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Poll

Which

21st century architecture is better than earlier architecture
[ 2 ] (66.7%)
21st century architecture is worse than earlier architecture
[ 1 ] (33.3%)
beer is better than either
[ 0 ] (0%)

Total Members Voted: 3

Topic: 21st century architecture (Read 72684 times)

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #25
Each man his A/C is not the solution.


Cooling buildings by digging underground conduits to circulate air thru isn't terribly new but has recently become more popular in public buildings here. Most all schools built in this district at or since 2000 use this technique.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #26
I know that you jest, Frenzied one, but take a look at the so-called Gherkin building in London. I didn't give it that name, but it does resemble a pickle. :P


Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #27
What can we say about current architecture?

Most of it is made for turn people into automatons.

Fascism created an extraordinary architecture (rapidly imitated  by communists) that transmitted ideology and propaganda.
Today's architecture delivers emptiness and mediocrity.

The only architecture I'm interested these days it's survival and sustainable architecture. Time to regress, as in a circle.
A matter of attitude.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #28
Prepare to be thread dumped.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #29
Quote from: Frenzie
I like how the Antwerp Central Station incorporated the new with the old.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #30
Quote from: jax





Quote from: Frenzie
I like how the Antwerp Central Station incorporated the new with the old.
This one?

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #31
Quote from: Frenzie
Yup, but I don't like that picture.

Edit: I think this picture does a better job of a similar view http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyp_/5094001420/


Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #32
Quote from: jax
The reconstruction of Antwerp Central Station started in 1998, 20th century, but it is is still within the period as the reconstruction was completed in 2007, this century.

That made me realize that this building too will be a showcase of 21st century architecture when it is done in 2026 or thereabout, even though it started in the 19th century, in 1882:


Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #33
Quote from: jax
We also got prior art from this forum. I wanted to add something from the Grand Rapids, but all the constructions there seem to be from the previous millennium. But do not despair, there are plenty others threads to pick at.


Astana, Kazakhstan Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, 2006



Beijing, China SOHO Galaxy, 2013


Beijing, China Rainbow Gate, Tongzhou, under construction


Changsha, China Meixihu International Culture and Art Centre, under construction



Lagos, Nigeria Eko Atlantic City, under construction



Oslo, Norway Tjuvholmen 2012-2013



Pyongyang, North Korea, Ryugyong hotel, under construction



Shanghai, China Shimao Wonderland Intercontinental, under construction



Tianjin, China Tanggu, "Manhattan" under construction

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #34
Quote from: jax
Moving on, we have HafenCity in Hamburg, to be done 10-15 years from now. Spiegel wrote a loving article, Hamburg's New Quarter: The Challenge of Making HafenCity Feel Neighborly
Quote from: Spiegel
Hamburg's new quarter is one of the largest urban development projects underway in the world today. But will it be successful? City planners are hoping that their application of an academic field known as environmental psychology will do the trick.
But how to ensure that success? How can one make certain that this very important piece of real estate actually becomes a living, breathing part of the city -- a place where people want to both work and spend their leisure time? Indeed, how can one guarantee that a brand new neighborhood actually feels neighborly?

Strolling through HafenCity on an overcast, late-summer evening is enough to make anyone feel the weight of such questions. It remains difficult to get here with several roads blocked by construction sites and taxis a rarity. During the day, a never-ending stream of trucks cause noisy, dusty traffic jams. While some in Hamburg are optimistic, calling the development "Hamburg's most beautiful construction site," others are less kind, referring to it as an "architectural zoo." For the moment, both are accurate. Many of the new structures are certainly aesthetically pleasing, but HafenCity does not feel like a city center. In fact, apart from a couple of lit windows and one or two pedestrians out with their dogs, it feels like nothing so much as an oversized ghost town.



Some fear it could remain that way and that high property prices could seal the new quarter's fate as a "rich man's ghetto" full of wealthy pensioners. Such concerns have been fueled by forecasts estimating that up to 10 percent of office space in Hamburg's city center will stand empty by the end of 2010. [...]

A multi-faceted discipline, environmental psychology enjoyed a lot of attention in the 1970s and '80s and launched its own publication, the Journal of Environmental Psychology, in 1980. With its broad definition of environment -- used to include social, physical, architectural and other elements -- it has since been used to get shoppers to buy more in malls, to encourage environmentally friendly behavior and even to determine whether indoor plants are good for your mental health.

