Ethai Cafe / Quarta & Armando

Ethai Cafe / Quarta & Armando, © Dirk Weiblen
  • Curated by 韩双羽 – HAN Shuangyu

RESTAURANT & BAR INTERIORS

SHANGHAI, CHINA

  • Design Team:Gianmaria Quarta, Michele Armando, Shiyuan Tang, Carlin Sun
  • The Client:Shanghai Ethai Restaurant Ltd
  • City:Shanghai
  • Country:China

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© Dirk Weiblen

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Text description provided by the architects. Tucked away in the busy commercial basement of Shanghai’s Kerry Center, Ethai Café offers a fresh take on traditional Thai cuisine, focusing on simple light dishes created from healthy ingredients. The earthy color and material palette is based on gradients reminiscent of central Thailand’s archaeological sites and lands, and its nooks and sitting areas appear to have been carved out of the rammed earth that envelops the façade.

watercolor. Image Courtesy of Quarta & Armando

Given the secluded and constrained nature of the site, we imagined a space that could provide a peaceful and transient retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life. In order to achieve this, the project follows the directional concept of an enveloping geometry. Consequently, the facade is willingly designed give a slight cut to the space from the public area, through a lowered ceiling and a low wall, unfolding like a ribbon from within the restaurant and draping the exterior. An opening of the low wall, which reveals a banquette on the inside, creates an inviting entrance, naturally guiding customers into the space. These volumes are slightly offset from the site boundaries, enforcing this feeling of “space within space”.

layout. Image Courtesy of Quarta & Armando
© Dirk Weiblen

The layout gives customers a certain level of privacy, while still feeling somewhat connected to the rest of the public space. Overlooking the customers stands a dome-shaped ceiling, formed by a grid of wooden beams, in which conceals the space’s lighting. This structure defines a vaulted space that feels private yet convivial, like a contemporary interpretation of the primordial hut.

© Dirk Weiblen

The material selection further enhances this idea of quiet sobriety by deploying a palette rich in earthy tones and alternating rough and smooth textures. Welcomed by the rammed earth gradient at the entrance, the customer then notes with interest the coarse terrazzo flooring that guides them into the space. Lifting further their eye-level, they will discover a rich texture on the vertical surfaces, covered by white arched tiles. Simultaneously, the environment feels natural from the wooden surfaces on the furniture and the grid ceiling, as well as the vegetation. Finally, pieces of artwork constitute different focal points of the restaurant, bringing a traditional Thai touch and finalizing the integrality of Ethai Café.Bookmark

MADs proposal for a new cultural center in Zhuhai is unveiled showcasing a conservationist approach to Urban Development

Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center by MAD Architects

Plans for a proposed cultural center in China’s southern Guangdong region have been released as MAD becomes the latest to enter its name in a competition for an urban renewal project that is equal parts conservation and inspiration, leaving intact the historic past while keeping an eye on the region’s glittering future.

Dominated by a massive floating dome, the studio’s vision for a new cultural arts center covers a centuries-old coastal village located on a peninsula on the northern tip of Zhuhai, the country’s most livable city

Zhuhai Cultural Arts Center model, by MAD Architects

The dome’s structure is comprised of a cable membrane layered over the village’s former plaza and a plethora of scattered small-scale buildings meant to preserve some of the original charm lost to the massive development boom that followed its designation as a Special Economic Zone in 1980.

Urban renewal in China, especially in historic districts, should be preserved, revived, and re-created, instead of being completely wiped out and rebuilt over.” – Ma Yangsong

MAD founder Ma Yansong is known for his thoughtful approach to density concerns, one the firm believes is reflected by their careful consideration not to alter or raze Yinkeng Village’s original layout and function as a public space.

“Urban renewal in China, especially in historic districts, should be preserved, revived, and re-created, instead of being completely wiped out and rebuilt over,” Yansong said in a statement on MAD’s website.

Previously on Archinect: A new nature: Interview with Ma Yansong of MAD Architecture

Elements like the preservation of a revered 500-year-old Banyan tree combine with the metaphoric protection offered by the retractable roof to give the center a safeguarding character. A focus on local history center its function as a memory site as the incorporation of nature combines to form an intrinsically walkable space, making it a perfect example of the blended design strategy Yansong has established a reputation for over the past decade.

