Named One Thousand Museum, the building will be located on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami.

The 215-metre-high tower will have a concrete "exoskeleton" structure.

"I really love Miami, but I don't think the architecture matches the city," Hadid told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. "It's a bit too commercial."

"We wanted to avoid that generic, modernist typology," she added. "We were interested in the idea of the tall building, and how it lands on the ground, how the structure is manifested."

The interior images of the tower include items of furniture designed by Hadid.

Prices for the luxury apartments are expected to start at $4 million for a half-floor unit, rising to between $30 and $50 million for a duplex penthouse unit.

Zaha Hadid's Architects proposed a spiralling parking garage for Miami in 2011, following in the footsteps of Herzog & de Meuron's multi-storey car park in the city. More recently the firm won a competition to design a metro station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – see all architecture by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Elsewhere in Miami, Dutch firm OMA and Danish firm BIG are going head-to-head for a project to completely overhaul Miami Beach Convention Center, location of the annual Design Miami trade fair – see all architecture in Miami.

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skyscraper revealed appeared first on Dezeen.

Designed by Tokyo studio Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects, Nowhere but Sajima forms part of the Nowhere Resort, a series of rentable holiday homes on the Miura peninsula of Kanagawa Prefecture.

The house is located on the harbour of a small fishing village. It has a triangular plan, with rooms on three storeys.

Each of the windows lines up with a different room and the ceiling of every room follows the profile of its window.

The architects describe the rooms as "thin tube-like spaces" with views directed towards the ocean. "We have created a place reminiscent of looking out to sea from the deck of a ship," they explain.

Sliding doors and screens allow different rooms to open out to one another, plus a circular cutaway provides views between the first-floor study and the storey above.

See more holiday homes on Dezeen, including a set of apartments above a yacht house on the Crimean coastline and a weekend fishing retreat in Germany.

Here are more details from Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects:

Nowhere but Sajima

Cutting resort environment out of urban environment

Nowhere resort is the resort program that is renting out weekly vacation house. Suggesting new urban lifestyle by making shorter the distance to weekend house from standard 3 hours up to 1 hour. The environment must get close to urban when shorten the distance, the issue comes to how to cut off resort environment out of there. Therefore Nowhere but Sajima comes to build long and thin tube-like spaces that bundle them into one home unit. The tube-like spaces are facing toward the ocean and at the same time intercept the sight from the next condominium. The building is controlling both privacy and scenery.

A home for guests

Nowhere but Sajima provides a temporary 'home' for its guests. The weekly rental service provided by Nowhere Resort is a relatively new method of operating resort properties in Japan, and allows different tenants the opportunity to inhabit a 'home' on a weekly basis. While the weekly term is short compared to a standard monthly rental and long compared to a hotel stay, this in-between length accommodates a new diversity of uses of a 'home'. Serving as a space for exhibitions, as a classroom or for wedding parties, the unit easily adapts to the imagination and invention of the tenant and in doing so also re-defines the range of activities that can take place in the 'home'. As well as accommodating the functions of work and business, the 'home' again becomes the space of many life events beside the basic function of 'inhabitance'. In acquiring a new program for use, the 'home' regains the richness of activity that can take place all around of life.

The building, a triangular block composed of tube-like volumes heading to the ocean, stands on a point of reclaimed land in a small fishing village. While the site meets the seawall and directly faces the sea, it is also faces other buildings across the water. To provide adequate privacy without the use of curtains, narrow tube-shaped spaces were bundled together and angled to provide openings toward the sea. The orientation of these tubes naturally blocks the line of sight from the adjacent apartments and while gazing down the length of the tube from inside only the ocean can be seen. While providing an escape from the tide of urbanism characterising what we normally call a 'resort', the design still maintains the key aspects of the resort experience. We have created a place reminiscent of looking out to sea from the deck of a ship.

Location: Yokosuka Kanagawa, JAPAN
Principal Use: HouseStructure: RC 3 stories

Site Area: 132.09 sq.m
Building Area: 63.88 sq.m
Total Floor Area: 176.65 sq.m
Max Height: 9,459 mm

Architect: Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects
Client: Nowhere resort
Structural Engineer: Akira Suzuki/ASA
Services: EOS+
Electric Services: comodo
General Contractor: Heisei Construction

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Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This house by Spanish architect Daniel Isern looks like a cluster of concrete cubes, stacked up on a steep hillside on the outskirts of Barcelona.

The rural site faces out towards the coast, so Daniel Isern designed the four-storey residence with balconies and terraces on three of its floors, as well as a pair of glazed sunrooms.

The form of the building comprises overlapping volumes that integrate several cantilevers. Isern explains: "The reduced dimensions of the plot and the desire to leave the minimum imprint on the land led us to seek out a floor plan which, matching the trees that surround it, emerges from a trunk well anchored to the land and opens up in branches on each floor."

The entrance to the house is on the uppermost floor. There are no rooms at this level, so residents work their way downstairs to find a living room and bedroom on the next level down, a dining room below that and a master bedroom on the bottom floor.

A concrete walls extends out from the north and south sides of the house and integrates a storage area for firewood.

Other concrete houses from Spain to feature on Dezeen include a stark building with richly stained timber shutters and an X-shaped house that hangs over a hillside. See more houses in Spain.

Photography is by Adrià Goula.

Here's a statement from Daniel Isern:

Mediterrani 32, Sant Pol de Mar 2012

"For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value." Claude Monet.

