Student accommodation, Woolverhampton, United Kingdom

Woolverhampton student halls to be tallest modular build in Europe
Designed by O'Connell East Architects of Manchester, Woolverhampton's new student halls are comprised of 805 modules. Featuring a 24 storey block it will be Europe’s tallest modular building and will provide 657 student bedrooms plus 142 post-graduate student apartments.

The full build will take just 27 weeks to complete and is due for completion in time for the start of the September term. Jenny Hayes, architect at O’Connell East Architect’s comments: “Modular construction was identified early on as key to the successful and timely delivery of this scheme. As a ‘turn-key’ manufacturer, the VMS (contractors for the construction) system helps reduce the amount of time spent on-site thanks to rapid-assembly and a streamlined supply chain from the factory. Furthermore, deliveries could also be coordinated to arrive on side using ‘Just-in-Time’ logistics – also avoiding peak traffic times.”

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Taiwan University Cancer Center and Proton Center, Taipei, Taiwan

J.J.Pan and HKS to design Taiwan Cancer Center
The National Taiwan University have selected J.J. Pan and Partners in collaboration with HKS, Inc. to design the National Taiwan University Cancer Center and Proton Center.

The 1.3 million-sq ft, 500-bed cancer center includes proton therapy with four rotating beam rooms; radiation therapy including eight linear accelerators; chemotherapy with 150 positions; an outpatient clinic with 60 E/T rooms; surgery department with 10 operating rooms; and a prevention medicine and stem cell transplant center.

Chungwei Su, principal designer for J.J. Pan and Partners said, “The client requested a patient-focused hospital that is to become the destination for oncology services in the global Chinese community. HEARTS – hope, education, affection, research, technology and services – is the theme of the Yong Lin Healthcare Foundation, a major financial contributor and partner in the building program.”

Improving the facility’s ability to enhance healthcare delivery is at the core of the design. A curved, 48-bed unit shape maximizes staff efficiency by reducing patient transfer and staff travel distances as well as providing natural light into the waiting and staff areas through healing gardens strategically located externally and internally at each level. The incorporation of nature and light throughout the facility is an important, uplifting design consideration for cancer patients. Close proximity of covered parking below grade is also included.

Located on an urban site in Taipei, Taiwan, the center will deliver state-of-the-art cancer care and research, responding to the community’s need for quality healthcare. National Taiwan University’s School of Medicine, which includes an existing hospital, will be supplemented with the new comprehensive cancer center.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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China Life Insurance R&D Center, Peking, China

German firm celebrate Chinese victory
Top 100 architecture firm, Henn Architekten, have won the design competition for China Life Insurance R&D Center in Peking. The winning design blends tradition and the future - the proposal for the Center on the rural outskirts of Beijing takes up the parameters of Chinese traditional buildings and translates them into highly technologically developed, forward-looking design.

The complex for China’s biggest insurance company consists of a main building, a research and laboratory building and a training centre with a connected boarding house. Similar in shape to a Chinese character, the main building is laid out on a square plan arrangement and symbolises the strength of China Life Insurance. A peaceful garden opens up at its centre, which, as the core of the whole ensemble, serves as a place of communication and contemplation. Delicately detailed interior courtyards adopt the tradition of classical Chinese residential construction and open up the main building on all floors in the corner zones.

Vertical glass lamellae in the two projecting upper storeys lend the company head office a dynamic character. The jade-coloured solar protection glass lamellae are able to track the course of the sun, without obstructing the view of the surrounding area or into the internal courtyard. Red, illuminated, glass-clad lifts can be found on each side of the reception in the foyer of the main building. The whole development, ringed with areas of open water, is planned and based on resource conserving and sustainable parameters.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Consorcio Building Concepcion / Enrique Browne

Architects: Enrique Browne y Asociados Arquitectos
Location: Concepción, Chile
Associated Architect: Patricio Browne
Collaborators: Enrique C. Browne, Sebastián Morandé, Davor Pavlovic
Project year: 2003-2004
Site Area: 1,096 sqm
Constructed Area: 3,789 sqm
Structural Consultants: Ruiz y Saavedra Ingenieros
Contractor: Ignacio Hurtado y Cia.
Technical Inspection: Juan Eduardo Mujica
Photographs: Guy Wenborne

