SOM Reveals Wind-Powered Skyscraper In Indonesia

American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) has unveiled designs for a brand new supertower in Indonesia measuring 530 meters tall, twice the height of Wisma 46 – the current tallest Indonesian building .

The tower will be occupied by oil/gas company Pertamina and will unsurprisingly be named the Pertamina Energy Tower. In an admirable effort to make the building as green as possible, the top of the tower features a gently curved funnel-like structure that frames a wind tunnel. The tunnel is expected to generate 25% of the energy needed to power the entire building. The result is both increased energy efficiency and a visually striking building design.

In addition, SOM claims that the walls of the tower are precisely calibrated for Jakarta’s position relative to the equator to reduce solar heat buildup. Exterior sun shades will provide optimal natural lighting, further cutting down on electricity costs.

The complete tower is expected to house 20,000 Pertamina employees and officially be completed in 2020. You can look at concepts of the tower on SOM’s website here.

Bjarke Ingels Group Commissioned For Harlem Residential

Harlem might be getting its own unorthodox residential building, designed by award-winning Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. Blumenfeld Development has recently hired the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to design an apartment building in Gotham Plaza between Lexington and Third.

The project is still in its preliminary stages and no final design has been decided on, but given the unique nature of the projects BIG is known for it is likely that the building will be turning heads once it is built. The 200 units in the building will operate under the 80/20 program, meaning that 20% of the units will be affordable.

BIG already has experience developing in New York, and has received recognition for the pyramid-shaped residential on West 57^th Street being developed by Durst Fetner Residential. BIG has also proposed a design for a “Titanic-prow” viewing platform for Pier 6 on the Brooklyn Waterfront and recently made headlines by winning the French Urban Center Design Contest with a large scale combination of a rural environment with a dense urban layout dubbed Europacity.

Radical New Treehouse Designed Unveiled

Architect Aibek Alsamov has redefined the word “treehouse”. Instead of the conventional house nested in the upper branches, he designed a four-story glass cylindrical home that wraps itself around the tree like a tube.

Built as a private retreat in the middle of a forest, the walls are almost entirely clear glass since privacy isn’t an issue. Though its remoteness means it is unlikely to work as a primary residence, the owners plan to use it as a relaxing weekend getaway.

The lack of traditional electricity and plumbing means that grey water recycling and geothermal energy sources are used to generate heat and plumbing. Solar coating on the glass walls are used to generate electricity.

Best of all, the tree should stay relatively unaffected. The home does not physically interact with the tree, and the glass walls allow it to receive sunlight and stay ventilated. The roots are untouched as well. How the home accounts for the tree’s growth is uncertain however.

You can see images of the treehouse here.

Danish Firm Wins French Urban Center Design Contest

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels with the aptly named Bjarke Ingels Group released a statement earlier this year in April that his firm had won a design competition to create a new urban center in the Triangle de Gonesse region of France. The project, dubbed Europacity, is an ambitious attempt at combining a dense urban environment seamlessly with the mostly rural environment that defines the current Triangle de Gonesse area.

Concept art shows almost science fiction-esque features, showing agricultural and open fields serving as a roof to highways, shops and even what appears to be an indoor ski slope. Bjarke Ingels goes over the design philosophy in the video below, and you can check out the concept art here.