MARTELLO TOWER “Y” BY PIERCY CONNER ARCHITECTS

Converting a Napoleonic defence tower built in 1808 into a 21st Century private residence was a demanding brief.

Duncan Jackson, the founder-director of Billings Jackson Design, bought Martello Tower Y in Suffolk, England, with the intention of creating his family home.

Early planning negotiations revealed the true scale of this ambitious project. The tower is a Scheduled Monument and is located on a flood plain in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Before work began, it was on the ‘At Risk’ register so the priority in conservation terms was to prevent further damage to the brickwork and to restore it where necessary. English Heritage and Suffolk Coastal District Council were keen to minimise the impact of any works so external interventions had to be unobtrusive.

The tower was built in 1808 to defend the east coast against potential invasion. It was last inhabited in the late 19th century and was derelict at the outset of the project. The only entrance is on the first floor of the building, which houses what was an ammunition store.

The new roof follows many of the curves within the original building while the 3 metre thick solid bonded brick walls (originally designed to withstand cannon fire from the North Sea) create a massive base from which the new roof is tethered.

The building is vaulted internally, at the roof and the floor, with a central column supporting the structure. The original brief called for a minimum of three bedrooms and a new roof-level main living space.

The condition of the tower made it difficult to go into more detail initially, so the design evolved over time through intense collaboration between architect and industrial designer. 

The curving roof extension is not only sensitive to the monument and its setting, it echoes the sculptural interior of vaulted brickwork creating a congruency between contemporary and historic.

The success of the project is due entirely to the collaboration and commitment of all team members. Ultimately, it took the determination of this team to satisfy the authorities without compromising design vision, leading Philip Walker of English Heritage to describe the design as “an exemplary and unique conversion of this type of building.”

Location: Suffolk, England 
Architect: Piercy ConnerArchitects 
Project Team: Jackson Design, Sam Lucas (Joinery), Commercial Systems International Limited (Steelwork), Billings Design Associates (Facade Design) 
Structure: Price & Myers, JP Chick and Partners 
Year: 2010 
Award: RIBA Award for the Eastern Region in March 2010

DUO BY BÜRO OLE SCHEEREN

“The design for this Malaysian-Singaporean joint venture actively engages the space of the surrounding city to form a new civic nucleus in Singapore’s modern metropolis. The two towers are not conceived as autonomous objects, but defined by the spaces they create around them.

Singapore consistently ranks as one of Asia’s most livable cities. However, it is increasingly dominated by isolated individual towers that favor exclusion over social connectivity.

The prescribed zoning confronts the project with a dual dilemma: it splits the site into two separate pieces, and leaves large, bulky footprints for the resulting tower envelopes which risk overpowering the surroundings and the intimate scale of the adjacent historic Kampong Glam district.

The design for DUO subtracts circular carvings from the allowable building volumes in a series of concave movements that generate urban spaces – a kind of “urban poché” that co-opts adjacent buildings and symbiotically inscribes the two towers into their context.

By generating the massing through a subtractive process, the elevations of the new towers are reduced to slender profiles. Vertical facades rise skywards along the adjoining roads, while a net-like hexagonal pattern of sunshades reinforces the dynamic concave shapes.

The duo of tower volumes is further sculpted to feature a series of cantilevers and setbacks that evoke choreographed kinetic movements of the building silhouettes.

The buildings dematerialize as they reach the ground to provide a porous permeable landscape traversing the site. Leisure zones and gardens act as a connector between multiple transport hubs and establish a flow of tropical greenery and lively commercial activity, accessible to the public 24 hours a day.

A plaza, carved into the center of the towers and integrating the neighboring building as part of its perimeter, forms a new public nexus between the historic district of Kampong Glam and the extension of the city’s commercial corridor.

Multiple levels of vertical connectivity give access to large elevated terraces for the hotel and residents, a public observation deck and a sky restaurant atop the office/hotel tower, while establishing a direct connection to the adjacent underground MRT subway station.

