Archinect - News

UNStudio completes first South American project in São Paulo

2024-09-26T19:04:00-04:00

UNStudio has shared its design for the new EZ Parque da Cidade apartment complex in São Paulo. Built at approximately 883,200 square feet, the building incorporates unique rotated windmill-shaped floor plans and series of eight intertwined sky gardens.

Image: © Joana França

Each of its four apartment types has a 19.5-foot-deep terrace that comprises up to 25% of the unit size. Approximately one-third (31%) of the complex’s surface is made permeable to mitigate the effects of urban heat island, which is a growing problem in the city whose urban footprint has been expanded by 40% over the last 30 years. São Paulo, which is pursuing a new mini forest initiative, will benefit from the addition of 83 new trees

Image: © Joana França

At the complex’s ground level, the firm established a pavilions-in-the-park concept that contributed to its overall placemaking strategy, encouraging a healthy and more active lifestyle based around community engagement. A linear park connects with the develo...

UNStudio completes Shanghai flagship store for Huawei behind ‘petal’ facade

2024-02-02T11:31:00-05:00

UNStudio has completed a flagship store for the Chinese communications giant Huawei in Shanghai.

Designed in collaboration with Huawei’s internal design team, the store seeks to create an “experience-rich concept that brings people, nature, and technology together and caters to consumer preferences.”

Image credit: Wen Studio

Image credit: Huawei

According to the architects, the design of the two-level store was inspired by biophilic forms that transition between indoor and outdoor conditions. Throughout the scheme’s interior and exterior, recycled materials are integrated to reduce the project’s environmental footprint, while detachable prefabricated systems are applied on floors and ceilings.

Image credit: Huawei

Image credit: Wen Studio

The building’s facade makes reference to the algorithm underscoring Huawei’s polar codes technology, with petal-like features appearing to be in different stages of growth, evolving in scale and rotation to form an “integrated geometric system that com...

UNStudio designs a new four tower mixed-use scheme in Hangzhou, China

2024-01-03T13:10:00-05:00

UNStudio released renderings of its newly commissioned mixed-use design at the site of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China. The Hiwell Amber Centre project was announced in October 2023 and will be built on a site located in the heart of Hangzhou’s new city center, Qianjiang Century City.

In homage to the local craft traditions of the region, UNStudio says they’ve designed the four-tower scheme to evoke a woven tapestry topping an expansive ‘Urban Living Room’ around and beneath it. Each 459-foot (140m) tower’s facade features a sweeping glass curtain wall tapering down parametrically to a shared plinth base.

The scheme calls for a mixed Andaz Hotel/office component, another office tower, and two shorter additional residential towers. An art museum, conference center, and hotel ballroom complete the design.

Image courtesy of UNStudio.

Principal Ben van Berkel says: “The architecture of the towers creates an effect of timeless simplicity. Within Hangzhou’s landmark-heavy sk...

UNStudio's edgy Eclipse office design opens in Düsseldorf

2023-11-16T14:56:00-05:00

UNStudio has completed work on a new office building for the German operation of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Düsseldorf.

Their vision for a new ‘vertical work campus‘ concept was realized with support from the local firm HPP Architekten. The firms say their main intent for the Eclipse project was to “foster interaction and to inspire creativity by providing an inspirational and attractive work environment for today’s talent.” The 196-foot-tall building includes 290,600 square feet of office space for around 1,200 workplaces across a total of 16 stories.

Image: © H.G. Esch

The design of Eclipse resolves space on a difficult site by positioning a triangular volume above a two-story podium. Its 360-degree facade orients to the neighboring Hilton Hotel at its south elevation while the northern-facing side is established parallel to Kennedydamm, the main motor vehicle thoroughfare leading to the center of the city.

Image: © H.G. Esch

The form and fenestration of the tower give it a uni...

UNStudio completes Booking.com City Campus HQ in Amsterdam

2023-06-28T14:39:00-04:00

A new HQ project from UNStudio for the Dutch travel site Booking.com has opened in Amsterdam, offering a dynamic central location it says will serve as a “recruitment machine” while creating a more inclusive, healthy, and socially engaging experience for the company’s 6,500 employees.

Video courtesy UNStudio on Vimeo.

Designed to maximize connectivity for its users and visitors to the campus’ Oosterdokseiland location, the nearly 700,000-square-foot plan creates a highly-visible, activities-laden consolidation of disparate office locations that, for over a decade, had been spread throughout the city.

