Hasta La Ideas

Californian firm amphibianArc was inspired by images of spacecrafts to come up with two different skyscraper proposals for the headquarters of a Chinese machinery company in Changsha (+ slideshow + movies).

Above: option one – single tower

The designs, for industrial vehicle manufacturer Zoomlion, were commissioned following amphibianArc’s previous proposals for a shape-shifting exhibition centre to host the company’s exhibitions and product displays.

Above: option two – twin towers

Both new proposals feature skyscrapers that are 199.2 metres in height, in reference to the founding year of the company; 1992.

Above: option one – single tower

The first design includes one prominent office tower, with seven spacecraft-inspired pods protruding from one side. “Seven spacecrafts represent seven founders of the enterprise,” amphibianArc’s Shu Yang told Dezeen.

Above: option one – single tower

Five additional buildings of between 80 and 100-metres would be constructed around the tower, while a small “transformer building” would sit at the base.

Above: option one – single tower

Just like the architect’s previous project, this structure would feature a facade that flaps like the wings of a huge insect.

Above: option one – single tower

The second design is for a pair of skyscrapers, including an office tower and an accompanying 280-metre hotel.

Above: option two – twin towers

The architects based the design on an image of a rocket launching from alongside its supporting structure. ”The twin towers scheme is inspired by the spacecraft, the Long March Carrier Rocket, that China just launched using the crane manufactured by Zoomlion,” explained Yang.

Above: option two – twin towers

The hotel is pictured with a streamlined exterior, while the headquarters building is designed as a stack of box-like structures with an exposed steel framework that references scaffolding. A bridge would add a vertiginous swimming pool to the top of the towers, plus a five-storey podium would stretch across the base.

Above: option two – twin towers

Our earlier feature about the design’s for Zoomlion’s exhibition centre was described as “extravagant”, “dangerous” and “breathtaking” by readers. See the full story and comments »

Above: option two – twin towers

Also this month, we announced the news that the world’s tallest building will be constructed in China in 90 days, while Chinese architects told Dezeen that there is “an absence of a modern Chinese architecture and design language”.

See more stories about skyscrapers »
See more stories about China »

Here’s project descriptions for each of the two proposals:

Zoomlion is one of China’s leading manufacturers of construction machinery equipment and is ranked top 10 globally in the construction machinery industry. amphibianArc was invited to design its new headquarters located in Changsha, China. Our criterion is to match its forward thinking, unique, and mechanistically imaginative corporate image and values.

Zoomlion Headquarters International Plaza – Single Tower

This scheme uses the multi-level and multi-centre space layout strategy, achieving the goal of multi-function and multi-target. 280 m ultra high rise single tower as the highest point of the massing, the scheme proposes 5 towers of 80-100 m and a podium to form an enclosed space. The structure of the conference facilities falls back on the 199.2 m ultra-high tower, which represents the founding year of 1992 of Zoomlion. A water feature suspended at the vertical midpoint of the tower represents the spiritual and architectural center of the complex. The most visible feature in the scheme is the “seven spacecraft” – seven pods representing the seven founders of Zoomlion.

2012, Changsha, China
Project area: 344,250 sq m
Site area: 111,389 sq m
Status: Concept

Zoomlion Headquarters International Plaza – Twin Towers

The philosophical concept of dualism is embedded in the nature of Zoomlion. As a machine maker, the characteristics of Zoomlion are masculine, machinery and full of industrial power. However, the end products produced via Zoomlion machines that will be used by the general public is refined and people-friendly. This duality is intrinsic to Zoomlion’s existence.

From the project itself, the office for internal use represents the company, while the hotel for external use is associated with its external image. This characteristic of duality is expressed in two distinct design schemes concepts with two distinct articulation of architectural forms.

The twin towers are representing the idea of the dualism. The office tower which is 199.2 m in height is the symbol of Zoomlion. The geometry of the building is form by massing spin around along with the core of the building. Volume of the spinning massing varies and creates a masculine, machinery look of the tower. There is a bridge that connects two towers to top floors of office tower. Refined and elegant geometry of hotel tower that is 280 m tall is contrast with the rough texture and geometry of the office tower. The image is a vivid simulation of the space shuttle tied up to the launching pad of space center. This image emphasizes the industrial strength of Zoomlion product.

