This week on Dezeen, we published photographs showing a skyscraper by Zaha Hadid Architects that is close to being completed on the world’s most expensive site in Hong Kong.
Located in Hong Kong’s Central Business District, The Henderson office building occupies what was reportedly the world’s most expensive plot when it was purchased in 2017.
Photographs taken by Dezeen’s design editor Jennifer Hahn show most of its curved glass facade panels are now in place.
We also took a look at 10 other skyscrapers by Zaha Hadid Architects that are currently in the works, including a twisted skyscraper in Malta and a shard-shaped crystalline skyscraper in Saudi Arabia.
In other skyscraper news, California architecture studio AO has put forward plans for a skyscraper in Oklahoma City that would be 533-metres high, making it the second-tallest in the US. The skyscraper, which has not yet been approved, would be part of a development called the Boardwalk at Bricktown.
A 43-storey skyscraper in Chicago was also unveiled this week. Designed by US firm Morris Adjmi Architects, The Row skyscraper has a “deeply expressive” facade that takes cues from the city’s industrial past and the work of architect Mies van der Rohe.
Saudi Arabian mega-project Neom unveiled its latest design, Aquellum, an “upside-down skyscraper” that will be located inside a mountain range by the Gulf of Aquaba.
The building will be centred around a 100-metre-tall void above an “underwater open square” and will be designed by architecture studios LAVA and Name Architecture. It will contain hotel and retail spaces, as well as residential apartments and “innovative hubs”.
In design news this week, electronics brand LG unveiled what it says is “the world’s first wireless transparent OLED TV”. Showcased at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the TV could be used as a subtle room divider while switched off.
Also on show at CES were industrial designer Marc Newson’s smart artificial intelligence (AI) binoculars, designed for Swarovski Optik. The binoculars use AI to identify bird and animal species, overlaying species information on the image in front of them.
Eco-friendly design had a moment, with shoe brand Vivobarefoot and material science company Balena unveiling a prototype trainer that is 3D-printed from compostable materials. The “scan-to-print-to-soil” trainer was designed to be composted in an industrial facility.
Materials companies Circular Matters and StoneCycling also worked with biomaterials, using corn cobs to make a biodegradable interior cladding. CornWall was designed as a more sustainable alternative to plastic laminate or ceramic interior wall tiles.
Car Design News editor James McLachlan explored who entrepreneur Elon Musk’s bulletproof Cybertruck is meant to appeal to in an opinion piece this week.
The Cybertruck encapsulates “a dystopian future vision where the United States is sliding into lawlessness,” McLachlan says, though he also argues that an “understanding of the importance of design and manufacturing working together is Musk’s genius.”
Popular projects this week included a Menorcan holiday home encased in fluted concrete, a Washington DC residence with a gabled annexe and a Chilean holiday home with a rotated terrace.
Our latest lookbooks featured ten homes with net floors and ten interiors with mid-century modern furniture.
This week on Dezeen
This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week’s top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don’t miss anything.
