AEDAS DESIGNS NEW OFFICE-CUM-RETAIL PROJECT IN HANGZHOU

Hangzhou New South North Mixed-use Project, designed by Aedas, is set to be a brand new riverfront landmark with iconic twin towers and dynamic retail podiums.

The two 33-storey office buildings are hexagonal in shape and are placed diagonally to create a vivid building massing, show individuality from different angles and maximise opportunities for river view.

Frontage retail continues the urban interface and the open courtyard acts as a city living room with a sunken plaza as well as multi-level roof gardens.

NOVOTEL HOTEL LINKONG BLOCK 16-1 BY AEDAS

Linkong Block16-1 comprises a 350 key 5-star Novotel Hotel with a site area of 15,485 sq m and a GFA of 38,712 sq m. The overall design derived from a “floating courtyard” concept and utilizes the verticality of the structure to create a well defined zoning which consists of public (retail podium), semi-public (leisure and hotel amenities) and private (hotel guestrooms) zones.

In addition to rational zoning, the design promotes a strongly interactive relationship among different functions, transforming zoning diagram into a building mass and spatial effect which are unique yet powerful.

The building mass comprises two components, one as the retail podium base 'floating' along the water’s edge with spacious waterscape that provides a visual relief from the bustling traffic of Beidi Road, and the other as a courtyard style guestroom structure which seems like “floating” in the air. Two storeys in a staggered pattern are fitted between these two volumes to provide a water cascade, F&B and a public open courtyard as one of the hotel auxiliary facilities.

All three spaces are combined into an integral whole to offer completely different visual and spatial experiences during day and night, catering to different users’ needs. With iconic architectural design and distinctive spatial arrangement, the proposed design is set to become a signature postcard building for Linkong Park.

Location: Shanghai, China

Architect: Aedas

Gross floor area: 38,712 square meters

Client:Kingboard Chemical Holdings Ltd

COMPOSITE BUILDING ON SAI YEE STREET BY AEDAS

“With a population density of 130,000 people per square kilometre, Mongkok, a neighbourhood in Hong Kong, is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Aedas was appointed to design a serviced apartment building in this hyperdense district, whose construction work commenced recently.

Standing on a site of 614 square metres, which is challengingly small, the building will offer serviced apartment accommodation to occupants. In the early post-war years, it was common to create illegal iron balconies for residential units in Mongkok to acquire maximum view. Aedas reinterpreted these structures in a modern way, using irregular protrusions to create unobstructed views for each apartment.

Inspired by the home gardens which people create on the balconies, Aedas designed a green wall that seemingly protrudes from the solid façade of the podium to further connect the building with the historical cityscape. This green wall will also enhance the quality of life for the neighbourhood by increasing the provision of greenery at the pedestrian level.

The building is set back from the street to allow more opportunities for planting, which creates a breathing space in the middle of the dense neighborhood and provides rare greenery. It also transforms the outdoor landscape space into an urban backdrop for the building’s public areas such as an entrance lobby on the ground level and a transit lift lobby on the second floor.” Aedas

Location: Hong Kong, China

Architect: Aedas

Site Area: 614 sqm

GFA: 5,514 sqm

Client: Good Standing Limited 

Via Archiscene

ABSOLUTE WORLD TOWERS WINS EMPORIS SKYSCRAPER AWARD 2012

The world's most renowned architecture prize for skyscrapers, the Emporis Skyscraper Award, goes this year to the Absolute World Towersin Mississauga, Canada, (see project). The two towers were selected by an international jury of experts from over 300 skyscrapers at least 100 meters tall completed last year. The award, given by Emporis, is being presented for the thirteenth time this year.

Absolute WorldTowers, which form part of a five-building complex and were designed by the architectural practices MAD and Burka Architects, won over the jury primarily through their unmistakable design: "The way the two structures twist organically by up to 8 degrees per floor is not just a superb technical achievement, but also a refreshing change to the set forms of high-rise routine," stated the panel of experts in explaining the choice of the pair of towers, 176 and 158 meters tall, as the winner.

The second-placed project is Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi, designed by Aedas Architects. Due to its innovative facade, the skyscraper complex convinces in terms of both climate and design criteria. The outer skin of the facades is rotated by computer in response to the sun's position, leading to a substantial reduction in thermal energy inside the buildings. In designing the towers, the architects drew inspiration from Arab mashrabiya windows – sun and privacy screens found in traditional Islamic architecture.

