IDeas: The Cairns Institute, Cairns, Australia

A new way for contemporary placemaking in the tropics influenced by indigenous and traditional cultures

The design concept for the Cairns Institute grew from its mission statement ‘enhancing life in the tropics’, and is strongly centred on the belief of placemaking, rather than building-making. As a result, the proposal is sensitively located in the landscape and where a sense of the landscape is embedded in the experience of the place. The main entry aligns with the natural forms of the mountain range to the west, and integrates landscape experiences in the surrounding and courtyard gardens.

Developed by BVN Architecture and MMP Architects, the signature gesture for the design is an undulating roof form using a conventional timber gridshell structural system which unifies the concepts of organic form. The construction of this roof in sustainable timber has many levels of experience; from the powerful and exciting address it provides on approach, to the sense of anticipation in the semi-protected space of the rainforest courtyard at entry and as part of the continuing experience to the interiors.

The design is responsive and empathetic to the idea of community; in this instance a community of researchers. Traditional approaches to placemaking engage this community through the arrangement of research hubs and other spaces around a central courtyard. This heightens awareness and visibility, while promoting both purposeful and incidental interaction. The concept enhances the Institute’s culture and allows its research to develop in a healthy, positive and collaborative manner.

The concept of placemaking is further enhanced and reinforced by a proposal to adopt colours, patterns and finishes from traditional cultural activities, particularly those from communities of the tropical Far North Queensland region. For example, the external perforated sunscreen to the lower floors of the offices and research areas is derived from traditional fibre work and weaving patterns. Colours are derived from paintings and other artworks of indigenous artists from tropical regions of the world.

Creative Media Centre - City University of Hong Kong

Leigh & Orange and Studio Daniel Libeskind complete futuristic new Media Centre in Hong Kong

The Creative Media Centre for the City University of Hong Kong provides facilities that make the University to the first in Asia to offer the highest level of education and training in the creative media fields. The Centre will house the Centre for Media Technology and the Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology. The distinctive crystalline design creates an extraordinary range of spaces rich in form, light, and material that, together, create an inspiring environment for research and creativity.

Studio Daniel Libeskind worked with Leigh & Orange Limited to complete the project on November 15th 2010. The project brief for the Creative Media Centre expressed two distinct requirements. First that there are very few repetitive rooms in the building and most rooms needed specific technological requirements that determine size, proportion, lighting, sound isolation and even structure and mechanical systems. In addition, there were requirements for space efficiency and cost that matched any other public academic building in Hong Kong.

The brief also required that the design of the CMC encourage creativity, collaboration and be a bold and provocative environment for the natural chaos inherent in creative endeavour. The architects balanced these two requirements through the connective public spaces on the interior and exterior that flow around the private, technical academic rooms. A line of cores runs through the center of the building. One-way beams span to the perimeter and create a 3m planning module for the rooms. Open area for circulation follows the line of cores but becomes an important space for creative collaboration through specific sculptural treatments. The sloping walls of the building create larger public spaces on the lower floors and open exterior areas on the ground.

Finally, within the private academic areas, the architects developed teaching clusters that reflect the same balance of openness and efficiency as the building as a whole. Each cluster has rooms for experimentation in their centre, offices and studios around the perimeter and flexible space for cooperation in between. These areas are asymmetrical and typically too wide for a corridor yet narrower than rooms, they are thus distinct areas specifically designed for unpredictable collaboration between teachers and students - between production and theory. The distinctive crystalline design creates an extraordinary range of spaces rich in form, light, and material that, together, create an inspiring environment for research and creativity.

Waste-to-Energy Plant, Copenhagen, Denmark - Waste not, want not...

State of the art Waste-to-Energy Plant incorporates public rooftop ski slope

Beating strong contesters Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Dominique Perrault Architecture, 3xN, Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects and Gottlieb Paludan Architects to the punch, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been selected by a unanimous jury panel as the winner of an international competition to replace the 40 year old industrial Amagerforbraending plant in Copenhagen.

