From the architect. CAZA (Carlos Arnaiz Architects), a Brooklyn-based architecture and design firm with offices in Bogotá, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and Manila, Philippines, is pleased to announce the opening of the City Center Tower located in downtown metro Manila. With construction completed this month, the 27-story-tall mixed-use building will feature three floors of commercial retail and dining space while also serving as the corporate offices for several prominent international companies.
CAZA’s design sought to defy the average core and shell design of standard corporate office buildings by introducing refreshingly unexpected geometries that produce new experiences for users. By infusing a series of concentric circles extended across the horizontal axes of each floor, the tower’s exterior façade marries the structured shape of a cube with the free-form organic pattern of a wave. The resulting visual impact elicits efficiency and innovation while retaining a sense of light playfulness.
“In the last fifteen years, office development in the Philippines has experienced an unthinkable explosion due to the arrival of the BPO industry,” remarks Carlos Arnaiz, Principal and Founder of CAZA Architects. “As architects, we are searching for an expression of this new sociocultural paradigm. The City Center Tower could be one of the first projects in the Philippines that represents the changing nature of the workplace, where nature and offices interact in this 24-hour cycle—accentuating the reality of how the BPO office environment operates.”
Visitors are welcomed to the tower by an airy and illuminated double-height lobby that is circumscribed by two floors of commercial retail space, establishing the tower as a vivacious center that is both accessible and enlivened by public activity. Hovering above these retail sections are spacious elevated parking areas that align with a functional cooling tower, designed to accommodate a passive cooling system that is responsive to the tropical heat of the Philippine metropolis. On the fifth floor, atop the retail zone and parking areas, the lofted rooftop restaurant overlooks the building’s adjacent park with an expansive balcony area that will feature an urban beach with a wading pool, hammocks, and lounge spaces.
Above the five stories of commercial space at the ground level are the corporate offices accommodating the building’s multinational tenants. Each floor of the upper-level corporate zone is designed with a concentric circular pattern, layering together to compose the exterior’s iconic wave-like façade that distinguishes the unique tower. The circular patterning gradually forms a series of balconies and bulging metallic mullions that provide the office spaces—which are traditionally closed and inwardly-focused—with a lush green overgrowth that invites employees to look outwards towards the vista and orient themselves within the metropolitan yet verdant landscape of Manila.
Among the notable tenants of the new building are Wallace, an American human resources firm; Globe Telecom, the largest Philippine telecommunications syndicate; the inaugural Philippines-based office for Cardinal Health, an American healthcare company; and Google’s headquarters for the Philippines.
From the architect. Danxia landform is a unique red rock landscape located in southern China. Chishui Danxia, in the north of Guizhou province, can be classified as ‘young Danxia’, which is one of the most impressive phases. With an extension of more than 700㎞², it is also the largest Danxia landform in China. The characteristic red color is given by a reddish accumulation of sandstone, shaped into spectacular peaks, pillars, cliffs and imposing gorges. Chishui Danxia is also famous for its waterfalls; which together with this amazing red landscape make this area a popular tourist attraction.
The Exhibition and Tourist Center is located in Fuxing Town, inside the Danxia landform area and on the main tourist routes. The site highlights the typical characteristics of this particular area, with its complicated morphology. The whole building has been designed following the movement of the soil in a circular route around the central open courtyard.
Danxia Red Stone
According to their area of origin, Danxia stones present different characteristics. The high-porosity stone causes strong hygroscopicity. Different mineral compositions cause various anti-corrosion effects, weather resistance, and also visible color alterations. The side of the material untouched by the sun tends to turn a glowing red with strong black components, while the outside stays a shiny, blood red.
Architects exploited various Danxia stones for different parts of the building, according to their particular characteristics. Wall stones are treated with a permeability-reducing protective admixture, a natural moisturizer which keeps the strong reddish color even after cutting and welding. The sloping roof is made from high porosity stones to encourage the growth of a thin layer of green moss, which makes the building appear to be growing from the soil.
This use of the Danxia stone, which respects and takes advantage of its peculiar natural characteristics, gives the building its unique ‘red personality’, making it part of the surrounding landscape.
From the architect. Located at the edge of the Core Heritage Zone of the UNESCO World Heritage city of Georgetown, this multi-functional arts space and lodging house is converted from a late 19th century 2-storey Straits Chinese shophouse.
The design aspires to bring together the past and present by inserting an entirely new 3-storey steel pavilion at the rear of the typical long and narrow shophouse site while preserving the front block with its historical street façade and original timber floor structure.
Having been used as a warehouse, the back of the house was much deteriorated and modified, justifying its complete rebuilding. The old timber joists were salvaged and recycled to replace worn-down timber elements at the front section.
A distinguishing feature of this existing shophouse is its long narrow tapering site resulting in a narrow gap with its neighbour. The design exploited this as an opportunity to insert a narrow light well along the entire length of the building, thus bringing in daylight and natural ventilation into the typically dark and brooding interiors of most shophouses.
All the rooms in the building now open out onto this light slot along its side, bringing in light and natural ventilation to all the rooms. Similarly on the other side, the new steel structure is pulled away from the party wall, thereby disengaging the new structure from the party wall and allowing daylight to filter all the way to the ground floor whilst also facilitating the new bakau pile foundation to be done without intervening with the old party wall foundation.
