Burj Dubai Tower, Dubai United Arab Emigrates

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The Burj Dubai will be the tallest building in the world when it opens in January 4th 2009. This tower designed by SOM in Chicago (also did the Sears Tower) is 2,640 feet, half a mile tall.

Its grand opening ironically comes as the great Dubai bubble bursts, including Dubai World's $60 billion debt. The extravagence climaxed with this grand ediface, but the future doesn't look pretty.

I recently talked with SOM representatives about Burj Dubai, who hailed the design as their new great achievment, with a design similar to the Sears Tower. Vertical structures rise up like sticks bound together with a band. But more significantly for SOM, it represents a more international approach.

Video- Opening ceremony
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Les Choux Créteil, Val-de-Marne France

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Gerard Grandval designed these ten cauliflower-shaped residential towers, completed in 1974. Each rises 15 floors. Western nations were experimenting with new social solutions to mass housing needs during this time in history.

The round shape of the concrete structure maximizes external area to floor space, and personal balconies for each unit take advantage of the soaring height.
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National Museum of Australia, Canberra Australia

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The National Museum of Australia was built in the Acton suburb of Australia's Acton Peninsula. Architect Howard Raggatt threw together many various elements in a messy display of "puzzling confluence." It is a "tangled vision" of Australia's history. It opened in 2001.

The zigzag pattern of the main building was apparently copied from Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin. In post-modernist fashion, the unapologetic architect establishes a modern museum by copying forms without sensitivity for the new environment.

Braille words on the exterior's anodised aluminium panels have also stirred up controversy, with speculation about their meaning and some of them being covered over.

Video: Inside , Outside
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GSW Headquarters, Berlin Germany

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Sauerbruch Hutton designed the 1999 extension and renovation of the GSW headquarters complex in Berlin. The original high rise is remembered as one of the great rebuilding projects after World War 2. The new GSW tower brings a gentle curve and colorful flavor into the downtown.

Circulation through the urban corridor easily introduces the visitor to a program of different scales. The building elements tie together the city scale with the pedestrian and individual visitor. Sauerbruch employed the Natural Colour Theory for this project.

Sauerbruch's modern environmental systems use passive means that use less energy and are healthier. Louvre systems and a double-skin facade effectively shape sunlight usage and add interesting complexity to the outside appearance.

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Oscar Niemeyer: 'Turning 102 is crap'

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Pabellón de Aragón, Expo Zaragoza 2008 Spain

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The 2008 Zargoza Expo promoted a relationship between humans and water with sustainable developments.

The "Flag of Aragon" is formed from 9 monumental vertical cores. Levels of interstitial space stack around them. The courtyards formed from these overlapping spaces take on different natural-looking forms. It is inspired by the natural wonders that are eroded and shaped by the flowing river.

An exterior envelope is woven from glazing and walls, a rippling form that reminds the visitor of water. Large plastic fruit on top of the building represents the results of a good water supply. Architect Laurent Godel contributed to the expo.

Video (Spanish)
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Lisbon Oceanarium, Lisbon Portugal

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Peter Chermayeff with Cambridge Seven Associates designed the Oceanário Lisboa in Lisbon Portugal, completed in 1996. It was featured in the 1998 Expo, on the Parque das Nações grounds.

The museum dedicated to the ocean resembles Chermayeff's other key work, the Osaka Oceanarium. The center is filled with a 5,000 m3 tank with windows all around. A large variety of species are placed inside, and four exhibits of different habitats surround it.

Video Playlist inside and outside
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Queen's Square, Yokohama Japan

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The Queen's Square Yokohama opened in 1996, on the edge of the water. The Landmark Plaza and Pacifico Yokohama diverge from a long, skylit hall. It has 500,000 sq.m of shopping and venues, including the Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall and Pan-Pacific Hotel.

The Queens Towers loom above the mall. An exciting curving metal sculpture sits in front. The annual Christmas tree is an exciting event.

Video: Christmas tree , Landmark tower plaza
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Copenhagen Concert Hall, Ørestad Copenhagen

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Jean Nouvel designed the Koncerthuset Copenhagen, completed in January 2009. At $300 million it is one of the most expensive concert halls ever built.

The giant blue box of transparent screens encloses a complex series of volumes. Nouvel said of his project (via wikipedia):

"I propose to materialize the context by creating an exceptional urban building respecting the planned layout of the site. It will be a volume, a mysterious parallelepiped that changes under the light of day and night whose interior can only be guessed at. At night the volume will come alive with images, colors, and lights expressing the life going on inside".

The interior is a world in itself, complex and diversified. An interior street lined with shops follows the path of the urban canal; a restaurant and bar spill into it. The restaurant is dominated by a covered square, a large empty volume beneath the wooden “scales” cladding the concert hall above. It is a world of contrasts and surprises, a labyrinth, an interior landscape. On one side, the world of musicians, with courtyards and exterior terraces, and vegetation. On the other, Piranesian public spaces link together the different performance halls, the restaurant, and the street. The abstract is invaded by the figurative; the permanent is complemented by the ephemeral. The facades are diaphanous filters permitting views of the city, the canal, and the neighboring architecture. At night these facades become screens for projecting images. The architecture asserts itself through details - doors, lighting, ceilings, and staircases - a testimony of respect for the buildings' visitors, concertgoers, and artists. Each room becomes a discovery, each detail an invention, lessons learned from Theodor Lauritzen and Hans Sharoun whose certain kind of architecture should never be forgotten, and to whom this project is a discrete homage. Architecture is like music; it is made to move and delight us".

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