From a distance this skyscraper, to be completed in 2009 in Chicago, 
will seem quite traditional. it’ll only be when you get close and look up
 that you can appreciate the ripple/jelly effect created by variously
 sized balconies from top to bottom.

2. Chicago spire, USA (website)

The phenomenal Chicago spire, when completed in 2010, will be 
the world’s tallest residential building and the tallest building of 
any kind in the western world. seemingly modelled on the image 
of a giant drill poking through the ground, the 609m structure will
 dominate the chicago skyline.

3. CCTV headquarters, China (website)

At a modest 234m the cctv building isn’t going to stand out
from a distance. however the design and shape is a crowd stopper to say
 the least and will be another incredible addition to beijing’s skyline in time
 for the 2008 olympics. the shape, described as a ‘z criss-cross’ results in a
very high, seemingly unsupported corner at the front. let’s hope there’s a
glass floor up there.

4. Regatta hotel, Jakarta (website)

Taking on a nautical theme, the developers say the 10 smaller
towers represent sailing boats whilst the larger building is ‘the lighthouse’.
It’s the lighthouse that steals the show for me, possibly the most incredible
looking structure i’ve seen for a long time.

5. Residence antilia, India (website)

Construction has begun on residence antilia despite opposition
from those who see it as an ‘excessive’ design in a city where more than 65%
of the population live in slums. politics aside and after you recover from the 
initial shock of seeing a skyscraper that resembles an ikea cd rack, the building
 actually looks like it may succeed as a stunning, unique, green
piece of architecture.

6. Russia tower, Russia (website)

Topped with an observation deck over the city of Moscow, 
Russia tower will become the tallest building in europe when completed
 in 2012 and twice the height of the eiffel tower. Construction has already
started on this angular beast which was designed by foster & partners,
also responsible for the gherkin and spaceport america, currently in development.

7. Penang global city centre, Malaysia (website)

Following months of speculation and sturdy opposition, 
This humungous project is in the final stages of approval and
 apparently construction will start very soon. even so, due
 to the size of the plan it will take at least 15 years to complete.
Resembling a sci-fi city, the area will be crowned by 2 x 200m
towers and completely transform the small island of penang.

8. Gazprom headquarters, Russia (website)

This gigantic, 300m tall glass flame of a building will house the
 Gazprom headquarters in st. petersburg, dwarfing all structures
 in its vicinity. it will apparently change colour up to 10 times 
per day depending on the position of the sun. The building has
already been nicknamed ‘corn on the cob’ by unhappy locals.

9. Burj Dubai, Dubai (website)

This is the big one. when completed next year it will be the tallest man-made
structure in the world and the tallest building by a long shot with a
predicted height of 818m. note: currently the tallest building on earth, excluding
 an antenna, is taipei 101 in taiwan which stands at 509m. 
The photo below is the building’s current state: the skyscrapers 
below the Burj Dubai used to look tall.

The swiss air has associations with london hotels as well as miami condos and a few austin motels.

Source | funis2cool.com

Speirs and Major Associates shared some photos on http://www.contemporist.com that show their work on the lighting of the Infinity Bridge  that was completed last year in Stockton-on-Tees, England.

About the bridge:

The brief called for an iconic structure as part of the Stockton-on-Tees regeneration of the North Shore site.  The resulting footbridge now links the north and south shores and provides better access to business and jobs in the area.

Constructed by Expedition Engineering, the slender bowstring bridge cuts a distinctive silhouette across the River Tees. A 230m-long concrete walkway is supported by a pair of asymmetric steel arches that appear to skip across the river like a pebble skimming water.

Source: contemporist.com

These images show the futuristic building plans for the Museum of Middle East Modern Art to be located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The project is being lead by UN Studio, an architecture company in the Netherlands. Like many other projects in Dubai, this cultural building is defining new modern design ideas in a city that is investing in its future. The museum will be located in Culture Village near the banks of Dubai Creek (Khor Dubai). With the blossoming wealth of the region one can only hope that its collection will rival that of other modern art museums around the world.

Source: http://www.furniturestoreblog.com/2009/10/05/futuristic_building_plans_modern_art_museum_in_dubai_uae.html

Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, collectively know as “The Big Three”, developed the principles of modern architecture in Europe during the 1920’s and early 30’s. Their philosophy was famously exposed to the world at the extremely influential 1932 International Exhibition of Modern Architecture at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The ideals of this exhibition were adopted all across the globe, as Modernism from there after became the dominant style of architecture.

