Showing posts with label critics/comments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label critics/comments. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
'Bigger. Faster. Stronger. Shinier': Norman Foster's Swiss Re building, London. Photograph: Philippa Lewis/© Edifice/Corbis
"Today, as architects of the global stature of Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers lay off staff – half of them, in Gehry's case – the mantra ringing through their minds is very probably "form follows finance". Just look at the extraordinary worldwide construction boom of the past decade. Entire cities – London, Leeds, downtown Los Angeles, Berlin, Beijing and Shanghai – have grown, changed shape and shot up into the sky in a gung-ho manner that makes some of them almost unrecognisable from the way they were such a short while ago...
As the good times rolled with the madcap antics of international banking and promiscuous credit, the very shape of so much architecture and so many buildings began to change. Out went austere or ascetic minimalism, and in came a kaledeiscopic, cinematic new architecture featuring the fecund talents of the likes of Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Rem Koolhaas, together with a host of younger architects for whom form appeared to follow fancy – although, in reality, it was following in the wake of a colossal economic boom..." to find out more...
As the good times rolled with the madcap antics of international banking and promiscuous credit, the very shape of so much architecture and so many buildings began to change. Out went austere or ascetic minimalism, and in came a kaledeiscopic, cinematic new architecture featuring the fecund talents of the likes of Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Rem Koolhaas, together with a host of younger architects for whom form appeared to follow fancy – although, in reality, it was following in the wake of a colossal economic boom..." to find out more...
Passage by Jonathan Glancey
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
"One million square meters. That is the program BIG has added in a masterplan to a small island in the Caspian Sea called Zira. Being located right for the coast of Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, the island is expected to attract massive crowds. To accommodate the million BIG resided to a metaphor that is all about mass: the mountain.
For the island BIG proposes a set of seven different buildings, whose form is derived from seven peaks of Azerbaijan. Each measuring about 130.000 square meters, the buildings are huge. Monstrous almost. Everything is set in place to only reach one goal: to build a carbon neutral neighborhood. In an emerging oil-country..."
For the island BIG proposes a set of seven different buildings, whose form is derived from seven peaks of Azerbaijan. Each measuring about 130.000 square meters, the buildings are huge. Monstrous almost. Everything is set in place to only reach one goal: to build a carbon neutral neighborhood. In an emerging oil-country..."
Although very admired BIG works that express their bold ideas and strong architecture statements, this "BIG Mountains" seems to be a bit controversial. No doubt that the "BIG" way to create iconic style with geometrical impacts and the "zero" sustainability idea are great, however, do the mega scale and dense comminity really reflect the sustainable environment? what do you think? to find out more...
images & passage from www.eikongraphia.com/ and www.big.dk
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