Arquitectura

"Tuesday, September 11, we walked through a door in a cold new world. Our passage was not by choice, but by wrenching, violent action. With tales of escape fresh from our lips and the pall of smoke still in the air, we are beginning again, sweeping the streets, burying the dead, clearing the debris and returning to work while shaking off terror. For many of us, Tuesday was the blackest day in our lives, unleashing nihilism and destruction on American soil."
"Despite all our momentary fears, low rise buildings and dispersal suburbs are not the best answers, but a form of capitulation. While others may offer political or military solutions to the challenge of terrorism, architects and other design professionals can hatch their own courageous plans, offering collaborative vision to lead us up, out of the ashes." -Robert Ivy, FAIA,editorial-Shaking Off Terror, Architectural Record issue October 10, 2001.

They look like what a child might draw: dual, flat topped rectangles, 110 stories each, an acre per floor, a city within a box of 50,000 souls, rising above the steeples and turrets of lower Manhattan held the title as the world's tallest buildings until the Sears Tower in Chicago then later by Tapei's Tower was much criticized earlier by critics as a non-architecture box with no soul, but at time passed, it's simplicity and it's unique structural framing of ribbon columns, it aged beautifully and stood as a significant symbol of America's 20th Century modernity, power and financial leadership. It competed gracefully with the great monuments of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State, each a symbol of their times. Difficult as it maybe the imagine - the famous NYC postcard will never be the same again.

The Twin Towers at Dusk, Lanterns Over Hudson

The Light Catchers

The Famous NYC Postcard

Source: PHOTO ESSAY, October 10, 2001 by Robert Ivy, FAIA, Chief Editor, Architectural Record
PHOTOGRAPHY by Eduard Hueber

The Trevi Fountain (in Italian, Fontana di Trevi) is the largest and most ambitious of the Baroque fountains of Rome. It marks the termination point of the Aqua Virgo, or virgin water. Legend holds that Roman engineers, with the help of a virgin, located a pure water source only 14 miles from the city. Construction of the fountain occured in fits and starts over nearly a hundred years. It was finally finished in 1762.

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Tradition says that if you throw one coin into the fountain with your right hand over your right shoulder, you will return to Rome. Throw two coins and you will fall in love with a beautiful Roman girl (or boy). Throw three coins and you will marry your love in Rome.

*Make a wish!*

KIKI just noticed that poor Chyna is running for her life with Sally's power boost-broom after her!!

Check my friends list below left column!

'got nothing better to do?

How do you want to have your breakfast viewing the sunrise and spend your dinner at the backdrop of the sunset over the Nile up there in the sky?

Bring your car to your own garage up to your flat on the 60th or 80th floor then walk to your car just few steps away from your bedroom as automatic doors open for you at ground level as zoom to go to work and back.

How does it feel to be inside this green building, powered by natural unpolluted wind energy?
How can you make a structure that is not static, a building that hasn't a permanent face, dynamic as life itself, in continuous cycle - alive.

That was the vision of Milan's Architect David Fisher and this vision will be a reality in the fall of 2010, the first revolving skyscraper will rise above the Nile in Dubai.

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Ahhh, with the daily stress of life, wouldn't it be nice to designate a space at home, to unwind, clear the thoughts and also a relaxing place to entertain friends. I wish I had a Japanese Tea Room.

In Japanese tradition a tea house (chashitsu lit. "tea room") can refer to a structure designed for holding Japanese tea ceremonies. Tea rooms for tea ceremonies, whether they comprise an independent structure or one room within a larger architectural structure, are also called chashitsu in Japanese. The architectural space called chashitsu was created for aesthetic and intellectual fulfillment.

In Japan a tea house (ochaya) can also refer to a place of entertainment with geisha, the most notable of which is the Ichiriki Ochaya. These kind of tea houses are typically very exclusive establishments.

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Now, I just got to find a place in the backyard.

"Tuesday, September 11, we walked through a door in a cold new world. Our passage was not by choice, but by wrenching, violent action. With tales of escape fresh from our lips and the pall of smoke still in the air, we are beginning again, sweeping the streets, burying the dead, clearing the debris and returning to work while shaking off terror. For many of us, Tuesday was the blackest day in our lives, unleashing nihilism and destruction on American soil."
"Despite all our momentary fears, low rise buildings and dispersal suburbs are not the best answers, but a form of capitulation. While others may offer political or military solutions to the challenge of terrorism, architects and other design professionals can hatch their own courageous plans, offering collaborative vision to lead us up, out of the ashes." -Robert Ivy, FAIA,editorial-Shaking Off Terror, Architectural Record issue October 10, 2001.

They look like what a child might draw: dual, flat topped rectangles, 110 stories each, an acre per floor, a city within a box of 50,000 souls, rising above the steeples and turrets of lower Manhattan held the title as the world's tallest buildings until the Sears Tower in Chicago then later by Tapei's Tower was much criticized earlier by critics as a non-architecture box with no soul, but at time passed, it's simplicity and it's unique structural framing of ribbon columns, it aged beautifully and stood as a significant symbol of America's 20th Century modernity, power and financial leadership. It competed gracefully with the great monuments of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State, each a symbol of their times. Difficult as it maybe the imagine - the famous NYC postcard will never be the same again.

