MORFAE

Framing ‘the tree’ and standing on a sheet of white gravel mark the absence from the city’s influence, quietly documenting time.

The building’s dynamic and innovative character is expressed via its spiral shape. On the facades, the movement is seen in the glazing strips that stretch towards the sky across the six storeys of the building and create the impression of a spiral sequence, while internally it is expressed via the main staircase in green fibre cement, which runs in a spiral form between the storeys in the unifying internal atrium.

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority unveiled OMA’s conceptual masterplan for a major new arts district in Hong Kong. Under OMA’s plan – one of three competing proposals – the 40 hectare waterfront site facing Victoria Harbour would become an authentic environment of three urban villages embedded in a new public park, Hong Kong’s largest.

OMA unveils its design for the major restoration and redefinition of one of Venice’s largest and most iconic buildings: the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a property owned by the Benetton family, adjacent to the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal.

In an effort to redress the balance between the resources of the wadi and the people living around it, the Arriyadh Development Authority has implemented a comprehensive development strategy, a programme of works that aims to restore and develop Wadi Hanifa as an environmental, recreational and tourism resource.

MAISON&OBJET, the trend-setting design trade show taking place in Paris from September 3 to September 7, 2010 comes with a very interesting special report from the Russian design scene in ‘Talents à la Carte’. Six Russian designers present their work and some of their projects are quite impressive.

Key design objectives focused on a single U shaped volume that makes full use of the site as well as the use of local materials, reduced energy use, and enhanced thermal performance.

The simple form of the building volume, the high degree of prefabrication, its excellent cellulose-fiber thermal insulation, as well as the application of calorific value technology and external shading all contribute to making this a very economical and ecological building.

A tapestry of PV-cells clad the mountain, as if the hills are covered in gold. On top of the hills, windmills are generating part of the energy needed for the 3.000 social houses and at the same time they work as icons/landmarks. 100% of the energy demand is generated on site by a combination of solar-, and wind energy.

An MVRDV Classic: The Expo 2000 Netherlands Pavilion shows a mix of technology and nature, emphasizing nature’s make-ability and artificiality.

It is the first house whose elevation has been made entirely of a plastic insulating material -Thermopian. Usually, this material has been used only for roofing.

The interior is treated in a fluent way with overlapping sequences of space and light in section and plan. This duality of focal and flow is the theme of the building.

PILLOW is a collection of armchair, pouf, table and flowerpots.

The project “the last resort” follows the strategy of a last resort and tries to challenge known and familiar concepts and show alternative ways of living.

Nina Tolstrup of Studiomama who produced a series of furniture and lighting made from discarded pallets has gone on to explore the possibilities creating furniture using old floorboards.

The staircase as a compressed spatial motion element of a former free field.

A bathroom where mutually alternating fragmentary mirror surfaces and lighting fixtures form a jigsaw puzzle of an image and a reflection.

A unique concrete house in an old city in Japan, with slits instead of windows, challenges the traditional form and function of the building’s openings.

RUR proposes a dynamic 3-dimensional urbanism that takes advantage of the site’s unique lateral positioning with respect to the city grid.