Hasta La Ideas

Découverte de Jayden et Jeff, qui sont 2 jeunes photographes originaire de Singapour et qui ont formé le duo Levitation SG. Ils nous propose de découvrir de magnifiques photographies d’eux même à quelques centimètres du sol, et sans retouches. De très beaux clichés présent dans la suite de l’article.

Buro Ole Scheeren has unveiled a pair of skyscrapers with concave walls for Singapore’s historic Kampong Glam district.

Buro Ole Scheeren has designed the twin DUO towers to have heights of 186 and 170 metres, with the former to contain over 600 apartments, while the latter will accommodate offices and a hotel.

The building will sit between the city’s commercial district and the Kampong Glam area, which was once home to the Malaysian aristocracy and today contains a mix of Malay and Muslim communities.

A hexagonal pattern of windows will cover the facades of the towers and floors will step back and forth using a system of cantilevers.

Both towers will feature concave walls, which will frame the outlines of public spaces and gardens at ground level.

Shops will line the base of these elevations, while pedestrian routes will link up with the metro station nearby.

The architect’s proposals also include a rooftop restaurant and a public observation deck.

Construction is scheduled to start in 2013, with completion pencilled in for 2017.

Above: building layout – click above for larger image

Ole Scheeren set up his studio in September 2010 after 15 years of working alongside Rem Koolhaas at OMA, where he worked on the CCTV Headquarters building that completed in Beijing earlier this year.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Since then, the studio has also revealed plans for a skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, which you can read about in our earlier story.

Above: proposed massing elevations

Find out more about Ole Scheeren »

Here’s the full press release from the architects:

Buro Ole Scheeren unveils design for twin towers DUO in Singapore

The design for this Malaysian-Singaporean joint venture actively engages the space of the surrounding city to form a new civic nucleus in Singapore’s modern metropolis. The two towers are not conceived as autonomous objects, but defined by the spaces they create around them.

Singapore consistently ranks as one of Asia’s most livable cities. However, it is increasingly dominated by isolated individual towers that favor exclusion over social connectivity. The prescribed zoning confronts the project with a dual dilemma: it splits the site into two separate pieces, and leaves large, bulky footprints for the resulting tower envelopes which risk overpowering the surroundings and the intimate scale of the adjacent historic Kampong Glam district.

Above: concept diagram

The design for DUO subtracts circular carvings from the allowable building volumes in a series of concave movements that generate urban spaces – a kind of “urban poché” that co-opts adjacent buildings and symbiotically inscribes the two towers into their context.

By generating the massing through a subtractive process, the elevations of the new towers are reduced to slender profiles. Vertical facades rise skywards along the adjoining roads, while a net-like hexagonal pattern of sunshades reinforces the dynamic concave shapes. The duo of tower volumes is further sculpted to feature a series of cantilevers and setbacks that evoke choreographed kinetic movements of the building silhouettes.

Above: concept diagram

The buildings dematerialize as they reach the ground to provide a porous permeable landscape traversing the site. Leisure zones and gardens act as a connector between multiple transport hubs and establish a flow of tropical greenery and lively commercial activity, accessible to the public 24 hours a day. A plaza, carved into the center of the towers and integrating the neighboring building as part of its perimeter, forms a new public nexus between the historic district of Kampong Glam and the extension of the city’s commercial corridor.

Above: concept diagram

Multiple levels of vertical connectivity give access to large elevated terraces for the hotel and residents, a public observation deck and a sky restaurant atop the office/hotel tower, while establishing a direct connection to the adjacent underground MRT subway station. Vehicular traffic is lifted off the ground to allow uninterrupted pedestrian circulation. Extensive landscape areas at the ground levels, elevated terraces, and roofscapes provide accessible green space equal to 100% of the site area.

Above: concept diagram

The development incorporates environmental strategies through passive and active energy efficient design and naturally ventilated spaces. The building’s orientation is optimized to prevailing sun and wind angles, while the concave building massing captures and channels wind flows through and across the site, fostering cool microclimates within the shaded outdoor spaces.

Embracing civic spaces in a symbiotic relationship with each other and thereby transforming the surrounding multivalent urban fabric, the two sculpted towers act as urban space generators.

The post DUO skyscrapers by
Buro Ole Scheeren appeared first on Dezeen.

Hard hats and high visibility jackets are displayed as fashion items at this Singapore boutique that architects Ministry of Design designed for a safety equipment brand (+ slideshow).

As the flagship store for Durasafe, the shop was conceived as a retail space that would attract mainstream shoppers. “The intention is to broaden the appeal to capture new interest from anyone interested in cool hats, boots, gloves, etc.” explained Ministy of Design’s Joy Seah.

She also described how the store will appeal to industry professionals. “For example, a structural engineer may prefer to get his own streamlined Raf-Simons-looking safety boots instead of the standard issue ones, or an architect might want his own construction hard hat in a gorgeous colour,” she said.

The shop is styled like an industrial warehouse with black walls, metal staircases and cage-like balconies.

“We drew inspiration from the building and manufacturing industries for the scaffold-inspired display system, signage and floor markings and the watertight bulkhead doors at the changing rooms,” explained architect Colin Seah.

