Thursday, October 6, 2011

RIP Apple Man!


I hate Steve Jobs because he was one of the greatest proponents of consumerism and thereby one of the greatest marketers of capitalism. Apple sucks! yes I said it! Overpriced and overrated, I have never felt the urge to own one of his candy wrapper gimmick machines. Apple made...yes MADE people buy stuff they really did not need, and made a ton of money off of peoples stupidity.

But at the same time I adore Mr. Jobs. He revolutionalised the digital realm and showed the techno geeks the magic of a well designed product. He gave his competition a run for their money, and in the mean time gave us some cool gadgets! Heck, he gave us Toy story! Created the mouse, gave life to the tablet and the smart phone...all the while paying attention to detail.

He was a visionary, and I would have gladly given 10 years of my life for him to live a bit more to make the world a little beautiful.

RIP Mr. Jobs...A job "insanely" well done!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Design Charrette by the SLIA!

Architects who are SLIA members have been invited to offer Services to the Residents of the Mattegoda Housing Scheme on any Architectural and Construction needs at a two day coommunity assistance project organised by the National Physical Planning Department under the instructions of the Ministry of Construction, Engineering Services and Common Amenities.

The project will take place on the 3rd and 4th October 2011. The services provided by the Architects are free!

Lets hope that there will be more projects of this nature in the future as well!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Geoffrey Bawa Award for Excellence in Architecture 2011




Archt. Thisara Thanapathy was the proud winner of the 2010/2011 Geoffrey Bawa Award for Excellence in Architecture at a glittering ceremony held at the Park Street Mews on Saturday, July 23. He won the award for his urban design ‘The Sarath Abeyrathne House’ having earlier been named in the honourable mention category for his other shortlisted creation ‘The Holiday Bungalow, Ulpatha’.
Archt Yudish Ganeshan was adjudged the first runner-up receiving Commendation for his post-tsunami Udayapuram school in Periyakallar. Richard Murphy Associates was the other among the eight shortlisted nominees to be chosen for Honourable Mention for the British High Commission building in Colombo.
The well-choreographed event saw two icons of design Ena de Silva Aluwihare and Barbara Sansoni Lewcock receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards and a keynote address by Booker prize winner Michael Ondaatje.



The eight shortlisted projects





Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

University of Moratuwa Graffiti!

These images were taken from a facebook album.















images stolen from here

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Sri Lankan Southern Highway


images stolen from here

Monday, March 7, 2011

Waterscraper!



The h2O  scraper is a conceptual multi-dwelling building that would float with its top lev...
The h2O scraper is a conceptual multi-dwelling building that would float with its top level on the surface of the sea, and the rest dangling down into the water below


As cities become more densely-populated, the trend for multi-dwelling complexes has been to build up – hence the advent of the highrise as we know it today. Building down doesn't seem to be much of an option, as it would be very labor-intensive, and residents would justifiably freak out at the thought of living hundreds of feet below the surface of the Earth. Malaysian architect Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum, however, has proposed a multi-level building that goes down – into the ocean. While his hO2+ concept is pretty unlikely to ever be built, the imagination behind it was enough to merit a Special Mention in eVolo magazine's 2010 Skyscraper Competition.

The top level of the hO2+ scraper would float on the surface, with the living quarters directly underneath. That way, residents would still get seawater-filtered sunlight shining through their windows, and would presumably worry less about drowning in the event of a leak. The rest of the building would proceed down to a depth equivalent to the height of the some of the world's tallest highrises. Multiple tentacles with paddle-like bioluminescent tips would extend out from the building's central "shaft," both to attract marine life, and to generate power through their swaying movements.
"The hO2+ scraper proposes to break free of the urban fabric and functions as self-sufficient ambassadors in the sea," the architect stated in his contest entry. "It is self sufficient as it generates its own power through wave, wind, current, solar, bio etc. and it generates its own food through farming, aquaculture, hydroponics etc. It carries with its own small forest on top its back and supports places for users to live and work in its depths [...] Such sustainability strategies aim to ultimately create and provide an oasis with 'Zero' negative impacts to the environment, not only that but also improves on it hence the 'Plus'."
Besides a forest, the top level of the structure would also include space for crop and livestock farming, and wind turbines. Down at the very bottom, ballast and balancing tanks would keep everything upright. In some ways, it's reminiscent of the proposed NOAH floating megacity.
... and yes, there are indeed a thousand what-ifs and yeah-buts surrounding the concept. Comments on the eVolo website bring up issues such as tidal waves, claustrophobia, and the whole question of how the thing would be built. There also appears to be no means of propulsion, or of anchoring the building.
As an exercise in pure we'll-work-out-the-details-later speculation, however, it definitely has some appeal.
The h2O  scraper is a conceptual multi-dwelling building that would float with its top lev...

