Developed by Bouygues Immobilier and recognized as one of the largest sustainable developments in the Paris region, the building occupies a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) landscaped site and has been awarded the High Environmental Quality (HEQ) label—the newest official certification from the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, a French body focused on improving construction through science and technology. The project was 95 percent leased before completion; 39,500 square meters (425,174 sq. ft.) of the office space is occupied by the European and French headquarters of Microsoft, and 5,500 square meters (59,202 sq. ft.) by Lundbeck pharmaceutical laboratories.
After centuries of use as a military base, a 13-hectare (32 acre) land parcel in the historic center of Breda has been reborn as a public domain. Based on a plan created by architect Rem Koolhas (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), Chassé Park, a multiuse urban infill community has sprouted up where barracks once housed soldiers. It comprises 700 housing units, including 100 units of public housing; 30,000 square meters (322,917 sf) of office space; 2,000 square meters (21,528 sf) of retail space; 1,500 underground parking spaces; and eight hectares (20 ac) of public parkland.
One of the largest private investments ever made in the central region of Portugal, Dolce Vita Coimbra, its developer’s response to the city of Coimbra’s 2002 international request for proposals for the city’s “Eurostadium” project, is a mixed-use complex that transformed the underground concourse of an existing municipal football (soccer) stadium into a four-level regional shopping center and linked this to a new recreation center, a multiuse pavilion, and 202 apartments. The complex seamlessly integrates shopping, sports, leisure, and cultural activities with residences within the central area of Coimbra, providing the city’s 405,000 residents with a wide range of new facilities and services.
Located in Salford, an outer suburb of Manchester, Chimney Pot Park is a radical redevelopment of 349 residential units in a troubled terrace-house neighborhood. For years, the community suffered from low demand and declining value, and was plagued by crime and antisocial behavior, absentee landlords and irresponsible tenants, and open back alleys that encouraged neglect and vandalism. With the original housing stock slated for demolition, Urban Splash—a development company renowned for regenerating distressed or problematic sites—drastically reconfigured the internal design and layout of the homes while retaining the original façades and street pattern.
The Pall Italia Building is located in an industrial area of Buccinasco, Italy, a municipality seven kilometers (4.3 mi.) southwest of Milan. The new Italian headquarters of the Pall Corporation—a U.S.-based global company specializing in the filtration, separation, and purification of fluids for the medical and industrial fields—consists of 3,463 square meters (37,275 sq. ft.) of office space and 3,513 square meters (37,814 sq. ft.) of research laboratories on an 8.8-hectare (21.8-acre) site. One of Italy’s first green buildings, the Pall Italia Building uses a range of sustainable technologies to achieve zero on-site carbon emissions, including thermal resistant façades, innovative daylighting techniques, and renewable energy.
As the Industrial Revolution reached Germany in the mid-19th century, urban centers began building central waterworks. Usage increased and water towers followed to maintain water pressure throughout the system. Water towers symbolized progress, and as highly visible landmarks—frequently built on hilltops because they were gravity powered—they were often designed as architectural icons. The wasserturm (water tower) in the Sternschanzen Park, a kilometer (0.62 mi) northwest of Hamburg’s city center, is a prime example. One of only three remaining in Hamburg, which once had 43, this water tower—an octagonal brick edifice 60 meters (197 ft) tall and 25 meters (82 ft) in diameter—was particularly handsome. The tower has been transformed into a 226-room hotel with an additional 1,681 sq m (18,094 sq ft) of commercial and restaurant space.
The landmark destination in Warsaw’s newest high-rise district, Złote Tarasy is a state-of-the-art, 225,000-square-meter (2.4 million-sq. ft.) commercial complex on a 3.2-hectare (7.9-acre) infill site. Złote Tarasy’s trademark element is its one-hectare (2.5-acre) undulating glass roof, inspired by the tree canopies that shade Warsaw’s historic parks, enclosing its lively retail and entertainment plaza. Visited by more than 1.3 million people a month, the center consists of 45,000 square meters (484,376 sq. ft.) of office space, more than 200 shops, 30 restaurants, and an eight-screen cinema.
Dickens Heath Village Centre is a purpose-built mixed-use village in the heart of the Solihull countryside that, at completion, will comprise approximately 500 luxury apartments and townhouses, 15,000 square meters (161,459 sq. ft.) of commercial space, a library, a medical center, and a nature reserve. Parkridge Holdings is developing the planned community on greenbelt land previously owned by the local authority. Although a relatively small development, the project provides the missing piece in the jigsaw of an urban extension—it introduces an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable heart to a new community that is urban rather than suburban but still sensitive to its rural setting.
Cabot Circus is a 150,000-square-meter (1.6 million-sq. ft.) new urban quarter developed by the Bristol Alliance, a partnership between two of the United Kingdom’s largest developers, Land Securities and Hammerson. The mixed-use development was built in collaboration with the Bristol City Council, which was eager to revive a major district of the United Kingdom’s eighth-largest city. Cabot Circus was conceived as a new urban heart to the city and designed to provide Bristol’s affluent demographic with high-quality shopping, leisure, and entertainment, in hopes of moving the city up to a top shopping destination.
At first glance, the Corvinus University/Studium office building is merely another seven-story office block—albeit a Class A office building with a spectacular vista of the Danube and a multitude of amenities—in downtown Budapest. But the story of how this development came to be is a first in Hungary, a country that shifted in 1989 from a centrally planned economy to a free-market system and one still unaccustomed to public/private partnerships. The Corvinus University/Studium building is a win-win-win achievement for a public university (Corvinus), a private developer (Wing), and the city of Budapest.