The podium of the twin towers is a huge elevated platform that contains more than five floors. The elevated platform is support by giant trapezoid shape structural columns. It is a floating platform hanging over the campus and open up the ground for public spaces and landscaping. More substantially, podium floor plates reach far for a panoramic view of the city. Because of the floating podium, the footprint of the building decreases substantially and frees up the space for a park-like green campus.

2012, Changsha, China
Project area: 283,000 sq m
Site area: 111,389 sq m
Status: Concept

The post Zoomlion Headquarters International Plaza
by amphibianArc appeared first on Dezeen.

Digital graphics company Crystal CG created animations on a 360 degree screen comprising 70,500 paddles held by the audience at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics last night.

As with the opening ceremony, boards of nine coloured LEDs by each seat in the stadium made up images for 27 sequences, including sound waves reverberating around the arena to accompany Queen and the swirling backdrop to a psychedelic 1960s disco.

The ceremony was a showcase of British music and ended with the extinguishing of Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic Cauldron, the petals of which will be taken home by participating countries. It was directed by Kim Gavin with a set designed by Es Devlin – see our slideshow of her previous stage designs here, including arena tours for Kanye West and Take That.

Crystal CG also created fly-through animations of London used by TV stations to link between venues and the animated video to accompany the Chemical Brothers’ specially commissioned song played in the Velodrome before each event.

See all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics »

Here’s some more information from Crystal CG:

‘Pixels’ to transform Closing Ceremony

Crystal CG creates larger-than-life animations to immerse live and television audiences in a spectacular rock concert, bidding farewell to the London 2012 Olympic Games

Following their debut in the London 2012 Opening Ceremony, the now-famous ‘pixels’ and Crystal’s animations immerse the audience in a celebration of British Music at the Closing Ceremony.

Danny Boyle said, “Every Olympic Ceremony aims for a major technical breakthrough. Our remarkable audience pixels have opened up amazing new images, effects and spectacle, but most of all they have enabled our live stadium audience to be part of the ceremony in a way that’s never been possible before.”

Directed by Kim Gavin, one of the UK’s leading musical creative directors, the Closing Ceremony assembles stars of the British music scene from 1967 to 2012 performing their biggest hits. Working closely with Kim’s creative team, Crystal has created 27 animated sequences, totalling the length of a feature length film to accompany the songs that bring Britain’s musical heritage to life.

The diversity of music has translated into the creation of a wide array of digital visual experiences that audiences at home and in the stadium can enjoy – ranging from turning the stadium into a giant disco and bringing to life psychedelic animations from the 1960s, to creating beat-matched visuals to accompany a superstar DJ, who will be revealed at this evening’s ceremony.

“We are going to witness one of the most extraordinary visual experiences ever seen on this scale – one that will surely herald the beginning of a new breed of stadium show,” said Crystal’s creative director, Will Case.

Over 10,000 pixels wide, the animations have required huge amounts of computer rendering and 24 hour IT support. To make it all happen, Crystal assembled an experienced creative and production team of local talent. The animator skill sets had to be extremely versatile and include complex 3D design and programming, as well as character and stop frame animation. As each act and song was confirmed, Crystal assigned a small team to create test animations and then executed full production. This included shooting catwalk models in high-end fashions, filming drifting clouds over London and flicking paint onto rooftop canvases.

Unlike the Opening Ceremony, the Closing Ceremony has had no Stadium rehearsal time. Since the sporting events finished on Saturday, the Closing Ceremony team has been working hard to transform the Olympic Stadium’s field of play into an arena stage show with multiple stages and screens.

The post Pixel animations at London 2012 Olympic
closing ceremony by Crystal CG appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: shadows dance across the surface of Kenzo Tange’s 1964 Olympic stadium in Tokyo in this animation by graduate design students at Harvard University.