Following the MoMA exhibition, the city of New York has played a profound role in the shaping of modern architecture around the world. While the city is packed full with buildings of outstanding quality, the Guggenheim Museum, Seagram Building and the AT&T Center stand out due to their enormous impact upon the course of architectural history.

The Seagram Building (1957) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Constructed in 1957, the Seagram Building is the archetypical “International Style” skyscraper. Built by one of the big three, Mies van der Rohe, this building demonstrates the ideals of a movement that takes its name from an exhibition at the MoMA 25 years earlier.

The building is constructed using an internal steel fame that supports the glass curtain wall, and the vertical bronze-colored I-beams of the exterior. The simplicity, honesty and rejection of all ornament, ideals that are synonymous with modern architecture, are displayed for all to see in this building. The International Style is ideally suited to skyscrapers, and thousands of similar looking buildings have risen across America, but Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece is still undoubtedly the greatest.

The Guggenheim Museum (1959) Frank Lloyd Wright

The Guggenheim Museum is one of America’s best-known buildings, designed by her most famous architects, Frank Lloyd Wright. The Guggenheim’s sleek curves come as a breath of fresh air in the sharp contrast to the straight lines that dominate Manhattan’s buildings. Wright’s innovative design challenged conventional museum construction.

The standard organization of “exhibit in a box” was replaced with artwork displayed in an elliptical spiral starting in the entrance hall rising upward. Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece demonstrated that museums and art galleries do not need to be sterile boxes, and that an interesting space can enhance the visitor’s experience.

AT&T Center (1984) Philip Johnson

The AT&T Center (now the Sony Center) may not look too shocking today, but in 1984 it defied established ideas on modern architecture. Pritzker Prize winner, Philip Johnson’s, building was one of the first, large scale, New York skyscrapers to reject the stark unadorned striped down architecture of the International Style. The Georgian, “Chippendale” pediment on top of the building is purely ornamental, as is the seven story arched entrance. These features aimed to add an element of the past to this modern structure, which went against the principles of Modernism at the time. The AT&T Center is an early example of Post Modernist architecture and was a massive part of legitimizing the movement around the world.

The AT&T Center is far less famous than the Seagram Building or the Guggenheim but had an equally important role in the development of architecture. These three buildings, which changed the course of building history and have influenced architects all over the world, and now stand as monuments to the time they were built and styles they influenced.

This building was designed for the Otto Bock HealthCare company, a world leader in prosthetics and orthotics. The organic-dynamic design of the six-storey building is based on the principles of nature – as a model of harmony between technology and people. The facade bands have modeled the structure of muscle fibers that encircle the building structure in soft form. The “soft” appearance, combined with a unique facade media production, is an open, friendly and accessible institution, and thus contributes to the image building of the company.

Nice work boys!

Source: contemporist.com

Decades from now people in Canada and cities around the world could be looking at fish going by and enjoying the view of shipwrecks like the Sligo.

Seen through the pressurized window of an underwater condo, the stark wooden ribs of the 19th-century schooner might be seen reaching up toward the surface of Lake Ontario. To highlight the historic remains, the condo’s board could place lights around the bones of the Sligo so residents could watch salmon schooling at night around the underwater landmark off the western waterfront.

The Sligo is one of three visually dramatic wrecks on the bottom of Lake Ontario, close to Toronto’s shoreline. Now visited only by scuba divers, breakthroughs in both building and air cleansing technologies mean multiple dwelling habitats – such as submerged condos – could one day be built within sight of the lake-bottom attractions.

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise called space the final frontier, but that distinction may actually belong to those parts of the planet covered by water.

Michael Schutte, the vice-president of engineering at U.S. Submarines, doesn’t believe it will take as long as 30 years before people are living on the bottom of Lake Ontario. The Toronto-born-and-raised mega-yacht designer is now based in Oregon overseeing the construction of an underwater five-star hotel to open on the edge of a coral cliff in the South Pacific by 2009.

Schutte, 45, is overseeing the above-water construction of the Poseidon Undersea Resort, which will be taken to Fiji and placed on the bottom of a deep lagoon. There will be 24 undersea hotel suites and apartments covering 51 square metres, anchored on the ocean floor 12 metres beneath the surface.

Although the hotel will have a fleet of small submarines, getting down to the luxury suites (rumoured to be priced at $15,000 per person per week) won’t actually mean getting in the water; the building will be connected to the surface by elevators and air shafts.

