NAMASTE TOWER - MUMBAI INDIA

NAMASTE TOWER - MUMBAI, INDIA

Say Namaste to the Namaste tower! Designed by the Atkins design studio, work IS currently underway on this 300m-62 storeyed mixed use tower that will encompass a hotel, office and retail space. The location is Ambika mills which is a couple hundred meters south of the Shangri-La hotel. The developer of the project is unknown.
The renders and text were submitted by Atkins to the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona (3-5 Nov 2010). Link to project page

Namaste: Hotel and Office Tower
Category: Future Projects - CommercialLocation: Mumbai, India
Architects: WS Atkins, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Atkins, United Arab Emirates

Following the long tradition of great Indian Architecture it was our aim that the Namaste Tower will stand as a landmark structure, representative of the burgeoning economic and cultural significance of India. We aimed to design a building that would become representative of the city: the picture postcard of Mumbai.

Key Statistics:
• 120,000 m2 of Gross Construction Area
• 380 key luxury hotel
• Exclusive restaurants, bars, banqueting and spa facilities
• 9,000 m2 of A grade office space
• 6,000 m2 of world class retail space
• 300 m overall building height

“Namaste"

The traditional Indian greeting of ‘Namaste’, where the hands are clasped together in greeting, is the inspiration for the design of this tower. In Sanskrit “Namaste` means “I bow to you`. It has a spiritual significance of negating one’s ego in the presence of another.

The Architecture of the Namaste Hotel builds on this ancient Indian expression. The two wings of the hotel are clasped together like hands greeting the city of Mumbai. In this way the architectural design of the hotel provides the ultimate symbol of hospitality and welcome, as seen in the as seen in the cultural context of India.

Visual Relationships to and from the Site
With a proposed height of 300 m the tower will be seen from a distance of more than 40 km. Therefore the visual appearance of the project as a major landmark is of great importance to the city of Mumbai.

Views from the tower will extend to the South over the Mahalkshi Race course towards the Mumbai Peninsula and to the South West over the Indian Ocean. The views to the north East are towards a number of adjacent towers that are currently being constructed. The orientation and massing of the tower have been designed in order to make the very best of these visual relationships.

The Building Skin

The tower has been designed to cater for large scale Indian weddings. The occasion of a Mehndi ceremony (where the hands and feet of the bride and groom are decorated with henna) is often one of the most important pre-wedding rituals in India.

The design seeks to build on the theme of the clasped hands by referencing the intricate Mehndi patterns through the treatment of the building skin. The tower is will be clad in fritted glazing that combines to form an architectural scale graphic on the exterior of the building. This will create a sense of transparency and depth to the building while at the same time helping to maintain the thermal qualities required to meet the building’s envelope design criteria.

It is proposed that the large scale canopies over the drop-off points area support an array of solar thermal collectors. Given the available surface area and annual sunlight conditions these have the potential to provide 12% of the energy required to heat the hot water for the hotel.

General Arrangement
The tower is made up of two separate wings (or hands) which together form the architectural expression of “Namaste”. The space between the wings forms the corridor spaces. At either end of the corridor space a pair of open atria will offer hotel guests dramatic framed views out over the city.

Internal Atrium Gardens

These atria also serve to bring natural light deep into the plan. At the plant floor levels these atria are broken with internal gardens that serve to bring greenery into the corridor and atrium spaces. It was a central design aim to ensure that the circulation areas of the hotel, (including corridors) are just as impressive as the rooms themselves.

The Podium
The geometry of the podium is designed to integrate fully with the design of the tower. Thus it is a highly symmetrical form that responds to the wing like canopies above the drop off. Containing mostly retail, the facade of the podium is activated with water features and fountains that cascade down to street level.

The Summit

At the summit of the building a generous quadruple height atrium space encloses a Sky Restaurant and Bar which will provide a unique vantage point for patrons to gain panoramic views out over the city.

Source: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1297345

Images are all copyrights of Architects WS Atkins, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

California Academy of Sciences

Renzo Piano demonstrates a mastery of light throughout his work. At the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, he exhibits the same care lighting a museum of the natural world as he has in lighting some of the world's finest art collections. In addition to demonstrating Piano's aesthetic and technical artistry, the new Academy building exemplifies deep sensitivity to site and environment. This great building recently received LEED Platinum certification, and won a silver-level Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction in 2005.

Light Pavilion
In the 1970s, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers revolutionized how people viewed museums with the Centre George Pompidou in Paris. Piano again sets a precedent in the museum world with a large-scale project that emphasizes "green" design. This 410,000-square-foot (38,000-square-meter) building, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop with local partner Stantec Architecture (formerly Chong Partners Architecture), provides a new home for the California Academy of Sciences — a combined aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and scientific research institution.

