Space Design

World Architecture Festival – An Insight

November 27, 2018

Today sees the launch of the 11th World Architecture Festival (WAF), in Amsterdam. For the past ten years, this festival has been one of the most important international events in the world of architecture, featuring thematic conferences and talks, exhibitions and the opportunity to network with others in the industry. As its website explains:

The World Architecture Festival is dedicated to celebrating, sharing and inspiring outstanding architecture. It is the only architecture event where keynote talks from the industry’s most influential figures sit alongside live judging presentations from over 500 award finalists plus global networking and an international product exhibition.

One of the highlights of the festival is the WAF awards, which recognises the work of architects and interior designers from around the world, across 35 categories, such as Future Project of the Year, Best Use of Colour and Small Project of the Year. The pinnacle is the prized World Building of The Year award.

In today’s blog, we showcase five of the past ten winners of the Building of the Year award:

2009: Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre – Peter Rich Architects

The Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre is the perfect example of a structure that has been designed keeping its context and environment in mind. The Mapungubwe National Park, which sits at on South Africa’s northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe was home to an ancient society, and one of the first places to ever produce gold. The region boasts of some spectacular flora and fauna, including Baobab trees that are over 1000 years old and over 400 bird species.

The building’s form draws its inspiration from the rondavel – a traditional, oval shaped hut made from indigenous materials – commonly found in the countries of Southern Africa.
The technique used by Peter Rich Architects merges the latest developments in structural geometry with ancient construction methods, including the use of timbrel vaults. As a result, the building, which houses ancient artifacts, combines the best of both worlds to achieve a cost effective solution that incorporates local material and labour, while remaining ecologically sustainable and sensitive to its surroundings.
From an aesthetic viewpoint, the visitors’ centre blends seamlessly into its Sandstone and mopane woodlands backdrop, as you can see in the pictures above by architectural photographer Iwan Baan.

2010: MAXXI Museum – Zaha Hadid Architects

In a city so steeped in heritage and ancient architecture as Rome, the MAXXI museum, which was 10 years in the making, is representative of the importance of structures being able to aesthetically and functionally co-exist in a contemporary scenario.
Envisioned as “a campus for art”, the open spaces, pathways and floating staircases overlap and flow, encouraging an interpretive experience for the museum’s visitors, rather than forcing a predetermined, contained one. The structure also allows for panoramic views of the city, reminding visitors of its context, while design elements allow for ample natural lighting of the space.

2011: Media-TIC – Enric Ruiz Geli

Located in 22@, Barcelona’s technology and innovation district, the Media-TIC building is the epitome of an innovative building, incorporating cutting-edge technology into its design and development, all the way up to methods to improve energy efficiency.

Architect Geli describes the design as an example of performative architecture – where the structure itself performs other functions. For example, 2500 sq.m of the building’s facade employs EFTE cladding, resulting in energy savings of 20%.
Envisioned as an information and communication technology hub, to incubate innovation, the Media-TIC building is able to house over 2400 people across various functional spaces, including an exhibition area, auditorium and office spaces.

2013: Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery – FJMT & Archimedia

Restoring and renovating a space, especially on the scale of a public project poses a set of challenges different to those of designing from scratch. At the Auckland Art Gallery, the architects have devised a perfect balance between incorporating naturally occuring forms at the site, maintaining the identity of the existing structure and ensuring that the new building blends in seamlessly.

The new building’s canopied roof is made of light material, creating an extension to the indigenous trees of the adjacent Albert Park. Extensive use of glass on the facade embraces the outdoors, creating a feeling of openness and showcasing magnificent views of the park; while also enticing visitors to enter the space.

2015: The Interlace – OMA & Ole Scheeren

While developing the design for Interlace, an apartment building complex in Singapore, the focus was on designing a contemporary living space specifically within a tropical environment.

Moving away from Singapore’s traditional high-rise style apartment, Scheereen takes advantage of the property’s massive 8-hectare canvas to create a spread out, interlocking apartment complex that incorporates cascading sky gardens, private and public roof terraces and low-impact energy strategies to relieve the effects of the hot, humid climate conditions.
The striking external form alludes to the feeling of ‘community’ and ‘interdependence’, while functionally, it acknowledges society’s need for both, shared and individual spaces.

WAF 2018 – What’s in Store?

The theme at this year’s World Architecture Festival is Identity and some of the world’s most influential architects, designers and commentators will be sharing their views on a topic that is highly relevant in today’s world, including exploring questions like “How can our model of the city evolve when we think beyond oppositional relationships and focus instead on connecting for mutual benefit?” and “How can architecture extend our identities in new ways, while sheltering who and what we are?”

The WAF’s 2018 shortlist contains 535 projects from 57 countries. You can check them all out at this link:
https://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/2018-shortlist

Who do you think will win this year’s Building of the Year award and why? Tell us in the comments below.

