Architecture graduate Stephan Sobl has designed an upside-down skyscraper to hang over the Colorado River in Nevada, right beside the Hoover Dam.


Entitled Vertical Strip, the conceptual tower would provide a casino, a hotel, a boxing ring and a concert hall, like the nearby Las Vegas Strip.


The lightweight carbon-fibre structure would be suspended from a concrete cantilever and supported by a spiralling metal shell.


Located between the dam and the bypass bridge, the tower would be accessible to both cars and pedestrians from the adjoining road.


Sobl developed the project whilst studying at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

The following information is provided by the designer.

 Vertical Strip – A Hanging Tower

 My Diploma is about the interplay of opaque massive surfaces capable of incorporating poché and lightweight, fragile structure.



The resulting environments developed by these distinct architectural languages are exploited and distributed vertically to create extreme spatial sequences



The project is a casino resort, a satellite alternative to Las Vegas, located on a dramatic site between the Hoover Dam and the Bypass Bridge. The resort caters to various 21st century vices including entertainment (concert venues, MMA Fighting), gambling and luxury living. The architectural challenges I dealt with were taking the convential vertical tower, including its plynth and orientation, and turning it upside down.


Architectural elements: The massing layout is construed by the event space on top with a framed view of the Hoover Dam; the casino underneath leading to the hotel lobby and the hotel itself. At the bottom of the tower there is a dramatic area for happenings and ceremonial occasions. It also includes a breakfast room and high end dining with the elevator core floating above the space; a glass floor providing views to the ground; and terraced floor slabs.


In terms of circulation, there are several ways leading into the plynth of the tower, including car circulation; and viewing platforms. The bridge circulation focuses on 3 elements:

structural details of the Bypass Bridge
openings to the Hoover Dam
breathtaking diagonal views of the hanging tower with a constant interplay of plunging and emerging.


Once you arrive at the entrance of the tower, you enter the hanging structure through the supportive strings leading you down through the casino into the hotel lobby.


The structural system is divided into 3 tectonics: - a massive concrete structure building the cantelivar for the hanging tower - a lightweight hanging tower - a metal shell embracing the structure.

The way I generated the tower is with a partical simulation based on gravity. In order to achieve structural logic the stings are rotated clockwise and counter clockwise.



The metal shell provides shading and natural wind cicrulation for the tower of which its panels are orientating themselves according to changing wind conditions.






Buildings by SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, MAD and more appear to pulsate, spin, dance and grow in this series of animated gifs by French architect Axel de Stampa.

Vitrahaus by Herzog & de Meuron - original photograph by Tom Arban

In the Architecture Animée series, Herzog & de Meuron's VitraHaus triples in height, while one of MAD's curvaceous Absolute Towers begins to twist, and the new Emerson College by Morphosis is given a throbbing heart.
Absolute Towers by MAD - original photograph by Tom Arban

 "Architecture Animée looks into the concept of motion in architecture," said De Stampa. "By using gif format, buildings come alive and reveal their true natures."
New Museum by SANAA - original photograph by James Ewing

Other buildings to feature in the series include SANAA's Zollverein School in Germany and New Museum in New York, as well as the America's Cup Building in Spain by David Chipperfield and Theatre Agora in the Netherlands by UNStudio.

Americas Cup Building by David Chipperfield

For each image, the architect aims to use animation to reveal something new or unnoticed about a familiar building.

Memory Museum by Estudio America - original photograph by Nicolas Saieh

"Motion in architecture is mainly associated to the fourth dimension: time," explained De Stampa. "Time, through the body, experiences the building."

"In Architecture Animée, I have developed a different approach. While the visitor doesn't move, the building offers different perceptions, comes alive and reveals additional evidence," he said.

Theatre Agora by UNStudio - original photograph by Christian Richters

De Stampa created his first gifs as part of 1week1project – an initiative with fellow Ecole d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville graduate Sylvain Macaux to produce 52 spontaneous architecture projects over the space of a year.

