Terminal Velocity
Daxing, Beijing, China
Timeline: 2018
With China outpacing nearly every other country in economic growth, its future as a destination will necessitate greater ease of travel to and from the Middle Kingdom. To that end, ADP Ingeniérie (ADPI) and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) recently announced the completion of the concept design for the Beijing New Airport Terminal Building. The futuristic terminal will be extremely user-focused, efficient, adaptable, and sustainable for future growth to serve the world’s fastest growing aviation sector.
The client, Beijing New Airport Headquarters, adopted the 6-pier radial concept developed by ADPI, as it gives exceptional functionality and flexibility. The design celebrates the connectivity and dynamism of air travel, expressed as a sequence of inspirational interconnected public spaces. The flowing rooflines cover the large, column-free spaces provide a sense of scale and orientation—welcoming the world to Beijing. All of the passenger pathways through the terminal converge within the central courtyard, creating a multi-layered civic space at the very heart of the terminal.
Although large enough to accommodate the many passengers and aircraft, the terminal building maintains a relationship to a human scale and sense of direction. These characteristics have evolved from traditional Chinese architecture in which intricate compositions of connecting volumes define exterior and interior spaces that guide visitors as they progress through the architecture.
The Office, Re-imagined
London, England
Timeline: 2025-2030
As part of the 2015 Workplace of the Future 2.0 contest, sponsored by Business Interiors by Staples and Metropolis, more than 150 architects and designers from around the world envisioned what work lives would look like in the next 10 to 15 years, given the shift toward a “work anywhere, anytime” mentality.
Winners Joe Wilson and Sean Cassidy of London, England, cashed in $7,500 for their Organic Grid+ concept, which celebrates sustainable design. As an adaption of the infill environment theme, the winning concept consists of a custom-created unit that plugs directly into existing city architecture, whether that existing space be a skyscraper or warehouse. The unit is equipped with office space and indoor garden space, which allows workers to integrate two often opposing forces: nature and technology. Planting and vegetation in the garden generates healthy food options for employees and naturally regulates the climate of the workspace so less HVAC is needed.
The Organic Grid+ blends the boundaries between work and personal life in a constructive way designed to meet the realities of the new workplace where employees are spending more time at work.
City of Love ... for Nature
Paris, France
Timeline: 2050
Paris has long been known as a romantic getaway destination, but in the not-so-distant-future, it may be known more for its love of nature by its pioneering use of innovative technologies to reduce its environmental footprint. To that end, a recent study conducted for the city by Vincent Callebaut Architectures aimed to find ways to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions 75 percent by 2050.
Aptly named 2050 PARIS SMART CITY, the project’s focus is on the integration of high-rise Energy-Plus Buildings (BEPOS) that will produce energy for the surrounding areas. In order to battle the urban heat-island effect while simultaneously allowing for increased density of the city in the long-term, the study presents eight prototypes of mixed towers. These towers integrate the rules of biomimicry and renewable and recyclable energies through innovative systems.
Each of the towers serves a specific function, including: solar, hydrodynamic, and planted towers supply bio-air conditioning to combat the urban heat-island phenomenon; a nearly 15-mile ecological corridor in the heart of Paris punctuated by depolluting photo-catalytic towers; a central park built in a vertical spiral with organic facades of green algae; thermodynamic garden towers; a hive of connected, energy-efficient honeycomb housing; vertical farms, and more.
The Sky’s the Limit
Poland
Timeline: 2050 and beyond
What will vertical living look like in the distant future? That’s exactly the question the 2015 Skyscraper Competition, an annual contest established in 2006 by eVolo magazine, set out to answer. And the 480 submissions received produced stunning and imaginative responses to that question.
The winning entry from BOMP (Ewa Odyjas, Agnieszka Morga, Konrad Basan, and Jakub Pudo) from Poland for their project Essence Skyscraper, rose to the top, so to speak. The proposal is an urban mega-structure that contains diverse natural habitats that serve as a respite from urban life. The goal of this project is to position non-architectural phenomena in an urban fabric. Overlapping landscapes such as an ocean, a jungle, a cave, or a waterfall will stimulate a diverse and complex range of visual, acoustic, thermal, olfactory, and kinesthetic experiences.
The main body of the building is divided into 11 natural landscapes meant to form an environmentally justified sequence open to the public that includes extensive open floor plans that form spectacular spaces with water floors, fish tanks hoisted nearly 100 feet above ground, and jungle areas, among others natural scenarios.
The ideas put forth in this competition, through the novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.
