director at Wilkinson Eyre.

“The first petal peels off, spreading outward to form the main hotel room accommodation, with the remaining two twisting together toward the sky.”

Chris Wilkinson, director of Wilkinson Eyre, said: “My ambition is to create a sculptural form that will rise up on the skyline like an inhabited artwork, with differing levels of transparency, striking a clear new image against the sky.”

The building will contain around 350 guestrooms and suites, four restaurants, a day spa, rooftop pool and high-end shops.

Crown Resorts chairman James Packer said the building would be an “instantly recognisable” landmark for the city.

“Its iconic curves and fine lines celebrate the harbour and create an architectural ‘postcard’ that will help attract international tourists and assist Sydney to compete with other global destinations,” he said.

Wilkinson Eyre’s Gardens by the Bay tropical garden in Singapore was named World Building of the Year at last year’s World Architecture Festival, where we filmed an interview with the firm’s Chris Wilkinson.

Other projects by Wilkinson Eyre include a kilometre-long cable car over the river Thames in London and a PVC tent that hosted basketball during the London 2012 Olympics – see all architecture by Wilkinson Eyre.

Here’s some more information from Crown Resorts:

Crown announces Wilkinson Eyre Architects as the Winning Design for Crown Sydney Hotel Resort

Crown Resorts today announced that Wilkinson Eyre Architects had been successful as the winning design for the Crown Sydney Hotel Resort. The joint judging panel unanimously recommended the Wilkinson Eyre design to Crown, following an extended competition to design the Crown Sydney Hotel Resort at Barangaroo South on the city’s harbourfront.

The final three designs by internationally renowned architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, Kohn Pedersen Fox, and Wilkinson Eyre Architects were judged by a panel consisting of representatives from Crown Resorts, Lend Lease, the Barangaroo Delivery Authority and the NSW Department of Planning. All were praised for their professionalism and innovative designs. The firms presented their designs to the judges last week, and the panel made a formal recommendation to Crown on the suitability of each design and its ability to achieve the desired vision and outcomes for Barangaroo and Crown.

Crown Resorts Chairman, James Packer, thanked the judging panel and congratulated Wilkinson Eyre and its key architects Chris Wilkinson and Paul Baker. “Wilkinson Eyre have an incredible record of achievement and I am certain they will deliver Sydney an iconic building we can all be proud of. This great city deserves a building that is truly special and Wilkinson Eyre’s design delivers it. It’s a wonderful moment for Crown.”

Discussing the hotel’s iconic sculptural design, Mr Packer said: “When completed, Crown Sydney will be instantly recognisable around the world. Its iconic curves and fine lines celebrate the harbour and create an architectural ‘postcard’ that will help attract international tourists and assist Sydney to compete with other global destinations.”

On winning the design competition, Chris Wilkinson, Founding Director, Wilkinson Eyre Architects stated: “Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it is a great privilege to design such a significant building on the waterfront. My ambition is to create a sculptural form that will rise up on the skyline like an inhabited artwork, with differing levels of transparency, striking a clear new image against the sky.”

Paul Baker, Director, Wilkinson Eyre Architects added: “The architecture takes its inspiration from nature, composed of organic forms that provide an abstract, sculptural shape; it does not try to mimic any particular plant or flower but is derived from the specificity of the site and the client brief. Its curved geometry emanates from three forms which twist and rise together. The first form peels off, spreading outward to form the main hotel room accommodation, with the remaining two twisting together toward the sky.”

Todd Nisbet, Crown’s Executive Vice President – Strategy & Development, said: “Wilkinson Eyre are world renowned for their sustainable and iconic designs and their great attention to detail. The Gardens by the Bay in Singapore is an absolute standout, becoming one of the most recognised tourism assets in the world and an iconic image that is instantly recognisable and linked to Singapore’s new identity as one of Asia’s most important gateway cities.”

In October 2012, Crown and Lend Lease invited a number of internationally acclaimed architects for their interest in participating in the Crown Sydney Hotel Architectural Design Competition. The brief to the architects stated: “Crown, Lend Lease and the Barangaroo Delivery Authority are seeking a bold and innovative design team to create Australia’s best hotel in Australia’s most exciting new precinct – a new landmark building on Sydney Harbour that will become a destination for international tourists and seekers of luxury.”

