Dorobanti Tower by Zaha Hadid Architects [Romania]

Zaha Hadid Architects have designed a high-rise building for the center of Bucharest, Romania, which has a structural, lattice façade. It will contain a five star hotel, a business centre, a casino, retail areas, apartments and underground parking.

Architectural Concept:

The brief called for a 100,000 square metre mixed-use, high-rise development in the centre of Bucharest. The project comprises of a 5-star hotel, luxury apartments, retail areas, a business centre, a casino and underground parking.

The Dorobanti Tower was designed to establish an iconic presence in the heart of Bucharest. The new tower is a unique mix of a distinctive form, ingenious structure, and spatial qualities of sky-high living. The purity of its form - a chamfered diamond like structure - will be a new landmark in the centre of Bucharest. Zaha Hadid Architect’s design concept is a synthesis of architecture and engineering, which integrates a distinct meandering structural lattice.

Urban parameters, site constraints and the programme generate the building’s elegant tapering profile. The new tower establishes a distinctive identity while avoiding sterile repetition through its dynamically changing profile. In order to maximise lighting and views for the neighbourhoods, the elongated curvilinear shape reduces its perimeter towards the top, while the offset to the inside at ground floor level shall create a generous public realm and an appropriate entrance plaza in front of the tower.

Facade / Structure:

Bucharest is within a vulnerable seismic zone and therefore the structural concept was crucial to us from the beginning of the design process. Placing the primary structure at the exterior not only maximises the structural footprint but also allows for column free interior spaces.

Concrete filled stainless steel profiles follow in sinus waves from the ground level to the top of the tower, creating a distinctive identity, complementing the tower design. The concrete filling will give additional strength to the structure and it will provide fire protection to the steel profiles. The facade structure expresses the various programmes and it adjusts from bottom to top according to the changing structural forces. The secondary structure, which is integrated between the main steel tubes, gives additional strength to the primary steel mesh and it also works as a damper in case of earthquakes.

At the bottom, the façade grid has denser amplitudes according to the structural requirements for a tower of this height, providing the required load bearing capacity and stiffness to the structure. At the technical and recreational levels, the structure condenses creating almost solid knots. On the top floors, the primary structure has been reduced to the minimum according to the structural requirements in order to maximise the views and lighting for the luxury apartments.

Landscape:

The public realm adjacent to the tower will be unlike anything else in Bucharest, representing a major attraction within the dense urban character of the City, offering an important new meeting space and urban plaza. Metaphorically speaking, the landscaping can be understood as a warped concrete “carpet” with one continuous surface connecting the three surrounding streets. The landscape is sculpted to create seating areas, water basins, fountains, green areas including trees and a raised terrace.

Program: 5 Star Hotel and Apartments
Client: Smartown Group
Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Architect: Markus Planteu
Project Team: Dennis Brezina, Naomi Fritz, Susanne Lettau, Thomas Mathoy, Goswin Rothenthal, Rooshad Shroff, Seda Zirek

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Spotted: Karl Who?

So very cute... Karl's bodyguard in St. Tropez wearing Naco's "Karl Who?" shirt [available at Colette].

Karl's bodyguard in St. Tropez wearing Naco's t-shirt Karl Who?

Prepare Yourself for a World Tour

Fasten Seat Belts to the World tries to help travellers break cultural and linguistic barriers. It points out dos and don'ts in Europe and how to avoid misunderstandings on your travels.

My New Favorite: Champaca by Comme des Garcons LUXE

"If heaven had a fragrance, we think it would smell like Champaca," stated Lucky Scent. Named after the flower sacred to the Indus Valley, Champaca is a stunning velvety, creamy, and sweet floral fragrance that strikes perfect harmony between flower, perfumed wood and muted spice. "Although the other notes in this perfume dance in and out, the holy champaca flower is and remains the exotic star of the perfume throughout, an endless dance of sweet, a soothing embrace of softness, and an otherworldly touch of something very, very rare." The champaca flower forms one of the five flower arrows of Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love known in the Western world as Cupid. One smell of this perfume and you’ll know why… you'll be smitten at first sniff.

Champaca (Pyramid Bottle) Notes: White pepper, angelica, cardamom, champaca, bird pepper, tuberose, white musk, iris wood

Perfumer: Nathalie Feisthauer 45mL for $265 via Lucky Scent.

Audi Centenary Sculpture by Gerry Judah

Designer Gerry Judah created a 32 metre-high sculpture for Audi at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England, at the weekend. The 44 tonne sculpture, created to mark the car brand’s centenary, features a vintage Audi and a modern car racing into the sky.




"This 44 tonne, 32 metre high innovative sculpture for the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 was sponsored by Audi to commemorate its centenary year," said Judah.



Client: Audi
Concept & Design: Gerry Judah
Structural Engineering: Capita Bobrowski
Steel Fabrication and Installation: Littlehampton Welding Ltd
Photography: David Barbour

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Ten Creative Garbage Bin Concepts And Designs

10) Crevasse Prep Sink by Anne Kitzmiller

A classy kitchen sink with an integrated garbage disposal is like HEAVEN! Sophisticated and uber-chic, this sink-disposal system was designed with the collaborative efforts of Kohler. The sink uses Active Touch technology to function; the rinse cycle is indicated by a constant blue glow and the synchronized garbage disposal cycle is indicated by a flashing blue glow.

