Striated 2

 Source: Mr. T in DC @ Flickr

Watergate complex, Washington, D.C., USA, 1971 designed by Luigi Moretti

The 10-acre site contains an office building, three apartment buildings, and a hotel-office building. The Watergate's curved structures were designed to emulate two nearby elements. The first was the proposed Inner Loop Expressway, a curving freeway expected to be built just in front of the Watergate within the next decade. The second was the shape of the nearby Kennedy Center, then in the planning stage and whose original design was supposed to be curvilinear. Because of the curves in the structure, the Watergate complex was one of the first major construction projects in the United States in which computers played a significant role in the design work. The curving design has continued to draw praise. A noted 2006 guidebook to the city's architecture concluded that the Watergate brought a "welcome fluidity" to the city's boxy look. -- wikipedia

Some construction photos from 1964-65.

Source: archdaily.com

Club 218, Siófok, Hungary, 2008 designed by A4 studio

The planned building is stretching on the lake shore as a giant curve. This characteristic architectural gesture organizes the main bulk. As there are no secondary facades, all the apartments bear the same values and orientation. An important issue was to fit into the street view of Szent István promenade, lined with other hotels and apartments.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Radek Brunecky archdaily.com

Maison des Etudiants, Geneva, Switzerland designed by Lacroix Chessex

The facade consists of private balconies at the East and large “coursives” at the West side. It expresses a superposition of great horizontal slabs, which also play the role of filter against the sun and the noise. The height of the balustrades varies according to angle of incidence of the noise from the trains passing by. This principle also provides the building a facade that progressively lightens itself to the sky. -- ArchDaily

Source: Hantabal Architekti archdaily.com

Omnipolis, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2009 designed by Hantabal Architekti & AFR

.... a building that is expressive through its rich colors and horizontal repetition. -- ArchDaily

Source: Andrei Margulescu archdaily.com

Olympia Tower, Bucharest, Romania, 2010 designed by PZP Arhitectura

In order to confer personality to the building, the facade became the element which confers a dynamic attitude to the volume and the alignment will be the attitude to the surroundings – provoke and complete the square space. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pedro Lobo 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 -- ArchDaily

Source: Jason Zytynsky archdaily.com

Absolute Towers, Toronto, Canadaa is designed by MAD Architects

Serving as a gateway to the city beyond, the towers’ facade contains a continuous balcony wrapping the entire building. -- ArchDaily

Video: The Story behind MAD Architects Absolute Towers -- ArchDaily

Source: chicagotribune.com

Aqua Tower, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2009 designed by Jeanne Gang

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: Werner Huthmacher archdaily.com

Adidas Laces, Herzogenaurach, Germany, 2011 designed by kadawittfeldarchitektur

In contrast to conventional office typologies, the ring structure developed by kadawittfeldarchitektur lends to the building a double relationship to the landscape – both to the outer surroundings and to the communicative landscape of the atrium. -- ArchDaily

Source: Marko Dabrović archdaily.com

Lone Hotel, Rovinj, Croatia, 2011 designed by 3LHD

The hotel’s identity is recognized through the external design of the building, with a facade that is defined by dominant horizontal lines – terrace guards designed to evoke the image of slanted boat decks. The building’s floorplates contract from level to level going up, creating an elevation that is tapered at all angles. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jean-Michel Landecy archdaily.com

120 affordable appartments, Geneva, Switzerland, 2011 designed by meier + associés architectes + Burckhardt Partner

Surrounded by newly planted trees, the building has a visually pleated effect created by undulating bands of subtly coloured concrete on the walls. The balcony parapets and inset glass facade together create an ‘organic’ rhythm that emulates the foliage of the trees. -- ArchDaily

Source: Dahin Development archdaily.com

Ocean Grand Residence, New Taipei City, Taiwan, 2011 designed by Dahin Development + T. D. Lee ARCHITECT

The building’s form is derived from the water flow and dedicated to reflect the link between nature and residential construction. -- ArchDaily

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Galaxy Soho, Beijing, China, 2012 designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

