Cool Hunting

Foster + Partners Eco Tower
Foster + Partners have clearly been busy on the large-scale eco front with another offering in the Russian city of Khanty Mansyisk. This 280-meter tall tower is built like a cut diamond to maximize daylight through the winter months by the refraction of light. Of the project, the architecture firm says, "this mixed-use scheme will create an elegant and crystalline landmark, providing crucial new...

The Pharos Project
by Russ Lowe Addressing inconsistencies and other challenges in eco-friendly construction, a revolutionary group of like-minded (and large-minded) scientists, architects, engineers, humanitarians and optimists from the U.S. Green Building Council's robust Northwest Chapter, Cascadia, have developed Pharos, a project that might just reshape the Green movement.Its namesake, the island lighthouse of Alexandria, references the guiding beacon that led travelers through unmarked waters in ancient...

Elkus Manfredi Neiman Marcus Store
Inspired by a silk dress, the wrapping for a new Neiman Marcus store in Boston undulates and folds around the building. Neiman's philosophy is that every store should look completely different from every other of their stores. In line with this, the wrap to this outlet in Boston is made from patches of stainless steel knitted together and is 40 feet high and the...

Mithun Urban Farms
As myopic urban planners and developers pave over rich topsoil to create giant-box stores and auto malls in their pursuit of easy tax revenue and profits, a partnership of forward-looking architects have hatched a scheme to comingle agriculture with urban development Mithun, a consortium of cutting-edge architects in Seattle, recognize that when real estate and resources become scant, the solution is to build up. Their...

Super-K
The Super-Kamiokande, or Super-K as it's known, is not the latest nightclub VIP booth but is a neutrino observatory designed to search for proton decay, study solar and atmospheric neutrinos and keep watch for supernovas in the Milky Way. Located 1,000 meters underground in the Mozumi Mine in Hida City, Gifu, Japan, it consists of 50,000 tons of pure water surrounded by about 11,200...

Alsop's Filmport
British architect Will Alsop's design for the new Filmport complex in Toronto has just been unveiled and is set to be one of the largest film studios on the North American continent. The building is a giant sectional arc, its outer face wrapped by punctuated Cor-Ten Steel and its inner face a glass curtain wall that, with the arc, bends to form a large...