Sutong bridge to set world record

The Sutong Changjiang Highway Bridge over the Yangtze River is seen under construction in east China's Jiangsu Province, April 23, 2007. The cable-stayed bridge will have a world record 1088 metres main span and tallest cable towers when completed in 2008.

Alsop Adds Colour to London City

A landmark redevelopment scheme featuring a 43-storey tower at 151 City Road, London EC1 will be unveiled this week. The groundbreaking scheme designed by SMC Alsop for Enddora Holdings Ltd, part of the Access Self Storage Group, is located on a site on City Road, close to Old Street roundabout, opposite the Moorfields Eye Hospital and adjacent to the recently approved, 27-storey tower Eagle House, designed by Terry Farrell. The proposal brings together a unique combination of land uses which, together with the size of the site and its context, has led Will Alsop to create a pioneering new building-type, fusing large scale art, sculpture and architecture. The building will include retail and bars, self-storage, business centre, fitness centre and apart-hotel. The self storage proposals, stacked vertically rather than along the ground, represent a major new departure for self storage in this country, bringing the facility into the middle of town rather than its traditional edge of town location. Double height retail and restaurants are located at ground floor on City Road, with entrances to the self-storage on Britannia Walk and the apart-hotel, business centre and leisure uses on Provost Street. Level 42 is given over to a public bar and viewing gallery. Describing the scheme architect Will Alsop says, "It's an incredibly exciting project - essentially the whole building is conceived as an artwork including Bruce McLean's piece, the coloured solar siphons, and the building form - sculpted and faceted so that the perception of the tower changes from every perspective." Measures to integrate sustainability and energy reduction are fully incorporated in the building's design through the choice of on-site renewables and the integration of an innovative natural ventilation system. The building tapers and twists to allow daylight penetration at street level. Articulated chimneys known as solar siphons wrap around the building fabric like a striped shirt giving the impression of slenderness and at the same time providing natural ventilation to the hotel apartments. This dramatically reduces the need for mechanical air-conditioning and substantially reduces the Development's overall carbon footprint. Speaking of the project, independent townscape assessor, Richard Coleman said "Will Alsop is able to bring joy to hearts, minds and eyes of people through the most diverse of building uses. At City Road the project is a rich mix of uses within a total work of art made explicit through the 15-storey work by artist Bruce McLean. It is symptomatic of the City Road site that a tall elegant building of such beauty as is proposed, enhances a poor townscape edge to Hackney without infringing any distant views vistas or heritage areas." The scheme will be unveiled at a public exhibition, opening this week on the site at 151 City Road, which is part of the public consultation exercise, intended to provide an opportunity for local residents and office workers to view the proposals. Following this exhibition it is intended that the scheme will be submitted to the London Borough of Hackney for planning in early April.

Aedas designs U-Bora Tower at Business Bay in Dubai

The U-Bora Tower Complex is a mixed-use development located in the heart of Business Bay. The design has given equal attention to its three different uses - office, residential and retail, in order to maximize their opportunities and viabilities within the site's context. The 250 meter high U-Bora Office Tower is located prominantly on the main axis. It was designed as an anchor on the axis and within its own development. Along with the 462 meter Burj Alam, located across the street of this main axis, the two towers work together and act as a gateway into the development. In addition, the project weights the office space toward the top by starting with smaller 1,100m² floors at the bottom and slowly increasing toward the top 2,000m² floors. This maximizes prime view space by containing 70% of the office towers 80,000m², in the top half of the office tower. The 30,000m² residential block deliberately does not compete with the surrounding towers in height and instead keeps low and focused to the adjacent water body to the south. By designing the block as a linear bar rising from 12 stories at the tower end to 15 stories at the western end a significantly greater percentage of units get an uninterrupted view of the water. The third component of the project, although relatively small in area, is 7,000m² of retail. All three components are glued together with a 10,000m² public, densely landscaped deck which has accessibility from all three exposed sides of the project.