The project for this house emerged from a very simple premise, to build on a very steep piece of land with a gradient of almost 100%, boasting wonderful views and on a tight budget. It was this highly complicated plot of land, surrounded by pine trees, that defined a good part of this project. The land, and its perspectives, constantly changing as the hours pass, the colour of the trees, the movement of sun and shadows...

On the one hand, the reduced dimensions of the plot and its complex orography, and on the other the desire to leave the minimum imprint on the land led us to seek out a floorplan which, matching the trees that surround it, emerges from a trunk well anchored to the land and opens up in braches on each floor, in such a way that each branch becomes the terrace of the upper level at the same time as it becomes the porch of the lower one.

All this helps create a very formal building, with huge cantilevers facing out to emptiness, the woods and the sea which lie before it. A structure which opens up to these views and the sun, and which thanks to the terraces and the porches confuse the interior with the exterior. A building which is equally formal in both its volume and the materials which compose it. Concrete, iron, timber and stone combining in a way that emphasises the character of each one. In the end, the whole building represents a dialogue between emptiness and fullness, between materials, between outside and inside; seeking out a balance between these highly contrasting parts.

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by Daniel Isern appeared first on Dezeen.

News: British firm Foster + Partners has unveiled plans for two residential skyscrapers as part of a mixed-use development in north London.

The skyscrapers will form part of a cluster of residential towers proposed for the City Road area in Islington, including Dutch firm UNStudio's Canaletto building and another proposed by US architects SOM.

The 250 City Road project, led by property developers Berkeley Group, proposes the redevelopment of a 1.9 hectare site currently occupied by a cluster of commercial buildings.

Foster + Partners' plans include 800 homes across two towers, which, at 41 and 36 storeys in height, would be significantly taller than any other buildings in the surrounding area.

Additional buildings containing shops, cafes, restaurants and a community space would be arranged around a central public park and courtyard garden.

Berkeley Group initially employed London practice DSDHA to explore the potential of the site before a public consultation in July last year, after which the project was handed over to Foster + Partners.

The project team, which includes landscape architects Gillespies, has now submitted the planning application to the local council.

Last month UNStudio unveiled its own plans for a 30-storey residential skyscraper on City Road, which studio head Ben Van Berkel introduced to Dezeen at the launch event.

Elsewhere in London, Foster + Partners recently received planning permission for three residential towers on the south side of the river Thames near Lambeth Bridge.

The firm also recently completed a new gallery wing clad with golden pipes at the Lenbachhaus art museum in Munich and an airport terminal under a canopy of domes in Jordan – see all architecture by Foster + Partners.

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Constructed at the start of the twentieth century, the Hample and Avenue Buildings occupy a prominent position on Portage Avenue. They once housed shops and offices but had stood empty since the 1990s.

The renovation by 5468796 Architecture involved upgrading the ground floor of both buildings for commercial use and adapting the upper floors to accommodate 75 rental apartments. At just three storeys, the Hample Building was half as tall as the Avenue Building, so the architects also added extra storeys to bring the two buildings into line.

Steel balconies cantilever through existing window openings for 20 of the apartments. Each one is clad in mirrored aluminium and has a see-through gridded base.

"A series of formally simple moves dramatically transform the original facades, shifting public perception of the buildings from eyesores to a unified urban landmark," say the architects.

At ground floor level, a mirrored canopy gives shelter to two different entrances. Stretching across the facade of both buildings, the volume is intended to unite the two structures.

The first entrance leads though the glazed shopfront facade into the large ground floor unit, which is currently occupied by a charity organisation.

The second entrance is dedicated to residents, who are led through a V-shaped recess into a stairwell at the centre of the building.

Similar renovation projects on Dezeen include the overhaul of a crumbling tower block in Paris and an upgrade of an office block in Milan. See more architectural renovations.

Here's some more text from 5468796 Architecture:

The Avenue on Portage by 5468796 Architecture

The Avenue on Portage revives two historic commercial buildings from the turn of the century located one block west of Winnipeg's most famous corner, Portage and Main. Once major retail destinations in the city, the Avenue and Hample Buildings experienced a slow decline, becoming blights to the street and downtown. In 2010 the client purchased the site to develop the derelict properties into 75 rental apartments and 22,500 square feet of commercial space.

A series of formally simple moves dramatically transform the original facades, shifting public perception of the buildings from eyesores to a unified urban landmark. Hovering above the sidewalk, steel balconies cantilever from existing window openings and provide outdoor access for apartment dwellers. Clad in mirror-finish aluminium, the balconies become camouflaged against their surroundings, reflecting at turns the sky, the façade and the street below.

While the balconies push residents out beyond the façade, the main floor pulls pedestrians in, softening the boundary between the public streetscape and the private interiors. Inside, apartments sized between 430 and 1020 s.f. fill the upper four floors of the Avenue, as well as a new, three-storey addition to the Hample.

In order to address the deep building footprint and provide windows for interior units, two existing light wells are carried down through all residential floors, while a third is extended into the new addition.

The main floor is occupied by Manitoba Start, a non-profit organisation that provides services for new immigrants in Winnipeg. At street level a wall of glass folds back into the building to create a deep, V shaped entrance that broadens the width of the sidewalk.

Overhead, a faceted, mirror-finish canopy angles outward 13 feet from the face of the Hample before returning to meet the edge of the Avenue, unifying the two facades. Together, these elements draw the city into the building's expression, making it an active participant in the life of the street.

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by 5468796 Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.