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The Architecture Of The Future Is Far More Spectacular Than You Could Imagine
1. The Architecture Of The Future Is Far More Spectacular
Than You Could Imagine
"Every great architect is -- necessarily -- a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his
time, his day, his age."
Those are the words of one undeniably great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, whose visions of
harmonious design and innovating urban planning amounted to his own brand of organic
architecture. We'd argue that Wright wasn't just an interpreter of his time -- he was able to foresee
the needs and desires of ages ahead of him. The architect is -- necessarily -- a visionary capable of
seeing into the future.
In the spirit of architecture's fortune telling abilities, we've put together a list of our favorite
contemporary designs that shed light on the future of our visual world. Behold, 14 designs that show
the architecture of tomorrow.
1. Hypnotic Bridges
(Photo courtesy of NEXT Architects)
Why craft boring suspension bridges or arched overpasses when humanity is capable of building
massive architectural feats like this to cross a river? The impressive, undulating design, destined to
function as a pedestrian footbridge over the Dragon King Harbour River in China, is the product of
NEXT Architects. The bridge design involves three individual, swirling lanes hovering over the
picturesque landscape of Changsha.
The rendering won an international competition associated with a new public park in the area last
year, and the project is currently under construction. "The construction with the intersecting
2. connections is based on the principal of the Möbius ring," states Michel Schreinemachers on the
NEXT website. "On the other hand it refers to a Chinese knot that comes from an ancient decorative
Chinese folk art," John van de Water adds.
2. Rotating Skyscrapers
This image of an 80-story skyscraper, imagined by Dynamic Architecture's David Fisher back in
2008, is a far-fetched rendering fit for Dubai's future rich and famous. Why? Because it rotates.
The enormous, towering building would have floors that move ever so slightly, completing a 360
degree rotation every 90 minutes. Forget about fighting for an east-facing apartment, the suites in
Dynamic Architecture's creation would have all four cardinal directions covered. And it get's better.
The building would be equipped with several giant wind turbines that generate electricity for
tenants, and penthouse residents would be able to park their car at their apartments thanks to nifty
lifts.
While we're not sure this design will ever actually come to fruition (it was scheduled to be up and
running in 2010), it's certainly a visual feast worth ogling.
3. Indoor Parks
(Photo courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Hargreaves Associates and Citymakers)
In November of 2013, the Strelka Institute announced the winner of a two-stage international
competition to design Zaryadye Park, Moscow's first new public park in over 50 years. The winner
was Diller Scofidio + Renfro (in collaboration with Hargreaves Associates and Citymakers), who
proposed this particularly stunning design based on a theory of "Wild Urbanism," or the concept of a
"hybrid landscape where the natural and the built cohabit to create a new public space."
The park will feature four landscape typologies -- tundra, steppe, forest and wetland, integrating
augmented micro-climates that will enable the park to function as a public space throughout
3. Russia's extreme winters. Essentially, the quasi-indoor environments will involve regulated
temperatures, controlled wind and simulated daylight that encourage 24/7, year-round park
pleasure. As Diller Scofidio +Renfro aptly put it, "Zaryadye Park will embody the past and the future
simultaneously."
4. Invisible Architecture
(Photo courtesy of stpmj)
Invisible architecture is the calling card of science fiction design, and we're happy to report that
architects of today are on the case. Of course, there's South Korea's in-the-works, LED-clad Infinity
Tower. CNN reported in 2013 that "the invisibility illusion will be achieved with a high-tech LED
facade system that uses a series of cameras that will send real-time images onto the building's
reflective surface."
But there's also the shorter, less flashy structure (pictured above) designed by New York-based
architecture firm stpmj. The parallelogram-shaped barn would be made of wood and sheeted with
mirror film, at a cost of $5,000. The idea is to "blur the perceptual boundary" between object and
setting, according to a statement sent by the architects to The Huffington Post earlier this year. We
have to say we're impressed with architects' ability to push the boundaries of what invisible really
means.
