*️⃣Heydar Aliyev Centre

Architect #Hadid #ZahaHadid #ZHA
City #Baku
Country #Azerbaijan #EU

🔤The Center, designed to become the primary building for the nation’s cultural programs, breaks from the rigid and often monumental Soviet architecture that is so prevalent in Baku, aspiring instead to express the sensibilities of Azeri culture and the optimism of a nation that looks to the future.

Responding to the topographic sheer drop that formerly split the site in two, the project introduces a precisely terraced landscape that establishes alternative connections and routes between public plaza, building, and underground parking. This solution avoids additional excavation and landfill, and successfully converts an initial disadvantage of the site into a key design feature.

Fluidity in architecture is not new to this region. In historical Islamic architecture, rows, grids, or sequences of columns flow to infinity like trees in a forest, establishing non-hierarchical space. Continuous calligraphic and ornamental patterns flow from carpets to walls, walls to ceilings, ceilings to domes, establishing seamless relationships and blurring distinctions between architectural elements and the ground they inhabit.

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Colour #white #monochrome
Material #gfrc
Function #entertainment #venue
Feature #interior
Address: 9VW9+94 Baku, Azerbaijan
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pics by #IwanBaan, #HeleneBinet and #HuftonCrow
text by architects

*️⃣Library of Law, University of Zurich

Architect #Calatrava #SantiagoCalatrava
City #Zurich
Country #Switzerland #EU

🔤The rings have a surface of narrow, L-shaped pieces of maple fit closely together, giving a hint of luxury to an otherwise utilitarian building. In addition, recesses between the #wood pieces absorb sound and keeps the library quiet.

Calatrava devised an hydraulically movable pleated curtain of collapsible blades to provide the reading rooms with controlled natural light from the ceiling, which also function as acoustic tiles. #kinetic

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Function #public #library
Feature #interior
Address: Rämistrasse 74, 8001 Zürich
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pics by #Foddanu
text by architects

*️⃣Atomium

Architect #Polak #AndrePolak #JeanPolak
City #Brussels
Country #Belgium #EU

🔤The Atomium is a modernist building originally constructed as the centrepiece of the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn and the architects André and Jean Polak as a tribute to scientific progress, as well as to symbolise Belgian engineering skills at the time. #retro

In the 1950s, faith in scientific progress was strong, and the subject was chosen to embody the enthusiasm of the Atomic Age. Designed to highlight humanity's advances—particularly in nuclear physics. With the Atomium, the country thus sought to promote the post-war ideal of peacefully applying atomic research and technology to improve lives and benefit mankind.

Its nine stainless #steel clad spheres are connected in the shape of a unit cell that represent an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Steel tubes connecting the spheres enclose stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central, vertical tube) to allow access to the six visitable spheres, which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere includes a restaurant with a panoramic view of Brussels.

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Colour #metallic
Function #public #museum #observation
Feature #nightlight #adminvisited
Address: Pl. de l'Atomium 1, 1020 Bruxelles, Belgium
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©️
pics by Trish Hamilton, Omar Rizk and Aurélie Ayer
text by Wikipedia

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*️⃣Museum of the future

Architect #KillaDesign
City #Dubai
Country #UAE #ME

🔤Window designs, in the form of Arabic calligraphy, based on the Ruler of Dubai, HH Sheikh Mohammed’s quotes, are intricately 3D mapped onto the curved skin.

The primary inspiration of the Museum of the Future was to create a form that represents the client’s vision of the future, where the physical building with its exhibition floors represents our understanding of the “future”. In contrast the ‘void’ represents what we do not yet know.

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Colour #metallic
Material #steel
Function #public #museum
Feature #nightlight
Address: near Trade Centre 2 - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
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Courtyard google street
Interior google street
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pics by museum of the future, shutterstock and architects
text by architects

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*️⃣Organic building

Architect #Pesce #GaetanoPesce
City #Osaka
Country #Japan #AP

🔤"The Coexistence of #Greenery, Architecture, and Humans"—this is the concept behind the Organic Building.

One of the first attempts to integrate nature into Osaka’s urban landscape through a vertical garden, this vibrant nine-story structure is clad in terracotta #steel and features an automated irrigation and drainage system.

Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice that the planters are not uniform; their shapes and sizes vary depending on the needs of the plants they hold.

Located in a business district, the building primarily serves as office space. Its owner, Kokuraya Yamamoto is a centuries-old specialty shop selling kelp, which explains the maritime motifs and seaweed-inspired details inside.

🔤
Colour #orange
Function #office
Feature #retro
Address: 4-chōme-7-21 Minamisenba, Chuo Ward, Osaka, 542-0081, Japan
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©️
pics by #SongkaiLiu
text by japanarch.com