Hasta La Ideas

The design of UNStudio’s proposal for the Central Business District in Tongzhou, China is a dynamic composition created by introducing asymmetry in plan, orientation, clustering and facade treatment. This build-up of asymmetries has a far-reaching urban effect while simultaneously relating to users on a more personal scale. Six towers form three lively groups which interact according to a layered choreography that extends both below and above the surface.
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. From an urban point of view the bridges can also be read as the tops of large arches.

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. Winter gardens are effective within the Tongzhou climate as during long periods of cold temperatures the greenhouse effect is beneficial for preheating indoor spaces. Green surfaces on the public roof and terraces are suitable for rain water harvesting, contribute to human well-being and create an elevated park.

To stimulate social and cultural interaction three large scale media screens are visible from the opposite bank. These are integrated with the winter gardens and the riverfront facade, visible also from the interior of the podium. The transport hub is also fully integrated within the site to ease traffic concerns. The transportation hub will provide convenience to those who work, live and visit the location.

With the asymmetry of the towers, the media facades and the well-located transport hub, this design aims to become the dynamic landmark of Tongzhou.

Designer: UNStudio

–
Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Live Media Scrapers was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Media Quick Fix
2. Social Media at its Apex
3. Media Centers: Not Just for Nerds

News: Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid and Grimshaw are among the shortlisted architects in a competition to overhaul Melbourne’s iconic nineteenth-century railway station at Flinders Street.

Six international teams have been named on the shortlist for the $1 million redesign, which will see the modernisation of Melbourne’s busiest station and its surrounding spaces, as well as the restoration of the building’s period features.

Herzog & de Meuron has teamed up with Australian firm Hassell to propose a new barrel-vaulted roof for the station, while Zaha Hadid Architects is working with BVN Architecture on designs for a towering extension with a new boutique hotel.

UK firm Grimshaw and Australian studio John Wardle Architects have presented plans to reorientate the station, creating a network of bridges, underpasses, vaults and green space.

They face competition from local firm NH Architecture, which plans to create a new landmark by floating a glass lattice roof above the station’s additional concourses.

The shortlist is completed by ARM Architecture, who propose converting the old building into a school, and a team made up of Colombian architects Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina, with designs to add a garden over the roof.

Each of the proposals retains part of the station’s historic facade. Completed in 1909, over 50 years after the station opened, its prominent dome and clock tower have become one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks.

The Victorian Government has launched a website presenting all six proposals and is inviting the public to offer feedback and vote for their favourite. The final decision will be made by a panel of architects and experts, and will be announced on 8 August.

Another recent design competition called for architects to present a vision for the future of Grand Central Station in New York. See proposals by SOM, Foster + Partners and WXY Architecture »

See more station design »

The post Zaha Hadid and Herzog & de Meuron
shortlisted for Melbourne station overhaul appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the seminal London home designed by British architect Richard Rogers for his parents – and which influenced his later design for the Pompidou Centre – has been put on the market for the first time since it was built in 1968 (+ slideshow).

Rogers House, at Wimbledon in south-west London, was designed to provide a flexible, open interior and is cited by Rogers himself as the precursor to the Pompidou Centre, the groundbreaking 1977 arts centre in Paris he designed with Renzo Piano.

The Grade II*-listed property, regarded as one of the finest and most historically important modern houses in England, has been owned by Rogers’ family since it was built but is now on the market for £3.2 million with estate agent The Modern House.

In their description of the property, the agents describe it as “one of the most important and celebrated houses of the 20th century”.

Talking to Dezeen recently about the house, Rogers said: “If you look at the house in Wimbledon for my parents, which is a single storey house, it’s steel and highly insulated, it’s transparent, the bathroom is very compact and all the partitions can move – you can see a link from that to the Pompidou with the difference being about a thousand times the scale,” Rogers said.

The main house is a single-storey building with a simple yellow-painted steel frame, which is fully glazed at both ends. The internal moveable partitions within the buildings allow residents to utilise and section the spaces as they wish.

The house represented Britain at the 1967 Paris Biennale and was described as “the most technically interesting and visually striking house in Europe” by Richard Einzig in  his book, Classic Modern Houses in Europe.

The building is set in gardens landscaped by Rogers’ mother, Dada Rogers, and faces a second, smaller building with a similar yellow-steel frame that was originally built as a pottery studio. Both buildings retain their original, vibrant colour scheme, which was developed by Rogers’ mother in conjunction with Richard and Su Rogers.

At the rear of the garden there is a third building, designed by Rogers’ son and the house’s most recent occupant, Ab Rogers. This consists of a single open space and kitchenette.

The house was given a grade II* listing earlier this year – a rare accolade for such a recent building.

At the time the listing was announced, culture secretary Ed Vaizey said: “This is an outstanding and innovative example of a high-tech steel frame house that has clearly stood the test of time. Though many will always associate Lord Rogers with iconic works like the Lloyds Building in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the National Assembly of Wales in Cardiff, this much earlier building is highly significant too; a masterpiece from one of the most imaginative and exciting periods in private house building in this country.”

The sale coincides with the opening of the Richard Rogers: Inside Out exhibition at the Royal Academy in London this month.

Ahead of the exhibition, Rogers spoke to Dezeen about how architecture’s civic responsibility has been eroded in “an age of greed”. Read the interview »

See all our stories about Richard Rogers

Photographs are copyright Tim Crocker/The Modern House.

The post Rogers House by Richard Rogers
goes on sale for the first time appeared first on Dezeen.

The overhaul of the brutalist Park Hill housing estate in Sheffield, England, is another of the six projects nominated for the 2013 Stirling Prize (+ slideshow).

