Hasta La Ideas

News: Taiwanese city Taipei has been announced as World Design Capital 2016, having been the only city to submit a bid for the title.

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) in Canada announced the designation yesterday at its general assembly meeting in Montréal, Canada.

“Taipei is a city driven by design,” stated ICSID President Soon-in Lee. “In what was a very provocative bid book, we learnt of Taipei’s plan to focus its programme on issues of sustainability and the responsibility of preserving the environment for future generations. The balance between innovation and a respect for nature is what will allow Taipei to be recognised as a true design leader through its designation as World Design Capital.”

The city will stage events under the theme Adaptive City – Design in Motion. Taipei’s deputy mayor Hsiungwen Chen attended the event to accept the title on behalf of the Taipei city government. “In the process of bidding for WDC, we have discovered that embedding design into our city’s governance is gradually changing the face and the thinking of Taipei, and enhancing the quality of our service to our citizens,” he said.

“Our next step will be to fulfil the vision of the WDC and Taipei’s programme will act as a catalyst for our existing industrial ecology, leading to the creation of more investment opportunities and job openings,” he continued. “This in turn will allow us to develop more human resources and establish more market opportunities for our design industry.”

ICSID announced in August that it had received only one bid for the 2016 title, down from just three contenders the previous time around. When Dezeen caught up with ICSID president-elect Brandon Gien in Gwangju soon after, he told us that the cost of entering and hosting was to blame, saying it is “prohibitive for cities around the world to enter, because it is expensive.”

The single qualifying bid was examined by a selection committee that included Soon-in Lee, executive mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille and designer Jens Martin Skibsted. Taipei is the fifth World Design Capital and will follow Cape Town, which becomes World Design Capital 2014 next year.

The World Design Capital programme was established in 2008 to “focus on the broader essence of design’s impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens” and is bestowed every two years. Previous cities to hold the position are Torino (2008), Seoul (2010) and Helsinki (2012).

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World Design Capital 2016 appeared first on Dezeen.

A plant-covered twisting tower shaped like a DNA strand by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut is under construction in Taipei, Taiwan (+ slideshow).

Described by Vincent Callebaut as “neither single tower, nor twin towers”, the 20-storey Agora Garden apartment block is designed with a double-helix structure that twists up around a fixed central core.

“Different from the modern city built of concrete, glass and steel, the Agora Garden tower appears in an urban centre as a green twisted mountain,” says the architect.

Balconies on each floor will be filled with plants, vegetable gardens and fruit trees, creating a cascading layer of greenery across the exterior. These will enable residents to grow their own food and compost all their biodegradable waste.

Between two and four apartments will be located on each floor of the building and will integrate a number of sustainable technologies, including rainwater-harvesting and solar energy.

“The concept is to build a true fragment of vertical landscape with low energetic consumption,” explains Callebaut. “The project represents a built ecosystem that repatriates the fauna and the flora in the heart of the city and generates a new box of subtropical biodiversity.”

Agora Garden is being constructed on one of the largest designated residential sites in the city and will be surrounded be a moat. As well as apartments, the building will also accommodate rooftop clubhouses, a swimming pool, gym facilities and car parking floors.

Vincent Callebaut won a competition to design the building in 2010 and construction is set to complete in 2016.

The architect also recently unveiled a futuristic concept for “farmscrapers” made from piles of giant glass pebbles. See more architecture concepts by Vincent Callebaut.

Here’s a detailed project description from the architect:

Agora Garden, An Ecologocal Residential Tower

Taipei, Taiwan, 2010-2016

In November 2010, Vincent Callebaut Architectures SARL was awarded as the successful tenderer for the construction of a new luxurious residential tower located at Taipei. The project is currently under construction and will be completed in 2016.

You will find below the conceptual design proposal presented during the competition phase in 2010 by Vincent Callebaut, design architect:

The Ecologic Philosophy of the Project

In the heart of the urban networks of Xinyin District in full development, the Agora Garden project presents a pioneer concept of sustainable residential eco-construction that aims at limiting the ecologic footprint of its inhabitants by researching the right symbiosis between the human being and nature.