HafenCity is one of the most significant developments utilizing elements of environmental psychology today. Indeed, Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, the executive chairman of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, which is overseeing the development, seems downright enthusiastic about what he describes as the psychological development of "a post-modern community."

"At the end of the day, physical structures are also social and cultural," Bruns-Berentelg notes.

These psychological tricks must have worked, because a couple years later Spiegel moved ... to HafenCity.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #35
Quote from: Frenzie
I quite like the look of that Norse museum, but some of those Chinese things just look gaudy. Still, the Galaxy Soho looks pretty nice. It reminds me of the corncobs in Chicago, although I suppose in this case it's more like two beehives. The Ryugyong hotel actually doesn't look half bad with the glass (photoshopped?) in, although it has more of a retro-futurist look than a 21st century one.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #36
Quote from: jax
The SOHO Galaxy is just the newest, and biggest, of a number of SOHO properties. It's massive, especially up close (I was looking at an apartment in a building next door when it was still under construction, turned my head around a corner and saw this death star right in front of me), but it is also on a really expensive piece of real estate. Most of the SOHOs are quite eye-catching, and they do have well-designed offices. They have by the look of it managed to get a huge amount of office space, but still keeping it light and with good passage ways. Some others:


















Sanlitun SOHO (right)
Sanlitun, at the edge of the embassy district, and once at the edge of the city, is now the main upscale and foreigner shopping and entertainment district. This one hasn't filled up and is quite dead after hours, but the shopping/rest complex across the street is thriving, with among other things the largest Temple of Apple.
Chaowai SOHO (left)
This building, inspired by Hakka circular fortresses, probably is most noteworthy for housing the Opera Software offices in Beijing.
Guanghualu SOHO (right)
More shopping (lower floors) than offices (upper floors).
SOHO Shangdu (left)
This one is kind of nice to walk by.
Wangjing SOHO
Next year's project, another Zaha Hadid, but taller. In Wangjing, an upcoming peripheral district that is a bit of a Korean town.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #37
Quote from: ensbb3
An interesting subject.

I like to give an eye to the future with architecture. Not just how modern does it look now but how out of place will it look 20 years from now and further down the road. You need only to drive thru a housing development or tower complex from the seventies to see what I mean. Superfluous design beyond function meant to be modern, now torn down as the ugly eyesores they are. Boxy, protruding plains and yuck glass incorporated in gaudy amounts. Such will be the way of glass bubbles and odd architectural curves in the future.

I think it best to give a wink to the past classical styles while incorporating the curves and modern glass design. Simple really is better. There are limited prospectives to any building. you can only take in so much. If detail destroys the the overall shape from a distance or the function gets lost in design you're doing it wrong. The most brilliant aesthetics are useless in a building that can't or won't be adapted for future use. When the cost of renovation exceeds the worth of the building in the near future you're, again, doing it wrong.

Buildings are getting cheaper (per size) and easier to make in whatever shape you want. That's only going to get more true. You want buildings that are an icon for the era into the future. Not a fad of design.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #38
Quote from: Sanguinemoon
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas:


It was almost not built and faced foreclosure, with the economy heading into a downward spiral. It was sued by Cosmopolitan Magazine for the name (It was originally going to be just the Cosmopolitan, but the name had to be changed to the The  Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to make the lawyers happy :rolleyes: It was going to 2,200 condominium units, but that had to be reduced because of the recession, so it got sued for that, too.

This is the Chandelier Bar inside the Cosmo (now I'll probably get sued :p )



I didn't take that picture, but I've been there. It's not my taste, personally.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #39
Quote from: jax
Quote from: Frenzie
The Ryugyong hotel actually doesn't look half bad with the glass (photoshopped?) in, although it has more of a retro-futurist look than a 21st century one.


To me this is a very egotistical building. Tall and thin skyscrapers are fine, as are smaller squat buildings. But when they are tall and wide like here they are taking away a lot of light without giving anything back. A lot of buildings will be in its shadow most of the day. And since each wing is relatively narrow, it actually doesn't add a lot of usable hotel, now mixed, space. I am sure there is a lot more usable space in SOHO Galaxy than in Ryugyong, without being one tower to rule them all. Mirror glass cladding is what it took to make the building looking less of a ruined husk.

