CONTENT

OSLO ARCHITECTURE 3-4 PARIS ARCHITECURE

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INTRODUCTION
The design structures take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city; including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants. This magazine contain information about design and architecutre around the world. Most of the informations are about new architectures and those under under constraction. The magazine provide interesting infromation from the tallest building in the world in Dubai to the most .spectacular and creative design in Singapore

DESIGN NEWS FROM LONDON 5-6 DUBAI SKYSCRAPPERS

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DALLAS ARCHITECTURE

RUSSIAN 7 - 8 ARCHITECTURE

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BERLIN ARCHITECURE

UNUSUAL & CREATIVE 9 - 10 ARCHITECTURE

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OSLO ARCHITECTURE

OSLO ARCHITECTURE

Architects: a-lab Location: Fornebu, Brum, Norway Area: 117,000 sqm Year: 2012

Statoils Ofce

Statoil Regional Ofce, render courtesy A-Lab

The design for Statoil regional office building is a linear display of the tenants is an ambitious and courageous project
THE BUILDING is located in fornebu, in the former oslo airport norway, house for the new Business centre for information technology companies, The area is experiencing a surge in development, transforming a previously Airport into a new city-wide destination for business. The Statoil regional office has approximately 65,500 m2, is been developed by the IT-Fornebu Eiendom and designed by A-lab architects. A-lab was commissioned to develop the building, after winning the competition in 2008, competing against 45 other projects. The collocation project represents the beginning of a new era for Statoils international operations, joining disparate parts of the organisation, currently housed in several different locations with Oslo, in one office. The building design draws on the oil industrys own contruction forms and techniques. By setting extremely challenging energy requirements for the building, Statoil aims to lead Norway and the world in a new generation of energy conscious office buildings. The physical manifestation of these requirements ultimately result in an iconic building solution, creating a new landmark within the Oslo fjord landscape. In the design a-lab prioritised the synergy of the volume and the context. One of the main preconditions for the scheme is that the footprint has to fit inside the footprint of the existing multi-storey car-park. This is achieved by breaking the homogenous office program into five equally sized lamellas, itch are dimensioned in order to get the most flexible office plans. The stacking of these then creates sight-lines between an minimizes the visual impact of the height required to fit the program within the tight site area. The primacy of the park is ensured by allowing the office lamellas to cantilever beyond the basic footprint. The in-between space created by the staking of the lamellas, is transformed in to a public covered square where all the activities came across. Is a monumental atrium, accommodating the public programs and the main circulation. In the Faade, the further sub-division into prefabricated elements each in turn composed of 15 pixels introduces a human scale whilst simultaneously creating a pattern linked to the structure, legible as a giant-order from afar. The office machine provides innumerable possibilities for configuring the workspace, both at the individual level and as a whole within the organisation. The arrangement of the social cores within the overall framework of the circulation promotes positive interaction between employees, teams and departments. Optimalisation of the facades ensures the visual connection with the surrounding landscape, fjord and city in the distance. Since January Skanska Norway have been progressing the above-ground works, building the superstructure at a rate of about one office lamella per month. Each lamell is 140m long and 12,5m/3 storeys high. Whilst the steel truss sections for the upper lamellas are being lifted into place by Northern Europes largest mobile crane, prefabricated faade elements produced in central Sweden are being mounted on the lower lamellas.