On this site that is the last and only biggest parcel of land for residential use, the concept is to build a true fragment of vertical landscape with low energetic consumption. The building is thus eco-designed. It integrates not only the recycling of organic waste and used water but also all the renewable energies and other new state-of-the-art nanotechnologies (BIPV solar photovoltaic, rain water recycling, compost, etc.). The project targets thus the energetic performance so as to be officially approved by the Green Building Label, the norm for high environmental quality, delivered by the Home Affairs Ministry of Taipei.

Part of the concept of inhabited and cultivated vertical farm through its own inhabitants, this project of residential tower enables first to design by its avant-gardist architecture a new life style in accordance with the nature and the climate. Actually, the Agora Garden tower superimposes vertically wide planted balconies of true suspended orchards, organic vegetable gardens, aromatic gardens and other medicinal gardens.

Such as a living organism, the tower becomes metabolic! It overpasses its energy-consuming passive role (absorbing all the natural resources and rejecting only waste) to produce its own organic food. The architectural concept is thus to eco-design an energy self-sufficient building, whose energy is electric, thermal and also alimentary.

Therefore, the project answers directly to 4 main ecologic objectives of the After Copenhagen:

1. The reduction of the climatic global warming.
2. The protection of the nature and the biodiversity.
3. The protection of the environment and the quality of life.
4. The management of the natural resources and waste.

Finally, according to the Cradle to Cradle concept where nothing is lost, everything transforms itself; all the construction and furnishing materials will be selected through recycled and/or recyclable labels. By imitating the processes of natural ecosystems, it deals thus with reinventing in Taiwan the industrial and architectural processes in order to produce clean solutions and to create industrial cycle where everything is reused, either back to the ground as non-toxic organic nutrients, or back to the industry as technical nutrients able to be indefinitely recycled. Biotechnological prototype, the Agora Garden project reveals thus the symbiosis of human actions and their positive impact on the nature.

Above: north and south facades

The Morphologic Philosophy of the Project

Neither single tower, nor twin towers, the project arises towards the sky with two helicoidal towers gathering themselves around a central core. This architectural party offers a hyper-compacted core and a maximal flexibility of the housing storeys (with the possibility to unify two apartments units in one without any footbridge). It brings a reduction of view angles towards the urban landscape and a hyper-abundance of suspended gardens.

The Agora Garden tower is, as its name indicates it, directly inspired of the structure in double helix of the DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), source of life, dynamism and twinning. Every double helix is represented in the project by two housing units forming a full level.

Thus, from its base to the top, the 20 inhabited levels in double helix stretch themselves and twist themselves at 90 degrees. By metaphor, the obtained sinuosity corresponds to the universal musical symbol of harmonic revealing the notion of ultimate balance praised by the project.

» This twist of 90 degrees answers to four major objectives:

1. The first objective is to be perfectly integrated in the north/south pyramidal profile of the building volume. Actually, the morphology of the project changes according to its orientation. Its east/west elevations draw a rhomboidal pyramid whereas the north-south ones represent a reverse pyramid.

2. The second objective is to generate a maximum of cascades of suspended open-air gardens, not part of the F.A.R. (floor area ratio). Thus, the planted balcony surface area can easily exceed the limit of the required 10 percents. The global framework of 40 percents of building coverage ratio, i.e. 3 264 M2 is thus totally respected.

3. The third objective is to offer to the inhabitants exceptional panoramic views on the skyline of Taipei by multiplying the transversal views, especially towards the very close Taipei 101 tower and the Central Business District in full emergence.

4. The fourth objective is to generate from a flexible standardized level a progressive geometry with corbels which assures the intimacy and the confidentiality of each apartment by avoiding the indiscreet vision axes.

Inspired from nature, the Agora Garden project is shaped with an organic fluid and dynamic geometry. From the simple and standardized element of the double helix of housing superimposed vertically and put in successive rotation of 4.5 degrees level by level, a multi-facial morphology appears all in convex and concave curves.

Actually, according to the point of view of the pedestrian from the surrounding streets, the Agora Garden tower changes of faces and proposes new profiles. Besides this moving geometry wearing a planted dress with sensual style, the project represents a built ecosystem that repatriates the fauna and the flora in the heart of the city and generates a new box of subtropical biodiversity. It is a new nest in the city!