5. Natural Disaster-Proof Forts
4. (Photo courtesy of Dionisio Gonza?lez and Yusto/Giner Gallery)
For his series "Dauphin Island," artist Dionisio Gonza?lez designed dreamlike, futuristic forts made
from iron and concrete, fusing the role of artist with that of architect, engineer and urban planner.
The peculiar edifices -- the hybrid of a beach house, a bunker and a space ship -- were designed with
the residents of Dauphin Island in mind. Located off the coast of Alabama in the Gulf of Mexico, the
tiny landmass is known for experiencing perpetual and catastrophic hurricanes. When a storm hits
the small island of around 1,200 people, it often washes away much of the coastline, leaving
residents to rebuild their homes again and again.
Gonza?lez created hypothetical blueprints for his forts, illustrating how his bulbous, concrete
structures would better suit the fraught island's populous. You can learn more about the project on
his website. Keep in mind, these structures are not yet slated for reality, but they certainly paint an
interesting picture of what futuristic island homes could look like.
6. Sweaters for Skyscrapers
5. (Photo courtesy of OP-EN)
Dubai's Burj Khalifa is widely known as the world's tallest building, measuring in at a whopping
2,716.5 feet and 160 stories. The structure itself is mesmerizing, but what's even more intriguing is
a think tank's bizarre proposal to cover the towering skyscraper in a giant fabric casing made of
reflective material.
We learned about the project, dubbed EXO-BURJ, in 2014. The strange, sock-like covering would
wrap around the entire building, from spire to ground level, in a "super-lightweight, reflective and
semi-transparent fabric material," according to a description by the Dubai-based think tank, OP-EN.
The temporary "sweater" would reflect the expansive urban scenes around it, turning the Burj
Khalifa into a massive mirror in the vein of Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
7. Green Power Plants
What is there to do with an outdated, eyesore of a power plant in the future? Why not give the
sprawling facilities a green makeover, one that would serve two functions: to beautify the structure
and provide a new way of dealing with CO2 emissions.
Here's how it would work: The architecture firm AZPA (Alejandro Zaera-Polo Arquitectura) plans to
turn the existing Wedel Vattenfall power plant in Germany into a new industrial complex, one that
would be built up from the previous facilities and wrapped with a corrugated skin of creeper plants.
This strategically-placed skin would not only soften the exterior aesthetic of the plant, but it would
create a sheath of creepers to absorb CO2 emissions. AZPA describes the endeavor, imagined in
2013, as "an attempt to resolve the conflict between the natural ecology and the manmade
environment."
8. Compostable Towers
6. (Photo courtesy of The Living)
Earlier this year, the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 selected The Living's "circular tower of
organic and reflective bricks" -- called "Hy-Fi" -- as the winner of the Young Architects Program's
(YAP) 15th edition. The temporary structure will be built using a new method of bio-design
incorporating entirely organic material.
As Arch Daily reported back in February, the tower will involve "the unique stacking of two new
materials: Ecovative-manufactured organic bricks, made from corn stalks and specially-developed
living root structures; and reflective bricks, designed by 3M, that were used as growing trays for the
organic bricks before being implemented into the structure."
Bonus: According to MoMA's site, Hy-Fi will is the first sizable structure to claim near-zero carbon
emissions in its construction process and represents a 100% compostable design. "Recurring to the
latest developments in biotech, it reinvents the most basic component of architecture -- the brick --
as both a material of the future and a classic trigger for open-ended design possibilities."
9. 3D-Printed Interiors
Forget interior decorators, the future of indoor design will be run by 3D printers. We have architects
Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger to thank for introducing us to this concept. The two
pulled off a three-dimensional printing feat to rival them all just last year. As part of the project
"Digital Grotesque," the duo 3D printed an entire room, creating a 16-square-meter cube adorned
with unbelievable ornamentation that looks like it belongs in a futuristic cathedral.
"We aim to create an architecture that defies classification and reductionism," states the group's
website. "Digital Grotesque is between chaos and order, both natural and the artificial, neither
foreign nor familiar. Any references to nature or existing styles are not integrated into the design
process, but are evoked only as associations in the eye of the beholder."
