City Model: Zmapping based in London, UK

Zmapping is a company base in London, UK. They create accurate 3D city models including London.

Battery Park City: 1979-2011

a 92-acre plan first drafted in 1979. When it was conceived, the BPC scheme symbolized a pivotal moment in urban planning: the transition away from the Modernist “superblock” and a return to a more streets-and-blocks approach centered on attractive public spaces. -- Architectural Record News August 29, 2011.

Green Technologies

Products’ carbon footprints easier to track with MIT grad’s start-up

The blue cheese was from Marion. The heavy cream came from Lee. Most of the produce, from Pepperell. Robert Harris is so proud of the local products he uses in his catering that he adorned tables at a recent event with a map showing where the dinner ingredients were grown or made. “It’s a great tool to demonstrate to our clients the care that we take in sourcing,’’ said Harris, chef and owner of Season to Taste Catering and The Table, a 10-seat restaurant, both in Cambridge. The map he used was produced with Sourcemap, a local start-up that combines mapping software with carbon footprint information to help people track the carbon used to produce the things they eat, use, and wear. -- Boston Globe, August 29, 2011

T-Shirts for Architects by Bob Borson

The concept is a periodic table of design – complete with each shirt having its place on the actual periodic table, as well as the key components that make up each element, i.e. – for the element Mo “Modern”, you have a George Nelson clock, an Arco Floor lamp, and the Swan Chair from Arne Jacobsen. Each element has its own hieroglyphs – each lovingly created by me. -- Life of an Architect.

Grid/Street/Place

Grid/Street/Place: Essential Elements of Sustainable Urban Districts. by Nathan Cherry (with Kurt Nagle) 

ISBN-13: 978-1932364729 | Publication Date: September 30, 2009

G/S/P is also a kind of manual; author Cherry describes it as a "playbook" in his introduction. The instructions come largely in visual form: primarily by way of maps of places the authors consider worthy of study. The examples fall into five principal categories: Classic Districts (which give a historic perspective); Mixed Use Districts; Squares, Greens and Parks; Shopping Streets; and Places. The maps in any section are at the same scale, to facilitate comparisons.  -- Frank Gruber, Huffington Post

Fluid Forms

Source: sepientia.com

The Melting Building Mural is a spectacular Mural created at Georges V Ave. in Paris France. This illusion involves three dimensional imagery instead of the standard two dimensional murals. The French name for this is Trompe-l’oeil Meaning trick of the eye. Via Sepientia.  What if the real buildings were melting, here are some examples:

Source: seidler.net.au

North Apartments, Sydney, Australia, 2004 designed by Harry Seidler & Associates

Every one of the 49 apartments has a wave-shaped balcony, so as to accommodate outdoor furniture, at its widened part. The balconies are arranged in a vertically staggered pattern so as to maximise the spatial feeling. -- architect's web site

Source: archdaily.net

The DE BEERS Ginza Building in Tokyo, Japan designed by Jun Mitsui & Associates was completed in 2008.

The DE BEERS Ginza Building design is intended to reflect the sophisticated Ginza streetscape and fit appropriately into this dynamic context. ... The expression of the curtain wall varies continuously as it ascends and as it reflects the ever-changing appearance of the sky. The exterior surface of the building reflects the sunlight and Ginza city lights in a subtle way and the impression of the façade as time passes. On the exterior of the building, specially-finished stainless steel pipes are horizontally laid-out creating sparkles of light throughout the surface of the building. -- ArchDaily.

Source: chicagotribune.com

Aqua Tower in Chicago designed by Jeanne Gang completed in 2009. 

Studio Gang Architects has earned a PETA Proggy award for using bird-deflecting elements in the Aqua Tower residential building and hotel. By including an undulating exterior and specifying the use of fritted glass—which is etched with gray marks to make it easier for birds to see—the company has created a design that will help prevent birds from flying into windows. -- Cityscape.

Another article from Architectural Record May 2010.