Emmet Truxes and Nathan Shobe worked alongside four other students to construct a computer model that analyses the structural joinery of the arena’s tensile roof, before creating this animation showing each detail in turn.

Japanese architect Tange completed the Yoyogi Olympic Arena in 1958 with the help of engineer Yoshikatsu Tsuboi and it is currently used as a football stadium by a number of Japanese teams.

See more animations on Dezeen here »

Movie soundtrack is by Gray Reinhard.

Here’s some more explanation from architecture professor Mark Mulligan:

As we approach the centennial of Kenzo Tange’s birth (2013) and the 50th anniversary of the Tokyo Olympics (2014), the time seems right for a renewed appreciation of what many would call this architect’s greatest masterpiece: the 1964 Olympic Arenas at Yoyogi. The Main Arena’s complex structure, designed in collaboration with engineer Yoshikatsu Tsuboi, houses 15,000 spectators and features an innovative tensile roof inspired by suspension bridge technology. Tange’s particular genius shows in the arena’s exuberant exterior form, refined structural detailing, and interior daylighting.

This animated video began as a project for the GSD course “Innovative Constructions in modern Japan”, for which I asked a team of six students to model the Yoyogi Main Arena based on original drawings, and to analyze it in constructional terms. Of particular interest was the design of structural joinery that could accommodate continuous geometric change in the roof form during construction as successive layers were added. What emerged from this study, however, was something a great deal more fascinating – and challenging – than what we had anticipated. Rendering the computer models revealed how the arena’s elusive, curvilinear form radically transforms before our eyes, depending on viewing angle and sun position. Two students, Emmet Truxes and Nathan Shobe, continued working on the video after the class had ended to produce a lyrical meditation on the atmospherics of the Yoyogi Arena, with an original soundtrack contributed by Gray Reinhard.

Looking back now from an era whose advances in computer technology have given us a great deal of certainty in visualizing and evaluating complex structures, we are awed by the thought that Tange and Tsuboi produced such a work fifty years ago using only the most basic computing power, physical models, and a great number of drawings made by hand.

The post Movie: Kenzo Tange’s Yoyogi Olympic Arena
by Harvard University design students appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: plants take over the offices of London’s commercial district Canary Wharf in this movie by Oxford Brookes architecture graduate Richard Black.

Black imagines the workplaces as a series of indoor gardens, where flowers sprout up between desks and pollen floats into the atmosphere through new openings in the existing glazed facades.

The project has been nominated for the silver RIBA President’s Medal, which last year was awarded to Kibwe Tavares for his movie about robots rioting on the streets of south London.

If you’re interested in animations, see our series by Tavares and his colleagues at architectural image studio Factory Fifteen.

Here’s some more explanation from Black:

The project stems from research into London’s office culture, in particular that of Canary Wharf. In the vastness of these office spaces the needs of the individual are largely overlooked and the repetitive, generic offices with their catalogue furniture offer little more than a place to work. The proposal is an attempt to open up these closed office cultures in which the basic needs of the individual have been forgotten. Floors are opened up and internal orchid gardens created.

The Symbiotic Office changes the way in which people use office spaces, creating internal relaxation zones where individuals can pause for thought, host meetings, eat their lunch or drink a cup of tea. In the digital age where the traditional place of work is a fluid concept, the project strives to highlight the importance of face-to-face interactions and to create an office space which not only boosts productivity, but one which the workers can enjoy.

The film itself is a representation of this proposal. Created in 3DS Max, rendered in Vray and composited in Adobe After Effects; it envisages an office in which these generic spaces open up to internal gardens and relaxation zones.

The post Movie: The Symbiotic Office
by Richard Black appeared first on Dezeen.

Un travail d’illusion d’optique avec ces 5 images statiques présentées sur iPad, auquel est ajouté une superposition de feuille transparente avec des lignes noires sur l’écran. Une utilisation de Photoshop afin de créer les visuels. A découvrir en vidéo dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• iPad Light Painting
• The iPad Orchestra
• The Flud x Fubiz