Great palaces around the world have known for each of their unique style and history, In this article, we select 9 out of the world’s well-known palaces for instance to bring you into a different royal experience
I The Forbidden City
Constructed in Ming Dynasty (1406), the imperial palaces, also known as the Forbidden City back then, has integrated the essence of ancient Chinese palaces. Its floor area has been measured up to 720 thousand square meters, about 15 square meters of which are covered with imperial buildings. Located at the axis of Beijing city, it has attracted countless tourists wanting to witness its splendor. Its heart lies within the three great halls, respectively the Hall of Supreme harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. These halls, together with Three Palaces and the Imperial Garden, are all lined up in the center. As forbidden as it seems, it has also demonstrated a strict and solemn design since ancient Chinese believed nature and man are one.
II The White House
The White House has long been served as the workplace and mansion for the in-office president of the United States ever since John Adams. Built at 1800, the White House embraces a combination of the Palladian and neoclassical styles of architecture using White Aquia Creek Sandstone. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C, it covers over 73 thousand square meters, and major buildings include the Executive Residence, West Wing and East Wing. In between the wings, there are Rose Garden and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the latter being completed after Kennedy was assassinated. “White” may come away with obviously its color, but perhaps a symbol of the pure, uncorrupted and stainless. However, today, the White House refers to the American President and its advisers, or sometimes the government of USA.
III The Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the administrative headquarters and residence of the monarch of the United Kingdom. It’s firstly constructed as a large townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham but was enlarged later by architects John Nash and Edward Blore. Since 1873 it has become the London Residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria. Whenever hymn for the nation is sung, queen’s birthday is celebrated, or collective moaning is held, people would gather here. It’s located in the city of Westminster and boosts over 600 halls and rooms dedicated for occasions like banquet and music immersion. At the center of the front plaza there stands the white marble statues of Queen Victoria met by tourists coming over to relish the palace luxury.
IV Château de Versailles
Château de Versailles, or Palace of Versailles, starts its history at the 17th century. It was first a hunting lodge and later became the royal residence of Louis XIV. The Palace in itself is extremely luxurious and spacious, the late kings has requested large amount of labor and resources to maintain its luxury. The interiors contain items from tapestry, oil painting, sculptures to bronze or marble statues by famous artists. It has been recognized as a palace of art, and is included in the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Notable scenes there go to the Hall of Mirrors, the Grand Trianon and the Fountains. Although French revolution has rendered the palace empty, many of its valuable furnishing has been returned and rooms be refreshed.
V The Potala Palace
The Potala Palace is the largest palace complex in Tibet, China, with the highest altitude among others in the world. It’s named after Mount Potala and built since Songtsen Tampo, the 33rd kings of Tibet decided to set Lhasa as the capital. It’s also constructed in celebration of marriage between him and Princess Wencheng. With a history of over 1300 years, it has become a cultural treasure that contains a great number of precious relics including Buddhist statues, golden and silverware, traditional clothes and so forth.
VI The Topkapı Palace
The Topkapı Palace served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans from 1465 to 1853. It also used to be the celebration venue of the national ceremony and royal entertainment but is now a large museum situated in Istanbul, Turkey. Back in the old days there’s has been a cannon placed among and that’s how the palace got its name the Cannon Gate (Topokapı).
VII The Beylerbeyi Palace
Another famous palace located on the Asian side of Bosphorus, Turkey. It’s covered with white marbles and served as the Sultan’s summer resort and reception hall. In the court there grow numerous kinds of flowers and trees, offering a dreamlike experience while walking within.
VIII The Blenheim Palace
The Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house, the principal residence of the Dukes of Marlborough, and also the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the well-known prime minister of the UK. Its construction started in 1705 as a gift from Queen Anne to appreciate the 1st Duke Marlborough’s triumph of the war of Blenheim and completed in 1722. It’s designed by John Vanbrugh in the English Baroque style. The most classic scene is the ceiling in the hall created by James Thornhill, which depicted in chronicle order the splendor of the war. The palace has combined the pastoral, gardens and courtyard together in memory of the triumph made that has greatly influenced the history of Europe
IX The Louvre Palace
The Louvre is the world’s largest museum and important historic monuments of Paris, France. It sits along the bank of the Seine River and is designed magnificently in Baroque style. Long ago it played as a royal palace and used by the kings of France as residence and till today it has become a public museum in part and showcases the grand history of renaissance back then, known for the collection of classical paintings and sculptures. As an iconic figure similar to the Eiffel Tower, it welcomes millions of visitors all year round and boasts about 38000 art items for exhibition.
Hope you enjoy these nine palaces and perhaps take tours there to witness the beauty and splendid history yourselves.
Here at AIMIR, you can find 3D renderings that are the same wonderful and inspiring. If you are interested, contact us for more information!
Located in the mid-east region of Henan Province, Kaifeng is the emerging sub-center city of Henan Province, city of core development zone of Central Henan Urban Agglomeration and the core city of Zhengzhou metropolitan area. With a long history and abundant tourism resources, Kaifeng, the ancient capital of eight dynasties, is also the gathering place of intangible cultural heritage. With the planning advantage of integrated development of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, the tourism economy and tertiary industry in Kaifeng enjoy further development.
Tourism in Kaifeng mainly features scenic spot sightseeing and simple amusement. Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden and Dragon Pavilion currently boast the highest tourism concentration ratio. The development of tourism commerce in Kaifeng is still in its infancy and tourism commerce still features a dual structure of featured retail, catering and supporting facilities.
