http://www.evolo-arch.com/

eVolo Architecture was founded by a group of international architects in 2003 in New York City. Our goal is to create a form of discussion for the development of new ideas towards excellence in architectural design for the XXI Century.

The following are winners from the >08 skyscraper competition

register now to compete in the >09 competition

Honestly, when I first saw this I got really excited because I thought that OMA devised a way for these huge towers to float by using magnets for stabilization. This whole exciting thought process happened in like .1 second when I saw the rendering. I’m a huge fan of magnets. You can quote me on that. Seriously, how kool would that be if the units that are attached to the side of the core here (sadly, the magnets are nowhere to be found) and could rise and fall as desired? I suppose that may detract from the intentional placement of the towers for views… And imagine it. If the side units were completely autonomous from the core ( with respect to their position vertically ) then this core could be raised to twice the height, the already present units move on up, and construct a few more around the base! this is a good one to think about… imagine a whole slew of these together all corbu “radiant city” style … 

The design strategically maneuvers within the highly regulated building environment to maximize the full potential of the site: Four individual apartment towers are vertically offset from one another and suspended from a central core. The skyline of floating towers directly relates to the surrounding building volumes and explores the most attractive views towards the city center and an extensive green zone to the north. The lifted apartment towers reduce the building’s footprint to a minimum; the liberated ground level provides communal leisure activities embedded in the tropical landscape. 

via world architecture news

Bentley Systems develops Generative Components and systems and resources all therein. Here, you’ll find tons of great stuff on scripting, truss work, BIM integration, etc.

Here and here, and here are a few case studies with the products. Browse the site and enjoy the stuff. there’s way too much to even attempt to summarize what its all about so go see for yourself.

Malaysia is no stranger to iconic buildings. Two of the tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers, are located in Kuala Lumpur, the country’s capital. So it comes as no surprise to us that a stunning new residential development is planned for the Putrajaya waterfront known as Precinct 4, just 30km south of Kuala Lumpur. The design, however, is a refreshing and original with unique, marine-inspired structures – which also draw from traditional Islamic designs – arranged in a permeable, radiating block of bioclimatic architecture. 

via inhabitat

Where does the public space end and the building begin?

In a city with few green spaces, Namba Parks is a welcome swath of green for the inhabitants of Osaka. Check out this full size photo of this amazing piece of architecture. The complex stands where Osaka’s baseball stadium used to be until 2003, and consists of a 30-floor skyscraper, Parks Tower, and a shopping mall with eight floors of terraced gardens. The sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces.

via earth first

Play: Duoc Antonio Varas 
Location: Antonio Varas 666, Providencia, Santiago, Chile 
Architects: Architects Sabbagh - John P. Sabbagh, Mariana P. Sabbagh, Juan Pedro B. Sabbagh, Philip B. Sabbagh, Marcial B. Olivares 
Contributors: Mario Zamorano V. 
Surface of the Land: 9954 m2 
Surface intervene: 6.256m2 
Surface Cover: 12.000m2

Faced with the commissioning of a building as the headquarters of the Duoc presents four themes which were annexed to the program crucial to the resolution of the project. The first, its location in the courtyard of the headquarters Antonio Varas, a former college German typical building and founding of the neighborhood. The second, the coexistence of a program of functions and activities with specific requirements of surfaces and relationships with the corporate image of a building for an educational institution of the Catholic University of Chile. Thirdly, the permanent change of use of the space, itself an institution in permanent renewal and change. Finally, the need for public space for recreation and expansion for the students.

via plataformaarquitectura

Monday, November 10th, 5:00 p.m. Geren Auditorium

Hernan Diaz Alonso is the principal and founder of Xefirotarch, a Los Angeles-based design firm working in architecture, products, and digital motion. For the last several years he has been a thesis coordinator and professor in studio design and visual studies at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. He is also a design studio professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He worked for several years as a senior designer at Eisenman Architects in New York and has lectured around the world.

