Entries Tagged as 'Architecture'

The first billion dollar home

This absolutely boggles my mind, the bite sized version of the article: Billionaire is building a house. Not really a house, a 550 foot tower with 400,000 square feet of space. It’s cost? $2 billion is the current estimate.

Like many families with the means to do so, the Ambanis wanted to build a custom home. They consulted with architecture firms Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental, based in Dallas and Los Angeles, respectively. Plans were then drawn up for what will be the world’s largest and most expensive home: a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai with a cost nearing $2 billion. The architects and designers are creating as they go, altering floor plans, design elements and concepts as the building is constructed.

The home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings: A hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor, and uses the same materials throughout the building (such as door handles, floors, lamps and window treatments).

Inside The World’s First Billion-Dollar Home

Heatherwick Studio

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Following the successful launch of the Zip Bag, Heatherwick Studio was invited by Longchamp to design the company’s first contemporary flagship store. With a retail space situated above street level, the challenge was to find a way to draw people up into the store from the street.

The studio’s solution uses natural light, from a large glazed core cut through the building, to draw people up a landscape, rather than a conventional staircase or escalator, to the floor above. Constructed in 1¼” hot-rolled steel and taking six months to build, the stair landscape weighs 55 tonnes and is an installation of ribbon-like forms that divide and converge to form a topography of walkways, landings and steps.

Longchamp Store design over at the Heatherwick Studio website.

Las Vegas Luxury in Small Scale

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