The AASA editorial team has selected some of the most important architectures built this year which include cultural centres, public spaces and residential buildings. A recovery after the period of global emergency with a look to the future and a new impetus that is more attentive to sustainability.
Lusail Stadium by Foster + Partners
The stadium has been the central focus for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 between Argentina and France celebrations and will play a key part in the future of the city. The seating bowl is expressed externally as a burnished golden vessel, which sparkles against the sunlight.
The façade features triangular openings that visually reinforce the bowl’s structural diagrid and form a perforated screen to provide shade and filter dappled light on to the internal concourses. The high-performance façades and an innovative roof design reduce the stadium’s energy consumption. Read the full article here.
BEEAH Headquarters by Zaha Hadid Architects
Powered by its solar array and equipped with next-generation technologies for operations at LEED Platinum standards, the new headquarters has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) to achieve net-zero emissions and will be the group’s management, works across six key industries that include waste management and recycling, clean energy, environmental consulting, education and green mobility.
In addition to the central courtyard and open-plan office, the headquarters incorporates smart meeting rooms, an immersive visitors centre and an auditorium. The 9,000 sq. m BEEAH Headquarters is equipped with future-ready technologies to enable operations at LEED Platinum standards with net-zero emissions and minimal energy consumption. Read the full article here.
Royal College of Art London by Herzog & de Meuron
The Royal College of Art campus in Battersea is a flexible architectural solution that adapts to the constantly changing programmes of teaching and research at this 185-year-old institution, with the aim to unite and strengthen the culture of design innovation and entrepreneurialism at the Royal College of Art (RCA).
The project delivers 15,500 sqm of workshop, studio and research space; it is composed of a ground floor base of workshops and manufacturing facilities supporting a low-rise 4-storey Studio Building along Howie Street, and a taller 8-storey Research Building prominently located along Parkgate Road. Read the full article here.
Echo by UNStudio
Echo is an energy-generating interfaculty building that offers a wide variety of teaching rooms to cater for the diversity of teaching methods and study styles at the university. 1200 solar panels, smart installations, good insulation and a heat and cold storage system ensure that Echo will be able to provide more energy than it requires for its daily operations.
Transparency was essential to the design of Echo. It not only ensures maximum daylight inside the building , it also creates a visual connection to the wider campus and to surrounding nature. However, to avoid heat gain, it is also essential to prevent excess sunlight penetration. Overheating of the building is prevented by a combination of sun protection and the low solar penetration factor of the glass. Read the full article here.
Monologue Art Museum by Wutopia Lab
The Monologue Museum is a slowly unfolding hand scroll. Starting from the small entrance theater where the light breaks through the corners, entering the art gallery, the quiet water courtyard slowly reveals itself along the open corridor with shifting lights, passing through the colorful yoga room to the bright art gallery. Monologue Art Museum is a multi-function space.
The plan is complex and irregular, and the structural design is not conducive to earthquake resistance. However, when the museum is divided, except for the art gallery, the rectangular dance studio, the circular yoga studio and the oval theater are all symmetrical and regular with excellent seismic performance. Read the full article here.
Google Bay View Campus by BIG and Heatherwick
The Bay View campus spans 42 acres adjacent to the NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. It totals 1.1 million square feet, with 20 acres of open space, two office buildings, an 1,000-person event center, and 240 short-term employee accommodation units.
The solar panels shingles that cover the tent-like roof structures generate 40% of the annual energy needs of the buildings, which run exclusively on electricity. The campus also stands on North America’s largest geothermal pile system, and is expected, with the aid of local wind frames, to run on carbon-free energy 90% of the time. Read the full article here.
Chongqing Gaoke Group Office Project by Aedas
Chongqing Gaoke Group Ltd Office Project utilises a simple elegant form which creates the twisting shape of the 180m tall tower to form expressive double-curved surfaces on the building façades. Vertical lines accentuate the minimalistic form and through the effect of reflection and refraction from the glass create a design statement that celebrates light as the major tool to define architecture.
Inspired by the dancing aurora, the ‘dance of light’ is characterised by the juxtaposition of rectilinear forms and tower façades with double curves. Such curvaceous façade expression offers ever-changing perspectives around the development. When the sun rises, the curved façade shines, and the tower becomes the building of light. When night falls, the curved façade showcases reflections that allude to the dancing figure of a ballerina.
Sydney Modern Art Gallery Expansion by SANAA
The project involved construction of a new building, revitalisation of our existing building, and significant landscape works. The new building has almost doubled current exhibition space with seamless connections between indoor and outdoor spaces, delivering rich and diverse experiences for all visitors.
A new standalone building, public art garden and revitalised historic building brings together art, architecture and landscape in spectacular new ways, with dynamic galleries, site-specific works by leading Australian and international artists, and extensive outdoor spaces for everyone to enjoy. Read the full article here.
Sluishuis by BIG Bjarke Ingels Group
Located between the dense city and the vast landscapes on the edge of Amsterdam, the new Sluishuis is shaped by its complex surroundings at once close to large infrastructure and to small-scale urban settlements. The classical courtyard building is revitalized by two transformations; it fully embraces the idea of living on the water and appears different from every vantage point.
Toward the water the block is lifted up, forming a large opening that brings water from the IJ Lake into the courtyard and brings daylight and views to the complex’s inner apartments. Toward the neighboring urban district the block steps down like a cascade of landscaped terraces, creating a natural transition from cityscape to smallerscale, natural surroundings. Read the full article here.
Site Verrier de Meisenthal by SO – IL and FREAKS architecture
Hidden in the bucolic landscape of Northern Vosges Natural Park, is a publicly funded active cultural center in a historic glass factory dating back to the 18th century. They are also included a multidisciplinary cultural space hosting art installations, happenings and concerts are sited at varying floor levels.
An undulating poured-in-place concrete surface alludes to glass production as it unites the buildings. The surface functions as roof, ceiling, and wall, connecting the buildings’ ground floors to frame a public plaza. New functions are sensitively introduced under and over this surface, including offices, workshop areas, a cafe and restaurant. Read the full article here.