The elevator of the future will shuttle sideways, too.

The elevator of the future will shuttle sideways, too. Thyssenkrupp
Can This Elevator Help Designers Sidestep Tall-Building Problems?
EMILY NONKO
Thyssenkrupp’s design travels horizontally and diagonally, in addition to up and down, freeing up square footage that would otherwise be commandeered for a shaft. But is it a whole new mode of transit?

Half the world’s population already lives in cities, and that number is expected to jump to 70 percent by the end of the century. To accommodate the new urban dwellers, cities will have to build higher—and that will mean doubling down on ways to transport residents from the ground up into the sky.

ULX: 10 Museum Designs Reach Out to Their Surrounding Communities

ULX: 10 Museum Designs Reach Out to Their Surrounding Communities
By Ron Nyren
Twenty years after the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in Spain, clad in swooping titanium panels and curving glass, architects still contend with the desire for museums to serve as eye-catching icons and engines of economic regeneration. Recently built museums balance these expectations with a focus on enhancing public access to cultural facilities, responding sensitively to the surrounding architectural context, adding open space and event plazas, and incorporating sustainable design principles.

The following ten projects—all completed during the past five years—include adaptive uses of historic buildings, expansions and additions aimed at making old museum buildings more welcoming to the public, a new museum that shelters a medieval chamber, a facility inserted beneath a culturally significant square, and a maritime museum that opens access to a formerly industrial waterfront.

Ron Nyren is a freelance architecture, urban design, and real estate writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.


©Uke Hayes, Courtesy of OMA

Rendering Visions of a More Diverse World

Rendering Visions of a More Diverse World
A group of graduate students wants to make architectural renderings look more like an urban utopia—though they’ll settle for the real world.
AARIAN MARSHALL
NONSCANDINAVIA figures in an architectural rendering by Jason Danforth, a GSAPP student.(Jason Danforth, GSAPP 2016)

ULX: 10 Libraries as Community Hubs

ULX: 10 Libraries as Community Hubs
By Ron Nyren

Rather than fading in the age of the internet and digital media, libraries are taking on an even stronger role in community life, bringing together diverse populations and providing access not only to books, but also to offerings as varied as recording studios that let patrons use musical instruments and conversation tables that help immigrants strengthen their language skills. Cafés, coffee bars, lounges, exhibition spaces, and plazas encourage gathering, and expanded children’s areas and teen rooms draw younger people for studying, games, and other activities.

The following ten projects—all completed during the past five years—include facilities that strengthen pedestrian links to waterfronts, renovated buildings that open up interiors to views and daylight, a JCPenney store converted into a library and community center, and the refurbishment of a 1960s library that spans a river.


© Ros Kavanagh

10 Desert Designs

Αrt2272 Τεταρτη 25 Ιανουαρίου 2017

ULX: 10 Desert Designs

By Ron Nyren

The following ten projects—all completed over the past five years—represent a variety of approaches to blocking the heat, including concrete domes modeled on palm trees, building forms borrowed from Arabian tents and Arizona canyons, motorized louvers controlled by sensors, solar chimneys tucked behind recycled copper panels, and a veil of twisted white fabric sunshades.

1. Cayan Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates