Invited International Competition First Prize | Batumi Aquarium | Batumi | Republic Of Georgia | Henning Larsen Architects

Batumi Aquarium is inspired by the characteristic pebbles of the Batumi beach – the residue of dynamic seas continually shaping the shorefront throughout millennia. The building will be situated in the port of Batumi and will stand out as an iconic rock formation – visible from both land and sea.

The formation constitutes four self-supporting exhibition areas where each of the four stones represents a unique marine biotype – the Mediterranean, the Black Sea/Red Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The four dispersed aquarium exhibitions are connected by a central, multipurpose space including café, auditorium and retail functions with views of the black sea and Batumi beach as scenic backdrop. Visitors gather in the central space to convene, play, eat, shop and relax before continuing their adventures through the exhibitions. .......more

Zero Energy Zoological Island | South Korea | JDSA

Our proposal for a Zero Energy Zoological Island in South Korea conflates strategies of infrastructural engineering with those of architectural design to more intelligently coordinate the shape of development with the desires for its use. Confronted with the task of developing the undeveloped, the question became how to limit development to an absolute minimum while maximizing its productivity and efficiency.........more

Interactive Youth Center | Attractor | Belgrade | exe architecture studio

The idea was to overcome some of the problems of the city of Belgrade by improving its cultural level. Here occurs necessity for connection between existing material structures and contemporary needs for public spaces usage. Intention was to create the valuable place for urban rest, communication and various activities. We chose downtown location, nearby Knez Mihajlova Street, the main urban pedestrian area. Desire was to create an urban magnet, the center of attraction in city networks-cultural center for public gatherings available to everybody. The Attractor has several aspects, which allows non-uniform utilization: functions inside-cultural activities and info point, public space-open amphitheatre, green area-urban oasis in city nucleus and part of the structure in a form of canopy, which protects the street and preserves its values.........more

The Library Of The Future | Stockholm City Library | Stockholm | Emergent

The Library of the Future will be defined by its ability to collect and organize information, but also by its ability to network disciplines and people in an urban setting. In this way, the new building design is a linking mechanism at the urban scale. It visually links to the existing building in terms of height and width, and materially via an underground passageway. The new building also connects to the steep hillside of Observatory Hill via a bridge-like construction. This connection allows library visitors to access the historical Stockholm Observatory directly. Between the new building and the hillside is a Garden Plaza which allows visitors space to relax and contemplate away from the busy street of Odengatan........more

Architectural Design Competition | Library Of Saint Malo | France | Serero Architects

Inspired by the landscape of Brittany very singular, our project is designed in the form of three rocks placed on a granite plaza. The great Bé, Mont Saint-Michel, large rocks that seem to spring from the sea, are geological anomalies beyond the simple marking of the identity of the region have made the most outstanding history and its cultural and historical heritage . Our project for the library and the cinema of Saint Malo to take back the figure of the rock into an original device Urban and catalyst activity. From the station to the city's first rock is the library, the next film and the latest entertainment center that opened wide on the spaces created with these elements..........more

Architectural Competition | Tower Of Taiwan | taichung | Taiwan | NL Architects

Tower of Change is the proposal for the Taiwan Tower in Taichung.
 Tower of Change is an attempt to break out of the usual confinements of architecture.
Tower of Change is a building that perpetually changes the height.
Tower of Change contracts and expands. It develops from a pagoda like figure in its most compact position to a slender elegant funnel when erect. Tower of Change is an animated building.Tower of Change  features a glamorous restaurant with a small publicly accessible satellite that can be propelled into the air, an observation space that can be jacked up to a height of over 300 metres.The observatory can be described as a rotating elevator without shaft..........more

Architectural Design Competition | Heung Yuen Wai Bound­ary Con­trol Point | Hong Kong | Edit

Heung Yuen Wai Bound­ary Con­trol Point can not con­sist of two sep­a­rate build­ings divided by the river and recon­nected by bridges. We pro­pose one object span­ning over the river as a sym­bol of the union of China and Hong Kong. A softly shaped object that con­trasts with the rigid struc­ture of the truck park­ing which sur­rounds it. The same soft form is also used for the plat­form accessed by cars and coaches. Together they work har­mo­niously as a whole and reflect the ubiq­ui­tous flow over the river........more

International Ideas Competition | Sardinia International Fair Cagliari | Italy | Balthazar Arozo

