Cool Modern Architecture

[amor de cosmos]

Gwanggyo Power Centre, Gwanggyo, Korea
Hill-shaped buildings to become centre of 'power' in mixed use new town
MVRDV's concept design for a dense city centre has been named winner of the developer’s competition for the future new town of Gwanggyo, located 35km south of the Korean capital Seoul. The Daewoo Consortium and the municipality of Gwanggyo agreed on the plan, consisting of a series of overgrown hill shaped buildings with great programmatic diversity, one of the envisioned two centre’s of the future new town.

Since the beginning of the millennium local nodes with a high density concentration of mixed program are used in Korean town planning. These nodes consist of a mix of public, retail, culture, housing, offices and leisure generating life in new metropolitan areas and encouraging further developments around them: the Power Centre strategy. The Gwanggyo Power Centre will consist of 200,000m2 housing, 48,000m2 offices, 200,000m2 mix of culture, retail, leisure and education and 200,000m2 parking.

This diverse program has different needs for phasing, positioning and size. To facilitate this all elements are designed as rings. By pushing these rings outwards, every part of the program receives a terrace for outdoor life. Plantations around the terraces with a floor to floor circulation system store water and irrigate the plants. The roofs of these hills and the terraces are planted with box hedges creating a strong, recognizable, cohesive park. This vertical park will improve the climate and ventilation, reduce energy and water usage. As a result a series of overgrown green ‘hills’ appear in the landscape.

The shifting of the floors causes as a counter effect hollow cores that form large atriums. They serve as lobbies for the housing and offices, plazas for the shopping center and halls for the museum and leisure functions. In each tower a number of voids connect to the atrium providing for light and ventilation and creating semi-public spaces. On the lower floors the atriums are connected through a series of public spaces on various levels linking the towers and serving the outdoor facilities of the culture, retail and leisure program. The Power Centre creates a dense urban program with a green regard.

The concept plan is currently at the Gyeonggi provincial authority’s Urban Innovation Corporation for further development and feasibility study, the entire new town will be a self sufficient city of 77,000 inhabitants. The estimated budget and timeframe are still in the process of being established, completion is envisioned for 2011.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=10827

[amor de cosmos]

20 Gresham Street, London, United Kingdom
KPF designed office completes in Gresham Street
Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed 20 Gresham Street has completed marking a close to the significant transformation of the West end of Gresham Street over the past few years.

Located diagonally opposite the City of London’s Guildhall entrance at the corner of Milk Street, the building reveals its true complexity when approached from the Bank of England at the Eastern end of Gresham Street. The Milk Street/Gresham Street corner is highly visible, due to the geography of the street and the placement of neighbouring buildings. It has a distinctive colouration and its form is curvilinear at roof level. The building marks this important corner by extending the roof form to the ground and gradually sets back over the full height of the curved facade.

The vertical roof facade extends along Gresham Street at ground and first floor level forming the entrance lobby facade. Two revolving doors are placed on the apex of the corner. They are designed to mark the transition from a bustling city street into a calm, ordered world by introducing a degree of solidity that frames the view into the entrance and reveals back painted burgundy coloured glass panels that are repeated on a journey through the building. Once inside, a double height cathedral like entrance space lined with a sculpted travertine wall and a monumental reception desk creates an environment that is more reminiscent of an art gallery than an office lobby.

From the entrance area, the vertical circulation elements; escalators to the first floor and the lift lobby, act to orientate and allow access to the dealer floors at first and second floor levels and the office floors above. Upon entering the first and second floors, the benefits of the external pre-cast composite columns that form part of the external elevation are evident. The 30,000 sq ft floor plates have only seven internal columns and 18m spans, this accentuates the sense of unimpeded space and allows for greater degrees of flexibility in the types of space generated as well as creating the potential for multi-tenancy occupation. The atrium is located behind the central core and extends from the third floor to the roof. Its balconies animate the space and the base can be occupied as office space.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=10824

[Atomic Glee]

Originally Posted by amor de cosmos

Wait, what? A building that actually looks like a building and not a grass-covered blob, titanium dodecahedron, or thinly-veiled 1970s tower-in-the-park throwback? A building that doesn't assault the eyes with pointless leans and swoops and spikes? A building that features a sane and pleasant fenestration pattern instead of randomly sized and placed inhuman slits for windows? A building that respects its context and fits in well with its urban setting? A building that fits in at all, rather than destroying the space by calling attention to itself? A building that's pedestrian friendly? What's that building doing in this thread? Surely there are sixty-million more concrete boxes and cantilevered soul crushers we could have instead!

That may be the first building in this thread to date that I don't find an abomination. Thank you for that.

[amor de cosmos]

Merricks Residence, Australia
New Australian house meets the weather conditions in style
The vision for this project is for the house to celebrate the coastal, rural setting of the property. The design takes advantage of some of the outstanding qualities of the property such as the long tree-lined shared approach road, the established backdrop of cypress trees and the gentle slope of the site, the view potential of the bay and the views of the rolling rural countryside to the north and west.