The Waste-to-Energy plant has been deemed an ‘exemplary model in the field of waste management and energy production’, spanning 95,000 sq m and boasting the latest technologies in waste treatment and environmental performance. BIG has encouraged an active relationship between the new plant and the public by exploiting vacant roof space as a 31,000 sq m ski slope.

Director of Amagerforbraending, Ulla Röttger, explains: “BIG’s proposal contributes to the city with something useful and beautiful. We see this creating a lot of opportunities and with this unique building we can brand the Danish knowledge and technology to show the world our abilities within the environment and energy issues.”

Visitors to the facility access the rooftop slopes via a lift along the plant’s smokestack which allows a glimpse into the internal activities of the plant. Traditionally viewed as a symbol of the industrial era, the smokestack has been transformed into an educational tool; every time one tonne of fossil CO2 is released, the smokestack discharges a 30m smoke ring into the air ‘as a gentle reminder of the impact of consumption and a measuring stick that will allow the common Copenhagener to grasp the CO2 emission in a straightforward way’. When darkness falls, heat tracking lights continue to illuminate these smoke rings.

Externally the complex is wrapped in a 74,000 sq m vertical green facade formed by planter modules stacked like bricks. Partner at BIG, David Zahle, explains: “Designing a façade for a building is like wrapping a gift without having to consider its content. Instead of concentrating on the wrapping paper we have instead invested our energy on creating a gift for the citizens of Copenhagen and its visitors no matter if they are adults or children, professionals or beginners. I can’t wait to ski on a base of clean and green energy with a view over the city in 2016.

”BIG is working with realities:united, AKT, and Topotek 1 & Man Made Land on the design for the new Waste-to-Energy Plant.

Lecor, Kungalv, Sweden - A steely reserve

Local design firm KKA have composed a new headquarters for steel manufacturer Lecor in Kungalv, 10km north of Gothenburg, Sweden. With the client's advanced project portfolio in the steel industry, it was imperative for the architecture of their commercial property to reflect their skill in this field.

The designers explain: "We have worked with materials, colours and textures in various ways that can be associated with the steel industry and its traditions. The colours remain mostly in a soft pastel scale and white shades as we have followed the principle to 'drape' the whole room in one and the same colour." Clad in dark grey steel plates, the angular design comprises offices, dining areas, meeting rooms, a library and changing rooms.

Soft pastel shades of pink, yellow and green punctuate the monochrome cladding, with particular sections such as the 'matkuben' (dining cube) protruding from the core of the building in the form of glass cubes sealed in a steel frame. On the top floor of the building, a conference room and outdoor terrace are enclosed in a long bridge of the truss plant-steel construction, from which users are afforded a 270 degree view over the surrounding wooded landscape.

Within the generous entrance hall is located a large staircase, framed by high, painted steel walls decorated in a specific pattern resembling the white glow from welding. The entrance flooring is composed of black ceramic tiles in three differing sizes, extending outside in a welcoming gesture to visitors and employees alike.

Marco Polo Tower, Hamburg, Germany - Maiden voyage

Behnisch Architekten completes new residential tower named after Venetian merchant

Directly on the Elbe, commanding a prominent position in Hamburg's Hafen City, stands the 55-metre-high Marco Polo Tower. It punctuates the end of the route from the inner city out to the new attractions, the Cruise Ship Terminal and the Promenade on Strandkai.

The tower's 17 above-ground levels, each turned a few degrees on their axis, allow all 58 apartments spectacular views over the harbour and the city. Apartments are between 60 and 340 sq m in area. Generous perimeter terraces and balconies extend the living areas out into a soft play of lines, and lend the tower its distinctive sculptural image. External variations in appearance are reflected in the interiors, in that no level, or apartment, is quite like any other. Load-bearing structural elements and necessary fixed services have all been reduced as much as possible, so that the residents themselves can decide where they want to sleep, cook, eat, bathe or relax. On entering the apartment one has an uninterrupted view over an open plan living room landscape, through generously sized glass panels, to the outside world and Hamburg's roofscape.

