The ideals are familiar to any architect working in a big city: a project should be well designed, well built, and well integrated into its urban environment. And yet we have too few U.S. examples to follow when it comes to applying these principles to housing for the poor.
The new I. Donald Terner Prize was established to acknowledge exemplary models of affordable urban housing. It was named for a housing activist who lost his life ten years ago during a humanitarian mission to Bosnia. The prize commemorates his death and rewards projects that fulfill his ideals.
In the first round of the Terner Prize, top honors have gone to "8NW8," a 12-story building located in the historic Pearl District of Portland, designed by SERA Architects, Inc. It provides 180 units of affordable, drug- and alcohol-free housing.
Nearly 700 formerly homeless residents have lived in the building since it opened in 2004, relying on the inspirational environment, on-site addiction services, and supportive community of peers to positively transform their lives. >>>
The 2007 Terner Prize for affordable housing went to 8NW8, in Portland, Oregon, by SERA Architects, Inc. Photo: Michael Mathers
Entry to 8NW8. Photo: Michael Mathers
Importantly, the 8NW8 building has also helped transform Portland's downtown, linking neighborhoods fractured by an arterial road and increasing socioeconomic diversity. It demonstrates to developers positive alternatives to "gentrification."
In addition to 8NW8, the Terner Prize jury announced five finalists, in California and New York, and eight semifinalists throughout the United States. Though substantially different in design, each project demonstrates Terner's ideals of combining affordability with good design and urban integration.
Housing the Homeless
Richard Harris is executive director of Central City Concern, the nonprofit organization that owns 8NW8 and works to provide pathways to self-sufficiency through active intervention in poverty and homelessness. The building project also involved collaboration with Downtown Community Housing, Portland City Council, and the Portland Development Commission.
Harris says: "SERA Architects designed this beautiful building and that's what people see on the outside, but the real beauty is inside. I can't list all the amazing ways people find healing at 8NW8 every day, recover, and rebuild their lives and how a spirit of respect grows and extends out into the neighborhood and the Portland community."
The 81,000-square-foot (7,500-square-meter) building includes 120 single-room occupancy units on six floors, with supportive services and case management. On the top four floors are 60 studio units for longer-term, special-needs residents. The bottom two floors house a health clinic, meeting rooms, and community facilities.
Residential units are in the wings of the L-shaped structure; the corners include common areas and balconies overlooking a park at each floor level. The two-story base is wrapped in a curvilinear glass wall to reinforce connections between the building's public function, the street, and the park. High above, the roof line mirrors the undulating glass facade. The building is clad in sandstone-colored brick, echoing the surrounding structures.
Construction quality was a high priority, and 8NW8 was built with durable materials to minimize upkeep costs and to extend the building's expected lifespan to 100 years.
The project was supported by city and county governments because it enhances broader livability and urban renewal activities and directly supports Portland's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. The project benefits the local economy because residents are able to stabilize and become self-sufficient, rejoining the social and economic mainstream. The urban environment has benefited as well: 8NW8 is high-density infill, building on existing infrastructure, and rehabilitating a previously degraded industrial site.
Five Finalists
Other projects were also cited as role models for introducing plentiful, attractive, affordable housing. Tierra del Sol, run by the group New Economics for Women, sits on a five-acre (2-hectare) tract in Canoga Park, California. The project consists of 119 one- to five-bedroom rental apartments for single-parent, low-income households plus a charter elementary school with a full-size gymnasium.
The historic Burnham Building, in Irvington, New York, a wood frame and masonry structure built as a boiler factory in 1881, was adapted by Stephen Tilly Architects for the Affordable Housing Development Corporation ?a subsidiary of the Jonathan Rose Companies ?for use as a public library and 22 rental apartments for low-income working families and retirees.
In San Francisco, the Mission Creek Community was designed by Hardison Komatsu Ivelich & Tucker and Santos Prescott and Associates for Mercy Housing California. The architects created a new neighborhood on the site of a former rail yard to provide supportive housing for frail, low-income seniors, including many with HIV/AIDS. The project also includes a new public library, an adult day health center, retail space, public meeting rooms, and office space for nonprofit groups. >>>
SOM’s tower in Guangzhou, China, aims to generate more energy than it uses.
Talking about the sustainability strategy behind Pearl River Tower “is like pulling on a thread—everything is connected in some way,” says Gordon Gill, the project’s lead architect at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Scheduled for completion in fall 2009, in Guangzhou, China, the project aims remarkably high: the first zero-energy supertall building in the world. “We definitely sought to utilize proven technologies; what’s unique is that we’re assembling them symbiotically and gaining from the interrelationships. That’s the beautiful thing about the project really.” Just as critical is the design’s relationship to the surrounding site landscape. As Roger Frechette, SOM’s director of MEP engineering, remarks, “We’ve knit these technologies together to take advantage of this specific location too. If the building was even across the street, it would look different.”