The Twin Towers at Dusk, Lanterns Over Hudson

The Light Catchers

The Famous NYC Postcard

Source: PHOTO ESSAY, October 10, 2001 by Robert Ivy, FAIA, Chief Editor, Architectural Record
PHOTOGRAPHY by Eduard Hueber

"Still, one of the most perfect, beautiful architectural treasures of all time."

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the TAJ MAHAL of Agra" (A.D. 1630-53)

It was built by Shah Jahan in the memory of his beautiful wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Exalted of the Palace and Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, the Exalted of the Age. But she sadly (but perhaps not surprisingly) died in childbirth at the age of 39, after presenting him with fourteen children, of whom only four sons and three daughters survived. Shah Jahan was inconsolable and decided to erect a memorial to his queen in pristine marble that the world would never forget. - Sally on Tour

previous post: the taj mahal

The miracle of China, from a poor bicycle nation and one style army uniformed billion people under the Maoist regime into the top economic power.The genius of the late Deng Xia Ping shooked the pillars of Lenninist communism and embraced the West's Capitalist System of Economy, while still safeguarding the communist political system, thereby preventing anarchy as what happenned in Russia, has propelled China to an incredible transformation to catch up with the West and Japan in just very short years. I believe China will turn fully politically democratic but in their own timetable. For the meantime, the focus is towards the economic infrastructure, wealth and modernization, as examples of these buildings below, designed by the Architectural World Who's who, including Foster, Herzog, ARUP , which if not for the slanty eyed people in the background, you would think the landscape could've been Chicago or Munich.

ALL BUILDING PHOTOS BELOW ARE SCANNED IMAGES FROM ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, ISSUE 07-2008
PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Chicago?

The Modern Olympus

Inside the Birdnest

The Steel Bird Nest- Night View

The first 1/2k mile

The other half 5k

The Pagoda Blasphemy

"But for the romantic architect fool that I am, If ever I would have a chance to visit China, I would rather stay, study in detail, admire the symmetry, the colour and passion of the ...

...the true Chinese character of The Pagoda!" ,
and if only to dream, accompanied by the most beautiful Chinese Geisha, Zhang Ziyi!

PLEASE CLICK ON ALL PHOTOS TO ENJOY

Architectural Drawing, Facade

I was in the early university years of Architecture in the early seventees when the Centre George Pompidu Arts Museaum graced the pages of architectural magazines and has stirred quite a distraction in the present day style of modern and international of the Miesian, Corbusier, Paul Rudolph and I.M.Pei's design principles. The controversial design is the work of a newly formed Architect Partnership of a Florence born, Yale Graduate, British Architect Richard Rogers and an Italian Architect and professor, Renzo Piano who won international competition for a Museaum of Modern Arts in Paris, a structure built in honour of President George Pompidu of France. Both Architects are influenced and disciples of the Modernist movement of Van dehr Roe and Cobusier, departing to the "borgoise", classical, colonial, baroque and heritage architectural expression. The result was a bold structure, devoid of decoration, a building named "inside-out", where the usually hidden unsightly structural framing and mechanical systems, became the showcase of the unusual structure.

The conformists denounced the style as repulsive and obstructionist. The modernist and the young architects acclaimed it as an ingenious reflection of the time, a masterpiece of nature and technology, thus the birth of the term -"high tech" architectural style. Non architects may not clearly perceive that despite the unusual exposition of the mechanical elements of the Pompidu structure,the structural elements and its mechanical components are treated and designed aesthetically to be a part of the geometry, that in the end both function, natural lighting,circulation and communication, a difficult task, was achieved. As shown in the following photos
from a Rogers Museum in London, featuring the works fo this British genius, see it if you can.

Model: Centre Pompidu, ROGERS + Workshop, London

Dessin architural: Coupe-transversal POMPIDU. Rogers-Piano architectes

The Centre Pompidu therefore stands as an important Architectural Landmark as the beginning of High Tech Architectural Style, which continues to influence today's modern structures. Among noted influences is the infamous Lloyd's Bank of England, which today has it's enemies as a brutalist piece of structure amidst the elegance of Victorian English Street, the building of course was also designed by Richard Rogers with another Yale classmate, the honourable Sir Norman Foster, who together has formed Foster and Rogers Architects, the top Architectural firm in the universe, authors of many of the most important structures in the world.
Isn't just fitting then, that the Father of High-Tech Architecture is awarded to construct the main tower to rise above the vanished New York Lantern of the World Trade Center, presenting a new, much more refined structure from Pompidu, the Freedom Tower to catch the glorious New York sunset and once again illuminating the Hudson (river).

MODEL: FREEDOM TOWER, Ground Zero, NY, ROGERS + Workshop

THE NEW LAMPS OVER HUDSON, Foster-Rogers, Maki and Piano, Architects

One of the most beautiful creations of all time.

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Perfection, symmetry, heavenly! - "the TAJ MAHAL of Agra"  (A.D. 1630-53)

Reference: The History of Architecture, SIR BANISTER FLETCHER, Edition Fifteenth