Note: Except where mentioned, all images copyright of Iwan Baan.

Space Design

THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE: Part 1 – Dynamic Architecture

By admin on

June 26, 2018

- Space Design

What is now proved was once only imagined

-William Blake

Without imagination, there would be no progress. Architecture has a huge part to play in the direction mankind advances. It is responsible for defining the multitude of interactions and dialogues among people, their surroundings and the circumstances that govern life itself. It also determines the direction of our future – sometimes adapting and evolving, at other times, defying norms, and hopefully, revolutionising the way we live and experience life. It is important that architecture constantly learns, reviving and reversing the way we live to ensure not only preservation of life but its budding and, without creativity and imagination this would be impossible.

This series explores the future of architecture by looking at various examples covering existing and upcoming buildings, and those ideas currently under research and development.

In the first part of the series, Zeitgeist will look at the Da Vinci Tower of Dubai, a dynamic 80-storey skyscraper by David Fisher.

What is Dynamic Architecture?

David Fisher defines it as:

architecture as part of the environment, adjusting to the sun and the wind, to the view and to our momentary requirements

The term ‘Dynamic’ is a discipline within mechanics responsible for movement of objects with the effect of forces. Movement of a building is known as Dynamic Architecture and it involves a fourth dimension – time. The beauty of Dynamic Architecture is that the building’s form and shape are constantly changing, making it fluid, while exhibiting the building’s ability to adapt to change.

The Beginning

At the mere age of five, David Fisher’s mother use to take him to watch the Mediterranean sunset every evening – a beautiful gift, to be able have dinner with a magnificent view everyday. From a very young age, Fisher was enamored by time, the only constant that is ever-changing. The sunsets made him reflect on life, its movement; a powerful visual – the sun consumed by the water and how it happened everyday!

The Eureka Moment

One late afternoon in New York, David Fisher was visiting a friend who lived on the 51st floor of the Olympic Tower. His friend and owner of the apartment said “David, did you notice that you can see the East River and the Hudson river both from my apartment, and nobody else in this building has this view. I am the only one who has such a view.” David replied, “Why don’t we rotate the entire floor so that everybody gets a view.” He went back and worked on it, discovering that if he rotated each floor separately with different speeds in different directions then the building would change shape continuously, and was astounded with the results.

From this point on, Fisher’s designs changed with time, not just in shape, but also in functionality.

Everything is changing and everything is changeable in our lives

– David Fisher

The Manifestation of Fisher’s Dream – The Da Vinci Tower, Dubai

David Fisher named it The Da Vinci tower in honor of Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the greatest visionaries and inventors.

Because Leonardo Da Vinci did everything; he invented from the gill box to the helicopter, the submarine to the milling machine…Everything, but, he didn’t think about one – the rotating building.

– David Fisher

So Fisher created the first rotating tower, The Da Vinci Tower, a concept yet to be executed. Planned construction is anticipated to commence this year and is to be completed by 2020.

The enormous, towering building would have floors that rotate, completing a 360-degree rotation every 90 minutes. So there would be no need to pay a higher price for the view you wished for, as you would be able to change the view of your suite anytime you wanted, seeing the sunrise and the sunset from the same suite that you live in. The suites would enjoy all four cardinal directions covering the building. Further, sustainable innovation is also evident as the tower would be equipped with wind turbines in between each floor within a 2 feet gap that generates electricity for the tenants and supports the energy requirement for the rotation. The penthouse residents would be able to park their car at their apartments. Not only will the building sustain the energy requirement for itself, but it will be the first digital building actually producing energy, and supplying energy to a further seven buildings in its neighbourhood.

Construction Methodology

Traditional construction takes 2000 workers, 6 weeks for 1 floor and 30 months for the entire building whereas dynamic architecture will take 90 workers, 6 days for 1 floor and 18 months for the entire building. This method of construction technique is the future. Dynamic architecture is keeping up with time, and changing with time. There are studies being conducted on prefabricated modules for building vertical cities especially in war-affected areas, where workforce and construction time play a crucial role. The building will be made in a factory and shipped directly to the site. Further, the ability to produce energy not only for itself but for the surrounding buildings is the future.

Mechanism of the building

Construction

Our Reflections

When the sky’s not the limit but the beginning, you will never stop yourself from imagining.

Imagining the impossible will draw a lot of criticism, but translate that into your challenge and a concern that you must address. It should never become a hindrance but rather a design parameter.

And how do you go about it? Creativity and passion will help you ride the storm and conquer the impossible – sometimes you may reach for the stars but you might walk away with the moon instead – no complaints there! The key though, apart from all these attributes, is the application of a holistic approach to the problem when deriving a solution – the framework of Design Thinking, which I am proud to say is a core part of the Zeitgeist process.

Raoul Parekh
Founder & Chief – Design Management

with research support by
Mahek Khan
Designer – Space