The architecture and design blog

Images: Zaha Hadid Architects.

Saudi Arabia’s capital,Riyadh, will get a new metro station serving its financial district designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, it has been announced. The interchange will serve three lines and will provide access to the monorail via a skybridge. There will be six platforms arranged over 4 floors with two levels of underground car parking.

An interesting aspect about the scheme is that it seeks to extend the simple station typology to create an important and dynamic public space for the city. Read more

Photos: Zaha Hadid / Japan Sports Council.

Zaha Hadid beat an impressive list of finalists to win the Japan National Stadium competition including: second place Cox Architecture, and third place SANAA. Other finalists include Toyo Ito and Populous. Tadao Ando was one of the judges with the Japan Sports Council. Read more

Photos: Iwan Baan.

The internal centre piece of this house is a wonderfully sinuous and sculptural stair that appears as though it is allowed to twist the form of the entire building. But from particular viewpoints outside, this twist becomes an extension of the landscape.

Located between the city, a vineyard and the hills beyond, UNStudio have taken the profile of a surrounding hill from a particular view point and used it to inform the lines of the exterior and what ultimately becomes the sinuous stair.

The result is that the house looks almost plugged into its surroundings, or better still, extended or unravelled from them. Read more

Images: Akihisa Hirata Architecture.

This post is about introducing the promising young architect Akihisa Hirata’s way of thinking about architecture. It is one of two posts today examining his work, the other being a built project: The Bloomberg Pavilion.

For the moment Architecture Farm remains speculative. It begins with creating a flowered growth from a coffee cup. This static image illustrates how simple objects can be developed into complex and beautiful forms. A second exercise, illustrated on a video loop, repeats the process with a torus shape taking it further, by adding text to some of the evolved forms, suggesting architectural possibilities. Read more