Whether the space is as small as a bathroom or large as a skyscraper, architects and designers worldwide are finding intelligent ways to improve those spaces. Here are some creative approaches to architectural design.
1. The Urban Forest
MAD Architects, a Chinese firm, has developed a new technique in architectural design. A new way to reintroduce the reverence of nature to the rapid Westernization and immense population growth of one of China’s biggest cities, Chongqing. The Urban Forest, intended for commercial and office space, is a swirling skyscraper with no apparent symmetry. The Urban Forest, which towers above Chongqing at about 116 stories (the World Trade Center’s twin towers were 110 stories), represents an effort to bring together the meticulous attention of the green movement and the representative power innate in a skyscraper. Its design “mimics vertiginous hillsides, shifting in a dynamic yet holistic rhythm.” An estimated date for the completion of The Urban Forest is unknown. Still, MAD architects list it as a “design in progress,” having completed the proposal phase.
2. Ørestad College
“College” in Denmark is similar to high school in the United States, educating teenagers 16 to 19 years old. 3XN, the designers behind the Orestead model, wanted to use the school environment as a learning tool. They built a school where groups of any size have a natural setting to receive instruction or study. Learning zones are meant to flow into each other with no artificial borders. An innovative approach in architectural design.
3. Wet room bathroom
Do you know what’s better than a soggy bathroom floor mat? A bathroom floor — in fact, an entire bathroom! — that is delighted to be wet. That’s the idea behind the new trend in bathrooms, called wet rooms, like the one seen above, profiled by Not A Paper House and designed by Made a Mano. A novel approach in architectural design, your bathroom becomes a shower area — minus the curtains and sliding glass doors. You should use high-quality stones and tiles to ensure your bathroom can handle years of soaking. Made a Mano uses lava stone from Mount Etna and Vesuvio to create their tiles and fixtures.