Source: archdaily.com

Living Foz, Porto, Portugal, 2010 designed by dEMM Arquitectura

The balcony angle articulation creates spaces enriched by contrasts of light and shade, exposure and protection, emphasized by the contrast between the white cast-in-place concrete and the dark Glass Reinforced Concrete. The geometric and material principle of the facades continues trough the external areas, creating landscaped spaces for playing, strolling and relaxing.  -- ArchDaily

Source: chicagotribune.com

Frank Gehry's new 8 Spruce Street apartment tower in Manhattan.

The 76-story high-rise, Gehry's first skyscraper, is wrapped in a sensuous exterior of stainless steel that ripples like folds of drapery and brilliantly catches the light. -- Cityscape blog by Blair Kamin of Chicago Tribune.

Source: Jason Zytynsky archdaily.com

Absolute Towers, Mississauga, Canada, 2011 designed by MAD Architects

The textured band-like facade is created by a continuous balcony that wraps the entire building . The building is also shifted off its core by varying degrees to provide views of the surrounding scenery, keeping city dwellers attune to the natural environment. -- ArchDaily

An update of the project from ArchDaily

Source: contemporist.com

GT Tower East, Seoul, South Korea, 2011 designed by ArchitectenConsort

The form and positioning of the 130-metre-high building are the impressive result of the vision of architects Peter Couwenbergh and Edgar Bosman of ArchitectenConsort. They chose a uniform, glass finish for the facade, which has resulted in an organically pure form. The undulating motion of the facades provides an optically changing primary form when passing the building. -- Contemporist

Source: 24H architecture

Hatert Housing, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by 24H architecture

a sturdy tower with free formed balconies around, which make a recognizable sculpture from all directions; the new ‘crown’ of Hatert.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Archdaily.com

208 West 96th Street Residences, New York City, New York, USA, 2011 designed by Arctangent Architecture + Design

The main architectural characteristic of this building is an undulating powder-coated laser-cut steel ‘veil’ that becomes both the balcony railings as well as a playful design element for the framing of city views from within the dwellings. This layered ‘veil’ with its gradated perforations constantly plays with light, views, reflections, and the materialization / dematerialization of mass making it a provocative and dynamic addition to the complex urban fabric of New York City. -- ArchDaily

Zero Energy Buildings

Source: architectural-review.com

Just K, Zero Energy House by Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen, Tübingen, Germany. Winner of AR House 2011. Read the article from The Architectural Review July 2011.

Read a post from ArchDaily

Source: Boston Redevelopment Authority

Boston launched “Energy Positive” Program to promote new generation of green home building in the city. A request for proposal was released in March 2011. The city announced that the responses is being exhibited at Boston Architectural College from August 27 -- September 25, 2011.

Read a post from Utile's Blog about the Results.

Seattle Building Aims to Be a "Green" Giant

in Seattle, where groundbreaking began Monday on a six-story building billed as the greenest commercial building on earth. The Bullitt Center -- which eventually will use only its own rainwater, generate its own power and compost its own sewage -- is the first big office building designed to carry its own environmental weight. -- Architectural Record News 8/30/2011.

The Net Zero Energy Building Certification or the NZE

Home grown and local green right here from Seattle - the non-profit organization - formerly known as the Living Building Institute (until April of this year), ILFI now manages the Living Building Challenge program; the Cascadia Green Building Council, a green building advocacy group for builders in the Northwest, British Columbia, and Alaska.  --  Green Goddess

Cornell’s NYC Tech Campus drives towards “Net-Zero Energy”

Cornell University’s proposed New York City Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island plans to become a sustainable landmark. Oriented by the sun, the 10-acre campus encompasses the largest solar array in New York City, four acres of geothermal wells, and 500,000 square-feet of open green space dedicated to the public. If built today, the campus’s 150,000 square-foot main academic building would be the largest net-zero energy building in the eastern United States.  -- ArchDaily

