Cool Design News

Cool Design News featuring great design, architecture, fashion, graphics and innovation from across the globe.

 
Coastal  Pavilion

Coastal

Coastal Mansion is a mixed-use public pavilion on the shore of Tong'anwan Bay in Xiamen, China. The building holds spaces for exhibition, reading and physical exercise, and also serves as a station on the coastal walkway. The ground floor is left open and free for public activities, linking the interior directly with the surrounding landscape. The facades are formed by horizontal grilles of aluminum panels. Each grille is rotated to a set angle, so the amount of daylight matches the function behind it.

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CR Land Shijiazhuang MiXC Mixed Use

CR Land Shijiazhuang MiXC

CR Land Shijiazhuang MiXC is a mixed-use development in Shijiazhuang, China. The complex combines a retail podium with office and apartment towers. A large setback at the northwest corner of the site creates an urban plaza at street level and a sunken plaza linked to the subway. The transfer hall of Metro Lines 1 and 3 connects to the two basement levels of the shopping mall through the sunken plaza and a pedestrian walkway. Mall entrances are placed at three street corners. The entrance facade uses double glazed curtain walls with a special lighting design.

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Wenlan Mansion Display Center

Wenlan Mansion

Wenlan Mansion is a display center located near West Mountain and Dian Lake in Kunming, China. The site faces the mountain, offers an open view and is surrounded by ecological resources. The design uses the five meter height difference of the ground to create vertical spaces and an ascending view. The layout follows traditional Kunming courtyards, with axis symmetry and a front and back yard plan that divides the site into a cultural exhibition area, a water courtyard and a private garden. Stone and aluminum plate are used on the facade.

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Fondazione Bertarelli Concert Hall

Fondazione Bertarelli

Forum Fondazione Bertarelli is a concert hall for 350 people on the slopes of Mount Amiata in the Tuscan Maremma, Italy. The hall has an organic shape based on golden proportions, so sound is amplified by the form and by natural materials instead of mechanical systems. The main structure is coloured reinforced concrete, covered with insulating materials and bricks, while curved oxidised steel plates guide visitors towards the foyer. The building stands within an olive grove and replaces an earlier plan for nine residential buildings on the same site.

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Press Glass Headquarters

Press Glass

Press Glass is an office headquarters building set on a green plateau in Konopiska, Poland. The ground floor plan is an equilateral triangle with a span of 80 metres and encloses an inner courtyard. Offices are placed along the outer facade, while relaxation and open space zones surround the courtyard, so each workplace receives daylight and views of the landscape. Concrete, steel and glass form the structure, and prestressed concrete allows wide spans. Fan-shaped terraces and natural colours blend the building into the surrounding land.

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Blind House

Blind

Blind is a private house in Bangkok, Thailand, designed as a quiet sanctuary for living and for the practice of meditation. The glazed ground floor holds an open plan living and dining area set between a reflective pond and a sculptural hill. The hill, inspired by origami, covers a sunken garage and a shrine. A long concrete plane rests on the transparent facade, so the upper floor appears to float above the landscape. The upper level is clad in a steel lattice that offers privacy and filters sunlight into the two bedrooms.

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