Financial and commercial department of Voest Alpine Stahl GmbH, Linz, Austria

Heavily cantilevered steelworks headquarters completes in Linz
Offering 'intelligent steel solutions' to their customers, voestalpine chose a design for their new office in Linz, Austria that would act as a bold structure to lead by example. Penned by Feichtinger Architectes the new sales and financial center features a dramatic cantilever stretching out across a vast void, accompanied only by the existing 'Blue Tower' which together form the portal to the site of voestalpine.

The gently sloping underside of the cantilevered canopy guides staff and visitors into the building with the addition of LEDs to light the way. Glass and steel are predominant offering transparency and strength across the 23,160 sq m built up area.

Within, central community areas facilitating conference facilities, archives, coffee and chill-out areas and copy equipment open out to covered atriums which produce a vertical chimney ventilation effect. Privacy is offered to individual offices with frosted glass walls out to the circulation areas.

In addition, a spacious garden deck provides an outdoor area of green fields and paved areas. Interestingly the roof provides not only green planting but a conference area in addition to indoor meeting facilities on the 4th floor, accessible via lift.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Campus Biometropolis, Mexico City, Mexico

Foster + Partners reveal designs for major new health city masterplan
Foster + Partners has revealed its designs for a 71-hectare teaching and medical facility in Mexico City upon notice of their appointment to the project. Campus Biometropolis masterplan in the south of the city will integrate care facilities with high tech teaching spaces, research institutions and laboratories and feature a vital new nature reserve showcasing the Pedregal lava fields as a highlight of the design.

The wilderness area, together with enhanced landscaped zones, will account for half of the site and preserve Mexico City’s indigenous plants and animal species whilst creating an attractive landscape for the built areas. The campus will include offices, apartments, shops and amenities to create a sustainable, mixed-use community. The arrangement of buildings navigates a course around the Pedregal lava fields, a network of subterranean lava tube formations and caves, sections of which will be exposed to encourage scientific investigation.

The site is close to Mexico City’s southern medical cluster and the National University. The scheme integrates hotel facilities for visitors to the hospital and conference centre, facilities for bio-tech industries, clinical studies and a number of specialist units, planned to target six key areas of medicine: cancer, cardiovascular, infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals, nutrition and geriatrics.

The masterplan integrates public piazzas, pedestrian streets and cooling courtyards and the buildings will be oriented to capture cooling winds from the north. Given Mexico City’s water shortages, the campus is designed to maintain and augmenting the proportion of green space through which water can be absorbed naturally into the aquifer below. Rainwater will also be harvested from roofs, roads and available open space. The transportation strategy is designed to encourage the use of public transport. Solar-powered electric vehicles will move people around the campus, walking distances are short and a bus connection to the nearby university station will fully utilise the available capacity on a quieter section of the metro line. While parking spaces will be incorporated, they will be located below a raised podium level to create a pedestrian environment and maximise the available space for the nature reserve at ground level.

Nigel Dancey, a senior partner and design director at Foster + Partners, said: “Campus Biometropolis is our first masterplan in Mexico, building on our growing portfolio in Central and South America. It is the first of its kind – a unique opportunity to create a medical district of international importance. The masterplan will incorporate state-of-the-art facilities and buildings with a wide range of functions. The project will help safeguard the recharging of the aquifer supplying much of Mexico City and protect indigenous plant and animal species, as well as the important geological formations found on the site.”

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Richmond Gardens, Bournemouth, United Kingdom

Plans approved to revitalise English seaside city
CZWG’s plans for Richmond Gardens, a £50m mixed-use development in Bournemouth’s Town Centre, have received unanimous approval by councillors. Commissioned by Grosvenor and Tonstate Group, the design for a 172 bedroom hotel, 120 homes and 1,500 sq m of office space was praised earlier this year by the South West Design Review Panel for its 'verve' and 'élan' and will help revitalise a key part of Bournemouth’s Town Centre. The proposal will see the existing Richmond Hill multi-storey car park refurbished and surrounded by 5 new buildings.