Architects Hawkins\Brown and urban designers Studio Egret West were commissioned by property developer Urban Splash to take on the renovation of the notorious social housing estate, which is one of the most famous examples of the “streets in the sky” typology that typified many post-war UK developments in the 1960s and 70s.

Influenced by projects such as Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, architects at that time thought large housing blocks with communal open-air walkways would foster communities, but they instead became associated with antisocial behaviour, vandalism and crime.

In spite of its problems, the complex was Grade II* listed in 1998 for its architectural significance, as well as for its role as part of the city’s identity. This prompted Urban Splash to embark on a redevelopment to create a mix of social housing and private apartments, alongside offices, shops, restaurants and bars.

The design team began by stripping the building back to its gridded concrete framework. They then added a new facade made of simple glazing and brightly coloured panels.

By reducing the width of the “streets”, the architects were able to extend the size of the apartments, creating new street-facing windows and much-needed additional storage.

Giving residents a sense of ownership was an important part of the project, so patterned floor tiles and stained plywood details were added around the entrances to each home to provide a more domestic appearance. These details also vary between different clusters of homes, helping residents to orientate themselves.

Landscape architecture studio Grant Associates also worked on the project, designing gardens, courtyards and a large public square.

The first phase of 78 apartments is now complete and the first residents began moving in during January. Phase two is currently underway.

Park Hill phase one was named as one of the Stirling Prize nominees last week. Other projects to make the shortlist include an elliptical stone chapel and a museum that mimics volcanic formations.

Property developer Urban Splash has also been responsible for several other interesting projects, including a coastal staircase in a historic naval supply yard and an apartment block designed as “three fat chips stacked on top of each other”. See more projects by Urban Splash »

Other recently completed housing projects include a timber-clad retirement home near Paris and an apartment block with mirrored balconies in Winnipeg. See more housing on Dezeen »

Photography is by Daniel Hopkinson, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Hawkins\Brown:

Park Hill

Working in collaboration with our client, Urban Splash, and design team members Studio Egret West and Grant Associates, we are bringing love, life and pride back to the Sheffield icon to make it a genuinely vibrant and sustainable community for the 21st century.

The first phase of 78 apartments has been completed and has been given a thorough face-lift and remodelled to 21st Century standards. The existing concrete frame has been repaired and a new façade installed and the iconic ‘Streets In The Sky’ have new balustrading. As well as saving an icon, figures compiled show that refurbishing the scheme has prevented 4 football stadia of material being taken to landfill and that the embodied energy in the concrete frame is equivalent to 3 weeks energy output from a power station.

At the lower levels of the building, the essential ingredients of a proper community will be combined with a new ‘high street’ of local shops, bars, pubs and restaurants.

A new landscape will revitalise the public realm for residents and visitors alike and reconnect Park Hill with the city.

This high-profile project hosted the RIBA Stirling Prize “after party” and has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

In January 2013 the first new residents and commercial tenants moved in, and with this defining moment the building started a new phase in its life.

The post Park Hill Phase 1 by Hawkins\Brown
and Studio Egret West appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Kazuhiko Kishimoto has combined a doctor’s surgery and a courtyard house in a bulky building with tapered concrete feet (+ slideshow).

Located in Kanagawa, Japan, Lifted-Garden House was designed by Kazuhiko Kishimoto with a two-storey clinic on one side, a first-floor doctor’s apartment opposite and a courtyard and roof terrace inbetween.

“The clinic and dwelling place are placed across from each other with the inner courtyard in the middle, however the direction of the eyes would not meet since they are on different levels,” says the architect.

The exterior walls feature a mixture of bare concrete and timber slats, with the solid concrete pillars supporting the overhanging first floor.

The courtyard beyond is filled with trees and shrubs, while the first-floor terrace is covered in timber decking and features plants that sprout from pockets of gravel.

This deck can be accessed from both the apartment and the clinic, plus its timber surface continues into the building to create a consistent ground plane.

White-painted bars divide up the spaces within the residence, continuing the vertical rhythm of the timber slats on the facade.

The clinic features frosted glass screens that partially cover the windows, creating privacy while allowing views out to the greenery.

“We expect the trees to grow big and to provide nice leafy shade in summer, making a place of relief for the doctor and patients,” says Kishimoto.

We previously featured another house by Kazuhiko Kishimoto, with a rear facade that slides open to reveal a graduated terrace with a sweeping view of the sea.

Earlier this year we published a two-storey house that has been combined with a pet shop, also located in Japan.

See all our stories about Japanese houses »
See more stories about medical architecture »

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here’s a project description from the architect:

This is the complex building with clinic on the first floor and the doctor’s dwelling place on the second floor. With the tree planting that bring better feeling to patients in the inner courtyard, they can be viewed from the lobby and entrance of the clinic.

Furthermore, as the trees can also be seen from outside of the building through the deck, people walking by should also be able to feel the seasons change.

The dwelling place on the second floor is placed as if it is floating above the parking space. The dwelling place is L-shaped opposite to the clinic. The clinic and dwelling place are placed across each other with the inner courtyard in the middle however the directions of the eyes would not meet since they are in the different levels.

The roof of the clinic is an open area as the rooftop garden. Various types of plants and trees are established on the stair-like wood deck with different levels. The floor of the dwelling place continuing flat to wood deck is the outcome of the careful consideration into details.

The deep and low canopy top makes the proportion of the beautiful building. It also relates immensely to producing the sense of openness to the rooftop. We expect the trees to grow big and to provide nice leafy shade in summer, making a place of relief for the doctor and patients.

The post Lifted-Garden House by
Kazuhiko Kishimoto/acaa appeared first on Dezeen.