Architecture & Web Art

Archive for the ‘Concept & Proposals’ Category

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

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Vertical Garden - Portland

Concept for a unusual facade.

If this looks like a vineyard to you, you’re probably overreacting. It’s actually a new energy efficient concept materialized in a vertical garden on the facade. It has been proposed for the western facade of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Oregon. The plan of the garden aims reducing energy consumption by 60%-65% as compared to other similar buildings. The flora will be such that they would bloom in spring and summer providing shade, while in winter they would wither to let the sun light in. The garden will make use of rain water and gray water recycled from the interior plumbing. Addition of solar panels will also be a part of the renovation for this building built in 1975.

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Beijing District

Today in the Utopia section of Archtopia, we’re going to talk a bit about a concept presented by SOM in Beijing. I’m sure you will find this appealing since the planet really need our care in the current situation, and this proposal shows consideration and pays attention to the nature needs, creating inhabiting green spaces.

Not so long ago SOM revealed the future plans for a new urban center in Beijing’s Dawangjing District that will feature an integrated heating and cooling solution designed to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. The new development will include a central park that utilizes a geothermal heat-exchange system to help passively heat and cool all of the district’s buildings, something like the roman heating system, I’d say.

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Qatar National Convention Center

When a lot of us think about convention centers, we think of big empty spaces that are certainly not exactly friendly to the surrounding. That’s not the case for the next generation of convention centers — case in point, the very cool looking Qatar National Convention Center designed by Yamasaki Architects.

Qatar National Convention Center more

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