The design of the home is contemporary, with clean lines and generous, expansive windows. The rooms and spaces are generously sized and well proportioned. The design approach was to create a controlled, quiet and understated architectural composition and a home with an elegant and stylish ambiance. The planning of the spaces and rooms suits a comfortable, informal and easy lifestyle. The material selection for the rammed earth walls reflects the local earth palette and has a practical consideration in terms of its durability and maintenance. The setting of the new home upholds environmentally sensitive design strategies and responds to the climatic influences of sun, wind and weather patterns.

The feeling of spaciousness to all rooms is important; hence there are high ceilings throughout with a greater emphasis on the main rooms. All rooms enjoy good outlook and an abundance of natural light whilst also being sensitive to the high-glare nature of the Australian light and are hence protected by light filtering screens along the south western facade. The main living space is an open plan combined living, dining and kitchen area. This space has good presentation to the main land/water views and strong visual, direct links to the outdoor spaces.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=10837

[RLS_rls]

Yeah that KPF building is stunning, especially for KPF. It doesn't have that castley/art-deco throwback that they used to be so fond of. Very nice!

[TANGELD_SLC]

WOW those Korean Mound buildings are AMAZING!
They are an entirely new category of progressive style, IMO.

I'm also very impressed with the Granada building, it reminds me of the Utah Natural History Museum that's about to be built on a Salt Lake City mountainside.

[amor de cosmos]

Ballandean House / Arkhefield
Architects: Arkhefield
Location: Ballandean, Queensland, Australia
Project Team: Andrew Gutteridge, John Croser, Steffen Tuck, Justin Boland
Project Year: 2006
Photographer: Scott Burrows, Aperture Architectural Photography
http://www.archdaily.com/8090/ballan...se-arkhefield/

[muppet]

guys Im not particularly impressed by villas for the uber rich with obsessive compulsive disorders. It seems anything boxy and glassy is the statement-du-jour of those mistaking minimalism with functionalism, and still doing the less-is-more. If anyones ever tried living in a minimalist environment you'll know it just doesnt WORK, it doesn't function. Lovely to look at, but unliveable. After about day 3 it just looks like a messy council flat with bare walls

TRying to put in anything that isnt out of a courbousien catalogue just completely makes the space look cheap, and jars - stuff like a kids room, posters, Xmas trees, antiques, paperwork, household utensils, food, shopping bags, cables, shoes, books, plug extensions, clothes stands, toys, washing machines, hoovers, tvs, microwaves, family portraits, cups, bikes, ornaments, grannies, anything you bought while travelling - stuff that is the detritus of daily life or signs of reality (or a soul) must at all times be stored away (read: hidden) with immediate effect.


Lovely as a spa, unreasonable and demanding as an abode. This house contains 16 objects as far as I can see. IMO after the novelty wears off, you'd get very bored, like a lovely suburban home in a dead neighbourhood, where all you can do is stare out of the window or watch tv, and start to feel empty:



Unlike this one. All of it would have to go:

[mhays]

Excellent point muppet.

I'm also mystified about the windows in so many modern houses. Why live life on exhibit to every passer by? How creepy and constraining that would be for a normal person, who would immediately cover everything with blinds.

Third, this house has far too much sunlight. If I visited, I'd end up huddled behind a shady column.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by muppet

guys Im not particularly impressed by villas for the uber rich with obsessive compulsive disorders. It seems anything boxy and glassy is the statement-du-jour of those mistaking minimalism with functionalism, and still doing the less-is-more. If anyones ever tried living in a minimalist environment you'll know it just doesnt WORK, it doesn't function. Lovely to look at, but unliveable. After about day 3 it just looks like a messy council flat with bare walls

haha... you've never met me. maybe i have the OCD, but i can't handle too much stuff all around. i need everything to be consolidated as possible... too much visual noise freaks me out. my ideal house would be a single room, white walls, and concrete floors... no color to oppress me.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by amor de cosmos

Gardens NEVER turn out like that!

Also, it looks like an outdoor mall. The Kanyon mall in Istanbul.

[Jibba]

^True. I do enjoy the contour-line massing, though--really emphasizes the synthesis of geometry and topography.

[amor de cosmos]

It's the building for a local savings bank, but the floorplan looks like a chromosome, which doesn't make sense to me. It still looks cool though:

Vital Building / Mozas Aguirre arquitectos
Architects: Mozas Aguirre arquitectos - Javier Mozas & Eduardo Aguirre
Location: Madrid, Spain
Project year: 2005
Construction year: 2007
Client: Local Savings Bank: Caja Vital Kutxa Headquarters
Structural Engineer: NB 35, Madrid
Artists: Javier Perez: two walls and ceiling of the main hall / Miguel Gonzalez de San Román: paintings on the basement
Site Area: 11,042 sqm
Constructed Area: 16,578 sqm
Photographs: Cesar San Millan
http://www.archdaily.com/9885/vital-...e-arquitectos/

[delts145]

Salt Lake City Resort - Progressively Green Design - Going Platinum


Salt Lake City's Park City Resort - Swaner EcoCenter and Preserve

jetsongreen.com

EcoCenter a feat of environmental ingenuity -


http://www.parkrecord.com/todaysheadlines/ci_11149239

Views from the new tower at the soon-to-be-unveiled Swaner EcoCenter dumbfound even nature preserve officials...