The building is supposed to be in Simcity for Facebook, as "Fortress of ultimate Woe".

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #40
Quote from: jax





Quote from: Frenzie
I quite like the look of that Norse museum

The architect of this museum is the Italian Renzo Piano. In Britain probably best known for the Shard (above), in France for Centre Georges Pompidou (not pictured for being previous millenium).


Name architects do make their mark. Take Zaha Hadid, with the arts centre and SOHO buildings above.

This is Bratislava:




This is Bratislava on Hadid:


Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #41
Quote from: Frenzie
Quote from: jax
The architect of this museum is the Italian Renzo Piano. In Britain probably best known for the Shard (left), in France for Centre Georges Pompidou (not pictured for being previous millenium).

Interesting.
Quote from: jax
To me this is a very egotistical building. Tall and thin skyscrapers are fine, as are smaller squat buildings. But when they are tall and wide like here they are taking away a lot of light without giving anything back.

Wholly agreed.
Quote from: jax
And since each wing is relatively narrow, it actually doesn't add a lot of usable hotel, now mixed, space.

And that might well be because otherwise much of the inside wouldn't have had natural light. Which perhaps ironically makes it so. much. worse.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #42
Quote from: jax
Quote from: ensbb3
I like to give an eye to the future with architecture. Not just how modern does it look now but how out of place will it look 20 years from now and further down the road. You need only to drive thru a housing development or tower complex from the seventies to see what I mean. Superfluous design beyond function meant to be modern, now torn down as the ugly eyesores they are. Boxy, protruding plains and yuck glass incorporated in gaudy amounts. Such will be the way of glass bubbles and odd architectural curves in the future.

Stewart Brand's book How Buildings Learn, and the series based on the book comes strongly recommended.

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvEqfg2sIH0[/VIDEO]

When I look at a building, I add a couple decades aging, grime, and a few years with insufficient maintenance. Curvatures and bubbles are fine, but you have to realise that they close a building in on itself, much like a hedgehog. White is a popular colour, but will only remain so if cleaned regularly.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #43
Quote from: ensbb3
Something else to look at is usefulness. What else can it be used for and reasonably converted to? A good example from my neck of the woods is "The Great American Pyramid". Which is in no way great for anything. The fact it's an iconic structure in Memphis, Tennessee is the only reason it is still standing.



The cost to upgrade to any kind of modern stadium left it empty for a good while. It's completely nonstandard. Saved only by a retail store. Who knows what incentives the city had to offer to get it occupied. What cost has look over function cost them? I doubt they'll say.

Seems your book is gonna take some if not most of my arguments, if the summary is any indication. If there's a bit about compartmentalising sections so to make renovation part of the design I'll be without points. As a builder I understand the need to standardize construction and the durability of materials. Cost is a big factor for buildings only decades old. I can estimate a job easily if I know the method used to build it. I don't have to tear into a wall to tell you what's there or what it will take to redesign/replace/restore. But nonstandard construction mean you won't know what is really there until you get into it and any parts will have to be manufactured specifically for the job. Cost skyrockets quickly and price per unit of a special order, say, curved window is higher and decades later materials may not even be the same (so more cost depending on the variances). And when restoring old you quickly find the worth is measured by what the building mean to the community (individuals) vs moneys of renovation/restoration (whoever fronts the bill). Often more money is spent to restore than a new structure would cost regardless, but without the presence and meaning behind it, fancy architecture can become useless junk when it's worth less money to put something else there that's much better.

Sustainability seems just as important to me as how pleasing it is to look at. Also not taking away from the older buildings around it is nicer to me. You can build a uber-modern district in a city, but you just wrote it's epitaph. It's lost its place 50 years from now when they just build a new district. I like the history and the future to stand together in a pleasing way.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #44
Quote from: jax




Urban architecture is commonly divided into brownfields, land with previous (industrial) constructions, and greenfields with none, where there are no constraints except the ones the regulators and clients come up with. The former tend to end up better than the later. I have seen some try to introduce bluefields for water reclamation projects, but after the reclamation is done it is basically greenfield. Bjørvika in Oslo and Eko Atlantic in Lagos (above) are examples of that.

