Burberry opens in Singapore

Burberry announced the opening of its largest store in the South East Asia region. The 815 square metre store located in ION Orchard, Singapore’s shopping centre for art, architecture, and luxury, opened today.

The store carries a full range of ready-to-wear for both menswear and womenswear from the Burberry Prorsum, Burberry London, Burberry Lifestyle, Burberry Sports and Burberry Childrenswear collections. The Burberry accessories collection including bags, jewelery, shoes as well as fragrance, timepieces and sunglasses lines is also available in the store.

The store reflects the new Burberry design concept, developed by Burberry Creative Director, Christopher Bailey. Intrinsically British materials and themes are used throughout in a contemporary way. The store also features state of the art technology including cutting edge sound system, a WIFI connection throughout, VIP room with in built iPod docking stations and a giant 103” high definition LED video wall.

This is the sixth Burberry store to open in Singapore; other stores in the country include Paragon, Ngee Ann City, Takashimaya, Takashimaya Childrenswear and Isetan Scotts Childrenswear.

To mark the ION Orchard store opening, Burberry has designed a range of exotic leather accessories including handbags, clutches and small leather goods available exclusively in the store.

Burberry, which is headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange, was founded in 1856.

Dorobanti Tower by Zaha Hadid Architects [Romania]

Zaha Hadid Architects have designed a high-rise building for the center of Bucharest, Romania, which has a structural, lattice façade. It will contain a five star hotel, a business centre, a casino, retail areas, apartments and underground parking.

Architectural Concept:

The brief called for a 100,000 square metre mixed-use, high-rise development in the centre of Bucharest. The project comprises of a 5-star hotel, luxury apartments, retail areas, a business centre, a casino and underground parking.

The Dorobanti Tower was designed to establish an iconic presence in the heart of Bucharest. The new tower is a unique mix of a distinctive form, ingenious structure, and spatial qualities of sky-high living. The purity of its form - a chamfered diamond like structure - will be a new landmark in the centre of Bucharest. Zaha Hadid Architect’s design concept is a synthesis of architecture and engineering, which integrates a distinct meandering structural lattice.

Urban parameters, site constraints and the programme generate the building’s elegant tapering profile. The new tower establishes a distinctive identity while avoiding sterile repetition through its dynamically changing profile. In order to maximise lighting and views for the neighbourhoods, the elongated curvilinear shape reduces its perimeter towards the top, while the offset to the inside at ground floor level shall create a generous public realm and an appropriate entrance plaza in front of the tower.

Facade / Structure:

Bucharest is within a vulnerable seismic zone and therefore the structural concept was crucial to us from the beginning of the design process. Placing the primary structure at the exterior not only maximises the structural footprint but also allows for column free interior spaces.

Concrete filled stainless steel profiles follow in sinus waves from the ground level to the top of the tower, creating a distinctive identity, complementing the tower design. The concrete filling will give additional strength to the structure and it will provide fire protection to the steel profiles. The facade structure expresses the various programmes and it adjusts from bottom to top according to the changing structural forces. The secondary structure, which is integrated between the main steel tubes, gives additional strength to the primary steel mesh and it also works as a damper in case of earthquakes.

At the bottom, the façade grid has denser amplitudes according to the structural requirements for a tower of this height, providing the required load bearing capacity and stiffness to the structure. At the technical and recreational levels, the structure condenses creating almost solid knots. On the top floors, the primary structure has been reduced to the minimum according to the structural requirements in order to maximise the views and lighting for the luxury apartments.

Landscape:

The public realm adjacent to the tower will be unlike anything else in Bucharest, representing a major attraction within the dense urban character of the City, offering an important new meeting space and urban plaza. Metaphorically speaking, the landscaping can be understood as a warped concrete “carpet” with one continuous surface connecting the three surrounding streets. The landscape is sculpted to create seating areas, water basins, fountains, green areas including trees and a raised terrace.

Program: 5 Star Hotel and Apartments
Client: Smartown Group
Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Architect: Markus Planteu
Project Team: Dennis Brezina, Naomi Fritz, Susanne Lettau, Thomas Mathoy, Goswin Rothenthal, Rooshad Shroff, Seda Zirek

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Spotted: Karl Who?

So very cute... Karl's bodyguard in St. Tropez wearing Naco's "Karl Who?" shirt [available at Colette].

Karl's bodyguard in St. Tropez wearing Naco's t-shirt Karl Who?

Prepare Yourself for a World Tour

Fasten Seat Belts to the World tries to help travellers break cultural and linguistic barriers. It points out dos and don'ts in Europe and how to avoid misunderstandings on your travels.

My New Favorite: Champaca by Comme des Garcons LUXE

"If heaven had a fragrance, we think it would smell like Champaca," stated Lucky Scent. Named after the flower sacred to the Indus Valley, Champaca is a stunning velvety, creamy, and sweet floral fragrance that strikes perfect harmony between flower, perfumed wood and muted spice. "Although the other notes in this perfume dance in and out, the holy champaca flower is and remains the exotic star of the perfume throughout, an endless dance of sweet, a soothing embrace of softness, and an otherworldly touch of something very, very rare." The champaca flower forms one of the five flower arrows of Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love known in the Western world as Cupid. One smell of this perfume and you’ll know why… you'll be smitten at first sniff.

Champaca (Pyramid Bottle) Notes: White pepper, angelica, cardamom, champaca, bird pepper, tuberose, white musk, iris wood

Perfumer: Nathalie Feisthauer 45mL for $265 via Lucky Scent.

Audi Centenary Sculpture by Gerry Judah

Designer Gerry Judah created a 32 metre-high sculpture for Audi at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England, at the weekend. The 44 tonne sculpture, created to mark the car brand’s centenary, features a vintage Audi and a modern car racing into the sky.




"This 44 tonne, 32 metre high innovative sculpture for the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 was sponsored by Audi to commemorate its centenary year," said Judah.



Client: Audi
Concept & Design: Gerry Judah
Structural Engineering: Capita Bobrowski
Steel Fabrication and Installation: Littlehampton Welding Ltd
Photography: David Barbour

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