The brief didn’t require a zero-energy structure. However, the client’s long-term commitment to the building—CNTC Guangdong Tobacco Company will house its headquarters there—as well as aggressive sustainability incentives by China’s Ministry of Construction gave SOM a real opportunity for a breakthrough. Pearl River Tower will draw on its riverside location in humid sun-rich Guangzhou, a port city of ten million 100 miles from Hong Kong. The tower will harvest wind, humidity, and solar power from the environment and use it to maximum efficiency through myriad interwoven systems. “The three big ideas are really the combination of the external wall, the underfloor radiant system, and the ventilation,” Frechette says. His partner Rob Bolin, associate director of sustainable engineering, estimates that these three interconnected systems will reduce typical energy consumption by about 40 percent—and that’s just for starters. Metropolis traces the thread of these technologies as they interact.
Global real estate major Emaar Properties marked a milestone in its historic quest to build the world's tallest tower as the AED 3.673 billion (US$1 billion) Burj Dubai scaled 50 levels today.
United Arab Emirates: Tuesday, June 20 - 2006
This remarkable feat in the construction of Emaar's iconic super tower at the Burj Dubai Downtown development was accomplished in less than 900 days since excavation work started in January, 2004. Work is on course for a 2008 completion with one new level added every four days.
'This is a significant moment for us,' said Mr Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties.
'We are witnessing 'History Rising' - on schedule. With the world's eyes on Burj Dubai, this is a moment of pride not only for Emaar but also for Dubai. The super tall tower, now at level 50 and going strong, is a symbol of Dubai's aspirations and capabilities.'
Designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Burj Dubai is being constructed by high-rise construction experts South Korea's Samsung Corporation, and Turner Construction International is the project and construction manager.
Over 3,000 workers are currently working on the Burj Dubai. More than 160,000m³ of high-quality concrete and 25,000 metric tons of steel rebar have so far been used in the construction. Specially developed concrete pumps are employed to generate 350 bars of pressure and pump to a height of 600 metres.
Eleven cranes and the world's fastest high-capacity construction hoists - with a speed of up to 2 m/sec (120 m/min) - are used to move men and material to the lofty heights.
Burj Dubai is a pioneering example of entrepreneurial vision, architectural capabilities and engineering prowess meeting to create a towering international landmark.
'Burj Dubai is more than a tower; it is a global statement that will put Dubai firmly in the minds of the rest of the world. The tower boosts civic pride by creating an unparalleled landmark that demonstrates the capability of the UAE people to implement any project regardless of its size or challenges,' added Alabbar.
Blending retail, commercial and residential spaces, the Burj Dubai derives design inspiration from a desert flower and features architectural elements that celebrate the Islamic heritage of the region.
The fast-track construction employs modern building techniques including the use of self-climbing formwork for walls and prefabricated rebar cages. The tower has a base floor plate of 33,000 sq. ft., which tapers as the structure rises skywards.
Burj Dubai will feature the exclusive Armani Hotel designed by Giorgio Armani, luxurious corporate suites and offices, serviced residential suites, apartments, four swimming pools, restaurants, exclusive resident's lounge's, 15,000 sq. ft. of fitness facilities, recreational and entertainment facilities and an observatory, planned for the 124th level, offering spectacular views of the city and the Arabian sea.
Safety and security features - against high wind velocities, soaring summer temperatures, seismic disturbances, fire and other threats - have been incorporated into the design of Burj Dubai. 'The project capitalizes on the latest advances in wind engineering, structural engineering, structural systems, construction equipment, materials and methods,' said Greg Sang, Assistant Director - Projects, Emaar Properties.
Burj Dubai is part of Emaar's 500-acre mixed use AED 73 billion (US$20 billion) Burj Dubai Downtown development which combines commercial, residential, hotel, entertainment, shopping and leisure outlets, with open green spaces dotted with lakes and water features.
Ongoing projects within Burj Dubai Downtown include The Old Town and Old Town Island, The Dubai Mall, Burj Dubai Business Hub, The Lofts, Burj Views, South Ridge, Burj Dubai Boulevard, The Residences and 8 Boulevard Walk.
Not Innovative? SOM’s Skyscraper Projects in China Tell A Different Story
June 15, 2006
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), architect of New York’s 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, is known perhaps more than any other firm for its skyscraper designs. Structures like the Sears Tower in Chicago and Lever House in New York helped establish the U.S. as the world’s leading tall-building innovator during the latter half of the 20th century. But, as critic Nicolai Ouroussoff recently pointed out in the New York Times, the firm’s recent domestic tall building work has been more formulaic. What he didn’t mention was that the firm is still putting together groundbreaking work in China, which has become a laboratory of sorts for the firm’s experimental skyscraper design work.
The company has over 50 buildings and planning projects in China, and more than 15 of them are skyscrapers. Most utilize the firm’s own engineering. Firm partner Tom Kerwin says that Chinese clients are much more willing to embark on experimental work than their counterparts in the U.S., who are often hesitant to take commercial risks, security risks, or to upset neighbors or trade unions.
“There’s a commitment to upgrading the quality of life in China,” says Kerwin. They take real pride in pushing the envelope.” Lack of public dissent, cheaper building materials, a demand for urban density and green buildings, and an intense desire for international recognition also encourages such work.