“Without ‘people’, there can be no continuation of culture and civilization.” the studio said. “We should focus our attention back on history, and the extension of our existing cultures. We must avoid the cultural fault lines, so that people, nature, the past, and the future can coexist in a harmonious world.”

Oppenheim Architecture unveils images of their crystal quartz-inspired luxury towers in Australia

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 34d349acac68eb67e6eaf5d7aeafea71.jpg

Jewel Towers by Oppenheim Architecture. Image © Richard Greenwood/Courtesy of Multiplex

The Miami-based architecture, interior design, and planning firm Oppenheim Architecture shared images of their latest luxury mixed-use project, the Jewel. In February 2020, we connected with firm founder Chad Oppenheim for a Studio Snapshot interview. During the interview, we discussed the firm’s work and design ethos. “The practice is much more about creating a platform for expression,” he shared. 

“We started by doing projects in up and coming areas and using architecture as we way to extract the best return on investment for our clients,” shared Oppenheim. “Further down, we wanted to see how architecture can be as elemental as possible. Little by little, we were brought onto projects on spectacular sites, and we wanted to make the most out of them – bringing feeling and emotion as part of our ethos.”

Archinect Feature: Searching for the Elemental and Straight-Forward With Oppenheim Architecture. The Ayla Golf Academy and Clubhouse in Aqaba, Jordan. Photo by Rory Gardiner.
Residential and Hotel Tower stands at 47 stories, Luxury Residential Tower stands at 41 stories, and the Premium Residential Tower stands at 34 stories. Image © Richard Greenwood/Courtesy of Multiplex
Image courtesy of Oppenheim Architecture

Commenting on the project, Oppenheim shares, “It was crucial for us to understand and uncover the spirit of place – the site’s histories and ecologies, so the architectural “object” wasn’t an arbitrary form, but one that resonated with the land and its people. These three crystals of varying proportions and relationships were captured with 3D scanning and, with minimal modification, translated into the full-size towers that illuminate the coast today.”

Jewel Towers by Oppenheim Architecture. Image © Richard Greenwood/Courtesy of Multiplex

According to the firm, the project is the first beach-front development built along Australia‘s Gold Coast in over 30 years. The Jewel is the winning competition proposal lead by the developer RDG. Oppenheim Architecture collaborated with DBI Design to develop the project’s interior design.  

BIG Selected to Design a Socially Engaging Hub for the Johns Hopkins University

BIG Selected to Design a Socially Engaging Hub for the Johns Hopkins University, Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Johns Hopkins University has selected BIG to design its new Student Center, regenerating the heart of its campus and reviving the social experience, from a shortlisted list of 4 offices, after a months-long international competition. Entitled “The Village”, the proposal is an “open, modern, and welcoming facility envisioned as a social engagement hub for all members of the Hopkins community”.

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Set to begin construction in spring 2022 and to be completed by fall 2024, the new Hopkins Student Center, received overwhelmingly positive reviews from students, staff, and alumni, who contributed to the selection process. BIG’s third academic building in the United States -following the Isenberg School of Management Business Innovation Hub for the University of Massachusetts Amherst and The Heights Building for Arlington Public Schools, both completed in 2019- is in collaboration with Shepley Bulfinch as Architect of Record, along with Rockwell Group for interior design and Michael Van Valkenburg Associates for landscape design.

Having taught at a number of world-renowned universities on the East Coast, it is an incredible honor to have been chosen to create the framework for the life of the Johns Hopkins students. We have attempted to imagine and design the Campus Center like a village condensed from a plethora of different spaces and pavilions for the greatest possible diversity of activities, interests, and sub-cultures. — Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.


Related Article

BIG Designs AI CITY, an Innovation Campus Hosting Headquarters of Tech Firm in Chongqing, China


Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Supporting the university’s sustainability goals, the imagined scheme was praised for its open feel, connections to surrounding exterior spaces, abundance of natural daylight, and integrated sustainable features. The 150,000 square foot building, located just south of the iconic open space on the Johns Hopkins, will encompass spaces for relaxation and socialization, creative and performing arts spaces, student resources and support services, lounges, a digital media center, a performance space with seating for 200 people, and a dynamic dining hall. Generating connectivity with the neighboring Charles Village community, the project creates a new dynamic entry point, at the crossroads of student activity. 

Often the greatest ideas and breakthroughs occur away from the desk, when minds have a chance to wander, to play, to riff with others. The new Hopkins Student Center is designed to provoke the sometimes-necessary distractions that complement rigorous academic life – a place for a future generation of Salks, Curies, and Cricks to unlock their next great discovery. — Leon Rost, Partner, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.

Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

“Not academically focused, but entirely social by design, Open to all, reserved for none, and boasting the kind of flexible spaces that invite connection and collaboration” states Ronald J Daniels, President, Johns Hopkins University. The proposal imagined as a central living room is surrounded by a collection of spaces tailored to the needs of the community. With entry from all four levels, the building maintains a friendly human scale, while the open façade reveals dining areas, spilling out onto the plaza.

Regarding the structure, the mass timber provides a warm and acoustically comfortable environment as light filters in between the photovoltaic roof panels. In fact, the open design allows light to enter the clerestory windows and leaves all student activities and school spirit on display. Finally, the indoor area of “The Village” is comprised of a cluster of flexible spaces, which open out on to four rejuvenated public spaces, and the landscape around the building generates outdoor spaces for student activities and events.

Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Hopkins Student Center

  • Name: Hopkins Student Center
  • Type: Competition
  • Size: 13,935m2
  • Location: Baltimore, Maryland, US
  • Client: Johns Hopkins University
  • Collaborators: Shepley Bulfinch (Architect of Record), Rockwell Group (Interior Architects), Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (Landscape Architects)
  • Architect: BIG – BJARKE INGELS GROUP
  • Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Leon Rost
  • Associate-in-Charge: Elizabeth McDonald
  • Project Leaders: Jason Wu, Lawrence Olivier Mahadoo
  • Team: Alex Wu, Xi Zhang, Chia-Yu Liu, Guillaume Evain, Jakub Kulisa, Kig Veerasunthorn, Mike Munoz, Tom Lasbrey, Tony Saba Shiber, Blake Smith, Corliss Ng, Florencia Kratsman, Francesca Portesine, Jamie Maslyn Larson, Gabriel Jewell-Vitale, Kevin Pham, Josiah Poland, Jialin Yuan, Ken Chongsuwat, Duncan Horswill, Ben Caldwell, Margaret Tyrpa, Terrence Chew, Tracy Sodder, Chris Pin, Alexander Matthias Jacobson, Tore Banke, Frederic Lucien Engasser, Xingyue Huang,Jesper Petersen, Kaoan Hengles

MVRDV-designed lingerie store in Paris uses transparent glass floor for a more “revealing” design approach


Photos by Ossip van Duivenbode.

MVRDV has completed a new flagship store in Paris for French lingerie brand Etam, renovating a 19th-century Haussmann building by removing its internal barriers and adding a glass floor to allow light to fill the interior.

The project sits at a corner site on Boulevard Haussmann, in one of the prime shopping locations in Paris near the Opera Garnier. MVRDV cut back the exterior of the building to highlight its classical appearance whilst allowing natural light to enter the store at both ends.

This “stripped down” approach moves to the interior, where the design reveals the original stone structure through the removal of interior walls and part of the mezzanine floor above. At ground level, a glass floor stretches as one of the project’s defining features. It allows light to enter the basement level and connects visitors at the ground level to the level below and vice versa.

The floor is treated with a special film that makes it transparent when viewed at an angle, but clouded when viewed directly above or below, MVRDV said in a statement. This is intended to provide privacy and prevent vertigo for those standing on the floor.

Mezzanine level
Ground level
Basement level

“‘Unravelling beauty’ is almost a generic and eternal value that can be learned somehow from the world of lingerie. The revealing – but directional – glassification of the store allows for a delicate balance between transparency and privacy, for intimacy and distance, unravelling the beauty of Haussmann and Etam’s products, users, and visitors,” said MVRDV Founding Partner Winy Maas in a statement. “In the stores we design, we often like to try new, unexpected materials and love to play with different types of glass. The Etam flagship store is the first time we have brought these approaches to a building where so much of the existing structure must be maintained.”

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OMA / Reinier de Graaf’s Residential Towers, Norra Tornen, Wins the International Highrise Award 2020

© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA

The International Highrise Award (IHA), organized by the city of Frankfurt and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), has selected Norra Tornen, the residential towers designed by OMA / Reinier de Graaf as the winner of its ninth edition. Granted every 2 years, to architects and developers for buildings of minimum 100 meters in height, completed in the last two years, Norra Tornen was selected from 31 projects from 14 countries.

