The project started with the need to cover demand youth facilities in historic old town Rivas-Vaciamadrid. To this end we have a solar within a rectangular space for future park to build a new plant envelope and height. From these dimensions volumetric process begins participation from which to develop strategies of ownership and consensus building possible signs collective identity from the lexicons of the youth culture. - MI5 Architectos, Manuel Collado Arpia y Nacho Martín Asunción

Sako Architects have designed the BUMPS building complex in Beijing, China. The complex is a mixed-use residential and commercial development, which will be a landmark that leads to further development in the surrounding area of the city. The building is characterized by it’s constant variation between the different levels. Every two floors are set as a unit, and every unit is staggered by 2 metres horizontally, with the resulting set-back areas being used for terraces. Link here.

Waiuku Church designed by Jasmax architects located in Waiuku, New Zealand - The project involved the refurbishment and extension of an existing 1960’s ‘A-frame’ Church. The church space has been re-organised to increase seating capacity and a new lounge, kitchen, office and meeting rooms added. Design intent focused around the need to open the facility up more to the community, to create a building which is transparent and inviting to the public of Waiuku.

‘ The building appears like a monolith with rounded edges, polished somehow. Characterized by a dense square plan (35m x 35m) developed on 2 levels, it presents itself as the continuity of the banal coating of the roads, like a piece stamped from distorting the existing concrete surface of the Bus Center. The Ductal ® is used here as a morphing to cover the carcass of a composite program. The result is a dense building, inert, deaf, and enigmatic as “the hull of a Russian submarine in the waters of Murmansk”. The building is deformed by stamping its context – uniformity between the building and its support to a point of confusion. This crust that covers the evolution area of the buses is distorted, modeled to cover the administrative center. The “windows” are cut with a cutter blade : surgical incisions generating volumes in negative which reveal colored mirrors under the thin crust of concrete. The texture games are facilitated by the flexibility of the material and its ability to be molded with precision. The quality of finish and rigor of Ductal ® contribute to ensuring this concrete skin, accurate, continuous, perfect connections. The skin : 3 cm thick displays a single texture of dots in relief like a game of “LEGO”: 24 mm diameter x 7 mm high, distant of 12 mm. The concrete hull is cut out with a cutter putting at sharp, revealing cavities of reflective and coloured glass under the concrete crust. Treated with silver mirror dots, chromatics of the glass products are inspired by the tinted curtain wall frontages of the office buildings which border the main road. ‘ Link here.

‘ The idea of situating and relating a series of objects in the landscape- Dwelling, Chapel, Hunting pavilion and Guard´s residence- gave the project a dual significance: in addition to the close relationship between landscape, objects and itinerary -between space and objects-, each item had to provide a different response with different emphasis, from the most symbolic to the most silent or private. The unifying thread was to be the concept of the fold: the fold as a hidden generator of different spaces. The Chapel is developed around the study and manipulation of a focally tensed “box-fold”. ‘ (Read more..)

‘ Nacka Forum is a peripheral area to Stockholm. Its main limit to a future development is that it is placed beside a highway border. But this is now impossible to renounce and, waiting for a possible cover of the highway, we have to plan an integrated system between the area and the highway, connecting the north side with the south side by a social bridge that will be a part of a new infrastructural system. This is not only a transit bridge; it is a focal element for social exchange, it is a kind of narrow square where it is possible to walk, riding a bike, or to take a rest on the wooden surface. This bridge is part of the main building, Multiarena, that is an urban sign, giving a strong character to the area that now is anonymous.’ Link here

‘ London-based architecture firm ACME was recently awarded third prize in a competition to design a United Nations memorial. Initiated by the city of Chungju in South Korea, the selected memorial will rest in the city’s UN Peace Park. ACME’s proposal is comprised of a 1,500 seating assembly, two conference halls, a theater and exhibition spaces. An open staircase winds up the exterior of the building and leads all the way up to the roof, where a public garden and green roof awaits. ‘ Link.

‘ The shop house called Lightmos Thonglor was designed by Architectkidd in Bangkok, Thailand. These buildings usually begin as concrete constructions, but owners would later add layers over existing surfaces in order to block out heat and sun. Low cost and lightweight metal materials are cut into panels or pieces to create a pattern over the existing shop house. In the way these ad-hoc facades are conceived, they are the opposite of typical facades designed by architects and professionals. ‘ (Continue..)

‘ Henderson Waves, jointly designed by RSP Architects planners and engineers and IJP corporation, is Singapore’s highest pedestrian bridge and was awarded this year’s Design of the year for the President’s Design Award at the Singapore Design Week 09. Standing at 36 meters above the ground, in an iconic, sculptural leap spanning across Singapore’s Henderson road. Based on the principal of parametric design, this new visual symbol has attracted the community to its walkways and shelters. It’s three-dimensional surface integrates structure and form in a unique wave that undulates dramatically over and under the bridge deck and creating sheltered seating areas inside every upward curve. ‘ (via Designboom)

‘Urban Forest’ building located in Chongqing, China is a new project of MAD architects. Um, wow. More on Designboom.