Building blocks: striking structures around the globe
Building blocks: striking structures around the globe
Some architects just love making a statement. From monumental monoliths to soaring skyscrapers, here we highlight the bold buildings disrupting skylines and shaking up our perspective of the urban environment
Central Embassy by AL_A, Bangkok, Thailand
23 May
The first tower in Thailand to be completed by a British architect, Central Embassy is a magnificent 37 storey mixed use building, located on Bangkok’s busy Ploenchit Road, on the site of the former British Embassy gardens. The project was commissioned by Central Group, one of Thailand’s leading retailer and department store operators to house a shopping centre and with 27 storeys reserved for the Park Hyatt hotel.
Photography: Hufton + Crow. Writer: Harriet Thorpe
Central Embassy by AL_A, Bangkok, Thailand
23 May
Clad with a patterned skin of 300,000 aluminium tiles, the Central Embassy is asymmetrical in every aspect imaginable and the design is defined by a series of stepped terraces that divide the functions of hotel and shopping centre. The guest rooms of the hotel overlook Nai Lert Park while the hotel bar and sky terrace look across views of the centre of Bangkok.
Photography: Hufton + Crow. Writer: Harriet Thorpe
De Flat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW Architectuur, Amsterdam
12 May
The winner of the 2017 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, De Flat Kleiburg is a renovation project in the residential area of Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam. Why is this block so special, you may be wondering. Well, it was saved from demolition by being converted into a Klusfat, a system where inhabitants would be in charge of renovating their own apartment individually from installing utilities to rolling on that last layer of ecru. Creating a new model for developers and buyers, NL Architects thus initiated a renovation that was partly conceptual. The architects took charge of reactivating the building structurally and restoring communal areas, while leaving the apartments as empty blank canvases. Built in the 1960s Kleiburg stretches to 400m long and rises 10 storeys high and is the only remaining building that represents the original Bijlmermeer residential experiment which was inspired by Le Corbusier.
Photography: Marcel van der Burg
Bae Bien-u Photography Studio by The System Lab, Sooncheon, South Korea
4 May
Chanjoong Kim, of architecture studio The System Lab, has spent his career eking out space from unlikely sites, and this four-storey concrete tower, a new studio, house and gallery for photographer Bae Bien-u, stands in stark contrast to its low-rise neighbours. located in southern Korea, the building is effectively a double-skinned concrete tube. the sober materials palette references Bae’s monochromatic depictions of landscape and forests, creating a stacked brutalist landscape. the staircase is sandwiched between the walls, allowing the circulation space to loop upwards from the basement exhibition space to the private rooms and rooftop garden.
Photography: Kyungsub Shin
Kennedy Town Swimming Pool by Farrells, Hong Kong, China
7 March
Like a jelly poured into its mould, the futuristic Kennedy Town Swimming Pool flows neatly to the edges of its triangular site between the road and the historic tram-line creating an aero-dynamic form worthy of the sky. Conscious of the urban context, architects at Farrells closely researched the location to create a building that would be respectful of its residential neighbours, yet also an iconic addition to the prominent site with views across the harbour.
Photography: Paul Y Management Ltd. Writer: Harriet Thorpe
Kennedy Town Swimming Pool by Farrells, Hong Kong, China
7 March
Surrounded by residential high rises, the site was previously a car park, derelict since the 1990s, and the low-lying swimming pool was an ideal solution for utilising the space effectively. Enclosed within the shell-like form are two 50m pools (indoor and outdoor), one 25m indoor pool, outdoor leisure pool and jacuzzi.
Photography: Marcel Lam. Writer: Harriet Thorpe
Société Privée de Gérance HQ by Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti, Geneva, Switzerland
30 January
Designed by Italian firm Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti, the new Swiss headquarters of Société Privée de Gérance involved the adaptive reuse and extension of the existing building, and began with redefining the architectural envelope. Creating a blurred effect, the envelope lays screen-printed patterns of squares in a gradient from fully transparent to densely opaque over glass fins composed to make the building highly energy-efficient and optimise the quality of the work space inside. One manifestation of an ongoing research project conducted by the office for 20 years, the textural face of the steel and glass building also generates maximum views out, solar shading, and acoustic and thermal insulation.
Photography: Adrien Buchet. Writer: Shonquis Moreno
Société Privée de Gérance HQ by Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti, Geneva, Switzerland
30 January
The compositions of the patterns were based on a grid of multiples and submultiples of 60 cm ranged, floor after floor, to suit each interior’s type of layout – open plan, individual office, public area. The team then introduced variations to this rhythm by making it respond to external factors like privileged points of view, and visual or sun exposure. ‘The envelope thus became the locus where internal and external elements influenced each other,’ Vaccarini says. ‘The purpose of the screen-printing was to define a ‘nebula’ where light may settle and give substance to the ethereal surface of the glass blades.’
Sky Central HQ by PLP Architecture, London, UK
24 January
Sky Central was designed by PLP Architecture, AL_A and HASSELL. The broadcasting company’s HQ in Osterley, West London is equipped for the future with smart features woven into its very fabric from high-tech electric vehicle charging stations and renewable energy sources to sustainable structural solutions. Large windows and skylights encourage natural light into the interiors reducing the need for electric lighting and the timber roof – one of the largest in Europe – made of 6km of glulam beams saved on CO2 emissions.
Photography: Mark Cocksedge. Writer: Harriet Thorpe
Sky Central HQ by AL_A and PLP Architecture, London, UK
24 January
Technical achievement was not however second to the design. The sleek façade with connecting oblong shapes fuses the three storeys into one cohesive form, which reflects light and the surrounding natural environment. The ethos of openness continues inside where the office is designed like a campus with integrated spaces to work and relax, offering the 3,500 employees based at the site time to dine, exercise and recharge at the 45,000 sq m HQ.
Photography: Mark Cocksedge. Writer: Harriet Thorpe
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