SpacePort - Foster+Partners

The Foster + Partners and URS team has won an international competition to build the first private spaceport in the world - The New Mexico Spaceport Authority Building. The sinuous shape of the building in the landscape and its interior spaces seek to capture the drama and mystery of space flight itself, articulating the thrill of space travel for the first space tourists. Making a minimal impact on the environment, the scheme will be the first facility of its kind and a model for the future

The Spaceport lies low within the desert-like landscape of the site in New Mexico and seen from the historic El Camino Real trail, the organic form of the terminal resembles a rise in the landscape. Using local materials and regional construction techniques, it is both sustainable and sensitive to its surroundings.

Organised into a highly efficient and rational plan, the Spaceport has been designed to relate to the dimensions of the spacecraft. There is also a careful balance between accessibility and privacy. The astronauts’ areas and visitor spaces are fully integrated with the rest of the building to convey the thrill of space travel. The more sensitive zones - such as the control room - are visible, but have limited access.

Visitors and astronauts enter the building via a deep channel cut into the landscape. The retaining walls form an exhibition space that documents the history of the region and its settlers, alongside a history of space exploration. The strong linear axis continues on a galleried level to the ‘superhangar’ - which houses the spacecraft and the simulation room – through to the terminal building.

Designed to have minimal embodied carbon and few additional energy requirements, the scheme has been designed to achieve the prestigious LEED Platinum accreditation. The low-lying form is dug into the landscape to exploit the thermal mass, which buffers the building from the extremes of the New Mexico climate as well as catching the westerly winds for ventilation. Natural light enters via skylights, with a glazed façade reserved for the terminal building, establishing a platform for the coveted views onto the runway.

The Abandoned City San Zhi

Talk about ghost city, this must be the next best abandoned city after the Chernobyl Town. originally built as a luxury vacation retreat for the rich, it was abandon due to numerous fatal accidents during the construction. According to rumors, this ghost city is now haunted by those who died building it.

The area is called San Zhi. There are no named architects since the whole site was commissioned by the government and several local firms. I guess this project may never be restarted and with these rumors going spreading like wild fire, there would be no value in re-developing the area for other purpose, anyway destroying homes of lonely spirits is a bad thing to do, unless you’re in Singapore, when land is so limited. You got no choice but to dig up the dead and convert the tranquil resting ground for 58,000 dead into 12,000 centrally located, high-rise apartments for the living.

If you happen to have Google Earth, then download this file - San Zhi Google Earth Aerial View. Happy Halloween.

Dubai Time Residence Rotating Tower

Dubai with a population of one million do not need another ridiculous high-rise building, the latest proposal - the Time Residences tower is going to be a solar-powered 360-degree rotating version. With a tropical climate receiving lots of sun light through out the year, the Time Residences needs all the power for its gigantic motors to turn the building a full rotation over the course of 7 days. Dubai’s economy is overheating, everyone is speculating about the new found miracle in the land of sand, either they find some ways t0 cool down their economy like what China is doing now or face the possibility that one day Dubai will turn into a city of ghost with lots of unique abandon buildings.

Construction started in June this year with projected completion in the first quarter of 2009. Rental? priceless compare to the New York studio that you are about to rent.

When Architects Propose

Manchester Solar Tower

Manchester’s CIS Tower could possibly be the world’s tower fully covered with solar panels, which is something impressive bearing in mind that the idea of buildings covered with solar panels have moved beyond the drawing board stage. It was said that this solar panels are packed with a punch, a much greener panels that produce 80W photovoltaic of energy, taking into consideration that the entire tower has a total of 7,244 panels, which would literally translate into 390 kilowatts of energy and can power a total of 1,000 computers for a year.

Impressive? Well not really, with a price tag of $11.4 million, these solar panels cost a bomb considering the fact that if the panels were to run at full load for 12 hours a day 365 days a year the savings would be about $150,000 a year, so the building will break even after 76 years-far longer than the lifetime of the cells, and the best part is, keeping the money in a bank that promise a good interest rate return at 3 -4% for 6 months would definitely cover the electricity bills. Conclusion. Solar panels has a long way to go and Global Warming is here to stay for good, goodbye earth!

Sycamore Ceiling Fan

Ceiling fans, I believe ceiling fan can only be found in certain countries - especially those that are hot and humid like Malaysia, does houses in countries like Britain and Canada has ceiling fans? The example above are some of the ugliest ceiling fan in the world, looks like some kind of alien parasite or eggs. The worst ceiling fan I ever come across is those that comes with a remote control, it just doesn’t make any sense.

Okie, I saw this article on some new nano technology fan called Sycamore Ceiling Fan, they said is was design based on their some aero dynamic principles and blah blah blah, those science stuff, well anyway, what makes this ceiling fan so interesting is the low degree of turbulence created by the Sycamore blade provides whisper quiet operation,not only that, the design is so Hadid. Not sure how much it cost but I bet interior designers and interior architects would love that futuristic design.

Foster & Partners - Petronas University of Technology

Note: Article by Guest Blogger

Foster & Partners and Petronas has won one of nine Aga Khan awards for architecture in the Islamic world with its University of Technology Petronas in Malaysia.

The awards, which have been instigated and sponsored by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, are presented every three years and have grown in prestige and profile since their inception 30 years ago. The aim of these rich awards is to identify and encourage building concepts that meet the needs and aspirations of Muslim communities.

I visited the university more than five years ago when it was not yet finished. But it was obvious even then that this was a powerful architectural statement. The canopy is as majestic as you can get: taller than the surrounding trees, they were elegantly supported by slender steel columns. Looking at the photos now, you can easily agree with Foster’s senior architect, David Nelson that it “fits discreetly on the site fitting into the contours of the site”. This is cool, crisp modern architecture, but infused with local cultural references and climatic context.

Lord Foster himself said: “If you visit this building, you’ll see that it couldn’t be anywhere else. It is highly evocative of the culture.”