Posts in Conceptual Design
Uncovering the Evolution of Frank Lloyd Wright's Vertical Vision: New Renderings Reveal Unbuilt Crystal City Skyscrapers

Frank Lloyd Wright's design for Crystal City was a visionary concept for a vertical city, comprising of interconnected skyscrapers and underground spaces. The renderings of this unbuilt project, brought to life by architect David Romero, show a complex of interconnected buildings that would have risen high above the city, connected by a network of elevators and internal highways.

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Schindler Partners with MX3D to Create a 3D Printed Elevator Design

In the joint project with MX3D, Schindler elevator car has designed a 3D printed elevator cab that looks like a filigree leafless branches. A design that can only be produced using 3D printing. In addition to aesthetics, however, the project is also dedicated to topology optimization, which aims to achieve the best possible design. “Essentially, you look at an object and lots of it is superfluous material”

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A first look at the futuristic 'Elevator Furniture' designed Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios.

Harry Nuriev still remembers his first ride in an elevator. He was a teenager. “While growing up in low-income projects in Russia, elevators were not very commonplace,” he explains. He has since been in many other elevators all over the world, but his latest project, The Elevator, a retrofuturistic installation he unveils today at the 15th edition of the design fair Design Miami/Basel, is inspired by a lift’s speed and its quality as a room that is constantly in motion. It also continues his fascination with the metallic, the monochrome, and the mid-century Italian modernism that has been typical of his firm Crosby Studios’ well-received work.

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El Lissitzky's Vision for a Vertical City: The Cloud Iron Towers

In 1922, Russian architect El Lissitzky designed a revolutionary new type of skyscraper called the Cloud Iron Towers. These towering structures were intended to be built in Moscow, and were designed to be plugged directly into the city's transportation system.

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Chicago Skyscraper to receive a Kinetic Appendage Like No Other

Local firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz has conceived a glass elevator shaft to rise up the corner of a 346-metre-high skyscraper in Chicago. The all glass shaft along the exterior will house a pair of double-deck panoramic elevators giving the city an exciting new ride.

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Mitsulift Introduces Exclusive Elevator Cabin Mini-Series

Design duo david/nicolas have crafted two exclusive elevator cabins using their signature design approach of combining high quality craftsmanship and old world nostalgia. The result is a juxtaposition of retro-futurism and a truly one of a kind elevator experience.

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Finland’s 2010 Shanghai Expo Pavilion “The Lantern”

Expo 2010 was held in Shanghai, China. The international event gave counties and corporations a stage to showcase their unique culture, identity and technology alongside local industry and innovation. The Finnish elevator behemoth Kone designed a three story glass shaft and complimentary elevator cab that shuttled people through the vertical landscape.

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The Solomon Guggenheim’s Lost Glass Elevator

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. One of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century, was also one of his last. A reinforced concrete spiral unlike anything the world had seen secured Wright as the worlds greatest architect, but this masterpiece is missing one distinguishing detail that would have changed everything.

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Artist Gabriel Orozco's Distorts the Standard Elevator

Movement, travel and the circulation of people and goods are constant themes in Gabriel Orozco’s work. Elevator  is a modified elevator cab and modern art installation that distorts the perception of space. Cut horizontally, it’s shorter than a standard elevator cab. When you walk inside, which originally the idea is that a person can walk inside the elevator, you feel the distortion, you realize that the subject is transformed.

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Johnson Research Tower and Administration Building marks Frank Lloyd Wright entry into the Vertical Landscape.

Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was constructed from 1936 to 1939 as the headquarters of the Johnson Wax Company. The 14-story Johnson Wax Research Tower, completed shortly after (1944–1950) includes some of Frank Lloyd Wrights only known elevators.

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25 Creative Elevator Designs That Changed Everything

Elevator design is not something many people think of. Even professional architects, urban planners and designers overlook their significance to modern buildings and cities as a whole. Over the past decade our team of vertical transportation specialists has worked to elevate the narrative around these little spaces in a big way.

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London to Introduce the ‘Chimney Lift’

Last month, London’s Battersea Power Station unveiled a major new attraction, a panoramic glass elevator which will travel to the top of one of Englands most iconic chimneys. Most famously know for its use on the cover image for Pink Floyds album ‘Animals’ has been apart of a redevelopment project for almost a decade.

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