Cool Modern Architecture - Page 33

staff · #**641** Posted **Oct 25, 2008, 11:57 AM**

Aparently the VM Bjerget (Mountain Dwellings) here in Copenhagen was awarded the world's best new residential project at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, so I thought I'd post it in here.

http://www.worldarchitecturefestival....cfm?newsId=33

Tom Servo · #**642** Posted **Oct 25, 2008, 6:19 PM**

that looks sick! can you post some info and more pics?

Ilex · #**643** Posted **Oct 25, 2008, 6:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

that looks sick! can you post some info and more pics?

You really have a thing for cubist buildings don't you? Lol.

I agree that it looks cool.

staff · #**644** Posted **Oct 25, 2008, 6:50 PM**

Adrian;

Check out the official website at http://www.vmbjerget.dk/ !

(For pics, click "Billeder af VM Bjerget". "Området" = The area, "Bygningen" = the building, "Boligerne" = the apartments, "Andet" = Other).

Ilex · #**645** Posted **Oct 25, 2008, 6:56 PM**

the Duomo in Florence was progressive to say the least, as it really started the architectural renaissance. It was the first dome to not rely on the roof for support, so a scaffolding was not needed. The Duomo was the inspiration for other architectural masterpieces such as St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Cirrus · #**646** Posted **Oct 27, 2008, 7:48 PM**

Koolhaas is a classic geometric sculpturalist. He works in the style made famous by Mies in the 1950s, over half a century ago. The only difference is that Koolhaas uses different shapes than Mies did. If you like Koolhass because you like geometric sculpturalism, that's fine, but it ain't new or different.

I will grant that Koolhaas does progressive things with engineering and structure, but not aesthetics. His aesthetic is as tired as my grandmother.

honte · #**647** Posted **Oct 27, 2008, 8:09 PM**

^ The only thing Koolhaas has in common with Mies van der Rohe is that he destroyed a Mies building at IIT and had to be stopped from ruining another (although he still had the last laugh). That's the end of it.

vanman · #**648** Posted **Oct 27, 2008, 10:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

these japanese houses are architectural porn! i could post hundreds of these...

I actually agree with you for once.

CGII · #**649** Posted **Oct 28, 2008, 2:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Koolhaas is a classic geometric sculpturalist. He works in the style made famous by Mies in the 1950s, over half a century ago. The only difference is that Koolhaas uses different shapes than Mies did. If you like Koolhass because you like geometric sculpturalism, that's fine, but it ain't new or different.

I will grant that Koolhaas does progressive things with engineering and structure, but not aesthetics. His aesthetic is as tired as my grandmother.

Mies was about function. Koolhaas is about form.

honte · #**650** Posted **Oct 28, 2008, 5:06 PM**

^ Koolhaas is about intellectual mind games. Mies was about making good buildings.

Cirrus · #**651** Posted **Oct 28, 2008, 7:07 PM**

Function was important to Meis, which is an undeniable part of his genius, but that doesn't preclude the fact that his buildings were artistic statements of sculpted cubist minimalism, set amidst a dichotomic context of heavy stone and ornament.

Koolhaas lacks Meis' functional genius, but he plays the same visual game. His buildings are artistic statements of sculpted anti-cubism, set amidst a dichotomic context of cubism. It's a later iteration of the same ploy - using geometric sculpture to parody the form of the majority of surrounding buildings. Fill in the blank: Artistic statements of sculpted ______, set amidst a dichotomic context of ______.

Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Visual landmarks need to be different from their surroundings somehow. But using a new combination of geometric shapes (or in the case of deconstructivism, the shape of shapelessness) to do it is not in any way a new idea.

CGII · #**652** Posted **Oct 28, 2008, 7:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It is when you design a subway station in the form of an aluminium megaphone.

