Jean Nouvel has designed a wide variety of immaculate buildings. This particular building is The Louvre Abu Dabi. It was founded in 2017 and is quite the spectacle. My first reaction to seeing this image as well as others from inside, was that it was a massive and quite serene building. Water flows throughout the inside, as well as a pure white interior. I felt pure awe seeing the complexity, openness, and scale of this project.
This beautiful square in Birmingham, UK is home to Birmingham University and a number of office spaces. It is bold but respectful and sets the tone for the arena center!
One of Henry Hobson Richardson’s buildings is the Trinity Church in Boston. It has long been considered a masterpiece of American architecture. Built on marshland in the 1870s, it is now a classic example of what is called “Richardsonian Romanesque”. It boasts stained-glass windows, colorful mosaics, wall murals, and needle-worked kneelers. It is a vibrant church where Christians meet on a daily basis.
This project will serve as an energy efficient, single occupancy office building in the middle of London, UK. It represents a colorful break in the monotony of the buildings around it and can serve as a somewhat affordable building for new businesses.
This is the grand hotel for Sydney. Originally built in 1915 and home to government departments, this building is now open to the public for the first time! It features a garden courtyard and is a beautiful escape from he busy city streets!
The link is a brand new pedestrian walkway in Melbourne that connects an upscale shopping mall to an office building tower. This was a mixed-use project that was meant to transform Chadstone which is apparently an extremely large mall in Melbourne. Its designed to accommodate art installations, exhibitions and events!
As illustrated by this photo, living in a net zero home does not have to be extremely different than a traditional home. Tenants can easily live a normal lifestyle with tv and other modern amenities. Built in the dessert, the outside temperature can range from 100 degrees during the day to 50 degrees at night and the building manages to keep a constant indoor temperature of about 70 degrees without the use of a heater or air conditioner. The heating and cooling of his buildings comes from the earth itself. He often builds homes into a hill to provide a barrier from the harsh sun. As the first few feet of the soil absorbs heat, the next levels remain at fairly regulated temperature. This design allows for an inhospitable environment to become an ecofriendly safe haven.
Another location for Reynolds’s “Earthships” is near Phoenix, Arizona. Similar to many of the other buildings. It is built in a remote area where very few other architects would venture. However, Reynolds choses to rely on architecture to provide a livable environment rather than traditional natural resources, such as a river. Besides the thermal wrap of being built against a hill, this is partially due to the use of the sealed glass bottles in the wall. Since there is no air flow, dead air space cannot heat up or cool down. This is similar to the design of new coolers and cups such as Yeti.
Reynolds uses similar ideas and models in each of his buildings. This building in New Mexico is also a net zero building. This means that the bills from a city or company is actually zero. The home is designed to clean rainwater for consumption. This allows for little to no need for a freshwater line from the city. It is also designed for waste management. Black water is treated by plants and is used for nutrients for plants for both clean air and food.
Michael Reynolds is known for building net zero green buildings. He calls these buildings “Earthships.” His largest project at this time is this building he has constructed in Argentina. This structure is very different from his most common designs. He has traditionally built homes around New Mexico and Arizona, but instead this is actually a school. Each building is made from 100% sustainable material and a solar power energy source. Inside of many of the exterior wall of this building are glass bottles. This not only turns trash into a material, but also generates natural light to the house, much like traditional stained glass. He also uses used tires to create a retaining wall and many of the supports for the building. Lastly, he used many aluminum (soda) cans along with mortar to create many of the pillars the school contains for both aesthetic and structural quality. This is the first sustainable school in Argentina.
