MIPIM report, Cannes

Wallpaper* was a first-timer in MIPIM this year, nevertheless we already knew that in the architecture world, the annual Cannes fair is almost shorthand for large property developments and big investments. It forces everybody to think more realistically about finances, and spells “business” much more clearly than similar gatherings in the architecture agenda, like the Venice Biennale or the London Festival of Architecture.

For more info and to read further please follow this link:

http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/mipim-report-cannes/3197

INFORMATION

Website
http://www.mipim.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

Architecture overview: tall buildings

In the old days, tall buildings were the shape of up-ended bricks. Sometimes they may have had a tiered effect in the higher stories, but that's as fancy as it got. Now though, all manner of forms are appearing on the skyline. It's partly to do with clever construction techniques, and partly to do with developers' egos. After all, who doesn't hanker after a few superlatives, and an eye-catching visual to match?

Durban (continued)

The City Hall in Durban CBD and a view from the new peer in Umhlanga Rocks north of Durban City.

London Festival of Architecture

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Shibuya Station, Tokyo

Architect Tadao Ando’s new Shibuya Station extension is all about making travel fun again. 'A station should be a place where visitors think "I was glad to come to this station’ or ‘that station was fascinating",' Ando says, as he examines the three-story atrium of the nearly completed building.

Ando’s design is based on what he calls a 'chichusen,' or underground spaceship. Commuters board the buried flying saucer near the top of the atrium and are carried down to the tracks at its base. 'Because this station has an atrium from top to bottom, you can easily see where you are... it gives you a sense of security,' Ando says.

An environmentalist, Ando is a strong advocate of public transport. 'Japan has the most substantial transport network in the world, even without a car you can still get around, and I repeatedly point that out, but the motor industry says: "He’s making trouble for us! He shouldn’t be talking this way." That’s the problem,' the 67-year-old says.

The environmental benefits of Ando’s new building don’t stop at getting people to leave their Toyotas at home. The design allows fresh air and light to circulate via the atrium and a ventilation shaft, and the glass-fibre reinforced concrete skin of the 'spaceship' incorporates a water-cooling system.

The combined result is a station that cuts power use and takes us back to the days when train stations were equivalent to cathedrals in the public-space pecking order.