The courtyard is where the old wing of the front portion confronts the new, where one will be able to experience fully the unapologetic intervention of a modern steel structure with a historical 19th century shophouse, where the present engages the past. It is also the space where indoors and outdoors merge in celebration of the tropical climate. Here one constantly experiences the light of the sky, the moving shadows of rapid passing clouds and the energy of the monsoon rains, creating a constant connection with the nature deep in the historical dense city centre.
One of the biggest sources of difficulties for every single human being is the desire for people to be a certain way.
We can’t seem to help it: we want the world to be the way we want it. Unfortunately, reality always has different plans, and people behave in less-than-ideal ways.
The problem isn’t other people. It’s our ideals.
Yes, I think it would be great if people stopped killing animals for food and fashion, and became vegan instead. But that’s not the reality I’m faced with, and it’s not going to happen for quite some time, if ever.
Yes, I think it would be great if my kids behaved perfectly all the time, but that’s not the reality of kids. Or any human beings, for that matter.
Yes, it would be great if my wife always agreed with me, but that’s not going to happen.
So the problem is:
This is obviously not great.
We have a couple options:
When we think about it this way, it’s obvious that option 3 is the best route. We’ll talk about this option soon, but let’s talk about a couple objections first.
When people are confronted with the idea of letting go of their ideals about other people, they usually have a few objections:
So these objections are all about wanting to change people’s bad behavior. This article is about inner acceptance of “bad” behavior (or what I think of as “not ideal”) … but once you have inner acceptance, you can take appropriate external action. That might be helping, being compassionate, getting to safety, talking calmly and lovingly to someone, reporting abusive behavior, getting counseling, or many more appropriate actions that come from a place of love, compassion and understanding rather than frustration and anger.
So how do you let go of wanting people to be a certain way?
First, reflect on how these ideals are harming you and others. This wanting your way, this wanting a specific version of reality … is making you frustrated, unhappy, angry. It’s harming your relationship. It’s likely making the other person unhappy as well. This is all caused by an attachment to expectations and ideals.
Next, reflect on wanting yourself and others to be happy. If the ideals and expectations are harming yourself and others … wouldn’t it be nice to stop harming yourself? Wouldn’t it be nice to be happy instead of frustrated? Think about the desire to have a better relationship with other people as well, and for them to be happier in their relationship with you. This is your intention, and it is one of love.
Third, notice the ideals and frustrations as they arise. See when someone else is frustrating you, and reflect on what ideal you’re holding for them. How do you want them to behave instead? Don’t get caught up in your story of why they should behave that way, but instead just take note of the ideal. See that this ideal is harming you. Decide that it’s not useful to you.
Also notice your mental pattern of resentment when someone doesn’t meet your expectations, and decide to try to catch it early. It’s a pattern you can be aware of and catch early, and decide to change your pattern.
Next, mindfully observe the tightness. Turn your attention to your body, the tightness that comes from holding on to this ideal. Pay attention to how it feels, the quality of the energy in your body, where it’s located, how it changes. In this moment of observing, you are awake, rather than being stuck in the daydream of your story about why this person should be behaving differently.
At this point, you can decide to try a different pattern.
So now, you can practice a different way of being.
Here are some ideas I’ve found useful:
These are some practices. Try them, practice them over and over. I think you’ll be happier for it, and every relationship will be better.
From the architect. This single family house, built in a residential condominium, was developed from 2011 to 2015. We took responsibility for the architectural and furniture projects, as well for the construction monitoring.
The rectangular projection of the house, with 7 meters front setback, occupies two plots that together add up to approximately 1200 m², with its largest dimension parallel to the street in a north-south direction. The interior space opens to a garden at the back of the plot, where, in addition to the visuals to city and the beauty of the vegetation, they are bathed by the rising sun.
The volumetric conception of the house is expressed by the strong inclined line of the roofs, that starts in the extreme north of the lot, descending to south, an inclination that is present in the internal rooms, with wood-lined ceilings and which have indirect artificial light.
In the space organization, the different functions were gathered with social area and services on the ground floor and intimate rooms on the superior floor. From the social access, a large room opened to the garden, containing the spaces of fireplace, living, meal and cellar. The dining area and kitchen can be isolated from the social spaces with folding doors of ipê wood. Articulated with the garden and positioned on the side of the kitchen, a veranda with the grill. The kitchen connects to the services, pantries, dependencies of employees and a garage for services on the right side.
The span of 11 meters to shelter the cars is positioned on the left side, also allowing access to back of the lot, where in a half-buried level, there is a workshop for the client’s hobby, covered with green roof, which in a way mimics in the garden. The void for the garage is structured by a beam that stands from the left border and connects with the volume of the office, providing the scale of the access with orthogonal lines to the composition. Due to the business activity of the client, the office has access by the street and independence of the daily routine of the house, opening to a front courtyard.
The upper floor shelters three bedrooms with its bathrooms, besides an home theater, and it is accessed by elevator and two stairs, positioned at the social access and at the services sector.
The house hasn’t much openings to the street, ensuring complete privacy for the residents, but it is totally bathed with natural light. The volumes received, externally, facing ceramic bricks from the region, which are made with the characteristic red land from the place, a necessary condition to control the incidence and the reflection of the light on the exterior walls and to refer to the color of the ground, so accentuated in the north of paraná.
Yellowstone National Park – Wyoming – USA (by The Shared Experience)
Sig Nordal 