Danish architects BIG have designed a towering apartment block for Seoul that will be shaped like a hash-tag.

BIG’s residential towers in the Yongsan International Business District revitalize the Han riverfront into a new commercial and residential center for the citizens of Seoul.

Situated at the south-east edge of the Yongsan master plan designed by Studio Liebeskind for the Korean development group Dreamhub, BIG’s Cross # Towers will contribute to the developing skyline of Seoul and become a recognizable marker of the new cultural and commercial center of the city. BIG was selected to submit a design proposal for Yongsan International Business District among 19 international offices, including SOM, Dominique Perrault, REX and MVRDV.

The 21 000 m2 site is positioned next to the existing urban fabric in the future development zones of the Yongsan master plan. BIG’s design includes two elegant towers with a height of 214 and 204m. To meet the height requirements of the site, the exceeding building mass is transformed into an upper and lower horizontal bar, which bridge the two towers at 140m and 70 m height. The two towers are additionally connected through the arrival bar at the ground level – and a courtyard below ground.

“The Cross # Towers constitute a three-dimensional urban community of interlocking horizontal and vertical towers. Three public bridges connect two slender towers at different levels – underground, at the street and in the sky. Catering to the demands and desires of different residents, age groups and cultures the bridges are landscaped and equipped for a variety of activities traditionally restricted to the ground. The resultant volume forms a distinct figure on the new skyline of Seoul – a “#” that serves as a gateway to the new Yongsan Business District signaling a radical departure from the crude repetition of disconnected towers towards a new urban community that populates the three-dimensional space of the city.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

Both the upper and lower bridge introduce rooftop sky gardens accessible to residents, allowing for outdoor activities, while a courtyard at the heart of the development is an integral part of the overall architectural design.

Dramatic views towards the neighboring towers and visual connections across the courtyard from the retail zone create an exciting space for the residents and visitors.

he outdoor landscape is envisioned to draw from the charm of traditional courtyards combined with the modernity of the project.

Pedestrians at the arrival deck which connects the towers at ground level can enjoy impressive views to the bridges above and to the submerged courtyard below.

“The typical tower inherently removes life from the city it occupies. Circulation is linear and social interactions occur only in lobbies or awkward elevator rides. We propose a building that triples the amount of ground floor – triples the amount of social interaction and reintroduces the idea of neighborhood within the tower complex.”, Thomas Christoffersen, Partner in Charge, BIG.

The development will offer over 600 high-end residences and amenities, including a library, gallery space and a kindergarten. BIG’s design ensures that the tower apartments have optimal conditions towards sun and views.

The bar units are given value through their spectacular views and direct access to the roofscapes, activating the outdoor realm. The exterior facades are developed to correspond to the different orientations and solar conditions, creating a diverse façade which varies from the viewer’s vantage point and the position of the sun.

Centrally positioned within urban hong kong, the ‘express rail link west kowloon terminus’ by international practice aedas is a transit hub for a high speed railway which travels between Hong Kong and Beijing. The 430,000 square meter facility will host 15 tracks creating the largest underground terminal in the world. accommodating regional lines as well as long distance services, the functional arrangement needed to consider that 80% of ridership is projected to be commuters between nearby Shenzhen and Guangzhou, requiring limited internal distances to make connections. Contextual restrictions dictated the major railway types were separated on either the eastern and western halves of the site.

In-house customs and immigration controls for passengers from hong kong and china are placed on successive arriving and departing levels, representing both entities within the structure while striking an efficient organizational balance. above the transit areas, an arching 400,000 square meter development opening to a public forum will generate a metaphorical gateway for transient visitors. An outdoor amphitheater for performance welcomes the dynamic happenings of the adjacent cultural district.

Flowing ribbon pathways spread to the roof plane, morphing into a highly sculpted garden. Atop the 25 to 45 meter tall volume,
an observation platform along the south elevation directs views towards the skyline, victoria peak and encompassing landscape.
The roofscape circulation will link to retail and nearby subway and public transit points. Voids and apertures within the facade bring daylight as well as visual glimpses down to the sub-grade platforms.

all images courtesy of aedas

Atelier du Pont have just sent to us Stella Cadente boutique project from Paris to share it with our readers.