Above: east and west facades

The Main Components of the Project

The luxuriant forest and the glade

In order to ensure the confidentiality of the residents, the whole perimeter of the site is bordered by a mineral moat that animates the outside public space with organic urban furnitures. Inside the parcel, the walls of this moat transform themselves into planted surrounding walls. The main access of the site is located at the Song Yong Road which is less busy that the main avenue, Song Gao Road. The tower is coiled up in the centre of a heavy and luxuriant safe forest of mature trees that protects the intimacy of the inhabitants from the surrounding urban pollution. In the heart of the vegetable lung, the pedestrian square of exotic wood opens itself on a mineral and aquatic glade.

Such as the shock wave created by a water drop, the landscape design is made in circles arches and radiates from the epicentre of the tower. A circular light well, curved this time, makes the light, the abundant plants in cascades to the deepest basement. The car parks, the swimming pool and the fitness are thus naturally lightened and ventilated.

The lobbies in indoor – outdoor connectivity

The ground floor in double height sets through its great transparent facades a high connectivity between the interior community spaces and the exterior garden.

The central core, a vertical twisted garden surrounded by sky entry foyers

The central core has been designed to separate totally the vertical circulations into two housing units on the same level. This core is fixed (it does not pivot). But in order to ensure the rotation of the storeys floor by floor, it is surrounded by a (naturally lightened) horizontal circulation loop welcoming the entry foyer dedicated to each unit. This buffer loop enables thus to set the main entrance always in the axis of each apartment and this despite of the 4.5 degrees rotation storey by storey. An alternative has been studied to build sky entry foyers directly around the cylindrical central core offering thus planted entry foyers with spectacular front view on the city of Taipei.

By level, the central core gathers 2 staircases, 4 high speed elevators of 24 people (1800 kg), 1 car elevators (also useful to carry enormous art pieces, luxury antique vehicles, or even huge pianos, etc.), 2 sky garages in glass and also all the vertical shafts for the main flows. All these vertical flows are covered by a huge bearing exoskeleton in reinforced steel.

The apartments, a maximal spatial and technical flexibility

The apartments of 540 M2 on average superimpose themselves under the shape of two planted twists unified around a central core. Each unit presents a storey structurally made with Vierendeel beams system behind glass facades only on even floors. All levels are linked at both ends by two spiralling mega columns covered by green walls. Each apartment is completely free columns!

This structural concept inspired by the DNA chain enables a maximal flexibility in terms of interior layout. It ensures also an optimal visual permeability (indoor outdoor connectivity) towards the suspended gardens of the balconies in foreground and the urban panorama on the background.

» The spatial flexibility is divided in 4 main typologies of storeys of 2 or 4 units:

Typology A: 2 units with curved living rooms around a central core.
Typology B: 2 units with living rooms stretched in the length behind the Southern façades.
Typology C: 2 units with living rooms set in bow by the panoramic storey.
Typology D: 4 units in duplex with living rooms benefiting from a double height.

In addition to these basic typologies, two huge clubhouses are set up on the roof floors so as to respect the setback required by the building volume. Therefore, from the same standardized double helix (1.250 M2 floor area), the rotation of the storey and its customizable interior laying-out makes every level be a unique floor for each resident!

Above: north-west and south-east facades

» The technical flexibility is obtained by the integration of the double deck and double wall concepts:

Spatially hyper-flexible, the constructive system proposed also a total flexibility to the level of technical distribution of the flows. Additional vertical flows are organized with “oblique shafts” along the glass façade. The system of double deck is integrated at each level under the shape of a double floor and a suspended ceiling. The network of the flows (rain water, used water, hot water, electricity, under floor-heating, cool air, hot air, optic fibre, etc.) crossing the central core can thus irrigate without any difficulty on the horizontal way all the surface area of each storey. Moreover, the use of castellated beams will enable to take advantage of a maximal free height under ceiling. The interior partitioning of each apartment will be à la carte according to the wishes of each inhabitant. The double walls will compartmentalize the different rooms following the curved axes of the building by integrating also many useful storage spaces.