The apartments are sold design-ready. Clients can design their new home, with the help of an interior architect, according to their own taste. The concept for residential spaces proposed by the Behnisch Architekten emphasises natural light and views. The Marco Polo Tower brings together high-class living accommodation and a holistic ecological building concept. The recessed façades are protected from direct sun by the overhanging terraces above so that additional sunshades are not necessary. Vacuum collectors on the roof, using a heat exchanger, turn heat into a cooling system for the apartments. Innovative sound insulated air louvres in the sleeping areas make natural ventilation possible without increased noise pollution from outside.

Kuwait University College of Engineering and Petroleum, Sabah Al-Salem University City, Kuwait

A dynamic learning and research environment supporting 21st Century learning

Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. in association with Gulf Consult has been commissioned by Kuwait University to undertake the design and supervision of the new 220,000 sq m College of Engineering and Petroleum, slated to open in 2014. The College of Engineering and Petroleum (COEP) is an opportunity to bring Kuwait University’s engineering, architecture and allied technical disciplines together in a world-class, state-of-the-art facility.

Located on a bold new campus of Kuwait University at Sabah Al-Salem University City, COEP will serve 5000+ students with separate campuses for male and female undergraduate students. The project began with a four-year-long planning period (including a multi-city US study tour), which cemented Kuwait University’s vision for the COEP as a model of project-based, experiential learning. The design fosters and facilitates education based on collaboration and a multi-disciplinary approach. COEP will become a major sub-campus within the Sabah Al-Salem University City. It will house eight major departments including Architecture, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, Mechanical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering.

together this large college is a central, day-lit atrium space called the 'Science Souk' that brings together food services and student and faculty lounges to encourage informal dialogue and learning. Academic spaces include laboratories, studios, classrooms, project-based workshops, galleries, exhibition halls, administration offices, faculty offices and conference rooms. It also contains basement parking for 600 cars. From the beginning, the goal for the COEP was that the building itself facilitate discussions around sustainable design.

To that end, the design includes 'media walls' which tell the story of the building and describe the various 'green' building elements utilised. These include a rain screen exterior wall, shaded outdoor spaces, a photovoltaic demonstration area, and wastewater recycling. Sustainable design as a concept is in a rather nascent stage in Kuwait, and, not surprisingly, water conservation is of utmost importance. The COEP is designed to be the equivalent of a LEED Silver building in the U.S.

UAE Federal National Council

New home for UAE Federal National Council blends traditional local heritage with 'global contemporary aspirations'

California-based Ehrlich Architects has beaten off stiff competition from fellow shortlisters Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects and Massimiliano Fukas Architects to secure first place in an international architectural competition to design the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council’s (FNC) New Parliament Building Complex.

Located on the waterfront on processional boulevard Abu Dhabi Corniche, the striking facility will be visible for miles across the water shared by six of the seven Emirates. A vast dome dubbed the ‘flower of the desert’ forms the key focus of the New Parliament Building Complex at 100m in diameter. At nightfall this arching structure will be lit from the inside, creating a shining beacon to the neighbouring Emirates as it reflects across the water. During the day, the shelter will form its own shaded micro-climate, casting Islamic patterns of dappled light onto the white marble Assembly Hall.

Flanking this dome are multiple Parliamentary buildings which house the bulk of the office and administrative services, meeting halls and visitors’ programme, richly toned in hues inspired by the surrounding natural elements – namely the desert sand. Ehrlich Architects’ Design Principal, Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA explains: “The New Parliament Building Complex will balance Islamic Heritage with U.A.E.’s global contemporary aspirations, where modernity and tradition are in harmonious balance. The architecture for the FNC’s new home will communicate its increasingly vital role in the lives of all United Arab Emirates citizens.”

Fishers Island, New York, United States - Box within a box

Garden pavilion for Fishers Island residence doubles as home for private artworks

Caught in a private spread of manicured foliage on Fishers Island, New York stands a delicately transparent pavilion. Its light-filtering trellis - a horizontal tracery of slender aluminum rods extending the roof plane - aligns with the canopy of trees before it. Architecture of subtlety, this quasi weightless structure is carefully planted between two existing wooded plains.