Most Chinese development is greenfield, if there are any previous buildings they are torn down, turning the plot into a greenfield. The same goes for much African and Asian development. Cities in rapid growth are mostly greenfield, where tilled fields are turned into urban areas, while cities in slow growth are mostly brownfield, as buildings slowly accumulate and become more urban. European cities had their greenfield phase by the late industrial revolution (second half of 19th century mostly), while now the brownfield projects predominate.

Nydalen (the New Valley), a light industrial area outside my window, has had both. This had late 19th century industry clustered along the river for energy, turning into much larger plants and steel mills, which when they lost in competition with the districts, were sold to a developer who repackaged it and turned it into a massive profit for himself (about 10,000 years' worth of wages) and a rejuvenation of the district from warehousing to tech, education, and media. Opera Software moved their new HQ there. Me, I cannot complain as this redevelopment has led to my flat being worth at least 1 years more of wages.  Anyway, I like the way the 19th century factories have been turned in offices, residential, schools, and entertainment. By Frenzie's first example I guess he thinks likewise.

I couldn't find any good sample of the 19th/21st century architecture I was looking for, from the above angle it might as well be 1899.


Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #45
Quote from: Frenzie
Quote from: ensbb3
Sustainability seems just as important to me as how pleasing it is to look at. Also not taking away from the older buildings around it is nicer to me. You can build a uber-modern district in a city, but you just wrote it's epitaph. It's lost its place 50 years from now when they just build a new district. I like the history and the future to stand together in a pleasing way.

America seems to be worse at this than we are. I recently even saw some opinion piece in the NYT (I think) that said desert land in California was just rotting away. Okay, different category, but it's a similar sentiment.

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #46
Quote from: jax
There is a post-millennial style that I dub North European because I've seen it most often there, the South Europeans have mostly been busy with austerity. The buildings are large, boxy, have large balconies, and angular with irregular details and exposed material. They are typically in reclaimed industrial or seafaring areas.  In part newer environmental and accessibility building codes have an impact on the design. Interestingly many of these projects look better up close than from a distance. Pictures from Oslo,  Malmö, Hamburg, Prague.















Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #47
Quote from: jax


The world's next holiday resort will be Khartoum, Sudan, according to the developers Qataridiar (a property arm of the sovereign wealth fund). Relative to other projects this is a fairly modest one, but all grandiose schemes have to start somewhere.

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-vsaKTBMDc[/VIDEO]

Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #48
Quote from: Frenzie
Quote from: jax
There is a post-millennial style that I dub North European because I've seen it most often there, the South Europeans have mostly been busy with austerity. The buildings are large, boxy, have large balconies, and angular with irregular details and exposed material.

I suppose the Museum At The Stream probably fits into that category as well? It evokes a bunch of stacked containers in the harbor.


Re: 21st century architecture

Reply #49
Quote from: jax
It may fit, but I think it is a better fit into signal buildings, buildings designed to make people pay attention to a city or company. Most of the single buildings I have linked to above are of that category. It also fits perfectly into the fairly small but growing  "evokes a bunch of stacked containers" category. Two other cases are in Oslo, Norway (under construction) and Vancouver, Canada (redesigned).


[IMGLEFT=http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6195/statoil4x1000.jpg][IMGRIGHT=http://pricetags.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/marine-gateway-2.jpg?w=600]

[IMGLEFT=http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/5093/statoil6.jpg][clear]





Of course, then you got buildings that really are a bunch of stacked containers.

[IMGLEFT=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4H2ZOKy4MO8/TfBdx8hHkII/AAAAAAAAAZ8/TIP84MJKgwY/s400/container+architecture.jpg][IMGRIGHT=http://duckflash.vectroave.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/City-Center-Lofts-by-Adam-Kalkin-Shipping-Container-Architecture.jpg]


[IMGLEFT=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ewmvjQfGUQg/TfBhTrfxebI/AAAAAAAAAaM/q2fQpfsOOvU/s400/openschool-apap-lotek-11.jpg][IMGRIGHT=http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/1313576175-lorigami.jpg]