On hearing the news that plans have been approved, Adam West, Partner at CZWG said: “Our scheme for Bournemouth will bring social and economic benefits and give this part of town a new identity. Homes and commercial activity will enliven the area and bring new residents into the neighbourhood.”

Ed Skeates, Projects Director at Grosvenor commented: “This is very good news for Grosvenor and our joint-venture partner Tonstate as well as for Bournemouth itself. We are delighted that the Council share our vision for something bold and expressive: this bodes well for the future of the town.”

The development takes advantage of extensive sea views whilst negotiating level changes across the site of over ten metres and maintaining the existing retail and parking accommodation. The new buildings have been inspired by Bournemouth’s rich Art Deco past but create their own distinctive identity. The sweeping forms mediate between the curves of the neighbouring crescent and surrounding buildings and the orthogonal bulk of the existing car park.

Spanning over the entrance to the car park and fire escapes from the retail, the hotel is supported on raking columns and is clad with pre-patinated copper. Two apartment buildings are linked via single aspect maisonettes either side of a podium garden and are clad with white brick.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Chicago Spire, Chicago, United States

Union boss steps in to save the floundering Calatrava project
North America's tallest tower was stopped dead in its foundations last year as the recession bells clanged and key players argued over alleged non-payment of millions of dollars in fees. But now the fate of Calatrava's Chicago Spire looks much brighter as union boss Tom Villanova, president of the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council (CBTC), has entered talks to loan $170million to the project's Irish developer, Shelbourne Development Group in a bid to create work for 1000 workers.

The Chicago Spire was set to become North America's tallest tower after commencing construction in 2007. Designed by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava the Spire was to reach 2,000 ft and open in 2011. Following the marketing launch it had sold 30% of all of the building's 1,200 apartments in the first three months. But the recession halted work on the project without ever leaving its foundations. The Fordham Company was the original developer and namesake for the project when it was in its previous, shorter incarnation as the Fordham Building. Following a relaxation of height restrictions in Chicago new designs were released increasing the building's height. The recession, however, took its toll on The Fordham Company which failed to produce sufficient funds and the project was subsequently taken over by Shelbourne who acquired the land. Just several months later, however, and Calatrava's office placed a security lien on the property having not received over $11million in fees and the project ground to a halt.

Advanced talks are now said to be underway and if Villanova's offer is accepted, the Chicago Spire will recommence construction as a full union project. A spokesperson for Shelbourne said: "The loan would mean 7.5 million man hours of union labor – which is important right now as there is high unemployment in the construction sector and this project would put people back to work."

Niki May Young
News Editor

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
architecture NOW

Snow Russia, Sochi, Russia

Alternative design proposal submitted for Winter Olympics complex
Asadov Architectural Studio, Project-KS and Grado Project Company have submitted an alternative design concept to the State Corporation, Olympstroy for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games sports complex in Sochi. The Snow Russia project was initiated by Andrew Asadov’s firm and attempts to unify the design of the complex as they feel that the ‘various buildings don’t have a common and unique face, the central Olympic square is built without a central architectural idea and the different sport structures have no general concept joining them as a single complex.’

Based upon the existing masterplan, the design team proposes that a ‘snowy whirlwind falling over the Olympic buildings in the form of frosty mist’ be created on the side of the load-bearing structures with decorative perforated panels constructed from aluminum or a composite material, such as Apolic. At night, LED lighting will generate accent lighting across the complex which can be harmonized to create a lighting show. The design team has also offered an alternative for the structure of the Olympic Cresset, joining two Olympic symbols - 5 rings and stars-snowflakes, the emblems of the Sochi Olympic Games.

Andrew Asadov remarked: “By excluding amendments to the structure of the masterplan and other structural concepts, we propose to consolidate them within one architectural and artistic 'super-idea'."

The proposal has been presented to Olympstroy but a decision has yet to be made about whether it will influence the design that is currently under construction.

Laura Paton
Editorial

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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