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World’s Tallest Tower: Dubai Superstructure by Santiago Calatrava

14 Apr

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

worlds tallest tower 1

Edging out the record-holding Burj Khalifa by just a hair, the world’s tallest tower is set to rise into the Dubai skies by 2020 as the crown jewel of a new waterfront development. Neofuturist starchitect Santiago Calatrava, known for dramatic sweeping structures with complex engineering, won an international competition to design the as-yet-unnamed superstructure offering panoramic vistas of the city in February, and new images and details have just been released.

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Taking design inspiration from the contours of a lily flower, the tower features Calatrava’s signature illuminated cables stretching from its length to the floor of the plaza. Floor after floor of luxury boutique hotel rooms lead higher and higher into the air, topped with the ‘pinnacle room’ observation space. Lushly planted decks envisioned as recreations of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon offer additional views.

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The shimmering spire is meant to be a landmark for Dubai Creek Harbour, a new district that developers hope will become a trendy new residential and leisure destination for the city, and a new tourist attraction completed in time for the Expo 2020. It’s a flashy addition to Dubai’s many flashy projects, from those that have actually been built to those that have been squashed and abandoned. Calatrava calls it “a symbol of an abiding belief in progress.’

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Since so many of Dubai’s announced projects never actually get off the ground, it remains to be seen whether this tower will end up snatching the crown from the 2,722-foot-tall Burj Khalifa, a mega-tall skyscraper completed in 2009 as part of another large-scale mixed-use development.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Dr. Seuss Tower: Get a Look Inside Precariously Stacked Cabins

08 Apr

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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The mysterious eight-story stacked cabin house spotted among the trees in a remote area of Alaska is even cooler than previously thought, now that filmmakers have caught up to creator and self-described “frustrated architect” Phillip Weidner. In a two-minute documentary by Great Big Story called ‘We’re Not in Whoville Anymore,’ Weidner calls his Frankenstein creation ‘Goose Creek Tower,’ and reveals his motivation for building it, along with a few of its most notable features.

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“I like building. I just designed it out of my head, we didn’t have blueprints. We drew it out on cardboard, plywood, just as we were going. I started to build a 40 by 40 scribed log cabin, and I realized I could put pillars on top and put another house on top of the house. And I just kept going. We got to 185 feet and we stopped because two hundred feet is federal airspace.”

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Previously, we got a look at the outside of the structure overlooking Mount McKinley and the Denali National Park via Alaska Aerial Footage, which captured a dizzying video of its full height against the snowy landscape.

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The tower remains pretty bare-bones, with all of the framing complete but no windows or finished surfaces. There are even more levels than you can see from the outside, as the interior winds from one split-level platform to the next. Weiner, a former attorney, reveals that a hidden escape tunnel at the basement level leads to a safe room.

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“I wanted to be able to see,” says Weidner. “And that’s the reason I went up. You could see for at least three hundred miles. And of course when the northern lights are out, you can really see ‘em. I hope that Goose Creek Tower will inspire other people to do worthwhile things, not just in building but whatever they do with their life. And every time I go up there, it’s a different experience. It kind of gives you a sense of the enormity of the universe.”

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Shanghai Tower Timelapse Film Captures 4 Years of Construction

24 Mar

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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The second-tallest building in the world seems to appear out of nowhere, shooting into the sky as if of its own accord, in this stunning time-lapse video of the skyline in Lujiazui, China taken over a four-year period by filmmaker Joe Nafis. The 2,073-foot Shanghai Tower is surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and features a double-decker elevator offering the longest single elevator journey in the world at an amazing 1900 feet in under a minute. Its construction has made the skyline even more iconic, dwarfing all of the other buildings in the city.

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Every single shot taken by Nafis is a work of art – razor sharp, beautifully composed, dynamic – and seeing them all put together in the final video is breathtaking. The filmmaker spent 1,000 work hours taking and editing 350,000 photos to capture the process as each of the 128 floors is built.

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“Construction had already begun when I arrived in the city in 2009,” says Nafis. “The site was a large hole in the ground with construction crews milling around pouring concrete for the base. I began exploring the city looking for views and locations that would serve as groundwork for this video. In 2011, I secured a location with unobstructed views of Lujiazui where I could just glimpse the tower peeking behind the 185m (607 feet) Aurora Plaza.”

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“I maintained a camera there for the next 4 years until the tower was completed. In the meantime I took hundreds of thousands of photos from various viewpoints around the city filling up around 8TB in the process. In all, over 1000 hours were dedicated to this project in exploring, shooting and post-processing.”

