News: Richard Branson has today revealed new architectural designs from Virgin, including a New York skyscraper shaped like a bunch of balloons, a Sydney tower with the form of a space shuttle and a moon hotel that looks like tubular bells.
The projects come under the banner Virgin Buildings, a new strand of Branson’s empire aimed at “capturing iconic Virgin moments in a new generation of ultra-green skyscrapers”. The series also includes a plane-shaped building for London and a Cape Town structure resembling a kite.
“We’ve been lucky at Virgin to have done some pretty extraordinary things, whether its the music business, trains, planes or even spaceships, but I think this project perhaps caps them all,” said Branson.
According to Branson, each building will feature huge rainwater-harvesting facilities, living walls that can be used for growing food and moving walls that can adapt to suit different rooms and functions.
Describing the plane-shaped London tower, he explained: “This building is going to be the best looking building in the city but it also has the best unique features.”
“One of the very unique features about this building is that it can turn or the floor can turn in order to face the sun, to either generate energy from the sun or to heat a particular floor or heat the whole building.”
Not content with launching the project in every continent, Branson also wants to take the technology to the moon and open a space hotel.
“We’re looking at being the first company in the world to have a building on the moon, and we thought, if we’re going to do it lets try and pay for it by making it a hotel, and of course a pretty good-looking hotel,” he said.
Professor and television personality Brian Cox has applauded the ingenuity of the project. “The physics of creating rotating buildings in dense metropolises should not be underestimated, and efforts to source more of our primary energy from the sun –and put sustainable hotels on the moon – should be applauded.”
Asked about the timing of the announcement a Virgin representative told Dezeen “there are no coincidences at Virgin”.
Plans have been revealed this morning for a series of loaf-shaped skyscrapers to accompany the Cheesegrater, Can of Ham, Toast Rack and Gherkin buildings in central London.
Property developer British Land has released proposals for a 240-metre tower featuring a photovoltaic crust, nicknamed “The Slice of Bread”, while bread company Warburtons has revealed a pair of twin towers, known as “The Loaf”, to sandwich Norman Foster’s Gherkin.
The plans are likely to fuel reports that London’s skyline is beginning to resemble “the Ploughman’s Lunch”.
This image: The Loaf for Warbutons. Main image: Slice of Bread for British Land
British Land’s proposal previously went stale when it was halted in 2012, but chief executive Chris Grigg says things are back on track. “Obviously we are still in the proofing stage, but we think this would be an excellent site for the building, sandwiched between our own Cheesegrater and the Gherkin and in very close proximity to the proposed Toast Rack at 40 Leadenhall Street.”
“London real estate is on a roll and we’re pleased to be looking at an even bigger slice of the action when it comes to premium buildings in London,” he said.
Architectural consultants M. Brioche & Rye added: “This is just what London has been kneading – a beautiful building rising up as a glowing tribute to the City. The design is aspirational, yet recognising its location between the Gherkin and Cheesegrater, carefully develops the interplay between the vegetable and functional.”
News: construction is now underway on a 222-metre skyscraper by New York studios HWKN and Handel Architects that is set to become the tallest building in the state of New Jersey.
Named Journal Squared, the residential development will be located in the Journal Square district of Jersey City, adjacent to the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) rail station that links the city with Manhattan.
Designed as a collaboration between HWKN and Handel Architects, the development will accommodate 1840 apartments within a cluster of three pointed towers, each clad externally with metal panels.
The 222-metre structure will rise up at the front of the site and will be accompanied by towers of 193 and 175 metres, making it visible from the New Jersey Turnpike and from New York across the water.
The base of the towers are designed to break down into smaller volumes to relate to the scale of surrounding buildings, offering a series of ground-floor restaurants and shops.
“Our goal was to design an urban space that knits together the existing urban fabric of Journal Square, while also creating an iconic presence in the skyline that can be seen from Manhattan,” said Matthias Hollwich, partner-in-charge at HWKN.
“We designed a building that works equally well at the scale of the Turnpike, where hundreds of thousands of people will see it every day, and at the scale of the human who walks and lives in the city,” added HWKN partner Marc Kushner.
