CCTV China Central Television Headquarters

Keeping in mind that the Chinese manage to prepare themselves for the olympics in such paced time, I'm now constantly impressed by how China is developing and rising against other nations. Their open-mindedness in architectural design is further manifested by the recent CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.



Rem Koolhaas(Netherlands) and Ole Scheeren(Germany) of OMA were the architects in charge for the building, while Arup provided the complex engineering design. The building was built in two separate building and later was joint as picture shown below.



Somehow, its design reminds me of an escher illusion. Nevertheless, props to China for building an almost impossible feat of construction challenge. Read more here.

Coroflot! : An online Crative Portfolio

Interesting find this one. It's a website consist of designer from all sorts of background, expertise and prowess. It's like the Vimeo of design craft.



I love going through the site to get references and ideas. They have some very clever and creative ideas which are very intriguing.

Get there by clicking here.

World without design.

Environment. It's what we're surrounded with and live in. World without people concerned about environment makes it all dull and plain mundane. I would imagine of a world where design and art is tertiary and governments do not put a single penny on developing such an important part of any civilization. My point is, environmental design is essential to any country as it beautifies and makes a statement.

In my opinion, design reflects the overall impression of a society. I would think that China is still the ancient narrow-minded people if it's not for the recent revelation of extraordinary architectural structures they've built. Take for example, the National Grand Theater in Beijing.



Even the simplest act of decoration such as the lawn gnomes, statues and flamingo puppets makes up the essence of design and reflects concerns about the environment.



Wall Street Bull.

Dubai's Ibn Battuta Shopping Mall

The Ibn Battuta Mall is a large shopping mall on the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai.. It is named after Moroccan famous traveller and explorer Ibn Battuta. This project was completed by the Nakheel Properties group in early 2005. The names of the six courts of the mall are named after the countries and regions to which Ibn Battuta travelled.

Interestingly, this mall is divided into six main courts. There's China,India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Andalusia.



Click image for higher-res.



Read more over here.

EarthShip

Sometime ago when I was doing my secondary studies, my dad was so obsessed with Earth ship. He still does. In fact, he's still practicing this so called demeanor as he believes the earth is closing to apocalypse. Nah, I'm just joking. My dad loves the idea that recycling is part of our responsibility and what others may think that throwing gets rid of their problem, we may be able to fix and make use of it again.

So what's an Earthship?



The idea is using waste material as the base material for your building. Think of it as this way. The native Kadazans in Sabah are surrounded with Bamboo woods. So, naturally that they would use it as their construction blocks. Those living in Gaza uses clay as that's what is available to their disposal.

So why not use tires/bottles/boxes/newspapers etc. as your very own brick and mortar?
The pioneer to Earthship, Mike Reynolds wanted to create a home that would do three things;
first, it would be sustainable, using material indigenous to the entire planet as well as recycled materials wherever possible.
Second, the homes would rely on natural energy sources and be independent from the “grid”, therefore being less susceptible to natural disasters and free from the electrical and water lines that Reynolds considered unsightly and wasteful.
Finally, it would be economically feasible for the average person with no specialized construction skills to be able to create.



Read more here.