T A S T E T H E R A I N B O W

If only all banks looked like this...

Today has been fairly rubbish, as I’ve been blown around like a tumble weed and I’ve failed in finding a suitable winter-come-summer jacket. I’m beginning to think such a thing doesn’t exist! Back to design, this pretty little thing brightened my day just a little, not least because it’s actually a bank! Built in Tokyo by French architect Emmanuelle Moureaux, this building has several wonderful features including the sculptural coloured canopies of the exterior and the Tyo Ito-esque light wells that penetrate the floors, providing natural light and ventilation throughout the building. The interior is equally beautiful and decorated with dandelion motifs (even the ATMs!) which, according to the architects, create a ‘refreshing atmosphere’ and a ‘sense of nature’. It may sounds like a spa retreat, but maybe the benefits of these relaxing techniques will reveal themselves in the bank’s profits...

V A V A V O O M

Japanese Practice Kengo Kuma and Associates have unanimously won the highly-contested battle to design the new V&A Museum in Dundee. Beating off competition from an impressive six-strong shortlist, the landmark building is at the forefront of the city’s Waterfront regeneration project and is hoping to replicate Bilbao’s ‘Guggenheim effect’ in Scotland. The stone building takes its elegantly splayed form from the meeting of tourism trade with the city centre, and will seemingly ‘float’ on the banks of the River Tay.  Building will commence in 2012 and the museum is expected to open in 2015.

N E S T I N G P L A C E

It may be a phrase perpetually linked with the Beijing Olympics, but now UID Architects have created a bird’s nest of their own, in Hiroshima, Japan. Taking inspiration from the handiwork of our feathered friends, UID’s family home reflects the orders of the environment, relative to the ground, trees and sky. Instead of compromising the surrounding forest, the building is integrated by the architects in the form of tunnels, a lower level planted garden, and moveable, flexible space. Wide openings in the walls and floors blur any distinctions between the various levels, whilst still allowing for interaction and intimacy.