Keret House by Jakub Szczesny / Centrala

Polish architect Jakub Szczesny (Centrala) has designed an extremely narrow — but still liveable — house in Warsaw, Poland. Located in an alleyway between two buildings, the house will have ladders instead of stairs to walk up and down its four floors.

The house upon completion shall become the narrowest house in Warsaw, measuring an interior that will vary between 122 centimeters and 72 centimeters in its narrowest spot.

Mr. Szczesny built the house for Israeli writer, Etgar Keret, the symbolic patron of the project. Although Mr. Keret is Israeli, his parents met in Warsaw, which is why Mr. Szczesny wanted to build the house there.

Mr Keret will receive a key to the house and move in for the month of February, before deciding who will occupy the house next. The house will be completed by February 2012 and includes a kitchen, a bedroom, a lounge and a bathroom.

Architects: Centrala

Location: Wola, Poland

Designer: Jakub Szczęsny

Project Area: 14,5 sqm

Project Year: December 2011

Project Curators: Sarmen Beglarian, Sylwia Szymaniak

Project Announcement: Wola Art Festival “CityProjectWola“

Organizers: Modern Polish Art Foundation, President Piotr Nowicki, Wola District Office of the Capital City of Warsaw; Coordinator Anna Fiszer-Nowacka; Gmina Wyznaniowa Żydowska w Warszawie, Coordinator Judyta Nekanda-Trepka

Found Here: http://www.sinbadesign.com/architecture/keret-house-by-jakub-szczesny-centrala/

Flying Planes Skyscraper in Paris by Kevin Hemeryck

The city of Paris is recognized worldwide for its beauty, architecture, and urban planning. Unfortunately the lack of green areas has been a constant problem for decades. The Flying Planame (paname refers to Paris in French slang) is an utopist project that proposes multiple layers of green planes throughout the city. The main concept is to maximize the outdoors areas while making use of the structure for commerce and housing. Similar to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the rice growing terraces of Yunnan, China, this project proposes equilibrium between the natural and built environments.

Found Here: http://www.evolo.us/architecture/flying-planes-skyscraper-in-paris/

Mexico City Earthscraper by Bunker BNKR

The Earthscraper, designed by BNKR Arquitectura, is the Skyscraper’s antagonist in the historic urban landscape of Mexico City where the latter is condemned and the preservation of the built environment is the paramount ambition. It preserves the iconic presence of the city square and the existing hierarchy of the buildings that surround it. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Historic Center of Mexico City is composed of different layers of cities superimposed on top of each other. When the Aztecs first came into the Valley of Mexico they built their pyramids on the lake they found there. When a new and bigger pyramid was conceived and the Aztec Empire grew in size and power, they did not search for a new site, they just built on it and around the existing one. In this manner, the pyramids are composed of different layers of historical periods.

When the Spanish arrived in America and ultimately conquered the Aztecs, they erected their Christian temples atop their pyramids. Eventually their whole colonial city was built on top of the Aztec one. In the 20th century, many colonial buildings were demolished and modern structures raised on the existing historic foundations. So in a way, Mexico City is like a massive layered cake: a modern metropolis built on the foundations of a colonial city that was erected on top of the ancient pyramids that were constructed on the lake.

The main square of Mexico City, known as the “Zocalo”, is 57,600 m2 (240m x 240m), making it one of the largest in the world. It is bordered by the Cathedral, the National Palace and the City Government buildings. A flagpole stands at its center with an enormous Mexican flag ceremoniously raised and lowered each day. This proved as the ideal site for the Earthscraper: an inverted skyscraper that digs down through the layers of cities to uncover our roots.

The design is an inverted pyramid with a central void to allow all habitable spaces to enjoy natural lighting and ventilation. To conserve the numerous activities that take place on the city square year round (concerts, political manifestations, open-air exhibitions, cultural gatherings, military parades.), the massive hole will be covered with a glass floor that allows the life of the Earthscraper to blend with everything happening on top.