Integral to the proposal are public realm improvements that will overhaul the rear entrance to the station, replacing loading bays and parking areas with a tree-filled public plaza expected to play host to farmer’s markets and outdoor film screenings.
“Journal Square offers a new urban community, not just for the people who will live here, but for the region. It will be a place that people will be passionate about,” commented Handel Architects principal Gary Handel.
The project is funded by property developer KRE Group. The first phase of development will be the smallest of the three towers and is scheduled for completion in 2016.
Here’s some extra information from HWKN:
Tallest building in New Jersey breaks ground, designed by Hollwich Kushner (HWKN) and Handel Architects
Journal Squared is an important milestone as Jersey City’s development boom moves inland. The project sits adjacent to the Journal Square PATH stop and promises to bring great density to the site while working to connect to the existing fabric of the neighbourhood.
Journal Squared is that long sought after transformational project. Unanimously approved by the Jersey City Planning Board, it will be the linchpin in the City’s Journal Square redevelopment efforts. The development hopes to create a prototype for future transit-oriented developments around the world.
Pivotal to the project’s design is the transformation of the current back entrance to the Journal Square PATH stop into an inviting place and a public amenity. Acres of land previously dedicated to asphalt, station loading, and parking will be reclaimed in a sweeping, tree-filled plaza that is activated by community events such as farmer’s markets, bicycle parking, evening film projections and events along its low stairs that slope down to the PATH station.
The 2.3 million square foot project touches the ground lightly as its mass morphs into smaller units to relate to the lower density neighbourhood around it. This base hosts active program like retail, restaurants, lobbies and parking. Three residential point towers rise above the base and include 1,840 units. The tallest tower, at 70 storeys, is expected to be the highest residential building in New Jersey. The first of three phases, topping out at 54 stories, broke ground in January 2014, and is expected to be complete in mid-2016.
The graceful proportion and subtle lustre of the metal panel clad towers will be an elegant centrepiece for the community and a bold counterpoint to the brutalist concrete PATH Station. In addition, Bruce Mau Design has developed the visual identity for Journal Squared, including wayfinding, signage, and environmental graphics. BMD created a look and feel that reflects Journal Squared’s core values as a bold, modern brand that is sophisticated and energetic, while staying true to the history of the neighbourhood.
News: architecture firm OMA is working on designs for a 167-metre skyscraper on Folsom Street in San Francisco.
OMA has teamed up with property developer Related California and non-profit organisation Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to plan the tower as part of a residential development offering a mix of homes for sale and rent, of which 27 percent will be affordable.
Led by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, the design also features a pair of podium buildings and a row of townhouses.
The development will be constructed on a city-owned plot between First Street and Fremont Street – one of 11 sites being sold off to pay for the $4.2 billion Transbay Transit Centre housing development nearby.
The OMA team is understood to have offered San Francisco’s Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure $72 million for the plot, coming in ahead of bids from developers Millennium Partners and Golub & Co.
German studio Tammo Prinz Architects has developed a concept for a residential skyscraper built from a stack of modular cubes and dodecahedrons (+ slideshow).
Tammo Prinz came up with the design as part of a competition entry for the redevelopment of a site in Lima, Peru, using a combination of three-dimensional shapes that tesselate with one another.
“Two of the five Platonian Bodies are chosen for their characteristics, that they perfectly fit into each other,” said Prinz, explaining how he based his concept on elements of Euclidean geometry.
“This generates a space that clearly defines two qualities – one to be taken as inside space, the other as the potential additions,” he continued. “The first – a perfect square – can easily handle the living functions, while the second can be either added to those or used as outside space.”
Prinz envisions a bulky concrete building that expresses its structure across its facade. Windows would cover the majority of surfaces, while balconies will be contained within the protruding geometries.
The architect told Dezeen he thinks the concept could be easily applied to other urban conditions: “Since it is developed from modules, you can expand in all three dimensions.”
