The 842-metre-long bridge connects Abu Dhabi Island with the mainland and comprises a sequence of concrete waves that curve up and down from the water to reach a height of 64 metres. A four-lane highway runs across and the two road decks are cantilevered from the sides of the structure.

Zaha Hadid Architects completed the project in 2010 - read more in our earlier story.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers' website.

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photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.

The 33-storey structure, which was completed in 2011, is currently the tallest building in the city and features a glazed facade with a seam of tinted glass running up through its centre.

The darkened glass tapers outwards at the top, creating the illusion of swelling upper storeys although the building actually has a rectilinear body that only curves outwards at its base.

Located within Marseille's 480-hectare Euroméditerranée development zone in the north of the city, the CMA CGM Headquarters functions as the primary offices for the transportation company, bringing together over 2400 employees that had previously been located on seven different sites.

Zaha Hadid Architects also designed a 135-metre-long annex building, which is joined to the tower with a curving glass bridge.

In 2010, when the project was nearing completion, Marseilles studio Exmagina shot a time-lapse movie showing the surrounding activity over the course of one day - watch the movie.

Zaha Hadid Architects has recently unveiled designs for a few new projects, including a cultural complex in Changsha, China, a cluster of towers in Bratislava and a masterplan for the site of an old textile factory in Belgrade.

In recent months the studio has also completed the 330,000-square-metre Galaxy Soho complex in Beijing and a museum of contemporary art at Michigan State University. See more architecture by Zaha Hadid Architects.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers' website.

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Completed last month by Zaha Hadid Architects, the retail, office and entertainment complex comprises four domed structures, which are fused together by bridges and platforms around a series of public courtyards and a large central "canyon".

The buildings sit within the second-ring business district in the north-east of the city, but are also prominently visible from the narrow alleyways of the densely populated surrounding neighbourhoods.

These ancient passages, named hutongs, have been typical of Beijing's urban fabric for hundreds of years, but have been in decline since the mid-twentieth century as the city's development continues to increase.

The architect claims that the buildings respond to and are respectful of China's historic building typologies, with courtyards and "fluid movement" between spaces.

"The design responds to the varied contextual relationships and dynamic conditions of Beijing," said Hadid at the time of the opening. "We have created a variety of public spaces that directly engage with the city, reinterpreting the traditional urban fabric and contemporary living patterns into a seamless urban landscape inspired by nature."

The decline of Beiijing's hutongs was one of the issues addressed during this year's Beijing Design Week. The event's director Aric Chen commented during the festival that contemporary China should "slow down" and look to "craft thinking" to deal with the disparity between the country's small and large-scale design challenges.

In other recent news, designer Michael Young has tipped China to have a design scene that will rival Japan's in less than 20 years.

You can see more images of Galaxy Soho in our earlier story, following the opening last month.

Zaha Hadid Architects has also just been selected to design a new national stadium for Japan and completed an art gallery at Michigan State University.

See all our stories about Zaha Hadid Architects »

See all our stories about China »

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

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photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.

Created around 60 million years ago by the movement of basalt lava, the causeway is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland and comprises over 40,000 columns that step down from the foot of the cliff into the sea.

Heneghan Peng Architects won a competition in 2005 to design a visitor centre for the Giant's Causeway, providing exhibition spaces, a cafe, toilets and a giftshop.

The new building opened this summer and is described by the architects as "two folds into the landscape". The first fold rises up from the ground to create a building with a sloping grass roof, while the second angles down to form a car park and entrance that meets the level of the approaching road.

"It is a carefully sculpted intervention," say the architects. "It is both visible and invisible; invisible from the cliffside yet recognisable from the land side."

Between each of the stone mullions, vertical windows line the walls and surround a cafe that overlooks the coastline from the far end of the building.

Visitors can climb up over the grassy roof, where skylights let them peer down into the exhibition spaces.

Floors inside the building are staggered to negotiate the sloping site, but ramps connect each level.

Other projects at natural landmarks include the installations along the Norwegian national tourist routes.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

Here's a project description from Heneghan Peng Architects:

The project is located at the ridgeline of the North Antrim coast at the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The proposal for the new visitor facilities can be understood as two folds into the landscape. One folds upwards revealing the building and the second folds down to form the carpark and shield it from view of the approach road and coastal path. Between the two folds, a ramp leads to the coastal ridgeline which is restored at this location.

The visitor’s centre at the Giant’s Causeway is experienced as an event along the route to the Causeway and the coastline. It is a carefully sculpted intervention into this landscape which is both visible and invisible, invisible from the cliffside yet recognisable from the land side.

Internally the building can be understood as a series of stepping floor plates which are linked by a series of ramps.

These floor plates allow the different activities of the building to flow into each other creating a fluid movement through the building for the visitor.

The cafe has been situated close to the main building entrance with a long view to the coastline. The visitor ends the route through the building by exiting onto the access road to the stones.

The folds are precise and geometric yet vanish into the patchwork that forms the tapestries of fields.

The architectural expression of the edges of the folds is singular, stone mullions that echo the columnar landscape of the Causeway site.

The strategy for the building creates a space between the basalt and the folded plane of the grass roof; a space formed within the materials of the site.

The basalt edge is formed as a weave between basalt stone columns and glazing where changes are created in transparency and opacity along the visitor’s route.

What belies this simple façade concept is a carefully engineered solution which evolved around the inherent properties of the locally sourced basalt stone.