Hamersley Hash Run at Bold Park

Bold Park - Wilderness at your doorstep
The vision for Bold Park is to be identified as a world-class urban wilderness enjoyed, studied and managed with the community.
Bold Park was declared an A-class reserve on 10th August 1998 for its high conservation, landscape and recreation values. It is one of the largest remaining bushland remnants in the urban area of the Swan Coastal Plain, covering 437 hectares.
Reabold Hill
Be amazed by the spectacular views of Perth when you visit Reabold Hill. Designed for disabled access, the raised boardwalk offers a unique bushland experience en route to the highest natural point on the Swan Coastal Plain in the metropolitan area. At 85 metres above sea level, you can see the Indian Ocean, Perth city, Rottnest Island, Kings Park and Botanic Garden, and even glimpses of the Swan River.

Lord Norman Foster at 71

Funding sought to finance major expansion
Lord Foster of Thames-side has appointed bankers to examine the possible sale of part or all of his world-leading architectural practice. Foster and Partners, which was broken into six autonomous design groups two years ago is believed to need cash to realise its expansion plans. This includes increasing the number of offices from the current 13 to between 20 and 30. Speculation has put the practice's current value at £300m - £500m GBP. However city financial observers are casting doubt on this price as commercial property is thought to be at the top of its cycle and this is an area which the practice is heavily dependant on making it vulnerable. Foster, who is 71, is believed to have called in specialist corporate finance firm Catalyst Investment to review the funding requirements. In the last accounts filed at Companies House, for the year ended April 2005, the company revealed pre-tax profits of £2.5m on turnover of £44.5m. The London based practice has overseas offices in Beijing, Dubai, Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur which reflects the increasingly international mix of its business, during that year the company generated 12 per cent of its turnover from the US and 9 per cent from China. The bulk of the business, however, was still in the UK, which generated 43 per cent.

WorldArchitectureNews 22.01.2007

Hash Run At Perth Hill

Monday run at Perth Hill- 15th Jan.2007

Khairy Jamaluddin

Hari Raya Aidil Adha 2006 Celebration with The Honourable Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Date: 30th December 2006
Venue: Puteri Nasi Kandar
339 Albany Highway,
Victoria Park, Perth.WA.

With all the fame created around Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son-in-law, it seems surreal to post along side with Khairy Jamaluddin in front of Puteri Nasi Kandar.





Khairy Jamaluddin (born January 10, 1976) is a Malaysian politician. He is the son-in-law of Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Khairy's political and financial influence has been described as substantial, with some calling him a future Prime Minister by virtue of his connections. He is married to Nori Abdullah, and is the Deputy Chief of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) Youth wing, a post he won unchallenged in the 2004 UMNO Annual General Meeting with influence of his father-in-law.
Khairy was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He is the only son of former diplomat Dato' Jamaluddin Abu Bakar and Dato' Rahmah Abdul Hamid.
Khairy had his secondary education at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore, and his university education at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. While at Oxford, he studied at St Hugh's College, and graduated with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE).

Springfield Land Corporation

"When I first dreamt of creating a city like Greater Springfield there were those who dismissed the idea as too ambitious. But fortunately, there were also those who shared my vision and had the drive, determination and resourcefulness to help bring it to life.
Today, Greater Springfield is a resounding success, with even greater prosperity on the horizon. I am proud to invite residents, business enterprises, community groups, educational institutions and government bodies to join in living the dream. Our future starts now and together we can make it an even more exciting and rewarding reality than we ever imagined."

MAHA SINNATHAMBY

Chairman – Springfield Land Corporation

I met Mr. Maha on the AMWA Awards night. I was impressed by his

directness and openness on opportunities and mental toughness.

I see his success as a benchmark that we should emulate.

Metamorphosis in Paris

Californian architect Thom Mayne to design tallest building in Paris

Plans have been just been unveiled for a vast glass office block that will become the tallest commercial building since Eiffel tower. Skyscrapers are banned in the historic centre of Paris with high-rise buildings confined to the La Defense district to the west of the centre. Once described as Paris’s “mini-Manhattan”, La Defense is one of Europe’s biggest purpose built business districts, created under Francois Mitterrand’s direction in 1989. Recently La Defense has begun planning a new generation of high-rises to compete with new urban business quarters in Moscow, Madrid and Amsterdam. Designed by Californian architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis fame, the “Phare” (lighthouse) tower is a gently sloping eco friendly glass construction complete with wind turbines on its roof. At a cost of 900m Euros (£610m) the building, which will offer 130,000 square metres of office space, is due to be completed in 2012.