The firm’s most recent commission is the 1,000-foot-tall Pearl River Tower in Guanzhou, for the Guangdong Tobacco Company, which SOM says will be one of the greenest buildings in the world. The project’s green elements include a water-retention area; basement fuel cells, which produce electricity by extracting hydrogen from natural gas; façade-integrated photovoltaics; a condensate reclamation system that collects water and reuses it; and stack ventilation, which captures and uses heat caught between the building’s double-layer facade. The building’s curved shapes form two apertures where air is directed into wind turbines.
Here are some of SOM’s other towers in China. Most are scheduled to be completed by 2007.
The 1,050-foot-tall Nanjing Jinling Hotel, which also features offices and apartments, is sited in the heart of Nanjing's commercial center. The building's skin forms a diagonal grid that functions like a twisting tube. It looks a lot like one of the firm’s original designs for the Freedom Tower. Construction should wrap up in 2008.
The 760-foot-tall Jinao Tower, an office and hotel complex in Nanjing, will feature a glass facade that alternately folds inward and outward, articulating a sense of movement. Like New York’s new Hearst Tower, it is built around a diagonal grid bracing system, an efficient support for lateral load that uses less steel than the typical skyscraper. The building’s double-skinned surface will provide solar shading and create an insulating- climate chamber to reduce temperatures inside the building.
Nanjing Greenland, a complex of three steel-frame, concrete-core glass towers. The tallest building, at least 985 feet tall, will include a faceted glass surface imbedded with irregularly-spaced slots for green space that “march vertically up the facade,” according to Kerwin. The other towers, about 100 meters tall, will include roof gardens and a sunken green square.
The 990-foot China World Trade Center, in Beijing, will be the centerpiece of Beijing’s developing business district. The glass-and-steel tower very gradually steps back as it rises, looking a bit like a giant square telescope. Its facade is layered with a series of faceted vertical glass-and-metal fins, creating a texture that the firm says will look somewhat like a waterfall.
The 920-foot Zhengdong Hotel, in Zhengdong is inspired by the proportions of a Chinese pagoda. The building appears to be quite elegant, separated into distinct sections, and curving outward in a concave fashion on each face from the center. The cylindrical central atrium reaches almost to the top of the building, creating a dizzying, spiral-like spectacle when one looks skyward. A heliostat,, which tracks the sun to bring reflect additional daylight into the atrium, sits at the top of the tower.
Poly International Plaza, in Guangzhou features a glass curtain wall, and is built with metal cross-bracing, allowing for column-free space for office floors, and to let light into enter all areas of the building. A large opening halfway up the building helps reduce wind loads, and also serves as a huge, open outdoor terrace.
Meanwhile, progress on the Freedom Tower has languished due to political and legal squabbles, and its original design was compromised due to security concerns. Perhaps it’s a symbol of America’s lack of innovation, even complacency? “There are some places in the world’ they have this optimism and can do attitude. Sometimes I wonder if we’ve lost that,” says SOM engineer Bill Baker. The Empire State Building, by contrast, was built in 18 months.
1995年馬達思班建築師事務所正式在紐約註冊成立並開始拓展中國市場,其後五年間先後在深圳、上海、寧波、廣州、長沙、貴陽、北京等城市以各種形式參與設計業務。2000年馬達思班建築師事務所正式在北京、上海成立中國設計事務所,它旨在以精湛的專業技術為業主提供高標準的服務,與此同時以優秀的作品強化我們的建築環境。經過努力,馬達思班建築師事務所的工作得到了世界的認可:2002年寧波的"浙江大學寧波校區圖書館"項目設計方案入選意大利威尼斯雙年展,成為中國僅有的兩家參展單位中的一家, 並是首次以公用建築入選此展。2003年6月參加在法國巴黎蓬皮杜藝術中心(Pompidou Center)舉行的2003/2004中國文化年Alors, La Chine;2003年10月入選英國Phaidon出版社編輯的世界1000幢最有影響力的優秀建築專集;2003年12月入選美國設計雜誌《建築實錄》世界十?quot;設計先鋒"建築事務所之一;2003年12月刊登於日本A+U《Father's House in Jade Mountain(玉山石柴)》;2004年2月德國柏林在Aedes建築畫廊舉辦馬達思班建築作品個展。
Second International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design
25-27 April, 2006 - School of Architecture and Design, American University of Sharjah, UAE
Conference Theme:
The theme of the 2006 conference is “Computing in Architectural Design: Re-Thinking the Discourse”. This captures the role of the conference as a forum to debate and reconsider current understandings of digital design. The conference aims to provide the participants an occasion to share and exchange experiences and research findings, and to stimulate more ideas and useful insights regarding newly introduced developments in design computing and their impact on architectural design education and practice.
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Going by KieranTimberlake's experience with Revit, it seems that BIM's object-based approach is a natural fit for the modular approach for prefabricated architecture, and should make it a lot easier to construct custom prefabricated buildings that don't have the "cookie-cutter" uniformity and monotony which have given prefabrication a bad reputation in the past.