Photographs: Luis Fonseca, Ivan Brodey, a-lab Text: www.archdaily.com

Statoil Regional Ofce, render courtesy A-Lab

Statoil Regional Ofce, render courtesy A-Lab

DESIGN NEWS FROM LONDON

DESIGN NEWS FROM LONDON

The Leadenhall building

Leadenhall Street is an address on Leadenhall Street in London where the 225 m (737 122 ft) tall Leadenhall Building is currently under construction. It is one of a number of new tall buildings planned or under construction in the City of London financial district inclu.ding 20 Fenchurch Street, the Pinnacle, and 52-54 Lime Street
THE LEADENHALL BUILDING is a joint venture between British Land and Oxford Properties. It occupies a prominent City site, directly opposite Lloyds of London. Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour partners, the 47 storey building provides 610,000 sq ft of the highest quality office, retail and restaurant space in the City. The spectacular scale of the landscaped space at the base of the building will be unprecedented in London. Leasing interest has been strong. Aon will occupy 191,000 sq ft on levels 4-13. In addition, Amlin has signed an Agreement for Lease for 111,000 sq ft of space on levels 18-24 and level 45 with options to take up to a further 36,500 sq ft. The Leadenhall Building is now 51% pre-let. Available floors currently range from 6,600 sq ft to 17,700 sq ft, enabling a wide range of occupiers requirements to be met. The building is now topped out with practical completion on programme for mid 2011. The building comprises a number of distinct architectural elements that provide clarity to the composition both as a whole and as a legible expression of its constituent parts. These elements include the primary stability structure, the ladder frame, the office floor plates, the northern support core, the external envelope and the public realm. The structure aims to reinforce the geometry defined by the development envelope, which in turn creates the distinctive tapering form, and takes the form of a perimeter braced tube that defines the extent of the floor plates. The ladder frame contributes to the vertical emphasis of the building, and encloses the fire-fighting cores that serve the office floors. The frame also visually anchors the building to the ground. The office floors take the form of simple rectangular floor plates which progressively diminish in depth by 750 millimetres towards the apex. Office floors are connected to the structural tube at every floor level without the need for secondary vertical columns at the perimeter. The northern support core is conceived as a detached tower containing all passenger and goods lifts, service risers, on-floor plant and WCs. Three groups of passenger lifts serve the low, mid and high rise sections of the building, and are connected by two transfer lobbies at levels ten and 24.

Image: courtesy of City Scape LONDON: Located in sentral London where the 225 m (737 ft) tall Leadenhall Building is currently under construction.

Photographs: Courtesy of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Courtesy of The Leadenhall Building Development Company TEXT: www.archdaily.com

Leaden hall in London from outside

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DALLAS ARCHITECTURE

DALLAS ARCHITECTURE

DALLAS DUPLEX, USA

The 36 duplex apartments are arranged either side of a central core, with the main rooms looking onto a double height private garden with spectacular views over Dallas City. Designed around a simple vertical structural grid triangular faade elements cant in and out in a tessellated pattern creating the unusual and unique architecture form of the building

Text: wkkarchitects.com Designed: by Wright Khennouchi Kuruvilla whilst working in Atkins.

Illustration design by Wright khennouchi Kuruvilla

Illustration design by Wright khennouchi Kuruvilla

Illustration design by Wright khennouchi Kuruvilla

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BERLIN ARCHITECHTURE

BERLIN ARCHITECHTURE

BERLIN ARCHITECHTURE

The center of New Berlin has a new building to reveal to the passers by. It is called the Science Center Medical Technology and it can be found at Potsdamer Platz. This office is one of the representatives of Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH, a renowned medical technology company from Germany. The design of the structure was made in collaboration with the owners from Otto Bock, the designers from Gndinger Architects and the media designers from Art Com. The project has an unique approach, being the first of its kind. The touch of genius is the insertion of an exhibition that invites us to discover the world of medical technology. It`s interesting how people come up with original designs. For example, let`s take the faade of the building. It was inspired from the idea of human muscle fibers and the people from Gndinger has to wrap the six storey building in a sort of an amorphous faade, taking into consideration the fact that the structure of the building is made of reinforced concrete. The building combines two different concepts: high-tech and nature,but there is no trace of unbalanced architecture. The exterior is white and made of organic materials that make the building look like a human muscle fiber and this idea suggests the complexity of the human body as well as the complexity of this architectural design and the processes that the company handles. Aluminum and glass were used to create the outer shell of the building-this being an unique point in favour of a new style in architecture for Berlin.The surrounding building fit a traditional pattern,they`re made either of stone or of glass.

Text: www.archdaily.com Architects: Gndinger Architekten Location: Berlin, Germany Project team: Christoph Claus (director in charge), Rolf Gndinger, Babette Drilling, Ayfer Zeissig Project Area: 2,289 sqm Project Year: 2007-2009 Photographs: die photodesigner

Designed by architect Gndinger Architekten An inside view of the building An inside view of the building

Science Center Ottobock

The new building is the representative office in the capital city for the medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH, which is based in Duderstadt. Photographs: die photodesigner

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PARIS ARCHITECTURE

PARIS ARCHITECTURE

Commercial office tower with office space, employee restaurants, public cafs and amenities, panoramic restaurant in La Defense, Paris, France Images: Morphosis Architects

Outside of the building Images: Morphosis Architects

THE PHARE TOWER

The Phare Tower is a planned approx. 300 meter tall skyscraper with 71 floors designed as a green building to be built in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), France, in the La Dfense district of suburban Paris. The building is being designed by Los Angeles based Morphosis, headed by architect Thom Mayne, and is scheduled to be completed in 2017. When completed, it will be the tallest skyscraper in Paris and .one of the tallest in the European Union

