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This Linked Hybrid complex sited adjacent to the city of old city wall of Beijing. The Linked Hybrid is also called an ”open city within a city” project. The huge structure linked together 750 apartments, a public green space, commercial zones, a hotel, a cinema, a kinder garden, Montessori school and an underground parking. The buildings on the ground, under the ground and over the ground are fused together.

The ground level offers a number of open for all people (residents and visitors) to walk around. The space ensure some kind of micro-urbanisms of small scale. All public functions have connections with greenery.

From the 12th and18th floor, a multi-functional of skybridges with a swimming pool, a fitness room, a cafe, a gallery, auditorium and a minisalon connects the eight residential towers and the hotel tower and offer breathtaking view over the city.

I will lead on a journey through slow food and rapid development, just right in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix is a city of uniqueness of the horizon and desert light. This optimistic attitude, accompanied with the arid climate and low cost of living has brought many people to the Valley of the Sun.

The Phoenix metropolitan area is one of the fastest- growing areas in the United States. It’s a pity because the car is king there – driving is only way to move around in 9, 200 square miles region. In this world it’s hard to state the foot and the bicycle as much as the car.

Phoenix is a lesson in freeway nomenclature. The endless pavement and strip malls remind of a distant Los Angles. But there’s a beautiful iridescent horizon and a new light – rail system will soon take place and run.

But behind all these statements comes the good. There’s a quality cuisine, a thriving art scene and unique modern architecture. The creative landscape has three museum institutions. They have the Phoenix Art Museum, a wonderful new second edition, and the other museum SMoCA, which was transformed from a five-plex AMC theater to 20,000 square feet of gallery space. And you have the Nelson Fine Art Center that combines the hispanic character with rich collections of Arizona State University.

The city is a totally electric mix. There is Temple’s musical heritage with the Gin Blossoms. The arts are there. There’s also a place called Red Modern Furniture, which is a little tapas. The city also got Passage, a wonderful boutique that is just blowing everybody away. It’s the coolest fashion spot with a spectacular environment and stylish items. It’s amazing and it’s affordable, accessible and cool.

If you happen to be there on the summer hiking the loop trail around Piestawa Peak or the trail up Camelback Mountain. It’s a great way to see the prespective of the city. As well as biking on the canal system is another perfect way to glimpse a diversity of neighborhoods and history of the city. And at the end for gourmets audience – whenever you’re going to eat in Phoenix or just have a snack, a cocktail, it’s a fantastic experience.

Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa, also emerged as Nyasaland. Behind the shores of lake Malawi known for boutique eco-resorts and rich international tourists is another Malawi with green hills, tea plantations, high mountains and game parks free of safari jeep traffic jams. The country covering about 400 miles in total and every traveler will find an extraordinary experience.

Despite of the fact the roads could sometimes be rough, in general the country provides an easy trip. The widly spoken language is English. The other language is Chichewa. The main point in Malawi is Blantyre. Blantyre is like Malawi’s New York. It’s a centre of finance and commerce and is the second largest city. During daytime in Blantyre you will bump into vendors hawk, avocados, bananas and cellphones card ending up to the window of your car; traffic police try to stop wild drivers.

As well as Blantyre boast several ”Out of Africa” restaurants, where you can sit on an open -air terrace and sip a late afternoon Malawi style gin and tonic.

Then from Blantyre, lies the Thyolo region about 25 miles southeast though winding road. Everywhere in Malawi is recommended to hire a car and driver (for about $30 a day). So Thyolo is a home to tea plantations, reminds very much of Sri Lanka. The roads there have winds and meanders up through rich green hills. Several of the plantations like Satemwa Tea Estate welcome overnight visitors offering them traditional planters’ bungalows.

But if you going north from Blantyre in a trip you will come across the biggest attraction of the country: the famous lake and Liwonde National Park. The park is very wild and animals have become almost conditioned to seeing tourists. If you are not on a paid safari tour, the best way to explore the park is to take a boat, provided by Mvuu Camp, the main lodge in the park, along the Shire River.

Just 80 miles north of Liwonde you will come to lake Malawi, which has the widest diversity of fish in the world and shore with its rocky outcroppings reminds of the Indian Ocean beach.