Vehicular traffic is lifted off the ground to allow uninterrupted pedestrian circulation. Extensive landscape areas at the ground levels, elevated terraces, and roofscapes provide accessible green space equal to 100% of the site area. The development incorporates environmental strategies through passive and active energy efficient design and naturally ventilated spaces.

The building’s orientation is optimized to prevailing sun and wind angles, while the concave building massing captures and channels wind flows through and across the site, fostering cool microclimates within the shaded outdoor spaces. Embracing civic spaces in a symbiotic relationship with each other and thereby transforming the surrounding multivalent urban fabric, the two sculpted towers act as urban space generators.” Description of the Architett.

Location: Singapore

Architect: Buro OleScheeren

Partner: Eric Chang

Project Team: Claudia Hertrich, Jonas Aarsoe Larsen, Benjamin Ahrens, Tim Archambault, Dan Cheong, Nicolas Frez Madariaga, Nozomi Kanemitsu, Tait Kaplan,Kayeon Lee, Kris Provoost, Alex Rosenthal, Olaf Turck, Leonard Wong, Ali Yildirim; with Antonio Berton, Kim Bjarke, Catarina Canas, Andria Fong, Brian Fung, Yulia Gandasari, Mavis Liu, Daniel Mayer, Jascha Oakes, Kevin Ou, Mike Taylor, Sun Shuo, Tomohiro Sugeta,
Bruno Zhao

Executive Architect: DP Architects Pte Ltd

Civil and Structural Engineering: BECA Carter Hollings & Ferner (SE Asia) Pte Ltd, Singapore; Buro Happold Consulting Engineers (Beijing) Limited, Beijing
Building Services Engineering: BECA Carter Hollings & Ferner (SE Asia) Pte Ltd, Singapore

Environmental Sustainability Consultant: BECA Carter Hollings & Ferner (SE Asia) Pte Ltd, Singapore

Lighting Consultant: International Lighting Architecture Bureau Pte Ltd, Singapore
Landscape Architect: Coen Design International Pte Ltd, Singapore
Area: 26,700m2

Gross Floor Area: appx. 285,838m2 (3.08 million sq.ft.)

Client: M+S Pte. Ltd.

Commission: March 2011

Construction: 2013

Completion: 2017

ABSOLUTE TOWERS BY MAD

The Absolute Towers, two residential towers in Mississauga, Canada has been judged the best new high-rise building in the America's by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). 

As the first building by MAD architects to be completed in North America, the 56 and 50 storey twin towers form an organic punctuation in the landscape between the concrete boxed high-rises of downtown of Toronto and the surrounding low-density suburbs.

Fondly dubbed the Marilyn Monroe towers by local residents, the Absolute Towers parallel the twisting fluidity of natural lines found in nature. MAD's design was the favourite by jury and general public during an international competition in 2006, and won continuous support from local municipality during the whole process.

The tower gives each resident a unique experience with continuous balconies that widens viewing angles and promotes a community on a personal level. Alongside the needs for the residents, MAD hopes the towers will add a sense of belonging in the growing city of Mississauga. Full completion of the towers is expected at the end of this summer. 

The CTBUH awards recognise excellence in the design and construction of tall buildings. Four regional awards are granted each year, and the overall winner will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago in October.

“Modernism has a famous motto: A house is a machine for living in. However, as we progress further away from the machine age, we are left with a question: what message should architecture convey? What is the house of today? Like other fast developing suburbs in North America, Mississauga is seeking a new identity.

This is an opportunity to respond to the needs of an expanding city, to create a residential landmark that strives for more than simple efficiency and that provides residents an emotional connection to their hometown. In place of the simple, functional logic of modernism, our design expresses the complex and multiple needs of contemporary society.

This building is more than just a functional machine: it responds to the significance of being located at the junction of two main streets, elegantly bearing its landmark status and acting as a gateway to the city beyond. It is something beautiful, sculptural and human.

Despite its landmark status, the emphasis is not solely on height. Our design features a continuous balcony that surrounds the whole building, eliminating the vertical barriers traditionally used in high rise architecture.

