Landmark Building of Szervita Square by Zaha Hadid

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“Our goal is to give the inner city an injection of contemporary elegance. A state of the art building with high quality work spaces would strengthen the multifunctional character and urban vitality of Budapest’s city centre. We perceive the need to balance divers’ requirements: Keeping the importance of the cultural heritage in mind the issue is to reconcile the functional, economic and historic preservation needs of the city centre.”

“We feel that aesthetic and atmospheric rejuvenation is always an essential part of preservation – preserving the vitality of a historic city centre. One can perceive distinguished architectural periods in the development of Budapest’s inner city fabric. Szervita Square itself is an interesting example with high quality architecture from different periods being gathered around the square. We have an important opportunity now to continue this series with another signifi cant piece of architecture that can represent the architectural thinking of our time.”

Architect: Zaha Hadid [ Via: HU ]

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e. kevin schopfer: NOAH (new orleans arcology habitat)

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the new orleans arcology habitat or 'NOAH' is a proposed urban arcology by architect e. kevin schopfer. in its built capacity the design will house 40,000 persons within a triangulated floating platform that includes: residential units, three hotels, three casinos, retail space, parking for 8,000 cars, cultural facilities, public works, a district school system and health care facility.

following text from e. kevin schopfer:

NOAH is a proposed urban arcology (architecture and ecology) whose philosophic underpinnings rest in combining large scale sustainability concentrated urban structures, and in this case, a floating city. NOAH is an ideal demonstration project for all the right reasons. new orleans is a city of both rich traditions and strategic importance. it is also a city with particular needs, both immediate and long term which must be addressed. these needs have been dramatized by the very nature of its location which has placed it in direct conflict with natural forces resulting in obvious impact. If global climate predictions are even remotely correct, new orleans is already that future scenario today. accordingly, new orleans has an unprecedented opportunity to set new creative standards which address both current issues and also offer distinct prototypical guidance to the future needs of coastal cities.

location/ site specific

in reviewing all the options and possible sites for NOAH, the most logical location is on the mississippi riverfront and adjacent to the central business district. the location specifically will occupy an undeveloped parking area with an extended connection to the audubon aquarium of the americas

On Gulls Wings

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As a bridge sits above a body of water, so too must it respect and fear such a dangerous yet life-giving mass. Moreno Ratti of Cactus Design understands this and presents thusly a bit of bridge architecture that’s as naturally integrated with the water as the birds that fly above it. This is the “Gulle,” a symbol meant to represent the seagull and harness its winged power to deal with the turbulence whipping against, around, below and on top of the bridge on a day-to-day basis.

Respect, understanding, and collaboration. That’s the name of the game when you’re talking about constructing bridges. Moreno Ratti shows here a splendid way of both keeping the bridge tight fitted to the surface and sparkling wonderful in our humble eyes. What a lovely place it would be to walk.

Designer: Moreno Ratti of Cactus Design

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New Taipei City Museum of Art

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The New Taipei City Museum of Art should propose a new paradigm for celebrating art in Taipei, one that brings lifestyle, art, recreation and education together to celebrate a vibrant cultural identity for the community. The existing park located at the meeting of the Yingge and Dahan rivers within which the Museum sits, is one that immediately reveals a dynamic juxtaposition between the constructed nature (the park environment) and the density and “urban” scale of the surrounding hillside context.

The NTCArt proposes a dramatic physical redesign into the Yingge park landscape in the form of a line. Not unlike the Spiral Jetty earthwork of Robert Smithson, or the meandering Wall installations of Andy Goldsworthy, this line defines a curving edge or a path at a scale that is not immediately viewable to the individual, yet acts as an ordering element in the landscape. The line emerges from the ground plane within the park at a continuous slope and follows a spiral path that terminates centrally within the site projecting itself skyward. Its monumental scale is born of the undulating contours of the park landscape and the spiral movement from park ascending into the site is a natural response to the twisting momentum of the two diverging river beds that define the park limits.

Contained within this spiral line, the museum’s programmatic spaces are loosely organized in an organic cascading composition rotating around the central void defined by the spiral. The typical galleries and program elements are conceived as individual 3-dimensional objects. Viewed in the round, these program boxes are given scale and identity, and yet they are clustered together to create a complex urban form recalling the dense composition of buildings that dot the surrounding hills and images of the famous cascading hill town of Jiufen.

Designer: Zerafa Architecture

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25 Amazing Skyscraper Concepts

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An architect maybe the drawer of dreams, but the art acts most slowly and surely on the soul. In what is described as the science of drawing and erecting buildings and other physical structure, it is the unwavering vision and imagination of the creators that adds the human feeling to mortar and steel. Presented here is a recap of the 25 most outstanding designs and concepts of the 2012 evolo Skyscraper Competition. Each one as breathtaking as the other!

1) Himalaya Water Tower by Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao & Dongbai Song