a big hole in the ground – garden towers makati

Standing at the top of a temporary car park in Makati, I look down on our site for the Garden Towers development and am quiet overwhelmed by the enormity of this project, designed over 2 years ago.

Garden Towers is a Residential Condominium project for AYALA Land Inc. located at the heart of the retail district in Makati. It has over 127,000m2 of Gross Floor Area and the 2 Towers range in height from 50 to 60 Levels. The development will house over 650+ Premier Grade Condominiums with the luxury and convenience of quality amenities and shopping at its doorstep.

I cant wait to see the towers pop out of the ground and start to take shape.

Garden Towers Site Photo

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the butterfly scheme won in the end

During our Concept Master Plan Design Phase, we presented a multitude of Design Options to our friends at Filinvest Land Inc. including; Central Park, The Cross, The Spine, Pinwheel, Blades, Fingers, Butterfly, Wiggles, Cut Sandwich, The Great Wall and Rotunda. Though everyone was amused by the name “Cut Sandwich”, down deep, we new this wouldn’t fly. My favourite schemes were Fingers and Butterfly. In the end there was unanimous support for the “Butterfly” scheme.

Megablock is a commercial office development located in the Northgate precinct of Filinvest City, Alabang, Philippines. It targets a LEED Silver environmental rating, illustrating the collaborative Design Team’s commitment to Sustainable Design. The “Butterfly” arrangement of buildings, consists of 4 commercial office towers, 25 levels in height, with a total GFA of over 180,000m2. It was designed for our client Filinvest Land Inc., to cater for the BPO market which works both day and night/ “graveyard” shifts.

In-between the butterfly wings is a luscious green landscaped park and retail centre. These spaces can be used for seasonal events or simply to relax in the pleasant garden surrounds.The public Park is an amenity to be shared by the Northgate Community and gently ramps up above the retail spaces creating a natural amphitheater. Bridge links connecting the towers at high level act as break-out spaces and informal meeting rooms promoting interaction.

 

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buzzing greenwood plaza

Design work at Greenwood Plaza, was completed end of 2012 by Crone Partners Architects and Interiors. This involved a number of upgrades to the centre including; new respite seating, new ceiling treatments and new lighting designs. The new ceiling and lighting treatments cover 7 major zones in the centre, helping to rejuvenation the existing shopping Plaza, in need of modernisation.

Crone designed the ceilings to use environmentally friendly materials, such as, the plywood louvres that form a curving, directional spine at the centre. The ridge line of the vertical louvres is constantly changing, creating the idea of movement, ever prevalent in the daily movements of commuters from North Sydney Station through the concourse level.

The existing lights in the centre were replaced with highly energy efficient LED lights, providing improved LUX levels for shoppers and providing Energy Saving Certificates for the client. The futuristic lights are located at key entries to the mall and were developed to highlight the main entrancies to the concourse level. Construction of the ceilings was over a 3 month period.

The design of the upper level lighting, looked at creating an artificial atrium light, similar to the existing atriums at the centre. Through the existing atrium skylights you see the branches of large trees through the glass roof. The lighting is connected to a computer system allowing the light feature, termed the “birds nest” to change colour or work on a programmed loop of colours. The lighting system and design was developed through a collaborative design approach, with Crone Partners, Mirvac, Barrisol, Mainbrace and Philips Lighting.

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One of Cebu’s most expensive addresses rises on a hill | INQUIRER.net Mobile

A new design ethos at Crone Partners pays off in Cebu, Philippines. Developer Diamond Hiland Inc. under the direction of Nestor Omar T. Arce-Ignacio encourages “wow” architecture and building strong relationships.

See below link to a recent article in the Enquirer;

One of Cebu’s most expensive addresses rises on a hill | INQUIRER.net Mobile.

128 Nivel Hills

128 Nivel Hills

modern frankfurt

Frankfurt is a city with a mixture of modern and historic buildings woven into the urban fabric. Pummelled by WW2 the city has re birthed with modern architectural buildings of a very high standard of design.

Below are images of some of these buildings I stumbled upon last week, including Studio Fuksas designed, My Zeil shopping mall and it’s stunning amorphic glass spine.

Massimiliano Fuksas is a Roman architect also famous for the New Trade Fair building in Milano.

Check out their website;
http://fuksas.com/m/

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