Shanghai Apple Store by Roy Zipstein

As we reported before, a new Apple store owned by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (and China's first!) Opened July 10. Over the last five years, photographer Roy Zipstein has documented the stores, traveled to America, Europe, Asia and also Australia to highlight the elegance structure of expertise. Similar to how it takes a certain kind of architect to manifest Apple’s aesthetic and technological philosophy in built-form, it takes a certain kind of photographer to capture that essence on film.  

Via Bernstein & Andriulli, Zipstein commented: "The Apple store is very well designed, inside and outside This is very interesting to watch the design process evolved over the past year, through the use of different materials such as glass,stainless steel and stone, and developing interpretations of interior space. Having the architects present at some of these shoots and being able to exchange thoughts with them has been an added bonus for me.”
We’re excited to share Zipstein’s latest photographs from Shanghai!  And, be sure to see our previous set of images thanks to Flicker user Lesh51.

Vershina Trade and Entertainment Center by Erick van Egeraat

Full talented architect, Erick van Egeraat has designed phenomenal public building in the Khanti-Mansiysk autonomous region, Russia. This architecture design called Vershina Trade and Entertainment Center and officially opened on December 7th, 2010. The building which consumes 37.000 sq. meter. has function as the state of the art, trade and entertainment center and offers its space for retail, extreme sport, dance, restaurants, bars and an underground night club. Total there are eight venues provided round the clock activities for visitors. The exterior lighting of Vershina Trade and Entertainment Center is great, even in the noon. The pictures will explain more about how beautiful lighting of this building.

The Architect said that this building is equipped with an extensive lighting scheme. Motion advertisements are projected onto the glazed facade. The volume is cut to form “sharp volumes” allowing daylight to enter deep into the center. At night they radiate lines of light via secondary cuts in the facade. It transforms into a beacon of light in the predominantly dark winters of the Siberian province.

                                                                                                                                                                       
Visit Erick van Egeraat website - here

Sail @ Marina Bay by NBBJ

Singapore known as skyscrapers country. Every place we can find skyscrapers building. This is the way to compromise with limited area in Singapore. Also the way to accommodate population which increase year by year. Singapore become favorite country to work and most big company in the world have branch in Singapore. This condition need additional skyscrapers building as business center and apartment.

The design of the award-winning Sail @ Marina Bay derives inspiration from Singapore’s port environment—the air, wind and water—and its diverse international population. Viewed from across the bay, the 63- and 70-story glass-clad towers rise from a sculpted base to resemble wind-blown sails. At 245 meters tall, the Sail @ Marina Bay prominently carves out the leading edge of Singapore’s emerging new skyline.

Designed to advance Singapore’s leadership as a global “Live Work Play” destination, the Sail @ Marina Bay features 1,111 residences—the first Marina Bay project to introduce residential units—restaurants, health clubs, recreation decks with pools and tennis courts and car-park facilities. To create a true 24/7 lifestyle environment in the heart of the Central Business District (CBD), and to help reduce traffic, congestion and smog, the Sail @ Marina Bay is designed to directly access the MRT and park amenities along the waterfront. Retail, dining and work environments are all within an easy walk.

Careful site orientation provides 65 percent of the apartments with panoramic vistas of Marina Bay and the CBD’s cultural, entertainment and retail areas. Six-star penthouses offer breathtaking views of the sea and islands beyond. This thoughtful planning has yielded great success for the project: Tower One units sold out in two weeks; Tower Two in two days; with sale prices setting new records for the Southeast Asia residential market.

The design sets new safety and sustainability standards for all of Marina Bay. The innovative yet economical structural solution couples a shear-wall and foundation system—a first for the Singapore—to withstand seismic criteria, resulting in one of the safest buildings in the country. The exterior facade uses insulated low-E glass to reduce solar heat gain and lower air-conditioning demands—another first for Singapore residential towers—while taking full advantage of spectacular views with floor-to-ceiling glass in many units.

The building is BCA Green Mark Gold Certified (Singapore’s sustainable building criteria), integrating features such as a seven-story car park greenwall along a new pedestrian linkage connecting Raffles Quay to a proposed central park; improving the residents’ overall air-quality and living experience and creating a new public space for the City.

