The Architecture of the City

MARS Architects snagged first place in an international competition for the design Walltopia's Collider Activity Center, Sofia's first sustainable mixed use center.

Located in Sofia, the Collider Activity Center will mark the city's first green mixed use center to combine both leisure and exercise space. To tie together the site’s diverse programs, the architects inserted a series of dramatic climbing atriums into the folds of the building, creating a continuous climbing experience.

High-speed rail (HSR) has long been touted as a tool of economic development in addition to its primary function of improving connectivity and ease of travel. Now, high-speed rail also has the potential to contribute to the nation’s urban revitalization trends.

Because HSR and other rail hubs are often located in urban centers, they are attracting an influx of tourism and activity to these cities. The mixed-use and transit-oriented nature of development around HSR hubs further supports the growth of city centers and downtowns.

Hotel development is particularly advantageous around these hubs because of their accessibility to those arriving by rail. These hotels also benefit from the mixed-use environment of urban centers, which provide visitors with walkable access to retail, restaurants, and attractions. In exchange, hotels and their guests energize the surrounding area with human activity...

Rem Koolhaas and his Rotterdam-based firm OMA have defeated two teams made up of local powerhouse architects to win a one million square foot mixed-use development project in Downtown Santa Monica on Arizona between 4th and 5th Streets. OMA’s winning proposal, which is being called the Plaza at Santa Monica, was part of a package submitted in response to an RFP issued by the City of Santa Monica earlier in the year. A selection committee made up of officials from several city departments chose the scheme.

This will be OMA’s first ever project at this scale in Los Angeles. They have tried to break into Los Angeles on three other occasions with proposals for LACMA, downtown’s Broad Museum, and Universal Studios in the San Fernando Valley. This time, the City of Santa Monica granted them their wish...

China's next new city will be designed by US firm KPF, next to Hunan's regional capital, around a 40-hectare lake.

Adjacent to Changsha, the ancient capital city of Hunan, the design implements the sort of urban innovation that creates a sustainable and truly habitable environment.

"We can introduce integrated urban innovation," von Klemperer says, "we can combine water transport with localised energy production, cluster neighbourhood centres, advanced flood prevention and water management, and urban agriculture. Meixi is an experiment in future city planning and building. It will serve Changsha as a new CBD, but it will also serve as a paradigm for other Chinese city planners. It's a kind of live test case."

The firm seeks to achieve these goals through its dense, mixed-use urban, plan, with integration with surrounding mountains, lakes, parks and canals. Meixi Lake will eventually be home to 180,000 inhabitants, living in "villages" of 10,000 people, clustered around the canals...