Vertical Park / Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Vertical Park / Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Architects: Jorge Hernandez de la Garza
Location: Coyoacan, Mexico
Design Team: Rodrigo Ambriz, Michael Smith, Erik Cosio
Project Year: 2009
Images: Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Mexico City is a metropolis where zones are meshed as commerce and life often converge to create dynamic spaces of interaction and interconnectivity. Unfortunately, these zones are being pushed to the periphery as modern development increases delineation to create islands of program disconnected from the pulse of the city. With all its potential for profit, this march of capitalism poses a threat on the cultural and sustainable potential of the city; as zones separate, so do our lives as significant time and energy is spent in transit. Meanwhile, green space is increasingly devoured by steel and concrete.

In response with these demands, we have designed a module, highly structural and flexible in order to provide horizontal and vertical stacking along with diverse insertions to create a mesh not unlike that seen in the periphery. Located in Coyoacan, Mexico City, the project is to revive the calcification of modernity. The module affords not only spaces for living and working but for urban farming, water reclamation, and solar energy collection. As the modules rise vertically to create a high-rise structure, they also spread horizontally in order to create canopies for street level commerce. To provide a more sustainable response to the potential demands of the city, these modules can be rearranged, relocated, and remodeled throughout Mexico City and potentially throughout the world.

Although some may argue that such massive replication would destroy the aims of the project by increasing visual and spatial homogeneity, the flexibility of the project allows the structure of the model to be configured with such diversity that new programs, skins and layouts can be applied in order to adapt to the given region.

Best of interior and architecture

In Progress: Capital Gate by RMJM, Most leaning building in the world

In Progress: Capital Gate by RMJM, Most leaning building in the world

by Amber P

Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

To make this possible, the central core of the building slants in the opposite direction to the lean of the structure, and it straightening as it grows. It sits on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building.

A gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground, has been constructed on the 17th and 18th floors, the halfway point of the 35-story, 525-foot tall tower.

Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi’s first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury, 5-star hotel and will provide 200 hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi and will serve ADNEC’s (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company) visitors and exhibitors as well as international business and leisure travelers.

Gardner 1050 / Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects

Gardner 1050 / Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects

by Ethel Baraona Pohl

Architects: LOHA Architects
Location: West Hollywood, California, USA
Principal in Charge: Lorcan O’Herlihy
Project Team: Kevin Southerland, Tracy Smith, Franka Diehnelt
Contractor: Archetype, Inc.
Client: Habitat Group Los Angeles, LLC
Project year: 2006
Photographs: Lawrence Anderson

As a model of courtyard housing development, Gardner 1050 utilizes a variety of design strategies to elevate it above the more mundane infill developments typical of speculative housing. The project’s location just south of Santa Monica Boulevard creates a unique opportunity to add to the burgeoning urbanism of the eastern section of West Hollywood.

Landscaped with native drought-tolerant species, stainless-steel cables creep up to the third level walkways forming scaffolding for a “hanging” garden. This vertical foliage offers a peaceful respite in a courtyard that opens to the sky. On the western (front) facade, the cut-away box is completed by a semi-transparent skin of cedar slats enveloping the courtyard and completing the corner at the garage entry.

The stair is clad in translucent glass provides a strong vertical element in an otherwise predominantly horizontal composition. This stair functions as an entry marker and provides a subdued lantern like quality at night further enhancing the overall quality of the project. The primary materials for the project consist of a painted cement board cladding system in four foot wide panels, a system of cedar wood slats, translucent channel glass panels, and painted aluminum window frame projections in three colors. The horizontal wood slats encompass the entire second floor.

By wrapping the units around a central courtyard, the project consists of 10 unique and distinct floor plans as opposed to the conventional approach of identically stacked units. This central courtyard weaves buildings’ circulation into a spectrum of public space, while also allowing all units to have direct access from the exterior, eliminating the need for mechanically climate controlled corridors.

Pritzker Award Ceremony: Peter Zumthor

Pritzker Award Ceremony: Peter Zumthor

by David Basulto

A few minutes ago, the Pritzker Award ceremony took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This year, the prizewas awarded to swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

Our correspondent Martin Bravo was there and sent us this photos of the event: