Architecture and Home Design

This Kaufhaus Canal Hamburg is design by Topotek 1, located in Hamburg, Germany
Their winning Kaufhauskanal housing scheme provides 80 residential units, which introduce living into a former industrial area of Hamburg. The typology for the overall plan for the Kaufhauskanal Metrozone is designed as a series of new ‘Kaufhaus Hybrids’. The scheme accommodates the existing quarter in that all the new buildings slope downwards and outwards to meet the heights of the existing buildings. The roofs are angled and inclined to maximize views to the sky and at the same time minimize the noise from the surrounding streets, roads and railway.

Bjarke Ingels, BIG Partner-in-Charge “Our Kaufhauskanal vision proposes a neighbourhood where you can have both – both city and nature, both open and urban, both history and future, both identity and diversity, both work and play.”

The warped framework creates a layout that is varied and unique without impacting movement through its open space. The resulting urban experience fluctuates between variation and continuity.

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This 360° Building is design by Isay Weinfeild Architects, located in São Paulo, Brazil.
Mindful of the urban reality in São Paulo, of the market and of the client brief, Isay Weinfeld with Domingos Pascali as associate architect have strived to introduce 360º Building as an alternative to the vertical multi-family housing “model”, which, in its commonest form, merely stacks up apartment units – ordinary, compact and closed onto themselves.

360º Building, rising on top of the ridge separating the districts of Alto de Pinheiros and Alto da Lapa – a geographic location that will offer privileged sights of the surrounding area and the city, will feature 62 elevated homes with yards: real yards, not balconies, designed as genuine living spaces, wide, airy and bright. It will present 7 types of apartments – either 130, 170 or 250 sq m – combined in sets of 2, 3 or 4 units per floor, in 6 different arrangements.

Leaving the street and past the reception, a suspended walkway will lead to the building’s lobby, surrounded on all sides by a reflective pool. Down one floor, on the ground level, entertaining areas and other facilities – gym, lounge, party room and laundry – will be located, as also the janitor’s living quarters. Further down, there will be 3 parking levels, and, on the lowermost level, employees quarters, storage and engine rooms, in addition to a sauna and an outdoor swimming pool. The land, a steep downwards slope, allowed the lower levels to be semi-subterranean, always keeping 2 sides open to the light and to ventilation. The building projects to all sides showing no distinction between main and secondary façades.
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This BAE Systems Reception is designed by Capita Architecture, located in Lancashire, United Kingdom.
The facility, designed by Capita Symonds, is responsible for building the front fuselage and other parts of the Eurofighter Typhoon as well as a number of other aircraft including the Lockhead Martin F-35 Lightning II.

Two major new four-storey office buildings, which have achieved a minimum BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’, (the UK sustainability standard) have also opened at the site. The buildings will accommodate flexible engineering accommodation – one will house F-35 staff while the other will house customer support for BAE’s Saudi Contracts.

The offices feature a raft of sustainable features including low energy consumption, biomass boilers, rainwater harvesting and a central atrium providing both a wealth of natural daylight and air circulation. As part of the green travel plan, showering and changing facilities have also been provided within the office buildings to encourage staff to cycle into work and help cut down the company’s carbon footprint.
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This Sumaré House is designed by Isay Weinfeild Architects, located in São Paulo, Brazil.
The plot is not a small one (700 m2), but due to construction (height) restriction laws, the building should not exceed 2 floors, and an underground floor was necessary. There, the architects placed the caretaker’s quarters and the office – as both areas open onto small but nice lawns, one does not feel like being underground at all.

On the middle floor, a few steps above street level, there are the sitting and dining rooms, the kitchen and a larger lawn. In the living room, we designed a long étagère so the owner could display her collection, ranging from works of art to design and vintage objects. On the upper floor, there are the bedrooms – hers and a guest’s – and the ‘facilities’ for physical exercising: ballet and swimming.

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