In a constantly changing world, architecture is updated and redesigned to suit the needs of their clients. Social laws and natural elements are key factors in determining how a project is designed and constructed. With this in mind, architects are remaking their creativity and coming up with unique plans in their projects. This may include a distinct style of architecture, materials, or overall concept. Here are 10 relatively new and upcoming projects with distinctive plans across the planet.
1. Etania Green School – Borneo, Malaysia
Completed in 2018, The Etania Green School serves as a primary school for “stateless” children. Its location makes the project susceptible to massive flooding. Therefore, the designers of the project raised the classrooms above the ground using five large shipping containers and a mound made from extracted soil to support it. The unique materials used to raise the classrooms double as storage space, toilets, and a lunch area while minimizing instability in the framework of the classrooms. There are different types of entrances to reach the second floor, optimizing the children’s incentive to explore. In addition to the classrooms, there is also a library and teacher room, along with additional space for studying and group work. The orientation of the classrooms was also thoughtfully planned out to minimize heat gain and avoid direct sunlight.
2. Tala Cave Homes – Forest Hills Tala, India
This quiet and hidden retreat sits high on top of a mountain overlooking the dense vegetation below. The plan of the project has a unique “squeeze” moment by the end of the entrance steps as the passageway narrows. Once inside, it opens up again revealing a vaulted dining room, pantry, and bedroom. This change in space as well as the low lighting and echo sonic noise quality create a tranquil atmosphere for the guests. In each bedroom, there is also a window with a beautiful view of the forest, immersing the guests in nature. The plan of the project also emphasizes transparency with adjoining rooms and terraces.
3. New Tokyo National Stadium – Tokyo, Japan
Designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, this stadium is meant to be the centerpiece for the 2020 Olympic games, now pushed to 2021. The project has a strong emphasis on environmental awareness, with large green spaces and multi-layered wooden eaves from Japan’s 47 prefectures, also promoting Japan’s traditional architecture. There are wooden elements in the furnishing and decorative elements. More than 47,000 medium and small-sized trees were planted around the stadium to blend with the surrounding environment. Seating is handicap accessible across the entire venue, and natural air, large fans, and mist-cooling systems will help in circulating air to help minimize heat and moisture.
4. Elephant Museum – Surin, Thailand
The Elephant Museum is meant to educate others on the cultural and intellectual connection between the elephant and the native people of northeast Thailand that has been present over 3 centuries. The structure is made out of handmade clay bricks with arched walls and forms a large complex that includes a research center, play area for elephants, and educational facilities. The museum has a series of open and covered spaces, as well as openings on some walls allowing for endless passageways all connecting to the main circulation of the project. The project is split into four different sections, three of which to show different aspects of the animal and related topics like deforestation.
5. Metropolitan Seaplane Port of Attica – Elefsina, Greece
From Greece’s historical past, Elefsina is both etymologically and historically connected to the concept of transition. The architects of this metropolitan sea airport wanted travelers to start their journeys not when they arrive at their destination, but from the moment they step foot inside the structure. Travelers enter through the interior atrium that includes a glass ceiling with planted “floating timber vessels” meant to mimic the surrounding ships and allow plenty of natural light. There are various lounging spaces throughout the project with atriums that hold native vegetation and optimizes the sustainable aspect of the project. There are constant views of the waterway and the floating runways for the seaplanes. This landmark serves to change Eleusis’s stereotype as an industrial city to a modern sustainable one.
6. Pier 55 – New York City, United States of America
This 2.4 acre attraction stands on top of 300 mushroom-shaped columns placed along the Hudson River shoreline. The project contains a public park, a large outdoor theatre, smaller performance spaces, and various pathways and viewing ports. The unique topography of the site is created from a system of repeating piles that form planters that connect at different heights creating a single manipulated piece of landscape. The raised park includes hundreds of exotic species that are capable of surviving in the New York climate and is a sharp contrast from the grey concrete adjacent road nearby.
7. Dreispitz Nord district – Basel, Switzerland
Herzog & De Meuron master plan for Basel’s dreispitz nord district is a highly innovative use of stacking in inner cities and an example of architectural densification. It mixes social and commercial aspects of the city by including a middle school on top of a commercial shopping center, along with three residential towers, town houses, and areas for car and bicycle parking in other areas of the master plan as well. The site will include gardens and outdoor space for public use and a gymnasium and playing fields for the athletic clubs of the school.
8. Audemars Piguet Hotel des Horlogers – Vallée de Joux, Switzerland
Image Source: BIG unveils ‘hôtel des horlogers’ for audemars piguet. (2018, November 29). Retrieved from ©https://www.designboom.com
Image Source: BIG unveils ‘hôtel des horlogers’ for audemars piguet. (2018, November 29). Retrieved from ©https://www.designboom.com
Image Source: BIG unveils ‘hôtel des horlogers’ for audemars piguet. (2018, November 29). Retrieved from ©https://www.designboom.com
This luxury hotel was built to seamlessly blend with the surrounding landscape and unfold onto the site. The project interweaves with the topography of the swiss slopes due to its long, sloping corridor that connects the 50 available rooms and allows continuous circulation. Beneath the inclined slabs from the corridors there are two restaurants, a bar, a spa, and a conference center, oriented towards daylight and views. The building also includes an interactive ski slope that extends from the rooftop down to the ground, and provides access to the adjacent slopes.
9. Gardenhouse – Los Angeles, United States of America
This “hillside village” is a 5 story multi-use project that includes 18 residential homes raised above commercial space. The commercial space on the ground floor has a green facade meant to depict California’s lush vegetation and hills, also making the irregular shaped homes to look like they are growing from the landscape. The homes all have a white facade, with irregular shaped windows and gabled roofs to enhance the sense of one neighborhood along the green hillside. The different scaled homes have an arrangement of balconies that overlook the second floor courtyard and garden, a gathering space designed to evoke a feeling of community. While this project is in the middle of an urban environment, the shared garden, private outdoor spaces, and connections to the greenery promote tranquility for each resident.
10. Netherlands Pavilion – Hannover, Germany
MVRDV, a dutch design firm aims to revitalize a former expo pavilion into a functional office building with two additional buildings for student housing and for offices and parking. The site is split into two parts, the first having 6 landscapes singularly stacked to form a tower, while the other is an open outdoor space with a self contained ecosystem of artificial nature. This project is another example of using stacking in urban cities for multi-use purposes and promoting a sustainable future for the nation by reusing a preexisting site.