The entire building rotates by different degrees at different levels, corresponding with the surrounding scenery. Our aim is to provide 360 degree views for each residential unit, and to get city dwellers in touch with the natural elements and reawaken their appreciation of nature”. Description from architects.

Location: Mississauga, Canada

Architect: MAD architects

Project Team: Shen Jun, Robert Groessinger, Florian Pucher, Yi Wenzhen, Hao Yi, Yao Mengyao, Zhao Fan, Liu Yuan, Zhao Wei, Li Kunjuan, Yu Kui, Max Lonnqvist, Eric Spencer

Associate Architects: BURKA Architects INC.

Interior Designer: ESQAPE Design

Landscape: NAK Design

Structural Engineer: SIGMUND, SOUDACK & ASSOCIATES INC.

Mechanical Engineer: ECE Group

Electrical Engineer: ECE Group

Directors: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun

Tower A: 45,000 sqm, 56 stories/ height 170 m 

Tower B: 40,000 sqm, 50 stories/ height 150 m

TOWER OF RING BY EASTERN DESIGN OFFICE

 

This tower is lucid.　The visibility of this tower differs in accordance with the very motion of the atmosphere and every change of sky and light. No doubt this tower forgets that it is a tower. Building such a lucid tower in the middle of a big square, which is covered just by stones, can be referred to build a “void” in an empty space.

 

This square is the center of downtown Tianjin. Accordingly it is a very important place. We dare to design a void space and emptiness, which has no sense of presence. This way of thinking is based on oriental ideas. This tower is very oriental. People forget which one they look up to: the tower or the sky. It has an eye-opening shape, its beginning and ending is invisible. It is designed like a flow of stream, yet the form is very simple.

 

 

No observatory to climb up.

No space to play.

There is nothing inside.

Only emptiness.

 

 

It is a shape of waves, and a ring. It is a transparent vanity enclosed in a dragon shaped form. Lucid light pours into the empty tower. People’s happiness gathers around this serene tower. A square is basically a place where various kinds of people can share an intimae feeling. Although they are strangers to each other, when they are at the square they can have a friendly feeling like good neighbors. It is a place where they can be assured to stand on the common ground despite each person has his own way of living, job, nationality, home village and age. The transparent tower is located at the center of the square.

 

 

For those who regard a tower as a place just to climb up, they are embarrassed to note that it has neither inside nor outside. For those who admire a tower as a symbol of power, the tower will loose a sense of presence by the effect of transparency. For those who admire a tower only by the scale and heights, they loose the sight of the beautiful sky where wind blows and the color of the air changes to transparency.

 

 

A bewildered modern tower.

No ticket is necessary here.

No judgment is also required whether it is useful or useless.

No need to work like a slave, but just relax by the tower to dance, to walk, to take care of children, and to play, thus forget the time passed by lying down beneath the tower.

This style is very oriental.

 

 

Scattered flying clouds in the sky.

Splashing broken waves on the water surface.

A dragon that swallows wind, drinks dews and rides on the mist.

A beautiful dancing woman cladded with a thin clothe that reflects changes in the atmosphere. This tower represents soar without wings.

 

 

On Tianjin

Tianjin is located 115 kilometers southeast of Beijing. It is difficult to walk around. It is easy to get lost at Tianjin. This complexity of the geography can be traced to the complex history and current situation of Tianjin. Historically, Tianjin was a landing port for powerful western countries to enter China.

 

 

The basic data

This tower is built on the square of the new cultural district of Tianjin in China.

This square is located in front of the Tianjin’s assembly house, Daireido. You may call it something similar to the Tiananmen Square. It is a big square with stone　tiles. It is a welcome tower standing at the center of this square.

 

 

The diameter of this tower is 12 meters. No one should enter inside the tower but for maintenance. The tower stands six meters below surface ground. It is 64 meters from the basement level. The LED illumination embedded into the cast-steel produces a variety of night views. produced. The illuminated countdown panel for welcoming New Year is one of the major roles of this tower.

 

 

On Design and Structure

All the material used to build this tower is cast-steel. This is the only tower in the world that cast iron is exclusively used for the construction. This is the number one tower in the world. It was on December 31, 2011 when we started to make first drawings. The completion of the tower was June 10, 2012. From the start of planning, only four months were given until completion. Cast-steel is used to meet such a limited construction period.