The pavilion's interior floor plane - fully visible through the glassy, Miesian shell - continues outward, its surface of bonised bamboo transformed into an exterior plinth of Indian black granite. The entry axis penetrates the pavilion's simple 4,600 sq ft volume, notching into its far side and emerging as a long, shallow reflecting pool.

A perimeter path lines the structure's transparent shell. Freestanding in parallel alignment, the interior walls never meet the enclosure. Instead, they form a virtual box within a box, an implied inner volume.

A one-bedroom retreat for a former museum director and his wife, this crystal pavilion is also home to a plethora of 20th century paintings, sculptures, and glassware. The artwork always figures into view out, even if only peripherally. Conversely, from the gardens, this colourful indoor collection projects a presence outdoors.

An arcing swath of vibrant yellow sedum in the garden resonates with the golden footbridge in a Chinese screen inside; a mossy rock garden projects into the pavilion's simple volume, while the bedroom nestles into a private apse of garden vegetation.

Parque Das Cidades Congress Centre - Portugal

Brilliant design from Regino Cruz Arquitectos...

Portuguese design firm Regino Cruz Arquitectos has been selected as the winner of a competition to design a new Congress and Exhibition Centre in the Algarve. Run by Faro and Louise Municipal Councils, the competition aims to develop the site to the Algarve Stadium with an impressive Congress Centre complemented by a four star hotel and retail and office complex.

The strong concept design comprises large volumes of internal flexible space, responding directly to the functional requirements of the building's users. The architect has been inspired by the

nearby ocean which is mirrored in a screen-printed glass wall that extends over the triple height of the main entranceway. This vast expanse of glass is contrasted by elements of tradisional local housing styles incoporated into the facade, such as whitewashed walling. Not only the pergolas

but also the roofs and their multiple triangulations that one sees time and again in the silhouettes of the surrounding towns and villages, inspired by the metrics of the structure and the geometry of the large glass structure. Energy efficiency plays a large part in the concept design, with a water recycling system gathering rainwater from the roof to store in tanks and facades on the south and west-facing sides which have the greatest thermal inertia more opaque than those on the north and east-facing sides.

Aviva USA - LEED Gold Building

Aviva USA Des Moines, Iowa goes for the gold- resource from WORLD ARCHITECTURE NEWS.COM Tuesday 25, Jan 2011

Aviva USA headquarters becomes the largest LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified building in Iowa.

Among the project's features that contributed to Gold Certification are :

95% of employees have direct access to natural light

81% construction waste recycled and thus diverted from landfills

43% water savings

installation of low-flush water closets and urinals

low-flow sink aerotor and shower head fixtures

30% energy saving compared with a standard code-based building

occupancy and daylight sensing lighting controls in offices and conferences rooms

High performance, glazing, wall and roof systems.

Efficient indirect system lighting design

Hight efficiency water cooled chiller

Carbon dioxide sensing ventilation air control systems

Total energy recovery of ventilation air

27% materials quarried or purchased locally including Iowa limestone

18% recycle content value of construction materials.

The facility also offers priority parking for low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles as well as for those employees who carpool.

Strata Tower - Abu Dhabi

STRATA TOWER - Abu Dhabi, UAE

Floor Area - 51 500 m sq

It is a 50 storey tower in the Al-Raha Beach development. The Tower's architecture is neither symbolic nor narrative, but rather seeks meaning through an abstract use of form and dynamic movement to work with the environment, the light, sea and atmospheres that envelop this magical place on the Arabian 'sea. The flow and movement of the surface affords the architecture its iconic status without being an overt gesture or building reliant on a set meaning or association. Rather, the mathematical procedures used not unlike those in the manifestation of the arabesque or abstract Islamic calligraphy afford the building its elegance and musicality.

Meant for luxurious residence, the building's design is also based on the flowing computer designed style of the New York architects. Despite the large number of buildings being erected in the UAE, few are as evocative of architectural quality as this one, a sign of the times surely because Abu Dhabi seems to have seen the interest of increasing the design excellence of its new structures.

Increasingly involved in interior and design. Asymptote has carried the exterior appearance of the building into the surprising flowing interiors.