In Zurich, the mechanical facade of an unusual house performs an intricate dance, with petal-like louvers opening and closing as balconies pop out and lock into place. Dubbed ‘Ballet Mécanique,’ the five-unit rental structure designed by Basel-based architect Manuel Herz was commissioned by reclusive textile heiress Katrin Bechtler, who lives on an adjoining property.

The point of a rental property is usually to make extra income, but the facade of Ballet Mécanique alone cost $1 million, so it’s more like an elaborate inhabitable art project built just for fun.

Herz notes that it’s not often a client is willing to approve such a complex design. Normally, if he had something fanciful in mind, client-directed revisions would result in a vast simplification of his original vision. But Bechtler clearly isn’t an ordinary client.

“When I met the owner for the first time, she showed me a sculpture on the side: a table that collapsed when its four legs buckle, and then it can raise itself again,” Herz told Swiss-Architects. “This awkward kinetics was fascinating. This ‘mind in the machine,’ the characteristic that something mechanical can have almost a personality, has influenced me.”

The architect was also influenced by Le Corbusier’s Heidi Weber Museum, which is set just a hundred meters away on the same property. He cites its “pavilion-like lightness,” its bright color palette and the combination of steel construction and concrete as sources of inspiration.

The two-story building, which also has an attic level, a rooftop terrace and a basement for studio space, features five rental apartments with sizes between 2.5 to 4.5 rooms. Steel columns are used along the facade for support, but the core and floors are made of reinforced concrete.

The shutters themselves are made of anodized aluminum with a pearly finish on the outside that gives the building a uniform appearance when they’re all closed. But at the press of a button, the shutters open, their colorful insides contrasting with the greenery in the garden.

“The [folding] elements can be operated from the inside and are controlled by motors hidden in the steel structure. Control via motors guarantees a largely silent and synchronous movement. Each apartment is assigned a movable and walk-in balcony. These movable walk-in balconies are based on the same construction and motor control as the folding elements and are complemented by a railing. After complete extension of the folding elements, the railing can be pushed outwards.”

Kinetic architecture, verdant cascading balconies, timber-frame skyscrapers and double-helix bridges: Beijing- and Salzburg-based multidisciplinary firm Penda brings all sorts of refreshing ideas to the worlds of architecture, landscape and interior design. Founded by Chris Precht and Dayong Sun, the youthful firm subverts norms and commands attention with its surprising solutions, and we’ll likely see a lot more stunning projects from them materializing in the future.

Tel Aviv Arcades

This September, Penda teased architecture fans with exciting images of a new project, the Tel Aviv Arcades, without providing any information. “Excited to share one of our current projects with you: a residential high rise in Tel Aviv,” they wrote on Facebook. “Here a preview, more soon!” Over 8,000 people liked the photo showing the building in profile, with a cascade of balconies providing natural light and green space to every floor.

Tree Tower Toronto

Drawing inspiration from a true classic, Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 in Toronto, Pends presents their design for ‘Tree Tower Toronto,’ an 18-story timber-framed residence. It’s a beautiful example of the high-rise wooden building trend. “ur cities are an assembly of steel, concrete and glass,” they say. “If you walk through the city and suddenly see a tower made of wood and plants, it will create an interesting contrast. The warm, natural appearance of wood and the plants growing on its facade bring the building to life and could be a model for environmental friendly developments and sustainable extensions of our urban landscape.”

Hongkun Art Auditorium

Located in Beijing, Penda’s interiors for ‘Art Auditorium,’ subdividing the multi-use space with curving, organic wooden cutouts that are almost Art Nouveau in nature, contrasting with a heavy, minimalist concrete facade. The firm inserted what they call the ‘art box,’ an all-in-one wooden built-in, which adds arches mirrors and steps to small areas for lectures, readings, small exhibitions and an area for trading artwork.

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Terraced Balconies Double Helix Bridges Spotlight On Penda Architecture

Transforming from a flat window into a balcony at the push of a button, the Bloomframe design is not only available for purchase after years of design refinements, it’s also set to be the defining feature of an entire apartment building. Amsterdam-based architecture firm Hofman Dujardin won the Red Dot Design Award back in 2008 for the concept, which manages to be both innovative and attractive, eliminating some of the bulk seen in similar designs.

Think of it as the balcony version of a Murphy bed: you press a button and something useful pops out of the wall to offer you more space and functionality. Operated by remote control, the balcony looks like an ordinary window, except with an opaque metal panel where the lower pane of glass would normally be. Activate it, and an electric motor drive will extend out the top frame, pushing the lower one down into the balcony’s floor.

The whole process takes about fifteen seconds to complete, and the result is a real balcony with enough space for two people to sit down at a table and enjoy a meal. It was conceived specifically for spaces where traditional balconies aren’t logistically possible, like apartment renovations or warehouse conversions.

When a dozens of them are installed in a single apartment building, like Hofman Dujardin’s proposed housing block, the result is a dynamic, constantly changing facade pattern. “In the winter the facade is closed, during spring the facades open like a flourishing flower,” say the designers.

Skeptics of improbably green skyscraper concepts might want to take a moment of silence to appreciate the successful construction of these two beautiful buildings now nearly completion.

Designed by Stefano Boeri in Milan, Italy, the twin towers of the Bosco Verticale play host to nearly 1,000 trees, 5,000 shrubs and over 10,000 additional small plants.

The building was fully designed with its greenery in mind, including accommodations for irrigation, root systems, plant weights and wind loads within the city. This rich miniature ecosystem of plant life in turn helps filter the surrounding air, dampen urban noise and provide shade for residents. For its local environment, the building increases biodiversity and provides habitats for regional birds and insects.

From the designers: “The creation of a number of vertical forests in the city will be able to create a network of environmental corridors which will give life to the main parks in the city, bringing the green space of avenues and gardens and connecting various spaces of spontaneous vegetation growth. [This project] helps to build a micro-climate and to filter dust particles which are present in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants helps to create humidity, and absorb CO2 and dust, produces oxygen, protects people and houses from the suns rays and from acoustic pollution.”

An iconic new mixed-use development in the heart of Montpellier in southern France, L’Arbre Blanc (The White Tree) grew out of a design concept tied to the outdoor traditions of this temperate region along the Mediterranean Sea.

Spinning out from a central core, the design-defining balconies unfold brilliantly to offer upper-level residents an array of amazing panoramic views while providing shade for units below.

This collaborative project by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Nicolas Laisné Associés and Manal Rachdi Oxo Architects (via ArchDaily with images by RSI Studio) includes a restaurant, bar, offices and art gallery in addition to dwellings.

Set in the fastest-growing city in France, the building is designed as a transition point between the heart of the old city and a series of faster-growing neighborhoods surrounding the existing center.

A series of passive heating and cooling strategies, including wind and solar usage, reinforce the tree concept with practical and sustainable solutions for everyday occupants.

In terms of the housing units themselves: “The architects sought to encourage free-choice architecture, which they see as underpinning tomorrow’s housing trend where everyone starts with a ‘housing stock’ when they buy their flat and are not confined to manufactured articles, regimented layouts, turnkey spaces. Instead they are given possibilities, modular interior spaces they can choose from a catalogue of optional features and floor plans.”