Archinect - News

New Beijing Performing Arts Center rises from its historic waterside site with curtain-like forms

2024-09-11T16:40:00-04:00

A new performing arts complex designed by Perkins&Will, in partnership with Schmidt Hammer Lassen, has opened in Beijing. Located in the city’s southeast district, Tongzhou, the Beijing Performing Arts Center sits along the banks of the Grand Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, anchoring a recently designated cultural district, which also includes a museum, a library, and extensive parklands.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

The roughly 1.3 million-square-foot complex comprises an opera house, a theater, and a concert hall, along with a multipurpose hall and an outdoor stage.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

Its design recalls the site’s history as a commercial shipping and storage hub by referencing the rooflines of the storehouses that formerly populated the area and the sails of traditional canal boats. The forms also evoke a theater curtain parting at the start of a performance.

Image: Zhu Yumeng

The Center’s structures are unified through a broad, elevated platform that can be accessed from ...

MAD Architects completes the ZGC International Innovation Center in Beijing

2024-06-18T20:17:00-04:00

MAD Architects has announced the completion of the ZGC International Innovation Center in Beijing. Spanning a total floor area of approximately 699,654 square feet, the structure was designed to serve as the permanent venue for the annual Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum).

Photo: Zhu Yumeng

The forum is an international conference centered around innovation and technology. It is held annually in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing’s Haidian District, which is a major tech hub that hosts numerous high-tech companies, startups, and research institutions.

Photo: CreatAR Images

According to the architects, the Center, which takes on the shape of a clover, was designed to foster a deep connection between humanity, the city, and the environment.

Photo: Arch Exist

It blends into its surroundings through an accessible, approximately 182,986-square-foot green roof park, consisting of trees, gardens, walkways, and architectural features, that extends the nearby gardens and hills. The roof, characteri...

Snøhetta unveils newly completed Beijing City Library design

2024-02-26T19:31:00-05:00

Snøhetta has shared new photos of its completed Beijing City Library design in the Chinese capital.

What is billed by the team to be the "world's largest climatized reading space" is composed of a glass curtain wall fronted by a forest of sculptural columns resembling ginko trees in a design that harkens the natural landscape to affect an "emotional connection" between people, books, and the environment.

Photo: Yumeng Zhu

Snøhetta says this is meant to challenge contemporary thinking on libraries and to disabuse designers (and critics) of the notion that the typology has become largely outmoded in the digital age.

Photo: Yumeng Zhu

Located in the city’s Tongzhou District, the library design was born out of a 2018 competition that paired the firm with local studio ECADI. Their effort was replete with integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) construction elements and other features aiming to reduce solar gain. This combines with the use of locally sourced construction materials...

PAO creates Beijing public restroom from single meandering wall

2023-06-30T11:19:00-04:00

People’s Architecture Office (PAO) has completed a public restroom in Beijing shaped by a single meandering wall. Named Amoeba Public Restroom, the project is located in Manshan Park, a popular destination in Mentougou, Beijing known for its markets, exhibitions, and music performances.

Image credit: People's Architecture Office

“Amoeba Public Restroom is an all-gender facility that is designed to [be] welcoming for all people,” the team explains. “The design features a single meandering wall, which creates distinct individual stalls while maintaining an open and interconnected interior. Conical spaces form light wells that draw natural light into each stall. The resulting spaces bring a sacred beauty to the most profane of activities.”

Image credit: People's Architecture Office

Each stall within the scheme has a unique shape and size. Stall doors do not seal above or below to create a continuity of sp...

MAD Architects' new China Philharmonic Concert Hall project nears completion in Beijing

2023-06-13T13:47:00-04:00

MAD Architects has shared an update on its nearly-complete China Philharmonic Concert Hall in Beijing.

The project encompasses almost 280,000 square feet of total building area and features an organic two-story volume sheathed in a translucent membrane-like facade the firm says is reminiscent of a piece of jade, a gemstone that has, for millennia, played a significant role in Chinese ethnography.

