Archinect - News

Encircling the Burj Khalifa high up in the sky, Dubai architects propose a massive 'gated community' megastructure

2022-08-19T12:03:00-04:00

Downtown Circle is made up of five levels and would sit on five points, or pillars, embedded into the ground. The massive span of the circle itself would be composed of two main rings held together by a continuous green belt named the Skypark which vertically connects the floors with each other creating a connected three-dimensional urban green eco-system.

The National mentions that the (supposedly) self-sustaining 550-meter-tall (1,804-foot) structure would include a tram system and incredible landscaped features such as swamps and a waterfall in and around its three-kilometer (1.86-mile) long tract. ZNera Space, the Dubai-based firm behind the proposal, mentioned it in terms of the NEOM project’s recently-announced 'The Line' megastructure, stating that its concept differs within an urban context, but that the radical design, which was thought up during the pandemic, "raises the discussion of what we can do better" in terms of agricultural production and social division.

"Our roles as architects is to come up with these ideas," co-founder Najmus Chowdry said. "We want people to comment on it, criticise it, to see how we can think about building topographies."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ZNera (@znera.space)

Atelier RZLBD proposes 35-mile-long, hovering megastructure above Toronto's Yonge Street in love letter

2021-06-25T18:03:00-04:00

Through a series of postcards and a love letter, Toronto-based practice Atelier RZLBD has proposed a conceptual project that would add a 35-mile long tower above Toronto’s Yonge Street, the longest street in the world.

Titled #YongeCity, the megastructure would be composed of space frame and shipping containers. But most importantly, it would accommodate 134,000 inhabitants, aiming to reduce the housing market gap in Toronto. According to the firm, this elevated “line” above Yonge Street symbolizes equality and diversity as it is accessible and occupiable to everyone regardless of financial standing or cultural background.

Illustrating the concept is a collection of postcards, concept diagrams, and a love letter to Toronto, which can be viewed below.

Dear Toronto,

Toronto, you are one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, proudly referred to as “Canadian Mosaic.” However, despite all the optimism, you have also become one of the least affordable cities in the world,...

Seattle Tunnel trial: contractor must pay $57 million to Washington state for massive Bertha breakdown, jury finds

2019-12-16T14:30:00-05:00

A jury has awarded the Washington State Department of Transportation $57.2 million in damages, after a two-month trial over delays in the downtown Seattle Highway 99 tunnel project. The verdict, reached Friday against the tunnel contractors in Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia, represents the entire amount the state requested at trial.

Remember Bertha, once the world's largest tunnel-boring machine which, very inconveniently, broke down in 2013 after hitting a pipe while digging the Seattle Tunnel, delaying the megaproject for more than two years? A jury just sided with the Washington State Department of Transportation that the tunnel contractors were indeed to blame for the delay and thus owed $57.2 million in damages.

The four-lane Highway 99 tunnel beneath downtown Seattle eventually opened in February 2019.

To recall the massive scope of the SR 99 tunnel-boring machine, watch this video of a drone exploring Bertha's inner workings, published by the Washington State Department of Transportation in 2016.

This drone video takes you on a fascinating flight through the guts of Seattle's Bertha tunneling machine

2016-05-06T15:15:00-04:00

As Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct sat free of cars overhead and drivers attempted to move around the city during the roadway’s planned 2-week closure, a new drone video Tuesday showcased again what all the fuss is about. A view inside the SR 99 tunnel won’t get much better than this until you’re actually able to drive through it. [...] The 4-minute video captures what has been built behind nearly 1,600 feet of mining along Seattle’s waterfront.

Bertha previously in the Archinect news: Seattle's massive Bertha tunnel drill is up for repair, but still faces a shaky outlook

Seattle's massive Bertha tunnel drill is up for repair, but still faces a shaky outlook

2015-04-07T16:25:00-04:00

Megaprojects almost always fall short of their promises—costing too much, delivering underwhelming benefits, or both. Yet...cities still fall for them, seduced by new technologies and the lure of the perfect fix. A mix of factors has given Seattle a particularly acute sense of angst. The project depends on a singular piece of engineering. And Bertha’s building a highway for cars in a city where workers overcrowd buses and commuters wrap themselves in waterproof everything to bike in the rain.