“The only reason you haven’t seen any underwater condos in Toronto yet is that farmland is literally dirt cheap and underwater construction is super expensive,” Schutte says. “If you build a unit that begins at the bottom of the lake and breaks the surface, you are in essence simply building a basement onto a houseboat. Given the price of waterfront land in Muskoka, as prices rise the houseboat with a 10-storey cement basement has more and more appeal.”

Today, however, more people live in space than submerged in H20. More research dollars are spent on establishing habitats on the moon and Mars than underwater.

“Why does everyone live on land anyway?” asks Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. “Three-quarters of our planet is water and yet mankind is clustered haphazardly on the land. From space you can easily see where people are congregated. You just look for the ‘Big Smear,’ the bands of pollution that permanently surround our large cities.”

“It is said that if we could handle the density of Manhattan, the whole population of North America could be placed in a state the size of Connecticut,” Hadfield tells visitors at the Ontario Science Centre. “On land we have randomly chosen where we live. But in the water, there would have to be more order. Living underwater, like living in space, has some challenges – breathable air, potable water, construction constraints and temperature – but there are advantages, too.

“It would take housing pressures off agricultural land and allow (the city) to access underwater resources for cooling, insulation, electricity and, of course, water.”

Hadfield, like most other NASA astronauts, has spent time in the Aquarius permanent undersea laboratory, one of the world’s few underwater habitats, 20 metres down and five kilometres east of the Florida Keys. The submerged building is owned by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and used for a wide range of underwater research projects.

“People live under the water today for very short periods of time – usually a week or less, but sometimes for extended periods of up to two to three weeks,” says professional architect, author, explorer and former mission commander for seven NASA underwater missions, Dennis Chamberland (see chamberland.org).

“But no one has ever lived undersea permanently – not one person in all of history. My group is planning to establish the first permanent civilian colony off central Florida in 2012 and for the first time, mankind will have a permanent address undersea. So it will happen in the next few years, not 30!”

Chamberland’s Atlantica project will be using a donated submarine (originally built to hunt for the Loch Ness monster) to establish three manned undersea habitats over the next five years. If the construction of the underwater station goes as planned, people will begin living on the bottom beginning in 2012, Chamberland says.

“Humankind is attracted to the beautiful and exotic places of our solar system. Just as man will be attracted to one day living on the cliff sides of the Valley of the Mariners on Mars, mankind will be attracted to live in the beauty of the underwater regions of our own planet,” he says.

Schutte agrees.

“Living underwater is not a new idea,” he says. “Hell, people in their 40s and 50s who are in charge of investment funds and brokerage houses and who grew up on Scientific American and Popular Science know it is doable. And these people have the money to make it happen.”

“The technology is already here,” Schutte says. “In essence, I am building a luxury yacht to sink beside a Fijian reef. People are willing to spend $30 million on a boat, so why not an underwater hotel?”

A decade ago a research project involving the Canadian Navy’s Cormorant dive tender found little life on the floor of Lake Ontario near Toronto’s Harbourfront area.

But filling in sections of Lake Ontario, albeit in relatively small blocks, presents more political problems than ecological and construction roadblocks. Would interest in underwater construction persuade politicians to allow building in the same lake that provides Toronto’s drinking water?

Blame much of the current interest in underwater projects on Lloyd Godson, a young Australian scientist. Earlier this year Godson, with the backing of the Australian Geographic magazine, spent 12 days living in a yellow steel capsule submerged in a flooded gravel pit. He built and sank “the world’s first self-sufficient, self-sustaining underwater habitat.”

Using solar power sensors on the surface and riding a stationary bicycle to produce additional electricity to keep his lights and computers working, Godson lived independent of terra firma. The air that he breathed was purified and recycled by algae soaked in his own urine. His algae garden absorbed the carbon dioxide he exhaled, and released oxygen for breathing (he did have to supplement his air supply with air from scuba tanks).

“The demand for information from the media took me by surprise when I was underwater,” Godson says. “We were front page from England to Taiwan.”

After emerging Godson was besieged with offers from the media to fund and film future extreme adventures. He was in Toronto earlier this summer to shoot a pilot TV show for Canada’s Cineflix Productions, which wants to make a 13-part series following Godson’s future projects.

“My quarry project was done on a shoestring, but it shows that soon people can live underwater and it can be done cheaply,” Godson says.

“My habitat wasn’t luxurious and there would have to be a lot of improvements to be usable again. I had a bed, a computer, a phone, email, plants and a fishing rod. I was doing all right, but mate, it was a bit boring.

“There is no noise underwater. If you are a people person, an underwater home is not for you.”