Photo by CreatAR

Located next to the 64-year-old Workers’ Stadium Complex, the 1,600-seat venue includes a 350-seat rehearsal space and was developed alongside world-renowned acoustics expert Yasuhisa Toyota to serve as the new home of the equally well-regarded China Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rendering courtesy MAD Architects

Nestled in its interior, a sloping “vineyard style” serried seating arrangement defines the concert space that also takes advantage of the influx of natural light provided by the structure’s unique façade system.

Photo by Zhengdong Li

Concertgoers can take in their performa...

Five unique geometric forms by OPEN Architecture: Your Next Employer?

2023-05-08T15:23:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to California-based McClean Design, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Beijing this week, where we explore the work of OPEN Architecture.

Founded by Li Hu and Huang Wenjing, the firm established its Beijing office in 2008 after spending some formative years working on high-profile projects at Steven Holl Architects and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. OPEN engages with architecture, urban design, landscape design, and interiors, as well as research. Earlier this year, we covered OPEN’s nomination for the Créateurs Design Award, while last year, we reported on the firm’s newly-designed campus center in Suzhou and their tent-like Yantai Sun Tower, both in China.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring an Architect to join its Beijing office. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the studio’s work, we have rounded up five projects with unique geometric forms by OPEN Archit...

China unveils ambitious plan to construct 245 new museums in Beijing by 2035

2023-02-24T16:42:00-05:00

China is pushing forward a draft development plan to construct some 245 new museums in its capital by the year 2035, according to reports coming out of Beijing last weekend.

The plan from the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau calls for there to be a total of 460 museums by the end of the building frenzy, enough, it says, for two per every 100,000 inhabitants in the city of 21.5 million.

The push comes in anticipation of Beijng’s expected tourism influx. Recent research from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) suggested that it could soon overtake Paris as the world’s most frequented tourist destination, with a projected annual value eventually topping out at $77 billion. Museums, therefore, make up the core component of this effort, with a special focus on those promoting Chinese culture and history in line with the Communist party’s nationalist agenda.

MIT research finds that commuting distances are standard regardless of city size

2023-01-03T11:24:00-05:00

Researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab have produced a series of maps visualizing commuting habits across Chinese cities. Titled Potato Project, the study used mobile phone location data from 50 million individuals across 234 cities to understand commuting patterns between a person’s home and work locations.

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

The research project was launched in response to the group’s observation that despite the significant increase in the size of cities over decades, commuting distances and times in larger cities have remained stable versus smaller cities. “The conserved commuting properties are quite counter-intuitive,” the team notes, “as the distance from the periphery to the urban center in larger cities is obviously greater than that in medium- or small-sized cities.”

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

With little existing large-scale modeling on the subject, the researchers analyzed the mobile phone location data to better understand the similarities...

Crossboundaries converted a motorboat into a flexible tiny home on the water

2022-12-30T14:07:00-05:00

Earlier this year, Beijing-based practice Crossboundaries redesigned a fully solar powered motorboat by adding tiny-home components making it a slow-moving home on the water.

Completed in March 2022 for a Berlin-based client, the project questions the relationships between the notions of public-private and temporary-permanent. The structure has an overall length of around 49 feet and a maximum width of a little over 13 feet. It features a set of interlinked and multi-purpose spaces.

Crossboundaries made functionality improvements to the boat by including a fully hidden bed and the ability to close the helmstand, which hides more technical equipment, freeing up space. They also featured a pop-up table for the kitchen and a hidden foldable desk within a cabinet.

As noted by the architects, “The boat is "smart and self-powered" due to a set of innovative solutions in terms of solar energy, heating source, water, and waste management.” On sunny days, the boat can be entirely powered b...

MAD's first Beijing housing development is a treatise on 'The Sociality of Social Housing'

2022-06-21T13:19:00-04:00

Embarking on a new project type for the first time in the history of the practice, Ma Yansong’s MAD Architects recently unveiled photos for a social housing scheme located near Beijing’s central business district called Baiziwan.

