urban design

SOM Wins Competition to Create Beijing’s Sustainable City Center

by Bridgette Meinhold, 10/26/09

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was recently awarded the contract to create a stunning new Central Business District in Beijing. The project will integrate into the existing downtown urban district and will improve transportation infrastructure while introducing energy-efficient buildings green public space. The plan also provides a framework for new sustainable growth that would result in eliminating 215,000 tons of CO2 per year, which is the equivalent of planting 14 million adult trees.

SOM is well known for its architecture and urban design projects, and is also responsible for San Francisco’s Treasure Island Redevelopment Plan as well as the plan for Jumiera Gardens in Dubai. Their plan for Beijing’s new CBD calls for the creation of three new areas – the Cultural, Chaoyang, and the Gateway Districts, which will be anchored around new parks and green boulevards. The CBD will comprise a network of smaller, more walkable city blocks to encourage pedestrian travel and time spent in the expansive downtown parks system. Additionally, all of the streets will be built to accommodate safe bicycle travel.

A new streetcar system has been proposed to link all of the new areas with existing districts and popular destinations, providing commuters with easy access to high speed rail service. Updated transportation infrastructure will also include express commuter rail service between the Beijing Capital International Airport, the CBD, and high speed rail service to Beijing South Station.

SOM’s redevelopment plan also defines strategies for growth and expansion. They have created a framework for new infrastructure and high performance buildings that will enable the city to grow in a more sustainable manner. If implemented, the plan could reduce energy consumption within the district by 50%, reduce water consumption by 48%, reduce landfill waste by 80%, and result in a 50% reduction in carbon emissions.

SOM’s exciting new plan combines many of the necessary elements of a sustainable city – transportation, open space, pedestrian and bike friendly streets, and energy-efficient buildings. The Beijing CBD Administration Committee has stated that the plan would “enable China’s capital city to grow as a global center for commerce, yet be a green and ecological setting for healthy life.”

+ SOM

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stadium

Populous Wins Incheon Stadium Design for 2014 Asian Games

by Mike Chino, 10/09/09

It’s an exciting time for sports fans everywhere as cities around the world unveil the incredible stadiums that will host the events of tomorrow, and the designers and architects of Populous have them in spades. The latest competition-winning proposal from the HOK offshoot was recently selected as the primary stadium for the 17th Asian games in Incheon, South Korea. The adaptable stadium creates an abundance of green space within the city that will serve as a public park when not in use.

Designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport Venue Event) and Heerim Architects and Planners, Incheon’s new stadium is designed to hold 70,000 people for the Asian games in 2014, after which it will downsize and transform into a 30,000 seat stadium and public park.

The elegantly sloping structure is meant to reflect the traditional Buddhist ritual Seung Moo dances. According to architect Daekwon Park, “In architecture, as in dance, dynamic movement creates form, but can also be recognized by the space voids created around its form. The yin and yang of complementary opposites within a greater whole are represented inside the form of the master plan of the stadium, and the left over space around that form, becomes the main access to the building.”

The stadium has been described as promoting “a new era of designing sustainable venues for major events”, however the project’s sustainable features have yet to be disclosed. Ensuring environmental responsibility in a structure designed to draw thousands of spectators is a challenging goal, and we’re interested to see how populous plans on pulling off the feat.

For now Populous has said “The key to its success will be linking it into the surrounding parklands, to make it an open, accessible building for its people. It will be smaller, easier to operate and more usable by the community, securing its long term sustainability and providing a true legacy for the people of Incheon.”

+ Populous

+ Heerim Architects and Planners

Via Bustler

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urban

Eco Towers / Greeen! Architects

08

Oct 2009

By Karen Cilento — Filed under: Awarded Competitions , News , Office Buildings , Sustainability , Eco Towers, Germany, Greeen! Architects, Hamburg

Greeen! Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their Eco Towers, an office building in Hamburg, Germany for the Building and Environment Authorities. The office will accommodate 1400 people and will include several public areas as well as green gardens to “give room to nature and a create a green ambiance to all workers and visitors.”

More about the Eco Towers after the break.

As a highway and a frequently traveled road run along the southern edge of the project, the building’s façade prevents the impact of noise and heat against the east and south directions, while the panels also provide natural ventilation, views and sun protection. On the other side of the site, the façade is very transparent and open to provide “a nice, quiet and light urban space for the public.”

While the upper levels of the building are reserved for office uses, the lower floors, especially the exhibition spaces and the restaurant, allow the neighborhood to have access to the building. “The accessibility to the building for the public and the creation of informal and communicative meeting points are the leitmotiv of this design,” explained the architects.

Through extreme low primary energy needs (72% below EnEV 2007) the building obtains an excellent carbon footprint of only 18,9 kg CO2/m²a meaning a savings of more than 1.700 tons of CO2 per year. The building aims to receive the Gold certificate from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) which analyses the project through three key sustainability aspects: Life-cycle cost analysis, ecology and social-cultural analysis and thermal, acoustical and visual comfort analysis.

