Hotel Unique, Sao Paulo Brazil

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Ruy Ohtake designed the five star Hotel Unique in São Paulo, built in 2003. The post-modern building makes quite a statement in the heart of the city, leading many locals to despise its loudness.

The $40 million hotel's appearance bedazzles the visitor, however, as dark glass curles underneath a fruit-shaped slice of green copper siding with port windows. The looming entrance leads to a 300-bottle bar with a library full of architecture books. The rooftop bar on the zenith of the building is the real treat, however, with sweeping views of a beautiful urban skyline.

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Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine, Kyoto Japan

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Fushimi Inari Taisha, the main shrine of Inari, including various torii footpaths through hundreds of sacred red gates, establishing quite a procession to the temple. Each torii has been donated by a worshiper of the god of business.

The first shrine was placed here in 816, and the main building was constructed in 1499. Bronze statues of foxes guard the sacred place, with keys in their mouths.

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National Museum Of Art Osaka, Nakanoshima Japan

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Cesar Pelli & Associates with structural engineers Tomoki Hashimoto and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries designed the National Museum Of Art NMAO in Osaka.

As the museum moved to its downtown location in 2004, space restrictions required that all but the lobby be placed underground in a water-tight container, and only the lobby manifest the museum to the city.

This contemporary lobby rises from the ground as an organic skeleton, catching light and wind and tunneling them underground. Circulation, museum functionality, and air circulation were a particular problem in this underground container.

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Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz de Tenerife Canary Islands Spain

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The Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (TEA) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Canary Islands Spain contains the Óscar Domínguez, the city library, and the island's Photographic Center. This project stands as one of Herzog & de Meuron's most impressive projects. It opened in 2008.

The interiors use repetitive shapes, such as eye-drop lights and blocky little windows, to insert dynamism into the spacial character. Horizontal ribbons of glazing unites all this in a direction that points to the historic and modern ends of the city.

The light is treated as warm or cool in coordination with materials, such as cool concrete or warm wood flooring. Movement, material, and light unite.

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Faculty Of Economics & Business Admin, Gent University

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Xaveer de Geyter (XCG) designed the Faculty Of Economics & Business Administration Building for the University of Ghent in Gent, Belgium. It opened in 2006. A minimalist and practical approach led to a peaceful, yet interesting design.

As part of a masterplan for the area around St. Peter's church, the building interacts with a historical pedestrian route. Public and private spaces are augmented by tectonic shifts in structure for the building's functional needs. The multi-layed look is derived from variation in circulation outside and inside.

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Tube Pathway, Anyang Public Art Project Korea

Here's another piece at the APAP, a pathway with circular glazing around it. Through the walls of this tunnel, one can see on the left an interesting floor-work of wavy tile.

The Anyang Public Art Project in South Korea was created in 2005 in order to improve the quality of civil life.

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Egg-crate House, Anyang Public Art Project Korea

In order to improve the quality of civil life, the Anyang Public Art Project in South Korea was created in 2005.

This exhibit uses egg crates to form a home, with interesting light and air penetration.

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WoZoCo Housing, Ookmeerweg Amsterdam

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When city ordinances restrict your building design so that it seems impossible to satisfy the occupancy requirements on such a small site, what do you do? Just cantilever over the required parking spaces, and while you are at it change up the materials and colored glass to really make it look funky.

That's what MRDV did in this 1997 housing complex for the elderly. The surrounding city context determined the size and shape of the cantilevered units, which simply inverted the building's juxtoposed metal/glazing and wood siding exterior. The south side's units assume their own character through size and shape of windows, smaller but more prevalent.

This famous design gives a much more green and open image to the Netherlands through practical, creative solutions.

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Rietlanden Towers, Havengebied Amsterdam

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In the eastern port of Amsterdam Netherlands, the Panamaknoop residential area offers trains, trams, and other transportation among five apartment towers. Designed by Venhoeven CS, the complex opened in 2001.

Gardens and recreation areas separate the towers, and terraces introduce the occupants to the outdoors. Each slick aluminum structure has a different characteristic, with small protrusions and swaths of glazing.

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Jon M. Huntsman Hall, University of Pennsylvania

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Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates designed the Huntsman Hall at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The visitor gazes up at the skylights that shine like sunrays through the clouds, an impressive use of material and daylight.

The $140 million building contains 48 classrooms, 57 study rooms, a presentation Colloquium, a 300-seat auditorium, and a large forum for special events. The building opened in 2002.

KPF is well acquainted with educational facilities, have designed remarkable projects at Oxford, Stanford, and UCLA.

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Also at University of Pennsylvania: Levine Hall




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Raffles Hotel, Wafi City Dubai

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The five-star Raffles Hotel in Dubai was designed by Bryn Lummus, Arif & Bin Toak, and LW Design.

In Las Vegas fashion, it is a luxurious take on ancient Egypt, with a pyramid shape and Egyptian iconography throughout. It incorporates 129,000 plants in the complex, part of Dubai's signature attempt to conquer the desert.

The hotel opened in 2007, with 19 levels that include 248 suites, 11 restaurants and bars, 11 meeting spaces.

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Colegio Altamira, Santiago Chile

Mathias Klotz Arquitectos designed the Altamira College in the Andes foothills in Santiago, which was completed in 2000.

The classrooms and facilities surround a sloping central courtyard. Oddly-shaped openable windows give an interesting appearance to the aluminum walls of the slick rectangular buildings. Colorful squares and layers of glazing engage the student inside.

An exciting space is generated in the city. Klotz quotes Arrnando Uribe: "because there is no space, search for it."

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Salt Lake City Public Library, Utah USA

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Moshe Safdie and Associates designed the Salt Lake City Library, which opened in 2003. A crescent ramp wraps around the front plaza and reaches the sweeping roof garden above. The reading Urban room in-between the bulk of the library and the ramp, as well as the green rooftop, are spaces full of daylight and full of magnificent views of the downtown and Wasach Mountains. The in-between space is also a thermal stack.

The rational facades and minimal material give a corporate look to this building, but they serve the various functions, public to intimate, in a very natural and engaging way.

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The Triangle Shopping Centre, Manchester UK

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The heart of downtown Manchester is the 1897 building that was once known as the 'Corn Exchange.' It was abandoned in 1996 after the IRA bombed it, which provided an opportunity for a new clean start on a historic site (grade 2 listed building in the UK).

The Triangle opened in 2000, designed by RTKL. Glass, steel, and limestone come together in the interior, where shops surround a large glass atrium in a triangular shape. The Cafe Nero stands there as a reminder that this is a contemporary shopping center.

The last image here, of the glazed tunnel connecting the Marks & Spencer and Selfridges stores, isn't part of this project but is found just down the street.

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Arcosanti, Mayer Arizona USA

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It looks like it came straight out of a eighties post-apocolyptic film. Italian architect Paolo Soleri developed Arcosanti as an ecological design, with complex organic forms that integrate multiple systems of structure, circulation, and so forth.

The experimental urban town lies 70 miles north north of Phoenix and will house 5,000 people. Natural heating/cooling and solar strategies lesson the environmental impact, and the urban structures are compact, allowing the natural countryside to sprawl.

Begun in the 1970's, only 5% of the dwelling is complete and less than 100 people reside there.

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