Luka Modric Voted World’s Best Player

As director of a leading real estate development company based in Johannesburg, Laurence Grigorov is involved in all aspects of the development process, including land acquisition, rezoning applications, architectural design as well as the finance and legal components of these complex projects.

In order to relax and unwind, Laurence Grigorov enjoys watching football and watched with keen interest who would win the FIFA Best Player fo the Year award for 2018.

Luka Modric ended Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s decade-long domination of football’s individual awards by being crowned Fifa’s best player of the year recently.

Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah picked up the Puskas award for best goal of the year for his strike against Everton in the Merseyside derby last December.

Midfielder Modric starred for both Real Madrid and Croatia as his club won a third straight Uefa Champions League, and he inspired his national team to reach the World Cup final for the first time. He beat Ronaldo and Salah to the prize.

Modric’s success means Ronaldo remains tied with Messi having won Fifa’s award in different guises five times each.

Croatia’s run to the final was the culmination of a brilliant career for 33-year-old Modric that had often been overshadowed by Ronaldo’s goalscoring in their time together in the Spanish capital, before the Portuguese left for Juventus in July.

Modric scored twice and also netted in penalty shootout wins over Denmark and Russia, but it was his playmaking ability that caught the eye in winning the Golden Ball for the best player at the World Cup.
“It was an unbelievable season, the best season in my life,” said Modric. “I’m still not realising how good a year I had collectively, individually, and I’m very proud for everything I achieved this year and it will be remembered forever.”

For a sixth straight season, Ronaldo was the Champions League’s top scorer with 15 goals and also scored four times at the World Cup, including a hat-trick against Spain in a thrilling 3-3 draw to open Portugal’s campaign.

Modric was joined by Real team-mates Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane and Marcelo in the FIFPro team of the year, also featuring David De Gea, Dani Alves, N’Golo Kante, Eden Hazard, Kylian Mbappe, Messi and Ronaldo.

Laurence Grigorov is pleased to see a new winner of the prestigious award after the recent domination by Ronaldo and Messi.

Words courtesy of www.thenational.ae

BIG, MAD, MVRDV and OMA on shortlist to design Australia's tallest building

Laurence Grigorov, who is director of a Johannesburg-based property development company, often looks for inspiration from international architectural design trends. This allows Laurence Grigorov to continually keep the development projects that the company is involved in, fresh and current.

A new project which is Laurence Grigorov believes is significant is a competition, run by developer Beulah International, to design a £1.1 billion mixed use development in the Australian city of Melbourne which has drawn entries from some of the world's best-known architects.

Supertall skyscrapers with rainbow facades and shaped like a mountain piercing a light-up cloud are on the shortlist for Southbank – a new tower in Melbourne, which if built would be Australia's tallest building.

Six designs for supertall towers have been shortlisted from the following teams: Bjarke Ingels Group with Fender Katsalidis Architects, Coop Himmelb(l)au with Architectus, MAD Architects with Elenberg Fraser, MVRDV with Woods Bagot, OMA with Conrad Gargett, and UNStudio with Cox Architecture.

The developer purchased over 6,061 square metres of land on the Southbank Boulevard last year, and plan to turn it into a new "lifestyle precinct" with a hotel, shops and apartments along with cultural and public spaces.

Beijing-based MAD Architects and local architecture firm Elenberg Fraser have proposed Urban Tree, a 360-metre-high "mountain village" surrounded by foothills, with a hotel shaped like an illuminated cloud near its summit.

Green Spine is the competition entry from Dutch architectural practice UNStudio and Australian firm Cox Architecture. It features two twisting towers with glass facades on their outer edges and terraced gardens on the inner sides. The 356.2-metre-high residential tower would be topped by publicly accessible botanic gardens. A shorter office and hotel tower would be 252.2-metres high.

Copenhagen and New York-based BIG and Melbourne's Fender Katsalidis Architects have proposed two 359.6-metre high interlocking blocks. Called the Lanescraper, its stacked shape would provide both stability and natural points of connectivity between the towers.

A two-tiered concentric auditorium in one section would be able to hold 3,000 people, while a BMW experience centre would span four floors with a central void filled by a car lift surrounded by a spiral staircase.

The Beulah Propeller City is the shortlisted entry from Viennese architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au and Melbourne-based Architectus. Shaped like a tri-blade propeller, the 335-metre-high tower would be topped by a penthouse with its own private landscape garden and pool.

Residential areas would be prioritised, with 46 floors of apartments featuring high ceilings and full length glazing. The hotel would comprise 15 floors and have its own winter garden complete with tropical vegetation and a swimming pool.

Dutch firm MVRDV and Australian architects Woods Bagot have proposed Stack, an "interconnected vertical city" that would rise 359 metres above the city. Stacked neighbourhoods in the city would be demarcated by different textures in the facade

In the centre of the tower a hotel pool with an underwater glass window would be surrounded by stepped terraces. Elsewhere in the skyscraper visitors could enjoy a tropical garden where residents would be able to job or walk their dog along treetop walkways.

Rotterdam-based OMA and Brisbane architecture practice Conrad Gargett's unnamed proposal for the Southbank is a colourful take on the traditional vaulted markets and arcades found in Melbourne.

Emphasising the foot of the tower rather than the top, a "vertical city" would be built between arches supporting a rainbow-coloured facade. All the cultural, commercial and educational functions of the development would be located here, with the hotel, residences and offices placed in the tower above to give them the most light.

The winning design will be announced 2018.

Laurence Grigorov is often influenced by modern design trends and ideas and uses these as inspiration in the company’s architectural style.

Melbourne Australia

Woodside Sanctuary

Laurence Grigorov, the director of Laurence Martin Developments in Johannesburg, South Africa, participates in extensive philanthropic efforts through four major charitable organizations. One organization that Laurence Grigorov donates to is Woodside Sanctuary, a Johannesburg holistic care organization.

