EDITT Tower, Singapore

Currently pending construction in Singapore, the EDITT Tower will be a paragon of “Ecological Design In The Tropics”. Designed by TR Hamzah & Yeang and sponsored by the National University of Singapore, the 26-story high-rise will boast photovoltaic panels, natural ventilation, and a biogas generation plant all wrapped within an insulating living wall that covers half of its surface area. The verdant skyscraper was designed to increase its location’s bio-diversity and rehabilitate the local ecosystem in Singapore’s ‘zeroculture’ metropolis.

Approximately half of the surface area of the EDITT Tower will be wrapped in organic local vegetation, and passive architecture will allow for natural ventilation. Publicly accessible ramps will connect upper floors to the street level lined in shops, restaurants and plant life. The building has also been designed for future adaptability, with many walls and floors that can be moved or removed. In a city known for its downpours, the building will collect rainwater and integrate a grey-water system for both plant irrigation and toilet flushing with an estimated 55% self-sufficiency.

855 square meters of photovoltaic panels will provide for 39.7% of the building’s energy needs, and plans also include the ability to convert sewage into biogas and fertilizer. The tower will be constructed using many recycled and recyclable materials, and a centralized recycling system will be accessible from each floor.

The University of Technology Sydney Tower, Sydney

Sydney’s ugliest building may soon be getting a new lease on life through to a plan to ‘reskin’ the entire tower with a high-performance photovoltaic skin. Architecture firm Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) has proposed the retrofit, and if their plan is enacted it would turn the 1960’s brutalist building into a brilliant super-efficient eco-tower.

The University of Technology Sydney Tower has long been known as Sydney’s ugliest building (it even says so on their website). It was built in 1960 and it currently hosts the headquarters of the University.

LAVA’s proposed ‘Tower Skin’ concept would wrap the building with a lightweight composite mesh textile. The cocooned shell would then collect rain water, generate electricity and assist the ventilation system in cooling the tower. At night, the skin works as an intelligent media surface that communicates information on events in real time.

While this design is only concept, UTS is making extensive renovations on the tower with the goal of improving energy and water efficiency. Unfortunately, it probably won’t look as cool as this one. The concept design is on display at STATE. RESPOND in the Object Gallery in Sydney.
Inhabitat

Umeda Sky Building, Osaka Japan

Umeda Sky Building is a landmark building and observatory in Osaka. The Umeda Sky Building is also know as the Floating Garden Observatory.The observation platform of this observatory is a bridge connecting the two towers of the Umeda Sky Building, whose roof features a doughnut shape that provides an unobstructed 360-degree view. While enjoying the breathtaking sights you can also directly feel the wind—which at 170 meters off the ground can get quite strong. From this observatory you can not only see all of Osaka but as far away as Awaji Island. The basement of the Umeda Sky Building houses the Takimi-Koji gourmet street with old fashioned images of Osaka from the 1920s.The futuristic Umeda Sky Building in Osaka Japan is a great place to view the Osaka skyline, but its unusual design makes it a sight worth seeing itself. Escalators in suspended tubes guide visitors up to the observation deck and the "Floating Garden Observatory" where, high above the ground and out in the open air, Osaka almost seems peaceful.

Located in the Umeda district of Kita-ku in northern Osaka, the building was designed by Hiroshi Hara and was constructed by Takenaka Corporation. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at their two uppermost stories, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide atrium-like space in the center. The escalator ride is an event in itself as it feels like you are floating up into the sky.

Once inside, you pay 700 yen (a little under $6) for a ticket to take the glass elevator up to nearly the top. Then you take the famousescalator to the top, which is surprisingly underwhelming. It’s not all that scary as your view is really blocked quite a bit going up, so you don’t really get a great sense of being suspended 550 feet in the air on a moving staircase. At the top, it’s your standard observation deck, with binoculars that let you zoom in on places of interest.

Boston Arcology (BoA)

Get ready Boston, someday you might just have this incredible floating city within a city located in your harbor. The BoA, short for Boston Arcology, is a sustainable mega structure designed by Kevin Schopfer, who also designed the amazing New Orleans Arcology Habitat (NOAH). The BoA will house 15,000 people in hotels, offices, retail spaces, museums, condominiums, and even a new city hall. Built to LEED standards with golden proportions, this amazing building would serve as an expansion of the city without impacting what is already currently built.To be located on a buoyant platform of concrete cells right in the Boston Harbor next to downtown, BoA would sit perpendicular to the waterfront, thus minimizing the view sheds of existing buildings onshore. The massing of the structure was designed using the principles of the golden triangle. Angles and towers criss-cross inside of a fixed border, giving structure to the projections inside. Elevators and moving walkways aid the transportation of the residents, employees and visitors in order to create an all pedestrian environment.