It is promoted to include some 4000 new housing units distributed through a program of 6 blocks and 12 buildings equaling a massive total construction area of 473,300 square meters (about 5.1-million-square-feet). The project’s brief asked for an eco-friendly scheme that would connect the site with the pedestrian life of the city at street level, and MAD responded with a plan anchored by a central commercial artery and connected via a blood-red walkway to a circuit of semi-open "gray" spaces, a nature sanctuary, amphitheater, and elevated park planners conceive of as a “Floating Garden.”

Image © ArchExist

Image © Zhu Yumeng

Two of the structures were constructed using the international passive house standard as well. In a press statement, MAD also said space ...

Beijing's big air slope offers Olympics viewers a captivating example of adaptive reuse

2022-02-08T15:55:00-05:00

Freeski big air opened its Olympic competition Monday at the world’s first permanent, city-based big air facility, a repurposed steel mill on the west side of Beijing that’s made a stunning backdrop for one of the Games’ newest sports.

The venue is the one-time home of a steel production facility that was shuttered ahead of the 2008 games to create a generally greener picture of the country to Western news outlets. Its former grounds have been transformed into a greenery-laced headquarters for the games’ Organizing Committee, with an additional industrial sound-installation infused multi-use museum and office development occupying its former blast furnace.

The transformation of the site will eventually include the overhauling of one of its ominous cooling towers into a wedding venue. The Copenhill-esque slope is slightly larger than similar structures seen in Boston and Atlanta and is noteworthy as the first venue to host the newly-added event, which has been described as a “high-risk home run derby for snowboarding and freestyle skiing.”

Ai Weiwei still wants nothing to do with the Bird's Nest stadium two decades on

2022-02-07T16:47:00-05:00

Years prior to his departure from his home country, Ai famously consulted on the design of the venue hosting Friday night's opening ceremony: The Beijing National Stadium, or "Bird's Nest." But the artist distanced himself from the project and criticized China's hosting of the Olympics ahead of the opening ceremony, believing it to be a propaganda tool at odds with what he felt were the oppressive realities of life in the country.

Ai Weiwei originally conceived of the stadium as an inspirational structure that carried a message to China and the rest of the world about the potential for democracy within his home country, but the still-in-exile artist now says that the symbolic uses of the building are being warped into an instrument of state power.

Weiwei has been reiterating the same criticisms of the project he jointly designed with Herzog & de Meuron for over a decade, lamenting the IOC’s penchant for “standing next to authoritarians” and stating that the country “has gone backwards” in terms of its human rights record since its completion fourteen years ago. He was also quick to compare the misuse of his architectural output to the CCP’s presentation of his father’s legacy as a nationalistic poet.

“As an architect, my goal was the same as other architects, that is, to design it as perfectly as possible,” Weiwei told The Associated Press in a recent email statement. “The way it was used afterwards went in ...

Populous-designed 'Ice Ribbon' for the 2022 Winter Olympics takes center stage in Beijing

2022-02-03T13:08:00-05:00

The eyes of the world will soon turn to the new Populous-designed National Speed Skating Oval as the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics prepare to kick off in Beijing.

As the only new permanent venue at this year’s games, the 'Ice Ribbon' takes its place in line with the National Aquatics Center and Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron-designed Bird’s Nest on a central corridor called the Olympic Green. The design is meant to symbolize speed and dynamism associated with the sport of speed skating.

Image courtesy Populous

The 12,000-seat venue will host the speed skating events and later be transformed into the long-term home for China’s newIce and Snow Sports Development Plan, which aims to get an impressive 300 million people involved in winter sports by the year 2025.

Image courtesy Populous

“Much of the inspiration for the conceptual design of the ‘Ice Ribbon’ came from a traditional ice game played in old Beijing which involved a high-speed spinning ice top,” explains Populous Ch...