A Competition for Zero Net Energy Urban Architecture

ARCHITECTURE AT ZERO is an international open ideas competition with a focus on the specific challenges of creating urban zero net energy (ZNE) buildings. The competition seeks creative and feasible approaches to urban ZNE building to broaden the conversation around how a site zero net energy project will be approached now and in the future. Further, it seeks to raise the profile of ZNE building among built-environment professionals, students, and the general public in California and beyond. Submissions are due November 29 at 1:00 pm. -- AIA San Francisco

California Aims for Net-Zero Energy for Housing by 2020

Sustainable housing comes in all shapes and sizes, and by 2020 California hopes that all of its new housing projects will benefit from net-zero energy consumption. The groups responsible for establishing this goal are California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission who derive the authority to prepare such a goal under the Global Warming Solutions Act, better known as AB32, which requires that the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. -- ArchDaily

Source: jetsongreen.com

Traditional Style NZE Homes in Maryland

Traditional home styles plus a net-zero building standard is a winning combination in the Homes at North Pointe development in Frederick, Maryland.

North Pointe was a dormant development whose design pattern was set when developer NEXUS EnergyHomes, Inc., adopted the project.

Strategies for reaching net-zero and Emerald certification at North Pointe include ground source geothermal heat pumps, photovoltaic panels, SIPs walls supplemented by spray foam insulation, and super-tight air sealing. A whole-house monitoring system, called NexusVision™, tracks energy production and consumption, and can show this information to the homeowner via the web or smartphone and tablet applications.  -- Jetson Green

Building/Ground: Terraced Down

What's the relationship between architecture and its site is an essential question confronting designers. These examples demonstrate some of the many ways that architecture fit onto the site. Many cases defy the traditional notion of Figure/Ground.

1969  Source: whatwow.org

2010  Source: construction.com

The Oakland Museum of California in 1969 designed by architect Kevin Roche and landscape architect Dan Kiley. Oakland Museum of California Renovation, completed in 2010, by Mark Cavagnero Associates

envisioned as a porous building with multiple casual entrances and exits instead of a grand front portal. Museum and park — the collaboration of architects Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates with landscape architect Dan Kiley — flowed together as a continuous public space, spanning the equivalent of five city blocks.--Architectural Record, December 2010.

Source: oursurprisingworld.com

Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall, completed in 1995, in Japan designed by New York architect Emilio Ambasz extends a city park over a public building.

The southern side extends an existing park through a series of terraced gardens that climb the full height of the building, culminating in a magnificent belvedere that offers views of the harbor and surrounding hills. --description from architect's web site.

Source: lisatown.com

Namba Parks in Osaka, Japan completed in 2003 designed by Jerde. 

a lifestyle commercial center crowned with a rooftop park that crosses multiple blocks while gradually ascending eight levels. ... Namba Parks creates a new natural experience for Osaka that celebrates the interaction of people, culture and recreation. Read a post at Inspiration Wall.

Read a post from ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Va. designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects

merging a 947-foot-long, 280-foot deep, curvilinear building with the earth. By deftly inserting a three-tiered, terraced structure into the gentle slope of a hill to serve as a research  center for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Uruguayan-born, New York–based architect has created a dramatically deferential work of  architecture. -- Architectural Record March 2007.

Source: Meng Yan archdaily.com

Jade Bamboo Culture Plaza, Shenzhen, China, 2009 designed by Urbanus

The Jade Bamboo Garden, which has insufficient connections with the surrounding streets, is one of the few areas partly retaining the original landform and vegetation in the urban center.

After negotiating with the government, the developer agreed to designate the area for urban public space. As compensation, the government agreed to build 50 parking spaces for the developer underneath this public square.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Østengen & Bergo AS

Schandorff Square, Akersgata 64-68 Oslo, Norway, 2009 designed by Østengen & Bergo AS

The dead end Schandorff street in the centre of Oslo was converted from car parking lot to an urban green space, Schandorff Square, adding up to an existing green structure through an old cemetery in the east. The square was privately financed by developer Høegh Eiendom AS and completed in 2009 when it was donated to the municipality. -- ArchDaily

Source: architectmagazine.com

Vancouver Convention Centre West, Vancouver, Canada, 2009 designed by LMN Architects.

