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Apple’s new The Observatory event space at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, has been unveiled by the tech giant as part of the launch event for the new iPhone 16. The design, which is in ways reminiscent of several of James Turrell’s skylit spaces, is marketed as a contemplative experience... View full entry
Japan-based Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP has offered a look inside their recently completed Library of the Earth. Situated in the Japanese city of Kisarazu, and completed in April 2022, the library is described by the firm as “the library for the farmers, plowing the fields on sunny days and reading... View full entry
This house on the real estate market in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $2.1 million is throwing some serious shade — in the coolest way possible. How? The “one-of-a-kind” property is basically all underground, but not in “bunker” fashion. — The Sacramento Bee
The 3,300-square-foot, five-bedroom, four-bathroom home is described as an “earth-sheltered subterranean home” designed “to create highly efficient living.” According to its listing on real-estate marketplace Zillow, the residence was built in the 1970s, designed in response to high costs... View full entry
2020 taught us to embrace the indoors. However, as the world enters 2021, some may feel more propelled to seek out shelters that can protect them from calamity. At least that's how the New York and Miami-based practice ABIBOO Studio explains their latest project, the DBX Doomsday Bunker. Led... View full entry
As a part of the Nordhavn metro line extension connecting Copenhagen's docklands to its city center, Arup and COBE have teamed up to design two new metro stations, Orientkaj and Nordhavn. A defining feature of this project is that one of the stations, Orentkaj station, is above-ground, and the... View full entry
It's been billed as the underground High Line: a park, not above the street but below ground, in an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side.
But after more than a decade of planning, one of the founders of the proposed Lowline says the project is now on hold because there isn't enough money to build it.
— Spectrum News NY1
It's been a while since we've heard from the ambitious — and in 2016 even city-approved — Lowline underground park proposal inside an abandoned trolley terminal on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Lowline Lab served as a prototype for the greater initiative from October... View full entry
An underground car park that was under construction in southwest China collapsed, killing eight people and injuring two others, official media said Tuesday.
State broadcaster CCTV said the 10 people were trapped in the rubble when the collapse occurred Monday afternoon in Guizhou province's Guiyang city.
— ABC News
Three workers were able to escape the scene. The 10 trapped workers were rescued early on Tuesday local time, reports ABC. View full entry
Rising 88 metres (290 feet) from the floor of an abandoned quarry, the 18-storey InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel in the city’s Songjiang district has been in development for 12 years and cost 2 billion yuan (US$287.9 million) to complete.
Of its 18 floors, just two are aboveground while its two lowest are completely submerged by a lake that occupies the remainder of the vast quarry pit.
— South China Morning Post
Remember the Chinese 'Deep Pit Hotel' that was poised to open inside an abandoned quarry outside of Shanghai? Officially titled InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, the 336-room luxury property finally launched yesterday. View full entry
InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland (also known as the Deep Pit Hotel), will finally open its doors in October. The eye-popping, luxury hotel is standing out as a must-see destination in itself. Built mostly below ground in a deep pit of an abandoned quarry in southwestern Shanghai, it’s being hailed as a modern architectural wonder. [...]
Of its 18 floors, 16 are technically below ground, including two floors underwater.
— Lonely Planet
Image courtesy of Atkins."The hotel houses 337 rooms and suites that boast curved balconies where guests can enjoy views of the waterfalls spilling from the surrounding cliffs and the transparent glass waterfall built into the centre of the hotel," writes Lonely Planet on its website. What's not... View full entry
Lahdelma & Mahalmäki Architects have unveiled Requiem, their competition proposal for the Museum for the Defense and Siege of Leningrad, St. Petersburg. The project was undertaken in partnership with Ralph Appelbaum Associates who, together, formed the only international team amongst the four... View full entry
Built in 1896 for piano dealers M. Steinert & Sons, Steinert Hall is a magnificent six-story limestone and brick building tucked 40 feet below the street level. Appropriately nicknamed “The Little Gem”, it was designed by Winsell&Weterell and incorporated a Beaux Arts-style facade... View full entry
Although still just a mock-up in the Lowline Lab, the LED grow lights designed by Lighting Science for use in the real Lowline are a promising iteration.Combining everything that's great about glowing hexagons with three different settings ("soft-white light, one that mimics daylight, and one that... View full entry
What do you do with a sad, funky, abandoned trolley terminus? Well, if it's the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal under Delancey Street in New York City, you make the world's first underground park by virtue of adding some mirrors, skylights, and vegetation. One acre in size, the freshly... View full entry
The Elizabeth line will link London and the South East from Reading to Heathrow with 10 new stations and upgrades to 30 existing stations. Currently Europe's largest infrastructure project the £14.8 billion scheme began in Canary Wharf in 2009 and is now 75% complete. Services will begin in... View full entry
Borderlife is a street art intervention by Biancoshock in which three abandoned manholes in Milan’s Lodi district have been transformed into miniature dwellings. [...]
With Borderlife the street artist wants to make us aware about the distressing living conditions of many fellow humans who are forced to live in confined spaces, especially manholes. He got his inspiration from the reportedly hundreds of people that are occupying manholes and sewer systems in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
— popupcity.net
Images of the BORDERLIFE street art intervention via Biancoshock's website.Related stories in the Archinect news:Giant "calligraffiti" mural unites community in Cairo slumSubterranean theme park: photographer Richard John Seymour captures the new life inside an ancient Transylvanian salt mineWith... View full entry