China bans construction of skyscrapers over 500 meters tall, citing safety concerns

2021-07-08T12:09:00-04:00

China’s National Development and Reform Commission has implemented an outright ban on the construction of buildings taller than 500 meters, following mounting safety concerns over the quality of some tall projects. The move is seen as a formal ratification of an in-principle ban on new buildings taller than 500 meters announced last year.

The ban follows concern over quality problems and safety hazards for tall buildings in China, stemming from inadequate oversight. In May, we reported on the evacuation of the 291-meter-tall SEG Plaza in Shenzhen, following concerns over mysterious wobbling and swaying felt within the building. The South China Morning Post also notes that the ban is fueled partly by an oversupply of office space in Chinese cities due to three decades of intense skyscraper construction.

Previously on Archinect: Panicked evacuation after mysterious wobbling is felt in Shenzhen skyscraper

In addition to a structural height cap of 500 meters on new buildings, local a...

MAD Architects completes YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten

2020-11-25T12:24:00-05:00

MAD Architects has completed the YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten in Beijing as a part of a commission in 2017. The project site, covering an area of 9,275 square meters, consisted of an original 18th-century Siheyuan courtyard, an adjacent replica courtyard built in the 1990s, and a four-story modern building. Following its completion at the end of 2019, the kindergarten now serves as a pre-school for 390 children.

"When I looked back at my own kindergarten years, and even the ones I saw after I grew up, I always wondered what it is that kids long for the most," said Ma Yansong in a statement. "Perhaps it is freedom and love. A kindergarten doesn't always have to offer complex hardware or fixtures, but it must always make kids feel freedom and love – something that leads them to endless possibilities."

As part of the design, MAD chose to remove the replica courtyard outside the 19th-century original and replace it with a new space that envelops the Siheyuan courtyard. This new buil...

Beijing-based architects design new "X Museum"

2020-08-06T12:28:00-04:00

Beijing-based architects TEMP have designed the X Museum located in Beijing. Puling from its name, the museum entrance flaunts a giant "X" built from two intersecting H-beams that structurally support an overhanging perforated roof.

As one approaches the structure, on both ends of the sculptural entryway the facade holds a series of extruded steel light boxes. These protrude out of of the exterior grey stucco wall, casting complex shadows throughout the day and creating an extra layer of texture that builds on the textural nature of the interior wall surfaces.

At the interior of the space, custom terracotta bricks with extruded horizontal slots make up a unique wall system that allows for metal clips to be installed to hang works of art. Additionally, this system can also hold installations, projectors, and even white walls to allow for dynamically flexible possibilities for the museum's curators.

Moreover, the monotone color scheme of the museum gives it a neutral nature, allowing...

Foster + Partners debuts seismically resistant Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun district

2020-08-04T13:28:00-04:00

Foster + Partners has released photos of the firm's new Apple Sanlitun retail storefront in Beijing.

The store is located within a shopping and entertainment district in China's capital city that was originally home to Apple's first store in China back in 2008. The store was recently relocated to a new site by Foster + Partners, which has created a design meant to spark a "new dialogue with the surrounding pedestrian streets, addressing the large open square that is a social focus for the district."

Image courtesy of Chaoying Yang.

Remarking on the recently completed project, Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners writes via press release, “Apple Sanlitun is all about being open and inviting – visually, physically and metaphorically. The store is a grand place that connects the inside and the outside.”

Image courtesy of Chaoying Yang.

The storefront's prominent site within key circulation nodes within the district prompted the architects to create a space that opens on mul...

Looking back at One Take Architects' pop-up digital art museum in Beijing, inspired by the Himalayan landscape

2020-03-18T14:57:00-04:00

In 2019, Hangzhou-based One Take Architects completed the Mandala Pop-up Digital Art Museum, which was a temporary structure showcasing an immersive multi-media exhibition inspired by the Himalayan landscape and arts and culture. The architects envisioned the pop-up museum as a utopian, isolated garden in the heart of bustling Beijing.

Photo: Wang Shilu.

Photo: Nan Xueqian.

