AIA JURORS’ Comments:

The jurors found this design engaging and dynamic. The central vortex was described as creating a focal area for an interesting series of spaces for the community. The building section illustrated for the jurors, the attention for both an urban and internal connectivity. The various adjoining spaces spiral inward in celebrating how the library can become a community center for the neighborhood.

Dalian Library, render courtesy 10 Design

Dalian Library, render courtesy 10 Design

Ted and his team have previously submitted the scheme to the Dalian Planning Bureau for an international design competition. In the competition, 10 is pleased to be able to compete with some of the world's most high profile architects including Zaha Hadid Architects, Kengo Kuma and Associates, Hopkins Architects and AC Architects ." Givens says, "Although the decision on the commission of this project is yet to be announced, we are proud that the design has already gained recognition from a professional body, the AIA."

Dalian Library - Diagram, drawing courtesy 10 Design

The library is intended to be a transformative environment that pulls visitors into a unique landscape. The building weaves into the ground creating a series of courtyards and topographic undulations- rooting itself, and then sweeping up into the air forming a bold urban landmark. The shifting of the mass creates spaces ranging from the intimate spaces for reflection in the courtyard to the dynamic and expansive views offered from the tower volume. The tower volume has a series of internal voids and terraced spaces to further enhance the variety of spatial conditions and to provide internal connectivity. A series of retail functions including cafes will help draw a larger audience to the library. A large media center that shares the central drop-off can be used after hours and function independently.

Dalian Library, render courtesy 10 Design

Dalian Library - Section , drawing courtesy 10 Design

The mass responds and is shaped by views into the site and outward to the surrounding sea and mountains. A green hill over the media center forms an outdoor gathering space and amphitheater and will offer water views to the southern sea. A roof top café on the tower volume provides panoramic views of the mountains and sea.

Dalian Library, image courtesy 10 Design

The façade of the library is a dark grey brass that will develop a beautiful patina over time. The metal skin will have a natural resistance to the marine conditions and harsh weather. The smaller voids in the buildings mass will use an anodized aluminum brass alloy to remain vibrant and colorful as the rest of the building transforms with time.

Dalian Library, render courtesy 10 Design

Dalian Library - Site plan, drawing courtesy 10 Design

+ Project facts

Design team at 10: Ted Givens, Mohamad Ghamlouch, Emre Icdem, Judy Chan and Abraham Fung
Site area: 45,400 sq m
GFA: 55,400 sq m
Building Height & Nos of Floors: +39.00 m / 6F above ground, 2F below ground
Function: Library & Media Centre

+ All images and drawings courtesy 10 Design

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and what better way to turn up the romance than with a dip in the tub with your precious loved one? Leading design firm HBA / Hirsch Bedner Associates has designed some of the most amazing hotel bathrooms that are sure to impress on the most romantic day of the year. The hotels and their luxe bathrooms span the globe including properties such as The Four Seasons Seychelles, Park Hyatt Hamburg, St. Regis Atlanta, Ritz-Carlton Beijing and the Mandarin Oriental DC.

Shima bay suites, Image courtesy Hirsch Bedner Associates

Le Touessrok, image courtesy Hirsch Bedner Associates

The Cove, image courtesy Hirsch Bedner Associates

+ All images courtesy HBA

New Installation by JOEL SHAPIRO, image © Nash Bake

Shapiro’s Rice Gallery installation, on view through March 18, is a gravity-defying array of color, form, shape and line. Wooden elements, vibrantly painted with supersaturated pigment and casein, seemingly levitate in the air as they are held in tension by string stretching from the center of the gallery’s floor to points on the ceiling.

New Installation by JOEL SHAPIRO, image © Nash Bake

The individual elements are physically tied to the surrounding architecture, yet seem completely free from it as they float and twist in a state of suspended animation. The configuration is at once formally rigorous and utterly spontaneous, as color and form appear to simultaneously implode and explode from the center of the gallery space.

Hitech Systems Headquarter, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

The new directional building has been designed to abstract itself from the common building scheme, rejecting analogies and mimesis, while intended to assume technology and innovation as its essence.

Hitech Systems Headquarter - Floor plan, drawing courtesy UAU office

The traditional building techniques make room to the use of innovative materials or the different exploitation of the old ones, and, at the same time, to the overcoming of conventional building schemes. Through the opposition between the sculptural concrete shapes and the lightness of the glass and steel structures we have chosen to characterize the internal and external space, pointing out a clear and essential architectural language.

Hitech Systems Headquarter, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

The facade is mainly conceived to go between the aesthetic and conceptual definition of the architecture. Built totally in steel and structural glass and closed among big concrete walls the front is both like an optical and material screen of the building, both its external projection; the aim is to symbolize the Company talent to be always in search of innovative and new solutions.

Hitech Systems Headquarter, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

+ Project details

Hitech Systems Headquarter
Client: HITECH SYSTEMS srl
Design: UAU office
Typology: Offices Headquarter
Location: Strada Caselle 63, LEINI, (TO), ITALY
Total floor area: 800 m2
Date of opening: 2007
Photos credits: Enrico Muraro fotografo

+ All images and drawings courtesy UAU office

House T, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

Since the family had increased in number after the first renovation of the house the challenge of the project has been to make the most of the available space. The project aims to bring up the family to a multifunctional use of the spaces, without conventional limits. That’s why we decide to give the existing big living room space a multiple function, being at the same time the owner’s bedroom, the living and dining space and the relax area and to to dedicate the only existing room to the newborns.

House T, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

House T, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

We decided to heighten half of the room to create a larch wood platform to host the relax space with sofa and tv, using the high difference to hide a rollaway bed and storage. All the new furnitures are made on our own design, in white or champagne lacquered MDF wood.

House T, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

House T, image courtesy UAU office | Photo by Enrico Muraro

A new big wardrobe space, conceived externally as a white varnished monolith, but internally totally equipped, divides in two the entrance area, serving also as a decompression space to enter the babies room.

+ Project credits / data

House T
Design: UAU office | www.uaueb.it
DESIGNER/ARCHITECT/ARTIST: Marco Verrando (architect, project manager), Francesca Rossotti (architect), Mansueto Francesco
CITY/COUNTRY: Turin Italy
PHOTOS: Enrico Muraro

+ All images courtesy UAU office