Ben Mauro

Ben Mauro
definitely stirred up some internet buzz with his Bioshock 2 concept art which was actually part of his architecture 2 project. "It was for a class at Art Center, the assignment was to design a sequel for a videogame or film. So I picked one of my favorite games from last year." 2K Games community manager even tried to contact Ben Mauro to thank him. Hopefully he'll get a job offer out of it. ;)








Via Xbox360 Fanboy

Two Disc Skyscrapers for Baku

South Korean Heerim Architects firm has proposed two towers for Baku, capital of Azerbaijan and the largest port on the Caspian Sea. "Full Moon Hotel" will symbolize the full moon of its name, and will be located across the bay from "The Crescent Hotel" (height: 158m, 32 floors)
This first image might make you believe they have started construction on the Death Star:

Luckily enough it's not the end of the world yet since other images show that it's quite thin:


I like the combination between the Full Moon and Crescent hotels:

Craig Mullins

Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins (1964) is an American-born concept artist specializing in book and video game illustration and film matte paintings.


Biography
Craig Mullins was born in 1964 in California and moved at the age of 3 to Ohio. When 18 he went back to California where for several years he lived in the proximity of Los Angeles. Today he lives in Tennessee. Mullins was classically trained (attending Pitzer College of Claremont, California (where he stayed for around 2 years) and the Art Center College of Design) but was introduced to digital art with the release of Dubner PaintBox in 1987. Mullins has indicated that he now creates his images almost exclusively in the digital environment — using Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop on a Dell workstation from his home studio in Hawaii.

In books
He did book covers for the following books:
* When Gravity Fails (2005 Orb edition)
* A Fire in the Sun (2005 Orb edition)
* The Exile Kiss (2005 Orb edition)

In film
He did matte paintings for these pictures:
* The Matrix Revolutions
* Armageddon
* Flubber
* Contact
* Apollo 13
* Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
* Forrest Gump

In videogames
He did illustrations for the following videogames:
* Marathon
* Halo: Combat Evolved
* Halo 2
* Age of Empires
* Age of Empires III
* Need for Speed
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein
* Europa Universalis III
* Fallout 3

Waterworld - China

Atkin's Architecture Group recently won the first prize award for an international design competition with this stunning entry. Set in a spectacular water filled quarry in Songjiang, China, the 400 bed resort hotel is uniquely constructed within the natural elements of the quarry. Underwater public areas and guest rooms add to the uniqueness, but the resort also boasts cafes, restaurants and sporting facilities.

The lowest level runs with the aquatic theme by housing a luxurious swimming pool and an extreme sports center for activities such as rock climbing and bungee jumping which will be cantilevered over the quarry and accessed by special lifts from the water. With a stunning visual presentation as shown here, it's no wonder this project took home the first prize. This is a fine example of an ultra modern facility co-existing amongst its natural environment.

Via The Cool Hunter
Bristol-based Martin Jochman, who led the design team, says, “We drew our inspiration from the quarry setting itself, adopting the image of a green hill cascading down the natural rock face as a series of terraced landscaped hanging gardens. In the centre, we have created a transparent glass ‘waterfall’ from a central vertical circulation atrium connecting the quarry base with the ground level. This replicates the natural waterfalls on the existing quarry face.”

The Songjiang district is a natural beauty spot close to Shanghai and an increasingly popular weekend and holiday destination for Shanghai residents and other visitors. The new resort hotel will help to meet growing demand and offer an additional attraction for this unique district.

The project is Atkins’ eighth design competition win in China this year. It also reinforces the company’s international reputation for exceptional hotel design. The design was the result of collaboration between Atkins’ teams in Bristol and Shanghai. It was led by Martin Jochman in Bristol and involved Paul Rice, Hu Yali, Ding Fang, Zhang Jian and Vivian Chen from Shanghai.
Via Square Magazine

Rudy "Rochr" Herczog

Rudy "Rochr" Herczog:
Brilliant scene artist, who envisions the perfect kind of future cyberpunk/dystopian cities. I'll let his art speak for him:

Crystal Island in Moscow

At 1500ft (450m) high, the Crystal Island project won’t be the tallest piece of architecture on the planet, but covering 27 million sq ft (2.5 million sq. m) of floor space, it will be gimungeous.

Basically, the structure in Moscow will be a city within a building and will have its own weather system. London’s prestigious Foster + Partners have designed the mega-structure incorporating solar and wind energy systems, making it eco-friendly.

The $4 billion dollar structure that looks like an enormous crystal Christmas tree will have 3,000 hotel rooms and 900 apartment units. Other amenities include an international school, a theatre, cinemas and a sports centre.

For comparison, the Burj Dubai, the structure that holds the record for world’s tallest building (810+m) for the foreseeable future will contain about 3,595,100 sq ft (334,000 m²) when completed. So, the Crystal Island project will have 7.5 times the indoor space.

It’s expected to be completed between 2012 and 2013.

Can you say hello to "Domed city"/Manhattan Dome.

Mega-City One here we come!