Featuring facade lines inspired by the Tibetan Himalayan mountain Namcha Barwa, the museum was designed like a set of blocks that can be split and reorganized into a “dKyil-‘khor”, an inner palace in Chinese Buddhism and which translates into “mandala” in English.

Concealed from the outside, the building measured over 50 meters long, was less than 5 meters tall, and had a width of less than 9 meters. As visitors move through the art museum, they could chart their own path to create their own experience, encountering immersive digital art, changing lights, reflective mirrors, sca...

MAD Architects' second “Hutong Bubble” pops up in a renovated Beijing courtyard home

2019-11-22T18:22:00-05:00

With the completion of Hutong Bubble 218, MAD Architects made one step forward with their Beijing 2050 proposal, which they introduced during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale. The latest Hutong Bubble project features metallic “bubbles” embedded on the rooftop of a 305-square-meter traditional hutong courtyard house that MAD restored and reconstructed. Located in Beijing's Qianmen East area, the home dates back to the Qing Dynasty and has dealt with degradation and demolition from the Chinese capital's rapid development.

Ten years after MAD's first hutong bubble popped up in Beibingmasi, Hutong Bubble 218 aims to demonstrate how small-scale interventions can create new spaces and programs for the local community, as well as form a dialogue between old and new.

Photo: Tian Fangfang.

Hutong Bubble 218 is located in the neighborhood off of Xidamochang alley. Built on a 469 square-meter site, the building was the city's first international hospital for over a ...

First photos of Zaha Hadid Architects' newly opened Leeza SOHO tower (and the world's tallest atrium)

2019-11-19T21:07:00-05:00

Beijing's latest, hotly anticipated skyscraper opened to the public today: the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO tower already made a big splash in architectural media long before it was even finished with its 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium (the world's tallest) and spectacular, Piranesiesque construction photos of the, then still rising, structural skeleton.

The 45-story tower development marks the anchor for the new Beijing Fengtai business district, a growing financial and transport hub outside of the city center and closer to the recently opened, and also ZHA-designed, Beijing Daxing International Airport to the south.

That Atrium!

"Leeza SOHO’s site is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel," explains project description from ZHA. "Straddling this tunnel, the tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single facade shell. The emerging space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creatin...

CITIC Tower, Beijing's new tallest building, opens just in time for China's national celebrations

2019-10-04T16:17:00-04:00

Beijing is seeing the completion of two high-profile, record-setting skyscrapers this fall: while the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO Tower with its 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium (the world's tallest) will open to the public in November, the 1,732-foot supertall CITIC Tower already opened this week and officially took the crown as the city's new tallest building.

CITIC (China Zun) Tower. Photo: Li Lei

"CITIC Tower’s design draws inspiration from the 'zun', a ritual vessel originating in Bronze Age China," explains the project description from the architects behind the structure's design, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.

"In profile, the tower abstracts and refines the zun’s vase-like form, balancing composition and articulation with structural requirements and leasing depth needs. In plan, the building is square with rounded corners; its width transforms vertically from its 78-meter-wide base to its 54-meter-wide 'waist' to its 69-meter-wide top. Broader at its base than ...

ZHA-designed tower containing the world’s tallest atrium is nearly complete

2019-10-04T14:45:00-04:00

A new tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects containing the world’s tallest atrium is nearly complete.

The so-called Leeza SOHO tower straddles a new subway line in Beijing and was designed for developer SOHO China. The subway line running below the site bisects building, creating the footprint for the 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium.

As a result of this complex site arrangement, the curvaceous, black steel and glass tower appears to be two buildings in one. The tower’s twisting atrium reorients the nature of the space to better align it with the historic north-south axis that guides the development of Beijing’s urban plan.

Rendering of the proposed Leeza SOHO Tower. Image courtesy of MIR.

The tower is designed with certain elements of sustainability in mind and recently had its core-and-shell components certified to LEED Gold standards. The atrium’s double-insulated, unitized glass curtain wall, for example, cants inwardly from the extents of the building, creating a narrow cav...

Zaha Hadid Architects' “starfish”-shaped Beijing Daxing International Airport is inaugurated

2019-09-26T17:00:00-04:00

Located in a region with the fastest growing demand for international travel, an expansion for the congested Beijing Daxing International Airport was much needed. Zaha Hadid Architects designed the newly inaugurated airport to meet the needs of the city's booming population and to be adaptable for future growth.

Aerial view.

ZHA drew from the traditional Chinese architectural concept of organizing interconnected spaces around a central courtyard for the 700,000-square-meter passenger terminal. Passengers are guided seamlessly through the respective departure, arrival, or transfer zones toward the multi-layered grand courtyard at the heart of the terminal.

Six flowing forms support the terminal's vaulted roof and let natural light into the space, ZHA says. Natural light also enters the terminal through a network of linear skylights “that provide an intui...

China is bustling with new developments, mesmerizing architecture AND job opportunities for architects

2019-01-30T17:57:00-05:00

China's bustling city of Shanghai and its sprawling capital of Beijing are filled with historical structures and a dense population. Home to many architectural wonders, like the Great Wall, the National Stadium, and Shanghai Tower, China is booming with captivating structures. With a population of over 1.4 billion people, methods of architectural design and urban planning are needed to help the country's infrastructure prosper.

For this week's weekly job roundup, we feature three China-based architecture firms, their projects, and current employment opportunities.

MAD is seeking architects, designers, and digital media positions in Beijing.
MAD Architects is an international office of architects, designers, and creative thinkers dedicated to impacting how humans experience and understand the built space. Working at MAD will give you the opportunity to challenge yourself creative...

Annabelle Selldorf-designed Qianlong Garden Interpretation Center coming to Beijing's iconic Forbidden City in 2020

2019-01-29T17:42:00-05:00

The 250-year-old retirement digs of an 18th-century Chinese emperor are getting a face-lift. The World Monuments Fund announced Monday that the New York-based architect Annabelle Selldorf and her firm, Selldorf Architects, will design an interpretation center at the Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

According to the World Monuments Fund, "the interpretation center will be located in an existing, restored structure within the second courtyard of the Qianlong Garden."

Juanqinzhai theater room after conservation. Image courtesy World Monuments Fund.

"Selldorf and her NYC-based firm, Selldorf Architects, designed the center in three distinct halls surrounding an open pavilion, each of which will provide visitors with a unique perspective on the past and present of the remarkable complex."

Interpretation Center exterior before conservation. Image courtesy World Monuments Fund.

"The Garden was largely left dormant after PuYi, China’s last emperor, left the Forbidden City in 1924. Its buildings have never been opened to the public, and it is one of the most significant historical sites in the Forbidden City to remain unrestored since imperial times. In 2004, World Monuments Fund and the Palace Museum partnered on a comprehensive review of the entire Qianlong Garden site and developed a ...

First look: MAD Architects' “floating” roofed Courtyard Kindergarten in Beijing

2018-11-13T22:19:00-05:00

MAD Architects unveiled their scheme for the upcoming “Courtyard Kindergarten”, which will be located within a traditional siheyuan courtyard in Beijing that dates back to 1725. Currently under construction, the kindergarten is expected to be operating by fall 2019.

Rendering by SAN.

The new kindergarten revives the site while preserving its cultural heritage. Envisioned as a “magical escape” for about 400 children ages 2-5, the building's most striking feature is its bright-colored “floating” roof, whose design is a play on an old Beijing saying. “There is a saying in old Beijing when children are naughty: ‘if you go three days without being punished, the roof will cave in,” explains Ma Yansong, principal of MAD Architects.

The roof functions as a playground where children can engage in outdoor sports and activities, and let their imagination run free. The southwest side of the roof has a subtly undulating surface of several small “hills” and “plains” that form a playful landscape.

...

First glimpse: Steven Holl Architects to design geometric, mixed-use complex in Beijing

2018-10-25T18:53:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects gave a first glimpse into their second mixed-use project in Beijing. At 26,000m2, the geometric building will accommodate office and retail spaces in the city's Fengtai district.

Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

SHA's main elements in their design were light, structure, open offices, urban porosity, and gardens/ecology. In response to code setback requirements, the project's north facade has distinctive curves slopes that create varying qualities of diffused natural light throughout the interior. On the south facade, sculpted cuts allow light into the office and retail spaces below ground level. The aluminum-painted concrete will be OSB formed, while the curves will have a smooth matte finish.

Office view. Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

“The structure consists of four layers: a glass exterior laid over truss, secondary tubes, and an interior layer of translucent barrisol or newmat,” SHA says. The exterior concrete stru...

Muji's apartment prototype tackles long commutes and highly dense cities

2018-10-05T20:23:00-04:00

Created for the annual exhibition House Vision, the prototype is a thought experiment in the way people live in super-dense cities. [...] It’s a common problem in big cities all over the world, and Hasegawa’s design is meant to balance space-saving with privacy, transforming a 1.5-story space (which are common across the city) into a usable space for four.

Highly-dense cities are common through out countries like China and Japan. Popular apparel and houseware brand, Muji, are taking creative steps in tackling long commutes and dense city living most employees face. Partnering with Japanese architect, Go Hasegawa, Muji's apartment prototype aims to turn a 1.5 story space into a cozy and functional live-work environment.

Equipped with an open communal space and kitchen, the Muji furnished apartment would have a balance of work functionality and privacy. The upper level of the space would mimic a lofted canopy design that would create a reimagined second story. Cities like Beijing continuously have increasingly high land prices which effect living costs. With this type of design concept, has Muji found a way to rethink shared co-working quarters?

Ai Weiwei's Beijing studio has been demolished without prior warning

2018-08-06T18:23:00-04:00

Chinese authorities are razing one of the Beijing studios of dissident artist Ai Weiwei. He said that demolition crews showed up without advance warning, and have begun the process of tearing down the studio. Ai has been a longtime critic of the government, and on Saturday, he began posting videos to his Instagram feed of the studio's destruction. "Farewell," Ai wrote. "They started to demolish my studio 'Zuoyuo' in Beijing with no precaution."

Ai, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Berlin since Chinese authorities returned his confiscated passport in 2015, responded to NPR about the sudden demolition of his Zuoyou studio in Beijing:

We didn't receive any advance warning or announcement of the demolition. We were required to move by a certain date, which we have not yet reached. [...] The demolition came as a surprise. Works were damaged due to the unannounced attack on the studio. There was no caution taken. However, compared to the memories which have been lost, compared to a society which has never established trust in the social order, a trust in the rule of law, or a trust in any kind of unity in defending the rights of its people, what has been lost at my studio is insignificant, and I don't even care. There are profoundly deeper and wider ruins in this deteriorating society where the human condition has never been respected.

Airbnb offers chance to spend a night on the Great Wall of China

2018-08-02T14:42:00-04:00

The Great Wall of China receives an average of more than 27,000 visitors every single day. This fall, eight lucky people will win a night at the Great Wall with 13,000 miles of history all to themselves. In an effort to raise awareness for heritage site protection and cultural exchange, Airbnb is partnering with the Beijing Tourism Development Committee to host the first-ever overnight stays at the modern world wonder.

Ever wanted to have a sleepover at one of the seven wonders of the world? Here's your chance. "Four lucky winners and their chosen guests will have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to stay the night in a custom-designed home situated on the ancient Great Wall," explains Airbnb's website.

Courtesy of Airbnb

In a magnificent, 2,600-year-old heritage structure, there will be house rules, of course, including "respect the neighbors, all 1.38 billion of them" and "if you see any dragons, do not disturb them."

Courtesy of Airbnb

To enter the contest, Airbnb asks participants to explain in 550 characters or less why it is "more important now than ever to break down barriers between cultures" and how prospective guests would want to build new connections.

Submissions will be accepted until August 11.