» The energetic efficiency is obtained by isolating façades with high performance named inter-layer or double-layer:

The Agora Garden tower is covered by linear crystalline façades repeating themselves at each level. The identical facades in every apartment will be pre-manufactured in factory to accelerate their setting-up during the works. A multilayer glass (airspace + Polyvinyl Butyral) or double layer façades with integrated blinds will be directly associated there in order to protect the interior spaces from the solar radiation in summer and to limit the calorific loss in winter.

The landscape balconies, green cascades of flowers, fruits, vegetables and aromates

The landscape concept is to build a cascade of suspended gardens which cover the entire building. The tower becomes then a true vertical inhabited park, in a box of nature in the heart of the city! The selected essences will be preferably eatable in order to make each inhabitant gardener in its own vegetable consumption. Suspended orchards, organic vegetable gardens, aromatic and medicinal gardens will flourish the wide and deep jardinière along the global periphery of each apartment. Garden furniture, compost spaces from waste to organic fertilizers, fuel cells, rain water tanks for the irrigation of plants, and ecologic nests for birds will be directly integrated in the design of these jardinières. In order to protect the organic substrate tanks from the heating coming from the solar radiation, the planting beds will be covered by a layer of Bethel white granite on honeycomb. The white colour of the Agora Garden tower will provide a new emblematic, pure and fresh identity.

The tower generates through its morphology in rotation two types of very specific landscape balconies:

1. The balconies called ascending or positive:open-air, they benefit from a maximal sunshine and enable to cultivate their trees and shrubs of subtropical essences. We will preferably set up the living rooms on this side. It will be also possible to inlay photovoltaic sunshades at the extremity of the slab according to the wishes of each resident. Thermal captors could be also set up in order to produce sanitary hot water.

2. The balconies called descending or negative:Covered by the superior level, they offer half shadowed relaxing spaces to cultivate flowers, vegetables, aromatic plants and falling and climbing species. We will preferably set up the bedrooms on this side.

In bow of the housing storeys, are laid-out some outdoor garden bath sanctuary that coils themselves up in an alcove dig in the façade of each apartment. Different from the modern city built of concrete, glass and steel, the Agora Garden tower appears in an urban centre as a green twisted mountain. Following the seasons, the planted essences (with persistent and deciduous leaves) will make its colours and its abundance to evolve. Declining a camaieu of green in the summer, the tower will blaze with golden and bloody colours in autumn. In spring, it will be bloomed with thousands colours and will liberate floral fragrances from its fruit trees. The tower will then develop perfumed micro-climate for the very best welfare of its inhabitants!

The photovoltaic roof and its gardens for phyto-purification

Located at 100 meters high, a huge photovoltaic pergola of 1000 m² transforms the sun rays into electric energy which is directly reintroduced into the network of the building. Under this layer with blue-steel reflection, clubhouses are located on the roof surrounded by panoramic sky gardens. They filter and purify the rain water with the action of the plants in order to reinject the water by gravity in the distribution network of sanitary water. From this terrace, there is an extraordinary panoramic view on the 101 tower.

Above: north-east and south-west facades

The landscape basement naturally lightened and ventilated:

Contrary to the traditional car park of 2.10 M high under beams and plunged under an artificial shadowy light, the car park of the Agora Garden project benefits from the natural light. Actually, a light well integrating seismic joints makes the light and the fresh air fall to the levels of the basement. Thus, the car park and the connected facilities (swimming pools and fitness) are naturally ventilated. The main access of the basement is done by the Song Yong Road under a sculptural entry gate inspired by a spiralling leaf.

From the level B1, we can access to both car elevators inside the central core and go very quickly to the sky garages located at the entrance of each apartment. The car park is designed in the existing perimeter of the current car park of the pre-existing Agora Garden hotel in order to limit the works cost of excavation and foundations.

Only the south-west wall has been corrected so as to set up a laying-out with double helix. Actually, in the continuation of the rotating tower, the car park is drawn according to a circular plan with an ascending interior helix around the core in the direction of the exit and a second descending helix in the direction of the entrance. The whole set forms a continuous banister that welcomes more than 230 cars and 500 scooters. From slab to slab, the minimal height is 3,10 meters which improves comfortably the atmosphere of the building of an immaculate white. It is important to notice that the structure of the tower weights through this car park in order to facilitate the descent of the loading of the whole building.