Architect Soren Simonsen explains how the new Swaner EcoCenter at Kimball Junction fits with the environment. Photo by David Ryder

...The Swaner EcoCenter, which consists of roughly 1,200 acres that saddle Interstate 80, will unveil its new learning facility Sunday near the northwestern edge of the preserve. The 10,000-square-foot building, with its interactive exhibits, is certified platinum, the highest ranking from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a group which ranks buildings based on their green architectural features.


http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/10/swaner-ecocente.html


.

[brickell]

Originally Posted by mhays

Excellent point muppet.

Yes, I'm glad somebody smarter than me made that point. I enjoy minimalism as an aesthetic in some cases, but can't live with it.

As someone who lives with a neat freak, invariably the first thing that comes to mind in a lot of these modernist buildings is "how do they clean those windows". But that applies to everything else as well. Most of these seem incredibly expensive, if not completely impossible to maintain.

[Lecom]

Originally Posted by mhays

I'm also mystified about the windows in so many modern houses. Why live life on exhibit to every passer by? How creepy and constraining that would be for a normal person, who would immediately cover everything with blinds.

Because Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe said so, and the Fathers of Modernism must not be questioned!!!!!111one111!!11

[amor de cosmos]

Giant Campus, Shanghai, China
Morphosis makes ‘Giant’ Chinese debut
Los Angeles-based Morphosis, led by Thom Mayne, is designing its first project in China - a Campus for Giant Group Pharmaceutical. To be located outside Shanghai, the 258,000 sq ft project accommodates a corporate headquarters in a sinuous form with a dramatic cantilever that spans a four-lane highway.

The futuristic design, which resembles a dinosaur ready to take flight, seamlessly integrates architecture with landscape and water. The building accommodates executive offices in the creature’s head while the body houses the remaining program elements including additional offices, a boutique hotel, exhibition hall, auditorium, library, gymnasium and swimming pool. Outdoor plazas provide a variety of recreational spaces for employees. The main circulation spine, an enclosed walkway located outboard at the second level, bridges the street to connect the office building with the clubhouse.

Like other Morphosis projects, the building incorporates many sustainable features including a green roof, a glass curtain wall with sun-shading capabilities and a system of skylights for natural lighting.

Completion is anticipated in 2009.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=10846

[amor de cosmos]

Soaring Wings, Austin, TX, United States
Sculptural masterpiece in the Texas Hill Country
Soaring Wings was a four year quasi-quixotic effort of Austin, Texas architect, sculptor and musician Winn Wittman. Wittman built the house without clients, believing if he built it, they would come. Come they did, from all parts of Texas and around the world to see this sculptural work of art that harmonizes effortlessly with the rugged Texas Hill Country. The architect has gotten inquiries from students from as far away as Pasadena, and Ber-Zeit University in the West Bank. When the owners first walked into the house, they felt as if they were entering a spiritual place, and sensed that Wittman had poured his soul into the project. “It was just so perfect and so correct”, said owner Contessa McPike.

The home is separated into a public volume, containing the living, eating and entertaining spaces, and a private volume, containing the bedrooms, separated by a two-storey glass and steel bridge. Two large wings face the west façade, clad in copper, which provide both sculptural expression, and shading. Motorized mesh shades programmed to an astronomical clock raise and lower with the sun. The home is highly energy efficient, despite the many windows, and features a provision for rainwater collection. There is a three-storey elevator which makes the entire house accessible.

The courtyard, carved from the hillside in back, contains a salt-water pool, and Zen-like rock garden, and is, in many ways, as intriguing as the expressive front of the house. The owners believe the home is a complex, rich, and ultimately satisfying framework for their life. Wittman, who Spaces Magazine called “America’s most rock ‘n roll architect,” sees Soaring Wings as a glimpse of the world as it might be.

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=10840

[honte]

Gotta love Morphosis... they win the award for graphics that tell you absolutely nothing about what the finished product will be.

[amor de cosmos]

Barcelona Biomedical Research Park / Manel Brullet & Albert de Pineda
Architects: Manel Brullet & Albert de Pineda
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Project year: 2006
Client: Grup Agrupació Mutua, Ajuntament de Barcelona y el Consorci (Zona Franca de Barcelona)
Structural Engineer: Manuel Arguijo, Arq.
Artists: $42,35M Euro (US $54M)
Constructed Area: 55,000 sqm
http://www.archdaily.com/9912/barcel...ert-de-pineda/