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Architect Barbie!

image stolen from here

2 AIA architects form Upstate New York have worked to develop an authentic architectural image for Barbie. She sports a roll of drawings in a shoulder tube, an architecturally inspired dress, hip architect glasses, and a hard hat. Her fashion boots would be a bit suspect on the job site however.

more info from here

Namaste Tower-India


LOWER PAREL | Namaste Tower | 300 m | 62 fl | Site Prep

The Namaste tower! Designed by the Atkins design studio, work IS currently underway on this 300m-62 storeyed mixed use tower that will encompass a hotel, office and retail space. The location is Ambika mills which is a couple hundred meters south of the The developer of the project is unknown.

The renders and text were submitted by Atkins to the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona (3-5 Nov 2010).

Namaste: Hotel and Office Tower
Category: Future Projects - Commercial
Location: Mumbai, India
Architects: WS Atkins, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Atkins, United Arab Emirates



Following the long tradition of great Indian Architecture it was our aim that the Namaste Tower will stand as a landmark structure, representative of the burgeoning economic and cultural significance of India. We aimed to design a building that would become representative of the city: the picture postcard of Mumbai.




Key Statistics:
• 120,000 m2 of Gross Construction Area
• 380 key luxury hotel
• Exclusive restaurants, bars, banqueting and spa facilities
• 9,000 m2 of A grade office space
• 6,000 m2 of world class retail space
• 300 m overall building height



“Namaste"
The traditional Indian greeting of ‘Namaste’, where the hands are clasped together in greeting, is the inspiration for the design of this tower. In Sanskrit “Namaste` means “I bow to you`. It has a spiritual significance of negating one’s ego in the presence of another.

The Architecture of the Namaste Hotel builds on this ancient Indian expression. The two wings of the hotel are clasped together like hands greeting the city of Mumbai. In this way the architectural design of the hotel provides the ultimate symbol of hospitality and welcome, as seen in the as seen in the cultural context of India.






Visual Relationships to and from the Site
With a proposed height of 300 m the tower will be seen from a distance of more than 40 km. Therefore the visual appearance of the project as a major landmark is of great importance to the city of Mumbai.

Views from the tower will extend to the South over the Mahalkshi Race course towards the Mumbai Peninsula and to the South West over the Indian Ocean. The views to the north East are towards a number of adjacent towers that are currently being constructed. The orientation and massing of the tower have been designed in order to make the very best of these visual relationships.






The Building Skin
The tower has been designed to cater for large scale Indian weddings. The occasion of a Mehndi ceremony (where the hands and feet of the bride and groom are decorated with henna) is often one of the most important pre-wedding rituals in India.

The design seeks to build on the theme of the clasped hands by referencing the intricate Mehndi patterns through the treatment of the building skin. The tower is will be clad in fritted glazing that combines to form an architectural scale graphic on the exterior of the building. This will create a sense of transparency and depth to the building while at the same time helping to maintain the thermal qualities required to meet the building’s envelope design criteria.

It is proposed that the large scale canopies over the drop-off points area support an array of solar thermal collectors. Given the available surface area and annual sunlight conditions these have the potential to provide 12% of the energy required to heat the hot water for the hotel.





Location (View on google maps):

^Site prep underway


General Arrangement
The tower is made up of two separate wings (or hands) which together form the architectural expression of “Namaste”. The space between the wings forms the corridor spaces. At either end of the corridor space a pair of open atria will offer hotel guests dramatic framed views out over the city.




Internal Atrium Gardens
These atria also serve to bring natural light deep into the plan. At the plant floor levels these atria are broken with internal gardens that serve to bring greenery into the corridor and atrium spaces. It was a central design aim to ensure that the circulation areas of the hotel, (including corridors) are just as impressive as the rooms themselves.




The Podium
The geometry of the podium is designed to integrate fully with the design of the tower. Thus it is a highly symmetrical form that responds to the wing like canopies above the drop off. Containing mostly retail, the facade of the podium is activated with water features and fountains that cascade down to street level.






The Summit
At the summit of the building a generous quadruple height atrium space encloses a Sky Restaurant and Bar which will provide a unique vantage point for patrons to gain panoramic views out over the city.


















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