This week, we're sharing projects from London to Osaka, Japan, and from Cheongju, South Korea, to Rock Island, Wash., with several stops in between. In addition to the projects that we give more detailed coverage, we like to highlight some of the work that architecture firms share with us every day through the Project Gallery—the user-generated portion of our site. So far, we have more than 15,000 projects, most of which were directly uploaded by firms to share with us and our readers.
In this weekly roundup, we showcase some of the coolest new projects to be added to the gallery—thanks to architects like you.
Rock Island Smelter Adaptive Reuse
Rock Island, Wash.
Graham Baba Architects
"The project began by organizing the site into distinct zones corresponding to major activities: mixed-use/residential; light industrial/commercial; sports fields and associated facilities; waterfront park, trails and activity center; Block Chain server park; and various retail and event spaces including the tech center, restaurants and a brewery. The potential mix of old and new, and interconnected and adjacent facilities, includes the signature, 50,000-square-foot furnace building and the 11,000-square-foot materials storage building, the two principle remnant structures."
AbelsonTaylor Corporate Headquarters Relocation
Chicago
Harley Ellis Devereaux (HED)
"Just as the alleys throughout Chicago serve as a network to support and link the city, HED designed Collaboration Alley to serve as a connection between the split levels of the 85,000 sf office space. The flexible space supports the agency's creative process and fosters a behind-the-scenes view into the agency's concept evolution, idea exploration and development."
Sound of Wind
Osaka, Japan
Ryuichi Ashizawa Architects & Associates
"Nature is a divine mystery beyond human power and understanding, the strong presence of which, beside Lake Biwa, compelled the creation of a design to honor it; the chapel becomes an artifact for “catching” nature. As a result, the building shape acts as a musical instrument that draws on winds from the lake and turns them into sounds; through the use of an Aeolian harp. A tribute to the mythical Greek God of Wind, Aeolus. A gentle space that echoes the lake sounds, a building instrument that changes its tone depending on the wind speed."
University of California, Merced, Science and Engineering Building 2
Merced, Calif.
SmithGroup
"A soaring entry space capped by photovoltaic panels creates a shaded exterior gathering space for education and recreation. The planning concept supports a range of indoor and outdoor spaces that integrate into the native, drought-tolerant landscape. The ground floor building functions were placed near the existing campus pedestrian circulation system to allow the facility to open its interdisciplinary work and collaboration areas to the entire community, fostering connection and collaboration."
Cheongju New City Hall
Cheongju, South Korea
Snøhetta
"The vision for the Cheongju New City Hall is to create a landmark representing integrated governance, with minimal distance between the government and its citizens. As a response to this, the administrative spaces are consolidated under one roof to ensure smooth operation and open communication between departments. Following the belief that good governance begins with good working environments, the New City Hall provides grade A working facilities promoting collaboration, innovation, efficiency, and physical and mental wellbeing."
HingeHouse Partnership
Acton, Mass.
Mathison I Mathison Architects
"HingeHouse is a fully-customizable pre-fab home which can be configured to meet the needs of any site, and any family. It is flexible and expandable using Deck House engineered building components. Starting with basic floor plans that are optimized spatially to Deck’s standard components, the living spaces are rotated around a "hinge” point. This design solution addresses the limitations and challenges of a particular site, while highlighting the best aspects of it. HingeHouse considers passive solar orientation depending on where the home is placed on the site and how it is “hinged”. It provides for maximum cross-ventilation from prevailing winds, preserves existing site formations and trees, and works on sloping grades."
Yinchuan Yoyo City
Yinchuan, China
LP Architects
"Considering the land use of the surrounding area and the progress of urban development, the shopping center is sitting at the west side of Zhengyuan Street in order to act as a city icon of Yinchuan. The retail street along the east side of Guan Lake park is perfectly integrated with the green nature open spaces, hence, created the "urban vitality axis" that runs through the east and west of the site and the "community life axis" that runs from north to south. The design introduces urban landscape resources into the site that integrates urban development with the natural landscape."
Children’s Playspace
New York
Architensions
"Three primary structures are arranged in the environment, each with a distinct geometry and color scheme. A semicircular “tunnel,” recalling Noguchi’s Contoured Playground, manipulates the topography by rising from the ground through a series of shallow steps. Geometric cutouts line the 19-foot-long plywood passage. Outlined in frames painted sun yellow, eggplant purple, and kelly green, they act like windows into the larger room, simultaneously revealing the tunnel’s elevation while letting in cascades of light. A semi-translucent orange roof further enhances the interior’s colorful glow."
Floral Court
London
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Located in London's Covent Garden neighborhood, where Georgian row houses neighbor postwar towers, Floral Court serves as Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates' effort to reconcile the city's urban fabric. The six-story multifamily project, which was featured in the September issue of ARCHITECT as part of expanded coverage of the 2020 AIA Architecture Awards, contains 45 apartments and "takes existing, decades-old warehouse and office spaces and knits them into public areas for the new building, weaving past and present into a seamless whole," writes ARCHITECT contributor Ian Volner. Read more of ARCHITECT's feature on Floral Court, here.
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