In five years, Durban (South Africa) may become home to the tallest skyscraper in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere; that is, if the ambitious proposal for a R6 billion (USD$394 million) project was recently presented to the city’s economic development and planning committee.
“Next Tokyo” is an exercise in sustainable big thinking for the future. It is the imagining a resurgent mega-city adapted to climate change with the realization of a highdensity eco-district built on resilient infrastructure. The archipelago of reclaimed land supports transit-oriented development for a half-million occupants while improving the resilience of Tokyo Bay against water-born risks. The proposal was featured in NHK Japan’s documentary series “Next World”, which aired February 8th, 2015, and later presented in the CTBUH Journal 2015 Issue II.
March 31 passed away a prominent architect of modern times, the first Arab woman who received the Pritzker Architecture Prize - Dame Zaha Hadid. Her projects leave nobody indifferent: all of them were enthralled, but some fascinate the public, while others cause bewilderment or even rejection. Nevertheless, from the very beginning ubiquitously was recognized the uniqueness of the professional style of the master, her independence and all-consuming passion for work. The architecture of Zaha Hadid can be considered as a desire to change reality and discover new opportunities of the physical world, an attempt to escape from the classical framework and create something absolutely new.
Recently have been announced the winners of the 2016 Skyscraper Competition. The award was established in 2006 to recognize outstanding ideas for vertical living. The participants annually try to answer the question: What is a skyscraper in the 21st century? Their imagination knows no bounds, and the most daring ideas shake the most sophisticated minds. The projects presented to the contest often resemble the decorations of the science-fiction movies, but it is quite possible that exactly so will look our reality in the near future.
Bollywood is the sobriquet for the Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai, the most populous city of the Republic of India. The term emerged by analogy with Hollywood (California), is often loosely used as a synecdoche to refer to the whole Indian cinema. Admittedly, the word “Bollywood” for the large army of fans of the Indian cinema has truly a sacred meaning. Indian films often associated with predictability and some kind naivety. But the concept of the Bollywood Odyssey skyscraper in no way can be called simplified.
The largest telecommunications company of Indonesia – Telkom Indonesia has recently decided to expand its office spaces in unconventional way. It commissioned Woods Bagot – a global design and consulting firm to design a seamless campus plan for the Telkom Group that links their existing building with two new towers and a connecting podium. Central to the project and the greater Jakarta skyline is the design and construction of a 219m landmark tower at the heart of the master plan. Aspiring to architectural excellence, the new Telkom tower and headquarters complex signals the company’s continued prominence within Indonesia’s telecommunications industry.
“This is what would happen if you brought Michelangelo back to life today and commissioned a skyscraper from him.” These enthusiastic words refer to the super-tall tower, on which design is currently working architect Mark Foster Gage. Magnificent building of colossal height not simply will take its place on New York City skyline, but also will make its essential contribution to the aesthetic image of the city. New attraction of Manhattan, at its very heart can become a 102-story residential building to be built on 41 West 57th Street. With sweeping views of central park and the New York City skyline each unit has its own unique figurally carved façade and balconies that frame particular features of the surrounding urban and natural landscapes.
Victories have been commemorated since the start of time and landmarks have been established to celebrate the achievements. The landmarks can be very different: triumphal arches, temples, monuments, steles ... St. Basil’s Cathedral, for example, was built to commemorate the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, and Christ the Savior Cathedral was built in memory of the Russian victory over Napoleon. The Monument of Russia’s victory in the 1812 war and became famous Alexander Column in St. Petersburg. In France, in honor of the victory of Louis XIII over the Huguenots at the siege of La Rochelle was built Basilica of Notre-Damedes- Victoires.
It’s hard to believe that only thirty years ago at the site of the city of Shenzhen (China) was just a small fishing village. Today, Shenzhen is a modern, dynamic metropolis with the population over 12 million people and one of the largest centers for the electronics industry. At the time, the head of the People’s Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping decided to organize there one of the special economic zones, thereby giving a strong impetus to the rapid development of the city. The most impressive element in Shenzhen cityscape for tourists is a huge number of high-rise buildings. Shenzhen is in the top ten world cities with the largest number of skyscrapers, while there is absolutely no sense of “concrete jungle”.
At the very end of last year Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA) – a company which has a tender for the construction and management of the Turkish public airports announced an innovative design by AECOM and Pininfarina as the winner of an international design competition for the regional Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and technical building at the Istanbul New Airport. Unusually that the winning entry marries influences from the aviation and automotive sectors, with strong architectural design.