Situated on a former brownfield site in downtown Vancouver, the LEED Platinum–certified convention center features 1 million square feet of convention space, 90,000 square feet of retail space, 450 parking spots, and 400,000 square feet of walkways, bikepaths, public space and plazas on a 22-acre site that spans eight acres over water.

The structure’s six-acre living roof is the largest in Canada and houses 400,000 indigenous plants and 240,000 bees. It is sloped to connect to nearby Stanley Park and foster natural drainage and seed migration patterns.  -- ARCHITECT Magazine, April 12, 2011

Source: architectural-review.com

Giant Campus, Shanghai, China designed by Morphosis, completed in 2010. 

Arguably, it belongs to a new typological strand of commercial buildings that, to steal Aaron Betsky’s term for something different, we might call the landscraper. That’s not to say it takes the form of a tall tower on its side, but a building that responds successfully to the programme and makes a positive statement about the way architecture inevitably obliterates the reality of the ground over which it is built.--The Architectural Review April 2011.

Read a post from ArchDaily 

Source: P. Guignard archdaily.com

Primary School For Sciences And Biodiversity, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 2014 designed by Chartier Dalix Architectes

This project is a “landscape as living space” rather than a simple building. There are two distinct parts to the building: a mineral section – the facades – and a section made of plants – the roof. -- ArchDaily

Alphabetical City

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Mercedes House in New York City designed by Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos.

In 1980, when Steven Holl wrote "The Alphabetical City" in Pamphlet Architecture, he focused on how the shapes of nine letters -- T, I, U, O, H, E, B, L and X -- were represented in urban buildings.
If he were to update the essay in 2011, he'd have to add the letter S.-- Huffington Post, August 23, 2011

Read a post from ArchDaily.

Read another post from ArchDaily.

Source: construction.com

8 House in Copenhagen, Denmark designed by Bjarke Ingels Group. 

In order to create an architectural framework for the community the designers envisioned there, they based the 8 House scheme on the typology of a perimeter block, but squeezed it in the middle to form a bowtie shape that defines two courtyards. At the central “knot,” they created a 30-foot-wide passageway that connects the east and west sides of the site. -- Architectural Record August 2011.

Another article from Architecture Today .

Cover of Pamphlet Architecture #5.

Source: archidose.org

Alphabet Library, Montpellier, France, 2012 designed by Hoffice

The project is a reading room for the archive, comprising an entrance desk, an information desk, reading room tables and library shelves. Stephane Hof attests that "the tables bend around the back wall to form the library with each piece of the puzzle referencing a letter of the alphabet." This reference that gives the library its name is evident in a few of the photos, such as the top one, where an A and B can be deciphered in the shelves by the window; in the photo at right the letter J can be read. -- A Weekly Dose of Architecture

Source: Marcel van der Burg archdaily.com

Botel, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2015 designed by MMX architecten + Jord den Hollander

Five 6.5 -meter-high hotelrooms in the shape of huge toy letters make up the silhouette B O T E L on top of the ship. The white hotel boat has been given a cheerful crown, referring to the chimneys of the ocean liners that used to come off the now derelict NDSM slipways. -- ArchDaily

Source: Federico Babina archdaily.com

Archibet: An Illustrated Alphabet of Architecture by Federico Babina

Barcelona-based architect and graphic artist Federico Babina is at it again, this time creating an imaginary “Archibet City” guided by the language of architecture. From Alvar Aalto’s Riolo Parish Church to Zaha Hadid’s Library and Learning Centre in Vienna, the collection reimagines 26 famous works of architecture into a set of letters that, as Babina describes, expresses the “heterogeneity of forms and styles” that make up our profession. -- ArchDaily

CityFabric

Source: lisatown.com

A nifty project and small business started by Matt Tomasula, a grad student in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Matt started CityFabric with the goal of engaging people in conversations about the cities in which they live. Their first project is called “Wear You Live”, which using simple figure-ground maps of cities focuses on the idea of engaging more people in discussions about where they live. CityFabric recently had an exhibition in New York City with Hyperpublic called New York Scaled.

