Modern Architecture

Herzog & de Meuron’s Lush Green BBVA Headquarters

Their newest design for the Spanish banking group BBVA will be built on the outskirts of Madrid as early as 2013. The verdant green headquarters will feature luscious gardens and will create it’s own microclimate by using natural ventilation, evaporation, and the shade of the gardens and buildings to create a cool artificial oasis on a desert-like site. The project is meant to function as a small city, encouraging people to walk and meet within the outdoor spaces.

H-House – Widjedal Racki Bergerhoff

A private residence in the archipelago of Stockholm situated on a beautiful site overlooking the ocean. The setting is scenic but the climate is harsh. Summers are light but short and the wind can often be a problem in these coastal areas. As in many of our projects great emphasis is put on exploring the border between inside and outside – protected and exposed – building and nature. 1/3 of the built area consists of outdoor areas under roof.The H-shape helps creating intimate and wind protected courtyards that prolong the summer season.

Manitoba Hydro / KPMB Architects

Manitoba Hydro is the major energy utility in the Province of Manitoba, the fourth largest energy utility in Canada and offers some of the lowest electricity rates in the world. Owned by the provincial government, nearly all of its electricity comes from self-renewing water power. Its new headquarters tower, Manitoba Hydro Place, is the first of the next generation of sustainable buildings integrating time-tested environmental concepts in conjunction with advanced technologies to achieve a “living building� that dynamically responds to the local climate.

Marina & Beach Towers By Oppenheim

For the U.A.E. Marina and Beach towers project, Oppenheim created an high-rise mixed-use building that in addition to the typologies, is a response that is simultaneously building and landscape; a project whose fluidity merges sky and water. This allows for more varied living experiences beyond the capabilities of the normative tower. Basing the unit types on a standard module has allowed its shifted repetition to develop into the woven tapestry of the facade; a surface that responds to every nuanced shift of light, while providing critical protection from the intense sun.

Vanguard Way – Morrison Seifert Murphy

This was the first house completed in new Dallas neighborhood devoted entirely to Modernism. We accommodated the program in a compact, two-story structure that essentially extends to the buildable limits of the property but reserves some space for private outdoor uses. The entire house is rendered in hard-troweled, white stucco with sealed concrete floors throughout the ground level.