Image: © Hufton + Crow

Anchored by a striking main building made of glass and steel and sited on a double-height plinth that creates an urban element underneath and around a cantilevered overhang, the development was influenced by years of research into comparable corporate headquarters and engenders a “platform for human activity,” the architects say.

Image: © Hufton + Crow

A network o...

UNStudio debuts K.Wah G72 mixed-use development in Nanjing

2023-04-25T13:58:00-04:00

UNStudio has just unveiled plans for another new mixed-use development project in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

Dubbed K.Wah G72, the scheme will enact what they call a “lifestyle waterfront community” space along the city’s Qinhuai River, with the new home of the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art serving as its base surrounded by green terraces, a hotel, apartments, and office tower blocks that create a new hub for socializing and commercial activity.

Image courtesy UNStudio

Ben van Berkel, the studio’s founder and principal architect, shared: “The Nanjing K.Wah G72 mixed-use development will serve as a one-stop destination in which lifestyle, innovation and work are brought together. It aims to be a benchmark for newly integrated urban developments in Nanjing, across the country, and beyond.”

Image courtesy UNStudio

As always, UNStudio says sustainability will be the project’s central concern, adding that it will serve as a “landmark in sustainability and future-proof design in China....

UNStudio refurbishes former banking HQ in Eindhoven

2023-04-11T17:55:00-04:00

UNStudio has just unveiled a completed redesign of a former bank headquarters building called Fellenoord 15 in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.

The project transformed the former Rabobank HQ into a 32,000-square-meter (344,440-square-foot) governmental facility equipped with the latest building management technology and capable of hosting more flexible work concepts that are better constituted for the demands of our century.

The building before its transformation. Image: Studio Hans Wilschut

The completed building following the redesign. Image: Studio Hans Wilschut

Taking the shell of the existing building, UNStudio says they were able to save roughly 40% of the CO2 footprint required by new construction. Its design enables the use of a new public space between the building’s entrance and the adjacent bus station. A series of high-tech sensors decreases energy consumption while increasing the efficiency of workers’ use of the building through data.

Image: Evabloem

Geotherma...

Austin Transit Partnership names UNStudio, HKS, and Gehl to lead city's public transit expansion

2023-03-06T19:47:00-05:00

UNStudio, HKS, and Gehl have been selected by the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) to lead the architecture and urban design of Project Connect, a major expansion of the city’s public transit system. The voter-approved investment includes new light rail, expanded bus routes, a subway, and more services across Austin.

Austin voters approved Project Connect in November 2020, followed by the formation of ATP, an independent organization created in partnership with the City of Austin and CapMetro. It will serve to oversee the finance and development of the project, which aims to improve access to essential jobs, health care, education, and entertainment in the city.

Video courtesy UNStudio via Vimeo.

“The design team brings both broad international expertise delivering transit and public realm projects at the highest level of design and an acute sensitivity to Austin’s specific culture and heritage,” said Peter Mullan, ATP Executive Vice President for Architecture and Urban Design. “P...

UNStudio-designed K-Pop 'urban speaker' heralds an amplification of Seoul's music industry

2022-03-16T17:54:00-04:00

The urban environment of Seoul is about to get quite a bit visually louder as UNStudio has returned to the South Korean capital with a new headquarters for the expanding K-Pop label YG Entertainment.

The building is meant to encapsulate “the industrious spirit of this production house’s business and the music industry as a whole.”

Photo © Rohspace, courtesy UNStudio

Its sleek interior is a play on the ‘black in black’ concept inside the neighboring YG Building, offering a brightly-lit, tree-lined atrium with a host of white tones and geometric lines that improve wayfinding and are enhanced by an influx of natural sunlight directed through its roof.

Photo © Rohspace, courtesy UNStudio

Above the atrium, a sectional concept unfolds based on function starting with four stories of capsule-like collaborative spaces supporting several recording studios and seven additional floors of offices with a stage-like presence that...

Prominent architecture firms voice intent to suspend work in Russia as statements of solidarity with Ukraine continue

2022-03-02T17:50:00-05:00

As the walls of the international community begin to cave in on Vladimir Putin and his acolytes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more prominent architecture and design firms have joined the effort to isolate Moscow from the rest of the world economically.

The past 24 hours saw the addition of David Chipperfield and Zaha Hadid Architects to the list of practices that includes BIG, UNStudio, MVRDV, Herzog & de Meuron, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Foster + Partners in either refusing to continue work on ongoing projects or issuing statements of solidarity which have resounded across the professional design world.

