[Press Release]
The future headquarters of Antwerp Port Authority will be designed by the London firm of Zaha Hadid Architects. The choice of architect was made at the Port Authority board meeting on 13 January. The new Port House will occupy the site of the technical services building on quay 63.

The Port Authority aims to make its operations more efficient by centralising the administrative and technical services which are now divided between the Port House and quay 63. The new headquarters will also solve the pressing shortage of workspace in the present Port House on the Entrepot quay. Some 500 people will be able to move into the new building when it is completed in 2013.

In addition to offering better accommodation, the future Port House will contribute to further development and upgrading of the part of the city known as Het Eilandje. The brief for the new building specified that it had to symbolise the Port of Antwerp as a world port and economic driver of Flanders and the Antwerp area. It also had to be built according to the principles of sustainability.

In selecting the architect it was decided to use the Open Call for Tender procedure of the Flemish Government Architect’s team. The procedure was launched in December 2007, and nearly 100 architectural firms responded. A shortlist of five firms was chosen:

• Consortium of TV A2O Architecten / Atelier Kempe Thill / Marcq & Roba / BEG from Hassel, Belgium
• Vier Arquitectos from La Coruña, Spain
• Xaveer De Geyter Architects from Brussels
• Zaha Hadid Architects from London
• Rapp + Rapp from Rotterdam

The jury/board of directors finally opted for the proposal by Zaha Hadid Architects, because:

• The design preserves as much as possible of the dignity of the present building as a monument, adding a new object to the site;
• The board and its advisors had confidence in a team such as Zaha Hadid Architects being able to further develop the project so as to achieve a high quality end result that can act as a “shop window” for the Port Authority.

The estimated construction cost is 31.5 million euros excluding VAT and architect’s fees. This includes all the work for an office building with around 12,000 m² of floorspace for around 500 people, together with underground parking for 300 or so cars.

The new building fits in with the Port Authority’s future-oriented investment policy. At the same board meeting it was also decided to purchase four tugs as part of a renewal series of nine. And of course there will be further investments in infrastructure for expansion and renovation of the port. The various Flemish port authorities are currently holding discussions with the Flemish Government about financing for basic port infrastructure.
The new Port House forms part of a programme of improvements to the Port Authority’s own buildings. In addition to various renovation and new construction work that has already been carried out, a public call for tender has been issued for the new VTS (Vehicle Traffic Service) building beside the Zandvliet lock.

Design proposal

The design team from Zaha Hadid Architects proposed a very dynamic architecture that strikes up a dialogue with the Oosterweel road link, with the Lange Wapper bridge forming a backdrop to the New Port House. With its unique design, its facade architecture and its height of 46 metres, the new Port Authority will be an iconic building, visible from many different directions.

The concept is a free interpretation of a beam-shaped volume raised above the existing fire brigade building and supported on three sculptured concrete pillars housing the stairs and lifts. Two of the pillars are situated on the covered inner courtyard of the firehouse, while the third is located beside an external support point and consists of a panoramic lift shaft.
The new volume is oriented North-South parallel to the Kattendijk dock. The head of the building on the South side is a frame that looks towards the city and clearly marks the start of the port area.
The outside walls are made up of glass triangles, some transparent and some reflecting. These do not all lie in the same plane but are rotated slightly with respect to one another, creating an attractive reflecting play of incoming light in a reference to Antwerp’s diamond industry.

The present firehouse will be kept free of building all around, so that the four outside walls will be fully respected. As for the arrangement of the inside spaces, consultations will be held with Flanders Real Estate Heritage and the Monuments department of the City of Antwerp to determine whether open-plan offices (as laid down in the schedule of requirements) are possible, either partly of throughout.

The inner courtyard will be roofed over at the height of the second story so as to create an air-conditioned inside space. This central entrance hall will be considered as a semi-public space, with various enquiry desks (Personnel department, Harbourmaster’s Office, Planning Permission & Environment Permit office and Port Dues payment desk) integrated in the inside wall portals.