“At the one side we even worked with half modules, whose sliced flat sides attach to the neighbouring building,” he said.
Here’s a project description from Tammo Prinz Architects:
Housing Tower, Lima
Urban
The sloped maximum envelope was given by Peruvian building codes. The program was massive. Therefore a sunken outside plaza was introduced, connected to an open and public reception space, serving together as possible event space. This way the living function could reach down close to the ground floor, still providing enough privacy through the gap generated by the sunken plaza.
The sunken plaza is bordered by amphitheatre like steps, formed from Pentagon-shaped rocks (corresponding to the building). The random heights of the rocks/seats are traversed at several positions by steps of the same shape in different coloured stones, meandering through the rocks. All further common spaces are positioned underground exposed by natural light through generous voids into the reception space.
Platonian Bodies
Two of the five Platonian Bodies (cube and dodekaeder) are chosen for their characteristics, that they perfectly fit into each other. By this generating a space that clearly defines two qualities – one to be taken as inside space, the other as the potential additions.
The first, a perfect square is easy to handle the living functions, the second can be ether added to those or be used as outside space. Stacking them to a tower – The Platonian Tower.
The outlines of the dodekaeder serve as a massive concrete structure, giving total freedom to the inside. The buildings appearance is mostly defined by its brute concrete structure.
Six dodekaeder moved together generate a left over space inside, that shapes a star and perfectly serves the dodekaeders of the tower as carrying base structure. In addition the boundaries of the star correspond exactly with cube moved into the dodekaederat the start, converting the cube from inside space within the dodekaeder, into outside space, coating the star structure.
Flowering vines will sprawl across the facades of these four tower blocks underway in Casablanca by French studio Maison Edouard François, creating a series of brightly coloured vertical gardens.
Located in the Les Hopitaux district of the North African city, the Gardens of Anfa project by Maison Edouard François comprises three mid-rise residential towers and a low-rise office office block. Set to complete by 2017, it will be the first development in Africa to feature vertical gardens this extensively.
Each floor of the three 16-storey residential towers will feature wrap-around balconies with screens made from an interwoven mesh. The balcony walls will be planted with jasmine or white bougainvillea, an ornamental vine native to South America.
As the plants become established they will grow throughout the mesh, creating a blanket effect on the exteriors of the buildings. The 12-storey office block meanwhile will be differentiated from the surrounding buildings by the multicoloured flowers adorning its facade.
The development encompasses a 50,000 square-metre site. Once complete, it will become a new mixed-use quarter that will also include public spaces, underground car parking and a series of low-rise residential blocks.
At the base of the towers, public spaces will include seating, cafes, water features and a thoroughfare for cars and buses. Washingtonia palm trees will create a dense thicket of foliage, shading pedestrians from the intense Moroccan sun.
Moving further away from the centre, trees and bushes of blue and white blossoms will be planted to separate the towers from the low-rise residential buildings that form the outer edge of the development.
These buildings will feature a series of balconies jutting out from the facade at random, and are also intended to incorporate vertical gardens. A row of purple blossom trees will form an outer perimeter, completing the development.
“These residential buildings break down the scale of the high-rise towers to give the park an inhabited character. This architecture of individual buildings demarcates the limits of the gardens,” added the spokesperson.
This isn’t the first time Maison Edouard François has combined high-rise buildings with plants. Tour Végétale de Nantes was a concept unveiled by the studio in 2011 that featured trees and shrubs growing in stainless steel tubes on each floor of a tower.
Here’s some information from the architects:
The Gardens of Anfa, Casablanca – Morocco
The Gardens of Anfa will be the landscaped heart of a new neighbourhood in Morocco.
A large, dense park conceals a series of four buildings with vegetal façades, creating mimetic games with the surrounding nature.
In the foreground, Washingtonias are planted as if in a dense forest. In the mid-ground, multi-colored flowers cover the topography. In the background, trees and bushes flourish with blue and white blossoms.
The architecture plays itself out in many colors. Towers with organic forms are implanted around the square. The towers with office spaces have façades that are planted with multicolored bougainvilleas. The towers with housing units appear white, planted with jasmine or white bougainvilleas.
