James Law Cybertecture, Cybertecture Egg, Office Building, Mumbai

Are you familiar with the term “cybertecture”? Well, in case you are not, let me explain the concept to you, as simple as possible. Cybertecture, is the point where architecture, technology and innovative engineering get together, in order to sculpt the urban environment. 

James Law Cybertecture, Cybertecture Egg, Office Building, Mumbai

Pretty cool hah? Well, I sure think so.

Not so sure yet? Just check out the Cybertecture Egg, in Mumbai, India, an astonishing 33,000 square meters office space, stacked in 13 stories with highly intelligent building management systems and 3 levels of basement providing 400 car parking spaces.

James Law Cybertecture, Cybertecture Egg, Office Building, Mumbai

According to James Law Cybertecture, the Architects, (or should I say the Cybertects?), behind this impressive office building structure, the Cybertecture Egg is a Cybertecture building that brings together iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent control systems, and evolutionary engineering to create the most innovative building for the city of Mumbai and for India in the 21st Century. 

James Law Cybertecture, Cybertecture Egg, Office Building, Mumbai

For more stunning pictures of this project you can visit the James Law Cybertecture site.

IAMZ Design Studio, L'Oreal Office Building, Sweden

Spending most of my day working in an office building I find plain and boring, I was so happy to discover this imaginative office building design proposal, by IAMZ Design Studio, for the new L'Oreal offices in Stockholm Sweden. The article was short but the pictures, made my heart go Boom Boom and I just had to share it with you.

L'Oreal Office Building by IAMZ Design Studio, Stockholm, Sweden

Lac Trung Software City office building, Vietnam

Tony Owen NDM’s design has been selected as the winner of the design competition for the new Office Building for the Lac Trung software city in Ho Chi Minh City, in Vietnam.This project is for a high tech office development in district 12 of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for the VECL group. The 12 story building will contain 25,000m2 of office space., the ground floor contains gardens and a restaurant.

There is also a business club, conference centre, gym and pool on the top floor. The building has been designed to maximise natural ventillation and air circulation. A glass void shaft is located at each end of every floor. This void contains a green skygarden every third level. This wintergarden provides an outlook for the internal users at each end. These areas also have shared break out rooms for each level.

These spaces contain meetiong rooms or common areas. The voids are surrounded by glass louvres to allow natural ventialltion to flow to the sky gardens and the communal spaces. The facades are articulated with a solar screen. The screening consists of perforated aliuminium panels. These panels allow for the maximum transition of natural light, but provide shading from solar heat gain and maximise views.

Lac Trung Software City Vietnam images

information from Tony Owen NDM Architects 120109

source: http://www.e-architect.co.uk/

New Foster + Partners development in Paris

The first building within the Trapeze masterplan at Boulogne Billancourt, in the south-east of Paris – a seven-storey office development, designed by Foster + Partners – is now complete. The offices occupy a prime position within the mixed-use development and a transparent atrium maintains an important visual link between the river Seine on one side and a new park on the other.Built on the site of the former Renault headquarters, the building has an expressed white concrete structure, with a steel and glass façade. It is divided between two volumes, connected by a glazed, full-height atrium containing a café and two restaurants for staff.

This dynamic space incorporates panoramic lifts and suspended walkways, which appear to float at double-height intervals to allow uninterrupted views out to the river or the park. Above the entrance, giant translucent brise-soleils filter daylight down into the atrium, while a wave-formed geometric façade on the east and west elevations comprise curved vertical panels of alternate translucent and fritted glass.A rooftop pavilion to the east and the expansive south-facing balconies are accessible from the office floors and take advantage of the riverside location.

The 22,000 square metres of interior floor space provides a mixture of cellular and open plan configurations. The internal arrangement is flexible – the floor plates can be split either vertically or horizontally to accommodate multiple tenants. A fringe of shops enlivens the ground level and the boulevard between the river and the building has been landscaped to provide a waterside promenade.Designed with a progressive environmental strategy, the building has achieved a French HQE ‘Excellent’ rating.

The large volume of the atrium and the double-height spaces on the seventh and eighth floors promote natural air flow and the end walls of the atrium can also be opened with an automated system of pivoted glass panels to allow natural ventilation in mid-season.Grant Brooker, senior partner at Foster + Partners, said: “The new office development at Boulogne Billancourt continues our longstanding investigations into the nature of the workplace. We aimed to create a building with a focused and stimulating internal environment, with strong connections to the river and the park.”

source: http://www.fosterandpartners.com/News/359/Default.aspx