Shuanglong Lane
Shuanglong Lane historical and cultural blocks are important projects of Kaifeng Cultural Tourism Investment Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Investment Group”). As the key state-owned enterprise of Kaifeng, Investment Group owns the core cultural and tourism resources of Kaifeng, the ancient city of Song capital and is dedicated to building cultural and life experience area of Song capital with “comprehensive protection, holistic tourism, consistent scenery of the whole city and whole industry chain”. Amber Retreats and AIM International Design Competition, entrusted by Investment Group, pool wisdom to bring more possibilities to Shuanglong Lane with one court at its core.
Competition Challenge
Currently, there are a number of urban improvement projects to repair ancient towns in the name of repairing traditional blocks. However, few of them succeed. This space scene design competition focuses on No. 24 court of Shuanglong Lane and collects various solutions for one court from global designers; starting from one point, the strong cultural IP of Shuanglong Lane is created to lead industrial upgrade and transformation of Shuanglong Lane; it’s an innovative design talents introduction, a collision with new scenes and an intensive and focus spread.
Quadrangle courtyard is the basic unit of the buildings within the core protection area, which restores the courtyard pattern and style of buildings with traditional features. The new quadrangle courtyard is built based on the original courtyard texture, which optimizes the space environment of the block. It combines the traditional architectural elements such as quadrangle courtyard, sloping roofs, grey tiles and blue bricks, lattice doors and windows. The controlled height of buildings in the block is 2 stories, and the cornice height is less than 7 m. The buildings around the quadrangle courtyard, which are not newly-built ones in the quadrangle courtyard, are 3 m away from the boundary. The existing buildings to be preserved shall be reconstructed and consolidated in combination with the design and use functions. The facades, roof forms and colors of such buildings shall be renovated to achieve harmony with the traditional style of the block.
Through competitions with Shuanglong Lane No. 24 court as typical cases, we hope to motivate teams to review the modern application of Song culture from the perspectives of art, drama, design, communication, consumer psychology after getting rid of restriction of traditional blocks renovation based on Song culture of Kaifeng, locality and historical inheritance of Shuanglong Lane. Meanwhile, they are motivated to explore the interaction between innovative types of business and space with techniques such as time-space folding and boundary blur to inspire new behavior mode and consumption scenes.
In the space of No.
24 court, participants can conduct business type designs including but not
limited to homestay, catering, bars, cafes, book bars, little theatres, art
galleries, museums, intangible cultural heritage workshops, flower shops,
cultural and creative stores, integration space and any other types of business
believed to show up in the space in light of historic culture and business
performance of Kaifeng and Shuanglong Lane.
In the space design, space innovation triggered by collocation, integration and alternation of innovation business types is encouraged. However, feasibility and practicability are required with adequate consideration of cost. The application of new technologies of AI, 5G and VR is encouraged. For constructions, project plot ratio and max headroom requirements must be followed with considerations given to the coordination of the space and business type of the entire Shuanglong Lane and innovative usage of underground space. We hope that Shuanglong Lane No. 24 Court competition can explore a new way for the improvement of ancient blocks in China and lay a brand new standard for the overall renovation of Shuanglong Lane.
Collection
categories
Accommodation Homestay
Experienced-cultural and innovative brand stores
Custom handicraft hall parent-child space
Art performance little theatre
Cultural and creative warehouse for used things
bookstore-catering
Space-museum
Bonus
First prize: RMB50000
Second prize: RMB 30000
Third prize: RMB 20000
Schedule
Works submission requirements
Submitted contents include: 1. 4 Pictures of Design scheme of A1 size (841MM x 594MM) with unlimited horizontal and perpendicular layout and composition. Mapping documents are submitted in JPG format with resolution not lower than 300dpi. Scheme contents include but not limited to: 1) Site plan 2) Architectural plan, elevation, profile 3) Rendering and analysis chart 4) Design philosophy diagram 5) Economic and technical indexes 6) Other image data that can fully express design concepts 2. Works information sheet (information sheet template is provided in download materials) 3. Participants need to submit creation drafts, work photos and other materials during the creation process (image in JPG format with resolution not lower than 150dpi)
Optional submission contents:
1. Business plan about content creativity: the project (homestay or other business types) brand content operation idea PPT involves brand positioning, target population, project population, marketing, development strategy and execution plan of the brand in Shuanglong Lane. 2. Video (2-4 minutes): to better present works concept, short videos can be submitted, including an introduction to team members, description of design concepts of works with display boards. The format is unlimited. Videos can be made in MPEG, MP4, AVI formats.
Review Standard
1. The locality of design: 30 scores (highlight the integration degree of design and resources of Shuanglong Lane in Kaifeng, including digging and utilization of local materials, extraction of local elements, implantation of local culture and activities, etc.) 2. Design integrity: 30 scores (including concept plan, whether design can be integrated with surrounding integrated ambiance, consistency and coherence of the design of Shuanglong Lane) 3. The leading function of design: 20 scores (including innovation of design and influence of future development) 4. Product richness: 20 scores (including business type layout, supporting business types, facilities implantation, local derivative consumption of products, etc.)
For the more following information, please feel free to contact AIMIR. The application of new technologies such as AI, 5G and VR is encouraged. If you need architectural visualization for this competition, warmly welcome you to drop us a line.
