Taipei Performing Arts Center proposal by NMDA

Here's another proposal prepared for the Taipei Performing Arts Center design competition by Neil M. Denari Architects. The competition was won by OMA.

DESIGN CONCEPT: (text from NMDA)

"Given the near schizophrenia of the site (lush green vs beige postmodernism), surely a powerful reason to choose this location, we have proposed a scheme that rises to a height of 57 meters (top of the Grand Theater fly tower) as a way to challenge the vertical dominance of the perimeter blocks. This decision has other positive benefits (as will be stated later), yet it is the anticipation of an even taller city that inspires such logic."



"The slope away from the site footprint has been mirrored in the East facing perforated façade of our scheme, essentially setting up a corridor of space between the rail station, the green mountain, and the Shilin Night Market to the North. In fact, the low rise portion of our scheme simply flows from the major mass of the TPAC toward the market as way to continue not only a finer scale but also the 24 hr life of the city."


Photos by NMDA

"Here, because of live action, bodies moving in the theater of visceral experiences, architecture is actually an equally vital organism, shaping experience before, during, and after the performance. When multiplied by a motivation toward verticality, the populist discourse of the program is an ‘x’ factor that suggests spectacle on the one hand, the temptation toward aggressive formalisms, and on the other, a project that is egalitarian in its disposition. Our scheme attempts to merge these tendencies, to bring into focus the project of the icon with the project of the surmountable mass. Like a ball of string, we have sought to make a coherent form through the accumulation of variably scaled events."

Source: NMDA

Xi’an World Horticultural Expo by Plasmastudio + Groundlab

Plasmastudio won the competition to develop the building and landscape design for Horticultural Expo in Xi’an, China and is now collaborating with Groundlab. for the next stages of development. The project comprises 15,000 exhibition hall building, a series of conservatories, a 37Ha park around an artificial lake as well as ancilliary buildings.



Sources: AALU Landscape Urbanism and ArchDaily



Flowing Gardens begins from a single line -- an axis extends from the Gate to the Greenhouse, traveling through the East and West Hills and over the lake, while extending into many sinuous paths, creating a network of intermingling circulation, landscape and water. Much like the legendary Silk Road, Flowing Gardens is connectivity, circulation, rejuvenation, and elegance.

Cassa Hotel, New York by Enrique Norten and TEN Arquitectos

Cassa Hotel, designed by Mexican architect Enrique Norten and TEN Arquitectos is located in mid-town Manhattan, at 70 West 45th Street, two blocks north of Bryant Park.





DESIGN CONCEPT: (text from the architect)
This tower is a dramatic architectural statement, using its windows and their punctured rhythm to become the facade’s only ornaments, distinguishing it from the more conventional glass and stone edifices of New York’s midtown.



Cassa’s program mixes public and private: combining restaurant and bar with boutique Hotel and luxury Condominiums that share a common triple height lobby.



The resulting design allows the two to co-exist while functioning independently.



The tower itself is delicately proportioned, resulting from the small site and slender floor plate, like an Obelisk marking the site.







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