GERMANY
KCAP Architects & Planners as part of a team of international architects, has won the work to design a new city quarter on the hill of Killesberg, close to the famous Weissenhofsiedlung. The 50,000sqm mixed-use program will comprise housing, offices, restaurants, retail, day-care, a city hall and the community centre Forum K. The design includes three differently sized and sculpturally shaped apartment blocks with stepped roof terraces. The exterior spaces centre around the theme of terraces and creates a variety of heights and modulations in the terrain and provides for a differentiation of public circulation spaces, semi public resting areas and private spaces.
RUSSIA
The development industry in Russia is not buoying international firms as well as expected. International practice Aukett Fitzroy Robinson has announced its full year results will be “significantly worse” than previously expected, after work in the Middle East and Russia is deferred. Its Russian scheme on the Moscow River could be suspended for a “lengthy period”. Announcing its reduced profits, the firm said: “Continued suspension of this project will cause a significant shortfall in projected group revenues for the current year.”
UNITED STATES
The tallest building in the western hemisphere, the Sears Tower in Chicago, has been fitted with a series of observation towers on the 103rd floor. The Skydeck observation area, which has been nicknamed The Ledge, includes glass bays that extend 1.4m out from the building. The boxes are built to withstand wind pressures of 125 pounds per square foot and loads of up to five tons.
HONG KONG
Norman Foster is back on Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District project as consultant. Foster’s originally design of a massive canopy covering the 40-hectare site was scrapped in 2005, and the architect has been told there will be no canopy this time either. “As far as Norman Foster is concerned, I am not worried he will be burdened by what he has done in the past. Actually, he knows the site quite well because he has done work on it already that impressed the panel,” chief secretary for administration, Henry Tsang Ying- yen, said.
NETHERLANDS
San Francisco based architecture firm, William McDonough + Partners, is making a break into Europe by setting up a studio in the Netherlands. The firm has already designed the Nike European Headquarters in Hilversum as well as Barcelona’s mixed-use Ecourban project. “It’s tremendously exciting for our firm to work in the Netherlands, as few places can match the Dutch devotion to high quality design and sustainability. Having a studio in the Netherlands will allow us to directly engage in this dynamic and inspiring culture,” partner Kevin Burke said.
