Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry has revealed a tower for the Luma Arles arts centre in southern France. Clad with 11,000 irregularly arranged stainless steel panels, the distinctive tower was designed to be a landmark structure for the arts centre, which was established in 2013 by Swiss collector Maja Hoffmann.

The form of the building and the arrangement of the stainless steel cladding was informed by the nearby Les Alpilles mountain range northeast of Arles and how they were depicted by Dutch post-impressionist painter Van Gogh. (pic 1-2)

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Informed by the fluid forms within China’s rich traditions of jade carving, the Morpheus’ design combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion.

Conceived as a vertical extrusion of its rectangular footprint, a series of voids is carved through its centre to create an urban window connecting the hotel’s interior communal spaces with the city and generating the sculptural forms that define the hotel’s public spaces.

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The design resolves the hotel’s many complex programmes within a single cohesive envelope. Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) was commissioned to build the hotel in 2012.

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ZHA designed the Morpheus as a simple extrusion of the existing abandoned foundations; using this rectangular footprint to define a 40-storey building of two internal vertical circulation cores connected at podium and roof levels where the many guest amenities were required. (pic 3-4-5)

At a height of 314 metres, the skyscraper was the tallest building in Thailand when it topped out in 2015, although it has since lost the title to a residential tower that is one metre taller.

“Even the very top of the tower is surrendered to the public, so there is not only a public square at the ground, but human activity rises along the pixellated shaft to the top floors of the building which are given back to the public domain,” said Scheeren.

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The observation deck includes a glass deck that is cantilevered out from the building to give visitors views directly down to the ground more that 300 metres below.(pic 6-7)

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Called The Spiral, the 65-storey glass tower is slated to rise at 66 Hudson Boulevard, as part of the massive Hudson Yards mixed-use development that is now under construction on the west side of Manhattan.

“The Spiral combines the classic ziggurat silhouette of the premodern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern high-rise,” said Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of BIG. (pic 9-10)

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Text Source: Frank Gehry unveils The Tower, a stainless steel-clad arts building for Luma Arles / dezeen
Morpheus Hotel / Zaha Hadid Architects / archdaily
Ole Scheeren completes pixelated MahaNakhon tower in Bangkok / dezeen
BIG unveils designs for The Spiral office tower in New York / dezeen

Video Source:

frank gehry’s rippling, stainless steel LUMA arles opens to the public/ Youtube/ designboom

Morpheus Hotel Tower by Zaha Hadid Architects for Kyotec Group – 4K/ Youtube/ adriengesu

Ole Scheeren completes pixelated MahaNakhon tower in Bangkok/ Youtube/ Dezeen

The Brilliant Engineering Behind Burj Khalifa | Richard Hammond’s Big/ Youtube/ Discovery Australia

Future Dubai – Dubai Creek Tower by Calatrava/ Youtube/ Cities of the Future

New Listing at Vancouver House by Bjarke Ingels – 1503- 1480 Howe Street/ Youtube/Jane Chu

Vancouver House – 1480 Howe/ Youtube / Eric Grant

BIG unveils design of The Spiral office tower in New York/ Youtube/ Dezeen

SOM: Engineering x [Art + Architecture] at 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial/ Youtube/ ArchDaily

One Thousand Museum residential tower, Miami / Youtube/ ZahaHadid Architects

UNStudio set to build Dubai tower with world’s tallest ceramic facade/ Youtube/ Dezeen

Safdie Architects’ staggered Qorner tower for Quito to feature “hillside of terraces”/ Youtube/ Safdie Architects

Foster + Partners proposes 305-metre tall tourist viewing tower for London/ Youtube / Dezeen