Subject to receipt of all necessary approvals and subject to finalisation of commercial arrangements between Crown, Lend Lease and the BDA, the Crown Sydney Hotel Resort will sit on the Lend Lease commercial site at the north western corner of Barangaroo South and will have approximately 350 guestrooms and suites. The typical guest rooms will be some of the largest in Australia and the suites and villas will rival the best in Asia. There will be four restaurants, a café, an ultra-lounge, day spa, roof top pool and luxury retail facilities.

On the planning and development processes to follow, Mr Nisbet, said: “The designs are a result of a design competition initiated by Crown and Lend Lease to select an architect for the Crown Sydney Hotel Resort and are not a formal part of the planning approval process. In the near future, Crown in collaboration with Lend Lease will engage in public consultation and seek approval from the Barangaroo Delivery Authority as landowner to lodge an application to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure for all necessary approvals.”

Lend Lease has an exclusive dealing agreement with Crown in relation to the development of the hotel resort at Barangaroo South and both parties are working towards final commercial arrangements. The Crown Sydney Hotel Resort Proposal is currently in Stage 2 of the NSW Government’s Unsolicited Proposal process.

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Sydney harbour skyscraper appeared first on Dezeen.

This renovated family home in Japan by designer Yasunari Tsukada features large internal windows and a mezzanine loft, creating apertures and vantage points for looking into different rooms (+ slideshow).

Adapting part of a three-storey house, Yasunari Tsukada planned the interior as a grid of partitioned rooms that maintain the same clarity as an open-plan residence.

“The client requested a home where he could feel the presence of his family throughout the building, while at the same time having the calm and relaxing sensation of being in a private room,” explains the designer.

The mezzanine floor runs across the centre of the space, accessed by a metal staircase near the entrance. There are no walls around it, only balustrades, so residents can look down onto any of the surrounding rooms.

Large windows and doorways also open rooms out to one another. There are a few sliding doors, so some of the spaces can be made more private when necessary.

“Each space also contains two or more windows or openings, giving rise to a multilayered space with no sense of hierarchy within it,” says Tsukada.

An existing glass-block wall that previously encased a stairwell gives a curved outline to a new living room, plus a single concrete wall is the backdrop for a television.

The ceiling of the residence follow the angle of the roof. Bare lightbulbs hang down from it on long cables, while others are mounted sideways onto the walls.

Japanese designer Yasunari Tsukada more recently completed a beauty salon in Osaka with a timber lattice stretching across one wall.

Other new Japanese residences include an apartment with a sunken circular living room and an opaque house balanced above a pet shop. See more architecture in Japan.

Photography is by Stirling Elmendorf.

Here’s some more information from Yasunari Tsukada:

House in Takamatsu

Our client was initially inclined to build a new house. After much consideration, however, he decided to partly renovate his three-storey family house, and use it as a residence for a two-generation family.

The client requested a home where he could feel the presence of his family throughout the building, while at the same time having the calm and relaxing sensation of being in a private room. By enveloping each room with a sloping ceiling to make use of the existing building, we wondered if we could create an ambiguously defined space that would feel as if it had been partitioned, while still maintaining a sense of coherence and unity.

The components that make up each individual room are gate-like walls, which consist mainly of openings. The roof gradient and heights of the sash windows were determined in accordance with the original height of the living room, which was 2400mm. The heights of the walls also took their cue from this figure, and were set at 2400mm. Although it seems as if this height has been deployed with excessive frequency within the space, doing away with ceilings for the individual rooms while covering them with a single, sloping ceiling and installing windows at a number of positions along the walls allowed us to create a sort of landscape that presented a very different face to the familiar surroundings. Each space also contains two or more windows or openings, giving rise to a multilayered space with no sense of hierarchy within it.

