A 'U' Shaped 3-Storey Luxury Property in London, by Belsize Architects

An architect firm based in London, Belsize Architects completed the luxurious property situated along Sheldon Avenue, specifically within the Heath Fringes Conservation Area in Highgate, London.

The concept is a 3-storey 'cascading' atrium with a “U” shape, centered around a glazed. This allows ample daylight in the heart of the house. Belsize Architects designed a series of cells arranged around a chapter house: the cells provide accommodation for retreat, contemplation, rest and sleep within small but comfortable spaces. The large atrium space is the ‘chapter house’: its circulation areas are places of encounter, and its lower levels are for gathering, eating and socializing.

Helix Hotel, 5 Star Hotel to Rise in Abu Dhabi, UAE

The Helix is a 5 star luxury hotel that will rise in coming months in Zayed Bay in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Designed by American firm Leeser Architects, the Helix Hotel for its staggered floor plates, it rests in the bay, partially floating in the water.

The hotel features 208 guest rooms and suites arranged around a helical floor, the floor constantly shifts as it rises to the top floor. The hotel includes a glass-bottomed swimming pool on the roof, visible eight floors below, and a running track on the fifth floor. Guests can take advantage of the lounges, cafes, meeting rooms, indoor health spa, running track and indoor fountain.

The spiral body hides a careful study, who has a proud and block light, free from the cone of shadow pervading the corridors and in other hidden areas of traditional hotels. The space is expressed in a joyful but functional.

Mediterranean Luxury Cliffside Villa

This seven-level, 6,500-square-foot luxury cliffside villa is designed by architect Norman Foster, situated on a steep site overlooking the Mediterranean. In the living area, an 18-ton angled retractable glass wall and sun louvers “allow the inside and the outside to dissolve into one,” he says.

Dynamic steel arches that swoop over the pool terrace and down the hillside are gridded with the network of cables that “support sails for shade and privacy as well as encourage the growth of greenery,” Foster explains. “The materials, colors and detailing evoke a nautical feel.” Eventually, the house will be partially covered by vines, blending the structure into its rugged surroundings.

“The principal areas encompass five levels, with related living, dining and library spaces.” A glass elevator connects these levels to the bedrooms below and to the roof and pool terrace. The dining level is elevated above the living level and main terrace for clear, uninterrupted views out to sea,” notes Foster.

Cairo Expo City by Zaha Hadid

World's famous architect Zaha Hadid will be designing the Cairo Expo City together with multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold.

The project is located between the city center and the airport, which will provide a campus for exhibitions and conferences, making Cairo more competitive in a global scale.

The project includes 450,000sqm for exhibition and conferences, and also two office towers (31 and 33 stories each) and a shopping centre.

Carving and sculpting processes have been used to divide the very large exhibition and conference areas required for Cairo Expo City into clusters of individual buildings that have their own formal composition, yet each building relates to the overall design. A main north-south artery is carved through the design, with secondary streams converging at the centre to ease crowd traffic during event. The movement of people within these streams informs the building entrances on the site.

Source: archdaily

Sydney Opera House Luminous Festival

Music producer Brian Eno is illuminating the iconic Sydney Opera House as part of a sound and light festival in the city. The Opera House' white "Sails" has been transformed into a canvas for a kaleidoscopic array of images. There is also a soundtrack to accompany the light show.

Eno said the constantly evolving display of colour, shape and form - already shown in the US and countries across Europe - would help people to "surrender to another kind of world".

The festival was launched with the first display of 77 Million Paintings, which will be shown from 1700 local time each night during the festival.

The Opera House's Luminous festival features music and performances from around the world.

The light display will run every evening for the three weeks of the event until June 14, 2009.


Via: bbc/dailymail

Dubai Opera House Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

The Dubai Opera House is the first opera house and cultural center in the Middle East designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. This landmark development will accommodate an opera house, playhouse, arts gallery, performing arts school and themed hotel on an island in Dubai Creek just off the mainland part of the district.