Once the role of the Fair is to promote the cultural richness of Sardinia, the shape of the piece has to be revealing of that. Therefore, we seek a common element that could show the richness and the specificity of the region. That is the field of Geology that gives the answers to the origins of this richness as well as the principles to the transmission of that cultural consciousness........more

Architectural Design Competition | Second Prize | Federal State Library Jalisco | Guadalajara | Mexico | Burckhardt Partner

The new library in Guadalajara is part of Cesar Pelli’s master plan for the expansion of the university on the northern edge of the city. The imposing, rectangular building encloses the northern edge of the square. A shift away from the square’s axis makes possible a precise connection over the Periferico Norte motorway to the existing university campus. The public square and the library act as the master plan’s anchor. This unity of edifice and square is carried over into the reddish brown tones of the cement that flows from the outer space into the building’s interior........more

Architectural Design Competiton | Bressanone | Italy | Bicuadro Architetti

The proposal for the new building is inspired by the typical architecture of the 'Alto Adige, will absorb the "genius of place" that permeates the local architecture in the form volumetric groundwater fully tilted, the references to the materials used in architectural and decorative quotes and at the same time, elaborates the concept of a library as a "house of books." Combining this inspiration with the intention to propose a simple intervention, measured, which has low impact on the city and is the subject not unrealistic and a waste of public money but rather an example of practicality, feasibility and viability, was reached the result of an 'architecture of the elementary shapes that blend with their surroundings and reinterpret shows in which conceptual operations are easily understood by working with low-tech energy solutions and responding to climate pulses traditional manner. The volume used for the provision of books is concentrated in a single volume-height which becomes the "heart" of the library. This book is built around the building which reproduces the form and you simply wrap closure and protection. The transparent shell undergoes two formal operations: in the first place is surrounded by an opaque shell that protects the collection of books from solar radiation and moderate the internal luminosity, then it is moved up to approach the Court and the palaces of the former barracks. The shell is suspended from the floor mat on the side of the courtyard facing the former barracks on Via Bruno to leave in view of the transparency of the interior of the library from one of the main entrances. On it are river pebbles embedded mixed-porthole skylights on the outer shell in order to give a reference to the technology typical of Bressanone and walls still visible on the outside wall of the courtyard on the face of Via Bruno...........more

Architectural Design Competition | Dun Laoghaire Library | Dun Laoghaire | Ireland | Arkitema Architects

Every page of a book tells a story. New realities arise out of the paper. As the starting-point of our design, we have chosen the principal content of a library: books and their many paper pages. We have concretised the idea of the book in the principal architectural motif, which rests like an elegantly curving page across Dun Laoghaire Library. On the upper side of the page lies a park area, while its underside functions as an organically-shaped roof construction which provides plenty of light from above and creates dynamic and dramatic spatial formations in the interior. Two corners of the ’page’ are lifted, revealing the entrance areas.
The page is not just a symbol of the building's content, but also functions as a green carpet: a gently undulating park, where people can relax on the grass amid peaceful verdant surroundings which contrast with the nearby urban context.
The ground floor is the library's most public area. Access to the library and cultural centre is via a ramp system from the three-storey-tall main entrance. Our project creates room for both physical relaxation in the park, concentrated study in the library, and vibrant debate in the cultural centre...........more

Architectural Design Competition | National Library of the Czech Republic | Architects Collective

The design for the new National Library of the Czech Republic is a symbolic building for Prague in a characteristic site of the city. The new library has two different figurative elements: both with individual functions. The L-shaped 4-storey office structure forms the backbone of the library, and the north-western property edge. The second element contrasts the regularity of the offices by forming a bird-shaped specimen for the National Archives of the Czech Republic. The storage rooms, reading rooms, restaurant and lecture halls are oriented in the direction of Letna Park and the Prague Castle. Both elements are located at traffic level so that the entrance hall serves as a direct connection to the urban environment. At the heart of the public library is the main reading room with a wave-shaped glass roof. A diagonal passage bridge begins at the northwest corner, and spans the main reading room before extending towards the southeast corner of Letna Park........more

International Architectural Competition | National Library of the Czech Republic | Olgga Architectes

National Library of the Czech Republic
Client : CITY OF PRAGUE
Area : 50 000 m² SHON
Budget : 65 000 000 €
Schedule : International competition / september 2006
Consultants : Olivier Laurent .........more

