Cloud Osaka
Envisioned as a high-resolution urban interchange, Cloud Osaka embodies Biothing’s approach to complex design synthesis across multiple orders of scale. Due to its central position in the city, a high convergence of users and one of Asia’s densest transportation nodes found in the adjacent JR Osaka Station, the key driver for the project was to understand 2.5 million people traversing the site every day. This is nearly 10 times the number of daily passengers at the busiest airports in the world. Such an extreme volume of pedestrian traffic, compounded by other forms of traffic in the area, warranted choosing computational physics simulation ordinarily used to simulate systems like river flows; indeed, a key driver for the project became the concept of a “river of people”.

Beijing’s newest airport
The core of the modern architecture project, which is the place where the passengers move through, was inspired by traditional Chinese architecture designs

Space observer
This huge sculpture is placed in California’s Mineta San Jose airport, where high-tech art welcomes the passengers. At the top of the escalator at the new Terminal B you will find Schuelke’s absurd machine. This giant three-legged sculpture explores the interactivity between humans and modern technology. It will quietly rotate with the aid of two propeller-tripped arms. And its ‘eye’ reveals images picked up from embedded cameras.

托马斯·赫斯维克
トーマス·ヘザーウィック
Томас Хезервик
boat
A new river boat designed for excursions on the Loire in France, capable of sailing in both shallow and deep waters, with maximum visibility for passengers, with the top of the boat a single continuous element from the hull – a closed loop.

تويو ايتو
伊东丰雄
טויו איטו
伊東豊雄
도요 이토
Tower of Winds
During the day the perforated metal panels that cover the Tower of Winds reflect the city image and make the design appear humble and simple. But during the night, it gets lit up in an ever-changing combination of light intensity and colors. Using computer software, the lighting follows the wind speed and noise levels changing the Tower’s appearance accordingly. The Tower of Winds features more than 1300 light bulbs and 42 flood lights and neon rings (on each floor). The small lights change their colors according to the wind’s noise level and the rings change their intensity according to its speed.
Basically, the Tower of the Winds by Toyo Ito is a wind indicator in a constant relationship with the city and the natural environment, a junction between the two. It is placed at the train station area, welcoming the passengers arriving in Yokohama and its functional role is accommodating another natural element. Surprisingly the Tower of Winds houses the water tanks for the air-conditioning system of the underground mall below. The Tower is not a new construction, but a re-designing of an old concrete tower that already existed there since the ‘60s.

卡塔琳娜格罗斯
קתרינה גרוס
カタリーナグロッセ
카타리나 그로
КАТАРИНЫ ГРОССЕ
train passengers

Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport

The new terminal of Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, the first airport by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, encompasses 63 contact gates, with a further 15 remote gates and significant retail space.
It increase the capacity of the airport by 58%, allowing the airport to handle up to 45 million passengers per year.The sculptural 500,000 sqm terminal evokes the image of a manta ray and features an internal and external double skin honeycomb motif that wraps the structure.1.5 km long, with roof spans of up to 80 m, honeycomb shaped metal and glass panels punctuate the façade of the terminal allowing natural light to filter through. Inside, the terminal is characterized by distinctive white conical supporting columns that rise to touch the roof at a cathedral-like scale.The focal point of the design is the concourse located at the intersection of the building.
Consisting of three levels – departure, arrivals and services – vertically connected to create full height voids and allowing natural light to filter from the highest level down to the lowest.