Can you believe this is concrete? Why don’t we have this quality of materials in our streets and public spaces – think what could be done with local motifs- I know it’s decoration but how interesting.
‘born out of its aristocratic life, it turned into stone in order to endure the unmerciful weather, live outside, sleep under the stars and be connected to life.
See more pics and the inside..
i’m from milan, i live very closed to the area where they’re building it, so i think i can spend a minute to say a word.
i just want to say that this project it is really NOT what people from milan NEED.
In the competition there were other projects (like Renzo Piano’s masterplan) really well-designed, BUT (guess what ?!) WAS CHOSEN THE ONE WITH THE BEST BUYING OFFERT (the one is showed here).
i’m very sad about this.
designboom recently visited the milanese studio of arata isozaki + andrea maffei associati, where wereceived an exclusive look at ‘citylife’, the new skyscraper currently under construction at the historic fairgrounds in milan. designed in response to the city’s chaotic industrial core, the office tower features a differentiated form which looks to reinterpret and simplify the complex, urban tension of milan. part of a larger master plan, the design reflects the city’s changing aesthetic, its slim, modern facade representing a renewed urban center.
surface that wraps around the structure to form a fluid floor, wall and roof form.
The future of dwelling is alive. That is the belief of three young German architects from Stuttgart who are banking on a completely new building support structure—plants firmly rooted in the soil. In this way, houses and cities could literally grow into the skies. They have already created Baubotanik, or ‘building botany’, bridges and pavilions.
If it were up to Ferdinand Ludwig, mankind would one day again live in trees. The Stuttgart architect dreams of roofs and walls that consist largely of living ash, poplar and plane trees, firmly rooted in the soil. Whole forest-cities could then reach into the skies, cities whose leafy houses could, moreover, contribute to purifying the air.
Building castles in the air? Not quite, since Ludwig, together with Oliver Storz and Hannes Schwertfeger, forms the core of the research group ‘Building Botany-Living Architecture,’ or ‘Baubotanik’ at the University of Stuttgart in Germany.
The three Ph.D scholars are the founders of a new architectural discipline, in which irrigation systems and hedge clippers take the place of plumb lines and trowels. Ludwig is in charge of biology and botany, Storz of the engineering and construction aspects, and Schwertfeger of the architectural theory.
The sale of South Africa’s landmark V&A Waterfront is now complete and all conditions have been fulfilled by the equal purchasers, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), represented by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Growthpoint Properties.
Announced yesterday, 9 June 2011, the new owners have announced a R500-million redevelopment of the landmark Clock Tower precinct over the next four years, one of the biggest business developments since the inception of the V&A Waterfront almost 22 years ago. Development has already commenced.
The transaction represents South Africa’s biggest single property transaction to date, with the new owners paying a combined investment of some R9.7 billion for South Africa’s most popular tourist destination, widely recognised as one of the finest waterfront developments in the world.
The new integrated waste management by-law, which has now come into play in the Cape Town Municipality, has placed the onus upon any organisation to provide an integrated waste management plan for approval by the City when they plan to undertake any project. This applies to building contractors, or any development at all where there might be waste accrued as a result of activities, such as a large sporting event.
Regulations around the disposal of building waste and rubble is critical to maintaining environmental balance, and a proper waste plan has to be submitted to Council along with plans. Anyone who undertakes any form of recycling, reuse or recovery, including scrap dealers and buy-back centres, now has to abide by both the City’s by-law and the National Waste Act.
These and other implications of the by-law as a response to requirements stipulated in the National Waste Act where discussed at a seminar hosted by the Institute of Waste Management Southern Africa (IWMSA)’s Western Cape Branch and it’s Waste Minimisation and Recycling Interest Group (WMRIG) recently.
For further information regarding the licensing of Waste Management operations, please visit:http://www.capegateway.gov.za/eng/yourgovernment/gsc/406/services/27683/202219.
Kibera is the largest slum in Africa, situated in Nairobi, Kenya. Many UN agencies, including UN-HABITAT, US Government agencies such as USAID, and NGOs, like Carolina for Kibera, have presence nearby in Nairobi, and as a result, Kibera is one of the most well known, researched, and serviced slums anywhere. Despite this focus, Kibera was literally a blank spot on the map, its patterns of traffic, scarce water resources, limited medial facilities, etc. remain invisible to the outside world, and residents themselves. Without basic knowledge of the geography of Kibera it is impossible to have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of residents of Kibera.
Map Kibera has produced the first complete free and open map of Kibera. In November 2009, local motivated young people learned to create maps using OpenStreetMap techniques. This included surveying with GPS, and digitization of satellite imagery and paper based annotation with Walking Papers. Individuals from the blossoming Nairobi tech scene helped train and make connections with the larger community, and created a sustainable group of map maintainers beyond the initial three week November effort. Data consumers were consulted for their needs, to help add direction to feature types collected, and aided to immediately make use of the map data. Projects leads are Erica Hagen and Mikel Maron.
A strangely sterile world without any people – would this be what the world would look like if only architects and engineers an even landscape architects designed it …..
Serous infrastructure as can only imagined in Europe in the 21st Century -…. while Africa weeps….. seriously though, it is interesting that even in Europe it is considered notable that a “the client understood the requirement to add, from the onset, a landscape architect to the design team.
.” – when will the engineers and politicians who collaborate on these vast infrastructure projects “get it” that it is a collaborative design effort – not just hard engineering finance and politics that makes out environmental interventions sustainable now and in the future?