'Blooming Tower' Features Kinetic Facade to Collect Dew and Generate Energy

Like a plant that opens its petals to collect dew, the Blooming Tower by Mekene Architecture responds to environmental changes with a kinetic facade that opens and closes throughout the day. The mixed-use recreational facility combines playgrounds, a library, a conference space and picnic areas under a lightweight tower covered in sail cloth material. The 170-meter tower designed for Dubai is also capable of collecting water and generating energy.

The base of the eco tower is slightly sunken into the surrounding gardens, and a large dome creates recreational space, picnic areas, a library, and a conference area. The tower is designed with a lightweight aluminum frame, and it narrows as it rises up 170 meters tall. The top-level features a cafe and viewing level that is accessible via a cable car elevator.

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Amsterdam's Alligator-Shaped Mixed Use Development Offers Unique Public and Private Spaces

The Albino Alligator is mixed-use project composed of five buildings that is designed to regenerate the Buiksloterham region in Amsterdam North. Rotterdam-based Maxwan architects designed each branch of the office to house a different part of the building's program, which resulted in an alligator-shaped building.Each building is used for a different purpose and forms a part of the alligator’s body. A series of public spaces including retail and offices forms the head, a strip of row houses forms the body, a residential tower serves as one of the legs, a tower of live-work studios serves as the second leg, and a fitness club makes up the tail. Each building is shaped by its structural and programmatic needs.

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New LEED Platinum (pending) Mixed-Use Project by Pugh + Scarpa opens in LA

Bicoastal, cutting-edge architecture firm Pugh + Scarpa has just completed a new 12 unit Mixed-Use, LEED Platinum(pending) building in Los Angeles. Cherokee Mixed-Use Lofts is an urban infill, mixed-use, market-rate housing project. The building is inspired by the series of paintings by the British artist Patrick Hughes titled, Prospectivity, whose paintings appear to be ever changing(click for video) and physically moving while being viewed. At Cherokee the main architectural feature of this project is the building’s owner-controlled operable double facade system. By allowing the occupant to adjust, at will, the operable screens of the building façade, the facade is virtually redesigned “live” from within the space, reflecting the occupants of the building within, in real time. In effect, it becomes a live canvas to be painted upon daily or more often.

Cherokee is the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum (pending) Certified building in Hollywood and is the first LEED Platinum Certified mixed-use or market rate multi-family building in Southern California. The building distinguishes itself from most conventionally developed projects in that it incorporates energy efficient measures that exceed standard practice, optimize building performance, and ensure reduced energy use during all phases of construction and occupancy.Cherokee Lofts by Pugh + Scarpa

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