The aspirations for this project in every way are of the highest order as befits its location, excellence in architectural and landscape design, excellence in sustainable practices and construction.

The project’s design has received a BREEAM “Excellent” rating.

Client: National Trust
Gross Internal Area: 1800m2
Location: Northern Ireland

Architecture, Landscape Concept and Interiors: heneghan peng architects
Competition: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors) Chris Hillyard, Aideen Lowery, Marcel Piethan
Project Design & Construction Stages: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors), Julia Loughnane (Project Architect), Monika Arczynska, Jorge Taravillo Canete, Chris Hillyard, Kathrin Klaus, Carmel Murray, Padhraic Moneley, Catherine Opdebeeck, Helena del Rio.

Structures: Arup
Building Services: Bennett Robertson
Quantity Surveyor/Project Manager: Edmond Shipway

Facade Engineering: Dewhurst MacFarlane
Planning: Turley Associates
Civils: White Young Green

Landscape: heneghan peng architects (Concept design) Mitchell + Associates (Implementation)
Exhibition Design: Event
Accessibility: Buro Happold
Acoustics: FR Mark

BREEAM: SDS Energy
Fire/Traffic/Environmental: Arup
Specialist Lighting: Bartenbach Lichtlabor
Specification: Davis Langdon
CDM Coordinator: The FCM Partnership

Above: Hexagonal basalts at the Giant's Causeway

Competition: 2005
Appointment: 2006
Start On-Site: November 2010
Completion: May 2012
Open to public: July 2, 2012
Contractor: Gilbert-Ash
Contract: NEC 3 Option A

Site plan - click above for larger image

Ground floor plan - click above for larger image

Longitudinal section - click above for larger image

Cross section - click above for larger image

East elevation - click above for larger image

South-east elevation - click above for larger image

South elevation - click above for larger image

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by Heneghan Peng Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The 27 ribs frame the outline of a double-height hall, which spans the length of the Vennesla Library and Cultural Centre and includes a mezzanine.

Glue-laminated timber beams and columns provide the structure for each rib, while air conditioning ducts are sandwiched behind the lighting fixtures and plywood casing.

As the columns wrap around to meet the floor, hollows lined with cushions provide sheltered study spaces.

Existing buildings are located either side of the library, but natural light floods in through glazed facades that are exposed at the front and shaded behind timber slats at the back.

Stairs lead down to a basement floor containing offices, classrooms and a local history collection.

We've published a string of libraries on Dezeen lately, including two in Washington by Adjaye Associates and one in south London.

See all our stories about libraries »

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

Here's some more information from Helen & Hard Architects:

Vennesla Library and Culture house

The new library in Vennesla comprises a library, a café, meeting places and administrative areas, and links an existing community house and learning centre together.

Supporting the idea of an inviting public space, all main public functions have been gathered into one generous space allowing the structure combined with furniture and multiple spatial interfaces to be visible in the interior and from the exterior.

An integrated passage brings the city life into and through the building. Furthermore, the brief called for the new building to be open and easily accessible from the main city square, knitting together the existing urban fabric.

This was achieved using a large glass facade and urban loggia providing a protected outdoor seating area.

In this project, we developed a rib concept to create useable hybrid structures that combine a timber construction with all technical devices and the interior.

The whole library consists of 27 ribs made of prefabricated glue-laminated timber elements and CNC-cut plywood boards.

These ribs inform the geometry of the roof, as well as the undulating orientation of the generous open space, with personal study zones nestled along the perimeter.

Each rib consists of a glue laminated timber beam and column, acoustic absorbents which contain the air conditioning ducts, bent glass panes that serve as lighting covers and signs, and integrated reading niches and shelves.

The gradually shifting shapes of the ribs are generated through adapting to the two adjacent buildings and also through spatial quality and functional demands for the different compartments of the library.

Each end façade has been shaped according to the specific requirements of the site. At the main entrance, the rib forms the loggia which spans the width of the entire square.

Basement level plan - click above for larger image

Against south/west the building traces the natural site lines, and the building folds down towards the street according to the interior plan and height requirements.

Ground floor plan - click above for larger image

On this side, the façade is fitted with fixed vertical sunshading, This shading also gathers the building into one volume, witch clearly appears between the two neighbouing buildings.

Mezzanine plan - click above for larger image 

A main intention has also been to reduce the energy need for all three buildings through the infill concept and the use of high standard energy saving solutions in all new parts.

Click above for larger image

The library is a “low-energy” building, defined as class “A” in the Norwegian energy-use definition system.

Click above for larger image

We aimed to maximize the use of wood in the building.

Click above for larger image

In total, over 450m3 of gluelam wood have been used for the construction alone.

All ribs, inner and outer walls, elevator shaft, slabs, and partially roof, are made in gluelam wood. All gluelam is exposed on one or both sides.

A symbiosis of structure, technical infrastructure, furniture and interior in one architectonic element creates a strong spatial identity that meets the client’s original intent to mark the city’s cultural centre.

Location: Vennesla, Norway
Client: Vennesla Kommune

Competition entry: 2009
Completion: 2011

Budget: 66,4 mill NOK (excl. tax)
Area: 1938 m2 gross

Team Helen & Hard: Reinhard Kropf, Siv Helene Stangeland, Håkon Minnesjord Solheim, Caleb Reed, Randi Augenstein

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by Helen & Hard Architects appeared first on Dezeen.