 

 

1,168 pieces of wave shape pattern members are used for this tower. In case 4 pieces of wave* shaped cast-steel members make one member, more than 290 members can be made with only one tooling, so the tooling cost does not affect too much to the total building cost. Wave shape iron steel is a piece of a circle, and it has no straight part. It is twisted; this can be realized with cast steel. 73 of wavy levels are piled up to build a big cylinder shaped tower.

 

Location: Tianjin, China

Project Team: Eastern DesignOffice + Kawaguchi & Engineers

Client: Tianjin City

Year: 2012

Photographer: Koichi Torimura

JOCKEY CLUB INNOVATION TOWER BY ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid’s first permanent building in Hong Kong is due to complete this year and it has just been announced that the banded tower at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University will be used as the base for Hong Kong’s first Desigh Institute for Social Innovation. The fluid character of the Innovation Tower is generated through an intrinsic composition of its landscape, floor platesand louvers, that dissolves the classic typology of the tower and the podium into an iconic seamless piece.

These fluid internal and external courtyards create new public spaces of an intimate scale which complement the large open exhibition forums and outdoor recreational facilities to promote a diversity of civic spaces. The University has been aided in this venture by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust who donated HK$249m to the cause.

PolyU President Professor Timothy W. Tong explains: “This is the largest single donation ever received by the University since its establishment in 1937. We are truly grateful for the Jockey Club for their generous support to this project as well as many other initiatives undertaken by PolyU over the years.” After the building project was approved back in 2009, PolyU were required to fund a quarter of the necessary construction costs.

The Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation will support students in the study of social issues arising in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Region, addressed through the themes of Service Design, Sustainable Environment, Holistic Health, and Adolescent and Family Development.

The building will become a blended space for academia and business as well as the development of research and product design for the betterment of local residents. Mr. T. Brian Stevenson, Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, stated: “We believe that the Institute will provide a springboard of community education and training; foster student learning and help nurture a new generation of design professionals who are not only innovative but also socially conscious.”

UrbanismThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU) is an urban endeavour by virtue of addition and growth over the last 40 years. The rich patchwork of various faculties, communities and facilities are strung together by a community of visually coherent yet different buildings. From a process of outward expansion, the HK PolyU is now looking inwards to develop itself by making creative use of its remaining void on the North side of the campus.

The Innovation Tower aims to use these voids to create an accessible urban space which will transform how the Hong Kong Poly University is perceived and the way it will be used. The building unashamedly aims to stimulate and project a vision of possibilities for its future, as well as reflect the history of the HK PolyU by encapsulating in its architecture the process of change.

The new Innovation Tower on podium level is established as an open public foyer that channels deep into the building through a column-free, open showcase forum. The long integrated path from Suen Chi Sun Memorial Square guides the visitor to the main entrance and from here, a generous and welcoming space openly leads its visitors access to supporting public facilities, shop, cafeteria and museum.

The podium level is a route that ramps and stretches through towards the open ground with relocated recreational outdoor facilities. From the entry foyer, a long escalator penetrates deep upwards through four levels of openly glazed workspaces.

These routes aims to promote new opportunities of interaction between the diverse types of users through its spaces through every level. Voids bring in natural daylight, fresh air and the sense of continuity of space. In this way, the programmes of the tower, which comprise of learning clusters and central facilities, are allowed to create coordinated repertoires and dialogue between respective volumes.

Location: Hong Kong, China

Architect: Zaha Hadid Arcjitects

Design Principal: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher

Project Director:Woody K.T.Yao

Project Team:Simon Yu; Competition team: Hinki Kwong, Melodie Leung, Long Jiang, Zhenjiang Guo, Yang Jingwen, Miron Mutyaba, Pavlos Xanthopoulus, Margarita Yordanova Valova

Landscape: Team 73 Hong Kong Ltd

Consultants: AGC Design, LtdAD+RG

Client: Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Area: 15000 mq.