Mies' work was so rigidly geometric because of its strict functionality, the comparisons to Koolhaas are relevant when discussing their works' artistic/aesthetic value [which is quite unfair when evaluating a building]. I understand entirely what you mean (and perhaps you even agree with my tangent) I just don't like seeing Mies and Koolhaas juxtaposed to bring credibility to the latter.

Aleks · #**653** Posted **Oct 28, 2008, 7:40 PM**

The Seattle Public Library is nice and has great function. Designed by Koolhaas. Imo, it depends on the work.

amor de cosmos · #**654** Posted **Oct 28, 2008, 9:06 PM**

More info about that EDITT building in Singapore:

Quote:

Ecological tower brings natural life back to urban site

Singapore’s 26 storey EDITT Tower, designed by architects T R Hamzah & Yeang, is being created to rehabilitate an urban, non-organic site, classified as ‘zero-culture’ where the natural ecosystem has been completely devastated. Besides meeting their client’s practical requirements for a tower for use as retail, exhibition and auditorium use, the design is very much an ecological design.

The unique feature of this scheme is the well-planted facades and vegetated terraces that surround the building. The design approach enables ecological succession to take place and to balance the existent inorganic nature of the site. The vegetation areas are designed to be continuous and to ramp upwards from the ground to the uppermost floor. Importantly the planting of the tower uses indigenous plants so as not to compete with the existing species of the locality.

The ramps are used to create a continuous spatial flow from street level to the floors of the city’s high rise towers and high-level bridge-linkages are added to connect to neighbouring buildings for greater urban-connectivity. The tower’s green credentials continue inside the tower with ecological features including water self-sufficiency through rainwater-collection and grey-water reuse at over 55% and the design optimises recovery and recycling of sewage waste through the creation of compost and bio-gas fuel. The EDITT tower will also achieve almost 40% energy self-sufficiency through a system of solar panels.

The EDITT Towers won the 1998 competition for Ecological Design in the Tropics and the building will be realized at the junction of Waterloo Road and Middle Road in Singapore.

Jo Livesey
Reporter

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=10548

Tom Servo · #**655** Posted **Oct 29, 2008, 6:30 AM**

except for that goofy fin, that looks like a really great building

RLS_rls · #**656** Posted **Oct 29, 2008, 4:25 PM**

^Agreed. The fin seems like a bit of an afterthought. But wouldn't a tower like this be more high-maintenance than most buildings?

StarScraperCity · #**657** Posted **Oct 30, 2008, 2:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

except for that goofy fin, that looks like a really great building

Seems like every tower these days needs a spire of some sort.

Tom Servo · #**658** Posted **Oct 30, 2008, 5:22 AM**

Tate Modern extension redesigned:

from awesome to awesomer:

Herzog & de Meuron's design swaps glass for brick
In an unusual turn for today's architecture Herzog & de Meuron have swapped the glass of their 2006 Tate Modern extension design for bricks in their 2008 redesign. The redesign follows a revised brief after consultation with artists and curators. At the heart of the updated plans are the unique oil tanks of the former power station which will be retained as raw spaces for art and from which the new building will rise. The new brick exterior will blend with the existing exterior of the former power station.

The original design featured glass blocks that towered to form an obscure pyramid but these blocks are eradicated from the recently unveiled redesign and replaced by a perforated brick pyramidal structure comprising the tankers at the base of the structure.The revisions have been shaped by a desire to integrate the new building both with the existing building and the local environment. The oil tanks lead directly into the Turbine Hall and these interconnecting spaces will become the foundation of the new Tate Modern.

The revised building will also set new benchmarks for museums and galleries in the UK for both sustainability and energy use. By exploiting heat emitted from EDFE's relocated transformers and employing passive design principles wherever practicable the scheme will use 40% less energy, and 35% less carbon than building regulations demand.

