Jazz Hotel Penang

 

Vertical Gardens Tower

Oasia Hotel designed by WOHA Architects is a vertical garden that truly stands out from its immediate neighbourhood. By having planting climbing throughout the structure, it managed to have 1,000% more plant life than could have existed on the original plot of land. The architects wish to bring back nature into the concrete jungle.

Penang New Waterfront City Coming Up

The Light City is a highly-acclaimed integrated waterfront development in Penang, Malaysia. It has gone through many design revision over the years and was put on hold last year due to Covid-19.

Construction works have finally commenced on Phase 1 of this mega undertaking by IJM Perennial Development Sdn. Bhd. ("IJM Perennial") - a joint venture between IJM Corporation Berhad ("IJM") and Perennial Holdings Private Limited ("Perennial").

Situated adjacent to an Expressway that connect the city to the industrial parks at the Southern part of the island, it is easily accessible by both residents and travellers. The Penang Bridge, International Airport and Ferry Terminal are within a 10km radius, and even the proposed The Light LRT Station will be located next to the site.

The Light City spans a total gross floor area (GFA) of over 4.1mil sq ft and will be developed in two phases into a unique waterfront precinct.

Key components of the project includes the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre (PWCC) which will be the largest in the state with 270,000sq.ft. of Gross Floor Area, a 1.5mil sq.ft. retail mall, 34-storey hotel and office towers, as well as two residential apartments - Mezzo and Essence.

Phase I comprises the PWCC, 1mil sq.ft. of the retail mall, the hotel and office tower, and Mezzo. Construction commenced on Oct 1, 2020 and is expected to complete progressively from December 2024 onwards.

Officially named The Waterfront Shoppes, the retail mall will offer new-to-market shopping, dining, entertainment and lifestyle experiences set against the architectural heritage of Penang.

Features include an exclusive Beverly Hills-inspired rodeo drive with external flagship stores lining the street. The F&B zones will feature an open concept gourmet food hall, food street and large-format dining concepts.

Meanwhile, al-fresco waterfront dining outlets provide diners with the perfect setting to unwind with an extensive selection of cafes, eateries and restaurants framed by clear views of the sea and the majestic Penang Bridge.

Located adjacent to the retail mall and seamlessly connected to it and the PWCC will be a luxurious four-star hotel catering to Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) delegates and leisure guests alike.

The 500-room hotel will also have smart security and access features such as mobile app check-in, keyless entry and room automation control to create a seamless guest experience.

The Light City aspires to be the first smart city in Penang. A leading converged solutions provider in Malaysia has been appointed to integrate the latest information and communications (ICT) infrastructure and turn it into a 5G city.

This affords MICE delegates, shoppers, hotel guests, office tenants and residents optimal online connectivity and high-quality voice, data and digital solutions.

Source: The Edge

经过多次设计更改和由于去年疫情暂停后，这独特项目终于开启啦！它将为马来西亚的槟城增多一个旅游和打卡景点。

Conrad Hotel Beijing

Architects: MAD Location: Beijing, China Structural Engineers: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) Mechanical Engineers: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) Façade/cladding consultants: King General Engineering, SuP Ingenieure GmbH Interior Designers: Lim.Teo + Wilkes Design Works Pte Ltd Landscape Designer: Earthasia Design Group Site Area: 7,779 sqm Constructed Area: 56,994 sqm Building height: 106 meters Images: MAD

The CBD of Beijing was built according to the west standard set up around the industrial revolution of the early 20th century, when high-rise building was the symbol of the capitalism. But far from the ambition of more than one hundred year ago, when people tried to challenge themselves with modern technology and future dreams, the contemporary CBD buildings are the concrete machines, copy of the copy in mass production. They are meaningless, crowded and soulless.

Situated among those buildings, Conrad hotel is the outcome of the slow-design. The façade element, which looks like the nervous tissue, is planted into a simple cubic. It is the toxin that destroys and transforms the surface into an organic envelop. The whole building is turned into a melting box, a starting point for the urban grid to change from the solid efficiency into the liquid idea. The standard product of the production line is therefore replaced by the digital craft of difference.

During the architecture evolution, people of different historical time tried to create organic buildings by their hand-made crafts. Their works are the representation of the worship of nature, the courage to break the heaviness of building and the passion of life. It is the spirit of sublime that became the culture icon of the era and the city. Conrad hotel is the design that appreciates the slowness in the fast urban development in China. The product of architecture is like the growing process of urban dwellers in the city, it is the evolution of energy and identity. The new urban efficiency is the difference precisely controlled and produced by the high-tech modern industry, and it creates the new possibility for people living in the city to discover their own new experience.