Its architecture is a composition of five continuous, flowing volumes that are set apart, fused or linked by stretched bridges. These volumes adapt to each other in all directions, generating a panoramic architecture without corners or abrupt transitions that break the fluidity of its formal composition. -- ArchDaily

Another post from ArchDaily

Source: Liven Photography archdaily.com

Housing in Tres Cantos, Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain, 2012 designed by R&AS

The horizontal lines are the tendency in the façade. This is highlighted with the black and white brick walls that predominate throughout the façade. In the north façade balconies stand out and in the south façade the extending terraces stand out. -- ArchDaily

Source: Thomas Mayer archdaily.com

Zorlu Center, Beşiktaş/Istanbul Province, Turkey, 2013 designed by Emre Arolat Architects + Tabanlıoğlu Architects

....the residential units form three identical towers, detached from the shell with “piloti” and their structural formation continues the horizontal projections of the terrace flats, without turning into symbolic elements of the complex. -- ArchDaily

SOurce: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Jockey Club Innovation Tower, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, 2014 designed by Zaha Hadid Architects

The JCIT creates a new urban space that enriches the diversity of university life and expresses the dynamism of an institution looking to the future. -- ArchDaily

Source: Zhao Qiang archdaily.com

Hainan Blue Bay Westin Resort Hotel, Lingshui, Hainan, China, 2014 designed by gad·Zhejiang Greenton Architectural Design

The pearly luster on the aluminum sheet of the outer wall presenting various glosses under sunlight of different time, together with the graceful horizontal line of the architecture and the transparent light glasses, has made the architecture of this size flow when observed at a distance. -- ArchDaily

Source: kpf.com

One Jackson Square, New York City, New York, USA, designed by KPF

Undulating bands of glass identify individual floors, creating a ribbon-like series of convexities and concavities along the street wall. -- architect's web site

Source: Philippe Ruault archdaily.com

Pushed Slab, Paris, France, 2014 designed by MVRDV

....a slab shaped volume  of 150 m long and 21 m wide. An opening in the volume preserves the view of a historic building. To create this urban window and to enhance the urban quality of the neighbourhood, the slab is “pushed” until it breaks, then twisted and pushed to the south. This pushing act creates a distortion of the floors, offering multiple terraces which can be directly accessed from the work areas as well as from the external staircases. The urban window offers a large terrace on the second level. The terrace and the balconies are furnished with trees planted in large pots, offering employees a friendly environment to relax. -- ArchDaily

Organic Forms 2

Source: wikipedia.org

Casa Milà, Barcelona, Spain, 1910 designed by Antoni Gaudí

Gaudí designed the house around two large, curved courtyards, with a structure of stone, brick and cast-iron columns and steel beams. The facade is built of limestone from Vilafranca del Penedès, apart from the upper level, which is covered in white tiles, evoking a snowy mountain. -- wikipedia

Source: archdaily.com

An der Alster 1, Hamburg, Germany, 2007 designed by J. Mayer H. Architects

The horizontal striped facade with its floating ‘eyes’ celebrates the view onto this unique context. A public park in front of the building continues the design strategy of the facade into the landscape. The ‘eyes’ in the facade and the platforms in the park form places to meet and contemplate. -- ArchDaily

Source: Eugeni Pons archdaily.com

Maizières Music Conservatory, Maizieres-les-Metz, France, 2009 designed by Dominique Coulon & Associés

The music school is a monolithic block 100 metres long and 40 metres wide.  It is sited perpendicular to the main road, projecting into the public area by 16 metres. The building is set against a forest of giant sequoias, also aligned perpendicular to the main road. The group forms a doorway marking the entrance to the town. -- ArchDaily

Source: Bharath Ramamrutham archdaily.com

The Park Hotel, Hyderabad, India, 2010 designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill

The facade provides a range of transparency according to the needs of the spaces inside. Perforated and embossed metal screens over a high-performance glazing system give privacy to the hotel rooms while allowing diffused daylight to enter the interior spaces, and provides acoustic insulation from trains passing nearby. The opaque areas of the cladding shield the hotel’s service areas from public view. The shape of the facade’s openings, as well as the three-dimensional patterns on the screens themselves, were inspired by the forms of the metalwork of the crown jewels of the Nizam, the city’s historic ruling dynasty. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ludger Paffrath archdaily.com

