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  ARABIAN NIGHTS

  Like a tentacled creature emerging from the desert sands, Aedas have created a monster powerhouse scheme for a new performance venue in Saudi Arabia. Surrounded by desert and occupying its very own island in the heart of a nature reserve, the Arabian Performance Venue is linked organically to both its context and its use. Connected to the mainland via long spanning bridges, trains and motor vehicles, the scheme is also approachable by sea, with each of the entrances cut into the landscape to open into water-filled cavities. In the centre of seven dancing forms, each with their own functions, the solidity of the main performance venue boasts to be the crown jewel of the overall construction. The volume of the main hall rises up from the waters below, and the auditorium hall opens up above to the main lobby of a hotel sitting on top of the venue enclosed in an outer glass shell.

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  ALPHA TOWERS

  Barcelona architects, Xavier Vilalta Studio have defined a new wave in innovation for the skyscraper archetype, having won a competition to design a tower for Doha, Qatar. Called Alpha Project, the design is completely self-reliant with its façade detailing based on the patterns of ancient Arabic tiles. Sensitively capturing the essence and culture of Doha city, it blends ancient design traditions as the basis of the plan and modern building technologies as a tool of expression. Its passive design is inspired by the local vernacular applied to a gigantic scale. The overall scheme provides stable conditions in the harsh Doha climate and utilises the surrounding natural resources to the full extent, harnessing energy from the wind, water and sun, becoming a sustainable development that combines both passive and active systems. With all the right ideas, Alpha Project strikes a fine balance between advanced, sustainable building design and historical antiquity.

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  EVERGREEN EVERRICH

  Creating a mammoth, sustainable residential community bursting with green roofs and sky gardens undulating in a single continuous loop is no easy feat. Vietnamese dwp architects have done it, unveiling the design of their Everrich 2 Apartments for District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. This self-sustaining community has already kicked off construction with approval from local authorities. The organic wave design softens the gigantic structure, with various dwelling types and landscaping opportunities on offer. Green strategies implemented by dwp include the use of precast concrete, maximum use of local masonry, unencumbered views from all apartments, natural ventilation, and other ecologically sustainable design strategies. The building will be an example of living on a grand scale in Vietnam with its green roofs, lavational shading treatments and skygardens. Images: Courtesy dwp architects

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  DATONG TWIN TOWERS

  There are those architects who love the bold, playful angles in funky, folded forms in deconstructivist design, and Plasma Studio is one of them. Having taken out first prize in an invited competition in Datong, Shanxi, China, Plasma Studio’s winning Datong Twin Towers scheme speaks volumes of the firm’s geometric obsession. A mixed use development, the scheme measures 70,000 square metres, and incorporates a hotel in one tower and offices in another. The towers distinguish themselves firmly along the cityscape, sited on a high-traffic street, and pulled away just enough from the site’s edge to provide areas of pedestrian circulation and greenery. The design of the towers centres around large light wells, with office and hotel spaces efficiently organised around them. Public spaces line the towers in its entirety, as the public lobby from the lowest level threads through a series of communal spaces up towards an accessible roof.

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  TRANSFIGURATION

  It’s very rare that one sees a Catholic church design with streamlined, undulating forms, curvilinear lines, and a heroic, voluptuous volume. London-based DOS Architects have designed just that, having won a competition for a 2000-seat church in Lagos, Nigeria. The Catholic Church of the Transfiguration will be constructed using steel arches of varying sizes at four-metre intervals, creating a sweeping roof that dips towards a centralised entrance. The church will accommodate a two-storey congregation area with glazing at either end to emphasise the building’s height. At face value, the church may seem unconventional, but its program, spatial organisation and internal religious motifs stay true to traditional church design principles. The main congregation hall incorporates a Latin Cross above the organ and altar and is designed with a nave above and two formal aisles at either side, coincident with the main axis of the church. At the highest point of the structure is the Latin Cross, a symbol of faith for the people of Lekki and Lagos at large, holding its own in the heavens within the city skyline. Images: Courtesy Meshroom ltd

