Cool Modern Architecture

[mainstreet]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

fuck skylines. i'm a fan of architecture.

Oh, god, you can't be serious. Part of architecture is how it interacts with the environment. You can just simply never build a building with total ignorance as to what surrounds it and how its relationship with its surroundings. You make it seem like one must pledge allegiance to one or the other - skylines or architecture, make up your mind. But skylines are architecture, they coexist with one another. You also make it seem like in order to create a great skyline, one must throw away any architectural principals. Let's take the most obvious example of a great skyline, one that both has great architecture and a great layout of its skyline. Look at this photo - Look at how Manhattan is like a scale, it balances. Surrounding the Empire State Building there are there are a few scattered mid-level skyscrapers, 30-40 stories, and some shorter buildings, maybe about 10-20 stories, filling in the gaps. Then, right in the middle, like a fulcrum, there's the ESB, all 102 stories, accentuating the layout of the island, and its pyramid-like progression at the top with the antennae is absolutely crucial for that accent. Now imagine if that building you posted was there, like a square prism rising out of the ground and, worse, with a few funky things in the middle that take out the focus from the top of the building - it takes the focus from its height and its relation to the slightly shorter buildings around it, to some weird gimmick in the middle. It would work atrociously with the Manhattan skyline, and it looks like it works pretty bad with the Bangkok too, considering that it's one of those downtowns with wide avenues, lots of green space, a few short buildings, and some scattered skyscrapers. You say you're a fan of architecture, but it doesn't help that not only does it not fit with that skyline or, really, any skyline (though it might work better if it was maybe half its height and placed in a district with a higher density), but... it's not a very nice building, in my opinion, like I said earlier, it's gimmicky.

If you're still not convinced, hopefully these photos of New York before its modernist infestation will change your mind:


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/789...e70899_landing


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/2ed...1c21e2_landing


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/6b3...fae9da_landing


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/b15...8eb77e_landing

[muppet]

last one is just gorgeous. Im now imagining if all the skyscrapers had to be spired (with the setback rule still enforced), what the city would look like now...

[muppet]

On that thought any city with a cohesion of style looks impressive - you appreciate the mass as a single behemoth rather than a sum of smaller, disparate parts.

Just look at Athens, take any individual building and it looks typically brutalist and ugly 6-12 storey apartment block




but put them all together and its breathtaking:












peninsular by the port


and in context of the whole city

[mainstreet]

It's so weird - it looks like Athens was built 50 years ago, but it's one of the oldest cities in the world.

[Jonovision]

Athens is amazing! I remember being so impressed with the density. And the fact that it seemed every single balcony was jam packed with plants.

[Avisgrafik]

[Avisgrafik]

[Avisgrafik]

[Tom Servo]

Holger Kleine Architekten
//Deutsche Botschaft
//Warsaw, Poland
http://www.holgerkleinearchitekten.de/dbw.html

[Tom Servo]

Peter Barber Architects
//Spring Gardens
//Lewisham, London, England
http://www.peterbarberarchitects.com/18_Enners.html

[architecture-design]

Abel Oner office

[amor de cosmos]

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/29/...ses-in-france/

[Nowhereman1280]

And now for something completely different:

First Unitarian Meetinghouse Addition
Kubala Washatko Architects













For those of you who are followers of Frank Lloyd Wright, yes this is an addition to FLW's First Unitarian Meeting House. I just love how deftly this building reaches up and just gently touches the FLW structure:



You can just see the corner in the picture, here is the rest of the original! The original was also very progressive in its time:



I think this is one of the few additions and alterations to FLW's work that Wright himself would have approved of. It just fits in and is new and different at the same time.

Now that is how you use materials! I love tKwa not only because I know most of the people who own the firm and work there and that its based in my small hometown, but also because they are extremely skilled and really pick up where FLW left off in my opinion. For them its not about making glass cubes that just stick out from nature, its about working with natural materials, sustainable methods, and modern technology to make buildings that are truly livable, aesthetically appealing, and sensitive to the historic nature of their surroundings.

Check out their site:

www.tkwa.com

[amor de cosmos]

Porciúncula de la Milagrosa Chapel in colombia






http://www.archdaily.com/56113/porci...a-arquitectos/

[QuarterMileSidewalk]

^Beautiful!

[Cirrus]

^
But hardly progressive. It could have been built 50 years ago.

[amor de cosmos]

how about the australian center for contemporary art in melbourne then


http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekg...pool-archdaily


http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekg...pool-archdaily


http://www.flickr.com/photos/wojtekg...pool-archdaily

[RLS_rls]

^God that's so harsh. Kind of unpleasant actually.

[Cirrus]

Deconstructivism isn't progressive anymore either. It's the widely-accepted and most famous segment of the currently dominant pop-architecture paradigm.

You might make a case that the rusty cladding of that building is a new take on what is usually a style built in much lighter, shiny tones. That strikes me as the only claim that building has on progressiveness... unless it predates Gehry's more famous deconstructivist works, in which case it has a more genuine claim.

But seriously guys: "Modern" and "progressive" are not synonyms.

[amor de cosmos]

doesn't look decon to me. looks aaltoesque or constructvist