The redevelopment has been funded to date with £50 million from Government, £7 million from the London Development Agency and £13 million from the private sector towards the overall costs. New planning permission will need to be sought but provided this is achieved the project is due for completion in 2012.

the old

the new

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com

Tom Servo · #**659** Posted **Oct 30, 2008, 6:25 AM**

university faculty building [Universita Luigi Bocconi]
///named WORLD BUILDING OF THE YEAR at the WORLD ARCHITECTURAL FESTIVAL///

grafton architects

milan

2008

The building includes offices for 1,000 professors, 5 conference halls, lecture theatres, courtyards and concourses, all accessible to the public, with offices for teaching staff suspended above.

A Piece of City

We saw this brief as an opportunity for the Luigi Bocconi University to make a space at the scale of the city. To this end we have built at the scale of the site,80m x160m. Inside, our building is thought of as a large market hall or place of exchange. The Building’s hall acts as a filter between the city and the university.

A Window to Milan

The northern edge of the site fronts onto the artery of Viale Bligny, with the clatter of trams, the rush of busses, general traffic, people passing. It addresses the throbbing urban life of Milan, weaves into the mesh of the city. This frontage becomes the architectural opportunity to have a ‘window’ to Milan, a memorable image to confirm the important cultural contribution that the Bocconi University plays in the life of this city. For this reason, the public space of the aula magna occupies this frontage, asserting a symbolic presence and a register of the prestigious status of the University.

Social Lebensraum

The building is set ba
ck from the Viale Bligny & Via Roentgen edges to make a public space 18m x 90m inspired by the space forward of Hospital Maggiore.This new deep ‘finger’ of space reaches out to the city and beckons the visitor into the heart of the interior. This public space continues into the building, bringing with it it’s stone surface, the floor of the city.

Moving Skyward

In order to make this grand place of exchange we thought about the research offices as beams of space, suspended to form a grand canopy which filters light to all levels. The offices form an inhabited roofscape. This floating canopy allows the space of the city to overlap with the life of the university. Allows internal and external public spaces to merge.

The beehive world of the research is physically separate but always visually connected to the life of the lower levels

Undercroft

The underground accommodation is treated as an erupting landscape which offers support to the inhabited light filters above. Spatially this underground world is solid, dense and carved. We tried to establish a continuity between the ‘landscape’ of the city and the ‘made landscape’ of this undercroft.

Aula

The external wall to the sunken Aula Magna reaches the full height of the building with the upper level offices inhabiting it’s roofscape /attic. The full bulk and scale of this great room ‘the embedded boulder’ sits directly on the street edge and is the anchor for the totality of the building.

Universita Luigi Bocconi

Tom Servo · #**660** Posted **Oct 30, 2008, 7:19 AM**

/ Coll-Barreu Arquitectos
/ 2008
/ Basque Health Department Headquarters
/ Bilbao, Spain
/ 9,200SQ Meters
/ $17.9M Budget

The lot locates in the crossroad of the two most important streets of the Ensanche (1862) in Bilbao. The restrictive city zonning rules force to repeat the existing building tipology, reducing penthousing, chamfering corners and rising a tower. The building groups together vertical communications and general services within a bone, a prism next to the dividing wall that serves to seven open-plan floors for offices. Above these, there are two more level for institutional and representative uses. The meeting room are placed at the top of the building,into the tower. By the contrary, the Auditory and its services rooms are in the cellar. Under all of this level exist three more floors used just for employees parking.

A double façade solves not only zonning rules requirements but also energetic, fire-resistant and acoustic insulation ones. This duplicated plane is not just a wrapper but a volume between Bilbao and the inner space. This element allows to breath the building.

In the other hand, that folded element produces multiple views of the city, and changing its appearance depending on the point of view , the hour and the season. the objetive of this element in introduce the mutability, the dinamic spirit of the city.

http://www.coll-barreu-arquitectos.com/
http://www.coll-barreu-arquitectos.com/
http://www.coll-barreu-arquitectos.com/
http://www.coll-barreu-arquitectos.com/
http://www.coll-barreu-arquitectos.com/
http://www.coll-barreu-arquitectos.com/