The Challenge Of A Positively Ecologic Revolution!

In the architecture of the Agora Garden project, the association of the living (Bios), the biotechnologies (renewable energies and nanotechnologies), and the NICT (New Technologies of Information and Communication), can meet the Chinese antique thought which always refused to separate the nature and the humanity that nourishes itself from it; the body from the spirit that did not exist without it. Avant-gardist on the theme of contemporary ecologic crisis, the Chinese thought prefers the relationships rather than the separated elements. The human being and its life framework depend from the fusion of the variables:

As humbly wrote the influent sinologist, specialist in old China Marcel Granet in the Chinese Thought in 1934: None opposes the human being from the nature; do not think of opposing them such as the free element from the determined element. The Chinese people only see in the Time and the Space a gathering of occasions and sites. These are interdependences, solidarities that constitute the order of the Universe. We do not think that the Man could form a reign in the Nature or that the spirit distinguishes itself from the material.

In the heart of Taipei, after having built the city on the landscape, after having then built the city on the city, it is now time for the landscape to rebuild itself on the city! In this perspective of ecologic resilience, the Agora Garden project must be considered as an abstraction of geography and a distortion of ecosystem. The Agora Garden project is a nature built from the living that fights for the re-naturalisation of Ecopolis of tomorrow! This tower reveals strongly and surely the challenge of reinventing a new lifestyle for residential tower, that is self-sufficient, sculpturally unprecedented. It is a project absolutely unique in the world and charismatic drawing with poetry in the oriental sky, a delicate superposition of sky villas with wide suspended private gardens.

Last but not least, it is a unique ecologic landmark, new symbol of sustainability at the bottom of the prestigious 101 tower!

Above: cross section

Type: International Competition – First Prize Winner In November 2010
Client: Bes Engineering Corporation, Taipei
Contract Location: Xinyin District, Taipei City, Taiwan
Program: 40 Luxurious Apartments + Facilities
Surface Area: 42.335.34 M²
Delivery: 2016
Current Phase: Construction Documents – Below Grade Under Construction
Green Certification: LEED Gold

International Design Architect: Vincent Callebaut Architectures, SARL Paris
Local Architect: LKP Design, Taipei
Structural Engineer: King Le Chang & Associates, Taipei
Local Mep Engineering: Sine & Associates, Taipei
International Interior Architect: Wilson & Associates (Wa), Los Angeles
International Landscape Architect: SWA, Sausalito, San Francisco
Local Landscape Architect: Horizon & Atmosphere (H&A), Taipei
International Lighting Designer: L’observatoire International, New-York
Local Lighting Designer: Unolai Design, Taipei
Green Consultant: Enertek, Taipei
VCA’s Team: Emilie Diers, Frederique Beck, Jiao Yang, Florence Mauny, Volker Erlich, Philippe Steels, Marco Conti Sikic, Benoit Patterlini, Maguy Delrieu, Vincent Callebaut
Model Maker: Patrick Laurent

The post Agora Garden by
Vincent Callebaut appeared first on Dezeen.

Computer software generates endless possible architectural configurations from standardised components at an exhibition in Taipei designed by architects MVRDV.

The exhibition explores conceptual alternatives to the relentless construction of standard apartment blocks in East Asia.

Analytical research, models, animations, installations, a documentary and two software packages demonstrate the possibility to develop dense, vertical urban villages.

Visitors to the exhibition are able to design their own ‘vertical village’ using parametric computer software.

The concept was developed in collaboration with The Why Factory, a global think tank and research institute run by MVRDV and the Delft University of Technology.

Vertical Village is on show at the Chung Shan Creative Hub, Taipei from 8 October 2011 to 8 January 2012.

See all of our stories about MVRDV here.

