Archinect - News

Safdie Architects stacks vertical gardens in new Shanghai tower complex

2024-07-22T16:07:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has shared photos of their latest contribution to Shanghai's Luwan district, the new LuOne Mixed-Use Complex, after its construction was completed in the past year.

Featuring an eight-story bronze colonnade-lined retail component and a 35-story office tower, the project “answers the pressing need for connection to nature and a place of community within Shanghai’s urban core,” in the words of Senior Partner Christopher Mulvey.

Image: Shao Feng. Courtesy of Safdie Architects.

Accordingly, the tower’s southwestern edge includes a glass-enclosed “corner garden” running vertically with a series of seven four-story garden spaces stacked to create the appearance of plant life ascending or “climbing” the length of its facade.

Image: Shao Feng. Courtesy of Safdie Architects.

The 484,000-square-foot tower was designed to complete the program, which began with the construction of the 1.5 million-square-foot retail galleria in 2018...

Safdie Architects will expand Marina Bay Sands for 2029

2024-04-08T13:02:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has announced plans for a programmatic expansion of their previous Marina Bay Sands design in Singapore.

The scheme calls for the addition of a new luxury hotel tower with a sky roof, a 15,000-seat entertainment venue, and further spaces reserved for work, retail, and dining.

The project is being undertaken to provide a boost to Singapore’s tourism sector, which is considered lagging behind other destinations in the Asia-Pacific region in spite of strong post-pandemic numbers. (The resort has drawn more than 470 million visitors since its opening, according to a press release from its Las Vegas-based management group.)

Rendering of the new entertainment arena. Image courtesy Marina Bay Sands

"The all-suite hotel tower will set new standards of hospitality, the state-of-the-art arena will help attract the highest-caliber global entertainment events and artists, and the additional convention and exhibition space will extend the success of Singapore as a leading MICE d...

Safdie Architects shares construction update for Crystal Bridges Museum expansion

2024-04-04T12:41:00-04:00

The multi-year expansion of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is moving forward with an anticipated completion in 2025. Safdie Architects has shared photos of its construction progress via an Instagram post published Wednesday, April 3rd, from the site in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The project adds two new galleries worth a total of 100,000 square feet to the campus, increasing the size of its existing exhibition spaces by 65% while adding another 50% to its overall footprint. Safdie has been working on a master plan for the site, which includes the original pavilions he completed in 2011, for over 25 years.

Watch him speak with the museum's founder, Alice Walton, about its design here.

The project will culminate as his second American museum expansion following his work for the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts in 2003.

Next up, the firm is working on a new ski resort/residential concept in Vermont with PWP Landscape Architecture.

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Safdie Architects completes integrated Surbana Jurong Campus in Singapore

2024-03-14T17:18:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has just announced the completion of their Surbana Jurong Campus project in Singapore. The 742,000-square-foot design for the Surbana Jurong corporation aims to establish a better work-life balance for employees while connecting to its natural rainforest setting.

The design brief calls for elevating ten pavilions of five and seven stories apiece along a linear arch to allow plantings to grow up from beneath and eventually envelop the offices, creating a "treehouse" effect for its users. Architects say this provides an alternative to "traditional, internally focused buildings." Charu Kokate, a Senior Partner at Safdie Architects, said the design "was guided most essentially by the people whose work and lives intersect there."

Photo by Timothy Hursley, courtesy of Safdie Architects

As such, the project features a selection of workplace wellness considerations meant to stimulate socialization, increase creativity, ...

Safdie Architects and PWP Landscape Architecture reveal design for mountainside Vermont village master plan

2023-11-30T12:13:00-05:00

Safdie Architects and PWP Landscape Architecture have unveiled their design for a master-planned residential development in Killington, Vermont. Developed by Great Gulf, the “mountain village community” will include the largest ski beach in the Eastern United States.

Image credit: Great Gulf

The 450-acre development is framed by the 4,241-foot Killington Peak, one of six mountain peaks to surround the village. The first phase of the community will see 32,000 square feet of commercial space accompanying 225 residences, comprising condominiums, townhomes, and single-family homes. The residential community will also feature ski-in/ski-out access.

Image credit: Great Gulf

“We aim to capture the spirit of, and character of, the Vermont village in a contemporary rendition of vital public spaces for all seasons,” Moshe Safdie is quoted on a website dedicated to the development.

Image credit: Great Gulf

Pre-construction is currently underway on the site, with sales for the first residences exp...

Safdie Architects and PWP Landscape Architecture to deliver ‘luxury mountain village’ for Great Gulf in Killington, Vermont

2023-10-06T13:11:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has been tapped by developers Great Gulf to deliver a master-planned residential development in Killington, Vermont. While design proposals for the site are yet to be revealed, Great Gulf has said that sales of the first residences will launch next year, designed by a team led by Safdie and PWP Landscape Architecture.

According to the developers, the site will hold a “one-of-a-kind master-planned village and luxury four-season resort-style residential community.” The 450-acre development will include ski-in/ski-out access, restaurants, retail, and “the largest ski beach in the East.”