Dynamic architecture, think different with this amazing architect job!

From Powerhouse Company, the Spiral House comes with a creative architecture plan and an home extension in the shape of a spiral. The unusual exterior makes the place very inviting and it made us eager to search for more. Below you have a bunch of pictures that can best describe this residence. We hope you will let yourself be inspired by them. But before you start your exploration, here are a few words from the company describing this project: ” The extension is designed as a spiral connecting the more public to the more private rooms of the house. This spiral creates an intimate patio, a sloping roof garden. It not only extends the house, it also extends the family’s way of life, creating a continuous ‘loop’ for living”.
A really nice architect job!

What is meant by a solar power roof tile?
The rays of sun generate radiant energy. Using different types of machines, this radiant energy can be captured, stored and treated to form other types of usable energy, as our needs might be. Solar power refers to the procedure of generating mechanical power, electricity or chemical power from solar energy resources. Solar chimney, solar heater, photovoltaic (PV) cells and solar roof tiles are some of the devices that can treat and harness solar energy. Among these devices, solar power roof tile has various advantages, and hence is generally preferred over other forms of commonly seen roof tiles. Roof tiles that are designed so that they can tap and process solar energy to produce electrical power or heat up water are called solar roof tiles. An industrial designer from Australia is credited with the invention of these solar roof tiles.

Getting to know the functionality of solar power roof tile
The modern day city is facing a serious problem – an acute power shortage. Solar power roof tile comprises of techniques that can solve this problem. Polycarbonate chassis is used to make up the solar power roof tiles, and it also contains a vessel of water and quite a number of photovoltaic cells (i.e. solar power cells). These solar cells are able to capture around 72%-80% of the total available sunlight. This is then transformed into heat energy, which in turn, warms up the water in the vessel. The electric wires of the building as well as the hot water system need to be connected to these tiles. The domestic requirements of electricity can be easily met by harnessing the sunlight that remains (around 20% of the total).
A handy boost to power savings is also achieved, since the roof tiles generate electricity that are well in excess of what is actually required in a home. Not much power is required from non-solar origins, since the excess electric power that is generated during the day can be easily utilized at night. Adding to the convenience is the significant backup they provide on days when the sky remains covered with clouds. Let us now look at how the system works. An inverter is kept present, to which the photovoltaic cells are connected. This setup is then attached to the main power box of the house. An electricity grid is also used, and the power box is kept linked to this grid. Now, this electrical grid can store all available surplus electricity. This excess electrical power can even be sold to the grid and some money can be earned. This helps the user gradually get back part of their investment on the solar roof tiles. After some time, the effective cost for producing electricity can even become zero too! Hence, installing the tiles makes sense, since they not only help a home generate its own electricity, but also prescribes a way to earn by selling off excess amounts of power.
All forms of different roof tiles can be easily matched to the solar power roof tiles, such are the designs of the latter. An estimated amount of 1.5 kilowatts of electrical power can be obtained if 200 solar power roof tiles are used. This electricity is enough for the needs of a home that has three to four bedrooms. In the current world, these tiles are in great demand, both for commercial as well as residential purposes. The commercial tiles can be installed easily and quickly, by following a simple procedure. They do not enter the building structure as such, and also have high wind resistance properties aswell as becoming more and more architecturally pleasing to the eye. Research show that these solar roofs can resist winds blowing at up to 120 miles per hour too. These solar power roof tiles can also be fitted in rather short spaces that might be available. Thus, wastage of excess power can be stopped.

Modern solar powered homes
and the required amount of electricity can be produced by having the roof tiles at all places of the house that gets exposure. Other aspects of the solar tiles, like their cost figures, their efficiency and other likely side effects need to be paid due attention as well.
Gauging the utility of solar power roof tile
The solar power roof tiles have such structures that they can be easily matched with most types of different concrete tiles. Hence, the resultant streamlined appearance of the roof enhances the overall fashion and décor of any building. Solar roof tiles generally need to be installed only once during one’s lifespan. After installation is complete, there are absolutely no operating costs of these solar tiles, and they are expected to last around a period of thirty years. Many of the companies also offer production warranties for a 25 year period in addition.
Adding significantly to the process of installation of the solar roof tiles is the fact that, these tiles do not have other portable components that have to be moved as well. Solar power roof tile is extremely eco-friendly as well, since they do not pollute the atmosphere in any way, and do not emit any harmful greenhouse gas. Once solar roof tiles are in place, users can save extra amounts of power that is generated, produce electricity using a free and renewable source of energy, and make the appearance of their houses visually pleasing as well. Economic benefits from these solar power tiles are also significant.
You should be installing solar power roof tile if you wish to cut down on your power bills. Home solar systems are also ideal for generating electricity in an environment-friendly way. What you should do first is to get a guide that would help you know the basic stages of installing the system, and the places that are best suited for it. Relevant security measures, as well as how the wiring should be done is also discussed in such a guide. You can also learn from where to get the components of the system at rather low prices, and the batteries totally free. Once such a guide has been consulted, you are ready to set up a solar power system at your home.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Solar-Power-Roof-Tile—What-it-is-and-How-it-Can-Be-Utilized&id=2722200

