Steven Holl designed this Centre for Creativity for University College Dublin (UCD) It includes studios, lecture halls, exhibition space, forum space, a foyer, a café, and an observation center. This building was designed around five different concepts: Place, Space, Gateway, Natural light, and Circuit of social connection.

The Centre for Creative Design and the entry plaza with its reflecting pool represent the New Campus arrival experience for UCD students. Its inspired by the geometries of the Giant’s Causeway and the work of James Joyce. It was designed as a space to link everyone in a free and open way for creative collaboration.

Steven Hoff designed the Headquarters for iCarbonX, a Chinese biotechnology company, and included offices, apartments, laboratories, a clinic, a gymnasium, dining, and a large urban public plaza. Steven Holl won a competition to build the companies Shenzhen headquarters.

            The building is inspired by the structure of unfolding DNA. The 150 M tower is for residential use only and is the “living” part of the complex. The other 200 M tower is a functional office space with labs and public recreational areas. The buildings are connected with four separate suspended bridges that are designed to represent the chemical bonds that join carbon atoms together. The upper bridges form pathways dedicated to health and wellness, including the gym and swimming pool. The bottom two bridges are for linking public areas including the clinic, galleries, and meeting spaces.

This was a museum space in Houston, Texas was designed by Steven Hoff with exhibition space, galleries, seven garden courtyards, a 215-seat theatre, pedestrian tunnels, parking hall, conference rooms, a restaurant overlooking a sculpture garden, a café, and a triple-story forum. The building has the unique aspect of porosity also present in the Cofco Cultural & Health Center despite being two completely different projects with different purposes. The large gardens and grand entrances help convey a sense of welcoming and openness.

            The curved roof, designed to look like cloud circles, cover the roof and allow natural light to come into the building in precise amounts and areas providing the perfect lighting for the galleries. The building is organized into two floors horizontally and all the galleries have natural light and connect in with an open flow. All the galleries surround a central gallery forum with generous space for the exhibition of art and vertical access to the upper floors.

Steven Holl designed the Shanghai Cofco Cultural and Health Center in 2016. The 2 buildings house many different amenities between them. The Health Center houses an educational area, pharmacy, multiple consultation rooms, exam rooms, a physical therapy room, ultrasound and x-ray rooms, a nursery, and admin/doctors’ lounges. The Cultural Center has an exhibition area, table game area, café, library, gym, and community and youth activity area. The Cultural Center is 6030 sm and the health center is 1490 sm with the whole site covering 7520 sm.

            The buildings were designed as a “social condenser” to foster a sense of community in the surrounding housing blocks. The landscape and the buildings were designed with the concept of “clocks and clouds” which can be seen in the large organized clock-like circles covering the whole site. The buildings encompass the aspect of clouds with their openness and porous design. The Cultural Center hovers over a cage and the game/recreation rooms on a transparent glass base. They also both include green, sedum roofs to make them merge into the landscape when looked upon from the surrounding apartment buildings.

Liberty hall is a small theatre located in downtown Lawrence, Kansas and it was here that I attended my first concert. The building itself has a video store, a coffee shop, a movie theatre, and a concert hall. I only really got to see the concert hall while I was there, as that’s where the concert was, but being in the building just emanated the feeling that it was historically significant. Despite, the old decor I thought it gave the place a very welcoming environment, and the concert hall was a fun place to jump around during the concert. From the outside, I thought it looked to dainty to hold a concert, but I was proven wrong and had a great time thanks to the design of the concert hall and the acoustics of the place.

The Beijing National Stadium is the stadium that the Chinese built for the 2008 Olympics. I didn’t visit the building when the Olympics were happening, but instead visited it with my relatives in China a few years later. As it was on my most recent trip to China, despite being years ago, it is one of the things I remember the most. I was amazed at the sheer size of the stadium, and it was really awe inspiring. It really helps you realize just how big an event like the Olympics is. When I went it was just cool to walk around and see all the facilities and spend time with my family. The building is really beautiful, and everyone should go take a look if they have the chance.

This is the most important building from the second half of my high school career. OSSM is essentially a boarding school, and this was the first major building I encountered as an incoming student, the dorms. There are four wings with three floors each (two wings per gender) and each floor developed its own micro community. It represents one of the most grueling and fun times of my life for me. Since we were essentially trapped on campus all week, we would spend most of our time either doing schoolwork or messing around in the residence hall. I’ve meet some of my best friends here and bonded over the struggles of the rigorous workload at OSSM. Although it might have been considered a prison at the time, due to the strict conditions and literal bars on the windows, upon reflection it was one of the most fun time of my life all due to the communities that formed in the building. It might have sucked at the time, but now I only think of it fondly. Who knows, that might just be Stockholm Syndrome.

Image: Taken from the OSSM website (OSSM.edu)

This was my hometown high school that I attended for the first half of my high school career. When I first encountered the building, I thought it was pretty mundane, I was bored and just went through the motions of school, but it would become one of the most important buildings in my life. At Edmond Santa Fe, I took AP Chemistry, not only did this lead to my current major of chemical biosciences, but it gave me a more outgoing friend group roped me into the more stereotypical high school experience. During the second year, it was much more fun and interactive. I also met my now fiancée during this second year. So what was once one of the most boring, mundane buildings in my life meant only for education managed to become one of the most impactful and important buildings in my life as it gave me the opportunity to meet my current fiancée and opened me up as a person.

Image: Taken from the Edmond Santa Fe High School Facebook page