The expert jury voted Burj Qatar, a 238 meter tall skyscraper in Doha, into third place. Designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, it is the building's exceptional facade design that stands out. The metal mesh facade, whose design – as with Al Bahr Towers – draws on traditional mashrabiya windows and is intended to contribute to protection from the sun, reveals a complex pattern at close quarters. The imposing effect of the ornamental facade reaches its full expression under the dome that tops the cylinder-shaped skyscraper.

The eighth-placed project is Unicredit Tower, designed by Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. The tower include Italy’s tallest building, visible from more than six miles away. Spiraling upward, the 31- ​story asymmetrical tower culminates in a sculptural stainless steel spire. The building is clad in reflective glass. Its narrow, curved forms enclose a circular piazza, a new public space that links the buildings to their surroundings.

Facing the piazza, the facades incorporate sunshades, emphasizing the buildings’ fluid shape. At the street level, the tower is clad in stone. The tower is part of complex of three office towers “and their podium are the largest components of Porta Nuova Garibaldi, a mixed-​use development north of Milan’s city center. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed the master plan for the 7-​hectare development, which creates a new and grand gateway to the city” says Cesar Pelli.

AEDAS WINS BAY FRONT AND MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT COMPETITION

Aedas recently won a competition to design a bay front, mixed-use development in Wu Yuan Wan, Xiamen, China. The mixed-use development comprises a shopping mall, a five-star hotel and two SOHO towers with a total gross floor area of 175,000 square meters. With an aim to become the centre piece of a new master plan, it will be a new retail landmark and a well integrated complex that responds to its watery surrounding.

Inspired by the ancient Chinese character for water, the three curvilinear strips define the podium massing. The SOHO and hotel towers are designed with a simple north-south circulation flow that echoes the water flow from north to south and responds to different nodal points around the site. The towers are aligned in the west side of the site, creating a terrace massing for the podium where mall patrons can enjoy the beautiful bay view of Wu Yuan Wan on the terrace and rooftop.

The architecture for the retail mall takes its inspiration from ripples and interference in the water's fluid surface. The design team broke away from the conventional opaque box of retail design and used layered vertical blades with various degrees of opacities to allow visual interaction between the interior and exterior. This project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

GREENLAND GROUP CHENGDU EAST VILLAGE BY AEDAS

Located inside Chengdu East village, Aedas recently unveiled their ice mountain-inspired design for the Greenland Group Chengdu East Village CBED Plots.

Comprised of office, retail, residential spaces and a 486-meter-high tower, the design stayed in line with the ice mountain concept, which expands to the continuity of the mountain range and landscape terrain with fissures located on the foot of the mountain.

The main highlights of the development are the retail streets. The fissure lines all converge towards the civic square in the center of the land parcel representing the heart of the retail development.

The architecture for the heritage retail district is based on a modern interpretation of local aesthetics. Using the same material historically famous in Chengdu, Aedas developed low rise buildings with alleyways and courtyards not too dissimilar to many Chinese courtyard developments in this historical city.

Aedas studied the size and proportion of these courtyard buildings and made use of the level differences to seamlessly blend the basement levels with the ground plane. The ice mountain concept ties the master plan into a cohesive statement befitting to this holistic development, with the high tower designed by Adrian Smith.

Location: Chengdu, China

Architect: Aedas

Gross Floor Area: 1.1 million square meters

Site Area: 14,300 sqm

Year: 2013

Client: Greenland Group

BRAVO PAZHOU BY AEDAS

Bravo Pazhou unites two programmes into one spectacular composition. Aedas designed the 100,000-square-meter Bravo Pazhou mixed-use tower, located in the western portion of Pazhou’s central business district, with restaurants and a boutique hotel at the lower levels and office space at the upper floors.

The extraordinary thing about this development is the bespoke design to cater two owners in one unified composition. This special request from clients provides opportunities to explore creative ways to amalgamate specific masses in a single iconic composition.

As a result, the distinction between the functions is visible on the elevation. The whole composition is unified by a semi controlled random fenestration using vertical fins at regular intervals.

The top portion of the tower uses a simple but effective gesture that combines observation points with the utility nodes.

Location: Guangzhou, China

Architect: Aedas

Client: Bravo Group