ARUP Germany, Düsseldorf / Berlin – Civil engineering, facade and M&E

equadrat, Düsseldorf – energy concept

greeen! architects, Düsseldorf – landscape design

Spitthoever, Essen – fire prevention

TAW, Hamburg – building maintenance and accessability

dgk Architekten und Ingenieure, Berlin – Cost estimation

AlexanderSchmitz, Düsseldorf – Visualizations / alexanderschmitz.net

Dörre Modellbau, Düsseldorf – Modelbuilding

Client: Sprinkenhof AG with IBA and City of Hamburg, Germany

Location: Hamburg/Wilhelmsburg, Germany

District: Hamburg

Use: Offices, Restaurant, Exhibition, Library

Site Area: 22.450 sqm

Bldg. Area: 47.500 sqm

Gross Floor Area: 66.700 sqm (incl. Parking – 14.000 sqm)

Bldg. Coverage Ratio: 8.990 sqm (40%)

Gross Floor Ratio: 84 %

Bldg. Scale: 12 Stories above Ground

1 Stories below Ground

Structure: Concrete (columns and slabs for offices)

Max. Height: 53,60 m

Urban

Inhabitat

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Guangzhou Revamped as New Sustainable Super City

by Bridgette Meinhold, 09/24/09

It’s an exciting time right now for Asia, which is expanding so quickly that whole cities are being designed, and existing cities have to be redesigned to accommodate all of this new development! Guangzhou, China’s 3rd largest city, is now joining the ranks of these foward-looking cities, and is getting a revamp to allow for more growth and at the same time make it more livable and sustainable. Some of the upgrades include mixed-use amenities like parks, commercial space, and increased transportation facilities that will make the city more cohesive. San Francisco-based Heller Manus Architects is responsible for the master plan of this new Southern axis to the city, which will tie into the recently designed Northern axis, also designed by Heller Manus.

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The plans include waterfront, open space, increased density and transit corridors adding up to 3,652 acres of development. Once complete in 10 years, the North and South Axes will be combined to create a new urban center for Guangzhou. Green and open space will snake its way along streams and waterways out to the waterfront. Low density housing will be replaced with denser housing schemes, and government, civic, commercial and retail will also be added to create a truly mixed-use environment. Other amenities include schools, hospitals, entertainment venues, hotels, a TV tower, a sports park, an aquarium, a hotel and a ferry terminal.

Heller Manus was chosen for the redesign due to their use of sustainable design features, focus on urban open space and preservation, and integration of traditional Lingnan culture. Taylor Manus, marketing coordinator at Heller Manus says, “Lingnan culture encourages the harmonious integration of nature with the city environment along with innovative garden design.” Following this philosophy, the building design concepts were organized buildings around landscaped courtyards.

The expansion of the transportation system is a major feature of the redesign, including the development of a light rail system. From the TV tower in the north all the way to the riverfront in the south, transport nodes will be placed along the corridor for increased accessibility. Mixed-use neighborhoods and stations will be placed at these nodes.

+ Heller Manus Architects

Via World Architecture News

Plastic Concrete

Plastic Concrete: Building Bricks Made From Landfill Waste

by Trey Farmer, 09/21/09

Recent RPI Masters of Architecture graduate Henry Miller has devised a way to reuse waste plastic as an aggregate in cement, circumventing the energy-intensive process of plastic recycling. By grinding up landfill-bound plastic and mixing it with portland cement, Miller was able to create a material just as strong as traditional concrete made with mined aggregate. The ingenious solution netted miller first place in the “Component Category” of the second annual Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World competition.

Using recycled materials is so hot right now, but using them as aggregate is hotter than Hansel in a black shirt on a summer Sunday. While living in Albany, Miller saw many areas cut their plastic recycling programs for the cheaper (now) solution of landfills, and noticed the astounding number of brownfield sites that were simply being abandoned. Miller’s idea: Why not use plastic waste as an aggregate in concrete and create a more sensible product. By mixing together ground-up plastic with cement and soil reclaimed from the brownfields, Miller was able to create a material just as strong as conventional concrete.

The Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World competition only asked students to conceptualize a design, but Miller he was not satisfied with a mere idea. He actually used his plastic concrete to build a screen and a wall. In doing so he showed that his ideas were viable alternatives to the status quo and that there was no excuse to merely fall in line.

Describing his project, Henry Louis Miller states: “Recycling plastics is a difficult, energy intensive process, and yields a product that is inferior to the virgin material. I have researched the possibility of using granulated, post consumer waste plastics as the aggregate in concrete. In this application, unlike plastics can be universally mixed with no adverse affects, heat driven re-amalgamation is not required, and my early test results show the resulting product is as strong as conventional concrete mixes (between 3000 and 5000psi.) As a result of using plastic rather than conventional aggregate, the mining of new material to serve as aggregate is not necessary.”

+ Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World Competition

+ RPI’s Masters of Architecture