Design Year: 2006-2009 Construction Year: 20102014 Images: Morphosis Architects Texts: Thom Mayne and Morphosis www.archdaily. com

Outside of the building Images: Morphosis Architects

drawing on power of parametric scripting, the design of the Phare Tower gathers disparate programmatic, physical, and infrastructural elements from the requirements of the building and synthesizes these into a form that seamlessly integrates the building into the idiosyncrasies of its site while expressing multiple flows of movement. In the spirit of the Paris Exposition competition proposals, the tower embodies state-of-the-art technological advances to become a cultural landmark. The complex structure and skin adapt to the towers nonstandard form while simultaneously responding to a range of complex, and often competing, physical and environmental considerations. Technologies integrated into the Phare Tower capture the sun and wind for the production of energy and selectively minimize solar gain while maximizing glare-free daylight. Its high-performance skin transforms with changes in light, becoming opaque, translucent, or transparent from different angles and vantage points. At night, ribbons of light garland the building to animate the buildings shifting form. Between 1958 and 1989, high-rise buildings (banned in the historic center of Paris) were constructed just outside the city boundary, forming the business district of La Dfense two miles west of Paris. The Phare Tower (phare being French for beacon or lighthouse) marks the first stage of a major redevelopment of the district. La Dfense is currently a zone of discrete, isolated buildings amid blank plazas-essentially a nonsite. Glazed exterior escalators soar 35 meters from the pavilion to the towers ninth-floor lobby, transporting approximately eight thousand pedestrians each day. As the visitor rides up the escalators to the Grand Hall, strategically located glazing reveals views of the traffic passing underneath, as well as of Parisian monuments in the distance. Rather than an isolated and autonomous tower, the building is a hybrid structure. The 300-meter tower straddles the site to meet the ground as a tripod. It comprises one splayed structural leg, two usable legs (the Trapezium, to the west, and the East Building), as well as a pavilion that engages the surrounding context and transforms the public space of the plaza.

The two usable legs frame a 24-meter-wide by-30-meter-tall void in the towers base, creating a monumental urban gateway, which maintains view corridors and allows pedestrian traffic to flow directly underneath the building. As it rises from its tripod base, the towers asymmetric profile swells slightly to accommodate the soaring Grand Hall, then becomes more slender in response to wind load, and finally tapers off to a thicket of wind turbines on the roof. The tower appears to shift continually, distinct from different vantage points-not a single image but a dynamic structure that responds to its site, environment, and performance requirements. At its base, the buildings skin opens, exposing a 233-foot-high Grand Hall, which functions as a public plaza in the air. The Grand Hall becomes the center for all vertical transportation. From the Halls security checkpoint, people transition to double-deck banks of express elevators serving the office tower. Typical urban social spaces-cafs and a terrace-are distributed vertically throughout the tower. On the 66th floor, a sky restaurant and a panoramic terrace, offering spectacular 270-degree views, are open to the public. Technologies integrated into the Phare Tower harness the wind for the production of energy and selectively minimize solar gain while maximizing glare-free daylight. The tower is crowned with a cluster of antennas and a wind farm of turbines that harvest energy-a metaphorical garden in the sky. Both the form and the orientation of the building respond to the path of the sun. The planar, clear-glazed north faade maximizes interior exposure to year-round natural daylight. A curvilinear second skin of diagonal stainless steel mesh panels wraps the towers continuous south, east, and west glazed faades to minimize heat gain and glare and maximize energy efficiency.

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Inside of the building Images: Morphosis Architects

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DUBAI ARCHITECTURE
Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At 321 m (1,053 ft). It is the only 7 star hotel in the world. The shape of the structure is designed to mimic the sail of a ship. This model was designed by Tom Wright of WKK Architects Image: gardrouge.hu