Source: ArchDaily

This type of buildings are made possible by the advance in computer graphics whereby the architects can now let their imagination go wild with the help of 3D modelling tools. Graphics below is not possible during the time when draftspersons relied on their skillful hand in detailing architectural drawings.

Raffles City Chongqing

Raffles City Chongqing is like Marina Bay Sands on steroid! Designed by the same architect Moshe Safdie, this futuristic mini-city drastically changes the skyline of the city of Chongqing in China.  

Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza - The Modern Pagoda

From the architect. The Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM)-designed Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza has opened its doors to its office users. The circular 60-story tower takes its place as the tallest building in the central Chinese city. Located in the northeast portion of Zhengzhou, the 919-feet (280-meter) tall tower’s circular form is a response to the surrounding development’s shape that centers on a manmade lake. Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza punctuates the neighborhood and provides the area—and the city—with an iconic new landmark on the skyline. 

The 2.59-million-square-feet (240,169-square-meters) building houses a mixed-use program of offices on its lower floors and a 416-key hotel above. Daylighting was a key driver of the building’s design. Sophisticated three- to five-story-tall light-gauge painted aluminum screens are configured at an outward cant that enhances interior daylighting through scientifically calculated reflections while protecting the all-glass exterior from solar gain. The screens provide multiple performance and aesthetic-related roles. The same outward cant that aids daylighting allows for a nuanced approach to artificial lighting, providing outboard locations for dramatic nighttime lighting of the building that make the tower a beacon. The screens are located between one and two-meters from the building’s curtain wall—allowing window washing to occur behind the screens. Their visual porosity varies depending on a viewer’s location. When close to the building’s base, the tower appears to be primarily metal; from a distance, the panels are more open and the building’s glass nature is revealed. The rhythmic cant of the screens, combined with their decreasing size as they rise on the building, creates a dynamic movement that gives the building a fine-grained texture that relates to the building’s humanistic aspirations. 

The form of the tower tapers slightly as it rises. “We conceived the building as a classical column,” SOM Design Director Ross Wimer says. “Its iconic image comes from this timeless form—adapted with cutting-edge, 21st century technologies to create a building that expresses our time.” These innovations include a heliostat that crowns the building and reflects daylight throughout the hotel atrium. “Like the solar screening, the heliostat is a scientifically-derived element that enhances the experience of daylight for the building’s users,” Wimer says. The device allows daylight to be reflected and focused into the atrium whose surfaces are finished to help drive light deep into the space. Computer-controlled dimmer switches modulate the light level-based on the illumination provided by the reflector, enabling the atrium to consume less energy and generate less heat throughout the year. 

Wimer notes that, while not unheard of, circular skyscrapers remain somewhat unusual. Among the best known examples are Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City (179 meters) in Chicago, Sir Norman Foster’s 30 St. Mary Axe (180 meters) in London, Jean Nouvel’s Torre Agbar (145 meters) in Barcelona, and Adolf Loos’ unbuilt scheme for the Chicago Tribune Tower. 

Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza’s status as the tallest building in the city adds to SOM’s well-established legacy of tall buildings. SOM-designed buildings top the skylines of many cities worldwide, including Chicago, New York, Beijing, Kuwait City, Milwaukee, and Dubai—whose Burj Khalifa is the tallest structure in the world.  Zhengzhou is a prefecture-level city located on the south bank of the Yellow River and the capital of Henan province with 8.6 million residents. Greater Zhengzhou was recently named one of China’s 13 emerging megacities by the Economist Intelligence Unit. 

SOM secured the commission for the project by winning an international competition. Prior to its completion, Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza has already been honored for its design by the Asia Pacific Property Awards and the Chicago Athenaeum. Its innovative curtain wall was recognized by Architect magazine’s R+D Awards program.

Source: Archdaily 

Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza is built with the latest technology available today and yet it resembles the ancient pagodas of China. Its form is truly inspired by China's long history of culture and architecture. The influence of Chinese architecture may not be admitted by the architect but the end result is too obvious for one to ignore its resemblance to ancient icons all over China. 

The site is simply picturesque thanks to the central lake that seems to bring all the buildings towards it. This type of design planning with architecture and landscape complementing each other can easily be traced back to the ancient gardens and parks all around China.

