Archive for the ‘Utopia’ Category
Studio Gang Architects – Aqua Tower
September 22nd, 2009 | 
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Project: Aqua Tower
Author: STUDIO GANG ARCHITECTS
Architect of Record: Loewenberg & Associates
Owner: Magellan Development
Program: Hotel and Residential High-rise with retail and commercial spaces
Size: 1.9 m SF including parking, 823 feet high
Completion: Summer 2009, currently under construction
In an increasingly dense city like Chicago, views from a new tower must be negotiated between existing buildings. Aqua tower considers criteria such as views, solar shading and function to derive a vertical system of contours that gives the structure its sculptural form. Its vertical topography is defined by its outdoor terraces that gradually change in plan over the length of the tower. These terraces offer a strong connection to the outdoors and allow inhabitants to occupy the building façade and city simultaneously. The result is a highly sculptural building when viewed obliquely that transforms into a slender rectangle from further away. Its powerful form suggests the limestone outcroppings and geologic forces that shaped the great lakes region.
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Bio-Fuel Growing Eco Pods Rejuvenate Stalled Boston Project
Halted in November 2008, mid-construction, the Filene development in downtown Boston is currently barely even a shell of a building. The bones of the building are up, but sub street level a giant hole leaves a gouge in the city’s plan. Undaunted, Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Squared Design teamed up to design a vertical tower of prefabricated “eco pods” filled with bio-fuel producing algae for the space. The new tower would act as a center to test new algae species and different growing methods.
Stalled projects are a blight on any city’s landscape, but several Boston architects are looking to turn those mid-construction eyesores into useful (and cool-lookin’) space. With the economy in the gutter, many developers’ plans were squashed, but rather than sit idly, the Boston Globe asked architects to take a look at the sites and envision completely new projects that use the existing structure to improve the city. Höweler + Yoon took a stab at the stalled Filene Development at Downtown Crossing and envisioned “Eco Pods,” a prefab, bio-fuel producing building that can adapt, change and grow over time.
Matsys Designs – Sietch Nevada – Urban Prototype
Designed by Matsys Designs, Sietch Nevada is a response to the idea of a water-poor world becoming a reality, especially in the American Southwest. With so much of the press focused on wars over oil, the world is often unaware of the slowly depleting water sources, which are indeed exponentially more valuable than oil. This futuristic urban prototype addresses the water situation as a complex underground network of tunnels and canals offers protection and the “storage, use, and collection of water essential to the form and performance of urban life.”
More about Sietch Nevada after the break.
The scheme makes the existing underground water banks in the area become more than just back up tanks for droughts. In fact, the Sietch Nevada turns these water banks into the building blocks of their new city idea. A dense underground community forms around canals which connect the city with vast aquifers, provide transportation, and agricultural irrigation. The cellular form of these caverns “constitute a new neighborhood typology that mediates between the subterranean urban network and the surface level activities of water harvesting, energy generation, and urban agriculture and aquaculture.”
Red Chairs : Lily Armchairs from Edra Furniture
Red chairs are great in how they splash color into a room and can make a bolder statement even in a conservative design. Pictured here is the “Lily Armchair” getting its name from its shape like a lily flower. The secret behind this product is an elaborate molded steel frame that provides the floral shape while providing enough strength to support the human body. I added one example in blue to show a different color. Find the product: here.
Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands – Jewish Community Center
Against tough competitors, such as Rafael Viñoly, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Foreign Office Architects, the competition to design the Jewish Community Center was awarded to Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. The 30,000 sqf JCC project will emphasize an arts and community center that aims to bring “light, life and activity back to the street.” Situated on a heavily trafficked road, the JCC will include a three story linear pavilion that will create a “landscaped piazza and relate to the Camden Arts Center’s gardens” opposite the site.
More about the JCC after the break.
The large central piazza functions as an external room that links the center’s activities with the happenings of the community. Passersby as well as members of the JCC are brought together in one space. Alex Lifschutz explained, “The piazza is designed to activate Finchley Road, functioning as an outdoor room – equipped to host events, markets, ice skating – for the JCC’s programme, as well as inviting in the wider community.”