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Designed by OMA and led by Reinier de Graaf, with Alex de Jong, Michel van de Kar, and Roza Matveeva, with Oscar Properties as developers on board, Norra Tornen was awarded the International Highrise Award by an international jury consisting of architects, structural engineers, and real estate specialists. Criteria of evaluation included the overall narrative, the sculptural qualities, the structural concept, and the mix of uses, among others. The project that has received international attention is the “result of a land allocation competition held by the City of Stockholm in 2013, won by Oscar Properties”.

© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA
© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA
© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA
© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA

OMA’s first built project in Sweden, Norra Tornen is currently the highest residential building in Stockholm’s city center. On the accomplishment, Reinier de Graaf, OMA Partner in Charge of the project stated that “For me, the award came somewhat unexpectedly since I never thought of the Norra Tornen towers as high-rise buildings. They are different from the conventional idea of a skyscraper. They are not monumental but homely, their aesthetics are informal and they rely on repetition only to produce diversityMoreover, Peter Cahorla Schmal, Director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) added that “Norra Tornen is a refreshing entrance to the city, recalling structuralist models of brutalism from the 1960s such as the Habitat from Expo67 in Montreal, skillfully transforming them and enriching the city with a new urban dominant, with apartments for all.


Related Article

Five Projects Named Finalists for the 2020 International Highrise Award


© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA
© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA
© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA
© Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA

Norra Tornen

  • Dates
  • Competition: 2013
  • Groundbreaking (Innovationen): December 2015
  • Groundbreaking (Helix): December 2016
  • Completion (Innovationen): December 2018
  • Completion (Helix): December 2020
  • Program
  • Two residential towers: Helix and Innovationen
  • 320 apartments 24,555 m²
  • Retail 961 m² Services 895 m² Technical spaces 2,300m²
  • Data
  • Plot Area (Helix): 575 m²
  • Plot Area (Innovationen): 660 m²
  • Net floor area (Helix): 14,039 m²
  • Net floor area (Innovationen): 17,787 m²
  • Net floor area (total): 31,826 m²
  • Gross floor area (Helix): 18,820 m²
  • Gross floor area (Innovationen): 23,479 m²
  • Gross floor area (total): 42,299 m²
  • Height (Helix): 110 m (32 floors)
  • Height (Innovationen): 125 m (36 floors)
  • Materials
  • Façade: Colored concrete ribbed façade, brushed with an exposed multi-colored aggregate pebble mix.

Rethinking Embassy Design: Building Diplomacy Around the World

Rethinking Embassy Design: Building Diplomacy Around the World, © Michel Denancé
© Michel Denancé

The architecture of diplomacy balances security and openness. As symbols of protection and representation, embassies are built for utility in both urban and rural contexts alike. At their core, they are also made to communicate the values and ideals of nations as welcoming structures and sustainable civic spaces. Today, modern embassy projects are made to meet rigorous security standards while embracing local culture and conditions.

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© Gijo Paul George
© Gijo Paul George

Our contemporary understanding of diplomacy has its roots in mid-15th century Italy. The Milanese sent representatives to other Italian city states, and their accommodations became the precursors to embassy compounds and consulate buildings. The first purpose-built embassies were in Constantinople during the early 19th century, and over time, the architecture of diplomacy has been carried out across multiple buildings and structures, from residences to chanceries. The structures are also usually open with services to the general public. The following projects explore embassy architecture, renovations and consulate designs over the last ten years as secure facilities and symbols alike.

Dutch Embassy in Amman / Rudy Uytenhaak + Partners Architecten

© Pieter Kers
© Pieter Kers

Amman is a fast-growing city entirely made up of buildings in local natural stone: not only established neighborhoods, but also poorer districts, and not only homes, but also offices, hotels, museums and shops. The Dutch embassy project involved the renovation of an understated villa within a walled garden.

Embassy Ethiopia / Bjarne Mastenbroek and Dick Van Gameren

© Christian Richters
© Christian Richters

The compound of the Dutch Embassy consists of a five-hectare wooded area that slopes steeply towards the city. The design task was to situate the five buildings in the compound while retaining the site’s landscape. The horizontal volume of the main building cuts into the hill with the sloping terrain naturally divides it into two programmatic units; the ambassador’s residence and the chancellery.

Turkish Embassy in Berlin / NSH Architekten

© Bernardette Grimmenstein
© Bernardette Grimmenstein

In 2007, an international two-stage competition was launched for the Turkish Embassy in Berlin. A basic concept consisting of the building floor plans and two images was requested in the first phase. This embassy design was developed with a team of ten people in addition to the three partners.

