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Newly released images of MAD Architect's Yiwu Grand Theater proposal showcase beautiful glass sails

2019-07-01T15:56:00-04:00

The Yiwu Grand Theater's larger than life presence along the Dongyang River is not all for show. MAD Architects aims to create a structure that will be a "monument for the city." Envisioned as an immersive public space for inhabitants and visitors alike, the overall design for the theater will function as a beautiful cultural destination intending on "connecting inhabitants to the waterfront from a new perspective," according to MAD's recent press release.

Yiwu Grand Theater model. Image © MAD Architects

The entrancing glass sails are designed to mimic the traditional Chinese junks that filled the waters of the city traditionally known for its trading history. Considered a growing center for international trade and commerce, MAD decided to use the curves from the sails of these ships to express a weightless and transparent design for the theater's canopy.

Image © MAD Architects

According to t...

BIG's ship/office building docks at the Philadelphia Navy Yard

2016-11-03T12:40:00-04:00

What features an interior periscope, exterior stacked precast concrete panels in a basket-weave shape that mimic the curvature of a ship's hull, and 26,000 square feet of freshly occupied office space? Bjarke Ingels Group's newly completed "Intrepid," a four-story, LEED Gold certified office building for the Philadelphia Navy Yard which just welcomed its first tangible tenant, the Penn Capital Management Company, Inc., on its top floor.

The Intrepid's site context is closely tied to its design concept. As BIG partner Kai-Uwe Bergmann explains: “In many cases, architects design big, boxy buildings that could be placed anywhere and don’t connect directly to the site. You would really be hard-pressed to place 1200 Intrepid anywhere else, due to how it connects with its surroundings. Our commission involved creating a speculative office building, for which no tenants were committed. The key challenge here was to create a reason for tenants to be here with the constraint of a stringent bu...

$90K feasibility study proposed for Puget Sound bridge made from decommissioned aircraft carriers

2015-04-13T17:52:00-04:00

The bridge, should it be built, would be about a mile long. It would span Sinclair Inlet, connecting Bremerton and Port Orchard, about 15 miles west of Seattle. Today, it’s a 10-mile, often traffic-clogged, drive between the towns. Rep. Jesse Young, whose district includes these two towns, thinks using an old carrier or two would make a fine tourist attraction and tribute to the military.