Hernan Diaz Alonso is hailed as an architect who pushes boundaries and breaks the rules. His recent winning design for the Lexington Courthouse Plaza (though not the design being built)is a close-to-home example of the tension between cutting-edge design and the inertia of the expected.

Alonso, who has also worked with both Enric Miralles and Peter Eisenman, is uniquely primed to contribute to our current cultural discourse. He continues to challenge with each project, such as the Aqua Center in Denmark and the Queens Museum of Art in New York. The PSI competition. etc.

Alonso received his professional degree in architecture in Argentina, his M.Arch at Columbia University.

It’s a perfect metaphor for the teetering global real-estate market: Capital Gate, the glassy tower at the center of Abu Dhabi’s $2.2 billion Capital Centre development, has just been submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records as the “world’s most inclined building,” according to the press release. (I prefer “leaningest.”)

Capital Gate practically swoons with a queasy 18-degree westward tilt, easily besting Pisa’s paltry 3.9 degrees. (The more famous building’s accidental declivity comes from a shoddy foundation and loose soil, problems that Capital Gate’s architect, RMJM, expects to stave off with a steel diagrid structure and hundred-foot-deep piles.)

The 35-story tower, which includes a five-star Hyatt hotel, should be completed next fall, but given the tanking world economy, I’m not sure the developers have fully realized its symbolic potential. Why not, for example, tie the building’s angle to the stock markets’ sinking fortunes and turn Capitol Gate into a a huge art-installation-cum-roller-coaster?

recap: +4X more tilted than the Leaning Tower at Pisa, 8 story deep piles, 35 stories tall, steel diagrid

via metropolis mag

This summer, Jerusalem inaugurated a new bridge by Santiago Calatrava that will be the centerpiece of a planned light-rail system connecting the Old City to the sprawling neighborhoods just over its walls. The serpentine, cable-stayed structure is a stone’s throw away from the Central Bus Station in a dusty, car-clogged intersection, where its gleaming white “strings” (it is meant to evoke a harp) and glass-and-basalt walkway make an odd juxtaposition with the dismal surroundings. The angled mast, which rises 387 feet into the air—making it among the most prominent features of the skyline—has been a particular point of contention, with many Israelis calling it overscaled and out of place.

The city maintains that the $70 million bridge, which is expected to open in 2010 along with the first rail line, will help ease perennial traffic jams, aid tourists traveling into the Old City, and provide Jerusalem with a sparkling new symbolic entrance. At the opening ceremony (where a taped message from Ehud Olmert, the transit system’s main backer and now Israel’s outgoing Prime Minister, was greeted with jeers), the city’s current mayor, Uri Lupolianski, compared grumbling over the project to early mixed reviews of the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge. The next morning, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I spoke to Calatrava about designing a high-profile project in an ancient city, the criticism of the bridge, and why New York City needs to build “grandiose infrastructure.”

read rest of metropolismag.com article :interview with Calatrava

So I may have been on a surrealist/conceptual/somewhat-gravity-defying architecture kick lately … but it never fails to amaze the mind and question our most rooted notions of what architecture is, what space is, and how time and society are effect each. 

via BLDGBLOG

Seattle-based concept artist Daniel Dociu is Chief Art Director for ArenaNet, the North American wing of NCSoft, an online game developer with headquarters in Seoul. Most notably, Dociu heads up the production of game environments forGuild Wars – to which GameSpot gave 9.2 out of 10, specifically citing the game’s “gorgeous graphics” and its “richly detailed and shockingly gigantic” world. 
Dociu has previously worked with Electronic Arts; he has an M.A. in industrial design; and he won both Gold and Silver medals for Concept Art at this year’sSpectrum awards. 

To date, BLDGBLOG has spoken with novelists, film editors, musicians, architects, photographers, historians, and urban theorists, among others, to see how architecture and the built environment have been used, understood, or completely reimagined from within those disciplines – but coverage of game design is something in which this site has fallen woefully short. (go to bldgblog to read the complete article)