 Zurich is a city with no shortage of timekeepers. Zurich is also a city of landscape design, the Helvetica typeface and the Swiss Army Knife. Clocks are everywhere, over train and tram stations and from the facades of office buildings and church steeples. Time may rule this modern capital but also symbolizes the dynamic between the city’s history and modernity.

Zurich is the world’s most livable city, owing to its small size and population of fewer than 400, 000. It’s a place where bankers dance during summer evenings and where wealth attracts contemporary art.

Zurich is very exciting, attracting more young people and more foreigners. You have more galleries per person than any  other city in the world, after New York. Zurich offers spectacular museums, restaurants, boutiques and nature in every doorstep, which is very important. That’s why an Italian wants to compare his muscles, he does it with the German and the French.

On the west side of Zurich (also known as Kries 4), the industry is there and so its art. Everything is there. There are new apartments, lofts and cinemas in old factories. Schiffbau is a lovely theater with a good restaurant called LaSalle. It’s an aesthetic glass box.

Swiss people, in general plan the future too much, so they are not really alive. They know exactly what they will do at 60. and this is not sexy and attractive for me. There you can have the sexiness. They just want to do the best. You will see this in the benches or the design of bins- it’s too much. It’s too material.

Melbourne is a city of layers with ever changing skies and facades. Today I will represent you the real Melbourne, which is like its inhabitants and is less public and reveals itself unwilling. In the last decade, Melbourne has radically changed the urban and cultural landscape. Architecture have become adventurous within cutting-edge buildings. The contemporary art scene is dynamic and breathtaking festivals fill the atmosphere of the city. In every corner, basement and attic initiative spirits are creating hole-in-the-wall bars, multimedia galleries, design studious and other experiences.

Nowadays in Melbourne opportunities abound. They got great design schools and really everything they have is as good as anywhere in the world. People there live on the coast looking out the horizon and they know what’s behind them. The other feature about Australian creativity and architectural culture is that they are well traveled. And they choose to come back!

Melbourne has many geographical features to explore. The Yarra River is one of them but the city boasts more about its parks and gardens. The Carlton Gardens are home to the World Heritage and behind them is the Melbourne Museum. On the south side of the Yarra is the Tan – a 2.3-mile running track. There you can pass quickly seeing some great buildings.

What I think makes Melbourne unique is the ever-changing light. The city gets four seasons in one day, which can be a bit miserable in winter. Apart from being cold, it often rains and the clouds are low and makes flat light. But in the summer the light is very harsh and direct providing great contrast like lazer.

Tourists have to walk to really see Melbourne. In that way you will get glimpses of notable architecture and some Gothic revival, urban art projects and pull up at cafes, bars and restaurants in the Centre.

Today Las Vegas has suffered from D-cup syndrome, no matter its plans and dreams. It’s a gaudy casino resort with greed, gluttony, simulacra that push the pleasure buttons of masses. Vegas is a real city and every day it’s getting more real. The city is always sunny and beautiful.

Las Vegas is developing into a future city with their own homegrown, groundbreaking architecture. Residents of Las Vegas have a lot of lost pets – from feral cats to farm animals and because the is in the desert – water is a huge issue. But clever architects have addressed those things in a very attractive design with solar panels and a ” living machine” to recycle graywater.

The city seems to be a sprawl of sand, bulldozers and acres upon acres of tile – roofed housing developments. And the question is ” Does the city have any real architectural history”? The answer is ”Yes” and the residents are trying to save it. The La Concha is a Paul Revere Williams structure, one of the last hotel landmarks on the Strip. There’s also the Old Mormon Fort, a historical landmark with a new addition by local architect Eric Strain. The structure is another example of how every great city needs to develop its own architecture.

When we talk about new architecture get in the elevator and go to Mix – it’s on top of the hotel at Maudalay Bay. Mix is the first restaurants and lounge, where the hotel spent a lot of money bringing in a major league restaurateur. The restaurant’s facade is made of 15, 000 Murano blown- glass baubles. It’s very beautiful.

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but once you leave, you may have trouble banishing Sin City from your mind.

