CoolCreative

As more and more people are choosing to work from home, there has been an increase in the need to have ‘office space’ within the home. Some people may have the luxury of converting a room in their house to facilitate this, however, others may not and will look at alternative solutions, such as a garden office/ pod. These have become increasingly popular in the last few years, but many of them are standard cuboid offices that don’t have much character.

The dynamism of China’s development is breathtaking; throughout the entire country, you can sense thee enthusiasm, ambition, and boundless energy of the upcoming generation. It is very rewarding experience to see the completed Opera House and I am very grateful to the city of Guangzhou. There are very few places in the world today where architects can find such forward looking, enthusiastic clients with such passion for innovation. I first travelled to Guangzhou in 1981 - at the beginning of my career - and the contrast to the Guangzhou we see today could not be greater. The design of the Opera House reflects China’s rich cultural history, but also the remarkable future China will play on a worldwide stage.

The city of Strasbourg has been developing a new tram-line service to combat increasing congestion and pollution in the city centre. It encourages people to leave their cars outside the city in specially designed car parks, and then take a tram to the more inner parts of the city. The first part of this initiative was the development of Line 'A' that ran east to west across Strasbourg. A parallel initiative to the design of the transport system was the inclusion of a number of artists, such as Barbara Kruger and Mario Mertz, to make specific installations at key points of the line. Currently, Strasbourg is planning the second line, 'B', that will run north to south. Zaha Hadid has been invited, as part of the new artist's interventions, to design the tram-station and a car park for 700 cars at the northern apex of the line.

The Zaha Hadid concept for the Neil Barrett flagship store in Tokyo is based on the minimal cut of the brand`s fashion design and parallels its approach in using the same design parameters of fixed points, folding, pleating and cut outs.

Rather than defining a single room or space, the design creates a circular passage allowing the customer to experience the space in multiple ways and interpretations. 

Hotel Missoni is the debut hotel from The Rezidor Hotel Group and luxury fashion house, Missoni. Opened in June 2009, the lavish hotel overlooks Edinburgh’s old town in the heart of the historic city centre. It provides the most stylish yet professional hotel. Offering contemporary accommodation and exceptional service in a welcoming atmosphere, Hotel Missoni is the ideal place for meetings, business lunches, entertaining clients and even enjoying well earned breaks with partners or friends.

The Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton, London Borough of Lambeth, offers an opportunity to broaden not only the educational diversity of this active and historic part of London, but also to augment the built environment in a predominantly residential area. This Academy presents itself as an open, transparent and welcoming addition to the community’s local urban regeneration process.The strategic location of the site within two main residen- tial arteries naturally lends the built form to be coherent in formation and assume a strong urban character and identity, legible to both the local and neighbouring zones.

“Classic” is a word often applied to everything from fast food to last week’s No. 1 pop song. For a different perspective, consider instead the Eames lounge chair and ottoman. Since its introduction in 1956 it has been regarded as among the 20th century’s most significant— and enduring—furniture designs; Treasured, Collected, Enduring.

The Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion is organized around 4 main elements, or “pods”, that perform both as structural elements and as spatial enclosures, where each ‘pod’ corresponds to a specific exhibition space. These pods intersect and brace each other, allowing the weight of the bridge to be distributed across the four trusses instead of a singular main element. This has resulted in a reduction in the size of load-bearing members required to span the 155m and 125m sections of the bridge (measured from foundation to foundation) that cross the River Ebro.

“The Bridge Pavilion is a seminal project for the practice as it will be our first completed bridge anywhere in the world.” states Zaha Hadid.