Bamboo Forest House

ROEWU's Bamboo Forest House: a showcase for fledgling architects

Emerging UK based architect ROEWUarchitecuture recently completed this vacation house for an extended family in Eastern Taiwan. Located in a dense urban area and confined on two sides by party walls, the house gains light and air through its street façade, which is treated with an undulating bamboo screen that also provides privacy and security for the building’s occupants.

The interior is intended to be experienced as an organic forest. Sunlight and air filter in through the bamboo poles changing the character and use of the space over the course of the day and the changing seasons. In winter, a karaoke lounge and spa on the second floor form a focal point for bathing and singing. During the summer, the roof deck, with its variably patterned sunshade system and surrounding bamboo, invites cool breezes and becomes the family’s favourite gathering spot.

Natural ventilation is provided to the entire house through several double and triple-height void spaces that penetrate through the heart of the house and open to the roof.

[worldarchitecturenews]

Renzo Piano unveils new plans for London

New London landmark for Legal & General and Mitsubishi estate company.

A new central London landmark is unveiled today as part of the regeneration of the Saint Giles area. Central Saint Giles, which is due for completion by the end of 2009, is the new groundbreaking 500,000 sq ft mixed-use scheme from internationally acclaimed architect Renzo Piano and joint developers Legal & General and Mitsubishi Estate Company.

Central Saint Giles, which replaces a redundant 1960’s office block previously occupied by the Ministry of Defence, is an environmentally friendly, sustainable, colourful development that comprises office space, retail, restaurants, cafes, residential and a new public piazza. The development, on which building work has already started, will be a pedestrian-friendly site, connecting five different regions of the West End.

On a 1.75-acre island site, the development sits in a strategic, exceptionally well-connected, location between Oxford Street and Covent Garden. The design consists of three buildings with 13 irregularly orientated, individually coloured ceramic & glass facades. When completed, Central Saint Giles will be 12 storeys tall and will comprise 393,000 sq ft of high quality office space with some of the largest floor plates (42,000 sq ft) in the West End, 27% of the site’s area is dedicated to open space and the development includes 109 residential units, 50% of which will be affordable housing.

World renowned architect Renzo Piano commented: “The architectural challenge was to create a development that brings heart and soul into a forgotten part of Central London’s urban fabric. A place that, by adding levitated, articulated and colourful buildings, physically expresses the people-focused and socially responsible credentials of modern corporate tenants”. < p>Bovis Lend Lease is building the scheme, Stanhope plc have been appointed as development managers and Bovis as construction managers. Fletcher Priest have been appointed as Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s executive architects to the site. The joint letting agents are Jones Lang LaSalle and Cushman & Wakefield

Worldarchitecturenews

Exuberance in Panama

Trump brings luxury with Ocean Club tower

Trump Ocean Club is a first of its kind for Panama City. Situated on Punta Pacifica, the 70 storey tower is set to offer the luxury of hotel-living for its residents combining amenities such as a wellness spa, yacht club, private beach, gourmet restaurants and a state of the art business centre with condominium residences and bay lofts.

Covering 2.8 million sq ft the tower will offer accommodation in 509 condominiums, 126 bay lofts and will open 369 hotel condominium suites for visitors. Other amenities will include a 45,000 sq ft Trump Casino, an Elite sky lobby and a 24 hour medical service. Apartments will range from $400,000 to $1million.

Designed by architect Arias Serna Saravia the project will take three years to build with completion expected in 2010.

[www.worldarchitecturenews.com]

Business building in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi builds monumental retail park in new business district

Over 3 million sq ft of office space designed by American firm Goettsch Partners has been commissioned for Abu Dhabi’s Sowwah Island in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi’s recently published urban framework plan, entitled Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, has designated Sowwah Square as the city’s new central business district.

The new design features an iconic stock exchange building surrounded by four office towers overlooking the water. Two levels of retail and underground parking will also add to the monumental build. The stock exchange building will itself offer 233,000 sq ft of space. Glass-enclosed with a roof the size of a football field, the building will rise 90 ft above a 160-ft-diameter water feature on massive stone piers. The four granite piers house the stairs, mechanical risers and service elements for the exchange.