The Dubai Opera House will have a seating capacity of 2,500 while the playhouse will have a seating capacity of 800. The arts gallery with 5000m2 of exhibition space is indeed a full size exhibition facility comparable to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The hotel will accommodate guests in a 6 star setting. Sited on an island in Dubai Creek, the development will be connected to Greater Dubai by a road connection to the mainland.

Due to world's economic crunch, this project is on hold

Via: e-architect

"Archipelago 21" - The $20 Billion New Riverfront Development District in Seoul, South Korea

Archipelago 21 is the winning piece of Studio Daniel Libeskind for International Master Plan Competition to Create 34 Million Square Foot, $20 Billion New Riverfront Development District in Seoul, South Korea. The new large-scale district features a cluster of residential, office and retail neighborhoods in an extensive urban park along the Han River.Slated to break ground in 2011 and to be completed by 2016, and to be develop by Yongsan Development Co., Ltd, a South Korean conglomerate.

The project proposal called archipelago 21 because each of the linked neighborhoods functions like “islands” within a sea of green park space, will contain a total of 34 million square feet of built area. The district will also contain new cultural institutions, educational facilities and rapid transportation systems.

“The idea is to create a 21st Century destination that is at once transformative, vibrant, sustainable and diverse,” Mr. Libeskind said. “I wanted to make each form, each place, each neighborhood as varied and distinctive as possible. The plan, and each building within it, should reflect the vertical and cultural complexity of the heart of Seoul.

via: bustler

Hong Kong Museum of Art Wrapped for Louis Vuitton by Richard Prince

Louis Vuitton unveiled the first-ever public art installations the Hong Kong Museum of Art by American artist Richard Prince in collaboration with Marc Jacobs. The Museum of Art has wrapped with enlarged replicas of pulp fiction novel covers.

The exhibition will include a number of different mediums on hand from paintings and photographs to video installations under the moniker of “Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation”. The exhibition includes works from Jeff Koons, Bertrand Lavier and Stephen Sprouse, all who have contributed work to the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création.

The opening set to take place on Friday, May 22nd wlll include the attendance of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chairman Bernard Arnault, Marc Jacobs, Prince, Takashi Murakami and Frank Gehry. The exhibition will wrap up on Sunday, August 9th.

Via: staranddramaslife

DRAGONFLY, A Metabolic Farm for Urban Agriculture New York Designed by Vincent Callebaut Architectures

The latest concept design from Vincent Callebaut Architects is the Dragonfly - A Metabolic Farm for Urban Agriculture designed with the intention of easing the ever-increasing need for ecological and environmental self-sufficiency in the urban cityscape.

The proposed development, designed around the Southern bank of Roosevelt Island in New York, follows a vertical farm design which, it is hoped, would cultivate food, agriculture, farming and renewable energy in an urban setting.

The unique 128 floor, 700m concept design is spread over two oblong towers and suggests building a prototype of an urban farm in which a mixed programme of housing, offices, laboratories and farming spaces are vertically laid out over several floors and cultivated by its inhabitants. .

The design is arranged around two 600m towers, symmetrically arranged around a huge climactic greenhouse that links them, and constructed of glass and steel. This greenhouse, which defines the shape of the design, supports the load of the building and is directly inspired by the structural exoskeleton of dragonfly wings. Two inhabited rings buttress around the ‘wings,’ and along the exterior of these are solar panels, which will provide up to half the buildings electricity, with the rest being supplied by three wind machines along the vertical axes of the building.

Via: vincent.callebaut /worldarchitecturenews

Selgas Cano Architecture Office in Madrid by Iwan Baan

Spanish architecture firm Selgas Cano recently unveiled their new spectacular office in Madrid, who are also winners of this month’s incomprehensible architects website award. Located within a forest, the tube-like structure is half-sunken into the ground, giving the illusion of complete isolation. The low impact on the surrounding area is wonderful, as is the huge continuous windows letting natural light flood in

A large window runs the entire length of the structure and forms part of the roof, ensuring workers a panoramic view of the surrounding woods. The office is entered via a partially-hidden stairwell and has retractible shutters at the end of the structure. Selgas Cano’s design is photographed by world-renowned dutch architecture photographer Iwan Baan.

Via: Arch Daily