Read more from a post at Inspiration Wall by Lisa Town.

Figure/Ground: Armelle Caron's tout bien rangé

Source: armellecaron.fr

Armelie Caron, in Anagrammes Graphiques de plans de villes - 2005 / 2008  , takes a figure ground map of a city and classifies all the blocks by size and shape. via on site.

Type City: A Visitor's Guide

Source: Veer.com

Veer’s playful typeface catalog is called Type City: A Visitor’s Guide — along with examples of their types they include whimsical illustrations of buildings and cityscapes made of type. -- Green Chair Press Blog

Skin of Architecture: Web

Source: construction.com

The Tod’s building designed by Toyo Ito & Associates, located on Omotesando, the famous tree-lined avenue in Tokyo’s Aoyama district, is wrapped in a skin of criss-crossed concrete braces and glass that mimics the trees lining the street. Read an article from Architectural Record, June 2005.

 Source: Georges Fessy

Ministère de la Culture, Paris, France, 2004 designed by Francis Soler

In the manner of Christo, Soler has wrapped the old buildings, walls and roof included, in a continuous organic-weave mesh of steel lace. Without entirely effacing underlying differences, this stainless steel veil imparts continuity to the disparate volumes. It hangs like a loose net detached from the elevations, its appearance changing in phase with the sun, shadows, day and night.   -- MIMOA

Source: archdaily.net

Zilverparkkade D, Lelystad, the Netherlands / René van Zuuk Architekten

All four façade surfaces in the design are either entirely or partly covered with prefabricated concrete elements, symbolizing a branch-like structure. This blown-up filigree is the result of a study of infinite patterns. -- ArchDaily

Source: faulders-studio.com

AirSpace Toyko, Toyko, Japan, 2007 designed by Thom Faulders, with Proces2

The project creates a 3,000 sq ft exterior building skin for a new four story multi-family dwelling unit with professional photography studios in Tokyo, Japan.

Conceived as a thin interstitial environment, the articulated densities of the porous and open-celled meshwork are layered in response to the inner workings of the building's program. AirSpace is a zone where the artificial blends with nature: sunlight is refracted along its metallic surfaces; rainwater is channeled away from exterior walkways via capillary action; and interior views are shielded behind its variegated and foliage-like cover. -- architect's web site

Source: wikipedia.org

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Toyko, Japan, 2008 designed by Tange Associates

Each floor of the tower contains three rectangular classrooms that surround an inner core. The inner core consists of an elevator, a staircase and a support shaft. Every three floors, a three-story student lounge is located between the classrooms and faces three directions: east, southwest and northwest.  -- Wikipedia

Read a post from ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

National Stadium, Beijing, China designed by Herzog & de Meuron

while the need to include a heavy retractable roof (a requirement in the competition brief) informed the giant crisscrossing steel members on the outside of the building. Because the architects disliked the massive parallel beams necessary to support the retractable roof, they developed a lacy pattern for the other steel elements to disguise them. In the process, they created a structure that seems random and nonrepetitive. “We’re interested in complexity and ornamentation,” said Herzog, “but of the kind you would find on a Gothic cathedral, where structure and ornamentation are the same.” -- Architectural Record July 2008.

