This is a new project scheduled to be completed by 2012. This office building has its windows in the form of carved out alphabets. The project is designed by Dutch architects MVRDV. Their description and details are listed below.
23 May ’11
17 May ’11
Villa in Bryanston South Africa | Residential Design
This 4000 m2 property is located in Bryanston, South Africa , the beautiful villa is designed by Nico Van Der Meulen. The splendor lies in its magnificent scale yet light impression, the transparency and horizontal span of its structure helps with that. This has to be one of the most residential villas with open spaces and amazing views surrounding it from every angle.
Upon entering through the gatehouse you look down the sloping driveway with several large cantilevers protruding from the building, some in rust, other areas clad with unfilled travertine, and an atrium behind a mentis grating screen.
Next to the front door a large reflective koi pond flows over a retaining wall next to the drive way, with an illuminated glass staircase behind a two story curtain wall in the background. The koi pond was made with help from Living Water Aeration. The lift shaft forms a strong vertical element finished in rust behind the pond. All of this is framed by a cantilevered concrete beam. The staircase behind the koi pond is a double glass construction, with lights between the two layers of glass. Above the lower garage (that was designed by the experts from garage door repair texas city) a huge cantilevered structure hangs out, suspended by beams built into its roof.
The house was designed around three massive trees, one at the tennis court, and the other two on the east side of the house. The view from the hall towards the east is into one of these trees, framed by a large sliding window in the kitchen.
The kitchen, breakfast room and family room leads seamlessly through wall to wall frameless sliding doors onto the patio, with the dining room situated behind the family room, sharing a fireplace with the family room. When the doors are open, the family room, breakfast room, open and covered patio and kitchen becomes one large area. The home also features Contemporary Garage Door Styles with a view down into the koi pond.
10 May ’11
Luxury Villa in South Africa | Residential Design
Designed by South African firm Design Partnership, this beautiful villa is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.I am particularly interested in the interior of this project, the colors, furnishing and beautiful spaces. The staircase as you will see is a sculpture in its own. Its obvious grey tones are the trend now, after being exclusive to showrooms and shops, people are choosing grey as the main color for their residences.
5 May ’11
BIG to Design Mosque & Islamic Center in Albania
These breathtaking images are of a mosque, cultural center, and museum to be built in Tirana, Albania. The competition was won by Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold , Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management.
I know it feels a bit ironic that a Danish firm wins the competition especially with some Muslims boycotting them for the 2009 incident.
This specific area in Albania has been going through a restoration phase where all three major faiths that co-exist are getting new buildings, an idea I personally believe is wonderful. The images of this mosque give the impression of holiness just at the sight, the details, the fluidity of the buildings, the translucent nature of the buildings are just amazing.
The mosque will accommodate 1000 worshipers for daily prayers, with the ability to open up to the courtyards and plaza and accommodate up to 10,000 people on special ceremonies and holidays.
4 May ’11
Leaning Tower of Pisa Now 50cm Straighter
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site back in 1987, serious efforts to stabilize the monument were taken. The tower was originally constructed over a period of 199 years (1173-1372) and since then was tilting 1mm for every year. The project of restoring the Pisa Tower has been ongoing for the past 20 years, and now it is open to the public scaffolding-free.
The project cost around €27m and has lessened the tilt by 50cm, making it straighter, yet still with its famous lean. It now stands at 56meters tall at its highest point.
17 Apr ’11
Former Renault Factory Now a Green Roofed School
At a time when children are confined to a world of video games, indoor activities, and less resources for a natural environment, this amazing project comes up to make it up for the lucky students who will be attending this school. Creative School play area painting will also enable different outdoor activities for students.
13 Apr ’11
Saudi to Build Tower Twice as High as Burj Khalifa
Why would anyone get the impression that all we need in the Middle East is higher towers? In a region whose tomorrow is at stake every second of today, there are more constructive ways to use the money, creativity, and energy we have. Toppling Burj Khalifa as the highest tower in the world after only 18 months of its opening is not a good enough reason.
Architecture does not fall under “ the bigger, the better” category, architecture is about meeting human comfort in terms of design and function, its about the beauty of volumes and how they serve their role in the best way possible. It was never about requiring half a day to reach your destination going up the elevator, or standing out in an environment that is so incoherent from the actual structure.
Another thing that would make you wonder, why would they choose a name indicating the type of regime at such a critical political period “ Kingdom Tower” ?
The video at the bottom of the post is a more graphic approach of how odd it will look in its surrounding.
So far the press release for the project has not been officially out, but information on the project has been circulating a few sites:
“Kingdom Tower” will be one mile high. It will contain almost 12 million cubic feet of space. It will be part of a larger urban development built to house about 80,000 people, at a cost of almost 30 billion dollars.
In terms of scale, it is estimated that a lift journey to the uppermost level of this 275-floor structure will take 12 minutes, with the Burj Khalifa’s 828m shrinking in the wake of the Kingdom Tower’s 1,609m height. Similarly, the highly celebrated Kingkey Tower in Shenzhen is only destined to reach 441m, while Guangzhou’s Canton Tower stands at 610m high. Should this lofty new building been seen through to realisation, it will overshadow every other ‘tall’ tower in the world and push the boundaries of architectural design in a way many never thought possible.
Kingdom City| Jeddah
Source: Singularity Hub and Wan
5 Apr ’11
Open Box House : An Architectural Marvel by A-Cero
Architectural icon after the other, A-Cero never refrain from keeping us in awe with the amazing sculptural designs they present. I am really impressed recently with Spanish designers and their works.
The design impact of this Open Box House, as they named it, can not be missed, the open spaces, the minimal use of colors yet strong volumes are what characterized it. The residence is located on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain and the design is inspired by Spanish sculptor Jorge Oteiza.
The interior spaces are overlapping and overlooking each other. A large mirrored partition serves as a background for a long fireplace, a glass bridge hangs over the living area and is adjacent to a large bookcase.
Natural light is plenty, tiles used are large grey ceramic tiles, furniture used is mainly from Fendi Casa. In the photo above you can see the Elisa chairs by Fendi Casa and the Canova console in black lacquer finish. The sofa is called Domino, also by Fendi Casa.
