Cool Modern Architecture

[Krases]

47 stories high. Still a bit of work to do, but almost done.


Pic taken from a post by mac78130 with the actual Flickr photo from rudyg39

[Cirrus]

How's that progressive? It's a giant glass curtain wall.

[Tom Servo]

file under: modern architecture 2009

MahaNakhon
OMA

Bangkok

http://www.oma.nl/


MahaNakhon is a new 77-storey high-rise complex located on a 3.6 acre site in Bangkok's Central Business District, with a direct link to the Chongnonsi BTS Skytrain station between Silom and Sathorn Roads. MahaNakhon will be the most ambitious complex of contemporary architecture and urbanism in Thailand and the tallest building in Bangkok.


The development, more than 150,000 square meters, will be comprised of: MahaNakhon Square, a landscaped public plaza; MahaNakhon Terraces, a 10,000 square meter upscale retail centre spread over multiple levels with restaurants, cafes and a 24-hour marketplace; the Ritz-Carlton Residences, with 200 apartments; the Bangkok Edition, a boutique hotel with 150 rooms, a collaboration between Marriott International and Ian Schrager; and a rooftop Sky Bar and restaurant.

MahaNakhon Tower itself has been carefully carved to introduce a three-dimensional ribbon of architectural pixels that coil up the tower's full height, as if excavating portions of the glass curtain wall to reveal the inner life of the building. This creates an arresting profile for MahaNakhon on the skyline while generating a set of specific features – projecting glass skyboxes with sweeping views and generous indoor/outdoor spaces with plunge pools and oversized terraces – uncommon to high-rise living in metropolises but well-suited to the tropical climate of Bangkok. The pixels have been designed to maximize unobstructed panoramas for the residences, offering rare bird's-eye views of the city and the Chaophraya River. At the same time, residences located in the non-pixelated area of the tower enjoy a parallel innovation never before seen in a skyscraper: single-level and duplex units offer grandly scaled double-height living spaces equipped with multiple bays of full-height bi-fold balcony windows – sections of curtain wall that literally fold inwards to open up homes to fresh breezes and cityscapes, allowing living areas to become indoor/outdoor environments.

The design of MahaNakhon dismantles the typical tower and podium typology, creating not a tower in isolation but instead a skyscraper that melds with the city in both literal and cultural ways by gradually 'dissolving' the architecture as it flows downward to meet the ground, and upward into the sky. This is achieved through a series of generous cascading indoor/outdoor terraces at The Hill – the base of the tower that accommodates retail and entertainment – where the architecture evokes the shifting protrusions of a mountain landscape. The Hill's terraces merge into cultivated gardens that give way to the city's own green swaths.

The MahaNakhon complex also features an adjacent freestanding seven-storey building known as the Cube, with terraces corresponding to those of the Hill across the expanse of an outdoor atrium. The outdoor atrium forms a valley, offering a network of social spaces with an extensive and carefully selected mix of dining and leisure facilities that serve the public via an above-ground pedestrian link to the Skytrain, the plaza, the Ritz-Carlton Residences in the main tower of MahaNakhon, as well as guests of the Bangkok Edition hotel.

MahaNakhon Square, located in front of the tower, is also intimately connected to the space between The Hill and Cube. This dynamic public plaza – intended as a meeting place, a spot for planned and spontaneous cultural events – will be a landscaped retreat for the city's inhabitants, a rare venue for cultural and social interaction, with direct connection to the Chongnonsi Skytrain station and the future bus transit system.

The top of the tower houses a three-floor Sky Bar and restaurant with double-height spaces, private dining facilities, and a rooftop outdoor bar with 360° views, floating 310 meters above the city.

[muppet]

that does look pretty superb

[mainstreet]

It looks cool - but I see this all the time. It doesn't fit with the cityscape, it has no dynamicism, so to speak. So it has a neat gimmick in the middle of the building - that doesn't make it truly elegant or imposing in the skyline. Somebody who's studied architecture can probably explain this better than I can, but there are more and more buildings that look "cool" with gimmicks, and less and less truly beautiful buildings that make a skyline.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Did anyone mention this early zaha?


source

Zaha story: Apparently, while serving as a guest critic at an architecture school, she realized she had a glob of mayonnaise on her lip from a sandwich she was eating. without saying a word, she removed it with her finger and wiped it on her assistant's shirt sleeve.

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

i usually am not a fan of that decon kind of architecture... but that cooper union building looks really cool.

I agree. Thomas mayne's stuff reminds me of 'Alien' most of the time but this is really nice.

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

[a follow-up]
ALSOP
CHIPS / in manchester
http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

o hai oma it's me 56 leonard by herzog and de meuron

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

like, if that ^ had a baby with this libeskind tower:



oh, rem...

[CGII]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

dailymail.co.uk


The 'bleeding people' rendering definitely receives my vote for 'most discomforting rendering 2009.'

[muppet]

^ you might not like Tour Phare in Paris either

[CGII]

Only because it resembles something else horrible:


brainfleas.com

In any case, I rather like the MahaNakon and 56 Leonard, I was just struck by the similarity between a half destroyed WTC and what OMA was trying to do with MahaNakon.

[Aleks]

After giving it a good loon I decided that I really really like Tour Phare. I was one of the nay sayers but it's such a cool building, La Defense would look awesome with this new tower.

And MahaNakhon looks better than 56 Leonard. I think the only thing that ruins 56 Leonard is the top which is too thin too fast.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by mainstreet

It looks cool - but I see this all the time. It doesn't fit with the cityscape, it has no dynamicism, so to speak. So it has a neat gimmick in the middle of the building - that doesn't make it truly elegant or imposing in the skyline. Somebody who's studied architecture can probably explain this better than I can, but there are more and more buildings that look "cool" with gimmicks, and less and less truly beautiful buildings that make a skyline.

fuck skylines. i'm a fan of architecture.

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

Why are there elephants in this rendering?

Why?

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by alexjon

Why are there elephants in this rendering?

Why?

because the guys at OMA are funny.
watch the presentation video for the Louisville Museum Plaza, you'll see an oscar meyer weiner truck. look at OMA's presentation stuff, you'll see oddities often.

[muppet]

plus you get elephants in Bangkok, theyre a common enough road hazard if ever youre driving there.
Theyre used as transport, load carrying, tourist rides and especially at festival time. Its illegal to use
them for hard labour as in the past, or to trap them from the wild anymore. Instead their mahouts
bring them up from birth from domesticated animals, in lifelong relationships. Mahouts who dont treat
their elephants well don't last long (they get stepped on ).


Im just in love with any city that has elephants walking the streets...

[KalisPeter]

Now a day all the architecture are go like a Jet plane in this area. And same way the designer are also go too much high. And this pics are very fantastic. So, i really salute architecture.

[Tom Servo]

are you drunk? that makes no sense.

[hammersklavier]

That Bangkok tower is easily the gimmickiest thing I've ever seen. It's just a giant box with that cutout spiraling up the side resembling the side of an Imperial Star Destroyer...not the avant-garde's best effort.

BTW if it weren't for that bad-hair-day crown Tour Phare would be freaking awesome.

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

Will Alsop quits his architecture practice to take up painting