For this pop-up showroom the designers decided to go the opposite way real estate development usually launches a new apartment building. The result was an urban intervention more than a simple temporary commercial building; Nortis POD Stand - FGMF Architects. Easily built and fully reusable with zero waste, at night the building showcases an outstanding lighting design, periodically changing its color and providing a different scenario from the day-light appearance.
In the earlier stage, Gemdale • Metropolis Light - Shanghai PTArchitects will serve as the sales exhibition center for the whole community, and later turned into an integrated commercial square, becoming the community’s neighborhood center of daily life. The site’s volume, the changing nature of the façade’s texture and the composition of the details emphasizes the rationality of the figure-ground relationship. The design also considers the economical aspect, façade detailing combined with planar elements in design, achieving rich changes.
Built directly into a 751-year-old lava flow in the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark, The Retreat at Blue Lagoon Iceland - Basalt Architects encompasses a subterranean spa and geothermal lagoon. Days were spent exploring the site, letting cracks and fissures reveal how to best lay out the program. Improvisation was fundamental to the Retreat’s unique design process, requiring everyone; designers, client and contractor to share the same patient, respectful vision. Treasures of the site, the mineral-rich water, the rugged lava and centuries old moss, become the focus point of every space in the building, aiding in the psychological renewal of its users.
EDGE Olympic - EDGE Technologiesis a reinvention of the modern workplace, driving sustainability, innovation and well-being. The first in a new generation of smart buildings. It is the perfect example of user-centered design. The flexible spaces offer tailor-made solutions for all types of tenants and users. EDGE Olympic is founded on EDGE Technologies holistic four-pillar approach: well-being, sustainability, design and technology.
Dangrove - Tzannes is a purpose built storage facility which houses a private collection of contemporary Chinese art. The brief required art storage to be integrated with curatorial requirements, informal exhibition and performance spaces, research facilities, workshops and other related functions. A journey through the building is choreographed to enhance viewing experiences and understanding of the collection.
International House Sydney - Tzannes forms a new public place for Sydney, and a pivotal connection between the newly formed precinct of Barangaroo and the historic heart of Sydney CBD. The building manifestly demonstrates leadership in environmentally sustainable design and fosters good health and wellbeing for the office users of the building through the comprehensive and integral use of structural engineered mass timber construction throughout.
Situated in the south of Bahia, a place of great importance due to the local nature (registered by UNESCO), the Makenna Resort - Drucker Architects and Associates project is an intervention with clear intention to be in full harmony with nature and adapt to it. The architectural idea is of a primary architecture, which refers to a dissected and naked modernism. The buildings, which construction began in 2010, were restored in 2018, due to the local climatic aggression.
Located in the heart of Shenzhen’s HouHai district, MixC Shenzhen Bay - Lead8 is a high end contemporary lifestyle-oriented retail, dining, entertainment destination that blends an urban context with art, landscape and cultural elements. The architectural concept of ‘land and floating islands’ takes inspiration from the symbolic coastal mangrove forest of Shenzhen to create an inviting and lively environment. The overall design objective was to create a sense of combined luxury between a blended interior and exterior.
Morpheus Hotel - Leigh & Orange Limited is located at the heart of the Cotai Strip in Macau, establishing itself as a premier leisure and entertainment complex integrated with hotel accommodations, diverse entertainment features, international dining, and high-end retail facilities. The building is informed by the fluid forms within China’s rich tradition of jade carving and rich blue tones of the ocean through a subtle palate of silver cladding and sky blue glazing.
The recent renovation of Shimao Festival City - Kokaistudios in Shanghai illustrates a contemporary crossroad, and demonstrates how by expanding malls’ functionality and reconsidering circulation, these sizeable structures can be reabsorbed by the city as useful public spaces of engagement and exchange. Kokaistudios’ design concept is a theater and the renovation centres on visitor flow of three “roles” of users: tourists, audience and actors, with areas of the mall imagined as the foyer, auditorium, and backstage of a theatre.
To see more amazing entries from this year’s WAN Awards please click here.