Five rings of health
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Green Health City is an ecologically sustainable development designed by Peter Ruge Architekten to support and promote the condition of physical and emotional human health. Situated in China’s Hainan Province in Boao Lecheng on the Wanquan River, five island districts bring together world-class medical facilities, employ new strategies for green energy production and rethink transportation networking to achieve a sustainable urban prototype. A system of design is guided by concepts related to; 5 Elements - City of Creation; 5 Organs - City of Health; 5 Senses - City of Communication; 5 Islands - City of Relaxation; and 5 Rings - City of Individual Transport. Balance between these cycles and systems are applied to create a harmonious planning arrangement, promoting positive energy flow within each of the island districts and throughout the development as a whole. industry buzz-word that it is today. That award, which the AIA gave to the Menil Collection by Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA, recognizes the impact that the building has had on museum design everywhere. Yet if that building helped to spark Piano’s career, it also gave a serious boost to sustainable design, since Piano has worked at a highly visible level to promote the role of sustainability in design. Praised by the jury as being “a monument to 20th century architecture that still resonates today,” the Menil, which opened in 1987, marks Piano’s first-ever U.S. project. The $25 million gray-stained cypress and white-painted-steel Houston museum is laid out with the majority of the galleries and public spaces to the north of a 320-foot-long corridor, which provides a central circulation spine. The galleries were designed to allow the institution to easily rotate the display, ensuring that as many of the more than 10,000 works in the collection as possible can spend time on display. The Menil was also one of Piano’s first explorations into maximizing indirect natural daylight in museum spaces, a technique that the AIA jury called “innovative” and noted has been “applied to other building typologies and evolved in Piano’s ongoing work.” Internal courtyards and gardens allow light to penetrate the space, and a system of curved concrete panels, which the architects termed “leaves,” over the glazed roof regulate light into the gallery spaces. These louvers extend past the building envelope to form a sheltered colonnade that shades exterior windows as well. This exploration of natural light has, of course, became a mainstay of Piano’s museum design in the United States and abroad. AIA IN THE TRADITION OF TEMPLE CONSTRUCTION Niall McLaughlin Architects just unveiled the gorgeous Bishop Edward King Chapel, which features a stone facade and sweeping interior archways made from sustainable timber. Located outside of Oxford, England, the elegant chapel is capped with a timber roof and it blends harmoniously with the surrounding architecture and forested landscape. Niall McLaughlin Architects used sand-colored stone to create the crisscrossing pattern on the facade of the Bishop Edward King Chapel. The facade emulates the hue of the trees surrounding the property and coincides with the historic limestone featured in other buildings on the campus. The chapel is mostly day-lit thanks to a row of windows that span the wooden roof enclosure, and the perimeter of the chapel is shaped like an ellipse. Timber dominates the interior of the church – particularly in the form of beautiful arches that stretch to the ceiling, drawing a comparison with the trees outside. The tree-like arches delineate an ambulatory in the middle of the chapel with a latticework of wood, creating an intimate space around the altar in the center. The columns, which break off into three branches each, cast shadows throughout the day as daylight filters in from the elevated windows. Niall McLaughlin Architects’ design was chosen in a RIBA competition to design a new chapel for the site.Niall McLaughlin Architects THE STORY BOX Samoo Architects & Engineers has won the design competition for Seoul Recycle Plaza with the design concept of ‘Story Box’, which aims to promote recycling of goods and the creation of a hub for gathering, processing, and re-marketing of recycled goods. Located in the heart of Seoul, the Seoul Recycle Plaza is designed as a 5-storey 16,449 sq m complex facility that combines manufacture, exhibition, education, and resale. The facility allows visitors to experience the entire process of recycling in a functional and exciting atmosphere that encourages participation. With the majority of facilities facing south towards the adjacent park, natural lighting is maximized with splendid open views. Instead of functional zoning separated by levels, similar programs are grouped into clusters for maximum efficiency and also to create a unique circulation path that encompasses both inside and outside of facilities. Voids and outdoor areas located throughout the clusters promote curiosity and diversity in spatial experiences while providing resting areas. Various kinds of reused materials have been applied on the exterior of the building to symbolise the new paradigm in recycling. Designed as a landmark hub for citizens, the Seoul Recycle Plaza is scheduled to begin construction by December with a target opening year of 2015. SAMOO TANK OR ECO-VILLA? The need for buildings is increasing in Bodrum, Turkey as the city’s population, urbanization and industrialization are all growing rapidly. As a result, opportunities have emerged within the building sector where particular attention to design approaches and materials used during construction has been made to minimize pressure on the local environment. International architectural studio A++ has been called to intervene by the Turkish Government by creating a new study into designing a new format of housing. Sustainable urban design that prioritizes natural land use and planning strategies minimizes energy consumption and reduces building footprints. 70% renewable energy production facilitated through the use of wind turbines, bio gas, photovoltaic cells, hydraulic systems and smart grid energy saving devices for the storing and distribution of power, will service this 100% CO2 neutral development. Environments that promote health include a combination of facilities that treat illness and assist well-being through a five star process involving diagnosis, cure, rehabilitation, rejuvenation, and prevention. Check-up programmes with a special focus on geriatric care management and faculty’s specific to the development and application of stem cell research form the nucleus of the development complex. Direct access to electro bus, e-car, bicycle hire services and a general circuit elevated magnetic railway network that use zero emission rechargeable battery operated power offers a variety of flexible and sustainable transportation options. All private and fossil fuelled vehicles will remain outside the development complex, and a fully integrated transportation system provided.
PETER RUGE ARCHITEKTEN