Alila Villas Uluwatu

As it is summer time yet here I am stuck in Manchester with nothing to do other than work and watching football, I thought about looking up some exotic holiday destinations. I came across this breathtaking resort called Alila Villas Uluwatu in Bali designed by Singapore based architects, WOHA.

The resort comprises of a 50 suite hotel with 35 residential villas, which start from around US$ 725 for a 1 bedroom villa and up to US$ 3300 for a 3 bedroom cliff side villa. The design fuses vernacular architecture with modern design, combining traditional Balinese pavilion architecture and rural landscapes with modern treatment of space and form. The hotel rooms are designed as inhabited gardens where sleeping eating and other relaxing activities take place. The villas are designed as pavilions linked by bridges across water gardens.

A key element in design approach was ecological sustainability. The design focused on preserving the site by avoiding cutting and filling the natural contours as well as maintaining all large trees and site vegetation. Materials are all sourced locally; either from Bali or the neighbouring island of Java. Craftsmen form Java and Bali worked on the interior furniture, which further promoted local materials.

Besides the recommended sustainable approaches such as water recycling, natural cooling, and low energy lighting, the resort also promotes nature awareness programs for guests, involves local community in activities outside of the resort as well as employing surrounding villagers.

The message that the resort aims at is that luxury does not mean excessive consumption, but instead delight and enjoyment of the natural beauty and sense of place... Through showcasing local skills, materials and vernacular elements, it confirms the local people's opinion that they live in a marvellous place that should be cherished and maintained.




More info can be found here and check this out for a wonderful flickr set

W

Project: Walter Towers
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Architect: BIG

As a person very fond of calligraphy and graphic design generally, I was really thrilled when I stumbled upon this building. The "W" may stand for the name of the tower, but according to this blog post here, the Danish architects leaves the interpretation of the letter to us, which I find very amusing. Does it stand for wow just like the luxurious W Hotels? Does it stand for weird? Wonderful?

Nevertheless, as beautiful as the graphics of the letter "W" may appear on that building, there are technical reasons backing up the shape of the building. The cut on ground level allows pedestrians to cross the site, an important factor since the first four floors are for commercial use. The cuts in the top levels, which are residential in use, allow for air and views. With 27 floors the ‘W’ should reach a height of 80 meters. I couldn't find when is this building going to be completed or if even they started its construction, but this is one building I'd like to visit when it's done.

Roberto Cavialli

I was looking at "Architecture Interieure Cree" magazine, the "Maisons 2009" edition, when I stumbled upon this beautiful house titled, "Lanterne florentine... magique". Of course not being able to understand French, I had to google it and that is when I found that it was Roberto Cavalli's.









Project: Roberto Cavalli Residence
Location: Florence, Italy
Architect: Italo Rota

The villa was designed for the Italian fashion designer with the colors of the home being able to change to match the personality of the home owner. Located on the hills of Florence, the villa's screen's floral pattern blends the light with the plants creating a beautiful colorful landscape. Check out the magazine for better pictures.

As I looked up Cavalli's designs out of curiosity I also noticed that he had an interesting yacht designed for him by Cantieri Baglietto. The yacht, purple in color as is the villa, is 41 meters long with a top speed of 35 knots and priced as 20 million British pounds. Eight guests can sleep comfortably in this beautiful yacht which has a crew of 4 people.

Info about the yacht is copied from here, where you can see Sharon Stone caught by a paparazzi enjoying Cavalli's yacht.

Twists and Turns

A while ago I went on about the building business being a team sport. Now I saw this incredible building and those thoughts came straight back to me.

This is the UNIQA Tower in Vienna, designed by Austrian architect Heinz Neumann and completed at 2004. It sits on a canal and creates a physical link between the city's old and new sections. According to the architect, “the building shoots up spiritedly, emotionally, opening out and almost playfully. Its shape absorbs the impetus of the UNIQA logo and transforms it into architecture, with interior and exterior openness dominating.” Its a good looking building when it was finished but it wasn't as incredible as it is today.

What makes the tower amazing is the LED light installation which transformed the tower into a landmark in Vienna thanks to its interactive facade. Completed 2 years later, the installation is designed by lighting designers Licht Kunst Licht, installed by LED display manufacturer Barco, with German digital artists Mader Stublic Wiermann working on the artistic animation.

