We’re gaga over these renderings of Zaha Hadid’s proposed Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi. We haven’t heard much about how green the building will be, but we’re excited to see more and more star architects inspired by natural and organic forms (check out the leaf-like windows!). The Performing Arts Center will be part of a multi-billion dollar cultural district with other buildings by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Tadao Ando. In her own words, Ms. Hadid describes the structure as a “biological analogy” whose primary components (branches, stems, fruits, and leaves) are then “transformed from these abstract diagrams into architectonic design.” We can only hope that such poetic biomimicry will be translated into green functions, materials, and technologies as well.

Vitra Fire Station

An early design for a fire station for the Vitra furniture complex in Germany by Zaha Hadid.

Congress Station

Hungerburg Station

“Each station has its own unique context, topography, altitude, and circulation. We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements - as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.”Zaha Hadid

BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany, 2005

Zaha Hadid

Maggies Centre, Fife, Scotland, 2006

Zaha Hadid

Size+Matter: Zaha Hadid

One of the highlights of the London Design Festival was the inauguration of the South Bank as a cultural hub, the crowning moment of which was Zaha Hadid being awarded the first London Design Medal on Monday night. We were on hand to find out a little about how she manages to work as she does, and to hear about ‘Urban Nebula’, her graceful, concrete (two words that don’t often appear together) installation on the Southbank

Tree of knowledge

Zaha Hadid unveils final design of ‘Pierres Vives’

This project captures the unique combination of three civic institutions - the archives, the library and the sports department, the spectacular design is inspired by the idea of a ‘tree of knowledge’ as an organizational diagram. The archive is located at the solid base of the trunk, followed by the slightly more porous library, with the sports department and its offices on top. These various parts of this “cite administrative” share several functions at the heart of the building, with auditorium and meeting rooms combining in a huge cantilever canopy above the entrance. The branches projecting off the main trunk on ground floor, articulate the entrances into the various institutions. All the public entrances are located on the western side; whilst the service entrances for staff and loading bays are on the eastern side. In this way the tree-trunk analogy is exploited to organise and articulate the complexity of the overall “cite administrative”.

commercial and housing complex

We don’t often bring news of projects without at least an inkling of the actual design, but sometimes we just can’t resist: Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi Pritzker Prize winning architect, is set to design Melbourne’s, and Australia’s, greenest and probably most expensive commercial and housing complex. A tall order, considering that Melbourne is already home to CH2 and 40 Albert Road, which have been the only two buildings in the country to achieve the highest 6-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

While the design is still shrouded in secrecy (the image above is just an artist’s impression of what the design might look like, and is not the official design of the development), a few facts have already leaked to the outside world. The design will be composed of four buildings, Docklands’ tallest tower, elaborate civic spaces over two sites, and decking over Wurundjeri Way pedestrian river paths.

The proposed tower will be 50 to 60 levels high and would occupy the site once earmarked for the failed Grollo Tower. The design is set to be so green, that according to The Age, an Australian newspaper, “it would deserve an eight-to-12-star energy rating” something which is impossible under current Green Star guidelines, and would be the equivalent of a rating three or four times above LEED Platinum.

We have featured Zaha previously when we spoke about the Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi. She is of course quite famous for her extreme designs, which vary from being quite angular and sculptural, to her more recent biologically-inspired shapes. Whatever one may think of her work, you cannot deny that she is doing some very interesting and exciting projects. We can’t wait to see what the final design for the Melbourne Docklands will look like and hope that the final design is as green as it is claimed to be.

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Kjerag mountains, Norway

Kjeragbolten is one of natures wonders and it is certainly one of the most amazing natural motifs. It lies at the end of a strenuous 3-5 hour hike on often muddy terrain.  Kjeragbolten is a big rock that has fallen into a crack in the mountain and there it has been wedged into the crack. The rock is located about 1000 meter above the fjord.

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This Chinese crested pooch was spotted at the International Dogs exhibition in Moscow. Sorry, dog, no tongue is big enough to cover that ugly face.

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Looking at photos like these scares and fascinates in equal doses. The sheer scale of these holes reminds you of just how tiny you are. It’s an absolute beast and holds the title of largest open diamond mine in the world. At 525 meters deep with a top diameter of 1200 meters there’s even a no-fly zone above the hole due to a few helicopters being sucked in.

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The name Khajuraho may be derived from khajura (date palm), which grows freely in the area and perhaps because there were two golden khajura trees on a carved gate here. The old name was Kharjuravahaka (scorpion bearer), the scorpion symbolizing poisonous lust. The temples were built under the late Chandela kings between 950 and 1050 AD in a truly inspired burst of creativity. With the fading of Chandela fortunes, the importance of Khajuraho waned but temple building continued until the 12th century at a much reduced pace. Far removed from the political centres of the kingdom, the location of Khajuraho minimized the danger of external attack and symbolized its role as a celestial refuge. Khajuraho’s temples were ‘lost’ for centuries until they were accidentally ‘discovered’ by a British army engineer in 1839. Of the original 85 temples, the 20 surviving are among the finest in India

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US$5,000

The most outrageous and crazy keyboard in human history. How much good dough are you ready to burn for your PC keyboard? Most computer geeks are pretty stingy. They refuse to spit out more than the miserable amount their grandmas had spent to buy a washboard 50 years ago. So when you hear some people are eagerly paying more than US$5,000 to buy a keyboard, you will shake your head and murmur: “Oh my, this world’s gone mad”!

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$5 million

Diamonds are not only the girl’s best friend. They are also an economical man’s worst enemy! It is no secret that diamonds and diamond necklaces as well as diamond jewelry are costly. The ordinary you and I might wish to have a necklace with small, cheap diamonds just to tell others we have diamond necklaces as well, but well, otherwise, the more exotic diamond necklaces with large stones or many stones are simply not for average folks.

How about a diamond necklace that has a pear shaped diamond, about 75 carats? The necklace looks simply stunning with the diamond in it, and it costs only about US $5 million. There is also a diamond ring that is quite cheap - about $1 million. A beautiful diamond necklace, by Stefano Canturi, costs only about &750,000 - $1 million.

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$1,700,000

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the most powerful, most expensive, and fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a proven top speed of over 400 km/h (407 km/h or 253 mph).

It reached full production in September 2005. The car is built by Volkswagen AG subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS and is sold under the legendary Bugatti marque. It is named after racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti firm. The Veyron features a W16 engine—16 cylinders in 4 banks of 4 cylinders.

According to Volkswagen, the final production Veyron engine produces between 1020 and 1040 metric hp (1006 to 1026 SAE net hp), so the car will be advertised as producing “1001 horsepower” in both the US and European markets. This easily makes it the most powerful production road-car engine in history.

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