The renovation process involves thinking about how we can devise new spaces while respecting a given set of conditions imposed by the existing building, as well as the client’s requirements. The glass blocks from the large staircase and stairwell were transformed into a part of the living room and the reading space, while the innocuous reinforced concrete wall that originally supported the staircase was given a new lease of life as the wall that one notices most of all on a daily basis. For our client, this space helped to give things and objects new meanings, and became invested with new stories and narratives – a process that prompted him to rethink the possibilities of design through renovation.

Project Name: House in Takamatsu
Project Type: residence renovation
Location: Takamatsu-city, Kagawa, Japan
Completion: 2012 May
Design: Yasunari Tsukada design
Contractor: Shikoku Housing

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by Yasunari Tsukada appeared first on Dezeen.

Swedish design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune has come up with a stove for the developing world that uses a two-thirds less wood than a traditional cooking fire (+ movies + slideshow).

The Baker Cookstove was designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Top Third Ventures, a company set up in 2011 to sell stoves to low-income households in developing countries, with the aim of improving the health of users and lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

In countries like Kenya, where the Baker Cookstove is being launched first, cooking is traditionally done on a three-stone fire – an open fire over which a pot is balanced on three rocks.

This inefficient method not only requires lots of firewood, resulting in children being sent long distances to fetch wood instead of attending school, but also creates a large amount of lung-damaging smoke.

Claesson Koivisto Rune came up with a compact stove made from recycled aluminium that requires only a third of the amount of wood normally used for a three-stone fire.

Tests at the University of Nairobi showed the Baker Cookstove achieved a 56% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and a 38% reduction in smoke particles.

The shape of the stove and its bright colours are intended to resemble traditional African cookware.

“As designers we need to put the same effort into an African stove as if we were designing an Italian sports car,” said the designers.

Above: movie shows Claesson Koivisto Rune’s design process

We previously featured an aid kit that nestles between Coca-Cola bottles to bring medicine to remote locations and a bicycle-powered electronic waste recycler designed to save lives in developing countries.

Above: movie shows manufacturing process

Other cooking tools we’ve published include a liquor-distilling kit that breaks down into innocent household objects and a barbecue that chars food with geometric patterns – see all cooking design.

Above: movie shows how the stove is being sold across Kenya

Claesson Koivisto Rune’s recent products include a chair with armrests that reach out for a hug and a family of small pendant lamps in bold colours – see all design by Claesson Koivisto Rune.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

The majority of women in the developing world prepare food on a technology called a three-stone fire. It is basically three rocks that support a pot with an open fire in the middle. This cooking method is very inefficient and leads to many environmental and health problems, one very real side effect being that children are denied education and futures because they are sent to collect firewood, wood that every day is founder at further distances. The walk takes all day and leaves no time for school.

However, since the three-stone method has been a tradition for thousand of years, a new stove must allow the user to keep their way of life intact to be successful. The solution is to make a stove that burns wood, but as efficiently as possible.

The design approach has really been the same as with any design project. Design is about solutions – function, usability, unification – and about adding an immaterial – humane, aesthetic, iconic – dimension.

You can still cook over burning wood, but with the Baker stove you need only one third of the wood of before. In numbers from tests at the University of Nairobi the Baker Cookstove achieve a 56% reduction in CO and 38% reduction in particulate matter.

Local methods of cooking, tools and containers were studied as inspiration and to gain cultural insight. As a result the final shape of the Baker Cookstove as well as its strong colours are reminiscent of traditional African cookware.

The goal was to design a subtly iconic object. A functionalistic design, yet recognisable and memorable. The road up to the final incarnation has turned several times after research and performance optimisation changed the technical parameters. There are good reasons for each and every design choice, like the use of recycled aluminium and the trapezoid folding that correspond to weight, heat transmission, sturdiness etcetera.

The somewhat eye-opening obvious fact is that we all have an emotional relationship with our objects. The psychology is no different if you have less or have it all; if you relate to a basic cookstove in Africa or a high performance car in the streets of Europe. To hand out functioning but crude and cheap cooking tools to “the poor” is commendable but condescending. Would I myself really appreciate a cheap and ugly tool offered to me because it “works and improves my life”? Maybe that’s not good enough. As designers we need to put the same effort into an African stove as were we designing an Italian sports car.