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  A CULTURAL HEART THROUGH ART

  Cleveland, Ohio is in the middle of exciting, cultural and societal change, as Foreign Office Architects have unveiled their design for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, an assertion of urban renewal and downtown revitalisation. The museum rises from a hexagonal base four storeys to a perfect square roof, appearing as one unified volume as black mirror-finish stainless steel cladding blends harmoniously with tinted glazing. The ground floor’s lobby and meeting space will include a shop, café and a flexible event space, while part of the triangular site will be used as a public plaza and for seasonal functions. The new museum will fast become the beating heart of the city’s cultural centre, a building that will change and revitalise the way a community can learn, appreciate and see. Images: © FOA

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  MOSCOW’S DYNAMO

  Erick van Egeraat has won a closed international design competition for Dynamo Stadium in Moscow, a 300,000-square-metre proposal which will be one of the largest projects to be developed in the Russian Federation in the coming years. Sited in Petrovsky Park, the competition called for a contemporary, international design finesse to support Russia’s bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The scheme acts as a mixed use urban regenerator that will feature a 45,000-seat stadium arena, a 10,000-seat arena hall, retail and entertainment complexes, restaurants, parking and other facilities. Architecturally innovative yet historically sensitive, the new proposal is built within the ring of the park’s old stadium, an adaptive move that preserves the existing structure’s essence through its perimeter façade, whilst upgrading its facilities to meet contemporary functional requirements. The newer design grows quite literally out of the existing building as a seemingly floating bubble, taking Moscow to greater, new heights. Images: © Erick van Egeraat

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  UNDER THE SEA

  Playful, futurist architecture is just a stone’s throw away, as Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects have won a competition to design a new aquarium along the Georgian seaport of Batumi. The scheme of the proposed Batumi Aquarium is inspired by the characteristics of pebbles found on Batumi beach. Made up of four pebble-shaped structures, each volume houses an exhibition space representing a unique marine biotype, the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, the Indian Ocean, the Black and Red Seas and an interactive exhibition. Each pebble will be connected by a central space that will include a café, auditorium and retail area, with extensive outlooks to the beach and the Black Sea. Around the aquarium, a landscape of sea archipelagos encourage new opportunities for outdoor research and informal meetings along the beachfront.

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  Energy Roof

  Perugia may beckon even more tourists to its beautiful surrounds if the construction of the Energy Roof goes ahead. Hanging over the archaeological underground passage at Via Mazzini, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s proposed structure is likened to a type of energy ‘sponge’, featuring an outer layer of automatically optimised photovoltaic cells, which will ingest energy from the sun to the west. At the same time, the east wing simultaneously collates wind power from turbines in a second structural layer, and the third inner layer reinforces this as a combination of laminated glazing and translucent pneumatic cushions. These features blend together to boost not only the roof and passageway with extra energy, but also the city’s power grid as a whole. The plan still has a while to go yet, but if approved, the project will be one that will bring both an ultra-modern and historical influence to this ancient city. In their proposed plans, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU stipulates their wish to excavate the old Etruscan city wall in the area below Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, forming an underground public gallery space, accessed under the roof, which will feature an exhibition on the history of Perugia.

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  Green Governmental Lodgings

  Lovely Lund is set to get a makeover, with the innovative Danish Christensen and Co Architects (CCO) being chosen to design the new ‘greenest city hall’ in Sweden, ahead of almost 80 other architects from across Europe. Aiming to create a transparent and extrovert building, the new hall will combine openness with a heavier façade towards Lund’s beautiful historical quarter. The structure will be sculpted and appear faceted, and will constantly change from glass and light solid panels. An atrium behind the open west façade will build on the park’s lush atmosphere, whilst northwest of the building a new urban space is proposed, which will extend straight into the ground floor level of the new city hall. Sustainably using only a small fraction of energy that a normal building of this type would consume, ensuring it holds the title of greenest city hall in all of Sweden.