Embassy of Ecuador / Arquiteck & Asociados

© Andrés Valbuena
© Andrés Valbuena

The building for the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in Colombia aims to provide through the architecture an image capable of expressing new diplomatic relations between the two countries. The architectural proposal is developed on a corner plot previously occupied by a house in the 1980s, in which the Embassy worked until it was moved for the new construction.

Embassy of France and French Institute in Jakarta / Segond-Guyon Architects

© Jerome Ricolleau
© Jerome Ricolleau

The French Embassy is established in Jakarta since 1975, along the prestigious avenue of Jalan Thamrin. This project for the new diplomatic campus comes from the will to bring together all diplomatic and cultural French services in Jakarta at a single location. The project was designed to provide a simple, readable architecture.

Swiss Embassy / LOCALARCHITECTURE

© Iwan Baan
© Iwan Baan

Until the summer of 2015, the Swiss Confederation was represented in Côte d’Ivoire by an embassy located in Abidjan’s Plateau district. The Office Fédéral des Constructions et de la Logistique acquired the former residence of the Norwegian ambassador in the city’s Cocody district, planning to renovate and extend the existing building in order to house its new embassy there.

Embassy of Egypt / PROMONTORIO

© João Morgado
© João Morgado

Located in Lisbon’s affluent quarter of Restelo, the new Embassy of Egypt stands on a plot in Avenida Dom Vasco da Gama which is typologically characterized by a string of large free-standing villas of the 1940s and 50s, many of which have been gradually been converted into diplomatic residences.

French Embassy in Haiti / Explorations Architecture

© Michel Denancé
© Michel Denancé

The new French Embassy of Haiti consists of one circular structure in a large park. The design is inspired by the tropical architecture of several periods, and is made in respect of the memory of the land where it takes place. The pavilion was built with light steel and a wood frame with facades that filter views and protect from local site conditions.

Embassy of Finland in New Delhi Renovation / ALA Architects

© Tuomas Uusheimo
© Tuomas Uusheimo

The sculptural roofs – the most significant architectural feature of this embassy compound – resemble the forms of the snowy Lake Kitkajärvi near Kuusamo in Northern Finland. ALA Architects was commissioned in 2013 to design the renovation

Herzog & de Meuron’s shopping center development in Basel will be topped with a middle school

Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.
Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.

After winning the competition for a massive urban redevelopment project in their hometown of Basel in 2017, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron now released updated material that shows a more refined and detailed concept. 

The Dreispitz Nord scheme seeks to transform a former customs depot into a mixed-use urban district, expanding the reach of downtown Basel.

Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.

“The urban proposal for Dreispitz Nord is based on what would seem to be the paradoxical aim of developing and increasing density, while simultaneously creating large, public green spaces,” explains a statement put out by the architects. 

“Density is achieved by three high-rise towers and an open perimeter block of individual, tightly spaced mid-rise buildings. This block frames a publicly accessible park in contrast to the perimeter blocks in Gundeldingen with their primarily private inner courtyards.”

Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.

One of the key features to achieve useful densification is a middle school for 600 students that will sit on top of the development’s central shopping center, a move that Basel city authorities in collaboration with the client and developers announced last month: “The location of the school and a multipurpose gymnasium on the elevated Adele Duttweiler Field is ideal. In the evenings the gymnasium and playing fields can be used by sports clubs and associations, and for many other activities as well. The school’s athletic and recreation areas will occupy only part of the entire field. Gardens and other outdoor areas will be accessible to the residents of Gundeldingen and public at all times.”

The zoning plan is scheduled to be presented to the cantonal legislative in mid-2021.

ODA Designs Largest Affordable Housing Project in NYC

ODA-Designed Hunter’s Point South, the newest development by TF Cornerstone, and the largest affordable housing project in NYC has launched its housing lottery. The master-planned, mixed-use and mixed-income community, park, school, and playground, situated along the East River in Long Island City, Queens, the first of its kind to hit the market since COVID-19, brings 1,194 rental units and a new park to Long Island City waterfront.

In collaboration with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and NYCHousing Development Corporation (HDC), 5241 Center Boulevard and the newest phase of Hunter’s Point South, were just launched, bringing forward the first 185 affordable units in a pair of matched ODA-designed towers, anchored by a new 22,000-square-foot park designed by Matthews Nielsen Landscape Architects (MNLA).

