Metropoliya

Metropoliya, a 1.6 million sq m sustainable development valued at over $3 billion, in the Russian capital of Moscow, has obtained approval to proceed with project planning by city officials managing the 2025 vision for the General Plan of Development of Moscow.

Based on cutting edge Japanese sustainable technology the huge ‘city-within-a-city' Metropoliya project features a colossal mixed use development several kilometres from the Kremlin. Metropoliya will utilise the latest ‘green' technology available by architecture practice Nikken Sekkei of Japan.

Mitsuo Nakamura, President and CEO of Nikken Sekkei, said: "Our sustainable design technology can reduce energy consumption by up to 60%. This is critical considering Moscow's extreme range of temperatures throughout the year, from minus 9 degrees centigrade to over 23 degrees centigrade." The focus of the Metropoliya project - grouped around 12 buildings connected by green public spaces - will be sustainability and energy efficiency with a low carbon footprint.

"Although the news has only just been made official, the preliminary notification coincided with our participation alongside Nikken Sekkei at Cityscape Global Exhibition in Dubai. We were delighted with the response we received from regional investors," said Oleg Korol, CEO of the Metropol Development, developer of the Project.

Moreover GCC investors will have been warmed by a recent report by real estate analyst CBRE, which estimated that the Russian property market would witness robust and consistent growth from 2012, which should coincide with the start of construction on the site.

Jumeira Gardens

A Super-City Within Dubai

As the inexorable juggernaut of Dubai‘s construction boom wears on amid a turbulent economic era, the city recently unveiled an incredible new development that is intended to cement its status as “a global city of the future”. Master-planned by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture and developed by Meraas, Jumeira Gardens is a modern megopolis that will feature no fewer than three soaring superstructures designed by AS + GG: 1 Dubai, Park Gate, and 1 Park Avenue. Although the super-massive project will consume approximately $95 billion, it’s encouraging to see that the entire community has been designed with sustainability in mind.

Conceived as “an integrated city within a city”, Jumeira Gardens is designed to be a mixed-use development that incorporates low, medium, and high-density zones for business, residences, retail, leisure, and recreation. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill master-planned the East Park Zone, while Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill master-planned the Atrium City area. Although plans are still being finalized, Meraas Development has confirmed that “‘Green’ buildings and construction, resource conservation and overall sustainability will inform every aspect of this new district, with tools such as intelligent infrastructure technology and cutting-edge eco design serving to reduce the district’s collective ecological footprint.”

Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture are credited with designing scores of other structures that incorporate sustainable strategies. The centerpiece of Jumeira Gardens will be 1 Dubai, A tri-partite skyscraper that will rise to 3281 feet, making it the third structure tower in the UAE. Its soaring towers will be connected by a series of glass suspension sky-bridges.

Park Gate comprises six mid-rise towers that are arranged in facing pairs. A hanging garden canopy stretches between each set of structures, providing shade and cooling the neighborhood by as much as 10 degrees centigrade.

The smooth curves of 1 Park Avenue evoke Dubai’s historic relationship with the Arabian Gulf. The 1,800 foot tower will incorporate solar panels, wind turbines, and a variety of other sustainable strategies in its design.

Excavation for Jumeira Gardens has already begun, and the development is expected to take 12 years to complete.

Via World Architecture News

Paron Palace

In 1906, Empain established the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company, which bought a very large stretch of desert (25 square kilometres) to the northwest of Cairo at a low price from the colonial government.Commencing in 1906-07 this company proceeded with the building of the new town of Heliopolis, in the desert ten kilometers from the center of Cairo. It was designed as a "city of luxury and leisure", with broad avenues and equipped with all necessary conveniences and infrastructure; water, drains, electricity, hotel facilities, such as the Heliopolis Palace Hotel (now the presidential palace of Hosni Mubarak) and Heliopolis House, and recreational amenities including a golf course, racetrack and park. In addition, there was housing for rent, offered in a range of innovative design types targeting specific social classes with detached and terraced villas, apartment buildings, tenement blocks with balcony access and workers' bungalows.

Today, Baron Empain is perhaps best known by modern visitors to Egypt for the building of a palace (the Palais Hindou) in the Avenue des Palais (renamed Orouba Avenue in the Nasser era) Heliopolis, Egypt. Inspired by Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Hindu temples of Orissa, the Baron Empain palace was designed by French architect Alexandre Marcel (1860-1928) and decorated by Georges-Louis Claude (1879-1963), with construction being completed in 1911.

In 1905, Empain assisted the Belgian government in the purchase of an Old Kingdom mastaba for the royal museum in Brussels, of which he was a benefactor. In 1907 he received the title of Baron, and also suggested to Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart that he excavate at Heliopolis, where his building constructions were underway. He also made it possible for Capart to acquire some fine ancient artefacts for the Brussels Museum.