Regium Waterfront project, Italy, by Zaha Hadid

The upcoming Maxxi National Modern Art museum in Rome will be the first Italy project by Zaha Hadid to be completed in 2009, but meanwhile the architect has a growing number of ongoing projects all over the country, including a modern art museum in Cagliari, a housing block in Florence and a train station in Naples. Last week, one more was added to the list, when the agreement for the Regium Waterfront project was officially signed at the Italian embassy in London.

The complex, realised with private as well as public funding, will consist of two different buildings; a Museum of the Mediterranean History and a multifunctional building for performing arts, including a library, auditoriums, gym, craft workshop areas and a cinema. Keeping its connection with the Reggio Calabria area strong, the museum will be devoted to one of the most famous people coming from the region, Gianni Versace.

Website
http://www.zaha-hadid.com

Q&A with architect and director of Llewelyn Davies Yeang, Ken Yeang

Malaysian-born architect and director of Llewelyn Davies Yeang, Ken Yeang has been synonymous with skyscraper design for years; and his focus, embracing the growing demands of green design, swiftly developed into an extended analysis for the contemporary eco-skyscraper. He insists that in order to be both ecologically sustainable and high rise, a building needs to be the perfect balance between engineering infrastructure and mimicking nature - Yeang approaches each building as an addition to the earth’s living, breathing eco-system. Adopting techniques used in urban planning to analyse sites horizontally, he proposes their almost literal vertical application on skyscraper design – from circulation analysis, to vertical green zones.

In his new book, Eco Skyscrapers, the architect touches on aspects of his green design theory and presents stages of his 30-year-long research, through a plethora of plans, models, sketches, details and diagrams.


INFORMATION
Eco Skyscrapers, by Ken Yeang, (ed. Ivor Richards) Images Publishing

Website
http://www.ldavies.com