Modern architectural structure.

Many historians relate the origins of this style of architecture to the social and political revolution of the time, though others see modern architecture as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments. The availability of new materials such as iron, steel, concrete, and glass brought about new building techniques as part of the industrial revolution. Some regard modern architecture as a reaction against ancient building style. Above all, it is widely accepted as a matter of taste.

For the international style, the most commonly used materials are glass for the facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete for the floors and interior supports. The floor plans are functional and logical. But, many people are not fond of the modern style. They find its stark, uncompromisingly rectangular geometrical designs quite inhumane. They think this universal style is sterile, elitist, and lacks meaning.

Modern architecture challenged traditional ideas about the types of structures suitable for architectural design. Only important civic buildings, aristocratic palaces, churches, and public institutions had long been the mainstay of architectural practices. But, modernist designers argued that architects should design everything that was necessary for society, even the most humble buildings.

Architects began to plan low-cost housing, railroad stations, factories, warehouses, and commercial spaces. In the first half of the 20th century, modern architects produced furniture, textiles, and wallpaper – as well as designing houses – to create a totally designed domestic environment. The aesthetics used by modern architects celebrated function in all forms of design, from household furnishings to massive ocean liners and new flying machines.

Modern architecture originated in the United States and Europe and spread across the rest of the world. The characteristic features that made modern architecture possible were buildings, stylistic movements, technology, and modern materials.

Source: ezinearticles.com

Some of the ideas featured below are a bit far-fetched and exist only in visualizers dreams, some maybe in the making and some of the buildings may already exist now.

1. Lilypad Island

This may fall in the first category we mentioned above, but the sheer audacity in dreaming up such a project needs to be applauded. Architects like Vincent Callebaut really push imagination and creativity.

According to forecasts of the GIEC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th Century). Award-winning Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut visions Lilypad as a permanent refuge for those whose homes have been submerged in water due to ocean rise caused due to global warming.

The ‘Lilypad City’ can house 50,000 inhabitants and would float around the world as an independent and fully self-sutainable luxurious super home. With lakes, artificial mountains for scenery, solar panels, wind tunnels and powerstations to harness wave energy, and no roads and no cars, Lilypad looks one clean green mega city.

2. Dynamic Architecture – Rotating Tower

Bored with seeing the same scenery everytime you look out of the window? Check out the Rotating Tower by David Fischer which is a building in which each floor has the capability to rotate on its axis and face a different direction according to the resident’s preferences. In addition the building is able to produce its own energy from wind. Check out the video here:(Our email subscribers please visit: http://www.home-designing.com/2008/10/concept-architecture to view the video)

Thinking about booking a room here in advance? Here you go… (Something tells us it just maybe a bit expensive than your ordinary villa )

3. Nakheel Tower

You might have read about Burj Dubai Tower which currently is the tallest man made structure in the world and is expected to be of 818m height on completion but even that would be dwarfed when the Nakheel Tower (formerly called Al Burj) comes into being with a staggering height of 1.4 km (1400m)!

4. Songjiang Hotel

The beauty of this hotel is the way in which it negotiates the rugged terrain. The challenge involved designing a sustainable hotel in a quarry. See image below:

The hotel uses geothermal energy for electricity and heat, a green roof, and natural cooling properties of the quarry itself and yeah, Bungee jumping for guests!

You got to say Atkins did an awesome job. In case you are rubbing your chin thinking that the name does sound familiar, these are the guys who built the Burj Al Arab.

5. The Basket Building

The Longaberger Company is an American manufacturer of handcrafted maple wood baskets and offers other home and lifestyle products, including pottery, wrought iron, fabric accessories and specialty foods. Dave Longaberger believed the idea of shaping the office in the form of a bag would draw attention to the company, while simultaneously helping to build our brand.

