Somewhere over the sea lies the abandoned Hotel La Rainbow, a cracked jewel of Japan’s Bubble Era that failed to attract its target market of bridge geeks.

A Bridge, Too Far

The “Hotel La Rainbow & Tower” (to use its official name) seemed like a great idea at the time. Then again, Japan’s lost and lamented “Bubble Era” saw countless such brainstorms bloom into “what was I thinking – or drinking” white elephants before the Asset Price Bubble economy finally burst in early 1992.

Suspended Belief

Not all of these extravagant mega-projects were busts, mind you. Take the Great Seto Bridge, a four-lane, double-deck, 8-mile-long series of 11 constituent bridges built – at a cost of US$ 7 billion – to connect the islands of Honshu and Shikoku. The Great Seto Bridge took 10 years to construct, saw the loss of 13 workers’ lives in the process, and was considered a true wonder of the world when it opened in 1988.

Ready, Seto, Go!

Surely tourists from across the nation and the world at large would be flocking to Okayama prefecture to take in the jaw-dropping view of the Great Seto Bridge stretching out over the Inland Sea! If only there was a hotel, complete with observation tower, available for these deep-pocketed travelers to rest their bones and spend their yen… and in late-1980s Japan, investors’ dreams all-too-often came true.

Rooms With a View

So it was that in late 1988, a private investment group opened the La Rainbow Hotel & Tower, situated on a prime piece of Okayama real estate overlooking the Inland Sea. The view encompassed the 4,600 ft long Shimotsui-Seto Bridge (the northernmost stage of the Great Seto Bridge) and a number of small islands projected to become a sort of “Japanese Venice” as regional development progressed. Unfortunately, reality set in when the bubble burst and the associated Seto Sea Boom ended with a bang – and more than a few whimpers.

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So Over It Japans Abandoned Hotel La Rainbow

A new building has sprouted up in Macau that innovates in three dimensions on a form often found across the delta in Hong Kong: rectilinear boxes with central linear voids, a classic feng shui strategy to allow dragons to pass from the mountains down to the sea. But there is more than fantastical tradition to this approach: interior windows mean more natural light access and views for visitors, too.

When designers from Zaha Hadid Architects (images by Ivan Dupont and Virgile Simon Bertrand) came to the project, the base had already been built, forcing them into a rectangular configuration — above, however, they broke free, carving into the cubic shape with warps and curves.

The Morpheus Hotel boasts the world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton — its external steel grid provides support, freeing up interior spaces from structural walls and columns.

The bends, twists and openings resulting from this lively pattern were situated to provide strategic views of the surrounding city and coast.

“Morpheus combines its optimal arrangement with structural integrity and sculptural form,” said Viviana Muscettola, ZHA’s project director. “The design is intriguing as it makes no reference to traditional architectural typologies.”

“Macau’s buildings have previously referenced architecture styles from around the world. Morpheus has evolved from its unique environment and site conditions as a new architecture, expressly of this city.”

Known for designing dynamically curved structures in cities, Zaha Hadid’s only single-family residential project is certainly aligned with her signature style but also reacts to a very different and much more remote, natural and green context.

At the pinnacle sits the master suite, rising above the Russian forest canopy over 60 feet above the ground. Its glass walls and dual balconies were designed to give residents stunning views of the landscape. It sits at the top of a support stem housing a glass elevator (to enjoy the surroundings riding up and down).

The client recalls telling Hadid about his dream home: “I want to wake up in the morning and I want to just see blue sky. I don’t want to see any neighbors and I want to feel free.” Realizing this would mean the building would have to reach above the trees, she quickly sketched out the concept. The final structure, though, would be a complex one, richly and three-dimensionally expressive.

Below, a series of flowing volumes with wide roofs make up the majority of the home, with living spaces, swimming pool, lounges and kitchen on the lowest floor, a level embedded partly below ground. Guest quarters, childrens’ bedrooms and a library are located a floor above, as well as the main entrance.

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The design was sketched out over a decade a go, and conceptual renderings were published over the years, but the building wasn’t completed until recently, after Hadid had passed away. The client recalls she was a “very intellectual, smart and sharp woman,” he continues. “It was very tragic what happened, we lost one of the greatest architects of this century.”

This is a once-in-a-lifetime type project for an architect, being given a high budget and a lot of creative freedom. And it shows. “This project is an absolute testament to Zaha’s genius. This is a masterpiece. It has Zaha’s signature features of organic intricacy, complexity of spatial arrangement, a lot of surprises, and a lot of craftiness and beauty.” (Images courtesy of the OKO Group).

Residents of Waterloo Estate towers in Sydney, Australia, were given a uniquely visible voice this year amidst city plans to change the neighborhood. The #WeLiveHere2017 project gave 500 residents in two 60-story towers ‘mood lights’ so they could express their views on the proposed future of their home.

“#WeLiveHere2017 celebrates the community of Waterloo before a large scale redevelopment changes the area forever,” explain the project’s creators, “bringing with it swathes of high-density private dwellings and an uncertain future for the thousands of existing residents.”

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An estimated 3,600 elderly and low-income residents will be moved out of the way when a new metro station is added and associated reconstruction complete. Indirectly, the lighting lends a voice to people living in vulnerable low-rise structures below, which are the most likely to be demolished and replaced.

“We chose the Matavai and Turanga towers to represent the whole estate as they are the tallest and most visible,” explained one local resident of the project. “They were purpose-built for elderly residents, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone living there who is under the age of 65.”

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“By telling the stories of this inner city community, the project empowers residents to participate in a collective statement of presence: a beacon to the place and the people.” It is also “a dynamic platform to generate valuable discussion around the importance of public and affordable housing, and the right of every person to a home.”

There is also a personal element to this approach — each light represents an individual, and creates a spot of bright color to help people remember that, even if it looks a bit dreary on the outside, there is someone living in a tower.

The project wrapped up last month, and it remains to be seen how much it will impact development in the area, but it is certainly an intriguing template for would-be protesters in urban settings well worth looking at (images via WeLiveHere2017, Tom Wholohan and Shuang West).

On the University of British Columbia’s campus in Vancouver, a new record-setting wood structures highlights the many advantages of a growing trend: vertical timber construction. Brock Commons Tallwood House is the highest of its kind to date, providing housing for over 400 students.

The Canadian firm behind its construction, Acton Ostry Architects Inc, says that using wood allowed for a much faster building process. Offsite testing of wood-to-wood connections and structural stability meant less time onsite spent figuring things out. Combined with prefabrication techniques, these approaches helped the builders finish the tower in just 70 days.

In addition to cost and time savings, wooden structures like this one are lighter weight, requiring less energy input during construction while also making them more flexible and resistant to earthquakes. Timber buildings are also famously good at standing up to flames – wooden columns and beams will char in an inferno, and that charred surface can actually stand up longer to heat than exposed steel. While steel heats up and buckles, wood first loses its water weight, then chars and resists the flames. Even when encased in concrete, rebar can heat up, buckle and bend.

Sustainable forestry also enables them to sequester carbon while using a renewable resource — wood buildings like this open the door to carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative projects. Use of glue-laminated beams and columns also allows thinner trees and offcuts to be used in the construction process, reducing waste and growth time for harvested plants.

Some concrete was still required for the elevator cores, metal was needed for connections, and windows, of course, required glass. Still, compared to steel-framed structures, the amount of these materials used was dramatically reduced. And this project is not alone — around the world, forward-thinking architects and developers are beginning to realize that wood is a useful material for building tall.