The rainy city of Concepción, is located in the mouth of the Bío-Bío River, 520 Km south of Santiago. It has aprox. 220.000 inhabitants, but its threshold spans reaches some 630.000 people. The highlights of its economy are the elaboration of steel and the wood industry, both on wide exporting booms. We were asked to design a branch of the ‘Consorcio Nacional de Seguros’, National Insurance Consortium, in a corner site, in front of the only historic and antique church in Concepción, whose façade had been unfortunately reconstructed after an earthquake. Furthermore, it had a front fenced square that impoverished its quality and public character.

A first version was carried out. It consisted in a triangular building with the vertical circulation organized in a glazed tower in the south. Because the triangular building spun the first two floors in a double height space, a square was created, which joined to the church’s square, creating an environment of urban interest. In turn, the double point of the corner cantilever emphasized the building presence from the busy San Martin Street. The building was clad in copper. The glazed sectors had a ‘double skin’ with climbing plants on the North and West sides. This solution was eliminated for being expensive.

A simpler and more rectangular proposal was developed. The building also withdraws on the west to visually enlarge the square, which passes by the street, joining the old church to the new building. A interesting public space would be added to Concepción.

The building is composed basically by three elements:

a) A free plant “volume” that looks to the East, North and West, protected from the sun by laminated wood sections that support a “double green skin” with mature climbing plants. The wood use alludes to the regional production;

b) A “plan-volume” vertical to the South that flies over the square. Improves the energetic conservation of the building. It is clad in undulated metal plates, a material very utilized in the South of Chile in an economic version. Reminds as well the production of regional steel. Its tall and large windows allow views towards the hills of Concepción, but block the sight of the haphazard roofs of the city and;

c) A great “horizontal” cantilever roof that serves as an end of the building and protects the large balcony of the upper floor from the western sun wich has the view to the Bío-Bío river. In turn, emphatizes the relation with the small squate. These three bodies give the impression of detachment between them and are supported over a glazing membrane in the first two access and customer service levels. More ever, the main entrance is on axis to the church, on the other side of the square.

source: www.archdaily.com
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City Tower, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Local architect pledges to stop the ‘joke’ of high-rise Rotterdam
World War II saw the destruction of many cities around Europe and not least hit was the city of Rotterdam. While devastating on a human and financial scale this allowed the city to evolve into what is now considered as the ‘high rise city of the Netherlands’. But local architect Jan Willem van Kuilenburg, principal of Monolab Architects has derided this label as ‘a joke’ calling for an extension to the local authorities’ planned high rise zone to the south and proposes Rotterdam's first super-tower, the 450 m high City Tower.

“Rotterdam is too hesitant, too defensive and too much like an underdog. After the Erasmus bridge we are in need of a real skyscraper of European scale of which Rotterdam can be proud,” says Kuilenburg, “All currently realised towers in Rotterdam are of mediocre quality and very primitive. As we should save in prosperous periods, it makes the current economic crisis the right time to invest.”

Kuilenburg proposes City Tower as the leader in this campaign. The 450 m mixed-use tower with a photovoltaic skin would be built in the water by the Maas Harbour. According to Kuilenburg it would allow the high-rise zone to serve the whole city and help to connect Europe’s largest port to the rest of the city. The tower would be connected to land via a steel pedestrian boulevard to a separate parking lot with the capacity for 1000 cars. Kuilenburg believes this element of the project could aid the local authorities’ plans to liberate the downtown area of traffic by creating a 6th park and ride zone with its close proximity to the Metro.

Asked about the likely response from the people of Rotterdam to what would be a very bold visual landmark, Kuilenburg said: “I don’t know. In general Rotterdam people are proud of the skyline, they are energetic and ready to go for new proposals. It has always been a scene for experiment. Rotterdam was bombed in the Second World War and so new buildings emerged, since then people are used to change.” Kuilenburg is currently in talks with developers and calling for international investment for the project.

Niki May Young
News Editor

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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