Archinect - News

New photographs of Zaha Hadid's striking ME Dubai Hotel at the Opus

2020-05-06T15:38:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects just released spectacular photographs of the new ME Dubai hotel at the Opus, a high-rise steel and glass cube the studio designed with a dramatic 8-story void seemingly punched right through it.

The building, centrally located in the Burj Khalifa district near Downtown Dubai and Business Bay on the Dubai Water Canal, was the only hotel in which the late Zaha Hadid designed both the architecture as well as the interiors.

Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu

"Spanning 84,300 square metres (907,400 square feet), the Opus was designed as two separate towers that coalesce into a singular whole—taking the form of a cube," explains the project description. "The cube has been ‘eroded’ in its centre, creating a free-form void that is an important volume of the design in its own right. The two halves of the building on either side of the void are linked by a four-storey atrium at ground level and also connected by an asymmetric 38 metre wide, three-storey bridge 71 metres above the ...

FDNY Union says no to oversized mechanical spaces

2019-06-14T19:45:00-04:00

"It is difficult enough for Firefighters operating inside of high-rise buildings. Access to the fire area and to whatever is on fire is paramount to save lives and to protect Firefighters operating at these fires... While we acknowledge and accept the risks of our profession, we strongly oppose construction methods that are inherently dangerous that for no valid reason increase the threat to the lives of the public and our members."

The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York has come out in strong support of state-level legislation aimed at limiting the ability of real estate developers to use "mechanical void spaces" to game zoning codes into allowing them to construct taller buildings.

In a strongly-worded memo, circulated by the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts group, the Fire Department of New York union says, "Void spaces, often entire floors in buildings put hazardous equipment such as High Voltage Air Conditioning and heating equipment in the middle of buildings, many floors above street level. These void floors bring fire hazards into areas of a building where it is most difficult for Firefighters to fight these types of equipment fires."

New York City's "Accidental Skyline," Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Chris O.

Two legislative proposals, Senate Bill S3820A and Assembly Bill A5026A, aim to fine-tune how municipalities define a project's floor area.

Under recent gui...

Duality + tension = elegance in the Ivanhoe House

2017-05-11T18:03:00-04:00

How does one maintain excitement while embodying elegance? The artful tension of the Ivanhoe House, as designed by Billy Kavellaris of the Australian firm KUD, is an excellent example. Located in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, the single-story 370 square meter house initially engages visitors with its unusual aesthetics and then creates settings that are elegant without ever becoming staid. "The house is a clever orchestration of balancing tension that has created wondrous moments throughout. Ivanhoe house can be read as a conversation of dualities, of heavy and lightness, public and private and of light and darkness," as the architect explains in his project description.

This conversation starts with the imposing rectilinear entryway, which combines weighty solidity with the allure of a luxurious glassed-in portico. During the day, the entryway resembles a black void, but at night with the lights on, it becomes a vividly lit domestic portal. The mass of the entryway is echoed by a...

Architect/Contractor Couple Builds Home Out of Shipping Containers in Williamsburg

2013-03-01T12:54:00-05:00

The couple bought a 20-by-40-foot piece of land at 351 Keap St. in 2008, trying to get ahead of the wave of gentrification they feared would soon price them out of Williamsburg. Initially, they planned to build a tiny home out of bricks and mortar, but when they put out a bid, it came back as potentially costing half a million dollars.

After doing some calculations, they decided to make it work with shipping containers.

In cramped Hong Kong, a home under the bridge

2013-02-28T16:12:00-05:00

It is in empty spaces like [under Hong Kong's overpasses] that a group is campaigning for the government to build youth hostels, arts performance venues, offices for small- to mid-sized businesses and, most intriguingly, temporary housing. The group sees this unused land as an opportunity to alleviate Hong Kong’s problem of young people not being able to afford to rent in the world’s most expensive property market.