Lower buildings surround the park and are set back from the adjacent roads. The façades of these small buildings are vertical gardens. These residential buildings break down the scale of the high-rise towers to give the park an inhabited character. This architecture of individual buildings demarcates the limits of the gardens.
Program : Mixed-use program consisting of three mid-rise residential towers (R+16), a low-rise office tower (R+12), surrounded by low rise residential blocks, convenient amenities for the residences open onto the central and linking public piazza and three underground parking lots distributing each lot that make up the master plan.
Client: Yasmine Signature Anfa Club Team: Maison Edouard François, Groupe 3 Architectes (local construction architect) Area: 50 000 M² Net Floor Area Schedule competition: 2012 Construction permit: 2013 Delivery: 2017
Nicknamed “the cheesegrater”, the 224-metre office tower was designed by Richard Rogers’ firm for a site beside the architect’s celebrated Lloyds Building and features one sloping facade to maintain views towards St Paul’s Cathedral.
The exterior of the 50-structure is expressed as a series of constituent parts. A glazed curtain wall sits over the criss-crossing steel grid fronting the office floors, while a ladder frame encases the fire-fighting cores, and a circulation tower runs up the northern side of the building.
Scheduled for completion later this year, The Leadenhall will house offices in its upper levels, but the base will accommodate a seven-storey-high public space filled with shops and restaurants.
Here’s a description of the building from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners:
The Leadenhall Building
The building comprises a number of distinct architectural elements that provide clarity to the composition both as a whole and as a legible expression of its constituent parts. These elements include the primary stability structure, the ladder frame, the office floor plates, the northern support core, the external envelope and the public realm.
The structure aims to reinforce the geometry defined by the development envelope, which in turn creates the distinctive tapering form, and takes the form of a perimeter braced ‘tube’ that defines the extent of the floor plates. The ladder frame contributes to the vertical emphasis of the building, and encloses the fire-fighting cores that serve the office floors. The frame also visually anchors the building to the ground.
The office floors take the form of simple rectangular floor plates which progressively diminish in depth by 750 millimetres towards the apex. Office floors are connected to the structural ‘tube’ at every floor level without the need for secondary vertical columns at the perimeter.
The northern support core is conceived as a detached tower containing all passenger and goods lifts, service risers, on-floor plant and WCs. Three groups of passenger lifts serve the low, mid and high rise sections of the building, and are connected by two transfer lobbies at levels ten and 24.
The position of the northern support core relative to the office areas means that the structure is not required to be over-clad with fire protection, allowing the whole to be designed and expressed as visible steelwork. This articulated steel frame provides clarity to the whole assemblage.
The highly transparent glazed enclosure makes manifest the structure and movement systems within; its physical presence is a striking and dynamic addition to the City and a unique spectacle for the enjoyment for passers-by.
The building is designed to express all the constituent elements behind a single glazed envelope. Facades to the office areas require the highest comfort criteria in relation to heat loss, daylight, glare control and solar gain. Here, the facade is supplemented with an internal layer of double-glazing, forming a cavity which incorporates the structural frame.
The external glazing incorporates vents at node levels to allow outside air to enter and discharge from the cavity. Controlled blinds in the cavity automatically adjust to limit unwanted solar gain and glare.
The lower levels of the building are recessed on a raking diagonal to create a large public space that opens up to the south. The spectacular scale of the semi-enclosed, cathedral-like space is without precedent in London and will create a major new meeting place and a unique destination in itself.
Overlooking the space are generous terrace areas within a bar and restaurant that provide animation and views into the public space and beyond. This enclosure is open at ground level to give access from all directions. The public space is fully accessible by means of a large, gently raked surface connecting St Helen’s Square with Leadenhall Street.
Foster + Partners first unveiled plans to build the residential tower at 610 Lexington Avenue in 2005, but was stalled by the 2008 recession. Replacing the old YWCA building, the 61-storey structure will sit alongside Mies van der Rohe’s 38-storey Seagram Building and SOM’s 21-storey Lever House, both of which were completed in the 1950s.
