All posts by Giulio

Architecture, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Technology, Top Stories, Trends

Dubai Commercity – The future of business!

Dubai CommerCity (DCC), the region’s first dedicated e-commerce free zone

Middle East’s e-commerce market is set to reach around $69 billion by 2020, becoming one of the world’s fastest growing international markets. DCC will play a pivotal role in the development of the e-commerce sector. It will provide growth opportunities for global and regional manufacturers, as well as distributors and global e-retailers. DCC will offer a unique e-commerce ecosystem for companies in the industry such as software as a service, logistics as a service, call centers, web developers, photoshoot studios amongst others.

Dubai CommerCity is the first e-commerce free zone dedicated to the growing E-commerce market in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region. It is a joint venture between Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) and Wasl Asset Management Group with an investment of AED 3.2 billion spread over an area of approximately 2.1 million square feet. The free zone is a strategic project, aimed at elevating Dubai’s position as a leading center for e-commerce. It is set to shape the future of e-commerce in Dubai, becoming a regional hub for the industry by providing unique services that add value to customers’ businesses.

Dubai CommerCity is spread across a total built up area of 520,000 SQM with office spaces of 240,000 SQM and logistics units covering 54,000 SQM. Dubai CommerCity is divided into three modern and innovatively-designed clusters: the Business Cluster containing 12 modern g +6 office buildings and green spaces; the Logistic Cluster consisting of 105 logistic units (dedicated and multi-client) equipped with the latest technology; and the Social Cluster comprising of multi-purpose halls, flagship and super stores where customers can exhibit their products, science labs to innovate, photoshoot studios, modular exhibition centers, wellness centers and a range of restaurants and cafés. Dubai CommerCity has implemented state-of-the-art technologies to provide investors with a smart & quality-focused business ecosystem. First batch of Phase-I will be delivered in Q4 2020.

Architecture, Covid19, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Top Stories, Trends

Rimbin: an infection-free playground inspired by nature

German designers develop anti-COVID playground inspired by the look of water lilies

Rimbin is an infection-free playground where children can play, talk and laugh together without risking spread of Covid-19 and without losing the fun of playing. Responsible for this new concept are Berlin inventors Martin Binder and Claudio Rimmele, who saw the crisis as a creative challenge.

Rimbin is a special place where children can play, talk and laugh together without getting spreading viruses, and without losing the fun of child play. Rimbin works thanks to the following six principles:

● Each child is given a single playing area.

● There is individualized access to this playing area.

● Children can see each other.

● Children can communicate with each other.

● Children can be kept in view of parents.

● Children can play different games from a safe distance

Between the platforms, children can communicate to each other with the help of speaking tubes. These connecting tubes can transport the sound of speech through the magic of physics. Thus children can conduct a secret playful dialogue without the supervision of their parents. The speaking tubes are placed on the sides of the play areas with enough distance so children are not encouraged to touch or lick the funnels at the end of the speaking tubes.

The biggest risk of infection with the virus as known so far is through direct human contact, nonetheless we would propose permanently installed disinfectant dispensers to make it easy for parents who wish to clean the areas exposed to touch in order to lower the risk of infection as much as possible.

Rimbin is a place made for children – a place where they can immerse themselves in their world, learn from others and let off steam.

Architecture, Style, Sustainability, Technology, Top Stories, Trends, Wood

RECEPTION CENTER FOR VISITORS IN QUEBEC

Aditus Pavilion – Martin Dofour Architecture

Delicately placed in the middle of mature woodland, the pavilion was designed as a reception structure to receive visitors interested in Laurentian residential development. It acts as both a portal and an exhibition hall, highlighting the natural environment in which it is located. It reveals the exceptional nature of the land and offers different experiences of the place. 

The building projects the visitor into the experience of a contemporary interior essentially looking outwards. It is from this duality that the concept of “the inverted box” was born. The solid wood structure supports the roof veil whose non-orthogonal geometry recalls that of the shelter while erasing the sensitive boundaries between the interior and the exterior. The passenger compartment is circumscribed in a volume of glass of rectangular shape which literally slips between the structural members.