Aya Matsuura

Individual

Each person's personal vision is unique. What we 'see' are electrical signal conducted through our visual system. The truth is images do not 'enter' into our eyes, because our eyes and nervous system are part of the whole phenomena. Each person perceives his individual image of the 'same' thing.

Decision

Each decision we make is an important decision.

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid wins international competition
Zaha Hadid has won a presitgious international competition to design the new Nuragic and Contemporary Art Museum in Cagliari, Italy. Envisioned as a project to be completed in three phases, the structure will cover some 12,000 square metres, comprised of Nuragic and Contemporary Art exhibition spaces, a library, a congress hall, offices and retail space. The aim of the project is to create a node of cultural exchanges that can simultaneously serve as a landmark announcing the arrival to Cagliari from the sea, and answer the five challenges proposed by the brief. Through the interconnection of the inner circulation with the public paths and the alternation of open spaces and cavities, the building shares its public dimension with the city. Moreover, it geometrically aligns along the axis of the sea, and extends its arms towards the quarter and the stadium of S.Elia, connecting and assimilating itself to the site.

Follow up in Life

We always forget we have a lifestyle already and very often that lifestyle is comfortable and safe. But we still want to venture into the realm of unknown or advanturous.

London Thames Opera Competition

The month of September is drawing to an end.
Hakuho still have to wait for another Basho
to become Yokuzuna. Being away from Asia,
I have lost the news on Taiwan "Ah Bian"
saga. All the fuss on the President. I have
to salute the Thai. May be Taiwanese have
to emulate the act of Coup, Bloodless like
Thai style. I salute the army, you hold the
gun, lets do it your way.

Still have the feeling of London, the summer,
the SouthBank, all the tourists jam at London's
Eye, along the Thames.

I was delighted to be short-listed as 52 finalists
on London Thames Opera Competition. Well, been
the only three Australian entries among the
international crowd, I am indeed very pleased.
At least get into the main stream for all
the long forgotten Architectural's sake.

Visit: www.lineofsite.info

http://www.lineofsite.info/gallery_thames.html

瀾哪洗台灣郎，無哩係 賣安怎?

This is a classic Taiwan.
We are Taiwan people,if
not what can you do?

One more chance for Hakuho

Having been given a second chance, Mongolian ozeki Hakuho has a nervous 15 days ahead of him with promotion to sumo's highest rank well within his grasp.

Hakuho will launch a fresh bid to convince sumo elders when the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament gets under way Sunday at Ryogoku Kokugikan after being overlooked despite his strong 13-2 performance last time out.

Japan Sumo Association Chairman Kitanoumi has suggested that another 13-win showing or better would enable the 21-year-old to join fellow Ulan Bator native Asashoryu as a grand champion regardless of whether he lifts the Emperor's Cup.

Hakuho is already feeling the pressure, uncharacteristically showing some clumsiness in his moves in pre-tournament training sessions.

"In recent sessions, Hakuho didn't show what most other promotion candidates have done before," ozeki Tochiazuma said after having practice bouts with him on Wednesday. "He needs to show the strength, that is, he has to push forward more often like the yokozuna (Asashoryu) does without being passive."

Some sumo elders echo Tochiazuma in pointing out that Hakuho is relying more than usual on his techniques than on power.

Hakuho shrugged off such concerns, saying his preparations for the Sept. 10-24 event have gone smoothly.

In fact, Hakuho has already notched the number of wins the JSA normally requires wrestlers to have to be considered for yokozuna promotion under its loosely set standards. He has had at least 13 wins in all of the four tournaments held this year, including a 14 to win the Emperor's Cup in May.

Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006
Source:The Japan Times

Day 1 is always critical for the confidence. Again we see the result we don't wanted. This is all for the hope of a new Yokozuno to be born. Let us close our fingers and pray for the best outcome after 15 days.

Hakuho lost to Kisenosato in day 1.

September

September shall see the Aki-Basho. The Grand Sumo Tournamant. It starts on Sun. Sept. 10th,2006 to Sept. 24th, 2006.

September's Aki Basho approaches and as was the case prior to Nagoya in July, with it comes the talk of how Mongolian ozeki Hakuho will fare; whether or not he'll be performing the yokozuna dohyo-iri alongside yokozuna Asashoryu at the next tournament.

Aya Matsuura

Nagoya Basho 2006-Day 8

Great to see Takamisakari win.