The new Academy building is an elegant pavilion structure with a living roof that appears to float over skinny steel supports. At the building's center is a glass-roofed piazza. The overall design is marked by open, flexible exhibit spaces with sight lines to the surrounding park. Using light as a primary element of design, Piano shines away any dark stereotype of a natural history museum with dim musty halls cloistering insular scientists. Even the glass chosen for the project, with a low iron content to maximize transparency, aptly supports the museum's mission of exploring, explaining, and preserving the natural world. The high-performance glass transmits daylight to most occupied spaces while also minimizing heat gain. Piano's extensive use of glass also serves as a reminder of nature's inherent fragility.

Post-Earthquake Opportunity
The California Academy of Sciences was founded in 1853, the first such scientific institution in the West. It moved to Golden Gate Park in 1916, growing over the next 60 years to encompass an expanding program and a cluster of 12 interdependent structures. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake significantly damaged some of the structures, with Bird Hall and the Steinhart Aquarium suffering the most damage. After considering repair and seismic retrofitting of the complex, the Academy's board of trustees in 1999 decided to instead build a single, sustainable new building on the Golden Gate Park site. Renzo Piano appeared at the selection interview alone, armed with only a green marker and a sincere desire to understand the organization's mission. After contemplating the existing buildings from the steps of the nearby de Young Museum and taking in the view from the roof of the Academy, Piano sketched a sinuous roofline that echoed the hilly topography of San Francisco. With this design concept he clinched the deal for the project. To allow for demolition and construction to occur, the Academy moved to a small temporary home near downtown for four years.

Raising the Plane
The Academy project called for integrating the many functions of the previous 12-building facility into a coherent whole. Piano started with the elegant concept of a pavilion that blends seamlessly into the park setting. He has described the museum as "cutting the ground plane of a park and lifting it 38 feet [12 meters] into the air." The undulating roof is planted with nine species of native California plants, which are expected to attract native wildlife. Accessible via elevator, the 2.5-acre (one-hectare) roof also serves as a living classroom, providing a forum for educating visitors about sustainable design and California's ecosystems.

The slopes of the "hills" on the roof draw cool air into the central plaza area and then naturally ventilate the surrounding exhibition spaces. Mechanized skylights open and close to regulate the accumulation of heat inside the building over the course of the day. Natural light reaches the living rainforest inside and the coral reef beneath it. Energy usage at the new Academy is expected to be 30 to 35 percent less than that of a typical building its size. Contributing to that are the six inches (15 centimeters) of soil on the living roof, which insulate the building, keeping interior temperatures ten degrees Fahrenheit (six degrees Celsius) cooler than a conventional roof. The soil is also expected to absorb 98 percent of stormwater, keeping approximately 3.6 million gallons (13.6 million liters) of runoff annually from flowing into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
The border of the pavilion is covered by 60,000 photovoltaic cells that will generate five to ten percent of the energy needed for the building's operation.

New Structure, Old Elements
In the words of Kang Kiang, the former project manager with Chong Partners, the museum design can be described as a "table" that rests on the "legs" of four similarly proportioned pavilions. In between the pavilions on all four sides of the building are curtain walls that ease navigation through the interior. A network of tension cables, described by Piano as a spider web, is connected to a ring truss that secures the building structurally. In the event of an earthquake, all the glass pieces of the plaza's ceiling have been designed with patch fitting to move six inches (15 centimeters) in any direction without breaking. The reinforced concrete walls that support the four pavilion "legs" provide shear walls for the transfer of horizontal forces.

The "leg" on the northeast side of the building preserves two limestone walls from African Hall, a Beaux-Arts-style structure built in 1934. Inside, the building's popular dioramas and ceiling details were painstakingly reproduced from the original. A new space at the far end of the hall houses a colony of live African penguins. Between the pavilions on the south side of the building, new neoclassical columns recalling those of the original Steinhart Aquarium frame the alligator tank, where original tiles and a bronze seahorse railing also preserve some of the character of the previous facility. On the southeast side of the museum, a Foucault pendulum dating to 1951 has been restored to its original glory and stands next to the state-of-the-art planetarium.

Green to the Bones
While only two walls from the old Academy building were integrated into the new structure, little of the demolition waste was wasted: over 90 percent was recycled or reused. And recycled materials permeate the new building. The structural steel contains 95 percent recycled content; the concrete contains 30 percent fly ash and 20 percent slag, both industrial by-products; and the insulation was made from recycled denim. At least half of the wood in the new Academy is Forest Stewardship Council-certified as sustainably harvested, and one fifth of the building materials were manufactured within 500 miles (805 kilometers).