The facade's double skin allowed for the placement of the LED modules that receive electronic data on the structural grid, creating interplay between the architectural and technical elements of the facade. Thus, the building is not a giant electronic billboard like the ones you see in Manhattan or Las Vegas; it is a "constantly modulating architectural form." First, the electronic data corresponds to the architectural structure of the tower, but then it twists and turns repeatedly to detach itself from the concrete shape of the building introducing new virtual layers that dynamically interweave with each other.


Here is a cool video on YouTube and here you can find more colorful images.

For more info check out this and this.

Wanted... Red tiles on a glass facade !?!

Found this amazing photo while browsing flickr and tried to look up the building for ages without any luck at all. Someone said in the comments that it might be a "Bank in Aviguda Diagonal in Barcelona" but that doesn't lead to anything. Does anyone out there know what’s the name of this cool building?

Lilypad City

Series showing the phases of the city's construction

It seems that Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut shares my love for Kevin Costner's Waterwold, as evident in his design for Lilypad City. The city is designed for the year 2100 or so, and would accommodate up to 50,000 ecological refugees, who are called "Atoll dwellers" in the movie, after the polar ice caps melt and flood the whole planet.

The floating structure is inspired by giant lily pads, hence the name. The city takes up the challenge of reaching a positive energetic balance with zero carbon emission. This is achieved by the integration of all the renewable energies; solar, thermal and photovoltaic energies, wind energy, hydraulic, tidal power station...

The heart of the city will be a central lagoon of soft water collecting and rain water purifying. Around it will be located three marinas and three mountains dedicated to the work, the shops, and the entertainments. Each "mountain" will be covered by planted housing in suspended gardens crossed by a network of streets with organic outline, creating a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.


Fish-eye view of the city


Lilypads along the coast of Monaco

Olympic Fever

A Chinese family forming the Olympic rings at home.

The Beijing Olympiad is approaching its end after a spectacular and thrilling event. This Summer Olympics revealed the great capability of the People's Republic of China in leading the world in both the human race and the technical race too. This is demonstrated by the technology used in the grand opening ceremony, the construction of amazing venues, and the Chinese dominance in winning gold medals.

On another note this Olympics stands out perhaps as the media and public attentions were focused on the swimming events, in which numerous world records were broken. Perhaps most importantly is Michael Phelps new record for the most Olympic gold medals won at a single Olympiad by winning 8 races as well as setting a new record of 14 gold medals, the most Olympic gold medals won by an athlete. On another personal note it was great to see the flag of my country shine and our national anthem heard as Rasheed Ramzy gave the Kingdom of Bahrain its first Olympic gold medal ever by winning the 1500m running race.

That aside, I have to say that the highlight of the tournament for me as an architect was seeing history being written in two beautiful venues that can only inspire athletes to give their heart and soul to be crowned on such wonderful grounds. First of which is the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, designed by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron (perhaps the only architectural firm in the world today with no website). The second venue is the Beijing National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube. Designed by Australian firm PTW Architects, the smooth bubbly cube sits perfectly in front of the Bird's Nest.


The Water Cube and the Bird's Nest during the opening ceremony.

However, despite the magnificence of the opening ceremony, I felt that the design theme for lighting the torch was not the most dramatic one I've seen. The ceremony took into consideration the importance of the human factor in most parts of the ceremony but neglected the most important moment that is lighting the flame. Although seeing a man run in the air around the venue and spend energy in order to light the cauldron is a testament to the importance of the accomplishments of human beings, it somewhat felt like a shallow move since the work is done mechanically by suspended wires and technical controls which takes away the thrill of the margin of error that accompany any human physical activity. Perhaps to clarify my point, it lacked the drama that the 1992 Barcelona Olympics had the moment the torch was lit. Antonio Rebollo, a Spanish archer comes with a bow and a single arrow, lights the arrow with the Olympic flame, stands firmly and confidently focused on one thing, and without any hesitance, shoots the arrow over the cauldron which lights up in flame, and during the whole time everyone was asking the same questions... Is he going to get it?? What happens if he misses?

Another dramatic moment comes to my mind is when Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani lit up the flame in the opening ceremony of the Doha Asian Games. The sheikh, or knight, is seen on top of an Arabian horse, an animal idealized in the Arabic culture, walking towards a steep and slippery runway. The knight approaches with full confidence and leaps toward the runway racing so high up the ramp to light the flame. Somewhere along the way the horse starts panicking, turning his head away, scared of the height and wanting to go back. Yet the knight reassures the horse that they are in this together until the end, and the horse hesitantly abide his knight. And then in an extremely theatrical scene, the horse slips, but the knight remains confident, and pushes the horse through the last 3 or 4 meters of the ramp reaching the top safely after a journey that showed all spectators what a close relationship that a man and an animal could have.

