Research Station Design | International Polar Foundation | Belgian Antarctic Base | Princess Elisabeth | Samyn and Partners

The International Polar Foundation (IPF), led by the civil engineer and explorer Alain HUBERT, was commissioned in 2004 by the Belgian Federal government to design, construct and operate a new Belgian Antarctic research station.

Princess Elisabeth, the world's first "zero emission" polar station, stands now at 72°S 23°E on top of a granite ridge, north of the Utsteinen Nunatak in the Sør Rondane Mountains.......more

Tea House Mustelka | H3T

" We have created a place to meet and contemplate.
First you need to cross the river - a symbolic borderline dividing the common from unique spirit of the tea house. One has to get rid of everyday worries and climb up to an artificial island.
One side of the tea house is open so that visitors can enjoy a view of landscape surrounding the structure. As the tea house can rotate around its axis, visitors can choose the most suitable direction enjoying both view and sunshine, eventually they can cover the open side with a curtain. The landscape around consisting partly of Kralupy nad Vltavou brown-field is calm and full of living nature.............more

Museum Design | Wings Museum | AS + GG

A simple but arresting image from nature–a bird skimming over the surface of a body of water–was the inspiration for this prototype of a museum on a lake or ocean harbor. With its wings unfurled as if in midflight, this powerfully poetic structure is an evocation of the natural world at its most graceful, dynamic, streamlined and ecologically interdependent.

That inspiration, combined with concepts from automobile and product design, has been developed into a sculptural, asymmetrical form echoed in its interior by two great atria that feel equally organic........more