A sculptural, sloping roof unites an underground lobby with the covered inner court. Access to the underground car park is an important aspect of the overall concept, with the loading & unloading bays and the refuse handling facilities also located here. The car park has space for 300 or so cars and consists of a single underground level. The design of the square can be arranged so that daylight is allowed to enter. The above-ground layout forms part of a design project that is being carried out in consultation with the city departments responsible, with the main imperative being to “preserve the visual quality of the outside spaces in the Het Eilandje area.”

The open plan offices are indeed very open, so that office staff will have a great impression of space with a view along the various outside walls. The concept for the open plan office also allows for small areas in which to hold meetings, along with separate study offices.

Designer : Zaha Hadid Architects via Bustler

[Press Release]
MVRDV wins Gwanggyo City Centre Competition, near Seoul, South Korea

The Daewoo Consortium and the municipality of Gwanggyo announced the MVRDV concept design for a dense city centre winner of the developer’s competition for the future new town of Gwanggyo, located 35km south of the Korean capital Seoul. The plan consists of a series of overgrown hill shaped buildings with great programmatic diversity, aiming for high urban density and encouragement of further developments around this so-called ‘Power Centre’, one of the envisioned two centre’s of the future new town.

Since the beginning of the millennium local nodes with a high density concentration of mixed program are used in Korean town planning. These nodes consist of a mix of public, retail, culture, housing, offices and leisure generating life in new metropolitan areas and encouraging further developments around them: the Power Centre strategy. The Gwanggyo Power Centre will consist of 200,000m2 housing, 48,000m2 offices, 200,000m2 mix of culture, retail, leisure and education and 200,000m2 parking.

This diverse program has different needs for phasing, positioning and size. To facilitate this all elements are designed as rings. By pushing these rings outwards, every part of the program receives a terrace for outdoor life. Plantations around the terraces with a floor to floor circulation system store water and irrigate the plants. The roofs of these hills and the terraces are planted with box hedges creating a strong, recognizable, cohesive park. This vertical park will improve the climate and ventilation, reduce energy and water usage. As a result a series of overgrown green ‘hills’ appear in the landscape.

The site is surrounded by a beautiful lake and forested hills, the design aims to create a landscape on top of the new program that enlarges the green qualities and that links the surrounding parks by turning the site into a park.

The shifting of the floors causes as a counter effect hollow cores that form large atriums. They serve as lobbies for the housing and offices, plazas for the shopping center and halls for the museum and leisure functions. In each tower a number of voids connect to the atrium providing for light and ventilation and creating semi-public spaces. On the lower floors the atriums are connected through a series of public spaces on various levels linking the towers and serving the outdoor facilities of the culture, retail and leisure program. The Power Centre creates a dense urban program with a green regard.

The concept plan is currently at the Gyeonggi provincial authority’s Urban Innovation Corporation for further development and feasibility study, the entire new town will be a self sufficient city of 77,000 inhabitants. The estimated budget and timeframe are still in the process of being established, completion is envisioned for 2011. A consortium lead by Daewoo develops the project with local firm DA Group, which commissioned MVRDV to design the scheme. British firm Arup is involved as engineer.

Designer : MVRDV via IGreenSpot via WordArchitectureNews

In the NEUE HAMBURGER TERRASSEN project LAN Architecture makes reference to the typology of the social and workers residences (Terraces Houses) to restore a contemporary version. The studio develops a plan integrating different typologies from individual houses to collective residences. The project consists in a five story corner building on the North creating a connection with the existing fabrics and in a series of housing block in the form of “U”, opening to the external green spaces and with an enclosed common green space. Each block contains multi-story single-family houses both oriented on common spaces and on the street. We limited car circulation with accesses to common parking along blocks sides to entirely devote the street to pedestrians. The street becomes a further space to “live”. Particular attention was paid to neighbourhood relations and to create collective “sociability” spaces. Buildings façades are very homogeneous, classical and regular creating a unitary image for the whole district.