JOH 3, Berlin, Germany, 2012 designed by J. Mayer H. Architects

The sculptural design of the suspended slat facade draws on the notion of landscape in the city, a quality visible in the graduated courtyard garden and the building’s silhouette and layout. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jan Bitter archdaily.com

Schlump ONE, Hamburg, Germany, 2012 designed by J. Mayer H. Architects

The building’s facade has been completely renovated and redesigned to form a single unit that freely interprets the original building’s 1950s linear design. The organic formal language of the facade is continued in the design of interiors. The project is embedded in a sophisticated, open space planning design with oversized tree sculptures. -- ArchDaily

Source: J. MAYER H. Architects archdaily.com

Mestia Police Station, Mestia, Georgia, 2012 designed by J. Mayer H. Architects

Its towerlike shape pays homage to the medieval stone towers which are traditional to Mestia’s mountainside region. The facade is comprised of prefabricated textured concrete and large openings which offer a maximum of transparency. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ket Kolektif archdaily.com

Kayseri Ice Ring, Kayseri/Kayseri Province, Turkey, 2012 designed by BKA-BahadırKulArchitects

This clear prism shaped amorphous structures become noticeable and make a difference with the amorphous gaps. The colored glasses on the amorphous gaps validate that the structure was intended to build for entertainment and sports. -- ArchDaily

Urban Space: Superkilen

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Superkilen, Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012 designed by Topotek 1 + BIG Architects + Superflex

Superkilen is a half a mile long urban space wedging through one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. It has one overarching idea that it is conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice – a sort of collection of global found objects that come from 60 different nationalities of the people inhabiting the area surrounding it. Ranging from exercise gear from muscle beach LA to sewage drains from Israel, palm trees from China and neon signs from Qatar and Russia. Each object is accompanied by a small stainless plate inlaid in the ground describing the object, what it is and where it is from – in Danish and in the language(s) of its origin. A sort of surrealist collection of global urban diversity that in fact reflects the true nature of the local neighborhood – rather than perpetuating a petrified image of homogenous Denmark. -- ArchDaily

Building as a City

Source: Kouji Okamoto archdaily.com

Diagram, Source: archdaily.com

9 Gathered Huts, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan, 2008 designed by NKS Architects

This is a clinic situated on the boundary between urban and rural area. A flat single story building with a square roof is harmonized with the surrounding landscape. The 9 small huts with size variation corresponding to the necessary functions of the clinic are settled under the flat roof.  To make the whole structure stable and to control the interior light condition, the 9 huts are turned each other in 90 degrees. Consequently these huts create the settlement like atmosphere. The circulation space and a waiting space became streets and a plaza. -- ArchDaily

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Plan/Section, Source: archdaily.com

House O, Tokoro District, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, 2009 designed by Jun Igarashi Architects

The smallest plan of each program is cut out to be placed in a location and orientation that is favorable. For example, the kitchen is placed in a “selfish” way to look out to the tree garden on the site, and then connected the dinning to the kitchen. With this method, the extra circulation corridors to connect the spaces and hierarchy due to its location and orientation are omitted. -- ArchDaily

Source: Demos Arquitectos archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

El Caracol Kindergarten, Patio Bonito, Bogotá, Colombia, 2011 designed by Demos Arquitectos

This kindergarten proposal recreates as main idea the urban life within the project. The building is understood as the very early contact between the child and the society where the formation and development process are going to begin. From this perspective the proposal reproduces a small neighborhood taking the primary elements that make up the city, the house, the street, the play park, as composition themes of the architectural scheme. -- ArchDaily

Source: Francisco Nogueira archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

House in Belas, 2715-311 Belas, Portugal, 2012 designed by CHP Arquitectos

The design intends to express a contemporary look onto the main aspects of traditional Portuguese architecture, with special attention to the balance and harmony between each building. The house consists of five different bodies, linked through passages. Spaces between each body create a series of relationships, distances and views are generated, providing a rich and diverse atmosphere. The social areas are located in the core of it all, benefitting from the surrounding environment, and allowing a simple and functional distribution throughout the house. -- ArchDaily