The Baker stove project has inspired us not for the prospect of making money, not for the design itself, but for the extraordinary satisfaction of actually making a tangible, positive difference in many people’s lives and for the environment. And eventually, if the end users will come to tell us that they are proud to own this stove, our day is made.

Design: Claesson Koivisto Rune (through Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, Ola Rune, Louise Bahrton and Patrick Coen)
Producer: Top Third Ventures (through Lucas Belenky and Björn Hammar)
Manufacturing: Kenya (locally)

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Claesson Koivisto Rune appeared first on Dezeen.

News: work has begun on the OMA-designed headquarters of Denmark’s national centre for architecture in Copenhagen.

Scheduled for completion in early 2017, the 27,000-square-metre Bryghusprojektet is a mixed-use development on the site of an old brewery, which will include residential units, community spaces and a playground.

In the middle of the development will be the new offices for the Danish Architecture Centre, an organisation set up to spread knowledge about architecture and the built environment.

The centre will be surrounded by its own subjects of study and research, explains Ellen van Loon, who is OMA’s partner-in-charge on the project along with the firm’s co-founder Rem Koolhaas.

“Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the Danish Architecture Centre in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking,” said van Loon.

The centre will include exhibition areas, research facilities, conference rooms, an auditorium, a bookshop and a cafe.

OMA’s design for Bryghusprojektet, which is being funded by the philanthropic Realdania Foundation, was first revealed in 2006.

The Dutch firm is currently going head to head with Danish firm BIG in a competition to transform a convention centre in Miami, USA, while work is nearly complete on the OMA’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China – see all architecture by OMA.

Images are courtesy of OMA.

Here’s some more information from OMA:

The Bryghusgrunden Project is located on the harbor on the site of an old brewery, the Bryghusgrunden, one of the few remaining areas with the potential to link the city to the waterfront. The building itself will straddle the busy Christians Brygge ring road, creating new urban connections for pedestrians and cyclists between the waterfront and Denmark’s houses of government.

Construction begins today on the OMA-designed Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 27,000 sq m mixed-use project will accommodate a new headquarters for the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC). The building will act as the missing link between the city centre, the historic waterfront and the culturally rich Slotsholmen district of Copenhagen.

OMA partner-in-charge Ellen van Loon explained: “Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the DAC in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking. The urban routes reach into the heart of the building and create a broad range of interactions between the different programme parts and the urban environment.”

Situated among landmarks in the history of Danish architecture, Bryghusprojektet shares with the indigenous modernism tenets of simplicity, monumentality and urbanity. The site is bound by a cluster of historic monuments, including the Christiansborg Palace and the Old Brewery, whilst sharing the riverside with many other bold, contemporary interventions.

To capitalise on the site’s potential, the building is an ‘urban motor’ to actively link the city and the waterfront. Providing a connection under the busy Christians Brygge, where entrances to the different program elements are strategically located, the site becomes both a destination and a connector at the hinge of the waterfront and the ‘entrance’ to the city.

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Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen promotion: the new collection of furniture by Arper will be on show at the Italian design brand’s London showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week from 21 to 23 May.

First shown in Milan last month, the new products include the triangular series of Ply tables and stools by Lievore Altherr Molina that Dezeen previously reported on.

Also on display will be the Aava chairs by Finnish designer Antti Kotilainen. Milled from wood and covered in birch, oak, walnut or beech veneer, it comes with legs in wood or chrome, or a sled base.

Two coat racks by Lievore Altherr Molina have been added to the range: Song with eight pivoting arms shaped like musical notes, and Wing with pivoting arms gently curving upwards towards their tips.

Molina has also contributed new cushions to the range and there are updates to colours and finishes on the Saya chair, Catifa 46 and 53 chairs, and Dizzie tables.

Arper’s showroom is at 11 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PA.

Here’s some more information from Arper:

Ply by Lievore Altherr Molina

Triangular in form and modular in nature, Ply is a system of low tables and stools rendered in fluid lines of wood. Engineered to create a continuous line from top through legs, its reduced silhouette and warm material complement its dynamic form. Alone or in groups, Ply’s playful geometry of surfaces is like the game of Tangram, shape and color work together to create open compositions.