Stella Cadente + Atelier du Pont = fabulous stories
The story of Stella Cadente and Atelier du Pont goes back a long way. It’s a story of a friendship between two women – Stella Cadente, a designer, and Anne-Cécile Comar, an architect – and, of course, of shared adventures, with their complementary professions and
points of view. For an previous concept store in Dubai, a first complicity with magic, light and crystal began.

Now they have teamed up again in 2012 under the skies of Paris. Clothed in glass from top to toe, the boutique stands out from the sober lines of the Boulevard Beaumarchais due to its gilded metal frame. This new Parisian space breaks with the conventions of usual stores. Inside it is cylindrical, broken into two ellipses. The shop window display stand is out: the clothes are laid out on a large draper’s table, and the soft, practical design makes a mockery of the XXS-sized Parisian boutique. The final radical change is in colour, as the interior is entirely covered in gold leaf.

Studio 06 have just sent to us their new project, one chair named Less that just won Promosedia International Design Competiton 2011 – Caiazza Memorial Challenge

The most distinctive and innovative element of the Less model project is the “k” swivel, a white enameled technical detail that combines all strengths and supports the four parts of the seat frame, consistently falling within a “clean” and “balanced” formal composition.

Through its sinuous and thin wooden parts, the chair (made of awoung or white durmast oak) conveys formal lightness as well as constructive and esthetical simplicity.

Danish architectural office BIG have unveiled proposals for a 150-metre-high skyscraper in downtown Vancouver.

The 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe mixed-use tower by BIG + Westbank + Dialog + Cobalt + PFS + Buro Happold + Glotman Simpson and local architect James Cheng marks the entry point to downtown Vancouver, forming a welcoming gateway to the city, while adding another unique structure to the Vancouver skyline.

BIG’s proposal, named after its location on the corner of Howe & Beach next to the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver, calls for 600 residential units occupying the 49-story tower, which would become one of the city’s fourth tallest buildings.

The tower is situated on a nine-story podium base offering market-rental housing with a mix of commercial and retail space. BIG was commissioned by Canada’s premier real estate developer Westbank, established in 1992, with over $10 billion of projects completed or under development, including the Shangri-La luxury hotels in Vancouver and Toronto.

“We have brought together the best talent available in Vancouver and Europe to create a truly world class project that will enrich not only the particular neighborhood, but also the city and its quest to become creative, sustainable and affordable city.

Architecturally, the Beach and Howe tower will introduce a new building typology to the Vancouver skyline and will create a dramatic gateway to downtown Vancouver that speaks to the emerging creative economy in the city”, Ian Gillespie, President, Westbank.

The tower takes its shape after the site’s complex urban conditions aiming to optimize the conditions for its future inhabitants in the air as well as on the street level. At its base, the footprint of the tower is conditioned by concerns for two significant neighboring elements, including a 30-meter setback from the Granville bridge which ensures that no residents will have windows and balconies in the middle of heavy traffic as well as concerns for sunlight to an adjacent park which limits how far south the building can be constructed. As a result the footprint is restricted to a small triangle.

“The Beach and Howe tower is a contemporary descendant of the Flatiron Building in New York City – reclaiming the lost spaces for living as the tower escapes the noise and traffic at its base. In the tradition of Flatiron, Beach and Howe’s architecture is not the result of formal excess or architectural idiosyncrasies, but rather a child of its circumstances: the trisected site and the concerns for neighboring buildings and park spaces.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

As the tower ascends, it clears the noise, exhaust, and visual invasion of the Granville Bridge. BIG’s design reclaims the lost area as the tower clears the zone of influence of the bridge, gradually cantilevering over the site. This movement turns the inefficient triangle into an optimal rectangular floor plate, increasing the desirable spaces for living at its top, while freeing up a generous public space at its base.

The resultant silhouette has a unique appearance that changes from every angle and resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge.

“The tower and base are a reinvention of the local typology, known as “Vancouverism.” In this typology, slender towers are grouped with mixed-use podiums and street walls that define human-scale urban environments. The aim is to preserve view cones through the city while activating the pedestrian street,” Thomas Christoffersen, Partner-in-Charge, BIG.

The tower’s podium is a mixed-use urban village with three triangular blocks that are composed of intimately-scaled spaces for working, shopping, and leisure which face onto public plazas and pathways.