“As a practice, we are affected twofold. Our projects in Ukraine have sadly been put on hold by the atrocities,” began the statement published Monday by MVRDV. “Right after the start of the invasion, we began contacting our Ukrainian friends and partners in support, and we try to remain in touch. They are brave, and they are experiencing incredible hardship. We h...

UNStudio completes Shanghai Jiuguang Center, one of the city's largest retail complexes

2021-12-21T19:43:00-05:00

UNStudio, in collaboration with Nihon Sekkei, has recently completed a brand new shopping center in Shanghai. Called the Shanghai Jiuguang Center, the project merges an advanced commercial ecosystem with a human-centric, customer-friendly destination.

Nihon Sekkei was tasked with developing the outer shell of the retail center, while UNStudio took on the development of the mall as a placemaking destination for customers and the larger community. This included the design of the inner courtyard and its façades, the interior of the mall, and a public rooftop terrace. User experience was the core of UNStudio’s design, informed by looking at the various ways users could engage with different spaces and by creating curated shopping experiences.

As per the architects: “This resulted in creating a synergy between the architectural and interior design, the building scale and the human scale, the geometry and materials and the inside-outside relationship.”

The courtyard and landscape area sit...

10-minute city masterplan for Seoul unveiled by UNStudio

2021-10-29T15:45:00-04:00

UNStudio has released details of Project H1, a self-described “10-minute city” masterplan for Seoul, South Korea. Built on an existing industrial site and railway area, the 5.4 million square foot (504,000 square meter) neighborhood saw a collaboration between UNStudio a the firm’s research wing UNSense to create a plan which prioritizes real-time digital urban systems.

Image courtesy of UNStudio

The studio describes this combination of a physical urban plan and an added technology layer as “a fully digitally serviced neighborhood to enhance the daily lives of the residents and free up time for leisure activities." The digital infrastructure will also be used to manage energy production and consumption, as well as communal spaces cultivated for local food production.

Image courtesy of UNStudio

“For the H1 masterplan we have aimed to create the ultimate contemporary 10-minute city, where the daily life experience of the residents is the top priority,” explained UNStudio founder Ben va...

UNStudio design selected as the winning proposal for Sochi Waterfront

2021-07-22T08:59:00-04:00

An inclusive master plan for the Sochi waterfront by UNStudio has been announced as the winner of an international competition that will reshape the resort community with its second major construction boom in the past decade. The studio beat out other submissions with a sprawling litoral intervention meant to transform Sochi into “a place for all.”

Image courtesy UNStudio

The former Olympics host is known throughout Russia as a coveted pearl on a chain of Black Sea resort towns tantamount to the Amalfi Coast or French Riviera. UNStudio’s intervention will aim to integrate existing cultural and leisure industry destinations into the development in the hopes of strengthening the city’s claims as a haven for tourists.

Renders: ZOA, UNStudio

Per the architect: “The goal of the city’s future development is to make Sochi the most progressive and international harbor for culture, technology, health, and innovation and to enrich the life of a local community and visitor...

BIG and UNStudio's investment in co-working platform SpaceForm signals a tide-change in architectural practice

2021-07-13T20:01:00-04:00

BIG is making a huge investment along with partners UNStudio and Squint/Opera in a new virtual platform that responds to the demands of the post-pandemic world with a digital presentation tool aimed at increasing effective collaboration on and reducing the carbon footprint of future projects across the world.

Video courtesy of Squint/Opera, UNStudio & BIG

The new project, called SpaceForm, promises to drastically reduce costs of project development by offering users the ability to present 3D models with up to 100 co-workers in real-time, saving resources with its multi-device ability to connect with widely-used visualization software like Rhino, Rivet, Sketchup, and Unreal seamlessly.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, firms had been mostly expanding their footprints, growing a web of connections between offices that has become obsolete in the minds of some thanks to the changes caused by the pandemic. Now, with the onset of virtual workspace becoming all the more apparent, BIG has cou...

Cantilevering auditorium tops UNStudio’s Eindhoven arts congress and conference center

2021-05-13T11:51:00-04:00

A consortium including UNStudio has won a competition for the design of the Elysion Congress Center (ECC), seeking to form a clearly identifiable, state of the art congress and conference center for Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. The winning scheme calls for an extension to the current Van der Valk Congress and Event Center, bordering a large parkland connecting the airport and city.

Image: UNStudio

The new scheme seeks to renovate and expand the building’s existing facilities, adding a 1,500-capacity flexible auditorium with a vertical foyer. The design team were challenged to ensure that the existing center could continue operations during the construction of the new facilities. This constraint gave way to a unique design solution in which the extension is placed next to the existing building, with the auditorium cantilevering across the top of the conference center building.

