The Emerald Plaza Abu Dhabi UEA by Emergent Architecture

The Emerald Plaza, A contemporary “square” linking buildings and people in extreme hot climates in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates designed by Emergent Architecture. The project is based on creating continuity between three elements which were outlined in the design brief: a garden, central sculptural volume and network of canopies. the landscaped garden roof, acts as a canopy, offering shade to the walkways below, but also connects surrounding buildings with one another. pools inside give the feeling of a grotto and also have a cooling effect, providing a getaway from the hot environment.

Emergent Architecture’s Emerald Plaza design aims to create continuity between the three key elements specified in the brief: a garden, a central sculptural volume, and a network of canopies. At the macro scale, the project is a linking element between three high-rise buildings design by others.

Inspired by the souks of Northern Africa as a model for creating interiority and passive cooling as an alternative to open, western public spaces, the canopies merge into a landscaped roof which provides shade for walkways below. This roof also connects the perimeter high-rise buildings together, creating a bi-level entryway into each. In an environment where people often avoid the outdoors during daytime hours, this project offers a spatial and atmospheric solution; pools in the plaza underneath the roof have a cooling effect, both evaporative and psychological. During the day, when temperatures can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, this involuted, grotto-like space becomes an inviting sanctuary.

Emergent’s investigation into surface-to-strand geometries lead to the conclusion that hybrid, transformative geometries offer a wider range of flexibility than surface, strand, or volume systems alone. Following this principle the surface of the roof transforms into a volume at the center of the plaza. The resulting space becomes a conference and media center, available to all three buildings.

Architect: HHF Architects + Ai Weiwei
Location: Ancram, New York
Function: weekend house
Area: 400m2
Material: wood construction
Construction: 2006 - 2008
Design team: Herlach Hartmann Frommenwiler & Ai Weiwei with Bhavana Hameed, Tom Strub, Fumiko Takahama, Magnus Zwyssig
Structural engineering: Crawford & Associates, Hudson, NY
Construction management: Crawford & Associates, Hudson, NY
General Contractor: Robert Reed Construction, Germantown, NY
Photos: Iwan Baan and Nikolas Koenig
Livable area: 375m² / 4000sqft
Architect Homepage: www.hhf.ch

Tsai Residence is a countryhouse designed for two young art collectors. The design reflects their request for simple abstract looking piece, sitting almost without scale on top of the vaste property, which is located two hours upstate from New York City.

The four equal sized boxes are built as simple wood construction covered with corrugated metal panels on the outside and wood and gypsum panels on the inside. The floor plan is based on the needs of a traditional countryhouse. Only partially the organization of the rooms is a direct consequence of the rigid outer form.

The Living Room focuses on the different light conditions needed for an existing and future art collection, while the great view into the nearby countryside is present without being dominant. The sequence of the different rooms reflects the idea of a private gallery. Natural light is coming into the spaces through the openings in between the outer boxes.

HHF architects
St. Johanns - Vorstadt 17
4056 Basel
Switzerland
Tel + 41 61 263 80 80
Fax + 41 61 263 80 90
info@hhf.ch / www.hhf.ch

The largest book ever

The world's largest book at fourteen feet high is to be published to celebrate the various facets of developing Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower), the world’s tallest building, and will feature exclusive content and never before seen photography. 

The Burj Dubai Opus will feature a one-off book fourteen feet high (shown here is an artist’s impression) and limited collection of different formats including specialised versions and collector’s editions. It will be published when the building is completed late this year.

e2 energy — Coal & Nuclear: Problem or Solution? excerpt


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Zoo's dome from home
Nicola Dowling
27/ 1/2009
From Manchester Evening News

AN African rainforest teeming with exotic animals and birds is heading to Chester Zoo.

The £225m project will create a massive domed tropical eco-system - called Heart of Africa - over 138 acres.

Residents will include gorillas, chimpanzees and the rare giraffe-like okapi. Birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes and invertebrates will move freely among lush vegetation.

Zoo bosses say the development, due for completion in 2018, would allow visitors to explore the jungle canopy on a massive interactive water ride.

Conservation

As well as benefiting the animals, the dome aims to make the already-popular zoo an all-year-round attraction.

Zoo boss Prof Gordon McGregor Reid said: "As well as the overall impact on conservation worldwide, here in the north west there will be a major increase in job creation and security and a positive impact on the regional economy.

"Our visitors will be immersed in the world of wildlife where we will engage, inform educate and amaze them in a truly thrilling and unique environment.

"New and exciting animal species will be introduced. This project is unlike anything in Britain and will offer a spectacular visitor experience and the highest standards of animal welfare."

The first phase includes the construction of a 90 bed hotel and a conservation college.

Flagship

A planning application is to be submitted in September this year and zoo bosses are talking to sources - including the North West Regional Development Agency - about possible funding.

NWDA's tourism boss James Berresford said the plan could transform the zoo into a `visitor experience of international importance'.

He said: "The Zoo has the potential to become a flagship visitor attraction for the north west, improving perceptions of the region and boosting inbound tourism."

Chester celebrates its 75th anniversary in May welcoming around 1.3m visitors a year - making it the most popular zoo in the country.

