Architects Xavier Vilalta Studio have won the competition with the theme : tower for Doha, Qatar.  Called Alpha Project, the design is based on tha patterns of ancient Arabic tiles.

Here are a few images:

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Beach Footbridge in California design by Dan Brill Architects

UK Architecture Firm Dan Brill Architects are among 12 international practices shortlisted to design a pedestrian footbridge for Trestles Beach, a surf spot in southern California. The Safe Trestles design competition, organised byArchitecture for Humanity, sought designs that give provide surfers access to the beach from the road on the bluff above, carrying them safely across a railway line while protecting the fragile dunes.

info from Dan Brill Architects:

DAN BRILL ARCHITECTS SHORTLISTED AS ONLY UK PRACTICE IN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN COMPETITION

Winchester-based Dan Brill Architects are the only UK practice to have been shortlisted as one of 12 semi-finalists for the design of a pedestrian footbridge in southern California.

Hosted by Architecture for Humanity, the Safe Trestles international design competition received over 100 entries for the design of a safe and low-impact access route to Trestles Beach, home to one of North America’s most prized surfing spots and the 6.0 Lowers Pro surf event. Every year more than 100,000 people follow informal trails through marshlands and over active train tracks to access the beach, presenting a safety hazard with passing trains and a threat to the marine habitat that is home to a number of endangered animal species and important flora.

vote here

This week in Concept and Proposals, you’ll see a project made by Forrest Fulton. A building with mixed use, and a organic shape.

Probably you heard about the Forrest Fulton Architecture’s contest. Well, the Alabama-based firm designed a 900,000 sqf biomorphic spatial surface that connects the adjacent city and the landscape.  The architecture focuses on creating an urbanistic landscape that morphs the common urban element of Yerevan, the superblock, to the site, a truncated hill along the natural amphitheater of the Yerevan.  This new model of development supports a “holistic, ultra-green lifestyle” with overlapping natural and urban phenomenon.

Fincube | Studio Aisslinger

German Architecture Studio Aisslinger, comes with a new modular housing prototype, sustainable and transportable.  The low energy house, named ‘Fincube’,  is comprised of thin horizontal “ledges” of locally grown wood that wrap the slightly bulging form.

Fincube | Studio Aisslinger

You can only find this concept cool and interesting, although made out with simple lines and shapes.

What is actually an interesting touch is the  second facade layer, because it provides privacy for the inhabitants and fuses the man-made structure with its natural surroundings.   The home provides 47 sqm of living space with a minimal CO2 footprint,  and can also be easily dismantled and rebuilt on a different site.

The supporting structure is made of local larch and the interior is a combination of larch and stone-pine.  Organized in a helical structure, the entrance area blends into a generous open kitchen with an adjacent living space, and around the corner rests the bedroom.

So tell us your opinion about this house, do you find this sustainable?

watertower skyscrapper

Hugon Kowalski from H3AR proposal Watertower idea for the eVolo addresses the growing need for water in Darfur, not only as a means to sustain life, but also to end the raging wars in the region.  Many feel the problems of Darfur will end once a viable water source is found.  Some are hopeful that water may be found in the region, however, a vast underground lake that scientists hoped could end violence, was just ruled to have probably dried up thousands of years ago because the area received too little rain and had the wrong rock types for water storage.  Kowalski’s scheme takes the water crisis into account and has developed a tower to aid in the finding of underground water.

watertower skyscrapper

Kowalski’s tower  is meant to allow access to the underground water by the application of water pumps.  Inspired by water towers and also by the symbol of the African savanna – the baobab, the building houses water pumps, a treatment plant in addition to a hospital, school and a food storage center.  This building is meant to provoke economical development but also stimulate cultural exchange and the coexistence of the three different religions and languages.

watertower skyscrapper section

“This building is to be a focal point that will provoke the formation of a new village; a new world united by the life giving power of water,” explained Kowalski.

watertower skyscrapper interior

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Today in the Concept & Proposals, a new comer here at Archtopia.

Just a brilliant modern chair design from Baita Design of Brazil that leaves some of us wondering if the concept chair really holds true to its form. The non-conventional design of the Magno Chair features a magnetic base that allows the seat to float with a little movement for comfort thanks to a flexible connector. For more information on the Magno floating chair visit baitadesign.com

floating chair magno baita design

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This is a guest post from Delicious Storm, one of the masterminds at Allied Operations, and I’m certain you will love their work, we at Archtopia surely do.

Allied Operations, a group of design professionals based in New York, is selected as one of the Bathing Beauties.