Sky gardens will be located every 30 floors and act as public squares for gathering spaces. BoA will also include a bevy of sustainable elements in order to achieve a LEED building certification. Energy will be generated via wind turbines, solar panels and harbor based water turbines. Natural daylight will flood the building with the help of a passive glazing system. BoA will also include a fresh water recovery system, greywater recycling, and sky garden heating and cooling vents. And while the design seems pretty incredible and maybe even impossible (especially considering the economy and lack of funding), it truly is a spectacular mix of architecture and ecology.

SAMOO's Korean Culture Center

Talk about a beautiful building! This international competition-winning design for the Korean Cultural Center in Manhattan is set to begin construction at the end of this year. The New York City studio of SAMOO Archictects PC is responsible for this out of the box (literally) design for the new home for the Korean Cultural Service in NYC. And this elegant addition to the K-Town and Murray Hill neighborhood isn’t just another pretty face(ade) – it will be striving for LEED certification, making it a shining example of sustainable building for the area as well.To be located on East 32nd Street in Midtown, the eight-story Korea Center will house administration offices, exhibit space, gardens, artist studios, a library, a cafe and a theater for events, lectures and performances. The street facing facade is completely glass, which allows passersby to see into the center and be enticed inward by the street level exhibitions on Korean culture, including music, movies, food, technology and TV dramas.SAMOO’s winning design embodies the modern Korean sensibility of innovation in harmony with tradition. Inside, the center is dominated by three sculptural figures made from different materials – ceramic to represent Heaven, terracotta to represent Earth and milled wood to represent Humanity. Along with staying true to Korean sensibilities, the glass facade will allow ample daylighting into the interior reducing the need for artificial light.

Spiraling Skyscraper Pod City For a Future London

Design team Chimera has conceived of a incredible series of spiraling skyscrapers for London modeled after the complex ecosystems created by the mangrove tree. Dubbed Mangal City, the project is an “urban ecological system” composed of modular pod capsules that shift to adapt to environmental and contextual conditions. A beautiful example of biomimicry and certainly a flight of fancy, the plan proposes a futuristic building system based upon flexibility.

Featuring a twisting latticed frame reminiscent of Eric Vergne’s Manhattan skyscraper farms, Mangal City harnesses biomimetic principles borrowed from a range of sources. The skyscraper’s structure is modeled after mangrove trees, spiraling plant growth patterns, and the interaction of natural ecosystems.

According to Chimera, “our vision is to define an urban ecosystem which supports housing and cultural programs and has the ability to adapt, transform, mutate and adjust according to the specific urban and social character of the site”.Taken from : Inhabitat

Burj Dubai, Not Just the World's Highest Building

Building the Burj Dubai skyscraper that opened Monday plan (4/1/2010) or local time during Monday night WIT certainly become the new icons are not just for the City of Dubai or the United Arab Emirates but also for the world. Imagine, the building is the tallest building in the world today.

I was so high, base to a peak of more than six times the height of National Monument (Monas). How high will certainly be announced in a ceremony later. However, that certainly more than 800 meters. Contractors who work on this tower construction project ever mention that top out the building 818 meters. The building was to be seen very tall when compared with the Monas only 132 meters high. The peak can be seen at distances up to 95 miles.

Burj Dubai is not only the tallest building in the world. He also broke the record as the tallest structure in the world who previously held by KVLY-TV in Blanchard, North Dakota, the U.S. and the highest free structure that previously held by the CN Tower of Toronto.
Burj Dubai to meet all the criteria of the highest structure, not only follows the antenna and accessories, but also the highest measured primary and bagunan highest inhabited part of the human CTBUH appropriate assessment (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). Although the total height of more than 800 meters, the highest occupied floor at 636 meters. While supporting the concrete structure as high as 574.4 meters.

Burj Dubai also has the fastest elevators in the world that moves at speeds up to 16.7 meters per second or 60 kilometers per hour. This is also part of the elevator that had operated the world's highest.

The ground floor area of 334,000 square meters. Surrounded by an area of 15 hectares and includes an underground parking area for 3000 vehicles.

Burj Dubai Development which in Arabic means Dubai Tower that requires a lot of material. For example, concrete used when calculating the calculated equivalent weight of about 100,000 adult elephant.

To meet the water needs of everyday life, Burj Dubai supplied 15 million gallons of water, equivalent to 20 Olympic-standard swimming pool. While cooling facilities needed for the process of withdrawing the equivalent of 10,000 tons of ice every day. Lighting necessary for the equivalent light bulb 360,000 each 100 watts.

