Walls of foliage will surround towers at Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard François

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois

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.

Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois
Gardens of Anfa diagram – click for larger image

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.

Site plan of Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois
Site plan – click for larger image

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.

Ground floor plan of Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois
Ground floor plan – click for larger image

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.

Typical upper floor plan of Walls of foliage will surround the towers of Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard Francois
Typical upper floor plan – click for larger image

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

The post Walls of foliage will surround towers at
Gardens of Anfa by Maison Edouard François
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Ribbon-like design wins competition for Turkey broadcast tower and visitor centre

Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey

News: international architecture firms IND and Powerhouse Company have won a competition to design a 100-metre-tall broadcast and observation tower in Çanakkale, Turkey, with a design that resembles a continuous ribbon.

Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey

Planned for a forested hilltop on the outskirts of the historic city of Çanakkale, the proposal by IND (Inter.National.Design) and Powerhouse Company is based on an undulating loop that rises above the ground and stretches upwards to create the tower.

Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey

The competition brief called for a building that provides recreational facilities including exhibition spaces and observation decks, as well as the communications mast.

Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey

“The design of the new Çanakkale Antenna Tower resolves these paradoxes by uniting all the different functions and spatial requirement into one spatial gesture,” said a statement about the winning design.

Site plan of Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey
Site plan – click for larger image

Visitors will be able to wander along a raised path that will loop around the site and lead to the visitor centre, which will be built above the treetops on the edge of the hill facing the city.

Technical plan of Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey
Technical plan – click for larger image

The tower is deliberately located away from the visitor centre to reduce the danger of radiation from the transmitters fixed to its surface affecting visitors or staff, and is designed with a simple form that will enable it to accommodate future technologies.

Axo circulation diagram of tower of Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey
Axo circulation diagram of tower – click for larger image

“The antenna tower is formed by joining the two vertical paths, creating a gracious gateway under which the visitors enter the premises,” added the statement. “This gesture creates a strong visual identity; an iconic appearance from afar that is transformed into an elaborate scenic experience when up close.”

Visitor centre circulation diagram of Ribbon-like design wins competition for a broadcast tower and visitor centre in Turkey
Visitor centre circulation diagram – click for larger image

By lifting the structure off the ground, the architects aim to minimise its impact on the surrounding forest. The space surrounded by the looping pathway will be dedicated to use as a park that visitors will be able to access at points where the path touches the ground, and from a staircase beneath the viewing deck.

The architects collaborated with infrastructure and engineering firm ABT on the design of the winning proposal.

The main image is by MIR.

The post Ribbon-like design wins competition for
Turkey broadcast tower and visitor centre
appeared first on Dezeen.

Top of the World’s Weirdest Tower

Focus sur le recensement des tours les plus étranges et loufoques du monde, sorties de l’imaginaire des architectes. Entre le Klimwand Climbing Tower, les tours San Gimignano ou encore l’Hôtel Ryugyong en Corée du Nord, voici une sélection en images à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

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Klimwand Climbing Tower, Wunderland Kalkar, Allemagne.

Un château d’eau en maïs, Rochester, Minnesota.

L’Hôtel Ryugyong, Pyongyang, Corée du Nord.

Puffer Fish Tower, Chine.

La maison de Nikolai Sutyagin, Arkhangelsk, Russie.

Les tours Pigeon, Libye, Iran et Egypte.

La tour de Zizkov Télévision, Prague.

La tour Genex, Belgrade, Serbie.

La tour de Pise, Italie.

Les tours San Gimignano, Italie.

Weirdest Towers 9
Weirdest Towers 8
Weirdest Towers 7
Weirdest Towers 6
Weirdest Towers 5
Weirdest Towers 4
Weirdest Towers 3
Weirdest Towers 2
Weirdest Towers 1
Weirdest Towers 10

Herzog & de Meuron to design residential tower in Miami

News: developers have released images of a 57-storey residential tower designed by Herzog & de Meuron for Miami.

Dezeen_Jade-Signature-by-Herzog-and-de-Meuron-2

The 198-metre Jade Signature tower by Herzog & de Meuron on an estate in Miami’s Sunny Isles district will accommodate 192 residences, ranging from one-bedroom apartments to a 975-square-metre penthouse.

Dezeen_Jade-Signature-by-Herzog-and-de-Meuron-3

The building’s parallelogram-shaped plan will help to angle the apartments towards the southern sun and floor-to-ceiling windows will provide views of the ocean. Hourglass-shaped columns will feature at the extremities of the balconies encircling the tower.