Bright orange screens mark the entrance to the shop, where customers pass by a bright green cross that forms part of the company logo. “The whole frontage of the boutique is essentially about the logo and you walk right through it,” said Colin Seah. “There is no product or even hint of the product at the start, which is quite atypical for most boutiques.”

Dashed yellow lines on the floor denote different display zones, which are also marked with orange graphics designed by the studio.

Other recent projects by Ministry of Design include a property showroom with a rampart-like facade and an extremely pointy pavilion.

Photography is by Edward Hendricks, CI&A Photography.

Here’s a project description from Ministry of Design:

Durasafe Retail Store

Ministry of Design continues its exploration of retail and exhibition design with the unique Durasafe store – the flagship retail environment for Singapore’s leading supplier of premium safety gear and equipment.

Durasafe, extending its reach beyond the “business to business” model to include a consumer based store, approached Ministry of Design to create a retail environment that would reinforce its existing strong brand presence as well as provide an exciting shopping environment for its predominantly male customer base.

Situated in a 6m high modern warehouse space, MOD’s design for the Durasafe store is a multi-layered spatial experience that dramatizes the entire process of shopping. The entire facade of the store serves as a backdrop for an over-sized Durasafe logo and dominates one’s first visual impression.

Passing through this strongly coloured backdrop, one walks into a completely different space, an entirely black environment which allows the multi-coloured safety products on display to visually pop and take a place of prominence.

The space comprises a double storey display scaffold-like structure surrounding a feature display area and retail lounge. Inspired by the industrial environments and construction sites where Durasafe’s products are most commonly employed, the ‘scaffold’ allows the products to be clearly displayed in distinctive categories – these are further called out with custom designed graphic logos in light boxes.

Ground and first floor plans – click above for larger image

The ‘scaffold’ also exploits the high ceiling space and introduces a sense of adventure and exploration into the shopping experience. This “industrial chic” atmosphere is further enhanced by changing rooms adorned by actual water tight bulkhead doors, a display table made from a 6 m long customized floor trolley and yellow graphic boxes embedded in the floor calling the different zones.

Signage graphics

Scope: Interior Design + Graphic Design
Size: 175 sqm
Location: Singapore
Completed: 2012

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Ministry of Design appeared first on Dezeen.

World Architecture Festival 2012: Pan Yi Cheng of Singapore studio P.A.C won the award in the retail category at the World Architecture Festival with his design for a shop for furniture brand Herman Miller. In this movie we filmed, the architect explains how a recent emergence of young practices is helping Singapore become a “more vibrant” place that is starting to find its own identity.

“Culturally we are quite unique, you can say we are on the crossroads between east and west,” says Cheng. Describing the architectural context, he explains: ”We have a completely modern masterplan with a Corbusian vision, but culturally we are ingrained still with Asian thinking.”

The architect designed an undulating lattice of plywood that folds up around Herman Miller furniture at an XTRA homeware store in Singapore. He describes how he was inspired by the construction of the chairs on show to create a system of modular pieces that are “joined together with a simple, interlocking lapping joint.”

Cheng explains how this is the smallest project from his Singapore studio, which he started three years ago after a period of working and studying in London. “There’s a lot more things happening in Asia,” he says. Despite completing his own education in the west, he discusses how he also believes education is rapidly progressing in the east to become more “means-driven” rather than “ends-driven”, as it is at the moment. ”Once we reach a level of maturity in terms of a discourse we will be able to go for something which is more means-driven,” he says.

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with award winners at the World Architecture Festival. See all the movies we’ve published so far, including our interview with architect Chris Wilkinson about the World Building of the Year.

See all our stories about WAF 2012 »

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– Pan Yi Cheng on Herman Miller at XTRA appeared first on Dezeen.

World Architecture Festival 2012: ”No one’s ever seen anything like it before,” director of Wilkinson Eyre Architects Chris Wilkinson tells Dezeen in this movie we filmed overlooking the Gardens by the Bay tropical garden in Singapore, which was named World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival earlier this month.

Wilkinson Eyre Architects collaborated with landscape architects Grant Associates and engineers Atelier One and Atelier Ten on the design of the project, which features eighteen of the tree-like towers and two “cooled conservatories” containing Mediterranean and tropical plants.

As a British architect Wilkinson discusses Kew Gardens in London, which was constructed in the Victorian era to bring tropical gardens to a colder climate, and he describes how the “flower-dome” does the opposite, by housing Mediterranean plants within the tropical climate of Singapore.

“What I find interesting is the experiment of changing the climate but doing it in an economical way in terms of energy,” he says, and explains that a biomass boiler powered by clippings from plants all over Singapore generates most of the energy needed to control the temperatures inside the conservatories.

Visitors can walk around the gardens using bridges raised 20 metres above the ground, which lead to a cafe on the top of the tallest  tower. ”I don’t think its fair to call it a theme park, but it’s designed to attract people of all ages and all nationalities as a leisure facility,” says Wilkinson.

You can see more images of the project in our earlier story, or watch another movie we filmed with Wilkinson Eyre’s Paul Baker just after the World Building of the Year Award was announced.

See all our coverage of the World Architecture Festival »
See more stories about Wilkinson Eyre Architects »

Photography is by Craig Sheppard.

The post Movie: Chris Wilkinson
on Gardens by the Bay appeared first on Dezeen.