*️⃣Maison Hermes Ginza

Architect #Piano #RenzoPiano #RPBW
City #Tokyo
Country #Japan #AP

🔤By day, the facade is silvered and sparkling; by night it glows warm like a lantern, a distinctive presence in the crowded shopping district.

Its location at the heart of Tokyo’s densely built, neon-lit Ginza shopping district, and the stringent building regulations regarding earthquakes and fire, have influenced a compact and unique building with a distinctive glass façade.

It has a unique glass façade made of 13,000 bespoke, 450mm-square glass blocks (with special smaller, curved glass bricks at the building’s corners). Much larger than standard glass blocks, these were especially made by Vetroarredo in Florence, Italy and had to meet stringent fire and earthquake regulations. Their stamped textured glass finish means they are translucent rather than transparent, the overall effect of the facade being somewhat like a contemporary version of the traditional Japanese screen.

Hung from the structure on steel arms, the glass block facade is designed to act like a curtain in the event of an earthquake, allowing it to move via the flexible seals between the blocks by as much as 4mm, absorbing rather than resisting seismic shock.

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Material #glassbrick
Function #retail #shop
Feature #nightlight #adminvisited
Address: 5 Chome-4-1 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
Google street
Night google street #BestGS@simoderna🔥

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pics by #Denance
text by architecture-tokyo.com and architecture-history.org

*️⃣Hungerburgbahn

Architect #Hadid #ZahaHadid #ZHA
City #Innsbruck
Country #Austria #EU

🔤The stations’ most striking feature, the roofs, create artificial landscapes meant to echo natural ice formations while simultaneously being reflections of the passenger circulation underneath. #context

“Each station has its own unique context, topography, altitude, and circulation. We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements – as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.” says Hadid.

"It is indeed an honour to complete my second project in Innsbruck. The railway reflects the city’s continued commitment to the highest standards of architecture and pushes the boundaries of design and construction technology. These stations are the global benchmark for the use of doublecurvature glass in construction.” states Zaha Hadid.

Project was selected by #RIBA as the best building in Europe in 2006. And by #WOHA as the building of the year 2008 in transport category. #award

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Colour #teal
Material #glass
Function #transportation #railway
Feature #district #nightlight
Address: 7CP2+G2 Innsbruck, Austria
Google street
Under google street
Other station google street

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pics by #Foddanu, bega.com and bollinger-grohmann.com
text by Archdaily and e-architect

*️⃣Beirut terraces

Architect #HdM #HerzogdeMeuron #Herzog #Meuron
City #Beirut
Country #Lebanon #ME

🔤The moderate climate of Beirut is undoubtedly one of the city’s greatest assets; it makes outdoor living an integral part of Beirut’s urban culture. The design therefore aims to cultivate this asset and incorporate it into the apartments. Indoor and outdoor spaces merge into each other so that the generous terraces truly become living spaces.

Extensive #concrete overhangs provide shade and reduce solar gain. The floor plates are thick enough to balance the daily temperature cycles by virtue of their thermal mass, storing cold through the night and releasing it during the day. Where necessary, perforations in the overhangs modulate the lighting and exposure to the sun. Their density, shape, and the shadows they generate form a striking pattern that gives the tower a distinctive identity and sets it off from its surroundings.

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Colour #white
Function #residential
Feature #skyscraper
Address: VFXW+VFP, Beirut, Lebanon
Google street

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pics by #IwanBaan
text by Dezeen and Archdaily

*️⃣Munich Olympic Stadium

Architect #Behnisch and #FreiOtto
City #Munich
Country #Germany #EU

🔤Intended to present a new face for post-war Germany, the stadium—strikingly Modernist in character—was meant to stand in harmony with its surroundings. Despite these modest intentions, however, controversy surrounded the project from its outset, which centered on skyrocketing costs, the erosion of local heritage, and the grim specter of the country’s own recent past.

Seeking to avoid the inherent monumentality of individual structures, their proposal was to gather the various venues and accessory functions close enough together to be united by a common structural element. The concept for the stadium itself was derived from the ‘earth stadiums’ commonly built in Eastern Europe since the end of the First World War. It was as much a symbolic choice as a practical one, as a stadium set into the earth would not present visitors with an imposing edifice, but blend more subtly into the ideal Bavarian landscape being created on the rest of the site. #context

More profound history of the project – Archdaily

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Colour #blue
Material #glass
Function #entertainment #venue #sport
Feature #retro
Address: Olympiapark München, Spiridon-Louis-Ring 21, 80809 München, Germany
Aerial google street
Under google street
Google earth

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pics by #Foddanu
text by Archdaily

*️⃣Liège-Guillemins Railway Station

Architect #Calatrava #SantiagoCalatrava
City #Liege
Country #Belgium #EU

🔤Liege in the heart of the high-speed network in northern Europe, the railway company wanted the new station to offer an aesthetic that was a reference for the city. The Calatrava project, monumental, expressive, airy and transparent, fulfilled these requirements widely.

Calatrava designed a building, 200m wide, without facades, relying on the roof as a refuge and its identity. The project was marked by transparency and dialogue between two neighborhoods, one residential and the other urban, building bridges between them, separated in the past by railways.

The characteristic transparency of the station is achieved through the monumental vault constructed of glass and steel, which allows a feeling of interpenetration between the station and the city.

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Colour #white
Material #steel
Function #transportation #railway
Address: Pl. des Guillemins 2, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Google street
Inside google street
Night google street
Temporary art event

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pics by architects, #Tzarfati and #Ewing
text by wikiarquitectura

#bonus@simoderna (The Guardians of the galaxy 1st part, The Gemini and the Fifth Estate movies had scenes filmed here)