Image: UNStudio

The ECC’s foyer, with wooden staircases and vertical gardens, forms the main connector o...

UNStudio proposes a new meaning for 'smart living' with their latest residential project in Munich

2021-02-10T20:29:00-05:00

Conversation around the future of housing is a topic commonly discussed within architecture and urban planning circles. Firms large and small have postulated where issues within housing schemes lie and how the industry can address them. However, as architects continue to dance around solutions for "smart housing" and urban living, there are reservations on what that looks like specifically.

While housing issues vary worldwide based on their social, political, and environmental factors, firms like MVRDV, Sidewalk Labs, among others, have presented ideas that aim to reimagine residential developments and their so-called "smart" components. Recently, UNStudio announced the introduction of their latest residential project in Munich called Van B. They claim their prototype for modern city-dwelling will "cater to changing demographics and multiple family constellations. With its highly flexible apartments, outdoor and shared communal spaces, and striking facade, Van B offers a new form o...

UNStudio and Delta Light partner to create hybrid light and soundscape system focused on human wellbeing

2021-01-29T08:54:00-05:00

UNStudio and Delta Light have partnered to create Soliscape, a flexible system that allows for the personalization and customization of light and acoustic conditions in the workplace.

"The way we work, live, and relax is changing," said Ben van Berkel, founder of UNStudio. "This new hybrid world is causing architects and designers to rethink how we design our cities and buildings so that we can create places that encourage health and wellbeing. Lighting is a very crucial element in helping us to create such places."

In addition to the workplace, the system has a broad range of applications and can be used in hotels, hospitality, retail, and public spaces.

"Looking at lighting as just a basic necessity is an outdated approach," said Peter Ameloot of Delta Light, in a statement. "Work environments, in particular, require extra attention, where user-centric lighting has proven to considerably boost productivity and wellbeing. With Soliscape we even take it to the next level, not just ...

UNStudio designs 37 stations for Doha's new driverless metro system

2020-09-08T13:29:00-04:00

International architecture firm UNStudio has completed work on a collection of subway stations for a new driverless metro system in Doha, Dubai.

The stations are designed according to an "Architectural Branding Manual" created by the firm that provides "an extensive set of design guidelines, architectural details and material outlines to assure the spatial quality and identity of the network," according to a project statement.

Describing the project, UNStudio's Ben van Berkel explains,“We are going to move differently in the future. Mobility is changing fast, from the introduction of autonomous vehicles to urban cable cars and the Hyperloop."

Van Berkel adds, "The mobility hubs of the future have to respond to and cater to these changes. In order to encourage the use of more sustainable forms of transport, these stations not only have to ensure smooth passenger flows, but they need to truly appeal to the public; to be places they want to visit and return to."

The stations are des...

UN Studio brings a responsive solar skin to an existing office tower in Seoul

2020-05-08T16:10:00-04:00

Dutch architects UNStudio have recently completed the top-to-bottom renovation and re-skinning of an existing office tower in Seoul for corporation company Hanwha.

The eye-catching project is notable due to the fact that the extensive renovation and re-cladding were executed while the building remained occupied by the company and its workforce. According to a press release describing the project, construction teams worked three floors at a time, starting at the ground floor lobby and surrounding landscaped spaces and moving up to the tower's new top-floor restaurants and office suites.

The tower offers variegated facades and a ground level plaza. All photographs ©Rohspace.

Gansam Partners served as the Executive Architect while Loos van Vliet provided landscape design services for the project. Additionally, ARUP Hong Kong provided facade and sustainability expertise and AG Licht acted as lighting consultant.

View of the construction on the project. All photographs ©Rohspace.

For the...

UNStudio's new facade renovation in Amsterdam showcases a playful approach to glass

2019-12-11T22:25:00-05:00

UNStudio's facade design for P.C. Hoofstraat 138 in Amsterdam is a playful spin on the idea of window displays. Aiming to provide the Dutch flagship store to have a subtle yet distinctly eye-catching storefront, the team at UNStudio created The Looking Glass. Said to be a "celebration textiles in both form and function," the store's facade showcases three large curved panels that flow from the store's street base to the building's top.

Image © Evabloem.