Their beach hut model “Magic is in the Air” will be featured in Bathing Beauties’ exhibition at the Scarborough Art Gallery in the UK, 13 March – 20 Sept 2010

For more information about exhibition, check out Scarborough Art Gallery

Allied Operations - "Magic is in the Air"

Organization: Allied Operations
Design team: Sangmok Kim, Si-Yeon Min
Location: Lincolnshire coast, UK
Program: Beach Hut
Site area: scale less sqm
Building area: 110sqm
Total floor area: 110 sqm

Project description and concept:

‘Magic Is In the Air’

A beach is magic: water, waves, sand, grass, sun, and wind collectively conjure up an ethereal landscape, where  everything is in motion.

So – why should a beach hut alone stand still against all of this? Can it stop being a lonely, man-made artifice and become part of the magic movement of nature?

We propose a tumbling beach hut, shaped as a crooked conical hat. Its form derives from the magic hat of a wizard – a wizard of the old English myths.

With a single D20 stainless steel spiral pipe covered by high-performance PTFE textile (a lightweight fabric woven entirely from high-strength polytetrafluoroethylene fibers), it will constantly tumble while balancing itself against the wind. This is the moment when the hut begins to take on a magical life of its own.

It becomes nature.

During the off-season, the temporary nature of the fabric provides users with the flexibility to demount and leave the bare structure behind.

The spiral tumbles on, shifting its identity from private to public. It becomes nature again, open and free for all.

About Allied Operations

Allied Operations began with a few graduates from GSAPP (Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation).

We were hoping to design exercises to keep our brain stimulated after our day-job. Also we were hoping we wouldn’t be CAD monkeys once we were off the clock.

As you may know, most of the Nobel Prizes resulted from people dedicating their lives fully to what they loved, not simply because of some state-of-the-art laboratories.

In keeping with this spirit, we turned our homes into a forge for creativity.

A/O exists on the premise that compounding residual hours of operation in different time zones and extremely cohesive Internet communication is the best way for this design team to execute a project.

We love to say, “Quantity is failure of efficiency, and efficiency, the failure of capitalism.”

A/O operates between these two parameters. We are a humanist operation. As architects, we are brutal, crazy and unconventional.

We approach projects according to their own unique demands and not to some predetermined style requirement.

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

The russian team a. asadov architectural studio developed a complex grass hill for their proposal of the Taipei Pop Music Center. Various sections are based around craters and volcanoes. The center consists of 3 main sections an outdoor performance space, main hall and a green roof park. the hills are specially designed with sound protection for the surrounding areas.

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

images courtesy a. asadov architectural studio

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The latest proposal regardint the Taipei’s Performing Arts Center, comes from Kokkugia, a New York and London based architecture firm.  Kokkugia’s form, which is based on the location’s unique geography, is a compelling composition that attempts to create “a dynamic venue and a public space of spectacle.”   The slight slope of the site in emphasized in the form, as visitors enter from under the building.  The interior aims to create the best possible acoustics.  The roof is a network of semi-autonomous agents that reorganize to adjust so that the roof maintains some of its original geometry and other parts shift freely.

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House of Culture & Art

It’s been a while since we promoted some of the Zaha Hadid designs here on archtopia. The team of architects just keeps on providing great designs and fresh ideas all the time. Zaha Hadid Architects have unveiled recently their design for a new performing arts centre in Amman, the capital of Jordan. This concept is characteristic to the renown architect, keeping the lines that consacrated her. Although the outer skin of the building looks somewhat like a square, the inside actually draws the eye with some organic lines that amazes even the most courageous engineer.

House of Culture & Art | Outer Skin

The design of the King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art derives from the carved stone buildings and eroded rock formations at Petra in Jordan.

The following is a short press release from Zaha Hadid Architects followed by a design statement:

22 February, 2010 – At a ceremony in the Jordanian capital, His Excellency Omar Maani, the mayor of Amman, announced the new King Abdullah II House of Culture & Art by Zaha Hadid Architects – a performing arts and cultural centre that includes a 1600-seat concert theatre, 400-seat theatre, educational centre, rehearsal rooms, and galleries.

The architectural expression for the new performing arts centre has been inspired by the magnificent ancient city of Petra explains Zaha Hadid. “Petra is an astonishing example of the wonderful interplay between architecture and nature, as well as the intricate complexity and elegance of natural forms – the rose-colored mountain walls have been eroded, carved and polished to reveal the astonishing strata of sedimentation. We have applied these principles to articulate the public spaces within the centre, with eroded interior surfaces that extend into the public plaza in front of the building.”