The additional public space adds to the existing streets, giving the neighborhood a variety of open and covered outdoor spaces of various scales which transform the site under the Granville Bridge into a dynamic and iconic mixed-use neighborhood hub.

“Vancouver has already embarked upon an urban experiment in creating a super dense residential downtown – to increase pedestrian activity and street life.

With this project we attempt to continue this process of densification by reclaiming a site beneath the bridges that would otherwise be lost as a lifeless “black hole” in the urban fabric.

The diagonal canopies of the vehicular flows above create a new form of weather protected urban space, turning the large infrastructure in to a niche for social life.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

The courtyards created by the building volumes, roofs and terraces are all designed to enhance views from the Granville Bridge and the residential units above.

The canted, triangular clusters of green roofs create a highly graphic and iconic gateway to and from the downtown core, reinforcing the City of Vancouver’s focus on sustainable cities.

The exterior façades respond to the various solar exposures which is integral to the overall sustainability concept.

NAME: Beach and Howe St.
CLIENT: Westbank Projects Corp.
LOCATION: Vancouver, Canada
SIZE: 653,890 sf / 60,670 m2
COLLABORATORS: Dialog, Cobalt Engineering, Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg Urban Design, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson, James KM Cheng Architects
PARTNERS-IN-CHARGE: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen
PROJECT LEADER: Agustin Perez-Torres
TEAM: Julianne Gola, Marcella Martinez, Chris Malcolm, Karol Borkowski, Michael Taylor, Alina Tamosiunaite, David Brown, Tobias Hjortdal, Alexandra Gustafson

London architects CivicArts and local practice Todd Architects join forces to Deliver World’s Largest Titanic Visitor Experience.

Titanic Belfast has opened its doors to the world on 31st March, 2012. The world’s largest ever Titanic-themed visitor attraction and Northern Ireland’s largest tourism project, Titanic Belfast is the result of a successful collaboration between the Concept Design Architects and the Lead Consultant/Architect Todd Architects.

Located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on the site where the famous ship was designed and built, Titanic Belfast’s six-floors feature nine interpretive and interactive galleries that explore the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Titanic, as well as the city and people that made her. The building will also house temporary exhibits, a 1,000-seat banqueting suite, education and community facilities, catering and retail space and a basement car park.

CivicArts/Eric R Kuhne & Associates and Todd Architects have worked together with Harcourt Construction and a range of other partners to ensure the successful completion of Belfast’s newest landmark. Harcourt Developments engaged CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates as master planners for the Titanic Quarter site in 2005, with the aim of transforming Queen’s Island into a dynamic new waterfront.

The master plan for Titanic Quarter seeks to create a 21st century centrepiece for Belfast, combining retail, residential, business and cultural elements, all spliced together with public parks, promenades and gardens. Titanic Belfast was conceived as the cultural lynch pin of the scheme, giving a form to the wish for a focal point to unite the site’s various heritage elements. Having first investigated options for recreating Titanic at various scales, it was decided to design an entirely original structure that could also convey the wider narrative of Belfast, its industries and its people.

Todd Architects were commissioned to begin working with CivicArts in August 2008, and together they submitted the detailed scheme for planning consent. The local Northern Irish practice went on to oversee one of the most ambitious and challenging construction programmes in the UK and Ireland. The 14,000 sq m building took three years to complete – the same length of time as Titanic itself – and is designed with the potential capacity to accommodate up to one million visitors annually.

Eric R Kuhne, Founding Partner of CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates, commented: “CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates has worked for seven years to conceive, design, and create an international destination in Belfast that celebrates five centuries of its maritime legacy including the building of the RMS Titanic. As Concept Design Architects we have created an architectural icon that captures the spirit of the shipyards, ships, water crystals, ice, and the White Star Line’s logo. Its architectural form cuts a skyline silhouette that has been inspired by the very ships that were built on this hallowed ground.”

“Behind this shimmering crystalline façade, four dynamic ships hulls hold nine galleries. Glass balconies overlook the shipyard, drawing office, slipways, and Belfast city centre. The five-storey central atrium is inspired by the majesty of gangways, gantries, cranes that filled the void between the Titanic & Olympic when they lay side-by-side upon the slipways.”