Bedecked with amusingly cutesy illustrations, Bloomberg tells the exasperating tale of the giant tunnel drill dubbed Bertha, which began digging the new State Route 99 tunnel underneath downtown Seattle in summer 2013 to replace the current street-level Alaskan Way Viaduct and ideally clear up the city's waterfront for a park. Named after Seattle's only female mayor Bertha Knight Landes, Bertha is reportedly the world's biggest tunnel drill at five stories tall, built with a 25,000-horsepower motor, 260 steel teeth, and has an $80 million price tag.

Bertha near completion back in 2012 before its shipment to Seattle.

But in December 2013 after digging through about 1,000 feet, Bertha's seals busted from increasing temperatures and grit clogged up its teeth, so, it broke. Debate amongst Seattleites ensued. What the hell will happen to Big Bertha now? The project was originally scheduled to be done this November.

Last week, Washington State's contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners safely haul...

Kohn Pedersen Fox's Tianjin megastructure "Riverside 66" now open to the public

2014-09-30T23:53:00-04:00

After 10 years, Kohn Pedersen Fox's Riverside 66 in Tianjin, China successfully reached completion as scheduled and officially opened to the public on September 26. The grand opening also marked the completion of the final phase of the main pedestrian He Ping Lu boulevard, which aims to become the centerpiece of the developing Heping commercial district.

Read on for more about the building's design.

The 350-meter commercial megastructure is hard to miss at street level. The structure's curved façade converges with the opposing south façade to create a six-story building suitable for the Heping District's smaller scale context. Its "super shell" is claimed to be one of the region's longest single structures, built with 22 seven-story-tall concrete ribs and over 10,000 glass panels. In a statement, KPF Design Principal James von Klemperer describes the structural frame as "what it must be to see a whale skeleton from the inside. Herman Melville would be inspired.”

Inside, the structure e...

Construction Update: Kohn Pedersen Fox's Riverside 66 in Tianjin, China

2014-02-27T15:52:00-05:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox's Riverside 66 in Tianjin, China is steadily working its way to completion, scheduled for this September. The 10-year retail project will be one of China's longest buildings, with a 350-meter "super shell" made of 22 seven-story concrete ribs and 10,000 panels of glass. At this point, Riverside 66's structure is now complete and its enclosure will be finished in April.

The project is already decked out with numerous awards including the NY AIA Design Award, the Architectural Review Future Award, and a recent pre-LEED Gold certification.

Check out the newest construction photos and images KPF shared with us:

"When it opens this fall, the megastructure of the Riverside 66 retail project in Tianjin will complete a new phase of He Ping Lu becoming the centerpiece of the Hai He commercial district, and will be prominently visible from the Hai He River...

In the words of KPF Design Principal James von Klemperer, 'Now that the structural frame is complete, to wander inside a ...

Largest building in the world opens in China – complete with indoor seaside

2013-07-10T12:40:00-04:00

A 100m tall cliff-face of blue mirrored glass, stretching 500m along a triumphal plaza, the New Century Global Centre houses an entire seaside resort, along with a 14-screen Imax cinema, Olympic-sized ice rink, two five-star hotels and its own Mediterranean shopping village – all wrapped with a vast ribbon of offices. Sprawling for 1.7m square metres, it could fit 20 Sydney Opera Houses beneath its glass roof.

Megastructures are the Shopping Malls of the Avant-Garde

2012-03-27T12:51:00-04:00

What About ideal cities, and counter revolutionary master plans?

Avant-Garde
The avant-garde is a paradoxical state. In order to exist, it relies on its incongruous condition of being both fundamentally contemporary and ahead of its time. A conceptual palimpsest, the avant-garde requires writing its history over its own past keeping a vulnerable balance between present problems, and possible future solutions. All about contextualizing the perfect timing, what happens when the avant-garde goes out of sync; when its solutions are overlooked for being too premature, or ridiculed for being delayed?

In the past century alone, the avant-garde was victim of two untimely appearances. In the first one, its proposals arrived too early; the world was taken aback by the boldness of its ambitions, by the audacity of its delirium. In the second coming, the avant-garde was too late. Here its stratagems were on a futile mission of inventing a program that already existed.

These consecutive...