Dezeen_Jade-Signature-by-Herzog-and-de-Meuron-5
Image © Bogatov Realty

Interiors will be designed by Pierre Yves Rochon’s Parisian firm PYR and Miami landscape architect Raymond Jungles will create a tropical garden surrounding the building.

Dezeen_Jade-Signature-by-Herzog-and-de-Meuron-4
Image © Bogatov Realty

Herzog & de Meuron‘s first building in Miami was an angular concrete and glass car park with a retail area at its base.

The firm recently completed an extension to an exhibition centre in Basel and has been granted planning permission for a new building at Oxford University.

Zaha Hadid Architects is also working on a residential skyscraper in Miami, while a competition to redevelop the site of the Miami Beach Convention Center has received entries from Rem Koolhaas’s OMA and Danish firm BIG – see all projects in Miami.

The post Herzog & de Meuron to design
residential tower in Miami
appeared first on Dezeen.

Bon Iver – Towers

Après le superbe clip Bon Iver – Holocene, voici la nouvelle réalisation de l’australien Nabil pour le groupe Bon Iver. Une aventure en pleine nature sur le très beau titre “Towers”. Produit par NE Direction. A découvir en vidéo dans la suite de l’article.



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Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond’s Olympic sculpture is “a grower”- The Guardian


Dezeen Wire:
The Guardian’s architecture critic Jonathan Glancey explains that the much-criticised ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture, designed by Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond for next year’s Olympics in London, has been an easy target for jokes but that it demonstrates Britain’s manufacturing capabilities and says it “may even effect buildings of the future just as the Eiffel Tower and the Crystal Palace did” – The Guardian

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

This 16 storey tower in Barcelona completed by Spanish studio R+B Arqts contains 75 social housing units and has a facade of vertical panels and aluminium brise-soleil.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

The building’s exterior reads as five sets of 10m-high stacked frames, which group sets of three storeys together and create balconies every third floor.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

The tower is one of of 26 new towers planned around the Plaça Europa, a new public square.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

In the foyer area of the building are timber-panelled walls and high ceilings.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Photography is by Jordi Surroca.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

More stories about towers on Dezeen »

Here is some more information about the project from the architects:


From 3 to 3

The tower E.I.O.5 is a project of social housing promoted by Incasol and it is located in a new central zone known as Plaça Europa (Europa Square). The Europa Square, according to Albert Viaplana’s Project, it is shaped as the last nude in Llobregat’s direction of the squares sequence that, approximately each kilometer, marking the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

The urban model of the Europa Square is a generous public space opened to each side of Gran Via which concentrates, with other buildings, 26 towers of tertiary and residential uses, public and privates, between 15 and 20 floors. Tower 5 is located in the farthest crown from the Gran Via which runs half- undergrounded. For all the buildings of this last ring, most of them public housing promoted by different clients, distribution laws in the master planning fix a maximum floor dimension of 24×24 m, as well as height in which should be located the first floor structure (slab) and the crowing point of the towers.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

The piece we had built was an object of public client’s competition in February 2005. In our proposal, rescaling the tower according to its position as a piece in the limit with the consolidate fabric of Hospitalet trying to visualize with the building a movement between Europa Square and the blocks of 5 floors that form the surrounding.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Grouping together floors from 3 to 3, the image of the tower, perceived in some kind of cinematographic long plan, could approximate to a building of 5 floors of height. Consequently the scale of the windows, according to that law of grouping them, is also transforming in frames of 10 meters height and different thickness. In order to be more accurate, the facade and windows, this last ones with a sequential number and modulated in pieces with similar dimensions to a door (0.8 x 2,10 m), succeeding in different planes with a depth that range between 50 cm and 1,2 meter and emphasises the concept of big inverted tribunes. In each section of the tower the first floor of every serial of 3 is a balcony.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

As some of the images in a “short plane” we have done for the competition show us, this frames avoid vertigo impression because between the interior and the outside of the apartment there is always an intermediate element: balconies, jambs, or the lintels of this big holes.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Click above for larger image

The election of the elements for the facade’s assembly has been done paying attention to a comparative study of several constructive solutions which evaluated the origin of already recycled materials, its natural origin and the capacity for being recycled at the end of its useful life. Likewise, was also valuated the expense of fabrication energy and the recovered politics of the surplus energy generated during the production process.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Click above for larger image

Materially, the facade is constructed with a 8mm thick HPL pannels hanging of hidden structure of recycled aluminium perfiles. Black frames are made of 4mm thick aluminium composite panels which brings equal resistance with a lower weight per m2 to any other material with the same features. Synthetically, all materials used in the tower’s construction are 100% recyclable and specifically the ones used in the facade come from a 65% and 100% already recycled materials.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Click above for larger image

The tower is set in floor plan as two towers with T form circulation corridor and two scales in the extremes across the one illuminates the interior in the circulation zone. Every tower has two apartments of 69 m2 in the extremes and one of 56 m2 in the central position. Totally, the program is of 75 units.