“Titanic Belfast restores RMS Titanic to these shores. Its design anchors the profound spirit of invention & innovation from a century ago in a new form that retells the epic story of the building of these great ships. The scale, location, interiors and stories within the galleries make this the largest and most authentic Titanic visitor attraction in the world. The architecture speaks of the genius of Belfast as one of the world’s great historic shipbuilding cities, capturing the essence of over 28,000 workers in the Harland & Wolff’s shipyards.”

Paul Crowe, Managing Director of Todd Architects, commented: “Todd Architects has invested almost four years of work into this truly global project delivering a building which has changed Belfast’s skyline and will help transform international perceptions of the city itself. Developing a building that reflected the ingenuity, ambition and scale of Titanic has been an immense professional challenge – one we are delighted to have met.

“Titanic Belfast has a complicated geometry, providing a challenging build programme which required ground-breaking construction techniques. Its stand-out exterior façade, which replicates four 90 ft high hulls, is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodized aluminium shards, of which two-thirds are unique in design. The resolution of the geometries involved required the use of sophisticated 3D-modelling, completed by Todds in-house, in a process of ‘virtual prototyping’ which we developed specifically for the project.”

“Titanic Belfast also incorporates the best design and technology available. For instance, the building adopted an integrated design approach in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III Guide Lines and is on course for a BREEAM Excellent status. Plus, like Titanic, the project was completed on budget and to a strenuous time constraint which demanded completion in advance of the forthcoming centenary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage in April 2012.

“This is a landmark development for Northern Ireland which we believe will demonstrate the ability of iconic architecture to shape internal and external perceptions. Belfast has come far in the past 15-years and a statement building such as Titanic Belfast reflects and reinforces the city’s renewed sense of civic pride and cohesion.”

mode:lina has just sent to us few images with their new office/home to share them with our readers.

“We became a part of CoOffice in a refurbished Old Printing House now called Concordia Design (www.concordiadesign.pl).”

“Our designers need both open space for the joint meeting and discussions, as well as smaller, separate areas for focusing on individual work.”

“Thanks to the large amount of room, all workstations are enclosed in a wooden box concealing a mezzanine – six desks, integrated lighting, storage and cabling.”

“This way, out of 25 m2, we created 35 m2 of pure creativity and exchange of ideas.”

PROJECT: mode:lina office in Concordia Design
DESIGN: mode:lina architekci (Paweł Garus & Jerzy Woźniak)
PROJECT TEAM: Paweł Garus, Jerzy Woźniak, Kinga Kin, Martyna Maciaszek
REALIZATION: Styczeń / January 2012
AREA: 25 m2 (35 m2)
PHOTOS: Marcin Ratajczak (www.www.pfmarcinratajczak.fott.pl.com)

One of the four winning entries at “Hands on Door Handles” competition hosted in collaboration with Colombo Design, Twitts by japanese designer Tomo Kimura is in production now.

Following the conclusion of the competition, the design was so well-received that colombo decided to take the handle into production.

Now re-named ‘twitty’, the concept came to kimura while he was sitting in front of his computer looking out at the birds perched on his window sill.

The poetic motif features a bird perched upon a branch, its tail formally standing in place as the door handle itself.
The lighthearted and functional design brings a new life to the typically emotionless state of a door handle.

all images © designboom

Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2012 is now open for entries. The Award calls upon designers, companies, design institutions and design studios to submit their latest and best idea, as a product with good design, to the competition.

The aim of the award is to be the defining platform that separates good ideas with good design solutions from the mediocre, to provide a professional evaluation and internationally recognized seal that gives an advantage to the design and designer in the competitive market.

The deadline for entries is June 27, 2012.

For more info and registration please visit red-dot.

The city of Calgary in canada has welcomed its newest addition spanning the bow river, the ‘Peace Bridge’ by valencian architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava. The single span helical footbridge gently arcs across the water, sheltering users with a glass roof alng its 126 meter length. Adjacent to the prince’s island park in the downtown district, the structure will provide pedestrians and cyclists with connecting routes between the urban center and memorial drive. Pathways defined with curbs separate modes of movement, allowing bicycles to maneuver safely withing a central bike lane and foot traffic travels along the elevated sidewalks placed on either side.

length of bridge: 126 m
total width: 8 m
total height: 5.85 m
width bet. handrails: 6.2 m (3.7m pedestrian zone, 2.5m cycle way)

all photographs courtesy of Ian Harding Photography
all renderings courtesy of Santiago Calatrava