Emerson College Los Angeles by Morphosis - original photograph by Iwan Baan

"I wanted to go further," said De Stampa. "Then a couple of months ago I saw images of the Emerson College by Morphosis. The contrast between the big frame and the smooth elements in the centre was great. I wanted to see it moving, so it all began there," he said.

Mirador Building by MVRDV and Blanca Lleo - original photograph by Luis Garcia

The architect next plans to animate the Balancing Barn by MVRDV, Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid and the Casa da Música by OMA.

“When you see them, you can’t help feeling moved; when you understand them, you are full of wonder seeing a future we thought unreachable and couldn’t imagine this beautiful”. Ernesto Gismondi introduces IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE’s lighting, as conceived by Issey Miyake and his Reality Lab., and brought to life by Artemide.




“IN-EI” – Japanese for “shadow, shadiness, nuance”. The art of lighting has a conceptual and technological heritage at the Miyake Design Studio, dating back to 2010, when Issey Miyake and his research and development team called Reality Lab., presented “132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE”. This new process was developed using a mathematical program with 3- D geometric principals by Jun Mitani. 132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE is an extremely ingenious way by which to make clothing, and a process that provides yet another example of directions the quest for innovative textiles technologies can take. The project comes from the intersection of creativity and mathematics, resulting in clothing that can be folded flat and become 3D shapes, starting from a single piece of cloth. As the Reality Lab. explored “132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE”’s potential in areas beyond clothing, a natural extension of the process was lighting products. IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE was born from a collaboration with Artemide marrying their lighting expertise with the Lab.’s innovative approach to the material and design.












“I am extremely proud of this collaboration”, Ernesto Gismondi explains; “Issey Miyake devotes his extraordinary artistic commitment to a quest dedicated to men’s needs and existence. The same commitment you can see in The Human Light, Artemide’s mission and philosophy. We share Miyake’s values and visions”. Such similarities of vision come from shared core values behind both Artemide’s and Reality Lab.’s research. The project revolves around a fabric derived from entirely recycled materials, diffusing light in extremely interesting ways; it is a re-treated fibre made using PET bottles. The bottles are processed using an innovative technology that reduces both energy consumption and CO2 emissions up to 40% when compared to the production of new materials. Issey Miyake’s artistic vision, applied to the new 3D mathematical process, combines the Japanese tradition of light with Miyake’s unique ability to translate tradition into modernity. Artemide animates these sustainable and striking shapes using LED lighting, today’s most relevant sustainable technology. The IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE lighting collection was co-developed and manufactured by Artemide. It is a collection of free-standing, table and hanging lights. Each lampshade is created using 2 or 3D mathematic principals, where light and shade harmoniously alternate. Miyake’s unique folding technology creates both statuesque forms as well as sufficient solidity. The structure of the recycled material, together with an additional surface treatment allows these shades to perfectly keep their shape without the need for internal frame, and to be re-shaped when needed. They can be easily stored flat when not in use.










The innovative meaning of the “132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE” project lies in its numbers; 1 refers to the one-piece fabric used for each product; 2 comes from the 2D initial folding process; 3 refers to 3D; 5, preceded by an empty space, refers to the metamorphosis turning folded shapes into clothing or objects. Five also is an auspicious number, and represents the desire for the clothing or objects to continue to assume new dimensions in the future.




Gouqi Island belongs to a group of nearly 400 islands known as Shengsi Islands, and form a part of the Zhoushan Archipelago, located outside of Hangzhou Bay. It is the largest archipelago of China. Traditionally Zhoushan had relied heavily on its primary industry, which is fishing, given Zhoushan is the largest fishery in China. Nowadays with the development of the secondary and tertiary industries, Zhoushan's economic base has been largely diversified. Ship building and repairing, shipping, light industry, tourism and service industry grow to be the major contributors of local economic output. Consequently, many fishing villages have today become abandoned. Some of the best preserved villages are located in Gouqi Island.

 The Shengsi Islands are a popular tourist destination and is still an important fishery area that attracts more than 100,000 fishermen every winter.



An abandoned fishing village in Gouqi Island, slowly taken over by nature















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