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Sky Slide: L.A. Tower Adds Exterior Glass Chute 1,000 Feet Up

07 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

This undated artist's rendering provided by Overseas Union Enterprise Limited shows a glass slide 1,000 feet above the ground off the side of the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. The 45-foot-long attraction is part of a $ 50 million renovation that will also put a bar and open-air observation deck on the top floors of the 72-story building. (Michael Ludvik/OUE Ltd. via AP)

A new amusement offering on the 70th floor of the highest skyscraper on the West Coast is stepping up the game, going beyond glass viewing platforms, swimming pools and bridges to boast a fully-transparent outdoor slide for bold adventurers, all at a lofty 1,000-foot elevation.

aerial sky slide

Owners of the U.S Bank Tower are adding this extreme sightseeing measure to thrill (or terrify) visitors who wish to simulate the experience of jumping out of a skyscraper. The 36-foot Skyslide will take guests from the 70th down to the 69th floor.

skyscraper glass slide viewing platform

The so-called Skyslide is part of a new observation deck expansion that will charge $ 25 per ticket, or another $ 8 to ride the side of the scraper via a trap door.

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Attached by minimal metal supports, the clear glass will give stunning views of the surrounding city, at least for those brave enough to keep their eyes open on the way down. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, visitors can experience a similar thrill in slightly less overtly-dangerous environs, touring 50 years of history in 1 WTC elevator ride.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Smog-Sucking Tower Cleans 30,000 Cubic Meters of Air Per Hour

29 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

smog sucking machine

Successfully crowdfunded last year, the Smog Free Tower has just gone from concept to reality; these machines are now using green energy to create zones of smog-free space in public places in Rotterdam.

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Daan Roosegaarde’s Smog Free Project may not be a complete solution to urban air pollution, but it can at least carve out breathable spaces in key city spaces like downtown squares and public parks.

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Each 20-foot tower is lightweight and elegantly designed, running on about the same amount of electricity used by a water boiler (1,400 watts). Their low-energy ionization technology also powers LEDs that light the structures up at night.

smog device detail

The device sucks smog in from above then using a small positive current to charge ions, which in turn attach to fine dust particles.

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The particulates processed by the tower are to be compressed and turned into jewelry including rings and cuff links, or packed into transparent cubes, available to crowdfunding backers and others who wish to support the project as it continues to expand and grow.

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New towers are planned for cities in particularly urgent need around the world, including Beijing, Paris, Mexico City and Los Angeles. As a solution to environmental issues in cities, this may only be a first step, but at least it can provide some relief – a breath of fresh air for smog-weary citizens.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Sculptural Skyscraper: Ornate NYC Design Redefines Tower Decor

11 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

ornate manhattan skyscraper concept

Architect Mark Foster Gage has unveiled stunning plans for this 100-story, skyline-defining structure for Midtown Manhattan with views of Central Park. Commissioned by a developer to explore a statement-making skyscraper, the work includes carved figures and ornate balconies.

ornate midtown tower design

No expense was spared, at least in this conceptual stage: limestone-tinted concrete cladding and hydroformed sheet-bronze details are accompanied by brass-tinted alloy wrapping structural extrusions and enclosures. The program features ballrooms and restaurants at various heights as well as a mid-structure retail ‘sky lobby’.

ornate facade balcony level

Early skyscrapers puzzled architects initially, and many were envisaged as lower-height buildings (featuring a plinth at the base and crowned with decorative roofs) with the central portion stretched vertically. Then Modernists came along, smoothing out lines and discarding sculptural effects for glass and steel. This design goes a step behind recalling early towers, including iterative and undulating embellishments from top to bottom.

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Of course, there was a logic to architectural predecessors with elongated central zones – they were street-friendly at the bottom, and sky-friendly at the top, saving cost and complexity in the middle.

Whether such an extravegant reinterpretation of skyscrapers as this represents is indeed desirable or even feasible remains an open question. Still, there is something to be said for attempting to bring non-minimalist beauty back to tall buildings.

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In many ways, this approach represents a hybrid of old skyscrapers and new city-in-the-sky attitudes championed by contemporary architects, mixing programs at various levels to create a sort of self-contained structure for living, working and recreating.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Triangle Tower Approved: First New Paris Skyscraper in 42 Years

03 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

paris new skyscraper tower

At nearly 600 feet (180 meters) tall, this structure was narrowly granted permission to be the first skyscraper to grace the Parisian skyline in nearly half a century. Designed by Herzog & De Meuron, the Tour Triangle will be the third tallest building in the city, shorter only than one other skyscraper and the Eiffel Tower.

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The triangular tower (already nicknamed simply ‘Triangle’) is slightly pyramidal in shape, tapering toward the top on all sides but most dramatically along two of its facades. An affair of steel and glass, it is starkly modern with respect to its neighboring buildings. Perhaps like the Eiffel Tower, originally widely hated, or the Centre Pompidou, a structurally-inverted museum, it can become an icon within the city over time.