Other green features include HVAC heat recovery systems, reverse osmosis humidification systems, operable windows in staff offices, and photosensor-controlled artificial lights. Low-flow fixtures and the use of reclaimed water from the City of San Francisco are expected to reduce overall potable water use by 78 percent.

Lively Exhibits
The design team has skillfully woven history, live exhibits featuring 38,000 organisms, and interactive displays that can change as quickly as scientific knowledge itself. Two 90-foot- (27-meter-) diameter domes flank the central piazza. To the east is the Morrison Planetarium dome, with a high-definition projection system and the ability to run a live feed from NASA. To the west is the rainforest dome, in which live exhibits imitate the rainforest ecosystems of Borneo, Madagascar, Costa Rica, and the Amazon. The walkways winding around the interior of the four-story glass dome have such tight curves that a roller coaster company was brought on board as a consultant to perfect the design. From the first floor of the dome, an elevator takes visitors to a tunnel-shaped aquarium representing a flooded forest floor in the Amazon.

Below the ground floor, visitors will find the new Steinhart Aquarium, designed by Thinc and Urban A&O with an emphasis on tactile, sculptural spaces that create the impression of exploring underwater landscapes. The Academy now boasts the deepest coral aquarium in the world, with a 210,000-gallon (795,000-liter) tank that houses a recreated Philippine ecosystem. Part of this exhibit features a crawl hole that leads to a 360-degree bulb, simulating the experience of scuba diving for visitors. This living museum not only provides a safe haven for the Academy's precious cargo of over 20 million specimens, and modern facilities for its research department, but also places its team of scientists in direct contact with museum visitors. The public can view actual lab research through a glass wall on the building's ground floor, and can see into office spaces above the entry hall to the aquarium. The museum itself is also used as a teaching tool about sustainability, with displays explaining the behind-the-scenes features and functions of the building. Renzo Piano says he hopes the new California Academy of Sciences facility will communicate to many generations to come that life on earth is at once beautiful, awe-inspiring, and tremendously fragile.

by Rachel Grossman

Rachel Grossman writes about travel, fine arts, architecture, and interior design from San Francisco. She holds a graduate degree in modern art history from the Courtauld Institute.

Project Credits
USGBC's California Academy of Sciences LEED score sheet (PDF)
Architecture: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Genoa, Italy, and Stantec Architecture, San Francisco, CA (formerly Chong Partners Architecture) Project Manager and Owner Rep: DR Young Associates, San Rafael, CA Engineering and Sustainability: Arup, San Francisco, CA, and Teecom Design Group, Oakland, CA General Contractor: Webcor Builders, San Mateo, CA Landscape Architecture: SWA Group, Sausalito, CA Living Roof Consultants: Rana Creek Living Architecture, Carmel Valley, CA Planetarium Technical Consultant: Visual Acuity, Brighton, England

Passage From :

http://www.architectureweek.com/2008/1112/environment_1-1.html

Image From :

http://www.architectureweek.com/2008/1112/environment_1-1.html

http://rawartint.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/07/28/california-academy-of-sciences-green-roof/

Marina Bay Financial Center, Singapore

Marina Bay Financial Center, Singapore
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

The development of Marina Bay marks the next chapter in Singapore’s ongoing commitment to a dynamic urban environment. Matching the energy of Sydney Harbor, Marina Bay is a vibrant urban room and a new focal point for the downtown district: Water is the unifying element that connects a performing arts center, retail, dining, hotels, residential buildings, and commercial facilities.

The Marina Bay Financial Center is situated on the first development site in the new district. Comprising three office buildings and two residential towers on 4.9-acres (two-hectares), the project employs a crystalline architectural language to blend dissimilar program elements into an integrated assemblage. The crystal forms, clad in heavily tinted, low-e glass with a high shading coefficient, are intended to create a strong profile on the Singapore skyline.

Their faceted surfaces break up the massing of the individual buildings by reflecting sunlight in different ways. The towers are oriented to maximize views of the marina.Three of the towers - two offices buildings and one residential structure - rise above a low podium, unifying both the ground plane and the overall development. The other two towers stand free of the podium assemblage. A city park, situated between the towers, covers a below-grade retail mall, which is connected to Singapore’s multimodal transportation network.

