Bloomberg

December 11, 2020

by Laura Millan Lombraña

Spectacular technology breakthroughs, multiple trillions of euros in investment, and an economic overhaul won’t be enough to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050—it also will need a new look.

Bloomberg Green invited De Smedt, Casper Mork-Ulnes, and Koichi Takada, all architects are known for their focus on sustainability to perform an exercise of the imagination. The rules were simple: Pick a place in Europe, design a single-family home to suit that climate, and make it produce more energy than it uses. —With James Tarmy

Sunflower House, by Koichi Takada… Read more

Stir World

December 4, 2020

Koichi Takada Architects recently completed a mixed-use residential building in Sydney, Australia, with a design that lets the structure breathe due to its unique architectural loop feature, along with a void in its sun-facing façade.

Commenting on the design of the building that’s named Infinity, the firm’s principal architect Koichi Takada says, “Infinity has a hole to cool down the building. Infinity’s inception was started with the idea of creating a significant opening in the building structure to draw in wind, to achieve a natural cooling effect of the internal spaces through pressure differentials”.… Read more

Designboom

November 28, 2020

Koichi Takada Architects have shared an exclusive first look at the firm’s most recently completed project in Sydney, Australia. ‘infinity’ is a mixed-use residential building that’s articulated by a huge, hollowed-out corner. Designed not only for aesthetic appeal, this carved opening in the middle of the structure creates a natural cooling effect, therefore reducing energy consumption.

Koichi Takada says, ‘infinity has a hole to cool down the building. Infinity’s inception was started with the idea of creating a significant opening in the building structure to draw in wind, to achieve a natural cooling effect of… Read more

Property Investor

Editor Dan Wilkie

One of Australia’s most ambitious green buildings has gained the endorsement of one of the world’s biggest environmentalists, with Sir David Attenborough giving his nod of approval to the Koichi Takada-designed Urban Forest project in Brisbane.

Sir David shared an architect’s rendering of the project on his Facebook page this week, shining light on Koichi Takada Architects’ and developer Aria Property Group’s ambitions of creating what they say will be the world’s most environmentally-friendly building.

The 30-level apartment tower, which has been proposed to be built on Merivale Street in South Brisbane, will feature… Read more

mensch + architektur

issue 103/104

Inspired by the so-called »sand rose«, a natural bizarre crystal structure made of sand and plaster, which is created in hot deserts by the evaporation of water, the French architect Jean Nouvel designed the National Museum in Doha / Qatar.

The Japanese-Australian architect Koichi Takada, who designed the museum shop in the National Museum, was inspired by the underground sanctuary in Qatar, Dahl Al Misfir, which is a 100-meter-deep cave made of sand and plaster, also called the »cave of light«, due to the fluorescent surface made by plaster crystals. He wanted to set… Read more

Sydney Morning Herald

3 October 2020

by Stephen Crafti

There could only be one name given to the Arc, given the number of brick arches and the 300,000 bricks that went into making it.

A key building in Sydney’s CBD, it was designed by Koichi Takada Architects and clearly references the brick arches in a neighboring building dating from the early 20th century.

The architects’ clients, Crown Group, wanted a mixed-use residential/hotel/serviced apartments and retail, but one that also connected Clarence Street on one side and Kent Street on the other.

“We were conscious of working in a heritage… Read more

Australian Design Review

28 September 2020

Architect Koichi Takada uses his Urban Forest residential development to imagine the tranquility and restorative powers of a rural retreat within a bustling cityscape.

“It is possible to design buildings that reconnect people with nature even in densely populated, inner-city locations,” says Takada.

The founder and principal of Sydney-based Koichi Takada Architects takes his cues from nature, harnessing light, solar and wind energy in ways that enable his designs to echo nature rather than constrain it. His ambition is to uncover ways to swap out “dead materials” like concrete, steel and glass for… Read more

GQ

18 September 2020

Brad Nash

A high-rise tower playing host to over 20,000 plants.

Ironically enough at a time when many cities are trying their best to cram as many people into a confined space as possible, other companies are busy at work trying to figure out a way of making Australia’s urban sprawl a naturaistic paradise once again. Most major architectural projects unveiled these days have some kind of green element to them, from the plants you see growing out of Sydney’s Central Park, to the timber-clad Atlassian HQ.

But a new design for a building proposed… Read more

Dezeen

16 September 2020

India Block

Urban Forest is a 30-storey apartment building covered in thousand trees and plants that Koichi Takada Architects has designed for Brisbane, Australia.

The mixed-use high rise building owned by developers Aria Property Group will include 392 homes, a two-level rooftop garden and a public park at ground level.

Urban Forest will be covered in 1,000 trees

Australian studio Koichi Takada Architects plans to cover the stepped facade with 1,000 trees and 20,000 plants, in a combination of over 250 species native to Queensland.

The architecture studio and developers are attempting to make Urban Forest the “world’s greenest… Read more

Archdaily

September 9th 2020

by Christele Harrouk

Urban Forest, a 30-story mixed-use residential high-rise is the latest development designed by Koichi Takada Architects. Located in South Brisbane, Australia, the building features one of the world’s most densely-forested vertical gardens, going beyond regular green buildings norms and achieving “300% site cover with living greenery, featuring 1000 plus trees and more than 20,000 plants selected from 259 native species”. Increasing biodiversity and reducing the ecological footprint, the structure highlights another stage in the evolution of the architectural vertical garden.

Submitted for planning approval, the Urban Forest project is part of a new global movement of Vertical planting… Read more