Architect: BNKR Arquitectura
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Partners: Esteban Suárez (Founding Partner), Sebastián Suárez
Project Leader: Arief Budiman
Project Team: Arief Budiman, Diego Eumir, Guillermo Bastian, Adrian Aguilar
Collaborators: Jorge Arteaga, Zaida Montañana, Santiago Becerra
Area: 775,000 m2
Status: Competition
Photography: Sebastian Suárez

Found Here: http://www.archdaily.com/156357/the-earthscraper-bnkr-arquitectura/

The Mexico City Earthscraper was inspired by the historic growth and development of the city, with each new layer built on top of another. Rather than a skyscraper, this earthscraper dives 35 stories deep into the earth in order to preserve the top layer of historic buildings in the main plaza, which cannot be altered due to federal law. The central courtyard would be converted to glass, which would filter light down through a central void to bring in natural light and ventilation.

Read more: Green Finalists from the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition Unveiled! 2010 eVolo Finalists - Mexico Earthscraper – Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Sietch Nevada by MATSYS

[Sectional perspective of underground city - click images for larger view]

An underground Venice in the US Southwest? My ninjas, please. This was my second reaction to this project – after my inner sci-fi / dystopian fiction geek and Frank Herbert fan thought, “yeah, this is pretty dope – and I’d probably be down to live there”.

My peculiar willingness to live in a dystopian, water-starved future aside, the Sietch Nevada – designed by MATSYS for “Out of Water: Innovative technologies in arid climates”, exhibited earlier in ’09 at the University of Toronto – attempts to address the very real issue of the future of the increasingly arid American Southwest.

Lured by cheap land and the promise of endless water via the powerful Colorado River, millions have made this area their home. However, the Colorado River has been desiccated by both heavy agricultural use and global warming to the point that it now ends in an intermittent trickle in Baja California. Towns that once relied on the river for water have increasingly begun to create underground water banks for use in emergency drought conditions. However, as droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, these water banks will become more than simply emergency precautions.

…

Inverting the stereotypical Southwest urban patterns of dispersed programs open to the sky, the Sietch is a dense, underground community. A network of storage canals is covered with undulating residential and commercial structures. These canals connect the city with vast aquifers deep underground and provide transportation as well as agricultural irrigation. The caverns brim with dense, urban life: an underground Venice.

[View of the urban life among the water bank canals]

MATSYS has rooted the concept of this proposal, quite seriously, in the world created in the Dune novels. This fictional universe focuses on an arid planet, where the indigenous people live in ‘sietch‘ communities in the desert – conserving, recycling, and worshiping their water. Applying this concept to the American Southwest, MATSYS has created a subterranean city – taking the idea of waterbanking one step further, creating an underground canal system that both provides water to the inhabitants and allows for necessary irrigation of the proposed garden spaces in the center of each of the sietch’s cells.

This cellular structure, in plan, allows for the large underground structures seen in the rendering above – while creating large open spaces that open both to the sky or to the newly-formed cavernous world below. Those cells that open to the desert are terraced to allow for urban agricultural project, while those below open to create large civic spaces for public use – much like any other city.

[Plan above ground (left) and below ground (right)]

The grim idea that we will need to retreat below-ground due to catastrophe aside, the concept of a subterranean metropolis carries fascinating implications. Would this be ‘greener’ than our current development? Could people really live like this, below ground, without being pushed to do so by some kind of devastating disaster?

Pretty sick, I think – no matter how you look at it.

.:Sietch Nevada via-> MATSYS

Found Here: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2530

Sietch – Cave warren inhabited by a Fremen tribal community; in the Fremen language, "Place of assembly in time of danger."^[3]

The ACROS Fukuoka

In Fukuoka City in Japan, they have an amazing building called “ACROS Fukuoka” with two very distinct sides: one side looks like a conventional office building with glass walls, but on the other side there is a huge terraced roof that merges with a park. The garden terraces, which reach up to about 60 meters above the ground, contain some 35,000 plants representing 76 species. A huge semicircular atrium and the triangular lobby provide contrast to the greenery, in this space is a symphony hall, offices and shops.

The building was constructed on the last remaining green space in the city center, so the architects, Emilio Ambasz & Associates, created a design to preserve the green space as much as possible, while still fitting in a large office building. In addition, a green roof reduces the energy consumption of a building, because it keeps the temperature inside more constant and comfortable. Green roofs also capture rainwater runoff, and support the life of insects and birds.
The building is a success in Japan, its terraced south facade utilized by many in the area for exercise and rest, affording views of the city and the harbor beyond. Unfortunately it has received little press overseas, especially in the United States.

Found Here: http://www.metaefficient.com/architecture-and-building/amazing-green-building-the-acros-fukuoka.html