Miami is a world of man -made islands and the original polo fields are new golf courses – Miami first make a loud at the beginning of the 20th century. Many times I wrote about Miami but this time I will mention some other interesting facts. I love Miami in part for all its flashy invention. In my opinion the big constructions are adding some serious substance to this subtropical city.

I suggest you this time exploring Miami on a two-day bike tour visiting city streets, galleries, delicious drives, one stop Haitian voodoo shops. You can covered 40 miles and 11 islands and used up an entire tube of sunblock.

One of my favorites building in Miami is Bacardi Building north to downtown Miami, at Biscyne and Northest 21st. This building is the greater example of how the International style meets the subtropics. I’m a modernist and I reckon we should protect the buildings of the past, but also the new architecture should reflect our own times and aspirations.

A fantastic way to experience Miami cultural diversity is through its culinary culture. Just north of downtown it’s Enriqueta, a delicious little Cuban spot with hundreds of fun and mostly family-run restaurants. There are incredible Cuban Nicaraguan, Peruvian, Brazilian and Argentine food. Miami has an extraordinary influence of cultures, but you have to get out of South Beach to feel it. The botanicas in Little Haiti are just an example for getting a sense of rich Haitian culture here.

For the first time, there is massive residential development in the downtown area that will transform what was once a dark working center into a great downtown. In addition to Museum Park (the new Miami Art Museum/Museum of Science complex) and the Performing Arts Center, over the next several years we will see a new Frank Gehry Soundspace for the New World Symphony and new Herzog & de Meuron and Enrique Norten buildings here in Miami Beach.

 

Houston, Texas is a place famous for its weird view of bigger is better. But today residents are starting to realize the environmental predicament that we need to change our actions in order to have a future in this world. Houston is a diverse city that attracts intellectuals from all over the world to industries such as energy and aerospace. Nowadays as I already mentioned the city offers a surprisingly large number of modern and international style architecture.

In this city of the biggest people, they are slowly learning the benefits of small. People are more aware of the environment and more concern about the future of our Planet Earth.

Houston is a place where people like to have their car: it’s a freedom, you know. Because it’s so hot and humid, you have the underground city where you can go from one building to another all through tunnels and without having to go the street level or outside. It’s all connected by walkways underground. There’s everything in the underground city: restaurants, business, laundry services and many more.

On ground level Houston itself  boasts with Discovery Green park. A spot with different activities like performances and concerts, great restaurants, pilates, yoga classes, a playground for kids, a manmade water pond for boats. It’s wonderful. It’s one of those things that make you think ”Houston is actually progressing”.

The food in Houston is fantastic. When it comes to food, it’s one of those places -discoverable. They have incredible seafood and barbecue traditions with a variety of flavors.But watch you eat – Houston’s the fattest city in the United States.

This restaurant is called Parque de la Florida in the Basque region of Spain. The interiors aren’t particularly remarkable but I admire the way the three sections of the structure sit in a line among the trees, with simple vertical wood framing and glass giving the place a low-profile that doesn’t detract from the park.

Integrated into large public parks or enclosures. The adequacy of these buildings to the site is linked to the idea of easy (or removal if necessary), speed of implementation and use of lightweight materials with specific technological solutions.
The scale of the place and the difficulties of site suggest splitting the program into three pavilions connected. The building is conceived as a set of parts prepared in the workshop and then assembled on site.

Except for the basement, two dominate the building materials: wood and glass. The detachable structure of the three bodies are made entirely in wood. Soil parameters and furnishings are of the same material. The glass surrounding the two bodies sealed transparent.

I really enjoy this place and while writing the article I found myself dreaming of garden parties, and the ongoing fantasy of finding just the right outdoor furniture to suit my vision.