The Sail has been deemed Singapore’s newest city icon and it is fast becoming a top destination within the rich and diverse fabric of Singapore, helping transform Marina Bay into a geographical hotspot for culture, entertainment and business. (Via)

Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners

Featured here on Daily Architecture are the recently unveiled designs by Foster + Partners for the Zayed National Museum.   The monument and memorial to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE, is located  on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and will be the first museum completed for the island.
Architecturally, the aim has been to combine a highly efficient, contemporary form with elements of traditional Arabic design and hospitality to create a museum that is sustainable, welcoming and culturally of its place. Celebrating Sheikh Zayed’s legacy and love of nature, the museum is set within a landscaped garden, based on a timeline of his life.

The display spaces are housed within a man-made, landscaped mound. The galleries are placed at the bases of five solar thermal towers. The towers heat up and act as thermal chimneys to draw cooling air currents naturally through the museum. Fresh air is captured at low level and drawn through buried ground-cooling pipes and then released into the museum’s lobby. The heat at the top of the towers works to draw the air up vertically through the galleries due to the thermal stack effect. Air vents open at the top of the wing-shaped towers taking advantage of the negative pressure on the lee of the wing profile to draw the hot air out.

Here in the museum these towers are lightweight steel structures, sculpted aerodynamically to work like the feathers of a bird’s wing. The analogies with falcons and flight are deliberate and relate directly to Sheikh Zayed’s love of falconry. This theme is further celebrated by a gallery devoted to the subject as part of a wider focus on conservation. These inner spaces open up to an outdoor arena for live displays with hunting birds.

Balancing the lightweight steel structures with a more monumental interior experience, the galleries are anchored by a dramatic top-lit central lobby, which is dug into the earth to exploit its thermal properties and brings together shops, cafes, an auditorium and informal venues for performances of poetry and dance. Throughout, the treatment of light and shade draws on a tradition of discreet, carefully positioned openings, which capture and direct the region’s intense sunlight to illuminate and animate these interior spaces. Objects are displayed within niches and on stone plinths that rise seamlessly from the floor.
The museum contains a variety of performance spaces. A large auditorium, lined with Emirati textiles, provides an evocative setting for presentations and films. The lobby incorporates more informal venues for poetry readings, music and dance, where the audience can gather in a circle to enjoy the spectacle and atmosphere of traditional performances.

Saadiyat Island is located 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi and is the largest single mixed-use development in the Arabian Gulf. Arranged as seven districts, the Saadiyat Island Cultural District will also include the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as a Performing Arts Center and Maritime Museum. The Zayed National Museum is already under construction and will be the first of the museums proposed for the island.

The Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi by Asymptote

The Yas Hotel, a 500-room, 85,000-square-meter complex, is one of the main architectural features of the ambitious 36-billion-dollar Yas Marina development and accompanying Formula 1 raceway circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Asymptote envisioned an architectural landmark embodying various key influences and inspirations ranging from the aesthetics and forms associated with speed, movement and spectacle to the artistry and geometries forming the basis of ancient Islamic art and craft traditions.


Of architectural and engineering significance is the main feature of the project’s design, a 217-meter expanse of sweeping, curvilinear forms constructed of steel and 5,800 pivoting diamond-shaped glass panels. This Grid-Shell component affords the building an architecture comprised of an atmospheric-like veil that contains two hotel towers and a link bridge constructed as a monocoque sculpted steel object passing above the Formula 1 track that makes its way through the building complex. The Grid-Shell visually connects and fuses the entire complex together while producing optical effects and spectral reflections that play against the surrounding sky, sea and desert landscape. The architecture as a whole “performs” as both an environmentally responsive solution as well as an architecture of spectacle and event. The entire jewel-like composition of the project responds visually and tectonically to its environment to create a distinct and powerful sense of place as well as a breathtaking backdrop to the Formula 1 and other events that the building will celebrate. The Yas Hotel is designed to be a significant landmark destination on Yas Island for Abu Dhabi and the UAE at large.