Foster + partners’ designs for the ‘zayed national museum’ in abu dhabi was revealed by
his highness sheikh mohammed bin rashid al maktoum, vice-president and prime minister
of the UAE and ruler of dubai and her majesty queen elizabeth II of the united kingdom.
conceived as a monumnet and memorial to the late sheikh zayed bin sultan al nahyan,
the founding president of the UAE, the museum will be the centrepiece of the saadiyat
island cultural district and will showcase the history, culture and more recently the social
and economic transformation of the emirates.

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The competition intention was to create a pioneering and innovative design concept which will stand as a new-age landmark and a symbolic voice to the world of Taiwan´s new spirit. The Tower was planned to be at least 300-meter high freestanding tower including offices for Taichung City Government, leisure and recreational functions, retail and educational centers and the new Museum of Taichung City Development.
The concept form proposed links a Taiwan´s significant cutting industry (diamonds) with the required program and some inspirational features such as the Eiffel Tower (structure and icon), the Origami (folding process and symbol generation) and Taiwan´s star-look flag (identity).

The massing development had in consideration the need to become the most visual focus and the new gateway image for Taichung area, so the building perception is different from every corner and establish renewable relations with the city from within the building and from the outside context.

The building has three distinct entrances (Museum, Tower and Offices) that are defined by three separated volumetric pieces that get unified in the first common sky Lobby above and create a public sheltered space below. On the central area is positioned the main functions (such as the Museum, Conference Centre, Fitness, Sky lobbies, Retail, Food and Beverage, etc) and on the peaks and the between areas is where we can find the offices, the sightseeing zones and the complementary functions.

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The “Taiwan Tower” by Romanian firm Dorin Stefan Birou Arhitectura almost looks too far-fetched to be real. In fact, it looks like it was plucked straight out of a futuristic sci-fi movie, like the Matrix. Crazy thing is, construction is set to start as early as 2012 on the 390-meter tower, designed to serve as an observation deck, office tower, museum, and urban park.

The project was inspired by the leaf, the shape of the island of Taiwan, and other Taiwanese symbols. Eight zeppelin-like elevators serve as observation decks for the tower and run on a track positioned vertically in a strong electro‐magnetic field. Each deck can carry from 50 to 80 people up to the top for stunning views of the city.

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Sociocultural evolution is an umbrella term of theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and societies have developed over time. Although such theories typically provide models for understanding the relationship between technologies, social structure, the values of society, they vary as to the extent to which they describe specific mechanisms of variation and social change.

Conceived as an iconoclastic intervention which implodes the conception of skyscraper at the global and local scale, Adamastor’s Throne exists to reveal and respond to the social fabric and cultural framework of an entire country, South Africa, but specifically Cape Town and its complex and contradictory history. The tower is an ontological experiment to provide spatial models toward recalibrating the relationship between technologies, social structure, and values of South African culture.

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Maine-based architecture firm Solus4 recently submitted this proposal for a Marine Research Centre in Bali Indonesia. The international competition was an opportunity to study the structure of tsunami waves, and sought to address the need for tsunami research and preparation in response to the devastation caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Solus4′s 27,000 sq ft (2,500 sq m) structure includes research labs, bedrooms for scientists, a seawater pool, aquatic garden library, and an auditorium. Tidal generators will be used along with photovoltaics to generate electricity, while solar passive and energy efficient design will minimize energy usage. Rainwater will be collected and seawater conversion systems will provide potable water for the facility.

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Many iconic bridges were built in the last century – the Brooklyn Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and Sydney Harbour Bridge, just to name a few. But what will bridges look like in the future? Seoul-based architecture firm, Planning Korea, gives us the answer…

Instead of serving just one purpose, the Paik Nam June Media Bridge in Seoul, South Korea is a .67 mile (1080m) megastructure would serve as a park, meeting space, mall, museum, and more. In addition to providing new green space to the city, the whole bridge would be covered with solar panels to generate its own energy.

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The Capital Gate tower in Abu Dhabi has been certified as the world’s ‘furthest leaning manmade tower’ by the Guinness World Records.

The certification comes after months of strict evaluation by a Guinness committee that started in January upon completion of the exterior of the 35-story tower. The 160-meter high tower leans at an angle of 18 degrees, more than 4 times the angle of the Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa. Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company is the owner and developer of the tower. The tower is designed by international architectural firm RMJM and is slated to be completed by 2010. The tower is being built using many innovative techniques that contribute to its unique shape and strength.

Capital Gate integrates several sustainability features. The tower sports a double-glazed façade that facilitates greater energy efficiency. This is due to the air being pre-cooled between the inner and outer facades before being expelled. Also, low-emissivity glass, being used for the first time in the UAE, keeps the building’s interior cool while maintaining transparency and eliminating glare. The building also features a unique stainless steel ‘splash’ descending from the nineteenth floor. This ‘splash acts as a design element as well as a shading device that eliminates 30% of the sun’s heat before it can reach the building. The ‘splash’ also twists around the building towards the south providing the tower maximum protection from sunlight.

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These are a pretty novel idea; rather than using up ground-space to build parks, build huge towers and build them on top of those. They were designed with places like Tokyo in mind, where they don’t have the land to rip down buildings for a park or a greenbelt. The towers would feature grass, fountains, benches… everything you could want in a park, except for that non-terror inducing “being at ground level” thing that usual parks have.

Every metropolis, regardless of its location in the world, at some point during its existence runs into the same problems: lack of free space, human congestion and air pollution. Ironically, large metropolitan cities, such as Tokyo or New York, are often populated by many with increased health awareness; people jogging or biking around tiny city parks and busy streets is a much more common sight than in smaller towns.

Unfortunately, research has shown that increased activity within urban development, such as jogging on busy streets along side traffic, increases our chance of breathing harmful particles associated with car fumes and other toxins in the air. The recommendation is simple: continue to exercise, but away from the streets. However, this is easier said than done in places like Tokyo. What is the answer if we can not move streets and radically change the existing urban landscape? We can create a new city within the existing one; a new public green layer for the existing metropolis.

Between engineering and biology, Hydrogenase is one of the first projects of bio-mimicry which draws its inspiration from the beauty and the shapes of the nature, but also and especially from the qualities of its materials and its self-manufacturing processes. The new green revolution is really in progress and enables us to design the air mobility of the foil after shock, 100% self-sufficient in energy and zero carbon emission! This inhabitated vertical aircraft inaugures a clean and ethic mobility to meet the needs of the population en distress touched by the natural and sanitary catastrophes, and all that without any runway! Its architecture is subversive and fundamentally critic towards the ways of living of our contemporary society that we have to reinvent totally! Let’s take off thanks to biofuels and let’s propel to the eco-responsible transport of the future!

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Proposed by design firm Philip Modest Schambelan + Anton Fromm, Hiding in Triangles is a new hotel for bike enthusiasts that clings to the side of a mountain. Located approximately 500 meters above the northern tip of Lake Garda, Italy, the hotel seeks to attract extreme sports enthusiasts visiting the Alps.

While there are no stairs to get inside, the hotel is accessible on every floor by a series of angled ramps that flow off of the natural curve of the mountainside and into different parts of the hotel.

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