10. Floating Pools
7. It's hard not to love this New York design project from Family and PlayLab, which plans to bring a
giant filtration system to the murky waters between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The project would
take the shape of a 164-foot long floating pool set to take shape in 2016 -- if all funding efforts go as
planned. If there are swimming pools in our future, let them look like this.
In a statement released at the end of 2013, pool masterminds Archie Lee Coates IV, Dong-Ping Wong
and Jeff Franklin announced they are beginning construction on Float Lab, an experimental version
of the planned 164-foot +POOL. They raised the funds for the smaller pool (35 feet by 35 feet, to be
exact) through their last Kickstarter endeavor. With a launch date planned for this summer, the mini
pool will put the team's filtration membranes to the test in real-river conditions.
"We dont think about using the river recreationally at all," Coates explained in a previous interview
with Huff Post. "So as an architect you think, 'What if we could change that or propose an idea that
could change that?' We decided to pitch [+Pool] to the world. We just had no idea the response we
would get."
11. Inflatable Concert Halls
8. From the outside it resembles a giant, plushy purple jelly bean, and on the inside it looks more like a
glowing, colored seashell. But this balloon-like form is actually the world's first inflatable concert
hall, entitled "Ark Nova." Iconic British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki
teamed up to create the structure, meant to tour through areas of Japan affected by the 2011
earthquake and tsunami. It's a novel idea that could make for an innovative design strategy in many
other fields.
"I am honored to have been asked to design Ark Nova for the Tohoku area," Kapoor states on the Ark
Nova site. "The structure defines a space for community and for music in which color and form
enclose. I hope that the devastation can be overcome by creativity. Music can give solace and bring
community together and in so doing can help us to see we are not alone."
12. Wooden Skyscrapers
9. (Photo courtesy of C.F. Møller/DinellJohanssons)
While wooden skyscrapers might not be as sensational as the previously mentioned rotating tower,
the idea of building 34 wooden stories on on top of the other is pretty astonishing.
And it might become a reality if Scandinavian practice C.F. Møller and DinnellJohansson -- 2013's
winners of the HSB Stockholm architectural competition -- follow through with their rendering for
the world's tallest wooden skyscraper. The design (pictured above) is one of three "ultra-modern
residential high-rises" planned for Stockholm's city center in 2023, but the catch is, only one of these
proposals will actually be built.
13. Sponge Parks
10. (Photo courtesy of dlandstudio)
It's no secret that New York's Gowanus Canal is a breeding ground for toxic waste, polluted runoff,
and raw sewage that's -- rather unfortunately -- been dumped directly into the area's bodies of
water. But a little project known as "Sponge Park" is hoping to transform the Brooklyn locale into a
cleaner, properly filtered sanctuary -- and provide a model for future urban design.
The Gowanus Canal Conservancy and the landscape architecture firm dlandstudio announced in the
summer of 2013 that they plan to employ a system of landscape buffers and remediation wetlands to
slow, absorb, and filter Gowanus' polluted sewer runoff before it reaches the canal. So, not only will
the Sponge Park turn 11.4 acres of contaminated fields into a pleasant waterfront arena, it will
provide a means of absorbing harmful pollutants that continue to ooze into the industrial battlefield.
"In a process called phytoremediation, specially selected plants metabolize pollutants and heavy
metals present in the contaminated water," the American Society of Landscape Architects explains
on its website. "Dirty water from the combined sewer system is captured in underground storage
tanks and slowly released into the landscape."
14. Sci-Fi Skylines
11. In 2014, Chinese architecture firm MAD unveiled renderings of Chaoyang Park Plaza, a center of
skyscrapers, office blocks and public spaces meant to mimic the appearance of mountains, hills and
lakes depicted in Chinese landscape paintings. The complex is now under construction in Beijing,
and will result in an expansive sky line seemingly ripped from the pages of a futuristic novel.
"By transforming features of Chinese classical landscape painting, such as lakes, springs, forests,
creeks, valleys, and stones, into modern 'city landscapes,' the urban space creates a balance
between high urban density and natural landscape," MAD writes on its website. "The forms of the
buildings echo what is found in natural landscapes, and re-introduces nature to the urban realm."
Lucky for Beijing, the innovative skyline is already under construction.