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.


















#3






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.




#3


Saturday, February 19, 2011

National Performing Arts Centre, Sri Lanka

image stolen from here
image stolen from here


image stolen from here

If anyone has more images of this building, I'd appreciate if you could email them to me. Thanks
.

arkitektonic@gmail.com

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sahaspura Reloaded: Highrises for the Homeless

President inspecting a 3D model of a proposed housing complex to come up in Mihindupura, Kirulapone

On February 16th 2011, Sri Lanka commenced a program to construct 1 million houses to be distributed among the homeless families. The project known as “Jana Sevena” was launched by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Accordingly the work of the latest project started from Kirulapane area, where a housing complex consisting of 560 houses will be built within the next 2 year period.-source

We all know how well an experiment sahaspura was. Who shot the architect?...ooh no wait...wimale is there, we are saved!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Anthems!



A Sri Lankan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011



ICC World Cup 2011 Anthem



A Sri Lankan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011




A Bangaldesh Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011






A Pakistan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011





A Sri Lankan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011





A Sri Lankan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011






A Pakistan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011




An Indian Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011



A Sri Lankan Anthem for ICC World Cup 2011


GO LIONS!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Archollective: Architecture + Collaboration: A new online pin-up space for architecture students and professionals

Archollective: http://archollective.com
A place for online critiques

This looks like a pretty cool idea!


Architects and architecture students are always looking for someone to critique their work. The more feedback you get during your design process the better your overall project will be at the end. Archollective is a new site to give designers additional feedback when working on their architecture project. This web application gives you the option to critique other people’s work or upload your own projects and start receiving feedback from the rest of the community.

In addition to the “online pin up space” that Archollective offers, they also give the ability to easily share files, assisting greatly in the collaboration of group projects. Projects can be set up as public or private. Public allows for designers to get as much feedback as possible from the architecture community while private allows teams or firms to collaborate online without the general public seeing their project. This allows you to share files (psd, jpg, dwg, etc.) with your colleagues or peers easily even if you are all not in the same location. In the future this could really help out connecting international teams of architects working on a single project.

This web application is created with the overall idea to help with the design process and collaboration of architecture projects. It is unique because it is not merely a way to promote yourself or showcase your work. Instead, it is a tool that architects and architecture students can utilize on group projects, individual projects, or even as a source for design inspiration.

Archollective is still in its beta stages and will be releasing a second version in the next year. They are looking for more people to start using their website so they can develop and redesign the website to better serve the needs of the community. They open any feedback and in line with their concept they would love for you to critique their site.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

RMA Architects -Mumbai, India



images stolen from here

When Magic Bus and architect Rahul Mehrotra first started conceiving plans for the Center, we were passionate about the idea of taking materials, familiar to the Magic Bus children, such as wood, open stone work, raw cement and corrugated iron and use them in an innovative way to give ideas to the children and allow them to experience familiarity of environment in a positive setting of the Magic Bus camp. -Source

Dynamic windowscapes!

I found this while browsing. This is totally cool but at the same time totally stupid as well.

Winscape is a set of two plasma televisions set up behind window panes, and hooked up to a Mac Pro. The Pro is running the custom Winscape software, which controls the “view” out of the windows according to a sensor (they show it in the video above attached to a baby, and it actually looks really large and pretty unwieldy). So as the sensor moves around the room, the view changes, as if you were moving angles while looking out of the windows to get a different view.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Newest images of the Sri Lankan Cricket Stadiums

All images taken from here



Hambanthota Suriyawewa Stadium









R. Premadasa Stadium