DUBAI ARCHITECTURE

B URJ AL AR AB HOT E L
Dubai's impressive economic boom was due in big part to oil, however their leaders noticed that their oil reserves would run out in 2016. Therefore, they decided to shift the .emirate's economy to luxury tourism
I The Burj Al Arab can be defined as the hotel that accumulates more records, as it is the highest (321 m), the most luxurious (7 stars) and of course, one of the most expensive in the world, "Burj Al Arab" is the "Arab Tower". Built in the middle of the sea, in a Persian Gulf area famous for its spectacular and futuristic architecture, and above all dedicated to tourism. The impressive building stands on an artificial island 300 meters from the coast, opposite the Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. In 1993 the resort company Jumairah international delivered its vision to Burj Al Arab architect Tom Wright. Jumeirah wanted something iconic a building that could stand among the world's great landmarks. Price was not a factor. As Wright and his firm, W.S. Atkins & Partners, started planning, they used a "Pictionary test." Could a person recognize the Burj from a 30-second sketch? In a spectacularly creative nod to Dubai's fishing past, the architects adopted the distinctive shape of an Arabian dhow, or yacht's sail. Jumeirah also wanted its luxury hotel built off the coast so that it would stand apart from surrounding development. Jumeirah did not want the monolithic tower, just 197 feet shorter than the Empire State Building, to cast a shadow on its other beach resort. All parties agreed, the yacht hotel would fittingly rise out of the Persian Gulf, connected by a causeway that would be crossed only by the hotel's Rolls Royce fleet. But reclaiming land from the ocean is extremely difficult. It took two years to create an island that sits on a foundation of sand held in place by friction. Workers drilled steel piles into the seabed to support the massive building and armored the island with precast concrete "shed" units,specially designed hollow blocks made to minimize the force of waves. Workers then filled the structure with sand dredged from an offshore seabed. In this place, the incidence solar energy is a parameter that should be monitored throughout the year, to avoid overload of energy (electricity and heat) in the habitable premises. That's why it was decided to build the front facade of the hotel without glass, but of a double skin of translucent white cloth screen, stretched by the structure. During the day, this membrane allows white light, but avoids overheating the interior, using the method of cooling by direct loss, that is, reflecting much of the energy back to the outside, projecting shadows on the premises. The heat energy that passes the first cloth is removed by a flow of air between the two, minimizing the energy gain for such guidance. Then the central hall is cooled by evaporation of water from the pits, dropping the feeling of enclosure. During the night, this membrane is illuminated, creating a visual spectacle both outside and in the interior space.
The interior was designed by Londonbased interior designer Khuan Chew Images via dubaihotel A beautiful interior design by Londonbased interior designer Khuan Chew Images via dubaihotel

Text: adventure.howstuffworks.com Architect: Tom Wright of WKK Architects Images via dubaihotel

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DUBAI ARCHITECTURE

DUBAI ARCHITECTURE

Burj Khalifa, known as Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration, wis a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft)

BURJ KHALIFA
World's tallest building. A living wonder. Stunning work of art. Incomparable feat of engineering. Burj Khalifa is all that. In concept and execution, Burj Khalifa has no peer
more than just the worldss tallest building, burj al khalifa is an unprecedented example of international cooperation, symbolic beacon of progress, and an emblem of the new, dynamic and prosperous Middle East. It is also tangible proof of Dubai's growing role in a changing world. In fewer than 30 years, this city has transformed itself from a regional centre to a global one. This success was not based on oil reserves, but on reserves of human talent, ingenuity and initiative. Burj Khalifa embodies that vision. Mr Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties, said: "Burj Khalifa goes beyond its imposing physical specifications. In Burj Khalifa, we see the triumph of Dubai's vision of attaining the seemingly impossible and setting new benchmarks. It is a source of inspiration for every one of us in Emaar. The project is a declaration of the emirate's capabilities and of the resolve of its leaders and people to work hand in hand on truly awe-inspiring projects. Emaar had but one inspiration, the unflagging enthusiasm set in motion by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who inspires us to reach for the stars. The central core emerges at the top and culminates in a sculpted spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Arabian Gulf. Viewed from the base or the air, Burj Khalifa is evocative of the onion domes prevalent in Islamic architecture. The architecture features a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. The modular, Y-shaped structure, with setbacks along each of its three wings provides an inherently stable configuration for the structure and provides good floor plates for residential. Twenty-six helical levels decrease the cross section of the tower incrementally as it spirals skyward. The central core emerges at the top and culminates in a sculpted spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Arabian Gulf. Viewed from the base or the air, Burj Khalifa is evocative of the onion domes prevalent in Islamic architecture.

Total Building Height 2,717 FT City Dubai Total Building Cost $1,500,000,000 Date Opened 2010 Total Construction Time 6 years Total Floor Count 163 Chief Architect Adrian Smith

Text: www.burjkhalifa.ae/en Photo: Donaly Tong Architect: Adrian Smith at SOM

View from the top Photo: Donaly Tong

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RUSSIAN ARCHITECTURE
Conceptual masterplanning, including architecture and engineering, of three city sites to incorporate a new zoo and botanical gardens along with a retail/leisure development themed on ora and fauna.