More from architect's web site

Source: José F. García Martín

Suites Avenue Apartments, Barcelona, Spain, 2009 designed by Toyo Ito

Toyo Ito designs an organic façade directly inspired by Gaudi. The façade consist of an 8 mm. waving aluminium sheet, on which cuts are made to generate openings. The façade performs a double role: in the first one acts like a sculptural mask hiding the real black elevation of the building, in the second allows the interior spaces be completely open to the outside looking to La Pedrera and, at the same time, preserves their privacy.  -- MIMOA

Source: trespa.com

Offices of City Council Gijón, Gijón- Asturias, Spain, 2009 designed by Jeremías Sanpedro Rodríguez

Source: archdaily.com

Kindergarten Sighartstein, Sighartstein, Land Salzburg, Austria, 2009 designed by Kadawittfeldarchitektur

The oversized “grass blades” communicate the building’s unique identity and provides an orientation marker for the kindergarten. The stylized grass blades are not only ornamental, but also act as a continuation of the landscape theme – namely, the staccato row of spruces visible at the meadow’s edge or the branches of the neighboring leafy trees.-- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Berkeley, California, USA, 2009 designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

The screen—an important component of Asian architecture—represents the building’s Asian mission. Its overall design further alludes to traditional Asian elements: A cracked-ice motif on the 15-foot-tall lower grille is topped by a vertical bamboo pattern on the 17-foot-tall upper grille along the library’s southern elevation, which faces those early-20th-century campus icons. Cast in Hangzhou, China, at an installed cost of $1 million, the fate of the screens—another 32-foot-tall screen graces the narrower west facade, while a smaller, 21-foot-tall version featuring only the bamboo motif marks the building’s entrance at the east facade—was not always a sure thing. -- Architectural Record

Source: Cristobal Palma archdaily.com

Flor del Campo Educational Center, Bolívar, Antioquia, Colombia, 2010 designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti + Felipe Mesa

This project is characterized by four “Rings”, each of which is defined by two levels with different thicknesses, rounding different playgrounds. The perimeter is as important as the interior space formed by the rings, projecting physical areas that can express the function that will be developed. It was inspired by the shapes of tropical plants and trees in the area, taking us to a recreational atmosphere of games, educational exchanges, etc. -- ArchDaily

Source: David Cervera archdaily.com

Gran Museo del Mundo Maya de Mérida, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, 2010 designed by 4A Arquitectos

The Gran Museo del Mundo Maya is a building with a contemporary expression about what the Mayans worshiped rather than the Mayans built, in this search we found a recurrent symbol, a key element in the cosmic vision of Mayan Culture: Ceiba, the sacred tree, whose roots penetrates and conforms the underworld, the trunk’s level lays down where life and daily activities take place underneath the shade of its frond which spreads its branches up to the sky and human transcendence. -- ArchDaily

Source: EMBA archdaily.com

Torre Diagonal Zero Zero, Barcelona, Spain, 2011 designed by EMBA

The facade is a modular curtain wall made of white aluminum profiles and extratransparent glass with white ceramic paint serigraphy, according to a vertical pattern that reinforces the slenderness of the building. In combination with the inner structure, placed every 1.35 meters, and the exterior structure, this pattern contributes to the diffusion of solar light and to glare control, generating interiors of great quality of perception.  -- Arch Daily

Watch a timelapse video on the construction of Diagonal ZeroZero Building.

Source: Yang Hsiu Chuan

House in Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan, 2011 designed by FCHY Architect Lab

a special Hybrid Surface Framework. Using a Double-Layer Structure to solve the issue of the base and create an interesting urban landscape. The irregular hollow bricks form the first surface of the house, it create a magnificent facade, and reduced the problem of western exposure. The second layer is a glass layer between balcony and interior. This Double-Layer Structure creates a special interior lighting at night and reduces the direct impact of wind.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Paúl Rivera archdaily.com

Tori Tori Restaurant, Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico, 2011 designed by Rojkind Arquitectos + ESRAWE Studio

The façade, which seems to emerge from the ground climbing up through the building, as if mimicking the natural ivy surrounding the retaining walls, is made up of two self-supporting layers of steel plates cut with a CNC machine and handcrafted to exact specifications.  -- ArchDaily

