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Dramatically redefining the developing skyline of Singapore, the urban garden linking across the three 55 story hotel towers of the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort is taking shape.

Running a quick poll among today’s taxi drivers, it seemed the most popular description of the project was “the banana split”. Word has it that a few voices on the design review board were of the same opinion but lost out to Singapore’s growing appetite for the sweet things in life.

The linkbridge on WOHA’s Iluma project in Singapore has been completed. The elevated bridge contains small retail outlets and spans Victoria Street, giving pedestrians a direct route into Bugis Junction.

There’s a limit to the number of old Star Trek episodes you can watch on a long haul flight without succumbing to the temptation of sitting down low in your seat and shouting loudly “I canna hold her much longer Capt’n! She’s breaking up!” in a broad Scots accent.

So it came to be that I watched a good portion of Transformers 2 before being saved by our final descent into Singapore.

I’ve long admired the Public Utilities Building, in Somerset Road. Designed in 1971 by the now defunct Group 2 Architects, this was a robust example of the Brutalist style. Recently however, the PUB has undergone something of a transformation itself and has emerged, re-clad in a shiny new suit.

While the original forms have been retained, the sharper edges and crisp material give it the appearance of a giant yet sleek machine. I just can’t figure out whether it’s friendly or not.

Just across the road, the massive Orchard Central retail centre has now opened. It too, seems to be made of an unspecified series of folded panels. Perhaps it could simply eject all the empty tenancies and make itself smaller?

I hadn’t been to Dubai in ten years. The Emirates Towers project had just been finished and excavation was just starting on what is now the bustling Dubai Marina. So to suggest that things had changed a little was perhaps understating the magnitude of the transformation that was still quite evidently, a massive work in progress.

After those cold, grey days in Oslo, the crisp winter sun cut the towers of the city against the clear, blue skies. En route to my hotel, between the passing tower blocks, I got my first glimpses of the Burj Dubai, reaching ever skyward in the distance. Perched on the footpath outside my hotel, it was hard to grasp the enormous scale as the towers in the foreground along Sheik Zayed Road dominated the field of view.

Even from the rooftop pool terrace on that first evening, the Burj Dubai at first seemed a little underwhelming.

The next morning we started before sunrise, scouting for unobstructed views of the Burj Dubai. Although the tower is now the tallest structure in the world, getting a clear shot at it is actually harder than it sounds. The entire area surrounding the tower is one huge construction site with few passable roads and an endless array of half built projects.

Once you start getting back from the construction though, the sheer enormity of the tower becomes apparent. I’ve certainly seen my fair share of tall towers recently but none of those prepared me for this. Whether you like the design or not, whether you cringe at the seemingly mad pursuit of being the tallest or whatever, there is little to do in this case but shake your head in amazement at the marvel of design and engineering. Or have a camel do it for you.

There’s something both humbling and exhilarating about photographing a project of this scale. And this is, after all, as big as it gets. Given the underwhelming images I have seen published to date, I suspect the Burj Dubai will crush the inexperienced, the faint of heart and the wide of lens.

Having faced off against several skyscrapers, I know you can’t let the sheer size of the thing intimidate you. To prevail you must rise to the challenge, you must find the way inside the architecture, put in the effort to gain its respect and be patient, allowing enough time for the building to reveal itself to you.

With that openness to explore whatever opportunities were offered, I headed out every day before dawn, setting the cameras to capture the extraordinary range of light that played upon the glass facade as the sun rose. The building is so tall that even from a distance, the top of the facade reflects a completely different portion of the sky than does the base. Every morning brought a new palette of colours, a new formation of clouds, another facet of the character of this amazing building.

It was a marvelous way to start the day.

After leaving the Yas Hotel, the road continues towards Abu Dhabi along the Al Raha Beach construction site. While a number of the projects have been slowed down or stopped, the first building to be  completed will be the new headquarters for Aldar Properties designed by MZ & Partners.

Stopping for lunch at the adjacent shopping centre took a little longer than planned when we returned to the car to find one of the rear tyres almost completely flat. We’re guessing the culprit was a large nail probably picked up on the building site next door. With a bit of pushing and shoving, Ahmed had us back on the road in no time.

We returned around dusk to see what would sort of reflections might be happening on the curved facade  The closer we got however, the more disturbing became the apparition in the window panels, giving us pause to re-evaluate of our earlier nail theory.

Clinging tenuously to the waterfront in Oslo is Snøhetta’s wonderfully spare National Opera House.

With the wind chill off the fjord dragging the temperature well below zero, I was layered up with just about everything I’d packed in my suitcase. Looking to all intents and purposes like some wayward Michelin Man lost on the arctic tundra, I staggered around on the sloping terraces looking for a view that hinted at the understated, yet stoic grandeur of the building.

In dramatic contrast to the almost bleak exteriors, the mercifully warmer interior was rich in colour and texture. The sweeping external walls of the main theatre were intricately clad with slats of wood, enveloping patrons in a warm embrace as they made their way to their seats.

Around the ground floor bar and coat rack areas, lattice walls of repeated geometric patterns echoed the angular forms of the overall exterior. Crystalline snow flakes perhaps, to balance the warm glow of the wood.

This morning, while casually browsing the long range temperature forecast probabilities for Oslo (as one does), I was struck by the uncanny resemblance to something else I’d recently seen….

… WOHA Designs’ floor pattern on their Iluma project in Singapore.

Remarkable co-incidence.

But I’m sure it’s nothing.

Probably.

It had to happen sometime. I mean, when you have a history of indiscriminately shooting in the streets of Los Angeles, you’re bound to end up getting taken downtown at some point. The new LAPD Headquarters designed by AECOM, sits adjacent to City Hall, squeezed between Morphosis‘ iconic Caltrans District 7 building and the LA Times. The centralized massing of the building opened up generous plazas on three sides of the block providing public access through and around the site, a direct result of the LAPD’s desire to appear more transparent to and engaged with the community they serve and protect.

Our photographing of the project happened to coincide with Chief Bratton’s last official day in office and there was a definite hum around the building. While setting up our first exterior shot, several groups of uniformed officers started congregating in the main forecourt. In a short time the numbers swelled to the point where it was obvious that something unusual was about to happen.

We probably needn’t have worried ourselves with the earlier concern about having enough people moving through the plaza to provide some sense of activity. The immaculately turned out officers, representing every district in LA County, in town to bid farewell to the Chief, filled the space in fine fashion, in what could only be described as a somewhat Matrix like experience. Every time we looked around, there were more!

In the ongoing expansion of Bejings’s CBD, the KPF designed Huamao Center acts as an eastern gateway to the city proper. Situated on Bejing’s main east west artery, the three office towers are offset against the city grid, opening up views for all the corporate occupants. Behind the bravado of the main facades with their retail podium, the scale drops to include open landscaped plazas, two hotels and a series of residential apartment blocks.

Despite the global retail names and sleek finishes, reminders of the old Beijing still creep in here and there to remind you of the rapid changes that have taken place in the old capital.

South of Los Angeles at BIOLA University, Gensler has for many years been involved with the planning and design of the growing campus. When documenting one of the new additions recently, we certainly didn’t have to look far for inspiration. The basketball team is apparently the envy of the west!