Project site in Killington, VT. Image credit: Williams New York

Phase One of the scheme will include over 32,000 square feet of commercial space and approximately 225 residences consisting of condominiums, townhouses, and single-family homesites. “We aim to capture the spirit of, and character of, the Vermont village in a contemporary rendition of vital public spaces for all seasons,” M...

Habitat 67’s original vision recreated in Unreal Engine by Safdie Architects, Epic Games, and Neoscape

2023-05-17T07:00:00-04:00

Safdie Architects, Epic Games, and the creative agency Neoscape have recreated the original vision for Habitat 67 in virtual reality. Using Epic Games’ powerful game engine Unreal Engine 5, the entire original master plan for the radical early 1960s scheme has been constructed, marking a significant expansion on the realized segment situated in Montreal, Canada.

Video courtesy: Epic Games

The genesis of Habitat 67 stretches back to Moshe Safdie’s master’s thesis at McGill University. At 23 years old, Safdie submitted the idea to the 1967 Montreal World’s Fair, with the goal of creating a pilot for a new type of housing that would not contribute to urban sprawl.

Image credit: Epic Games

“It began with a journey through North America to study housing,” Safdie recalled. “I came to the conclusion that suburbs weren’t feasible in the long term. They consumed too much land, energy, and transportation. If we could reinvent the apartment building to offer the quality...

Your next job could be as a model maker at Safdie Architects

2023-05-11T12:52:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for an AI-Related Architectural Intern at DVLPR, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Digital Fabricator / Model Designers at Safdie Architects.

The role, based in Safdie’s Boston office, calls for a “creative, entrepreneurial, and detail-oriented individual” to assist in exploring the “spatial, tectonic and material properties of designs through the planning and production of digital, 3D printed, fabricated and handcrafted models, as well as scale mock-ups.” Among the skills and qualities sought in applicants are a passion for model making, experience operating digital tools such as laser cutters and 3D printers, and a knowledge of AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, and Adobe Suite.

Archinect Feature: Archinect's Guide to Job Titles: Model Maker

Why the role interests us

The role of model makers in design practices, and the design culture at Safdie Architects, are topics our editori...

BIG and Safdie complete jagged new tower additions to Quito's skyline

2022-12-07T05:00:00-05:00

A pair of landmark projects in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito is now complete, representing firsts for both BIG and Safdie Architects, respectively.

QORNER, the 24-story Safdie-designed tower, is the firm’s first residential project on the continent and serves as an extension of its founder’s indoor-outdoor vision with garden terrace-lined residential offerings from the micro-apartment to the penthouse level.

IQON (left) and QORNER (right). Image courtesy of Uribe Schwarzkopf.

QORNER. Image courtesy of Uribe Schwarzkopf.

Its northern facade features a living green wall that defines a vertical core, while the staggering of its eastern and western facades creates a “hillside” form resembling a “cliff face” with room for double-height corner terraces with views of neighboring La Carolina Park.

QORNER. Image courtesy of Uribe Schwarzkopf.

Finally, a tree-lined infinity pool is placed on the rooftop level in a nod to their iconic Marina Bay Sand...

Moshe Safdie donates entire archive to McGill University

2022-08-23T14:42:00-04:00

The professional archive of renowned Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie will now be housed at his alma mater McGill University, the school announced today.

The Habitat 67 designer will also donate his restored private apartment in the famed modular housing complex, along with the undergraduate thesis titled “A Case for City Living” that led to its inception as part of the Expo 67 exhibition in Montreal 55 years ago.

The apartment (which was not previously managed by the university) and thesis are just two of the more than 100,000 total pieces included in the donation. McGill says the archive “represents one of the most extensive and thorough individual collections of architectural documentation in Canada” and that it expects the gift to provide “an abundance of opportunity for exploration” to the university and design-minded community writ large.

Special announcement ceremony of Moshe Safdie's archive donation at McGill University. Video via McGill University on YouTube.

At th...

Safdie Architects completes Albert Einstein Education and Research Center in São Paulo

2022-07-25T17:13:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has completed a new verdant medical school and research building with a distinctive domed glass roof in São Paulo.

Conceived as an urban oasis, the Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC) is the latest initiative of Brazilian healthcare institute Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Albert Einstein. It is slated to be one of Latin America’s most advanced institutions for medical research and study.

Photo by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Safdie Architects

The Center is located in São Paulo’s Morumbi district, adjacent to the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. The AEERC is the first medical school established by a private hospital in Brazil. Safdie Architects also worked in collaboration with Perkins&Will, who led the programming and interior planning of the classrooms and labs.

Photo by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Safdie Architects

The integration of nature throughout the spaces of the facility is at the core of the project’s design. The centerpiece of the...

Safdie's Marina Bay Sands opens in Singapore

2010-06-25T13:21:00-04:00

The UK's Daily Mail reports on the £4billion Moshe Safdie-designed project that has just opened in Singapore, with a focus on the huge infinity pool on it's cruise-line-shaped rooftop.

The infinity pool on the roof is in the 'SkyPark' which spans the three towers of the hotel. The platform itself is longer than the Eiffel tower laid down and is one of the largest of its kind in the world.