The four office towers contribute 2,892,500 sq ft to the total mass, two of which are at 31 storeys and the other two at 37. The first full office floor of each building starts 110 feet above the ground level, providing a highly transparent, open lobby and elevating the views on all tenant floors. A landscaped plaza connects the four buildings and the exchange at grade.

250,000 sq ft of upscale retail space and two partially submerged parking lots with room for 5,200 cars will complete the park.

Active and passive solar shading, double skin facades, condensation collection and active lighting controls are all to be used allowing the project to surpass LEED requirements and focus on true sustainability.

James Goettsch, president of GP, stated, “Sowwah Square will establish the major new business center in Abu Dhabi and serve as a hub for the Middle East. As the city continues its rapid development, the project will set an international standard of design and technical quality.”

Construction commenced on the site of Sowwah Square in summer 2007, with the full development scheduled for completion in 2010.

Niki May Young

News Editor

worldarchitecturenews

No need to pack your trunk

Foster + Partners’ design ensures elephants have a happy home



A house fit for the King of the jungle will open this week in Copenhagen Zoo as Foster + Partners’ Elephant House design is officially inaugurated. The etched glass dome will officially open on Wednesday having replaced the original 1914 Elephant house.

The new structure aims to restore the visual relationship between the zoo and the park and to provide the Elephants with a stimulating environment with easily accessible spaces from which to enjoy them.

Two glass-topped domes apparently rise out of the earth creating a synchronicity between the design and its surroundings and optimising the passive thermal performance of the structures. The two areas having been created as separate spaces due to the elephant’s propensity to wander away from the main herd thus giving the animals an environmental choice. A beautifully latticed design is created by the glass which is further enhanced with sporadic detailing resembling fallen petals atop the glass.

Copenhagen Zoo benefits from more than 3,000 animals but the Indian elephants which make up the inhabitants of this new enclosure are considered among the most popular. The structure creates new zoological standards in terms of enclosure-design by allowing the elephants to sleep together. A heated floor mimics a section of dry riverbed where elephants can rest and maintain healthy feet out of mud or water. Water pools, mud holes and shading objects also allow the animals extra comfort and interest.

Niki May Young

News Editor

Worldarchitecturenews

Alternate practice and specializations

Recent decades have seen the rise of specializations within the profession. Many architects and architectural firms focus on certain project types (for example health care, retail, public housing, etc.), technological expertise or project delivery methods. Some architects specialize as building code, building envelope, sustainable design, historic preservation, accessibility and other forms of specialist consultants.

Many architects elect to move into real estate (property) development, corporate facilities planning, project management, construction management, interior design and other specialized roles.[wikipedia]

Construction role

Architects typically put projects to tender on behalf of their clients, advise on the award of the project to a general contractor, and review the progress of the work during construction. They typically review subcontractor shop drawings, prepare and issue site instructions, and provide construction contract administration (see also Design-bid-build). In many jurisdictions, mandatory certification or assurance of the work is required.

Depending on the client's needs and the jurisdiction's requirements, the spectrum of the architect's services may be extensive (detailed document preparation and construction review) or less inclusive (such as allowing a contractor to exercise considerable design-build functions). With very large, complex projects, an independent construction manager is sometimes hired to assist in design and to manage construction. In the United Kingdom and other countries, a quantity surveyor is often part of the team to provide cost consulting.

Design role

Increasingly, the architect participates in the development of requirements the client wishes to have met in the building. They design projects based on a client requirements, conditions particular to the site, and many other external needs and wishes. Architects must also pay attention to the economics and budget for a particular commission.

Architects deal with various government jurisdictions on local and federal levels, regarding numerous regulations and building codes. The architect may need to comply with local planning and zoning requirements such as required setbacks, height limitations, parking requirements, transparency requirements (windows), land use and other requirements. In many established jurisdictions, design guidelines and historic preservation guidelines must be adhered to.

Architects also prepare technical documents filed for permits (such as development permits and building permits) which require compliance with building, seismic and various other federal and local regulations. The documents (construction drawings and specifications) are also used for pricing and, ultimately, actual construction.