Here are some more details from MVRDV:

Today MVRDV, The Why Factory and the JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture opened the fourth edition of the exhibition series “Museum of Tomorrow” in Taipei. Under the title “The Vertical Village” the exhibition explores the rapid urban transformation in East Asia, the qualities of urban villages and the potential to realize this in a much denser, vertical way as a radical alternative to the identical block architecture with standard apartments and its consequences for the city. The exhibition consists of analytical research, a grid of models, various movies, a documentary and animations, two software packages and a 6 meter tall installation of a possible Vertical Village developed by MVRDV and The Why Factory. Visitors can design their ideal house and compose their own Vertical Village with parametric software. The exhibition is located in Chung Shan Creative Hub, Taipei and open from 8th of October to 8th of January 2012.

The pressure on the East Asian cities has lead to an increasing urbanization and densification during the last decades. It has made way for the construction of giant buildings, mostly towers, blocks and slabs. A ‘Block Attack’ that gradually replaces and scrapes away the more traditional low rise, small scale, often ‘lighter’ types of architecture and urbanism: the Hutong in Beijing, the small wooden houses in Tokyo, the villages in Singapore, the individual houses in Taipei and other East Asian cities. These urban villages form mostly intense and socially highly connected communities, with enormous individual identities and differentiations. One can speak of urban ecologies, communities that have evolved over the course of centuries. Their faceless replacements packed with identical apartment units offer a Western standard of living at an affordable price, but at the expense of differentiation, flexibility and individual expression.

Is there an alternative to this process? Can one imagine a new model for the development of East Asian cities? Can these areas be densified in such a way that the qualities of the traditional village are preserved? The exhibition offers an alternative, a contemporary Vertical Village – a three-dimensional community that brings personal freedom, diversity, flexibility and neighbourhood life back into East Asian – and maybe even Western – cities.

In the fourth edition of the Museum of Tomorrow, MVRDV and The Why Factory analyse, explore and deepen this vision, with the help of the Berlage Institute and many other contributors. The exhibition located in Chung Shan Creative Hub, Taipei, features a 6 meter tall installation and a variety of analytical models and research elements. Visitors will be able to design their ideal house with an interactive platform, “The House Maker”, and develop their Vertical Village with parametric software – a Grasshopper scripted Rhinoceros model, developed by MVRDV and The Why Factory.

JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture publishes the Chinese edition of ‘the Vertical Village catalogue. NAi Publishers is publisher of the English language version which will be published January 16th 2012. The 528 page volume contains the ample research made comprehensible with countless colour illustrations. It features detailed case studies for Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Djakarta, Seoul and Bangkok, interviews with among others Winy Maas, Alfredo Brillemburg and Hubert Klumpner, Lieven De Cauter, Peter Trummer and families living in Taipei.

The exhibition and publication has been made possible with the generous support of JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture, Delft University of Technology, The Why Foundation and the Netherlands Architecture Funds.

MVRDV develops its work in a conceptual way, the changing condition is visualised and discussed through designs, sometimes literally through the design and construction of a diagram. The office continues to pursue its fascination and methodical research on density using a method of shaping space through complex amounts of data that accompany contemporary building and design processes.

MVRDV first published a cross section of these study results in FARMAX (1998), followed by a.o. MetaCity/Datatown (1999), Costa Iberica (2000), Regionmaker (2002), 5 Minutes City (2003), KM3 (2005), and more recently Spacefighter (2007) and Skycar City (2007). MVRDV deals with global ecological issues in large scale studies such as Pig City as well as in small pragmatic solutions for devastated areas of New Orleans.

Current projects include various housing projects in the Netherlands, Spain, China, France, the United Kingdom, USA, India, Korea and other countries, a bank headquarter in Oslo, Norway, a public library for Spijkenisse , Netherlands, a central market hall for Rotterdam, a culture plaza in Nanjing, China, large scale urban plans include a plan for an eco-city in Logroño, Spain, an urban vision for the doubling in size of Almere, Netherlands and Grand Paris, the vision of a post-Kyoto Greater Paris region.

The work of MVRDV is exhibited and published world wide and receives international awards. The 60 architects, designers and staff members conceive projects in a multi-disciplinary collaborative design process and apply highest technological and sustainable standards.

Together with Delft University of Technology MVRDV runs The Why Factory, an independent think tank and research institute providing argument for architecture and urbanism by envisioning the city of the future.