The building’s slender shape is intended by the architects to capture “Mies’s philosophy of rationality, simplicity and clarity”, and will feature a sheer glass facade that will stand in contrast to the dark bronze exterior of the Seagram.
“It’s not simply about our new building, but about the composition it creates together with one of the twentieth century’s greatest,” said Foster + Partners architect Chris Connell. “In contrast to Seagram’s dark bronze, our tower will have a pure white, undulating skin. Its proportions are almost impossibly slim and the views will be just incredible.”
A total of 91 apartments will occupy the tower, with many taking up entire floors, while a glazed atrium will connect the residences with a smaller building accommodating a bar and restaurant, as well as a spa and swimming pool facility.
Connell added: “Simplicity of design is often the hardest thing to achieve but in a sophisticated marketplace, people appreciate the timeless beauty that comes from it. Our design philosophy has always extended through the entire building and we will look to create interiors that blend seamlessly with the exterior approach.”
Construction is set to complete by the winter of 2017. Approximately 2000-square-metres of the building will be allocated as commercial space.
Here’s the original project description from Foster + Partners:
610 Lexington Avenue New York City, USA 2005
This 61-storey residential tower at 610 Lexington Avenue continues the practice’s investigations into the nature of the tall building in New York, exploring the dynamic between the city and its skyline. Located on the corner of Lexington and 53rd Street, it replaces the old YWCA building in Midtown Manhattan. Formally, it responds to the precedent set by two neighbouring twentieth-century Modernist icons – SOM’s 21-storey Lever House of 1952 and Mies van der Rohe’s 38-storey Seagram Building of 1958. In the spirit of Mies’s philosophy of rationality, simplicity and clarity, the tower has a slender, minimalist geometric form, designed to complement these distinguished neighbours.
The entrance is recessed beneath a canopy that sits harmoniously alongside the entrance and pavilion of the Seagram Building. The entry sequence continues on a single plane from the street to reveal a glazed atrium that joins the tower to a smaller building on the right. The smaller building houses a bar and restaurant, a spa and swimming pool, the tower contains lounge areas and apartment levels. From the floor of the atrium, the tower rises up like a soaring vertical blade, the view up creating a sense of drama and reinforcing the connection between the summit and the ground.
Some of the larger apartments occupy the entire floor area of the higher levels. The tower’s slender form creates a narrow floor plate, allowing the interior spaces to be flooded with daylight and creating spectacular views across the city from every side. An innovative glazed skin wraps around the building, concealing the structural elements which are further masked beneath integrated shadow boxes. To preserve the smooth appearance of the facade, opening vents in the glazing flap discreetly inwards. The effect is a sheer envelope that shines in brilliant contrast to the dark bronze of the Seagram building.
The new Melbourne home of the Australian Institute of Architects is a 22-storey tower by architecture firm Lyons with a sculptural facade that breaks down into staircases and balconies (+ slideshow).
Named 41X, the tower sits at a crossroads between Exhibition Street and Flinders Lane. Its facade is covered with angular concrete fins, as a reference to the “chiselled masonry aesthetic” of Melbourne’s public buildings, but they appear to be cut away to make room for elevated public spaces highlighted with bright green accents.
“The design explores the idea of joining together a public and commercial building, by connecting the city street space with Institute occupied levels,” said Lyons director Adrian Stanic. “A major stair, visible from Flinders Lane, facilitates this and makes public engagement a focal point of the building.”
The AIA was the client for the project and occupies five floors of the building, leaving the rest of the floors free for up to 15 commercial tenants.
“This project enables owners or occupiers to create their own identity on whole floors within the building, creating a distinctively vertical business community on this city corner,” added Stanic.
Australian firm Hassell designed the interiors of the AIA’s five floors. These include a first-floor “design haven” containing an architecture and design bookshop named Architext, a cafe serving as a public meeting space and a seminar room.
A terrace is located on the roof, while bicycle storage and changing facilities are contained in the basement.