Total of all costs required to complete the Burj Dubai around 4.1 billion U.S. dollars, or around Rp 40 trillion. Cost is part of the investment the City Center Dubai megaproyek worth 20 billion U.S. dollars.

Burj Dubai was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, an architectural consultant in Chicago, USA. The project developer Emaar Properties is one of the largest real estate developer in the UAE. While the contractor is Samsung joint project of the Belgian Besix and local company Arabtec. Burj Dubai is located on Sheikh Zayed Road crossroad exactly Doha Street.
source : kompas

Abraj Al Bait Tower

Abraj Al Bait Tower is a building complex which located in Kota Mekkah, Arab Saudi and the existing is built. This building complex designed by the architects from Dar Al Handasah Architects and execution of its(the development done by Saudi Binladin Group. location of This tower resides in street other side Masjidil Haram, one of holy mosque of Islam believer.Does this building look somehow familiar? The pointed center tower surrounded by minions and topped with a gold sculpture, the embracing wings, the arched entrance in the foreground and the side arcades; is there not a family resemblance to Manhattan’s Municipal Building?

ABSOLUTE TOWERS

Client: Fernbrook Homes/Cityzen Development Group
Status: First prize in international competition. Under Construction
Location: Mississauga, nr Toronto, Canada
Type: Residential Apartments
Building Area: Phase 4: 45,000 sqm; Phase 5: 40,000 sqm
Building Height: Phase 4: 56 stories/170 m; Phase 5: 50 stories/150 m
Directors in Charge: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun
Design Team: Shen Jun, Robert Groessinger, Florian Pucher, Yi Wenzhen, Hao Yi, Yao Mengyao, Zhao Fan, Liu Yuan, Zhao Wei, Li Kunjuan, Yu Kui, Max Lonnqvist, Eric Spencer.

PROJECT SUMMARY
Modernism has a famous motto: A house is a machine for living in. However, as we increasingly leave the machine age behind, we are left with a question: what message should architecture convey today? What is a house for now?

Like other fast developing suburbs in North America, Mississauga is seeking a new identity. We want to take this opportunity to respond to the needs of an expanding city, to create a landmark that can be loved by the people who live there.
In place of the simple, functional logic of modernism, our design expresses the complex and multiple needs of contemporary society. This building is more than just a functional machine: it responds to its location at the junction of two main streets to become a gateway that signifies entrance to a city. It is something beautiful, sculptural and human.

Despite its landmark status, the emphasis is not solely on height. In our design, a continuous balcony surrounds the whole building, eliminating the vertical barriers that are traditionally used in high rise architecture. The entire building rotates by different degrees at different levels, corresponding with the surrounding scenery. Our aim is to provide 360 degree views, to awaken the city dweller’s appreciation of nature, and to get them in touch with the sunlight and the wind.

The Absolute Tower has been nicknamed Marilyn Monroe by the locals.

Absolute Tower Mississauga images / information from MAD Aug 2008 / 160309. For more informatio about this article, please enter this site on Absolute Towers.

'Bill-ding' in Lithuania

One of the next landmarks in Lithuania is already turning heads. Nearly complete, the new building has an aluminium-and-glass façade that looks like a Lithuanian bank note.

"Special will be the look of the building, the nice picture on the façade," says Eimantas Lenciauskas of Savoja UAB.

The investors wanted something special and inspiring. The builders had an idea and considered the possibilities with suppliers. The suppliers said yes and are delivering. And the building will be complete in early 2008.

"Everything is possible as the pictures show," says Mart Petermann, who is responsible for Hydro’s aluminium building systems operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Verslo Centras 1000 is a showcase project both for the metal builder, Savoja UAB, and for Hydro and its Wicona-brand building systems. The office building uses the brand’s high-tech aluminium facades for the Kaunas construction.

"When choosing materials for this building, there is no alternative – it should be aluminium. It is a 'green' material," says Lenciauskas.

Banking and financial services

Part of the building will be used for banking services and part for other financial services. The city of Kaunas, which is Lithuania's second-largest city, is experiencing a period with growing investment, and Petermann notes that more businesses are looking for office space.

"The wish of these investors was to build something that people would look at," he says. "In the competition for the project, we were able to explain the possibilities of Wicona in solving the challenges of the building.

"It is important to remember that the idea of the building changed many times."

Verslo Centras 1000 is using 35 tonnes of aluminium in the form of Wicona’s Wictec 50 SG facades. A Dutch supplier is delivering the special glass for the facades.

Hydro is Europe's preferred supplier of aluminium building systems, and delivers to scores of other countries around the globe. Its three international brands - Domal, Technal and Wicona - cover the range of system products.

Take from : www.hydro.com