Source: Miguel de Guzmán archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

MO House, Madrid, Spain, 2012 designed by FRPO

The MO House project belongs to a family of projects developed in the office beginning in 2005. These projects explore the possibilities of generating architectural complexity out of the combination of simple elements. Throughout this process of projects, conditioned by a large number of program specifications settled by the clients, we have been forced to systematize every design decision in order to simplify the process to its full capacity. The results produced a nice surprise: the combination of a number of extremely simple spaces offered an extremely rich spatial experience. -- ArchDaily

Source: Torben Petersen archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Summerhouse, Zealand, Denmark, 2012 designed by JVA

The project is an assembly of five small buildings gathered around a wind shielded courtyard like a miniature village. the layout is well known in this area, often used for organising traditional farm buildings. -- ArchDaily

Source: Eiji Tomita archdaily.com

Diagram, Source: archdaily.com

House of Awa-cho, Awa, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, 2013 designed by Container Design

....combining square units in a radial direction, with an interior courtyard. The units are connected interiorly, thus providing some privacy. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adrià Goula archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

GG Bioclimatic House, Santa Maria de Palautordera, Barcelona, Spain, 2013 designed by Alventosa Morell Arquitectes

....6 modules that adapt autonomously to the site respecting and framing the existing trees. The interstitial space that joins them transforms based on comfort and the use of its inhabitants, becoming a solar collector during the winter with a greenhouse effect, and a covered outdoor terrace linked to the garden during summer. -- ArchDaily

Source: Radek Wojnar archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Podkowa House, Warsaw, Poland, 2013 designed by Jakub Szczęsny + Ryszard Szczęsny

....the house had to respond to it’s primary condition of need to maintain maximum of existing trees, which could be obtained only through fitting structure’s shape into the trees. -- ArchDaily

Source: Henning Köpke München archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Familienzentrum im Steinpark Kindergarten, Freising, Germany, 2013 designed by nbundm

....the idea behind the design of putting the various rooms in separate buildings, creating a kind of “children’s village”, led to the star-shaped design of the facility, and to the placement of the different age-groups into individual and structurally separated buildings. Each unit – crèche, kindergarten, day-care centre, utility and staff – is given its own building. They are connected with each other by means of a central all-purpose hall, which we called the “Piazza”, and which is the heart of the child-care facility. -- ArchDaily

Source: Hiroyuki Oki archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Son La Restaurant, Son La, Son La, Vietnam, 2014 designed by Vo Trong Nghia Architects

....the building is composed by 8 separate stone buildings and a open air bamboo dining hall to supply both contained air-conditioned rooms and comfortable exterior dining. The stone buildings provide multiple entrances to the dining hall and multiple framed views out from the external dining area. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adam Mørk archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

City in the City, 211 18 Malmö, Sweden, 2015 designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

The different functions of the building are organised as separate elements to resemble a small city. The lobby becomes the street, which runs through the entire ground floor and ties everything together. Like medieval cities, which had curved, narrow streets organised around plazas and squares, the lobby is designed to form small gathering places and recesses where visitors can stop, sit and enjoy the view of the canal and the park. -- ArchDaily

Source: archrecord.construction.com

Plan, Source: archrecord.construction.com

Facebook Building 20 , Menlo Park, California, USA, 2015 designed by Gehry Partners

“We created a little city under the roof—we practiced indoor urbanism.”

This “city” is designed without a regular office grid, giving it an ad-hoc, organic quality. A meandering path runs down each side of the building, with several cross-streets.  -- Architectural Record

Source: Niels Nygaard archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

VIA University College , Aarhus, Denmark, 2015 designed by Arkitema Architects

The structure of VIA Campus is created based on the existing buildings in the town; like “a city within the city”, that actively integrates the urban space and the nature of the valley in Aarhus. Four organizing key elements establish the backbone of VIA Campus C - Knowledge Square, Learning Street, Culture House and the Learning Clusters. -- ArchDaily