Here’s the full announcement from the Australian Institute of Architects:
New heights and a new home for architecture as Governor-General opens strata tower in Melbourne
Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce AC CVO, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, has officially opened Victoria’s new home of architecture at 41 Exhibition Street.
Developed by the Australian Institute of Architects, 41X is a 22-storey Five Star Green Star strata-titled commercial tower that accommodates the Institute’s Melbourne offices, including the Victorian Chapter, over five levels. 41X is the first strata commercial office building in Melbourne to target carbon neutrality over its 30 year operating lifespan – accounting for embodied energy, base building operational energy, transport and waste.
“41X successfully shows how private and not-for-profit organisations can have a positive impact on the development of our cities by creating world class, cutting-edge, environmentally responsible commercial buildings,” Her Excellency said.
‘This elegant addition to Melbourne’s CBD makes a bold statement about the value of design. With this building, the Institute is strongly reinforcing the value of architects and architecture to the sustainable growth of our community – tangibly fulfilling its mission of ‘making the world a better place through architecture’.”
Conceived as a hub for architecture, for Institute members and the public alike, 41X is the place for design enthusiasts to meet, with a design haven on level 1, complete with a comprehensive architecture and design bookshop (Architext) and a café run by Axil Coffee Roasters. In addition, the Institute is currently developing a program of public events focusing on architecture and design.
41X is situated on a small footprint block at the corner of Exhibition Street and Flinders Lane and is also home to 15 other purchasers and tenants keen to be part of this exemplar building.
The project’s inception dates back to 2006, when a detailed feasibility study for the site, encompassing a range of potential options for its future including renovation through to relocation, was commissioned.
After extensive consultation, the Institute’s National Council decided that the site would be redeveloped into a small office tower that would set new standards in quality Australian commercial architecture.
In 2008, the Institute held a two-stage design competition. The commission was awarded to Lyons Architects with a concept that explored ideas about the hybrid public/commercial building, the engagement of the Institute with the public and targeting a carbon-neutral outcome.
In 2012, following a rigorous selection process, Hassell was selected as architect for the fit-out of the five Institute-occupied levels.
Paul Berkemeier, National President of the Institute said “We are immensely proud of our new Melbourne home. It is an exemplary, small footprint, commercial building that shows how good design, sustainability and the work of architects can deliver outstanding results.”
French firm Dominique Perrault Architecture has completed a 220-metre skyscraper with a folded glass facade in Vienna, which has now become Austria’s tallest building.
DC Tower 1 was created by Dominique Perrault Architecture for a site on the eastern bank of the Danube, where it will be joined in 2016 by a smaller facing tower with a facade that will appear to mirror its undulating surface.
Rendered image of DC Tower 1 and the proposed DC Tower 2
The 58-storey tower containing offices, apartments, a hotel and a top-floor sky bar rises above a public plaza in the Austrian capital’s developing Donau City district.
When the second tower is constructed it will be angled slightly so the space between the uneven facades of the two buildings will frame views of the city from the river.
“The towers function as two pieces of a gigantic monolith that seems to have split into two unequal halves, which then open to create an arch with undulating and shimmering facades that bring the newly created public space to life in the void created there,” said Dominique Perrault.
In contrast with the slick, straight-sided walls on three sides of the tower, the faceted facade creates a shifting pattern of light and shadow that animates the surface and lends it a rippling quality.
“The visual qualities of the folded facade create a new way to read the skyline of Donau City, its undulations signalling the entry point of this new polarity,” said Perrault. “The folds contrast with the no-nonsense rigour of the other three facades, creating a tension that electrifies the public space at the tower’s base.”
At the rear of the tower, a staircase leads from an access road to a long building that acts as a publicly accessible entrance and drop-off area.
A series of square metal canopies arranged around the building’s other elevations create a sheltered route across the plaza towards the entrance on the front facade.
The interior was designed to have a raw, monumental quality, with structural elements including concrete columns and bracing beams left exposed.
Materials including metal and stone are used throughout the lobbies and circulation areas to enhance the building’s robust aesthetic.