MVRDV was set up in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. MVRDV engages globally in providing solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues. A research based and highly collaborative design method engages experts from all fields, clients and stakeholders in the creative process. The results are exemplary and outspoken buildings, urban plans, studies and objects, which enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.

Early projects such as the headquarters for the Dutch Public Broadcaster VPRO and housing for elderly WoZoCo in Amsterdam lead to international acclaim.

The Why Factory is a global think-tank and research institute, run by MVRDV and Delft University of Technology and led by professor Winy Maas. The Why Factory’s Future Cities research program explores possibilities for the development of our cities by focussing on the production of models and visualizations for cities of the future. The results of this research programme are being presented in a series of books – the Future Cities Series – published in association with NAI Publishers in Rotterdam, edited by Jennifer Sigler, and designed by Bas de Wolff of Thonik / Beng! in Amsterdam. The Vertical Village is the fourth publication in this series after Visionary Cities (2009), The Green Dream (2010) and The Why Factor(y) & The Future City (2010).

The JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture was formed in 2007. Its intent is to use diverse architectural, artistic and cultural perspectives to create better living spaces. Its outreach extends from small minority areas to larger communal ones, for the purpose of establishing ideal built environments.

By using knowledge and resources from the field of architecture, and integrating multifaceted views from architects, designers, artists and cultural workers, the foundation is devoted to raising awareness about the concerns and developments of city environments, and to the empowerment of the artistic and creative industries. Events such as exhibitions, competitions, seminars and publications build vivid relationships between art and city dwellers, provoking ideas on living aesthetics and nourishing local art and culture. Through architecture-based projects, JUT has created a stage for artistic movements.

Since its founding, the JUT Foundation has organized activities such the ‘Museum of Tomorrow’ exhibition series and international architecture forums and lectures. In 2009, the foundation began to display animations, movies and installations, in order to seek new perspectives on architecture in Taiwan (Alternative Architecture). The year 2010 marked the launch of ‘Project Urbancore’, a project that places art in unused spaces, providing local artistic perspectives and a source of energy for urban regeneration.

The Museum of Tomorrow project began in 2007 as an engagement with unused land or buildings that lay idle, at a time of transition from old to new. What will be the most ideal plot in the future? The JUT Foundation sees the ‘Museum of Tomorrow’ as a stage to practice ideas for future city aesthetics. The concept ‘nomad museum’ reflects the rapidly changing character of the city, using the city as its stage. Observations and interpretations are given by experts from different fields – from art and architecture to design – to help city dwellers understand different contexts, and to extend the spirit of place.

The ‘Museum of Tomorrow’ has an inherent difference from traditional museums and art museums. It is a ‘formless’ stage that uses no fixed time, location or definition. Performance activities with different scales and themes happen in every corner of the city, bringing about interpretation between people and environment, new and old, tradition and future, private and public. The museum has various kinds of exhibitions in accordance with nomad sites in the city, with organic performances of architecture, art and culture, combining the virtual and the tangible, the active and the static, the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional. The Museum of Tomorrow creates a variety of possible impulses that allow us to imagine tomorrow today. Beyond these variations, the museum aims to create the purest spirit for our time. There is always a better tomorrow.

See also:

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The Why Factory by MVRDV and Richard Hutten	ROCKmagneten by MVRDV and COBE	China Hills by MVRDV

Créé par le cabinet d’architecture de Londres GA Design International, le W Hotel Taipei se dévoile avec de superbes visuels. D’un aspect très luxueux, ce bâtiment situé au centre de Taipei dispose de 405 chambres et suites avec un design intéressant. Plus de visuels dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Grace Santorini Hotel
• New York by Gehry
• Wanderlust Hotel

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An amazing piece from NL, this is going to be the Taipei Performing Arts Center in China. There’s a lot of great work on their site, make sure you click the images on the left. It was also nice to see them use illustrations for people in the renderings, instead of those awkward looking clippings that normally get placed. Like random guy checking watch, couple walking, and woman with shopping bags (each of which are usually lit from different directions and heavily pixelated). Enjoy.