Designer : Lan Architecture

Designer : Daniel Bailey

The design calls for an exciting new cultural centre in the new Seven Pearls district of Dubai. This landmark development will accommodate an opera house, playhouse, arts gallery, performing arts school and themed hotel on an island in Dubai Creek just off the mainland part of the district. All of these facilities will be state of the art to host world class performances and exhibitions. The opera house will have a seating capacity of 2,500 while the playhouse will have a seating capacity of 800.

The arts gallery with 5000m2 of exhibition space is indeed a full size exhibition facility comparable to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The hotel will accommodate guests in a 6 star setting. Sited on an island in Dubai Creek, the development will be connected to Greater Dubai by a road connection to the mainland.

The proposal houses all of the facilities within a single striking structure. The gentle winding form evokes images of mountains or sand dunes. Rising out of the ground, this form is both a part of the landscape yet very much a distinct element in the skyline. The surrounding landscape forms build up to the main building. These constitute open park spaces as well as ancillary functions such as the parking facilities and the monorail station, which are either tucked under or integrated into the andscape forms.

The two peaks correspond to the opera house and the playhouse. The tall requirements of the fly towers are nested under these peaks. From these peaks, the form gradually swoops down to touch the earth. The form is scalloped away where the three major entrances are to be found. The main entrances for audiences visiting either of the two performing arts auditoria are on the north side of the building. At the ground level will be the VIP entrance with car drop off right at the entrance and a separate foyer from the main foyer. This foyer serves both the opera house and the playhouse. The main foyer is a gentle multi-tiered landscape at one floor above the ground floor. It also serves the opera house and the playhouse as well as having an interior connection to the arts gallery.

Floating above this foyer are further foyer spaces serving the balcony levels. The foyer levels from the main foyer level up are visually connected to each other through a series of voids. This allows for direct views between the main foyer at the first floor all the way up to the highest balcony foyer. Surprising views are abundant in this space.

The auditoria are contained in flowing shapes that seem to emerge from the underside of the main shell. This inner shell however, does not quite touch the main shell. Instead, the two surfaces disappear into a light gap between them. Supporting functions found off the foyer are defined by walls that merge into the underside of the main shell.

Designer : Zaha Hadid Architects via Dezeen

Dubai Holidays go to dubai and enjoy the luxury treatment holiday.

Concept Car Embryo is powered by fuel cells which uses clean fuels like hydrogen. It is completely ecological as it is made of recyclable aluminum and silicon materials used mostly for interior elements. Design wise, it looks like an organism, however safety wise too, it derives the same thought. Soft material is used for exterior while inside it has a protective layer to absorb the impact and keep the passengers safe. The safety system also acts as a communicating system for information like speed, distance etc. and if necessary auto pilot also reacts to avoid possible accidents. With all these safety and design features it surely is a winner in robotic era.

Designer : Goran Marinkovic

The Solid vehicle does have the standard protection means, like safety-belts and airbags. It also has two special elements installed in front and in the back of the car. These elements provide additional maneuverability by turning around. They also are very strong in if a crash occurs as they take the damage on itself and thus saving the booth.

The deformation of the Booth is prevented by a frame ring. In the interior, a display is installed thus creating a panoramic view. The Airbags installed in wheel of the car will operate at the side. With an approach sensor it turns on the auto brake system. The car creates the sensation of reliability as its Image is associated with specialized machines, all we can say is welcome to the future.

Designer : Nikita Gutsalenko

The tower is easily accessible via both public and private transportation. Hotel and office lobbies have dedicated street entrances and vehicle pick-up and drop-off locations. Service access to the building and parking are available below grade.

Designer : Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill via IGreenSpot via MetaEfficient

There are three basic modes: highway mode, city mode and parking mode. Highway mode has a long wheel base, good aerodynamics and a lower focal point. City mode has a short wheel base, a high point of view, and higher sitting for the driver. Parking mode allows the vehicle to occupy very small parking spaces thanks to the more vertical configuration of the car?s body. The position of the driver?s seat is dynamic. It changes in sequence with the car?s body position.

Designer : Denis Voenkov, Ivan Kuryachiy, Alen Kharinkin from BEZ-A