Architecture, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Technology, Top Stories, Trends

NATURE MEETS DESIGN

Casa Ojalá allows you to live your imaginations, immersed in the landscape that surrounds you

Inspired by recent travels in the vast and endless countryside of the northern Andes, Architect Beatrice Bonzanigo sought to create a refuge where one – she! – could comfortably stay a few days without disrupting the physical and existential immersion in the landscape. Thus Casa Ojalá was born: pairing the luxurious comforts of home with a structure that adapts seamlessly to its surroundings, allowing guests to rediscover themselves submerged in nature.

Equipped with self-contained electrical and water systems, the shelter is off-grid capable allowing for installation in remote mountaintops or isolated beaches.

From design to reality

After its heralded debut at Milan Design Week in 2019, Beatrice formed Casa Ojalá srl with Ryan Nesbitt to develop the initial design into full-scale production and make it available to individuals and boutique hotels alike. Prototyping is underway and first deliveries are expected late 2020.

Made in Italy

Italy is renowned worldwide for its design, raw materials and superb craftsmanship and Casa Ojalá raises the bar yet again.

Architecture, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Technology, Top Stories, Trends

MERCURIO DESIGN LAB – Villa Mistral, Singapore

Named after the seasonal strong, north-westerly wind that blows across the Mediterranean, Mistral is less like a cabin cruiser and more like a sleek cruise ship. Painted in a slightly different white to Vento, but also with a metallic tinge, Mistral has a powerful solidity to it. Like Vento, its structural elements are expressed both externally and internally, simultaneously referencing a boat and communicating the sense of a strong forward thrust.

It exploits the angularity of outward-leaning structural elements and similarly angled glazed walls to fashion an almost vertiginous experience both inside and outside of a powerful vessel driving through the sea.

As with Vento, the street elevation of Mistral combines timber and concrete in a façade penetrated by windows of varying scale to generate a strong rhythmic quality. This is complemented by the forward-thrusting angularity of the building, which leads the eye towards the water which is only barely glimpsed at this stage.

Again like Vento there is a carefully orchestrated sequence of arrival designed to heighten expectation and ensure maximum drama with the final reveal of the view. Floating concrete slabs form a footbridge linking the porte cochère across a pond with the entry vestibule. Here a sculpted travertine wall (screening the stairwell) drives the circulation to either side, delaying the final dramatic tableau.

Mistral is over four levels, including a large entertainment room in the basement. Dining, dry kitchen and living are on the entry level, while level two consist of bedrooms and a roof terrace overlooking the canal. The bedrooms on level two, including the master bedroom, are to the side with one at the rear (streetside) with views back to the ocean.

With Mistral ─ as with Vento ─ the structure is the form. There is total integration, just as the project as a whole is assimilated with MDL’s building design, interior architecture, decoration, furnishings and art works. “The only thing we haven’t done,” says Massimo, “are the plates and dishes.” It is an example of what he calls a complete solution ─ complete also for the way it accommodates the client’s preoccupation with ” feng shui, harmonizing wind and water.
The two houses also exemplify the way MDL pushes the envelope formally and structurally. They invariably present a challenge to the contractors both structurally and in terms of detailing ─ for example, making and installing windows which fully integrate into the curved facades.

But they also represent an aesthetic challenge. These are unique, if not idiosyncratic forms. Given Massimo’s love of ‘symbology’, it is not surprising that houses like Vento and Mistral have a story to tell, which begins on the outside where their forms and their landscaping blend to generate an integrated whole which then extends to the interiors, where the interior architecture, the materials and the planning ─ not to mention the customized artworks and other decorative elements ─ all work together to generate narratives unique to each building.

Architecture, Building Envelope, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Technology, Top Stories, Trends

ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS – ME Dubai hotel at Opus

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ME Dubai hotel at Opus Home to the new ME Dubai hotel, the Opus is located in the Burj Khalifa district adjacent to Downtown Dubai and Business Bay on the Dubai Water Canal. Exploring the balance between solid and void, opaque and transparent, interior and exterior, the design was presented by Zaha Hadid in 2007 and is the only hotel in which she created both its architecture and interiors.

