Malaysia Design Technology Centre (MDTC), Cyber Jaya, Malaysia

MDTC is Malaysia’s national design and technology hub, and comprises of the International Design Museum and exhibition spaces, professional design offices, and the HQ for the ‘Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology’ campus.

The prominent hill-top location above the new technology town of Cyberjaya reflects MDTC’s status for innovative technologies and creative design.

The distinctive design of the MDTC is its expansive features, such as the ‘wing-like’ canopy roof that extends over the International Design Museum. This huge canopy functions as an ‘umbrella’, elevated over the central plaza for environmental shelter of large scale social events – such as concerts, exhibitions and public arena – enhanced by natural cross-ventilation breezes that cool the expansive plaza below.

The canopy roof protects the International Design Museum and a major exhibition space, and is framed by viewing ‘gallery decks’ that wrap around the plaza in a continuous ramp – from the plaza level to the underside of the design museum.

Extensive rooftop landscaped terraces insulate the building from the hot tropical sun. Lush green foliage enhances natural cooling of commercial and education blocks. The Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology is an innovative and friendly campus. Teaching areas enjoy atrium spaces for natural lighting and ventilation. The campus has become a ‘design dynamo’ for the MDTC.

We designed the MDTC as ‘socially permeable buildings’ that encourage social interaction and activity for people who work, study, live or visit the Centre. The central block embodies the objective of the MDTC to project a vibrant image in ‘design related activities’ with elegant commercial studios and inspiring facilities to students. Project designed by Ken Yeang prior to joining Llewelyn Davies Yeang.

Minimalist House Design of Colman Triplex by Workshop for Architecture | Design

The Colman Triplex is a minimalist house design located in Seattle. This house was design by Workshop for Architecture | Design collaborated Christiane Pein and LairDesign as interior designer. This house has views of downtown Seattle across a park that lies both to the east and north. To allow each dwelling to inhabit a specific portion of the site, the sloping topography was reshaped into two distinct levels. The Colman Trilpex designed direct access to landscape and exterior space with exploration of the exterior cladding screen. Visit Workshop for Architecture | Design website or read architects description after the images.

From The Architects

…Within a primary box-like form the design team responded to budget and strict land use limitations on building height and lot coverage to configure three separate dwellings that each provides direct and visual access to landscape and exterior space. The frame is secondary to the spatial organization and connections of each dwelling and is therefore concealed within the non-load bearing walls.Through operations of subtraction, larger scale spatial relationships are made between interior and exterior spaces. These operations create both apertures, openings that provide daylight and visual connections between inside and out, and porches, or habitable covered exterior space. A broad horizontal array of windows connects the upper dwelling’s main living space to the sky and distant view. A private interior light-well brings daylight and a private landscape into the master bathroom. Entry porches, similar to the historical fabric of neighborhood, both buffer and connect the adjacent park to the open living spaces….

Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building

The building was designed by the British architect Norman Foster. From the concept to completion, it took 6 years (1979-1985). The building is 180-metres high with 47 storeys and four basement levels. The building has a module design consisting of five steel modules prefabricated in the UK by Scott-Lithgow Shipbuilders near Glasgow, and shipped to Hong Kong. 30,000 tonnes of steel and 4,500 tonnes of aluminium were used. It was an urban legend that the building’s modular design enables it to be dismantled and moved, if there was any possibility of a disrupted handover to the People’s Republic of China.

The main characteristic of HSBC Hong Kong headquarters is its absence of internal supporting structure. Another notable feature is that natural sunlight is the major source of lighting inside the building. There is a bank of giant mirrors at the top of the atrium, which can reflect natural sunlight into the atrium and hence down into the plaza. Through the use of natural sunlight, this design helps to conserve energy. Additionally, sun shades are provided on the external facades to block direct sunlight going into the building and to reduce heat gain. Instead of fresh water, sea water is used as coolant for the air-conditioning system.

All flooring is made from lightweight movable panels, under which you can find a comprehensive network of power, telecommunication, and air-conditioning systems. Hence installation of equipment or computer terminals becomes far easier.

The requirement to build in excess of one million square feet in a short timescale suggested a high degree of prefabrication, including factory-finished modules, while the need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs of steel masts arranged in three bays. As a result, the building form is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth and allow for garden terraces. The mast structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter so as to create deep-plan floors around a ten-storey atrium. A mirrored sunscoop reflects sunlight down through the atrium to the floor of a public plaza below a sheltered space that at weekends has become a lively picnic spot. From the plaza, escalators rise up to the main banking hall, which with its glass underbelly was conceived as a shop window for banking.

The bridges that span between the masts define double-height reception areas that break down the scale of the building both visually and socially. A unique system of movement through the building combines high-speed lifts to the reception spaces with escalators beyond, reflecting village-like clusters of office floors. From the outset, the Bank placed a high priority on flexibility. Interestingly, over the years, it has been able to reconfigure office layouts with ease, even incorporating a large dealers room into one floor – a move that could not have been anticipated when the building was designed.

Panama House-Art House Design in Sao Paulo by Marcio Kogan

Panama House is an Modern, Luxury and elegance art house located in Sao Paulo Brazil by Marcio Kogan. In the past, the Panama House designed with no cozy nooks, no soft furnishings, and no homey touches. And yet, there is a feeling of comfort and livability in this art-gallery-of-a-house that makes you want to move in tomorrow. All levels of the three-storey house — including the bedrooms, office, gardens and patio — are used to display the owner’s substantial collection of predominantly modern Brazilian art and sculpture. An uninterrupted connection between inside and out makes the entire space seem unlimited, translucent, as if without walls, although the structure is essentially a wooden box inside a C-shaped concrete cask made of cement slabs and a wall.

The sliding vertical wood lathes that form the brise soleils for each room’s facade, are also an important part of establishing the prevailing openness. The brise soleils also provide comfort and privacy, and enable the control of the artworks’ exposure to direct sun. Most beautifully, they also create the soft play of light that matches the overall linear shapes — created by creases in window treatments, the floor boards, the rows of pillows on long sofas, the stone work outside — continuing the elongated language of the entire building.

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Twilight: New Moon Contemporary

Fans of the “Twilight” films and novels will know that Bella, the mortal girl who comes into very close contact with a covenant of “vegetarian” vampires, is utterly fascinated with the house they live in the moment she sets eyes on it. Now for all the Twilight fans I here are some interesting news. The home used in “Twilight: New Moon” film opening today, as the residence for Edward and the rest of the Cullen family is up for sale for $3.3 million. This is not the Hoke home that was featured in the first movie. The 5,000 sq ft, five-bedroom property is located on half an acre on a creek-side lot in West Vancouver.

The propriety was designed by noted architect Arthur Erickson and totally renovated in 2001. Just after the “New Moon” filming was completed, the owners decided to capitalize on the fame and publicity and the Twilight house is now on the market. If you are interested in the “Twilight: New Moon” house you can find more info from Jason Soprovich, the agent who is selling this home.