ToastingDesign Blog

The above is a promotional video for Sky City, the vision of Broad Sustainable Buildings and if built it will become the World’s Tallest Building at 838m after being completed in just 7 months!

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Dubai, a city of buildings floating among the clouds.

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MVDRV Porous City, Photo: Frans Parthesius

Architecture Firm MVRDV has created the “Porous City” exhibit in Cannes which consisted of a series of studies on the porosity of skyscrapers through the use of sixteen LEGO Towers. (more…)

This movie was a great way to kick of the Architecture and Design Film Festival. Into the Garden of Glass and Steel was a very strong portrayal of how the Canary Wharf section of London has been turned into an engineered world devoid of life. The tone of the movie was very negative against this grouping of buildings and explained the are in very Orwellian terms.

“Representative democracy had been replaced by the surveillance camera”

Canary Whart, London, United Kingdom

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The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (disclosure: CTBUH is my employer(feel like I should make this like real news)) Young Professionals Committee held a lecture on Aqua. It was presented by three of the members who worked on the project. What made this presentation strong was that each of them represented a different viewpoint of the design and construction of Aqua. They covered architecture (of course), structural engineering, and construction management. Overall it was a really good presentation.

Aqua (source: Skyscraper Center)

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This one project just struck me when I first saw it. Yes it has some really interesting curves but what really fascinated me was the way the building seemed to grow out of the ground. It seems to almost be growing out of the ground with no defined edge leading me to the question:

Where does the building begin?

Nanjing Jianning Highrise

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What makes a heritage site? In some cases I would agree the sun is important but how important is the sun to a place such as the Tower of London? Does it really make a difference if a skyscraper is put up next-door?

Tower of London

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Ever since I learned about parametric design I have struggled for a good way to explain it to someone who doesn’t know what it is. I could always come up with decent explanations that would make sense to those who knew what I was talking about but still left those who hadn’t dealt with parametric design in a confused state. Who know this might just sound like gibberish again but I think this exhibit of students variations of Lego towers could be just the visual I needed.

KRADS | Open The Tower

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What happens when a building and off ramp are designed to take up the same space?

Gate Tower Building

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The view from up there must be great (Warning: photo not for people afraid of heights)

View from atop the Burj Khalifa

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