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© TF Cornerstone

© TF Cornerstone

Designed by ODA, with SLCE as the architect of record, the buildings take on a mix of rich façade materials and highly articulated shapes and arrangements of apartments within. Tied together with a large courtyard, public park, and amenity facilities, the two structures will offer a mix of studios, one, and two-bedroom apartments. “Sixty percent of the apartments will be permanently affordable to low, moderate, and middle-income residents, with 100 apartments set aside for low-income seniors”. Moreover, half of the affordable units are destined for the local community within Queens.


Related Article

ODA Designs Mixed-Use District to Revitalize the Astoria Neighborhood, in New York City


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© TF Cornerstone

© TF Cornerstone

This project was unique for us thanks to the collaboration with the City and TF Cornerstone. The private-public partnership allowed us to create a more holistic vision for this new neighborhood, one that is reflective of the types of communities ODA is trying to build,” said Chen. “The opportunity to combine affordable housing with market-rate and senior housing, surrounded by a curated amenity package, with retail shops and a direct connection to the park is a winning formula we hope to emulate in future projects. — Eran Chen, Founding Principal, ODA.

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© TF Cornerstone

© TF Cornerstone

Located on the waterfront in Long Island City, the Transformative mixed-income development maximizes light and air and increases the number of corner units on every floor. In fact, Eran Chen, Founding Principal, ODA explained that “a typical tower of this scale would have 12-15 apartment per floor, with four corner units,[…] With Hunter’s Point South, we broke up the flat face of the building, creating a three-dimensional façade with pockets or grooves which creates more corner units with light, air, and views on each floor.”

 

Heatherwick Proposes New and Improved Waterfront Experience for San Francisco

Heatherwick Studio has designed the Cove, a new waterfront experience for San Francisco. Seeking to activate and improve the beachfront, “while future-proofing the historic district and the City against the risks of earthquakes and climate change”, the Cove will put in place a next-generation, high-performance waterfront community that uniquely identifies with San Francisco.

Courtesy of Heatherwick StudioCourtesy of Wire CollectiveCourtesy of Heatherwick StudioCourtesy of Heatherwick Studio+ 6

The San Francisco waterfront, although visited by 24 million locals and tourists each year, has its facilities empty, closed to the public, or under-utilized. In fact, the vacant 100-year-old piers continue to deteriorate. Driven by the need to save the architectural heritage as well as the waterfront, of one of the Most Endangered Historic Places, the Cove will generate “a colorful, contemporary model destination that celebrates the classic California coast and the history of the Embarcadero, while serving as a warm, inviting urban (re)treat, a high-value oasis, just steps away from the generic gloss of FiDi and Mission Bay.” The existing piers will be removed completed and replaced by new modern structures to safeguard human health and safety and to create an enduring asset for future generations.

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Courtesy of Wire Collective

Courtesy of Wire Collective

The Cove creates a two-building workplace campus with a central 5-acre, an ecological public park. These structures of 550,000 gross square feet will feature large 117,000 square foot floor plates that can accommodate workspace for a single tenant or multiple tenants and a curated mix of retail. The project also encompasses an Eco-Transect park, with a multi-use plaza, a rolling softscape of native terpene-laden trees and dune grasses, a carbon-sinking, floating wetlands, an oval boardwalk, etc. Smaller than the original pier footprint, the entire Cove has less bay fill and is highly sustainable, and plans for net-zero carbon and International Living Future Institute certifications.


Related Article

Public Redevelopment for the City of Tokyo by Heatherwick Studio


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Courtesy of Wire Collective

Courtesy of Wire Collective

Anticipated in late 2026, the project covers Piers 30-32 and excludes Seawall Lot 330. The EPX2 team developing this initiative, a twenty members group include Earthprise, Sares|Regis, Heatherwick Studio, Paradigm Strategy, CMG Landscape Architecture, Page & Turnbull, Kendall/Heaton Associates, WSP USA Maritime, Fugro USA Land, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, MKA Civil, stok, PAE Consulting Engineers, Biohabitats, McLaren Engineering Group, Edgett Williams Consulting, Michael Schwab Studio, Manson Construction, DPR Construction, Concrete Technology Corporation, Mammoet, Consolidated Engineering Laboratories, SWCA Environmental, and Reuben, Junius & Rose.

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