Architects in practice

An architect must thoroughly understand the building and operational codes to which his or her design must conform, so that he or she is not apt to omit any necessary requirements, or produce improper, conflicting, ambiguous, or confusing requirements. Architects must also understand the various methods available to the builder for building the client's structure, so that he or she can negotiate with the client to produce a best possible compromise of the results desired within explicit cost and time boundaries.

The idea of what constitutes a result desired varies among architects, as the architectural design values which underlie modern architecture differ both between the schools of thought which influence architecture and between individual practising architects.

The practice of architecture is a business, in which technical knowledge, management skills, and an understanding of good business practice are as important as creative design. In practice, an architect accepts a commission from a client (an individual, a board of directors, a government agency or a corporation). This commission may involve the preparation of feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a single building, or the design of several buildings, structures and the spaces between them. Increasingly, the architect participates in the development of requirements the client wishes to have met in the building. Throughout the project, from planning to occupancy, the architect usually acts as the coordinator of a team of specialists (the "design team"). Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers, as well as other specialists, are generally retained by the client or the architect. The architect must ensure that the work of all these different disciplines is coordinated and fits together in the overall design.

Working hours are typically over a standard work week, but when working to tight deadlines it is not uncommon for architects to work long hours, including evenings, weekends and all nighters. Architects are predominantly office-based, but their work includes frequent out-of-office visits with clients and to job sites.

The Architect

Main article: Architect

Architecture as a profession is the practice of providing architectural services. The practice of architecture includes the planning, designing and oversight of a building's construction by an architect. Architectural services typically address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user.

Architecture did not start to become professionalized until the late nineteenth century. Before then, architects had ateliers and architectural education varied, from a more formal training as at the École des Beaux-Arts in France, which was founded in the mid seventeenth century, to the more informal system where students worked in an atelier until they could become independent. There were also so-called gentlemen architects, which were architects with private means. This was a tradition particularly strong in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lord Burlington, designer of Chiswick House, (1723-49) is an example. Some architects were also sculptors, such as Bernini, theater designers such as Filippo Juvarra and John Vanbrugh, and painters, such as Michelangelo and Le Corbusier.



In the 1440s, the Florentine architect, Alberti, wrote his De Re Aedificatoria, published in 1485, a year before the first edition of Vitruvius, with which he was already familiar.[10][11] Alberti gives the earliest definition of the role of the architect. The architect is to be concerned firstly with the construction. This encompasses all the practical matters of site, of materials and their limitations and of human capability. The second concern is "articulation"; the building must work and must please and suit the needs of those who use it. The third concern of the architect is aesthetics, both of proportion and of ornament.





The role of the architect is constantly evolving, and is central to the design and implementation of the environments in which people live. In order to obtain the skills and knowledge required to design, plan, and oversee a diverse range of projects, architects must go through extensive formal education, coupled with a requisite amount of professional practice.





The work of an architect is an interdisciplinary field, drawing upon mathematics, science, art, technology, social sciences, politics and history, and is often governed by the architect's personal approach or philosophy. Vitruvius, the earliest known architectural theorist, states: "Architecture is a science, arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning: by the help of which a judgement is formed of those works which are the result of other arts." He adds that an architect should be well versed in other fields of learning such as music and astronomy. Vitruvius' broad definition of the architect still holds true to some extent today, even though business concerns and the computer have reshaped the activities and definition of the modern architect in significant ways.[source-wikipedia]

Architect & Architecture

An architect is a licensed individual who leads a design team in the planning and design of buildings and participates in oversight of building construction. The word "architect" comes from Latin architectus, which in turn derives from Greek arkhitekton (arkhi, chief + tekton, builder")[1]. In its broadest sense, an architect is a person who translates a user's requirements into a built environment.

Architects must frequently make professional decisions that affect the safety and well being of the general public. Architects are required to obtain specialized education and experience to obtain a license to practice architecture, similar to the requirements for other professionals. The requirements for practice vary from place to place (see below). [wikipedia]

The words "architect" and "architecture" are also used by professionals in other engineering-like disciplines, notably by Software architects. However, see below for the protected status of these words under some jurisdictions.[wikipedia]