Spanning 84,300 square metres (907,400 square feet), the Opus was designed as two separate towers that coalesce into a singular whole—taking the form of a cube. The cube has been ‘eroded’ in its centre, creating a free-form void that is an important volume of the design in its own right. The two halves of the building on either side of the void are linked by a four-storey atrium at ground level and also connected by an asymmetric 38 metre wide, three-storey bridge 71 metres above the ground.

“The precise orthogonal geometries of the Opus’ elemental glass cube contrast dramatically with the fluidity of the eight-storey void at its centre,” explained Christos Passas, project director at Zaha Hadid Architects.

The cube’s double-glazed insulating façades incorporate a UV coating and a mirrored frit pattern to reduce solar gain. Applied around the entire building, this dotted frit patterning emphasizes the clarity of the building’s orthogonal form, while at the same time, dissolving its volume through the continuous play of light varying between ever-changing reflections and transparency.

The void’s 6,000 square metre façade is created from 4,300 individual units of flat, single-curved or double-curved glass. The high-efficiency glazing units are comprised of 8mm Low-E glass (coated on the inside), a 16mm cavity between the panes and 2 layers of 6mm clear glass with a 1.52mm PVB resin laminate. This curved façade was designed using digital 3D modelling that also identified specific zones which required tempered glass.

During the day, the cube’s façade reflects the sky, the sun and the surrounding city; whilst at night, the void is illuminated by a dynamic light installation of individually controllable LEDs within each glass panel.

Furniture by Zaha Hadid Design is installed throughout the hotel, including the ‘Petalinas’ sofas and ‘Ottomans’ pods in the lobby that are fabricated from materials ensuring a long lifecycle and its components can be recycled. The ‘Opus’ beds in each bedroom while the ‘Work & Play’ combination sofa with desk are installed in the suites. The hotel’s bedrooms also incorporate the ‘Vitae’ bathroom collection, designed by Hadid in 2015 for Noken Porcelanosa, continuing her fluid architectural language throughout the hotel’s interiors.

Sensors throughout the Opus automatically adjust the ventilation and lighting according to occupancy to conserve energy while ME Dubai follows Meliá Hotels International initiatives for sustainable practices. Hotel guests will receive stainless-steel water bottles to use during their stay with drinking water dispensers installed throughout the hotel. With no plastic bottles in guest rooms and a program to become entirely plastic free in all areas, the hotel is also reducing food waste by not serving buffets and has composters to recycle discarded organics.

Description provided by Zaha Hahid Architects

Photography by Laurian Ghinitoiu

Architecture, Building Envelope

LIMASSOL TOWER, Cyprus

LIMASSOL TOWER, Cyprus – Hamonic + Masson & Associes Architects

Cyprus is called “the island of Aphrodite”, the sun shines there almost all year round, its clear and warm sea invites you to swim, there is no shortage of ancient treasures and life is pleasant. These hedonistic charms naturally guided our thinking.

Limassol Tower project is terrestrial with a system of corollas that provide housing pools and planted spaces. The corollas are independent spaces of the accommodation, which are simultaneously in direct connection with the interiors of the apartments, creating a unique and luxury interior living experience for the inhabitant. The corolla system is also on the ground floor: the sunshades and the circles in the landscape that accompany the topography connect the dwellings and the outdoor spaces, creating coherence throughout the building.

The transparency of the volume ensures unobstructed sea views. The experience of living outside is also done inside the accommodation thanks to the sliding system: by opening its windows, you are on your balcony. The total transparency of the project ensures a constant sea view.

On the ground floor, a majestic entrance opens the door to a unique experience.  Limassol Tower offers a variety of well-being services: a gym in the basement, an art gallery on the ground floor and a luxury spa on the first floor, all with independent access. Well-being and luxury combine to create an exclusive experience.

Architecture, Building Envelope, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Top Stories, Trends

EHKA Studio – SINJALAN SEAVIEW HOUSE

Inspired by the beauty of free-flowing curves, Seaview House is a fusion of sculpture and building, a blending of form and function to create living spaces that inspire. It embraces traditional concepts of tropical architecture while reinterpreting them in contemporary forms. It explores what a house could be like for an avid collector of antiques and ultra modern furniture, a house that displays and becomes a display itself. The house strives to strike a delicate balance between the traditional masculinity of dramatic grand spaces and the sensuous, fluid nature of free flowing curves.

