River Hull Footbridge, Hull, United Kingdom

McDowell+Benedetti is winner of international competition for new opening bridge in Hull
McDowell+Benedetti have won the international competition for a new opening bridge in Hull, UK, which uniquely allows people to stay on while it moves. The landmark form creates a focus for regeneration on both banks of the River Hull, including a series of new public spaces and a cafe within the bridge. The project will be completed with Alan Baxter & Assoc., Qualter Hall, Whitelaw Turkington and RKL.

The rotating ramped bridge creates a large new public urban space and multi-use internal space to enjoy the riverscape. The slowly revolving geometry allows people the unique experience of walking onto and riding the bridge while it moves.

A zoomorphic shape covered in re-cycled rubber provides full surface safe access for walking, sitting and riding. New public spaces animate each bank and integrate the new route with the historic City centre and the new mixed-use development

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Taipei Performing Arts Center, Taipei, Taiwan

First prize in design competition awarded to International design firm
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has been awarded the first prize in the design competition to build the Taipei Performing Arts Centre. The design was selected from over 135 entries from 24 countries by an international jury.

The scheme includes a 1,500 seat theatre and two 800 seat theatres which plug into a central cube, clad in corrugated glass, that combines the stage accommodations of the three theatres in a single whole. Each theatre can be used independently or in combination with the other theatres. Connecting the different theatres offers new and experimental theatrical possibilities. A public trajectory inside the cube exposes parts of the backstage areas otherwise hidden in typical theatres. The cube is placed on a pedestal preserving the existing lively local food market.

OMA will collaborate with local architect Artech Inc. to build the 40,000 sq m theatre complex. The stage design is being developed with Ducks Sceno and the engineering is being provided by Arup. The centre is scheduled to be completed in 2013 with a budget of 3.8 billion Taiwan dollars (90 million Euro). The Taipei city council expects the centre to further facilitate the development of local performing groups and add to Taipei's image as an international cultural hub.

The project is led by OMA partners Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren. The competition team included associate André Schmidt and architects Adam Frampton and Mariano Sagasta, amongst many others. Koolhaas’s and Scheeren’s previous collaborations include the CCTV Headquarters and TVCC Cultural Centre in Beijing, as well as Prada Epicentre Stores in New York and Los Angeles.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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MIPIM AR Future Project Awards

MIPIM and the Architectural Record announce their leading list of forward-thinking projects
The winners of the 2009 MIPIM AR Future Project Awards have been announced. Running since 2002, the MIPIM AR Future Project Awards recognise design excellence in unbuilt or incomplete projects spanning 8 categories. With a strong focus on creativity, these awards are a chance to showcase schemes that are examples of fine architecture which have also responded to the clients development brief, and considered the way in which they will impact and contribute to the community around them.

All projects submitted will be showcased this year at the Cannes MIPIM conference between 10-13 March. An international jury headed by the Architectural Record's Editor, Paul Finch, decided upon the following winners:

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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United Real Estate Company Residential Complex, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

KEO provides an elegant design for URC's residential complex on Palm Jebel Ali
The design solution led by Senior Principal Designer Raj Patel carves a void out of the podium’s center to create a ceremonial entrance court. A landscaped boulevard from the main road leads to the center of this entrance court providing a directional gesture to the beach beyond and ceremonial entries into the twin residential tower lobbies.

The podium roof level provides access to the amenities garden level. A floating horizontal plane spans between the two podiums supporting an infinity edge swimming pool and a fitness center hovering above it. 25 residential floors comprising of a mixture of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartment units, townhouse garden units, and deluxe penthouse units sit above the podium. A roof terrace level is shaded with a canopy structure which houses photovoltaic panels to generate energy for the building.

The material of the podium structure comprises of a combination of grey Glass Reinforced Concrete panels, clear low-E vision glass, and back-lit shadow box spandrels. The tower consists of beige Glass Reinforced Concrete panels and low-E vision glass. The western façade has bronze clad vertical fins which disguise the balconies on every floor, provide privacy to adjacent balconies, and offer shading to the glass façade during the late afternoon hours. The visual play of the geometric design of these materials on the façade creates a distinguishable and dynamic image to the project.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Miyi Tower, Miyi County, China

Photovoltaic tower enlightens residents in the Sichuan Province
Through an RFQ (request for qualification) process, the New South Town of Miyi County in the Sichuan Province of China selected the Los Angeles-based team of Studio SHIFT and SWA Group to create a master plan for the developing area. As part of the new plan, Studio SHIFT has designed a tower containing various programs aimed at promoting the region’s heritage and natural amenities. The tower sits at the edge of the Anning River and will mark the transition between the new development to the north and the new wetlands, leisure and agricultural districts to the south.

The Miyi Tower rises from the southern end of a kilometer long promenade that stretches from a high density residential and cultural hub devoted to regional arts. The promenade itself consists of a series of parks and public spaces, featuring sustainable technology such as photovoltaic fields and wind turbines, designed by SWA Group to highlight accessibility to the river. It then tapers between rising paths which form an amphitheatre at the tower’s base. The paths converge and then continue as a bridge across the river and as an overlook affording views of reclaimed wetlands and the lake beyond. Just as Miyi had recently built a hydroelectric plant and dam to harness the natural energy producing potential of the area, the designers were intent on utilizing natural means of filtration to produce clean water. This new amenity takes the form of a series of lakes, wetlands and waterways which lend form to the new districts in the master plan.

The tower itself, which is to act as a major landmark per the Miyi government’s request, is designed as an educational building for residents and the multitude of tourists that visit every year. Because the town is known for its abundance of sunshine and temperate climate, only half of the building’s program elements are enclosed. These double height spaces alternate with unenclosed areas and rise around a vertical core, their alignment shifting toward different views at every floor. An auditorium, exhibition spaces and restaurants featuring local cuisine can be found on the interior while open-air floors are used as event spaces, gardens and an observation deck. The pairs of lower and upper enclosed spaces are joined by structures which act as light monitors. These light monitors, of which there is a third at the highest level, are aligned to take advantage of different lighting conditions throughout the day.

The tower is sheathed in a very porous yet continuous skin that gives the various programs their unified form. As porous building skins are often treated as opaque modules with subtracted holes (i.e. perforated skins) Studio SHIFT deliberately created the inverse. On the Miyi Tower, rather than defaulting to a technique of perforation, they created a pattern of objects in space mounted to a light frame. This inversion allows the skin to take on a rather ethereal effect and evokes the shimmering surface of the river below. More important however, the appropriate panels can also now be lined with photovoltaic cells. With an energy producing tower and the ecologically beneficial features of the promenade below, Miyi County is poised to become the region’s leader in sustainability.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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