Source: 11h45 archdaily.com

Jessie-Owens Gymnasium, Champigny, France, 2011 designed by Épicuria Architectes

Treated very delicately, this sports equipment, on the periphery of a small town offers an alternative to neighboring semi-detached houses. Its oriental inspired façade is characterized by a concrete net imitating the Moroccan moucharabieh. -- ArchDaily

Source: Eric Heranval archdaily.com

L’Atoll Angers, Angers, France, 2012 designed by Antonio Virga Architecte + AAVP Architecture

The structure is covered with a white aluminium net, which is perforated and backlit. The building´s envelope, 8-12m from the main structure, provides a protected area behind the shops for deliveries, away from the customers´ view at the center of the Atoll, and provides a clear passage for security services. The outer cover runs from the inside out, following the access porches up to the roof to form an awning covering part of the promenade. On the inside, the awning rises up over a glass wall offering views of the various shop fronts. The shop front can be seen clearly avove and below the awning. -- ArchDaily

Source: Fluor Architecture archdaily.com

Family Creche in Drulingen, Strasbourg, France, 2012 designed by Fluor Architecture

Introverted in appearence, the building is sheltered by a wooden shell – an envelope in the physical and symbolic meanings of the term. Considered as a skin protecting from the fast-paced world around, this envelope embodies the idea of a border between the everyday life and the warm and cosy environment of the « family crèche ». -- ArchDaily

Source: Diego Opazo archdaily.com

Dance School in Lliria, Llíria, Spain, 2012 designed by hidalgomora arquitectura

Latticeworks formed by tubular sloping profiles of oxidized steel protect the rooms from the exterior looks and from the excess of solar light, at the same time that they incorporate into the interior space an interesting movement by subtle combination of lights and shades. -- ArchDaily

Source: Serge Demailly archdaily.com

The Simona, Monaco, 2012 designed by Jean-Pierre Lott Architecte

The project is ambitious: it seeks to deliver astudy in housing typology and, beyond the building itself, an analysis of urban structure and a response to the question of the city’s densification. The structure’s unusual vocabulary will broadenthe city’s palette. The building raises questions;its very visibility will involve it in considerations about the city’s development. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adam Mørk archdaily.com

University of Aberdeen New Library, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, 2012 designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

The University of Aberdeen New Library functions as a meeting place and a cultural centre for the students of the University as well as the Aberdeen community. The façade of the building shimmers during the day and glows softly at night, creating a luminous landmark – a beacon – for the city of Aberdeen -- ArchDaily

Source: Steven Massart archdaily.com

MuCEM, Marseille, France, 2013 designed by Rudy Ricciotti

The tectonic choice of an exceptional concrete coming from the latest research by French industry, reducing the dimensions to little more than skin and bones, will affirm a mineral script under the high ramparts of Fort Saint-Jean. This sole material in the colour of dust, matt, crushed by the light, distant from the brilliance and technological consumerism, will commend the dense and the delicate. The MuCEM sees itself evanescent in a landscape of stone and Orientalist through its fanning shadows. -- ArchDaily

Source: Oscar Hernandez archdaily.com

Restaurant Koi Sushi, Galerías, Aguascalientes, Mexico, 2013 designed by Grupo Spazio

The skin of the main facade is an abstraction of a bamboo forest, the project was divided into three main areas: the terrace, common area and the mezzanine, each with a different appearance and scale. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ilya Ivanov archdaily.com

VTB Ice Palace, Avtozavodskaya ulitsa, 23, Moskva, Russia, 2015 designed by SPEECH Architectural Office

The Ice Palace is designed in such a way that the activities in all its arenas could take place simultaneously without interfering with each other. It consists of two rectangular volumes, visually combined into one as a result of the main facade’s design, which was rendered as a kind of icy mantle polished to a gloss like the surface of a rink. -- ArchDaily