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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christopher Simmonds; Residential architect par excellence



Canadian architect Christopher Simmonds; Photo by Tony Fouhse




Toronto architect and home designer Christopher Simmonds scored the double whammy at the 2010 Ontario Home Builder Awards, landing the top prize in the Ontario Custom Home 5,000 sq ft plus category and also winning the 2,500-5,000 trophy.

Here's the Waters Edge Home in Mississauga that won the 5,000+ top prize:







Take a look at this holistic and sustainable Moraine House in Caledon, which won the OHBA for 2,500 to 5,000 sq ft:






Okay, here's one more example of Christopher's gorgeous Ontario home designs, the Hilltop House:



Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Gaia Tower project; Beautiful new buildings rise up in 2010



Here are some gorgeous new buildings that opened in 2010 or in recent years. I'll add the words (including architectural, photographer and renderer credits when available) later, just want to start with architectural imagery for now.

China





Dubai










Vietnam










NYC USA











France





Japan

Monday, December 27, 2010

Arcosanti; Paolo's Desert Flower a living emblem of Arcology



Former Frank Lloyd Wright student and pioneering architect Paolo Soleri is not only the founder of the Arcology (Architectural design principles based on the ecology of high numbers of humans living in one place) discipline / movement, he is creating a living village in the Arizona desert embodying these principles.







Arcological structures contain a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities and minimize individual human environmental impact. An arcology is distinguished from a merely large building in that it sustainably supplies all or most of the resources for a comfortable life: power, climate control, food production, air and water purification, sewage treatment, requiring no connections to municipal or urban infrastructure in order to function.




Arcologies reduce human impacts on natural resources. Arcology designs often apply conventional building and civil engineering techniques in very large, but practical projects in order to achieve economies that are difficult to achieve in other ways. Frank Lloyd Wright proposed an early version called Broadacre city. His plan described transportation, agriculture, and commerce systems that would support an economy. Critics said that Wright's solution failed to account for population growth, and assumed a more rigid democracy than the U.S. actually has.



The Las Vegas Strip has many arcological features to protect people from the 45C (110F) heat. Many major casino are connected by tunnels, footbridges, and monorails. It is possible to travel from Mandalay Bay at the south end of the Strip to the Las Vegas Convention Center, three miles (5 km) to the north, without using streets. In many cases, it is possible to travel between several different casinos without ever going outdoors.

The underground concourse in downtown Toronto also offers a wide network of architectural connectivity protecting humans from the elements, however like Vegas, it is far from ideal in terms of sustainability and functionality. They are transportation corridors with daytime (dining, washrooms) usefulness.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

More Cool New 21st Century Buildings

Here are some more examples of modern architecture that have recently caught my eye:

Pueblo Revival Architecture





Koncerhuset in Copenhagen, Denmark





Bubble Garden in central Paris




Solar-powered Stadium in Taiwan





Passive solar home in Denver Colorado





Oregon Sustainability Centre in Portland




City Museum in Antwerp

Friday, December 24, 2010

Cool New Buildings from around the World

Here are some fascinating and inspiring buildings; modern creative architecture from all over the globe:

Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai









Oceanografica in Valencia Spain








Vodafone building in Porto, Portugal








Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies, China





Curvy building in Capetown, South Africa





National Aquatics Centre, The Water Cube - Beijing, China






Happy HolyDays and Peace 2 All,

Joe

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