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Landmark Building of Szervita Square by Zaha Hadid


“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)



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


why a floating city?
there are three major challenges which must be overcome to be of significant advantage to new orleans. the first challenge is to overcome both the physical and psychological damages of recurring severe weather patterns. though repopulation has begun, the need to provide a stabilized and safe environment is paramount to a long term recovery and economic well being of new orleans. the second challenge is that new orleans has too much water. the city has been built at and below sea levels which creates consistently high water table and makes it prone to flooding and storm surges. the third challenge is that new orleans is built on soil condition which consists of thousands of feet of soft soil, silt and clay. these conditions make building large scale concentrated structures difficult. believing that NOAH is a viable plan, our solution to overcome these challenges is to take advantage of these seemingly conflicting issues with the introduction of a floating urban platform.

note: this proposal in no way suggests that ongoing water retention measures should be abandoned. rather, a floating urban platform should be viewed as a complimentary venture.



design brief / exterior
the triangle is inherently the most rigid of all structural framing systems. the system is designed to dissipate gravity and severe wind loads through an all-steel applied (eko skeleton) exterior frame and conventional internal framing methodology. second, the triangle is an 'open' frame configuration, dividing NOAH into three separate 'towers' converging at the top. the intent of this open system is to allow all severe weather /winds to in effect 'blow through' the structure in any direction with the minimum of massing interference. to further dissipate wind loads, the outer edges are curved and tilted. the 'tower' surfaces, both flat and curved, would be outfitted with secured sliding hurricane panels forming a uniform exterior protective barrier skin.

sustainability / ecology
NOAH is designed to expand the horizon of sustainability and will seek LEED certification. NOAH will eliminate the need for cars within the urban structure, and thus becomes a carbon neutral entity. internal electric transport links, vertical and horizontal, create a pedestrian-friendly community. a wide range of passive and active provisions will be employed throughout the structure. some of these elements are secured wind turbines, fresh water recovery and storage systems, passive glazing system, sky garden heating/cooling vents, grey water treatment, solar array banding panels, and river based water turbines.






conclusion
this is an exploration proposal which suggests a new urban design formula for new orleans. the scale, economic program, and structural formation of NOAH are all viable in today’s growth projection and technologies. there are obvious political and economic considerations which would adjust the current bounds of this proposal. this is a project of tremendous potential which pushes beyond current expectations for new orleans and places it in the forefront of the new age of urban growth possibilities.

project credits
design / concept: e. kevin schopfer AIA, RIBA
executive architect: ahearn / schopfer associates, Boston, MA
cambridge seven sssociates, inc. cambridge, MA
associate architect: raymond c. bergeron, NCARB, New Orleans, LA
visual: tangram 3DS, kittery, ME
structural / mechanical: arup, boston, london
foundation Consultants: acergy, new orleans, LA

you can read more details on the project here

On Gulls Wings


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


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.















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25 Amazing Skyscraper Concepts


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


2) Mountain Band-Aid by Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia & Zihan Wang


3) Vertical Landfill by Lin Yu-Ta


4) Citadel Skyscraper by Victor Kopieikin & Pavlo Zabotin


5) Occupy Skyscraper by Ying Xiao & Shengchen Yang


6) Folded City by Adrien Piebourg & Bastien Papetti


7) Migrant Skyscraper by Damian Przybyła & Rafał Przybyła


8 ) House of Babel by MADETOGETHER – Nikita Asadov


9) Plastic Fish Tower by Kim Hongseop, Cho Hyunbeom, Yoon Sunhee & Yoon Hyungsoo



10) Tower of Babel by Maciej Nisztuk


11) Mountain City by Charly Duchosal


12) Coal Power Plant Mutation by Chipara Radu Bogdan


13) District 3 – Skyscraper of Liberation by Xiaoliang Lu & Yikai Lin


14) Bridge of Hope Skyscraper by Mohammed Adib, Ivan Arellano, Jordi Cunill, Maria Teresa Farre, Christian Koester & Davide Roncato


15) Vertical Ground by George Kontalonis, Jared Ramsdell, Nassim Es-Haghi & Rana Zureikat


16) Airport Skyscraper by ZhiYong Hong & XueTing Zhang


17) Aakash by Lemire Abdul Halim Chehab, Suraj Ramkumar Suthar & Swapnil Sanjay Gawande


18 ) Cliff Dwellings by PLUG: Román J. Cordero Tovar, Eric Israel Dorantes, Daniel Justino Rodríguez & Izbeth K. Mendoza Fragoso


19) Human Rights Skyscraper in Beijing by Ren Tianhang, Luo Jing & Kang Jun


20) Noah’s Ark: Sustainable City by Aleksandar Joksimovic & Jelena Nikolic


21) Tundra City by Pavel Sipkin


22) GreenGru Airportscraper by Gerasimos Pavlidis


23) Oceanscraper by Hui Chen & Luying Guo


24) Tehran Tower by Mahdi Kamboozia, Alireza Esfandiari, Nima Dehghani & Mohammad Ashkbar Sefat


25) Floaring City by Wei Zhao



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