Alien Architecture: 8 Convention-Breaking Projects That Are Out of This World
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How can architecture be a force for good in our ever-changing world? During Future Fest, we’ll pose this question to some of the world’s best architects. Launching in September, our three-week-long virtual event will be 100% free to attend. Register here!
Technological advances in materials and building methods are making the construction of new architecture easier than ever. Materials are lighter, stronger and easier to manipulate, meaning that buildings are being less and less constrained by conventional shapes and forms.
Some architects are taking full advantage of this change by breaking away from any and all traditional architectural movements – or, should we say instead, all “earthly” architectural movements. Forget Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier — these architects seem to take inspiration from the works of Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert and George Lucas. The resultant projects seem to defy the laws of gravity or to have crash-landed on Earth.
Once a product of the imagination and the backdrop for sci-fi movies, these A+Award winners tell the denizens Star Wars and Dune that the Earth is catching up fast to their worlds.
Nantong Urban Agricultural Park Exhibition Center by Z-ONE Tech, Nantong, China
Jury Winner and Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Restaurants
This new exhibition park in Nantong, China brings a truly alien character to the rural landscape. Along most of the building, the undulating white walls are supported by curved horizontal windows, suggesting that the structure was built in a place where gravity is less of a concern. This makes the building worthy of the term “extraterrestrial”.
Depot Boijmans van Beuningen by MVRDV, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Gallery & Exhibition Spaces
The Depot Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam breaks with the traditional art museum by making accessible all facets of the art curation process. Rather than concealing the work of restoration and cataloguing, the depot gives visitors new reasons to appreciate art beyond the final product hanging on gallery walls.
This bold new approach to ‘showcasing’ art is matched by a similarly bold new building: a large reflective ovoid that distorts the neighborhood into playful cubist concoctions. The new building makes a clear statement about the depot’s philosophy: just as we shouldn’t reduce our appreciation of art to a final ‘polished’ state, we should similarly see the world around us as a place ripe for artistic contemplation.
Hongkong Land’s Yorkville – The Ring by PH Alpha Design, Chongqing, China
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Shopping Center
No, this new mall in Chongqin, China did not serve as backdrop for the upcoming Avatar sequel. However, the combination of indoor botanical garden and commercial space with gravity-defying theatrics should make James Cameron reconsider his use of CGI in favor of more real-life settings.
Meama Collect – Beach by Khmaladze Architects, Batumi, Georgia
Jury Winner and Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Pop-Ups & Temporary
This pop-up beach bar in Batumi Georgia offers a breezy canopy for an evening cocktail. The light-weight fabric bands seem to orbit around the structure and interact with the constant wind. One gentle breeze and the bands ripple like the nearby waves.
Photos by James Ewing
550 Madison Lobby by Gensler, New York
Jury Winner and Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Commercial Interiors
The renovated lobby of 550 Madison, Manhattan’s youngest landmark building, preserves and refurbishes the vaulted triple-height ceiling with a minimalist color palette. At the top, the oculus diffuses soft flood light into the arching space, allowing brightness throughout the day. These minimal features all draw attention to the room’s new crown jewel: a 24-ton marble art installation suspended by chain cables, which hangs solitarily like an alien planet suspended in space.
CarmoCoffees by Gustavo Penna Arquiteto & Associados, Carmo de Minas, Brazil
Jury Winner and Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Factories & Warehouses
A huge crater-like cavity breaks the monotony of this smooth and simplistic exterior finish. This spherical construction of glass panes vaguely resembles a coffee bean from the outside (which this warehouse in Brazil stores aplenty) but it’s the radiance that it brings inside that makes this feature a worthy inclusion.
Restaurant of Metasequoia Grove by GOA (Group of Architects), Suzhou, China
Jury Winner and Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Restaurants
To come up with the shape of this swap-side restaurant in Suzhou, China, the architects took the forms of nearby metasequoia trees and abstracted them, resulting in the eleven pyramidal frustums that now face the lake.
Images by Julien Lanoo
Qaammat Pavilion by Konstantin Arketekter, Sarfannguit, Greenland
Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Pavilions
It doesn’t hurt that this new pavilion finds itself in Sarfannguit, Greenland, one of the most remote and rugged regions on Earth. The pavilion’s translucent ‘shell’, formed of two curving glass brick walls, only adds to the pre-existing surreal atmosphere.
How can architecture be a force for good in our ever-changing world? During Future Fest, we’ll pose this question to some of the world’s best architects. Launching in September, our three-week-long virtual event will be 100% free to attend. Register here!
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