Since its founding in 1955, Woodside Sanctuary has served South African children and adults who have mental disabilities, as well as their families. Children come to Woodside Sanctuary from all across South Africa, many of whom have no other support or means of receiving care. Woodside Sanctuary takes on all responsibilities to accommodate these individuals who make up just over a quarter of the Sanctuary's total population.

Many of these individuals require lifelong care or, at the very least, care well into their adulthood. Woodside Sanctuary provides housing, activities, and medical support for these individuals, as well as rehabilitation and stimulation programs that improve their quality of life. Woodside Sanctuary pays for these services thanks to the support of families, government organizations, and private donors.

No. 6 Silo in Cape Town

No. 6 Silo in Cape Town

As director at Laurence Martin Developments, a residential property development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Laurence Grigorov keeps abreast of development news and information. Future and upcoming developments offer Laurence Grigorov an insight in potential residential and commercial market trends and changes.

The developments that are appearing in Cape Town are of particular interest to Laurence Grigorov as these market trends often carry over into the Johannesburg market which is the main project area for Laurence Martin Developments.

The V&A Waterfront approached DesignSpaceAfrica in 2014 with a brief to develop a new mid-range hotel on the site known as No 6 Silo, situated in the Silo District. Luyanda Mpahlwa DesignSpaceAfrica were appointed as architects in association with Peerutin Architects.

The new Zeitz MOCAA Museum in the centre of the District, was envisaged as becoming “a new architectural icon for the exhibition and preservation of contemporary Art from Africa”. This museum has become a key design informant for the rest of the District and all buildings around were expected to take design cues from this building. The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group was awarded the operational rights for a Radisson RED Hotel with 252 rooms over six floors. The brief for the building had to incorporate the requirements of the operators. At that stage, there was no precedent for the Radisson RED since RED was the Rezidor Group’s new brand. The design brief was based on the concept design developed by GRAVEN.

The objective for the Silo District was the creation of an ensemble of buildings with an individual character. However, architects are required to comply with the design guidelines set for the District and to develop individual buildings that reflect the industrial but contemporary architecture envisaged.

The architectural design reflects a combination of an industrial and robust architecture of a semi industrial harbour District, but also in dialogue with the refurbished Grain Silo building which forms the heart of the new Silo District. This dialogue is expressed through the contrast between a robust brick, industrial and modern aesthetic with metal components combined with glass and metal sheeting to integrate a container type design feel which is characteristic of production warehouses and the harbour environment.

The design also captures the character of the Radisson RED brand, which is represented by a contemporary aesthetic which is youthful and combines art, music and fashion with an African flavour expressed both in the architecture and interior design. The design brief for the Radisson RED brand seeks to achieve an unconventional appeal both in terms of design and guest experience.

The Cape Town RED was completed in September 2017 and is the first Radisson RED Hotel on the African continent. It is the fourth in the world, and the second in the southern hemisphere. The design team faced a great task to interpret the requirements of Radisson RED brand and translate them to a local design aesthetic, hopefully with success.

New and exciting projects such as these offer insight to Laurence Grigorov and the team at Laurence Martin Developments for future projects and developments that the company may benefit from.

Photo and words courtesy of Architect and Builder magazine.

Zaha Hadid’s Morpheus Hotel

As director at Laurence Martin Developments, a residential property development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Laurence Grigorov has a keen interest in international architectural news and information, keeping abreast of the latest trends and designs in the architectural field.

A project which is highly anticipated by Laurence Grigorov as featured in the website, www.designcurial.com, is designed by the late Zaha Hadid, The Morpheus Hotel, is set to open this spring.

Unique in the fact that it is the first tower in the world to use an external skeleton to support its massive structure, the Morpheus hotel is one of the final projects designed by celebrated architect Zaha Hadid. After her untimely death in 2016, the project was finished by her architecture firm, with Viviana Muscettola taking over the role of project director.

According to Viviana, the result is “a sensuous and intriguing form,” which “[provides] the construction advantage of contributing to the building’s stability, and reduces the internal structural requirements optimising the interior layout.”

Viviana explains that by using a pioneering exoskeleton, there is more freedom with regards to how to use the space inside. “The mixed-use nature of the brief called for an architectural solution that could give the maximum flexibility,” she explains. The building will contain approximately 780 guest rooms, suites and sky villas in the two main towers. These are joined at the top - by an infinity pool and leisure area on the 40^th floor - and at the base, by the hotel’s central atrium.

In between these connecting points, there will also be two sky bridges that connect the towers and give the overall design the appearance of a melting sculpture. “The sculpted void blends roof, walls and ceilings without distinction of traditional architectural elements,” Viviana elaborates. “The definition of building itself is pushed towards its boundaries.”

Part of Macau’s attempts to become a self-described “City of Dreams”, the Morpheus hotel has been designed to help establish the Chinese city as a centre for business and tourism. It is the flagship building in a new leisure complex within the heart of Macau, and is also the most architecturally impressive building in the region.

The aim for Zaha Hadid Architects was to create something new and original for the city, which represented the future of buildings and helped set Macau apart from other popular high end travel destinations. The project has an estimated cost of £2.35 billion.

Offering a glimpse at the future of innovative construction, the project is was in safe hands with Zaha Hadid - and her successor, Viviana Muscettola. A unique piece of architecture, as the last project of a great design legend, the Morpheus hotel will undoubtedly make a mark on its surroundings – and give Macau a bright future as a luxury travel destination.

Laurence Grigorov and the team at Laurence Martin Developments believe that such cutting edge designs and projects can uplift the prestige and global awareness of cities promoting both tourism and business opportunities.