RUSSIAN ARCHITECTURE
A model kart of the zoo Image: wkkarchitect.com

KAZAN ZOO
Promoted by the declaration of the Kazan Kremlin as a world heritage site, and the imminence of Kazans 200th anniversary, the Kazan government has initiated some significant improvements to the city centre.
This project addresses the masterplanning of three adjacent city sites totalling 40ha, to incorporate the Kazan Zoo and Botanical Gardens. The existing zoo is relocated to a greenfield site across a lake away from the city, linking back to the city by means of a signature bridge, which symbolically represents the body of the Strikaza (dragon fly) which has inspired the extended masterplan. The tubular bridge encompasses a winter garden, at the retail end , housing an historically significant collection of sub tropical plants, while at the zoo end the bridge terminates in a spectacular tropical house. The zoo component has been developed in conjunction with the Zoological Society of London. Due to the harsh winter conditions in Kazan, the zoo layout clusters warm species around the central tropical house to give visitors a mini zoo experience in winter without the need to venture outdoors. The retail mall acts as the entrance to the zoo on the ground floor and contains 80,000 sqM of shopping space including a food hall on the third floor. It is expected that the retail component will help ensure that the overall development will be self-funding.
This desginers got inspiration from this creature. Image: wkkarchitect. com

Text: wkkarchitects.com Designed: by Wright Khennouchi Kuruvilla. Image: wkkarchitect.com

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Unusual and Creative Architecture

Unusual and Creative Architecture

THE LONGABERGER COMPANY (USA)

UNUSUAL AND CREATIVE DESIGNS

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Worlds largest basket building is an American manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets and offers other home and lifestyle products, including .pottery, wrought iron, fabric accessories and specialty foods

Worlds largest basket building from top Location: Ohio, USA

WHAT STARTED OUT AS A DREAM BY DAVE LONGABERGER, Founder of The Longaberger Company, has been built Home Office into a giant basket to house the entire corporate offices of the company. Dave believed the idea was one of his best and would draw attention to the company, while simultaneously helping to build our brand. However, when he started spreading the idea of building a Home Office that was really a basket, he found that most people just thought that Dave was making a joke as Dave was a notorious practical joker. Not only did the bankers, architects and construction companies not take Dave seriously, neither did many of the employees who worked for The Longaberger Company, but Dave persevered. The dream was achieved on December 17, 1997 when the Home Office that is designed to resemble a basket finally opened for business.
Worlds largest basket building is locatet in Ohio, USA

Text: www.longaberger.com Project Name: The Basket Building Construction year: 1997 Architect(s): NBBJ Location: Ohio, United States

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Unusual and Creative Architecture

Unusual and Creative Architecture

Located in Huainan, China and built in 2007 by architectural students at Hefei University of Technology

PIANO HOUSE
(CHINA)
HUAINAN CITY IN CHINA HOSTS ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL AND BEAUTIFUL buildings in China, the Piano House. This incredible structure was designed by Hefei University of Technology to commemorate advancements in Huainan City. The Piano and accompanying violin entrance are built on a true 50:1 scale, perhaps making them the largest to scale instruments in the world. The building has escalators, meeting rooms, and space to host weddings and other events. You will find tourists and locals lounging underneath the Piano on warm days taking advantage of the massive structures shadow. At night the piano and violin light up with fluorescent lighting outlining the structures. The buildings have been deemed the most romantic buildings in China by local residents, and it very well may be.

Images: Marijn van den Brink Text: www.indulgd.com

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Unusual and Creative Architecture

Unusual and Creative Architecture

Daniel Czapiewski, Polish businessman and philanthropist, built this house as an artistic statement about the Communist era and current state of the world.