Bulgaria is an ideal place for a summer holiday provides the relaxing atmosphere, healthy climate, golden sands and clean water. Emerald Resort is located in the small tourists’ town of Ravda, less than 15 km from Bourgas Airport and only 5 km from the popular Sunny Beach Resort. Also it’s close to the historic resort of Nessebur – a UNESCO World Heritage site.   Emerald Beach Resort is built in June 2007 and opened as 5 star quality resorts, offers to a high class services. The resort including five type different buildings decorated with the orient in mind. The complex consist 800 apartments on site of 56,000 sq m in a natural park with rare plants. This five star resort is a perfect place to relax and enjoy, provides its guest high class amenities making theirs stay unforgettable. The water area including four independent swimming pools: indoor heated pool, kid’s pool, Blue Lagoon with water attractions and largest outdoor pool in Bulgaria with 2500 sq m total area.
There is one of the biggest SPA centers in Bulgaria. It is the only resort offers the therapies with the world famous trade marks – Taman Sari Royal Heritage SPA. Different types of baths, saunas, solarium, and gym facilities – offering cardio machines, Jacuzzis, aromatic rooms and massages are available in the SPA center “Garden of Youth”. The professional staff consist eight Indonesian SPA specialists and therapists. As a five star resort, the Emerald Beach offers a huge choice of cuisine: International Buffet, Fresh Juice bar, Seafood Restaurant with specialties from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, Grill – house, Oriental Restaurant and Open Sea Piano Bar with amazing views of Black Sea. Other activities which are accessible: Bowling, Tennis, Mini Theater, Casino, Night Disco Bar, 24 hour medical assistance, and Business center with conference and banquet facilities. From 2008 there is Wi Fi internet connection in all the communal areas.

Duisberg is a lovely German town, located on about 36 miles from Dusseldorf. Duisburg isn’t so famous, even in Europe. For those who have heard of it, it’s synonymous with the Ruhrgebiet—the former industrial heartland of Germany, now mainly remembered for the hard times of the 1980s, under the weight of ecological degradation, economic crisis, and soaring unemployment.

Today the city is known for its steel industry. There is still one coal mine in operation, but Duisburg has never been a coal-mining center to the same extent as other places in the Ruhr.

To give it a new role in the life of the city, there new inner water channels  were cut, which literally carry the water further into town, and a variety of public space was created on the waterfront. Duisburg Inner Harbor has retained between 30 and 40 percent of its old warehouses and mills, refurbished into offices, museums, and restaurants.

The whole idea was to bring the water back into Duisburg and nowadays this is reality. Lining the harbor are walkways, bike paths, lush green spaces, sculptures, a skateboard park, and cafe terraces. But the new paths are a mosaic of salvaged bricks and tiles, and while many old buildings were demolished to create these well-used public spaces, the Garden of Memories, for example, poignantly preserves certain segments of them.

The beautifully spare Movable Footbridge invites walkers to cross it, boats can moor at Steiger Schwanentor jetty, which rises and falls with the water level and a new dam has provided a more scenic stretch of water as the backdrop for the restaurant terraces, as well as a place to swim.

Duisburg has always had a lot going for it—the mentality is different from the rest of Germany, people are more open, friendlier, always ready to try new things.

Brussels is a surreal linguistic city between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons, many transactions occur in neither language. But people just speak English. Its modest character made Brussels the perfect compromise for postwar rivals choosing a headquarters for the European Union and NATO, while all the diplomats and a swirl 
of immigrants from North and Central Africa give it 
an intense international, cosmopolitan flavor rare for such a small city. The picture displays the Atomiumis, built in 1956 for the World’s Fair, an homage to the future. It recently reopened after a complete renovation.

The Atomium’s interior, which includes these atomlike seating pods.

The Belgian Center for Comic Strip Art was designed by Art Nouveau master Victor Horta.

The Grand Place—Brussels’s major tourist destination—was burned down by the French in 1695, but was rebuilt within five years. Brussels has parks and forests, of course, but one place I especially like is both outside and inside. The Galeries Saint-Hubert were the first glass-covered shopping arcades in Europe. There are cafes in the galleries where you can sit outside and watch people go by, but you’re not in the rain. One modern and peaceful world …

The Montreal Expo 67 defined today Montreal as a design spot to watch. Though Montreal isn’t booming quite like Toronto or Calgary, the European stone streets of the Old City are still a favorite of tourists—and of the American under-21 set looking for a beer. Many famous architects have designed university buildings and museums all over Montreal like the Faculty of Music Building at McGill University and several boutiques.