Walls and ceilings are covered in glossy black panels that echo the slick reflective surface of the facade, while simple fluorescent tube lighting adds a suitably industrial detail.
Photography is by Michael Nagl, unless stated otherwise.
Here’s a project description from Dominique Perrault:
DC Tower 1
When an architect delivers a building it is always an extremely emotional moment, marked by the end of a long process of mediation, from absolute potentiality of early sketches to fine tuning in situ of final details. An actor, for a time, in the endless development of territories, the architect exits the scene. He hands over the controls to those he has been working for. This is the moment when architecture transitions from the intellectual, conceptual state to the fundamentally physical and real.
In Vienna, these feelings are magnified by the iconic character and extreme visibility of the DC Tower 1, but also by the history that binds me to the project. One beginning twelve years ago, in 2002, when WED held an international competition for the development of the last remaining section of Donau City, and a history which continues to be written.
From the start the project offered a site with incredible potential: an open terrain, facing Imperial Vienna, embedded in the geography of the Danube, lying on a plateau on the river’s eastern bank, like a bridgehead to two Viennas. But the site was not virgin territory as several previous projects had been conceived for it. So there was a conceptual “already there”, a thoroughly fascinating virtuality.
Photograph by Walter J.Sieberer
Very early on, what kindled my interest most in this site was the bridgehead with the rest of the Donau City district, with the river banks but also the conditions for breathing life into a public space on an esplanade. We took advantage of this commission to design a genuine entry gate to Donau City. Reversing objectives for earlier development projects envisaged here, WED specifications called for a decidedly mixed-use program, an indispensable condition for germinating the contemporary urban vibration we were proposing to create in and around the towers.
Photograph by Walter J.Sieberer
The towers function as two pieces of a gigantic monolith that seems to have split into two unequal halves, which then open to create an arch with undulating and shimmering façades that bring the newly created public space to life in the void created there. Dancing on their platform, the towers are slightly oriented toward the river to open a dialogue with the rest of the city, turning their backs on no one, neither the historic nor the new Vienna.
Today, the first of the two towers is up and the result is quite amazing, thanks notably to the invaluable collaboration of the Hoffmann-Janz architecture office. The visual qualities of the folded façade create a new way to read the skyline of Donau City, its undulations signalling the entry point of this new polarity. The folds contrast with the no-nonsense rigour of the other three façades, creating a tension that electrifies the public space at the tower’s base.
The façade’s folds give the tower a liquid, immaterial character, a malleability constantly adapting to the light, a reflection or an event. For interior spaces, on the other hand, with Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, the associate designer, we have tried to make the building very physical and present. The structure is not hidden, does not evade the eye. The exposed concrete framework is touchable. Stone and metal used in lobbies and circulations contribute to the tower’s generous and reassuring physicality.
We have tried to avoid a tendency in contemporary architectural production to hide the architect’s real work, of sewing, suturing the project and contextualising and anchoring it in the environment. Design emerges in a later phase. Towers floating above the ground are too severe, like architectural objects, objects in themselves. They must land, take root in the soil of cities, in places where their urban substance is found. The aim is to get the basic horizontality of the city and the public space to coincide with vertical trajectories.
The work on the base and foundation of the DC Tower 1 was highly stimulating. Architectural arrangements determine the tower’s relationship to the ground. On the back façade, the public space rises from the level of the esplanade in a series of staggered steps to reach the ground reference plane. This structuring of topography launches the tower and creates a spatial interface accessible to all, making the occurrence of such a physical object both possible and acceptable.
On the other three façades, metallic umbrellas gradually rise from the ground on the approach, softening the violence of the eruption and blending city and movement into the tower’s future. Important work on neighbourhood fringes remains to be done to reveal the geographic features of this urban landscape and take better advantage of the river bank.
With this first tower the city of Vienna has demonstrated that the punctual and controlled emergence of high-rises can participate in creating the city and produce contemporary, economical, high-energy performance mixed-use buildings adapted to metropolitan business requirements and lifestyles.
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