Upside Down House

(Poland)
A HOUSE CONSTRUCTED ENTIRELY UPSIDE DOWN is now a tourist attraction for the tiny village of Szymbark in northern Poland. As well as presenting topsy turvy from the exterior, the houses internal contradictions proved problematic during construction. Completed in 2007, the house designed by Polish businessman and philanthropist Daniel Czapiewski was originally created as an artwork designed to be representative of the end of the communist era in Poland ushering in a time of uncertainty. The house is situated in the village of Szymbark, about 39 kilometres south west of Gdansk in Northern Poland, and now attracts thousands of tourists each year. Szymbarks timber clad, upside down house, the only one in Poland, was completed in 2007 and took approximately five times longer than a conventional house to construct.
Inside view of the dinning room. Images: Marijn van den Brink

Images: Marijn van den Brink Text: www.indulgd.com

Inside view of the bathroom Images: Marijn van den Brink

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Unusual and Creative Architecture

Unusual and Creative Architecture

MARINA BAY SANDS SINGAPORE

Most epectacular hotel in Singapore with ulitmate luxury and breathtaking views. Experience sands ans skayoark and stunning infinity.

The unique SkyPark is an instant icon for the city and has the potential to do for Singapore what the Sydney Opera House did for Sydney

The MARINA BAY SANDs (mbs) is a mix-used integrated resort across Singapores Central Business District that brings together a 2,560-room hotel, convention centre, shopping and dining, two theatres, a museum and a casino. Safdie Architects was approached by Las Vegas Sands Corporation to come up with a design to help it win the bid to build the citys first integrated resort. A major factor in the project selection for the competition was the design of the resort and the developers capability, says Mr Moshe Safdie, lead designer and head of Safdie Architects. Moreover, there were very explicit terms on what the resort had to have, including a promenade, view corridors, and transportation connections. We had this shopping list of objectives, but I knew that beyond that, they were looking for an architecture that was so strong and memorable that it would represent Singapore, says Mr Safdie. Its like the Sydney Opera House, everybody says Australia when they see it. In collaboration with Aedas, the executive architect of the project, Mr Safdie created the hotel as three 55-storey towers instead of just one, so as to open up views between the citys downtown and its harbour. On top of these towers, he placed the SkyPark, which celebrates the notion of the Garden City as a key feature of Singapores urban design strategy. As a whole, Mr Safdies design has led the MBS to become one of Singapores architectural icons. While the high-rise hotel towers and SkyPark made MBS an iconic architecture, Mr Safdie also humanised and made legible, such a mega-scale project. It is an important principle in his design philosophy. It was not a project requirement, but he decided to set the high-rise buildings back and away from the waterfront. I felt the best scheme would be for all these low-rise programmes to be near the water, and the high-rise would be pushed far back to the other side, says Mr Safdie. It makes it a much more humane place, not having the shadows of towers above you.

These design approaches have helped to make the MBS a popular destination in the city since it officially opened in early 2011. Not only tourists come, but also Singaporeans, notes Mr Safdie. While many regard this project as designing another integrated resort like those in Las Vegas and Macau, Mr Safdie begs to differ. With its variety of uses, including shopping, he sees the MBS as an urban centre for Singaporeans as much as it is for tourists. Integrated resorts have been in towns with not much going there. In Las Vegas, everybody is a tourist, same in Macau, but thats not true in Singapore, he says. With Marina Bay Sands, I wanted to create a mixing bowl between Singapore and the world, a place that Singaporeans and tourists alike would enjoy and be inspired by. It appears that the design has succeeded in achieving this objective. We are now basking in something that is very rare: an architectural success story that is also a commercial success story, adds Mr Safdie. It doesnt come together very often. He drew inspiration from ancient Roman cities that were ordered around a vital public thoroughfare the cardo maximus and decumanus. The MBS is organised around such major urban spines, the centre of public, civic, cultural and commercial activities. The resorts 74,000 square metres retail arcade, the ArtScience Museum, and the waterfront promenade are all integrated into this new urban place, a 21st-century cardo maximus, or Grand Arcade. From here (also integrated with the Bay Front promenades), a network of public paths also take you to MBS two theatres, which have a total of 4,000 seats, a casino, a 9,000 square metres convention and exhibition centre, and a hydraulically adjustable public event piazza of 5,000 square metres.

Location: Singapore Image: www.marinabaysands.com

Image: www.marinabaysands.com, Courtesy of Safdie Architects Text: www.designsingapore.org

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Unusual and Creative Architecture

Unusual and Creative Architecture

Marina Bay Sand from indside location: Marina bay sands Singapore Architect: Moshe Safdie Image: www.skyscrapercenter.com

The view over the side: An artist's impression shows the Skypark that tops the Marina Bay Sands hotel towers, including the innity pool location: Singapore Architect: Moshe Safdie Image: www.dailymail.co.uk

Interior design of Marina Bay Sands location: Singapore Architect: Moshe Safdie Image: www.marinabaysands. com

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