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Social Housing Tower in Plaza Europa by R+B Arqts

Project Name:  Social Housing Tower of 75 Units in Europa Square – E.I.O.5- Incasol – l’H – Barcelona
Project date: February 2005
Construction start: October 25th, 2007
Construction end: May 19th, 2010

Architects: José Miguel Roldán Y Mercè Berengué | Roldán + Berengué, arqts |
Collaborators:
Architecture: Vicenç Sanz | Zana Bosnic
Structure: Manuel Arguijo
Installations: Manel Comas | Javier Mateos
Technical architect: Joan Rovira i DuranPromotion type public | Sale – Incasol
Total build up area: 10.312,98 m2

Total build up area, apartment units: 7.660 m2
Apartment units: 75 units | 49 units of 3 bedrooms s.U. 69m2 | 25 units of 2 bedrooms s.u. 56m2 | 1 residence of 7 bedrooms s.u. 196m2
Commercial: 1unit s.c. 280,11m2
Parking: 82 units s.c. 2.660,65m2
Budget |PEM| 7.912.000 € | 767 €/m2
Construction company: CRC obras y servicios


See also:

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Housing 137
by H Arquitectes
Baufeld 10
by LOVE architecture
Future Towers India
by MVRDV

The Tower of Droplets by Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham

CRAB by Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham

This algae-producing tower designed by Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham of London studio CRAB came second in the recent Taiwan Tower Conceptual International Competition.

CRAB by Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham

The project, a conceptual design for Taichung in Taiwan, features a tower with a series of steel cages attached that will be covered in algae to produce biofuel.

CRAB by Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham

The competition was won by this design featuring floating observation decks attached to giant helium balloons.

The following information is from the architects:


SIR PETER COOK AND GAVIN ROBOTHAM
WIN 2ND PRIZE IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
FOR TAIWAN TOWER AT TAICHUNG

From a field of 237 entries from 25 countries, London’s Cook Robotham Architecture Bureau will receive the $ 65,000 second prize for a tower that is based upon the growing of algae in layers of droplets.

THE TOWER OF DROPLETS
The entire tower is inspired by the creation of energy. Living energy which must be……… Visible living energy SYMBOLISING THE VISIBLE ENERGY, ENTERPRISE AND INVENTIVE OPTIMISM OF THE TAIWANESE PEOPLE. The droplets are the primary elements of this process. Their activity, presence and form resonate throughout the scheme.

Much of the tower is open to the public to view the processes at close quarters. Even from the lifts, the daily state of vegetable husbandry will be visible. A variety of different arrangements of plantation and localized environment are distributed over its length. The principal purpose of the tower is to CREATE ALGAE.

When watered and filtered the algae create BIOMASS used as food for fish and plants and for making paper and BIOFUEL for powering engines. This process takes CO2 (a known hazard in Taiwan) out of the environment.

In the basic tower we provide 10.888 M2 surface of algae which produces 3,266,400 liters of oil and produces several thousand tons of biomass in a year. The same structure could be further developed – with accumulated Income and more bags to a maximum of double the surface and thus creating 6,532,800 liters of oil.

The structure is a series of steel lattices that wind around the steel elevator cores. The droplets are steel cages with membrane skinning. There are 3 observation levels:

TOP OBSERVATION LEVEL : overlooks the mountains
MID OBSERVATION LEVEL : contains areas of hydroponic vegetation growth : enabling PUBLIC VIEWING of plants and processes
LOWER OBSERVATION LEVELS : contain aviaries and aquaria

There are 3 office zones, all are used by the City development Authority. THE MUSEUM at the base of the tower contains 5 floors On its top are viewable algae systems. At middle levels are exhibition zones based of techniques developed by the authors at the Kunsthaus Graz (Austria) and the War Museum of the North.

Tower team : Jenna Al-Ali, Nuria Blanco, Lorene Faure, Selma Johannson
Consulting Engineer : Miike Kaverne of Buro Happold


See also:

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Hydrogenase by
Vincent Callebaut
Eco-pods by Howeler + Yoon
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Town Town by Coop Himmelb(l)au

Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au are to be awarded the Sustainability Award of the 2010 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards for their tower covered in a folded metal skin, designed for the Erdberg area of Vienna.  (more…)

Daewon Park Observatory by Changki Yun

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Korean architect Changki Yun (Kyungam Architects Associates have sent us images of their design for an observation tower for the city of Seongnam in Korea. (more…)