9) Table of Trash by Marie-Louise Gustafsson

How about sweeping the trash off the table and straight into the bin?

8 ) BIN Concept by Faris Elmasu

An 18 liter trash can that incorporates a motorized sweeper into its system, convenient! The sweeper tucks into the front of the trash can when not in use, thereby charging as well. Looks neat functions well, what more can you expect out of a garbage bin?

7) Trash Bin by Denis Oh

Forget the hazards of a tapering mouth for a bin, these Bongsudae (Korean smoke alarm towers) inspired beauties deserve a place on the pedestal and not some dusty corner of a room.

6) Flexibin by Li Jianye

Not much on the design aspect but the Flexibin scores high on application. Invert a discarded grocery bag around it and the bin is ready to be used.

5) Minus by Cem Tutuncuoglu

Not sure why anyone would need to freeze their garbage, but this is interesting nonetheless.

4) Armstrong Bin by Sukwon Park & Sungwoo Park

Let’s kill the garbage even if its dead! Stomp it, and stomp it good.

3) Barcode Trashcan by Woo Seok Park

This one is a really amazing concept that allows you to be super eco-conscious. In case you don’t know which recycle bin your waste item goes to, just swipe its barcode across the scanner and the correct bin opens up. Cool cool style!

2) GreenHouse Effect by Orcadesign

From the collection of 10 items in it’s the list, the integrated dustbin concept is by far the best. A trapdoor design conceals the bin till you don’t require it. Moreover the clever idea of using discarded plastic bags to hold the trash is super.

1) Condom Ashtray by Jiang Qian

I am not for smoking, but if you do, mind your ashes!

Comme des Garçons Goes Guerrilla [Again]

Black Comme des Garçons — the Japanese designer’s new temporary “guerrilla” brand conceived as an antidote to the recession — has landed the iconoclastic designer’s fashions on the ground floor of two Tokyo department stores, a first for the company.

Monolithic, square black fixtures — where iconic styles such as sarouel pants and cutaway jackets hang — have been front and center at Mitsukoshi in Ginza and Parco in Shibuya since last week.

A total of 11 points of sale are rolling out this month and next, including freestanding stores in New York and Paris opening June 22, plus two-week pop-up corners at Barneys New York and Colette in Paris.

“The department stores have gone crazy with this idea,” Adrian Joffe, chief executive officer of Comme des Garçons International, told WWD, noting that initial sales in Japan are already 50 percent ahead of plan. He credited accessible prices (roughly half the company’s other collections) and a “speed merchandising” strategy that will see new styles arriving roughly every six weeks. Comme des Garçons is mulling adding men’s styles due to demand from stores, which include Boon the Shop in Seoul, I.T. in Hong Kong and Iwataya in Fukuoka, Japan.

Joffe characterized Black as a way to boost sales during the downturn, which has sent Comme’s revenues in Japan down about 4 percent this year. “Rei said she wanted [Black] to last as long as the recession lasts,” he said. “It’s turning morosity into positivity. We can’t just sit there and cry.”

A pioneer with temporary guerrilla stores, Comme des Garçons has opened and closed 31 such stores since 2004, with the latest, in Glasgow, Scotland, slated to go dark in September.

Joffe noted the Black project required more expensive, while still short-term, leases, plus bigger investments in marketing and shop decoration.

For example, Comme des Garçons plans to spend about 60,000 euros, or $84,000 at current exchange, to outfit the 500-square-foot Paris store on Rue du Perche in the Marais with air-conditioning and fixtures. Subway posters in Japan — an extreme close-up of a kohl-blackened eye or dark lips — publicized the launch there, while a giant billboard at Broadway and Houston Street will trumpet the 500-square-foot Manhattan unit at 10th Avenue and 17th Street.

Comme des Garçon’s 15 brands generated 2008 revenues of $180 million, and Black represents its most volume-driven venture to date. Joffe noted that quantities are in hundreds instead of dozens.

The collection revisits best-selling silhouettes in popular fabrics and finishes, and perennial prints such polkadots, gingham and checkerboard. Prices range from about 60 euros, or $84, to 105 euros, or $147, for T-shirts up to about 250 euros, or $350, to 445 euros, or $623, for jackets.


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For cupcake addicts like me

CupcakeStop believes that despite this, everyone deserves to indulge themselves with a gourmet snack. That’s why we decided to take our delectable cupcakes, baked fresh daily from the highest quality ingredients, and load them onto New York’s first mobile cupcake shoppe.

The CupcakeStop Truck offers a convenient way for even the busiest and discerning New Yorkers to enjoy a delicious cupcake.

Locations are still TBD but they have quite an impressive array of flavors (triple chocolate, oreo crumb, chocolate peanut butter swirl, mint chocolate chip, coconut cream, banana pudding and more) and will be operating from 10AM to midnight.