How Mesa City is Giving us a Great Lesson in Public Participation

Mesa City Center, The Wind Dancer — Colwell Shelor + West 8 + Weddle Gilmore, Mesa, Arizona, USA. I bet that if you aren’t American, you have never heard of the city of Mesa, right? And why should you, even though it’s the third-largest city in the state of Arizona. It is an American city similar to many others. Spread over 133 square miles (344.5 square kilometers), Mesa is part of the large metropolitan area of Phoenix. It is a typical American suburb surrounded by highways, with no significant landmark to distinguish its identity from the rest. So what is Mesa doing to get our attention? Well, city officials have decided to create what they don’t have – a landmark to give the city a new identity and a public space that will increase the quality of life for its citizens, invite div...Read More

Channel Center Park and Iron Street Park, by Halvorson Design Partnership, Boston, Massachusetts. Relatively small it may be, but Boston as a city is still growing and building new neighborhoods such as Channel Center. The city’s seaport district, commonly known as the Innovation District, has been transforming in the recent years to make the area more vibrant with new businesses and residential areas. With a mixture of new office buildings and over 200 residential units, Channel Center is one of the mixed-use projects that are the first to develop its multiple parcels. Amongst the initial implementations, a pocket park named Iron Street Park and a large neighborhood park, Channel Center Park have begun to grace Boston with their innovative and community-spirited designs. Channel Center Pa...Read More

This week’s Sketchy Saturday top 10. Whoa, it’s great to be back, with the might Sketchy Saturday. We expect 2015 to be our most popular Sketchy Saturday ever. The first edition of the top 10 does not disappoint as we feature everything from the raw drawing talent to the more polished finished artwork. Each one special in its own unique way. Offering us something different to be appreciated every time.  What I really loved about this week’s featured top 10 was the depth of thought that some of the artists went into.  Nothing quite gives work meaning than the deep thinking that supports it, helping to manifest beauty and intrigue. Enjoy this week’s Sketchy Saturday top 10! 10. by B. Bernik, student of the 5th year in Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana, Slovenia. “My moti...Read More

The Elastic Perspective, by Next Architects, Carnisselande, Netherlands. A project rich in meaning, form, and experience, the Elastic Perspective by Next Architects is rather a rare finding in the Carnisselande, Rotterdam suburbs of the Netherlands. The giant circular staircase marks the end of a tram stop and takes visitors up to a height that provides a continuous view of the surroundings, including the skyline of Rotterdam. Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands, and Carnisselande looks out to its mother town. It is this attraction/repulsion relationship between the two diverse places that stimulated Next Architects’ inspiration for the staircase design. The Elastic Perspective The Mobius ring inspires the form of the design. The Mobius ring — or the Mobius strip,...Read More

Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns, by Victor Dover and John Massengale. Published by Wiley, 2014. 401 pages. At the heart of every successful city design is successful street design. And by that, it is not meant that the city is home to a variety of interstates and highways moving people to and fro. It means that the city is home to livable streets that people want to experience, not just drive on. The book Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns, by Victor Dover and John Massengale, along with a number of guest essayists, seeks to reveal the secrets behind what makes a great street and thus a great city. Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns The book is an easy read filled with beautiful pictures and examples of successful street design. The aut...Read More

Waterfront Landscape Park of Aiyi River, by BLVD International, in Yinchuan, Ningxia Region, China. China is currently experiencing the world’s biggest boom in landscape architecture. Investing billions of dollars in environmental projects and public spaces, China is not only transforming its landscape, but its global image, as well. Waterfront areas are key to China’s redevelopment. Historically, water has been important as a tool for the country’s agricultural and industrial development. Rerouted for irrigation, reclaimed as agricultural land, and heavily polluted by industry, the conditions of China’s waterways have reached a critical state. As a result, China is making huge efforts to remediate, protect, and transform its relationship with water. Aiyi River Landscape Park: Yinchuan’s N...Read More

The Klyde Warren Park, Dallas, Texas, USA, by the Office of James Burnett – OJB The Dallas community has taken a bold step by deciding to construct a park over the existing Woodall Rogers Freeway in a busy area of the city. As a result of this initiative, the city’s Klyde Warren Park offers a new perspective on urban revitalization, showing that it does not need to be restricted to sites left behind with economic decline. It is a process that can also create new spaces that coexist with current users while enabling new functions. Klyde Warren Park Embraced by the citizens and adapted to existing elements An important characteristic of the park’s design was the fact that it has been idealized by the citizens despite having a large scale, which is usually associated with government initiativ...Read More

Quilotoa Crater Overlook, Zumbahua, Ecuador, by Jorge Javier Andrade Benítez, Javier Mera Luna, and Daniel Moreno. Lots of projects are being executed around the world that reinforce natural tourist attractions and are also appreciated by the critics. But projects in which the interventions of the client(s), users, and designer(s) fully reach expected outcomes remain rare. One such successful project is the Quilotoa Shalala Overlook in Zumbahua, Ecuador, a magical platform that enables visitors to step out over an active volcano or to quietly observe the natural beauty. Sometimes the designer’s greatest challenge is not what to do, but what not to do. How an already perfect natural site can be changed to meet human needs and still not be compromised is the real lesson here. Quilotoa Crater...Read More

LAN Tutorial: How to Randomise Hatches in Your AutoCAD Drawing with AutoCAD expert Rob Koningen. As no human being is the same no human being will organise their surrounding in the exact same way. Although people may live in a house which looks the same as their neighbour’s, any open space belonging to it, be it a balcony, patio or garden, is designed or decorated in a different way. When drawing an urban plan it’s nice to express this somehow. Randomise Hatches in Your AutoCAD Drawing To show a variation of gardens without having to draw the entire garden in urban plans the ‘Hatch Random’ command was created. It works really simple. You have to prepare some layers, as many as you like, and assign different colours to each layer. In your drawing, you apply these layers to a few entities so...Read More

The Green Atrium That Defines the VAT83 Building, by PLH studio, Søborg, Copenhagen. The VAT83 building designed by the Danish studio PHL in Søborg, a neighborhood in Gladsaxe Municipality some 10 kilometers northwest of central Copenhagen, Denmark, is a multi-tenant office building. According PLH, the building’s main function is to give shelter to a number of different companies. There isn´t a single owner of the building; there are many owners, and the building design has to respond to this situation. Each floor is flexibly designed to allow for a high degree of customization. The building also offers a series of general facilities, such as a reception area, conference rooms, and dinner facilities. The Green Atrium One of the public facilities the VAT83 building offers is the green atriu...Read More

Bicycle Club, by  NL Architects, in Sanya, the Netherlands. The Hainan Province is the smallest province of China. Just as its name says, the Hainan island (or the “South of the Sea”) is located in the southern part of the country, surrounded by the South China Sea. Hainan province, where it is summer all year round, is home to almost 9 million people and is known as the Eastern Hawaii. It is a popular destination due to its climate and features. Vanke, the largest residential real estate developer in the People’s Republic of China, teamed with Amsterdam-based firm NL Architects to develop in Sanya, Hainan, one of the most impressive bicycle pavilions for a great resort. Below: Check out the Presentation The bicycle pavilion is a totally functional reinterpretation of a pagoda ...Read More