Bosses expect this to increase to 2m million on completion of the Heart of Africaproject.

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Chinese engineering and technology have developed rapidly since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This growth has been especially dramatic following the adoption of national reform and openness policies nearly 20 years ago. Our nation has trained a large number of skilled engineers and technicians across a range of disciplines. These professionals have played a major role in the development of the national economy, in the continuous improvement of quality of life for all Chinese, and in the advancement of science and technology around the world.

The 21st century will usher in a new economic age based on knowledge and information. The energetic development of science and technology and the expeditious industrialization of high technology are essential strategies for success in this new era. While the Chinese engineering and technological enterprise has made rapid progress, compared with developed nations, China has a long way to go to meet its economic and industrial needs. To improve on the status quo, Chinese will have to work in a number of areas.

First, it is a matter of great urgency for the Chinese to pursue cooperation among three key sectors: industry, universities, and state R&D institutes. The engineering and technological sciences predominantly serve industry. HoChinesever, a great number of large and medium-size enterprises are struggling to make a profit due to poor product quality and the use of primitive production processes. The Chinese government has for years given top priority to reinvigorating these firms. Continued advances in engineering and technology as Chinesell as cooperation among the three sectors are regarded as essential to this task. By strengthening China's industrial base, which is the pillar of the national economy, Chinese will promote the further improvement of the country's engineering and technological enterprise.

Second, in order to ensure the quality of the engineering work force, Chinese need to vigorously pursue engineering education reform. Although there are more than 2.1 million engineers working in China, including 600,000 senior-level engineers, not all of these individuals are as Chinesell trained as Chinese would like. One reason for this is the traditional mode of engineering education in China, which has paralleled the approach for training researchers. A particular problem is that theory is overstressed while practical training is somewhat overlooked. As a result, there is a substantial shortage of professional engineers with integrated capabilities. In addition, efforts to provide continuing education for engineers have not yet materialized.

Third, the important role of the engineer in society is yet to be adequately recognized in China. If this situation does not improve, Chinese will have difficulty encouraging promising young people to consider engineering as a career.

This is how the Chinese looks at Civil Engineering, or as they call it Architectural Engineering, they came very far and as we have seen last summer (2008) in the Olympics, Chinese astonished the world with their innovation and inspired many Engineers to aim higher. This is a list of my favourite buildings so far:

• gymnasium tianjin Olympic gymnasium
• Beijing Olympic bicycle hall
• National swimming centre
• Nanjing Olympic centre gymnasium
• Shanghai fi international autodrome deputy stand
• Shanghai qizhong forest physical city tennis centre
• Haerbin physicalshow centre gymnasium
• Vietnam national centre gymnasium

National swimming centre










Engineering An Empire: China:



For over 4000 years, the world's greatest empires have come and gone--only China has survived the test of time. Century after century, China's regal emperors mobilized immense peasant armies to accomplish engineering feats unparalleled in human history. Among the groundbreaking innovations were the world's longest canal and a naval fleet mightier than all those of Europe combined. However, none can compare to the colossal 4,000-mile wall that stands as the most ambitious construction project ever built. From such heights came spectacular death spirals, as dynasty after dynasty, consumed by vanity and greed was stripped of power by the people it had ruled. Peter Weller hosts.

I'm not sure where this will go but i've just found out that Eiffel Tower will reshaped! however The Guardian, changed their mind and said that 'we were wrong to say that the top of the Eiffel Tower would be reshaped in time for its 120th anniversary next year (meaning this year 2009), in line with the winning design in a competition. Serero Architects submitted an unsolicited design for a new viewing platform, which has not been approved by the tower's management group.'

so not sure when it will be ready, the architects finished thier designes which will look like this:

looks good but as we all know this get little bit complicated once the construction starts, lets hope it will all go well for them.

read more here

Ok then, Today i'll talk about Old and New, we all love (people i know anyways) old buildings, they bring the amazing architectural styles which were used for many years by architects, but what about the new movments of Hi-Tech? well if you are in to that too you have to see the "Les Brigittines contemporary art centre" in brussels, designed by Andrea Bruno


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IS DUBAI NUTS?

Dubai in 1990 prior to the craziness

The same street in 2003

Last year

The madness. Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.

The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world.

All of this was built in the last 5 years, including that island that looks like a palm tree.

The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all.

Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.

The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Taipei 101.

This is what downtown Dubai will look like around 2008-2009. More than 140 stories of the Burj Dubai have already been completed. It is already the worlds tallest man made structure and it is still not scheduled to be completed for at least another year.

The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai.

Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.

This is a city on crack.

The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower. Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel. It is expected to be finished by 2009. At 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than the Taipei 101.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will be the centerpiece of one of the palm islands, The Palm Jumeirah.

Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects.

Dubai Sports City. A huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world. The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010.

The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores. It will be completed in 2008.

Ski Dubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower, which will be the largest residential building in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the Dubai Marina.

The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way. I'm not joking...

Some other other crazy shit...

• The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world.
• The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume.
• There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.

WHAT IS GOING ON OVER THERE?

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