Cool Design News

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

 

Architecture

Explore 968 award-winning designs tagged Architecture on Cool Design News.

Hua Qi Financial Center

Hua Qi

Hua Qi is a financial center located in the Huadu district of Guangzhou, China. The building covers a planned area of 53000 square meters and contains grade A office space, shopping areas and dining venues. Simplified geometry shapes the form, combining points, smooth lines and extended surfaces into a sculptural volume. The facade is inspired by the form of a cut diamond and uses reflective glass curtain walls. Smooth wood grain softens the cool character of concrete. The outdoor setting follows a water theme, with ripples mirrored on the glass.

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Rachel House

Rachel

Rachel is a four-storey villa built around a central water courtyard in Zhongshan City, China. The ground floor spaces open onto the courtyard and support family interaction, while the bedrooms on the upper floors remain private. Staggered bedroom blocks form the clean and modern facade and frame views of the landscaped garden. The cantilevered balconies also act as shading overhangs for the ground floor terraces. Earth-colored wood is combined with natural grey granite. Large floor to ceiling windows assist the ventilation of the interior spaces.

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The Pitched Roof House

The Pitched Roof

The Pitched Roof is a single-storey house in Karuizawa, Japan, covered by a very simple pitched roof. Only forty percent of the space under the roof is enclosed, so the boundary between inside and outside remains soft. The cantilevered roof reaches over six meters with a structure just 200 millimeters thick. A folded, L-shaped surface works as a monocoque element and reduces the supports needed. Sliding doors allow the inhabitants to change the character of the living space. The house reinterprets the deep eaves of traditional Japanese architecture.

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Gap Residential House

Gap

An architecture with a space inside that cannot be imagined from a simple and neatly organized façade. The volume protruding to the south is angled to obtain light from the courtyard, which also gives different angles and heights to the interior space. Solid diagonal is drawn inside, space configuration variegated are bold, airy is secured to the inside of a closed. Create a new sense of distance and communication for future residents.

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Zhuhai Huafa Plaza Commercial Development

Zhuhai Huafa Plaza

Zhuhai Huafa Plaza is a commercial development located on Hengqin Island in Zhuhai. Three high-rise towers and a series of retail pavilions are arranged to create internal and semi-external environments. Retail facilities and office space are organized in a simple circuit layout around two central courtyard gardens. The towers face the waterfront to allow open views while keeping privacy. Funnel-shaped pavilion structures lead to landscaped retail terraces. The facade design follows patterns of traditional Chinese window frames.

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The Sliced House

The Sliced

The Sliced is a compact house built in Bizen City, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The design removes wasted space and increases family and storage space. The living room sits at the centre of the plan and is visible from the front door, so the children's rooms are reached through the living room. Direct access is also given to the dining room, the kitchen and the bathroom. The first floor is cut at an angle from two directions, and reinforcing wood keeps the wooden structure strong during earthquakes. Windows frame views of nature and bring in daylight.

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Yoyo City Mixed Use

Yoyo City

Yoyo City is a mixed-use development located in Yinchuan, China. The complex combines a five-storey shopping mall, a two-storey retail street and a fourteen-storey service apartment building. The site lies between a natural wetland park and a main expressway. Floating islands seen in the wetland inspired the flowing facade, which is clad in granite stone panels, linear aluminium fins and glass. Pedestrian routes are placed at ground level, while vehicles and the main drop-off area are set in the basement. Interior gardens link the mall to its natural setting.

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Soundview Ferry Terminal Ferry Terminal

Soundview Ferry Terminal

Soundview is a ferry terminal designed as a mixed use complex on a waterfront site in the Bronx, New York City. Three building volumes are clustered along the waterfront beside an existing dock, forming a semi-enclosed courtyard for an outdoor market and public events. Two passageways on the ground level allow movement into the market and towards the landing dock. The larger upper levels are connected and offer full height, naturally lit spaces for small business incubation, offices and storage. The cantilevered upper floors are supported by a space frame resting on fanning columns.

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Terrace Residential Building

Terrace

Terrace is a vacation apartment building located in Picarras, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The building has 59 units on 25 floors, reaches 87 meters in height and offers 11,179 square meters of built area. Every apartment includes a large terrace facing the sea, and the repeated terraces form a monolithic facade that links the ground floor to the upper collective terrace. Exposed reinforced concrete at the base is combined with sliding panels in the apartment frames. The design was inspired by the old beach houses once found on the site.

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The Wisdom Domain Villa

The Wisdom Domain

The Wisdom Domain is a guest house villa in Kenting, in southern Taiwan. The building covers 1650 square meters. Two symmetrical buildings form a square floor plan, surrounded by circular trails paved with gravel. The layout reflects the traditional idea of circular heaven and square earth. An ecological pond marks the entrance, and the garden holds flowers and trees. Large fair-faced concrete walls, slanted roofs, iron-gray metal grilles and an oval entrance recall the five elements of fengshui. Sixteen rooms differ in lighting, color, scent, music and surface materials.

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Yuanbo Teaching Building

Yuanbo

Yuanbo is a renovated teaching building on a university campus in Zhuhai, China. The original structure consisted of fifteen separate cubes with two courtyards, and the renovation respected this character. A continuous loop of stairs and corridors now connects the roofs, courtyards and indoor spaces, creating places for exchange and social interaction. The two courtyards were rebuilt as a square one and a round one, with outdoor exhibition and stage areas. A dry-hanging brick facade and a new window casing system reduce direct sunlight and heat, which helps to save energy.

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Yilong International Centre Office

Yilong International Centre

Yilong International Centre is an office complex in Qingdao, China. Two towers are linked by an aerial bridge placed on the top of the lower building. The bridge holds a shared pavilion space and creates a vertical circulation loop between the two towers. Stepped retreat platforms face the landscape, so the building reads like a scattered group of mountains. The towers use concrete frame core tube and frame-shear wall structures, and the bridge uses a multi-truss steel structure. The design links a dense urban area with the nearby mountains and sea.

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