While more and more new projects are suspended and canceled in Europe and the United States (among the latest "victims" are Frank Gehry's Atlantic Yards high-rise building in Brooklyn and Jean Nouvel's green, literally and figuratively, SunCal tower in Los Angeles), in the east of the Eurasian continent, architects and developers continue to plan large-scale buildings.
In Osaka, the tallest building in Japan should be erected by 2014 (not counting the 610-meter Tokyo Sky Tree TV tower currently under construction in Tokyo, designed by Tadao Ando). It will be the high-rise multifunctional complex Abenobasi Cesar Pelli, 300 m high. On its 59 aboveground and 5 underground floors, there will be located: a high-speed railway station, a hotel, a museum, offices, an observation deck and a shopping center. Despite its record size for the country, Abenobasi will not look like an "iconic" building: its stepped volume will be made up of rectangular blocks with facades of high transparency glass. For recreation of hotel guests and people working in the office complex, a winter garden will be arranged on the roof of each of the "steps" of the building, and spacious atriums will be located on many floors.
At the same time, in the central business district of Kuala Lumpur, next to Petronas Towers, they are going to build a 30-storey business center designed by architects KPF - their first construction in Malaysia. The building will combine rational use of resources and environmental friendliness with an "aerodynamic" contour.