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Despite being located at 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, right on the edge of the central ring road surrounding the innermost part of the city (and arguably reinforcing a key nexus point), critics are concerned about the building overshadowing the surrounding urban landscape. The measure to approve its construction barely passed.

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Advocates are quick to point out that the building will create thousands of jobs both as it is constructed and once it is completed, as well as creating much-needed residential and office space in the city. For decades, the city limited new structures to around 100 feet, curbing development inside the city limits and forcing developers into suburban spaces.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Modernized Monument: Crumbling Medieval Tower Turned Library

06 Jun

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

torre del borgo 1

Matte black steel and timber-clad stacked volumes fill in empty spaces throughout the medieval Torre del Borgo in northern Italy, a recent renovation stabilizing the crumbling stone walls and connecting the four stories together for transformation into a public library. Still strong after all these centuries, the stone shell of the fortified building works in concert with modern materials to create a space that provides an important function to the community, and helps preserve its history.

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Before it was re-designed, the Torre was not only falling apart piece by piece, it lacked adequate means of passage from one floor to the next, and the interiors were unfinished. It needed structural support, extra space and additional windows to make it usable for the city of Bergamo.

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Architect Gianluca Gemini came up with “an architectonic and functional reinterpretation of the building” that identifies solutions to the degradation. Black iron ramps and walkways cut across the four main halls, making them fully accessible and highlighting a contrast between the smooth steel and glass and the rough, mottled stone. This solution is visually striking, invisible from outside and leaves plenty of room for library patrons to read and browse.

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The timber and concrete addition features floor-to-ceiling glazing to bring more natural light to the interior, and adds floor space, without significantly altering the original stone structure.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Rotating Condo Tower: Units Take Turns as the Penthouse Suite

28 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

rotating tower design

Spinning structures is not new territory, but shifting units around vertically as well as in horizontal circles is a fresh dimension of novelty with a likewise refreshed sense of purpose – to make housing truly fair for everyone, giving each person some time at (and views from) the top.

rotating tower

future variable unit views

Every since the elevator shifted the top floors from being least to most desirable in cities, real estate prices have reflected the relative values of these spaces. With this alternative arrangement proposed by designer Shin Kuo, each unit would take turns being on top as well as facing each different direction.

future spinning skyscraper condo

A lot of engineering is required to make such a thing work, from detachable infrastructural connections to prescribed times and safety locks for rotation (please keep limbs inside your home!).

Part of what makes the solution so intriguing is that it conceives of architecture like a product of industrial design – something that can be fundamentally improved upon through rethinking even our most basic assumptions.

future residential design diagram

Still, at least one big question remains: given the upfront and ongoing costs of making this whole thing work, who will ultimately be able to live in such a structure, which presents itself with such an egalitarian purpose? It may simply be ahead of its time – if more modular modes of plug-and-play dwelling become the norm, such infrastructure may also come to be more commonplaces (and come down in cost).

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Dr. Seuss Tower House: Storybook Structure Grew with the Trees

03 Apr

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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One odd slightly off-kilter story after another was added to this once-modest house in Alaska as the trees decimated by a wildfire grew taller and taller, the owner insistent upon maintaining his view of Mount McKinley. Located in the woods of Willow overlooking the Denali National Park, the tower house began as a one-story that wouldn’t look out of place in any Alaskan neighborhood.

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The forest recovered and the trees got taller and taller, obscuring the mountain. So, the story goes, the owner tacked on a second story. And then a third. After a while, it apparently just became a fun challenge to see how many tiny rooms could be stacked on top of each other until locals began calling the structure the Dr. Seuss House.

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Alaska Aerial Footage swung by the house to capture a dizzying video that really gives you an idea of just how tall and whimsical the house really is. From the footage, it looks as though the upper levels are unfinished, their windows covered in ripped plastic sheeting. The snow-topped roofs and balconies on each level just add to the slightly surreal effect.

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Posts Tagged ‘Tower’

World’s Tallest Tower: Dubai Superstructure by Santiago Calatrava

Dr. Seuss Tower: Get a Look Inside Precariously Stacked Cabins

Shanghai Tower Timelapse Film Captures 4 Years of Construction

Sky Slide: L.A. Tower Adds Exterior Glass Chute 1,000 Feet Up

Smog-Sucking Tower Cleans 30,000 Cubic Meters of Air Per Hour

Sculptural Skyscraper: Ornate NYC Design Redefines Tower Decor

Triangle Tower Approved: First New Paris Skyscraper in 42 Years

Modernized Monument: Crumbling Medieval Tower Turned Library

Rotating Condo Tower: Units Take Turns as the Penthouse Suite

Dr. Seuss Tower House: Storybook Structure Grew with the Trees

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