World Expo Shanghai 2010 | Pabellón de México | Serrano Monjaraz Arquitectos

The concept of flag based on the selection of major Mexican icons in a contemporary interpretation to generate a distinctive grid facades in combination with a significant presence of natural elements. The interaction between these two elements catch the eye of the visitor and invites him to discover inside. The vertical garden also has the function of absorbing sewage and external noise insulation becoming a filter that helps to purify indoor air..........more

Architectural Competition | Community Center | Innertkirchen | Gramazio Kohler

The new Innertkirchen community center presents itself as an incisive, crystalline volume that offers a contemporary interpretation on wooden shingle cladding. Thanks to its crystalline form, it is both apparent and well integrated into the landscape and existing place, marking the center of the town.

The two-story building is spatially organized around a central circulation core. The principal rooms, the info center and its foyer, the grocery store, and the multimedia room on the first floor, occupy the three corners of the building. The sloping roof of the crystalline form is spatially activated by precisely positioned sky lights that frame views of the three surrounding mountain peaks.......more

Foreign Trade Complex Convention Center | Istanbul |Turkey | Emre Arolat Architects

First phase of Technopark Complex buildings designed by EAA and located in Yenibosna where two main freeway of Istanbul are intersected, following the limited competition opened in 1997 for the whole campus, completed and opened for use in August 2000. In this 10 years time the environment where the building is placed, has witnessed serious transformation by the advantage of physical distance of Atatürk Airport and transportation facilities. Therefore Turkish Exporters Assembly has made some changes on the campus program that was determined before. So in the new project that will be composed, it is predicted to increase the possibility of exhibition and congress, to form new recreation who will serve the other complexes, eating – drinking places, enrich accommodation and office units existing in the program before, for all that instead of shopping center which is one of the important components form smaller and complementary commercial units. .........more

Architectural Competition | Rotterdam City Hall | Christian Müller Architects

SeARCH i.c.w. Christian Müller presents a fully energy neutral City Hall for Rotterdam. The design is a homage to the round shape that gives maximum shelter with a minimum of material usage, is efficient… and beautiful. One windmill on the Maasvlakte provides the last bit of electricity necessary for this ‘green heart of the city’. +++ Square, high and angular, synonyms for the city of Rotterdam. What remains is the fact that the special light, the grandness and the tough water add endless much to it. Just as in New York the whole is more than the pieces on its own. An intangible force, the repetition, the apparent insensibility that, on further consideration, hides the inevitable necessity, the total deficiency of ‘unnecessary’ aesthetics finally creates a rhythm for the citizen, a mystical experience that exceeds the perception of beauty. A feeling that other Dutch cities lack and that is what makes Rotterdam unique.......more

Calabar International Convention Center | Nigeria | Mecanoo

The cultural and geographical context of Calabar (Nigeria) offered a unique opportunity for design exploration. Mecanoo created a design for the Calabar International Convention Center in an invited competition with four other international architecture practices. Mecanoo’s sensitive approach to the project interweaving the contextualsocial, economic and geographical conditions. A key factor taken into account is Calabar’s limited infrastructure: the new convention center had to be flexible, adaptable and easy to maintain. The building has to offer efficient climate control in response to the hot and humid climate of the region.

Architectural Competition | Fish Market | Bergen | Norway | Atelier Oslo

Fish market in Bergen today consists of a number of temporary and mobile stalls. The municipality wanted to build a fishing hall with attached storage that can replace the temporary stalls, as well as a garage for the mobile stalls.

Intentions
Our proposal combines light, construction and historic traces in a simple and functional building. Support functions fryselagere and toilets form a massive volume of the street at the rear of the lot, a robust bymøbel for example bus stops, benches, bicycle, poster / information fit.

The roof structure collars from this massive volume. Fisk Hall is an open column free space, an uninterrupted continuation of kaiflaten with maximum visual contact with the pier.

One continuous floor where all functions are placed creates a functional operating conditions. More inputs and a column-free room open for many furniture options, and that the fish hall can be divided zones for different opening hours.....more

The Future Metropolis | A Tower of Nests | Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

Creating habitats for animals that have been driven out of their natural environments as a result of development. Creating vertical density within the city to reduce sprawl and commuting distances.

Mankind faces a challenge comparable in size with the industrial revolution to build a sustainable society. In order to succeed, we need to learn how to coexist with nature. We propose a building that aims to become a symbol; not of power nor wealth, but of a new era of harmony and interplay between nature and mankind.....more