According to UNStudio, the glass design is said to mimic billowing transparent cloth. The studio shares: "In a fluid gesture, fashion and architecture come together to represent and celebrate the craftsmanship and geometry of high-end, tailored clothing, creating harmony between aesthetics and function. All this, while keeping true to the original design of the three-windowed vertical division of an Amsterdam townhouse, where on the upper floors above the retail section, a bespoke apartment design wi...

How cool can paint really be? UNStudio collaborates with Monopol Colors to develop a paint that helps buildings fight solar radiation and elemental weathering

2019-02-27T20:16:00-05:00

UNStudio is known for their groundbreaking work in solution driven designs relating to the ever-changing urban environment. Climate is changing, which leaves architects and designers taking steps towards designing buildings and structures that can accommodate to the overheated urban environment. Intense heating and other weather conditions like rain and dust generate a lot of stress and strain on the exteriors of many buildings. Thirty to forty years ago, these types of conditions were not necessarily a priority. However, with the environmental conditions of today firms like UNStudio are taking a different approach to future building design. According to the studio's principal and founder Ben van Berkel, "designing with the future in mind also means buildings last longer in the face of environmental change. That they are more resilient to change and they endure environmental strain."

Theatre de Stoep in Spijkenisse, Image courtesy of UNStudio

Beyond the design process, materials play...

Take a tour of UNStudio's newly completed Singapore towers

2018-11-28T16:23:00-05:00

UNStudio recently completed two impressive high-rise developments in Singapore, bringing the Amsterdam-based firm's portfolio of completed buildings in the Asian city state up to four: the 36-story Ardmore Residence tower (2013), Singapore University of Technology and Design campus (2015), and now also the mixed-use V on Shenton and the residential Scotts Tower.

Check out the two new kids on the densely populated block and watch the video below for a Ben van Berkel-guided tour of all four projects.

V on Shenton

"In addition to the office and residential programmes, the dual tower building houses a number of fully integrated sky gardens which provide panoramic 360 degree views of Singapore and house a variety of amenities," explains the project description, "such as a fitness area, swimming pools and a children’s play area, with lush green vegetation providing fresher, cleaner air. These areas provide spaces for shared communal activities, or for the residents to entertain guests."

V...

New European hyperloop proposed running from Amsterdam to Frankfurt

2018-09-14T13:07:00-04:00

The UNStudio Futures Team (UNSFutures) recently announced plans for a 'Station of the Future' at the first edition of HyperSummit. Organized by Hardt Hyperloop, the summit took place in Utrecht, Netherlands focusing on urgency, research, and collaboration to realize a European hyperloop.

The proposed hyperloop will run from Amsterdam to Frankfurt in 53 minutes. Using technology powered by solar panels, the hyperloop will produce no sound or environmental emissions and can provide the necessary energy to power itself.

The station has been envisioned as a series of tessellating components which can adapt to a range of possible contexts: city-centre, edge of city or adjoining an existing infrastructure hub, such as an airport.

UNStudio Asia completes yacht-inspired Keppel Cove Marina & Clubhouse in Zhongshan

2018-07-11T15:16:00-04:00

Located along the banks of the Xi River in Zhongshan in Guangdong, the Keppel Cove Marina & Clubhouse is UNStudio Asia's latest completed project. The 50,000 square-meter masterplan comprises a marina with direct access to the Xi River, a service building, high-end residential villas and supporting infrastructure, including a bridge, roads, and surrounding external dykes. The project is also the first and only marina with a private port of immigration in all of China.

Photo: Tom Roe.

Featuring a facade made from bronze-colored aluminum panels, the Clubhouse was designed to resemble a yacht, UNStudio describes, that offers visitors a relaxing space and luxurious amenities for business or leisure. The shape of the building and its surrounding landscape were “derived and developed based on the main access routes to the clubhouse, in combination with the most attractive view lines. In a smooth transition, spaces radiate outwards in an organic fan shape, away...

UNStudio's Ellipsicoon Pavilion is the latest in the Revolution Precrafted series

2018-05-25T15:08:00-04:00

UNStudio's Ellipsicoon was designed by Ben Van Berkel and created as part of the Revolution Precrafted pavilion series, focusing on collectible structures whose wide variety of functions are designed to complement existing spaces.

Ellipsicoon by UNStudio. Image: Revolution Precrafted.

This space offers a tranquil environment for either solitary moments of rest, reading or contemplation, or a cocoon-like theatre for conversation and communication.

Ellipsicoon by UNStudio. Image: Revolution Precrafted.

Designed and developed digitally, then handwoven by highly skilled craftsmen, the continuous sculptural surface of the pavilion is constructed from strands of 100% recyclable high-density polyethylene (HDPE).