The columns became a curvaceous stiletto, supporting the entry porches, illuminated dramatically by night. Glass is used generously for the facade and balustrades to create a sense of lightness. Even though some spaces are deep, none feel dark or claustrophobic. Double-height glass in the living room allows the living spaces, with all its furniture and antiques to be on “display” to the public, even the curvaceous spiral stairs is visibly positioned in front of the house and fronted with curtain wall glazing. Double-height sliding doors open fully at the living hall for the hot air to escape while large fans ventilate the hall.  

The client’s goal was to maximize the site with as much internal floor areas as possible, and with each room being as large as it possibly can.

The total built in area is 9300 sq.ft., which is remarkable for a plot of this size. All the rooms are pushed to the edge of the allowable setbacks. The sculpted roofs and floor slabs work within the allowable eave setbacks, while the internal spaces and balconies are pushed to the maximum building setback. The combination maximizes space while creating a “playful” facade.

The extensive use of glass in a home is the client’s requirement, and while seemingly counter-intuitive in the tropics, it actually worked to create comfortable and beautiful spaces when combined with passive design strategies, which are adopted from traditional tropical architecture. The use of low-emissive glass also helps to minimize the thermal impact.

This design challenges the notion that homes need to be rigidly shaped for efficiency, by exploring how a sculptural building can be efficient, logical, tropical, practical and liveable at the same time. While highly sculptural in form, the building also addresses the occupants’ needs for shelter and shade, light and ventilation – creating comfortable spaces even without mechanical cooling. The use of sensual curves is unusual for houses that are commonly defined by its setback boundaries and by the desire for maximum efficiency.

Photo credits: Studio Periphery

Architecture, Building Envelope, Ideas, Style, Technology, Top Stories

MAD ARCHITECTS’ Vanishing Stadium

MAD Architects has released new images of its “vanishing stadium” for Quzhou Sports Campus which is under construction in Quzhou, in China’s Zhejiang province.

The park includes a 30,000-person capacity stadium, a 10,000-person capacity gymnasium, a natatorium, outdoor auxiliary training grounds, athlete service and experience center, as well as a science and technology museum and children’s place.

Upon its entire completion, Quzhou Sports Campus will become the world’s largest earth shelter building complex

The sports venues and expansive park have been imagined as a cohesive scene where the winding trails compliment the sloping land and there are multiple platforms integrated for people to enjoy the park’s beauty from different perspectives. 

News via MAD Architects

Architecture, Green Energy, Ideas, Style, Sustainability, Technology, Top Stories, Trends

ANTHENEA – Eco Friendly Floating Capsule

007: a crazy dream and preoccupations of anticipation

At the origins of this incredible project, there is the dream of Jean-Michel Ducancelle, naval architect, inspired by the James Bond ® floating capsule  in The Spy Who Loved Me.

Jean-Michel has been wondering for 25 years about how Man can inhabit the Earth. He cultivates with passion the idea that the habitat of tomorrow must be at the heart of the natural environment to offer everyone a life in immersion with the marine and underwater world. 
He is considering a way to approach the future differently, with a solution for the increasingly limited availability of construction on the coast and a new look at floating habitat.

The decisive meeting with Jacques-Antoine Cesbron , a visionary industrialist , allowed the culmination of many years of research and patented innovations . 

With the construction of Anthénea, the dream is now a reality…

Anthénea and ecology

Anthénea embodies a new form of tourism but also of habitat in the  face of multiple environmental challenges: rising waters, the effects of climate change, over-density of the coast and places saturated with tourism.

Comfortable and unsinkable

Anthénea resists climatic cataclysms and the rise of the oceans . Its spherical shape is based on the principle of “surface tension”, observed in nature. It is the optimal form of resistance to extreme conditions of life on water.

The peripheral crown allows by its shape and its lift technology, a considerable increase in the stability of shape and lift on water .

100% electric

Anthénea only consumes solar energy. An energy sensor dome meets the needs for electricity and hot water. The house is equipped with an approved black water station and a gray water station. Anthénea produces what it consumes and  releases only clean water.

Air conditioning occurs naturally through the central well.