The truth is, Montreal is a place to discover. The people there are very welcoming and if you talk to them they will help you see. There isn’t some organized system to discovering the city as the chambre de commerce presents. I suggest dear traveler going to smaller, lesser-known places, and that’s where you find wonderful food or nightlife. It’s all very organic there, but there’s no system to discovering it, or one place or neighborhood to go. One of the best, most established places  there is Café L’Express and they don’t even have a sign.

Montreal is also an initiative city, which makes a new center in Old Montreal. It’s lovely down there and the stone buildings are amazing, but it’s very touristy by the St. Lawrence. The western part of Old Montreal is developing in a really natural way, though. McGill Street is coming up. The way the west part of Old Montreal is going, it will help re-create the natural fabric of the city.

In the past, the east side of Montreal was Francophone and the west was Anglophone. It’s still that way to some extent, but you will enjoying a moment of harmony there. The new leadership has said that the referendum is on ice for some years in order to establish a healthier, more connected city. This is a wonderful city and it’s the only place I know where everyone really does speak two languages.

You see, Montreal is all about surprise. You come here expecting one thing and then you see a guy surfing in the river. It’s on YouTube.

Built in 1928, the historic neo-classical Fullerton Building was transformed into a 400-room luxury hotel in 2001. Located in the Civic District, the five-star building is 12 minutes from the Singapore Cruise Centre at Harbour Front and 10 minutes from the Malayan Railway Station.

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore provides accommodation that surrounds its guests with a refreshing ambiance of peace and tranquility , the chic accommodations of the Fullerton Hotel Singapore exude a sense of warmth and comfort.

At Town Restaurant, the hotel’s vibrant, smart-casual restaurant, a team of culinary specialists with global experiences presents the cuisines of Asia, Italy, Japan and the Pacific Rim. For a pre-dinner aperitif or informal drinks, hotel’s Post Bar, serves a large selection of fine wines, martinis and signature cocktails.

On Sundays, The Courtyard presents Tea Rhapsody , bringing a burst of flavours from the East and West at this buffet-style Afternoon Tea served from 13:00 to 17:00

Attractions include the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, and the dining and entertainment districts of Boat Quay, and Clarke Quay. Also Zoological Gardens, Chinatown, Arab Street and Little India.

The Fullerton Hotel’s facilities includes a 24-hour Financial Centre, 25-metre outdoor infinity pool, 24-hour state-of-the-art fitness centre, luxury spa and retail shops.

Sevva is a rooftop restaurant/club on the 25-th floor penthouse of the Prince’s Building in Hong Kong with a breathtaking views of the city harbor. The native Calvin Taso says ‘ We Chinese eat all the time. Nibbles, snacks, power breakfasts, late breakfasts,  lunch tea, drinks.’In my opinion Sevva is a real social hub with unique interior and vast establishment, giving its several restaurants and bars a relaxed elegance. Sevva offers the Taste bar for drinks, live music and tapas. The bars clear acrylic klismos chairs, vintage finds, have jewel-toned pony skin upholstery for punch. Moroccan style cushions, covered in equally vibrant skills, from a banquette that stretches 30 feet. Old bank chairs are upholstered in tufted baby blue silk, and a back-to-back sofa had its oak legs hand carved and gold-flecked in London. I would say ‘It costs an arm and a leg’.

For ultimate power lunch, there is the Bank Side restaurant adorned with images and magnificent banks. The dinning room’s custom furnishings include a stained-oak table and benches and a wool rug. High wall are filled with some of the most coveted pieces of Modern Art featuring works from world renowned photographer Candida Hoffer.

The best place for a relaxed drink is the long and narrow Lounge with its live garden wall. Casually elegant meals can be enjoyed under the vaulted ceiling of the Harbor Side restaurant. The owner of Sevva is Bonnie Gokson, whose reputation in the world of branding and fashion has helped Sevva gain lots of attention.

Gokson loves art and drama, so it is no wonder she chose Tsao & McKown Architects to transform the 1960s mixed-use Prince’s Building space into the dramatic Sevva environment.

Fresh vertical gardens energizes the  spirit of the Lounge area. The light streaming from the floor to ceilings windows complement the soft colors of the furnishing. The music selection harmonize more and more the lounge. This is just a spot to savour a good life…