Ellipsicoon by UNStudio. Image: Revolution Precrafted.

The curved sides of the structure taper inwards as they rise, enabling the rounded openings to facilitate moments of being simultaneously both inside and outside.

Ellipsicoon by UNStudio. Image: Revolution Precrafted.

Upon crossi...

UNStudio and Swiss furniture brand USM join forces in Milan to explore the boundaries between work and domesticity

2018-04-20T14:06:00-04:00

"Work rules our lives today more than ever," says the design team behind Homework, an installation at Milan Design Week's furniture focused event, the 2018 Salone del Mobile, that explores the historically shifting boundaries between private and public spaces.

In 2012, a study by a bed manufacturer found that 80% of young New York City professionals work from bed regularly. As technology increasingly invades our home life, the way we occupy domestic interiors has greatly shifted with the potential for work to be exported virtually anywhere. Many of the most profound revisions to the architecture of daily life have occurred through the blurring of these spaces and how they change the ways in which we inhabit them.

USM, a Swiss manufacturer that specializes in modular furniture, is exploring what this might mean for them. Enlisting the help of UNStudio, the team created a theatrical installation that envisions the changes taking place within the world of work.

In their...

UNStudio's Canaletto Tower along nine-acre City Road canal basin completes

2017-11-08T17:19:00-05:00

Named after the 18th century Italian painter whose most famous works depict lavish celebrations on the canals of his native Venice, Canaletto—the 31-story tower designed by Amsterdam's UNStudio—offers luxury, waterside living next to City Road canal basin in central London.

The basin is part of the Regent's Canal in London, which has recently undergone a wave of redevelopment as industrial-age structures are transformed into new homes and waterfront apartments and loft-style workspaces begin to spring up. Marginally cheaper than a view of the Thames, the nine-acre City Road Basin, in particular, is regenerating into a landscaped new quarter with businesses, leisure space, marina and boat club, and 900 homes, of which Canaletto will be providing 190.

Units in the recently completed tower range in price from £475,000 for studios to £660,000 for one-bedroom units and £790,000 for two-bedroom units. 3 bedroom apartments start at £3.2 million and ...

UNStudio's Raffles City Hangzhou is an all-in-one destination for living, working, and leisure

2017-09-19T15:48:00-04:00

Dutch firm, UNStudio, has completed their largest single building to date—the new Raffles City mixed-use development described by the firm as "a sustainable urban hub for living, working and leisure." Back in 2009, the firm opened their Shanghai office to oversee the complex's design and construction.

Conceived as a vertical city, the structure occupies almost 400,000 square meters of space and will offer a rich mix of 24/7 functions. The two streamlined, 250-meter tall towers house residential units, Grade A offices, the Conrad Hotel and a rooftop helipad. The six-story podium and plaza, which has direct underground connection to the metro, offer retail, restaurants, leisure facilities and parking.

The design is representative of the distinctive, sinuous style the firm has become known for. The pair of winding towers, featuring an outer layer of rotated, vertical solar shading fins, placed atop the curtain wall system, starts calmly at t...

'Breaking' the Mega Block by 'dressing' it? UNStudio completes exterior work on South Korea mass-housing project

2017-08-30T17:02:00-04:00

Over the past decade of South Korea's rapid urbanization high-density apartment development has become the most popular type of housing in the country, producing a myriad of identical, close-set, utilitarian blocks.

When in 2012 the Hyundai Development Company invited UNStudio to design an 'intervention' for two new residential developments in Daegu Wolbae, South Korea's fourth largest city, the firm proposed to simply re-skin the existing structures with multi-color panels. Their plan to break the homogeneity with color was inspired by the city's history of manufacturing clothing and textiles—the facade designs bare similarity to the texture of a fabric or a media screen.

Image courtesy of Hyundai

On the urban scale, color was also utilized for zoning—as the architects put it, not only reinforcing identity, but also establishing community, revealing principal access points and communicating the relationship between the inside and outside of the two mega-blocks.

...

UNStudio to redevelop former Deutsche Bank site in Frankfurt

2017-03-02T14:22:00-05:00

It's a double-win for UNStudio in a plan to revive the former Deutsche Bank site in Frankfurt, Germany. Almost a year after being selected to design the masterplan, the practice announced today that they also had the winning architectural proposal...The mixed-use project is a key component in reviving the former bank site, which has been closed to the public for nearly 50 years.

Take a peek at UNStudio's winning scheme on Bustler.