Tables are available in different table top variations, height (36 cm and 44 cm) in oak, black and red. Stools are available in three heights (44, 64 and 76 cm) for dining and bar applications in two colors: natural oak and black.

Aava by Antti Kotilainen

Aava transforms an essential and efficient form to evocative through the texture and warmth of wood. Soft curves yield a contemporary silhouette that is both striking yet sensitive, an adaptive form that can speak or assimilate to any environment.

Made for both residential and contract use, Aava’s wooden shell and base are fabricated in a diverse range of materials, colors and finishes. Precompound wood skillfully milled in variable thickness and sheathed in veneer to accentuate its sinuous silhouette, its shell is available in a range of wood materials: birch painted black, birch painted white, natural birch, natural oak color, natural walnut color and beechwood.

Bases include wooden legs, sled or chrome 4-legs: all with or without armrests. Chrome 4-leg and sled bases version are stackable for large-scale use and storage. A stool version of Aava is also available in two heights (65 and 75 cm).

Song by Lievore Altherr Molina, 2013

Music is all in the composition, in the arrangement of diverse tones to create a harmonious, engaging whole. Song is a freestanding or wall-mounted coat hanger composed of eight arms, shaped like musical notes that twist and turn to create diverse, dynamic compositions. Though designed to serve a purpose, it serves well as an object of visual play and geometry, well suited to any space in need of hanging, interest and engagement. Add coats, scarves, a hat and it comes to life.

Available wall-mounted in 8 or 16 arms or freestanding in 8, 16 or 24 arms. Freestanding version is available with three different bases in white, dark gray and natural oak. Fabricated and cast in painted metal with slight texture in dark gray.

Wing by Lievore Altherr Molina

Wing, a wall-mounted coat hanger, animates a wall with the flow and movement of its gently striated arms that twist and turn to create sculptural like composition. Together or alone it projects a soft, undulating form, further animated by use, a perfect complement to any space. Available in three arms, in walnut wood.

Saya: sled base, stool, Mini chair by Lievore Altherr Molina

Last year Saya sauntered onto the scene with its gestural gate and graphic silhouette. This year the foray continues. Sled bases are a welcome addition to the family as a whole making Saya an even more versatile option for contract applications.
We now introduce the Saya stool and upholstered shell option for chair and stool available in Kvadrat fabrics.

And finally, we are pleased to announce a whole new flock: Saya Mini is perfectly suited for little people in a vibrant, new coordinated color palette of chair shells and bases that can be combined freely. Shells are available in painted white, yellow, red, pink and natural wood. Painted metal sled bases are available in white, yellow, pink, red and chrome.

New fabric covers for Catifa 46 and 53 by Lievore Altherr Molina

Now Catifa 46 and 53 can be further customized with fabric covers that slide on and zip up to enliven and adapt polypropylene shells. Available in Kvadrat fabrics, the covers incorporate contrasting top-stitch patterns to create focus and interest as well as comfort and warmth.

A welcome addition to the Catifa family, these useful garments even further extend the ability of the system to adapt to almost any application or environment.

Covers can be laundered, replaced, or alternated. A change of attire can create a whole new attitude. Experiment here.

New materials to top Dizzie table by Lievore Altherr Molina

Dizzie is a demonstration of something that may seem obvious but can have unexpectedly pleasing results: a sole change in color or material can radically alter appearance and attitude. With a deceptively simple, visually striking silhouette, Dizzie tables (in 50cm height) take on a sophisticated turn with subtly textured dark grey base and MDF veneered tops in brushed black, brushed white and natural oak.

The sensuous, organic shape of the base suggests a drop of mercury. The finely grained, matte surface of the top is a tactile, sensuous cut through that sleek surface.

Pillows by Lievore Altherr Molina

Pillows add comfort and expression to the landscape of Arper collections, integrating color, pattern, texture, and drawing to the field. Graphic themes explore a range of expression between geometric and organic, abstract and figurative.

Printed, stitched or seamed on Kvadrat Remix 2 fabric. 47×47 cm. Available in patterns: Owl, Leaf, Lines, Pleats, Gego (clockwise, from top left).

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Clerkenwell Design Week appeared first on Dezeen.