Connected by covered walkways, the commercial component contains retail spaces at grade. The 30-story office tower, which sits on a waterfront site, culminates in an open-air rooftop, where a 5,000-square-foot restaurant sits within a bamboo garden and features views of the bay and the civic core of Singapore. At 45 stories, the second office tower offers views past the lower building. Both of the commercial towers have projecting horizontal louvers to shade occupants from Singapore’s tropical sun. A public plaza around the lower building provides porosity through the site and a focal point for the retail component.Horizontal fins and continuous balconies serve as shading devices on the residential buildings and ensure formal continuity with the commercial towers.

Marina Bay Financial Center Singapore.

Information & Images Courtesy By Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

OMA Residential Tower In Singapore

Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest private development company, has commissioned the Office for Metropolitan Architecture for OMA’s first architectural project in Singapore – a 36-storey residential high-rise. The Singapore tower is a design by OMA Partner Ole Scheeren. Unlike most architecture firms OMA are a collaborative office which works as a Partnership. The 153 meter tall tower will be located at the intersection of Scotts Road and Cairnhill Road, in close proximity to Orchard Road, Singapore’s famous shopping and lifestyle street. With 20,000m² of built floor area, the building will provide 68 high-end apartment units with panoramic views.

The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core. The skyline of floating towers directly relates to the surrounding building volumes and explores the most attractive views towards the city center and an extensive green zone to the north. The lifted apartment towers reduce the building’s footprint to a minimum; the liberated ground level provides communal leisure activities embedded in the tropical landscape. “We are thrilled with the opportunity to create an outstanding project in partnership with OMA. The design reflects the new vibrancy and vitality of Orchard Road and Singapore. OMA with its extensive international experience will certainly bring a new perspective to luxury urban living and add to the cosmopolitan flavor of our development,” says Far East Organization Chief Operating Officer, Property Sales, Chia Boon Kuah. “The collaboration with the Far East Organization is an exciting opportunity to further engage Asia,” says Ole Scheeren, Partner of OMA. "The design vertically redistributes the floor area in four alternating towers to create a skyscraper in which architectural and urbanistic concerns merge with mechanisms that create added value. The architecture, in this sense, goes beyond form and generates symbiotic qualities”.

Passage & Image from:
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?upload_id=946&fuseaction=wanappln.projectview

Huaxi City Centre

Experimental Urban Vision
Huaxi City Centre
Guiyang, South Western China

Eleven young architects collaborate to design high-density urban nature in China.

Atelier Manferdini (USA), BIG (Denmark), Dieguez Fridman (Argentina), Emergent/Tom Wiscombe (USA), Hou Liang Architecture (China), JDS (Denmark/Belgium), MAD (China), Mass Studies (Korea), Rojkind Arquitectos (Mexico), Serie (UK/India), Sou Fujimoto Architects (Japan). In 2008, MAD organized and invited 11 young international architects to carry out an urban experiment to design the Huaxi city center of Guiyang, in South Western China.The Masterplan was developed by Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute, Studio 6, together with MAD.

In the past 15 years, around 10 billion square meters of built space has been created in the urban areas of China. In 20 years time, another 200 to 400 new cities will be built. Until now, the results of this overwhelming urbanization have been defined by high-density, high-speed and low-quality duplication making the urban space meaningless, crowded and soulless.Is there an alternative future for our cities that lies in the current social condition, where new technologies leavethe machine age behind, and where the city increasingly invades the natural space?

Passage from: http://www.arcspace.com/architects/11/11.html

Images from: http://www.arcspace.com/architects/11/11.html

Images Courtesy by MAD

Rotating Tower by Architect David Fisher

April 18, 2008 Dubai has well earned its reputation for architectural extravagance and excess. Not a cent has been spared as various developers vie to produce the biggest, the most stunning, the most luxurious and the most outrageous projects ever undertaken. And while this next project is right up there in terms of luxury, exclusivity and head-spinning architectural genius, it adds a fascinating extra dimension - the ability to generate ten times as much power as it will use.

Each floor of Dynamic Architecture's wind-powered rotating skyscraper is a single apartment with the ability to rotate independently, giving residents the ability to choose a new view at the touch of a button - quite a party trick. Wind_turbine between each floor will generate a vast surplus of electricity capable of powering the whole surrounding neighborhood. The method of construction is also fascinating; each floor will be pre-fabricated in segments in a quality-controlled factory before being lifted and secured into place on a concrete spine, bringing costs and construction times down significantly. Construction is set to begin soon in Dubai, with a second tower to follow in Moscow and numerous other sites around the world being considered. more>>>

passage from: http://www.gizmag.com/energy-positive-wind-powered-rotating-skyscraper-dubai/9192/

Images from: http://www.gizmag.com/energy-positive-wind-powered-rotating-skyscraper-dubai/9192/