6. Infosys Building, Kuwait

The proposed Infosys building in Kuwaits reminds us of DNA strands interlocked togethor. We are told the building would keep rotating.

7. Galactic Suite Space Hotel, International

Does booking a hotel in space sound like science fiction? Not according to Galactic Suite

Reuters report,

“Galactic Suite,” the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes.

Guest would be able to “see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their rooms by sticking themselves to the walls,” But what about the price? Yep, truly out of the world: $4 million each for a three-day stay!

Tomorrow’s kitchens may be radically different from the ones we have now. They need to be space-saving, sophisticated, and more than anything, be kind to the environment. Take a close look at these kitchens of the future for you may be using one sooner than you expect (Especially since some of them are already out on stores!).

The above kitchen (designed by Cheng He, Liu Guang Kui and Zhou Dong from China) was the winning design at “Kitchen is heart of the home”, a kitchen design contest organized by DesignBoom where 2980 designers from 102 countries participated. Sow how does it work? Here is the description from the designers themselves.

(1). Creating the new concept of happy kitchen: Sharing the joy with relatives and friends face-to-face.

(2). Cupboard adopts double-deck rotator structure, can rotate 180°respectively, the three major work center of washing, mixing and cooking can rotate in the front of the operator, let “zero” distance in each workflow; And can lift in certain distance in order to be suitable for the different operator.

(3). Flume has two kinds of outlets: The parallel water outlets of induction type lie on both sides of flume; The holding type faucets with metal hose lie in the middle of two flumes, that can be suitable for operating under various environments.

(4).Abandon the board type, slide rail and hinge of the traditional cupboard completely. This cupboard regards the structure frame of aluminium alloy and the combination of stainless steel pipe as the integer structure. Adopt level bearing, hydraulic pressure system, shutting system to realize lifting of cupboard and wall cupboard.

(5). Integrative structures with operational table-board, flume and kitchen, cupboard distribute icebox, disinfector and oven symmetrically, other borders are closets.

(6). Lower cupboard is drawing structure, can pull out wholly while using, and make the operation simplify. Hang the kitchen ventilator under the top cupboard with function of illumination.

Here is another concept kitchen designed by Hieu Tranngoc and Hao Tran from Vietnam which drew inspiration from the shape of an apple tree with fruits hanging from its large branches. It incorporates a closet, a small fridge, an electric cooker, and the microwave oven the two large fruits hanging from the two branches. Additionally, there is provision for mounting an LCD monitor if you are into browsing while you cook.

At first glance, Lebrun’s design looks more like a kitchen garden than the actual kitchen. But that is before you get to know that the panel can be opened to reveal a workspace, cooking surface and sink. The plants on top are specialized ones that were developed by the aerospace industry for their filtering and cleaning properties. They provide a renewable supply of clean water and vegetable soap.

If you are conscious of conserving space, you will like this design by Fevzi Karaman which packs nearly everything the kitchen needs in one sleek module.

Alight kitchen from Altera Design Studio is an award winning design at the Incheon International Design Competition 2007 and it hosts a number of features.

Only ready-made food and beverages are consumed in sheet-metal packaging so people will be conscious about what and how much they eat.

Food and beverages packs will be kept inside the cooling unit of the system. It only allows storage of 3 days’ worth of food.

A Smart oven warms up the food in groups to minimize how often it’s used. It arranges the ideal time and temperature for the packs by reading their barcodes.

There are 4 hollow plates located on the main dining table. Each of them can rotate on its center-axis so you can eat on the either side of the plate. The center of the table houses a small flatware station.

The integrated dishwasher conserves water by filtering and reusing previous wash water.
All plates are stored underneath in their own compartments.

Whirlpool’s ‘green kitchen’ is a concept that pays a lot of attention to reduce wastage by diverting 60% of the water and heat generated from itself to fuel other appliances or functions in the kitchen. For example, it uses the heat from the fridge compressor to produce hot water for the dish washer.

Okay, so far we showed you kitchens that are not in the market yet. But those below are already out.

For example, this tech kitchen from designer Sebastien Poupeau is height adjustable, music enabled and web connected.

Who says the kitchen table needs to be rectangular? Not Enex… Their curvilinear design breaks away from the conventions and the kitchen seems to be taken right out of a Sci-Fi flick! Built in entertainment system seems to be a nice touch too.

More curvy kitchen workspaces…

This unit from Tokyo Kitchen can be arranged in a variety of ways depending on your space. It is aesthetic and functional with three electric cooking rings, a generous circular sink and plenty of space for storing kitchen items.