Here are some wonderful pictures of the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympiad.

The Fractured Monolith

Here is The Fractured Monolith by Vincent Callebaut Architects, a 4 stars hotel with a congress center located in Belgium.

Dairy House

Following the last post regarding the revival of traditional old crafts, here is a great example of how "sustainability" can be achieved by the integration of such crafts.

Project: Dairy House
Architect: SCDLP
Location: Somerset, UK
Completion Date: 2006

This small 186 square meter house within this 850 acre estate, almost £500k, 2007 RIBA Design Award Winner is a conversion of a former Dairy to a retreat house. Originally the client wanted to rent the house, but as the project progressed the client decided to keep the house as a retreat. The design was to combine privacy and seclusion with openness to the wider landscape. The result is a similar concept of the Arabia Mashrabiya, in the form of layered oak and laminated glass which produce an eerie, filtered light.

Sustainability, which is integral to the design, is not only in the choice of materials and technology, but comes in the form of social sustainability as well. The oak is stored in sheds in front of the Dairy House. Catling regional hired workers who live within 20 miles of the site: a carpenter who built the extension, a glass laminator responsible for adherence to the expansion of layers of glass, and a stonecutter who restored the brick walls and walkways and fashion pool of slate mined locally. All of which reduced the transportation costs greatly.

In addition, Pilkington donated the glass for the extension as the technique used has not been tested before, and the project would have been unaffordable without this. The glass blocks sit on rubber gaskets which in turn sit directly on the timber. A foam seal sits on the surface of the blocks to form a weatherproof movement joint, clear silicon forms a final weather seal. The oak retains the waney edge on the outside; the inside is finely sanded. Similarly, the blocks of laminated glass are left rough on the exterior, and are polished on the interior. The structure was built up of the prefabricated pieces on site.

More info here and here and here

Containers

The widespread of recycled architecture have resulted in many interesting buildings. One of these buildings is the Freitag's office tower in Zurich. The beauty of this skyscraper is that unlike other container architecture that are modified and painted thus hiding their true nature, this skyscraper embraces the weariness and dirtiness of the container giving it more character and authenticity.

Cultural Capital of the world???

I like to vote for Abu Dhabi to be the cultural capital of the world in 2012. By that time, the city would have been blessed by the likes of Ando, Hadid, Gehry, and Nouvel. By that time museums that carry names like "Louvre" and "Guggenheim" and perhaps "MOMA" would have been completed and open for the public. The city would be home to one of the F1 races as well as a Ferrari theme park.

But the real reason for my choice is a wonderful architectural jewel designed by none other than Jean Nouvel; The Louvre of the Desert.









Approachable from land and sea, the design concept seems to take the form of a city. Hidden or protected under a dome with leaves-like openings, light filters through gently creating a romantic metaphor for an oasis of priceless exhibits in the desert of Abu Dhabi.

Images found here

Performers House

Project: The Performers House
Architect: Schmidt Hammer Lassen
Location: Silkeborg, Denmark

"Performers’ House is located in the centre of Silkeborg, at the heart of the Paper Mill’s revitalized industrial history. A historic building is to be transformed, and a new building designed. Spacious performance areas, teaching rooms, a canteen/restaurant, a student café, student accommodation, housing for teaching staff. On the ground floor internal folding walls and red curtains that can be opened and closed provide endless potential for varying interiors. The façade too is versatile: shutters on the main stages fold up and can be slid to one side and the large glazing elements be opened up to the town. Music is thus rendered audible and the theatrical performance visible to passers-by. Between the existing Boiler Building and the new building, a plaza will be created that ties the two together."

The Best Resort in the whole World !!!

Project: Al Jais Mountain Resort
Architect: Rem Koolhaas/OMA
Location: Ras Al Khaima, UAE

An magnificent resort that could bring Ras Al Khaima up to rival Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Still in its concept design stage, the resort consists of scattered cities along a pathway that exploits the best of the mountainous landscape without compromising the amazing natural setting. It also includes a high-tech habitable bridge and a dam along with terraces and public plazas. The contrast between the modernist white cubes decorated in Arabic geometrical patterns, and the dark mountains may very well mark this resort as the number one getaway vacation destination in the world.

More info here and here and here.