Marriott Gurney Drive

With the rate of high rise development, Komtar will soon lose its status as the tallest building in Penang.

 

Premier Tower Inspired by Beyonce

Sydney has a building described as a “squashed paper bag” and soon Melbourne will have a tower inspired by Beyonce. The Texas-born superstar apparently inspired the design of the 226m-high Premier Tower, which will replace the iconic but long-­shuttered Savoy Tavern on Spencer Street, according to architects Elenberg Fraser. 

 

“Art and science? You betcha. For those more on the art than science side, we will reveal that the form does pay homage to something more aesthetic — we’re going to trust you’ve seen the music video for Beyonce’s Ghost,” the architects said.

The undulating glass shape of the apartment and hotel project, which was designed on behalf of Singaporean developer Fragrance Group, pays homage to the fabric-wrapped dancers who appear in the music video, directed by Belgian director Pierre Debusschere and released in 2013.

Fragrance purchased the site, opposite South Cross Station, in June last year for $44.5 million, just a week after buying another development site, at 555 Collins Street, from Harry Stamoulis for $78m.

The 1800sq.m. Savoy Tavern, at 134-160 Spencer Street in West Melbourne, was previously owned by businessman Mark Rowsthorn after he purchased it from the Republic of Nauru in 2005 for $9.9m.

The project has development approval for a 68-floor tower with 660 apartments and a 160-room hotel, but the Elenberg Fraser-designed building rises to 78 floors in anticipation of aviation authority approval for additional storeys.

But even if Fragrance, headed by billionaire developer Koh Wee Meng, is granted approval for the additional height, the tower will still be somewhat shorter than a nearby project being developed by his brother, Koh Wee Seng.

Aspial has commenced the construction of the 317m, 108-floor Australia tower, designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects, at 70 Southbank Boulevarde, which will be one of Melbourne’s tallest once complete.

Fragrance had originally intended to build a 90-storey tower on the Savoy site, with an end value of $700m, before reducing the size of the project to its present level.

 

Source: The Australian

Elenberg Fraser’s admission that their curvaceous new building design Premier Tower was inspired by the video for popstar Beyoncé’s song Ghost has elicited strong reactions across the globe.

The building, developed by Fragrance Group, boasts an undulating form made up of a series of cantlivers. News of its link to the prominent popstar was reported on Dezeen, The Guardian, The Chicago Sun-Times and The Huffington Post.

The Huffington Post described the building’s resemblance to the singer as “uncanny”.

“The grandness of the building is striking enough, but there’s something else — this building’s got curves,” the article reads. ”But these aren’t just any curves, of course. They are Beyoncé curves.”

The response from The Guardian‘s Oliver Wainwright, though, was much harsher, noting that that the Fragrance Group is, “by no means the first developer to deploy the crass metaphor of a writhing female form to sell a pile of expensive flats.”

He compared the project to the Chinese practice MAD’s Marilyn Monroe-inspired project and Frank Gehry’s 1992 Fred and Ginger building in Prague, which was modelled on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing.

“Still, for creatively challenged architects and their attendant marketing consultants, the world of celebrity-shaped buildings offers endless possibilities,” he wrote.

Source: ArchitectureAU
 

Angkasa Raya by Ole Scheeren

Ole Scheeren designed a skyscraper Angkasa Raya for Kuala Lumpur. The special feature: A four-story high tropical garden in the middle of the tower.

The Dutch Architect Ole Scheeren, formerly a partner at OMA, designed as a 268 m high skyscraper called Angkasa Raya for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that will be situated next to the Petronas Twin Towers – the tallest buildings in the world between 1998 and 2004.

The Angkasa Raya is made up of three cubic volumes that are meant to appear floating above open, horizontal layers. The office of Ole Scheeren planned the ground levels to form an “interconnected spiral of both pedestrian and vehicular circulation and draw the diversity of the streetscape into the building.”

The program of the tower includes shops, cafes, car parks and prayer rooms all to be placed in the lower levels of the building will house. A restaurant, bar and an infinity swimming pool will be located amongst the garden floors. 280 apartments will occupied the stories above the garden floors, while a luxury hotel will be located inside a smaller adjoining block.

 

As the Buro Ole Scheeren explains, the quality of the Angkasa Raya lies in the garden floors and the environmentally responsible design: “Lush green gardens and terraces offer intimacies within the extreme urban density of the surrounding metropolis, while carefully shaded facades and a naturally ventilated atrium underline the environmental responsibility of the design.”

Source: Detail