DOCSLIB.ORG

The Independent, June 2004 2 Jun 2004

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Independent, June 2004 2 Jun 2004 ArCnlteCture Best in show The winners of this year's Riba awards range from a primary school in Japan to a butterfly house in Surrey. Jay Merrick reports ill he or won't he? Lord informed by an interesting structural ar­ The Euro factor seems quite significant But what other eligible Big Architecture Foster of Thames Bank, rangement, and more the demonstration of in this year's list of 69 Riba awards; and if might be in Swiss Re's league? Again, we Britain's most redoubtable a hugely refined structural system with dra· one were able to include the entries from look to Europe, and Behnisch, Behnisch & architectural technocrat, matic architectural connotations. It's a the worldwide award section - which are Partners' extraordinary building for Nord· really must think that 2004 humdinger, whichever way you look at it, not eligible for the ultimate imprimatur of deutsche Landesbank. It really does have Wis his year. Spurned of late for the coveted and whether or not you think that Foster's the Stirling prize - Swiss Re would face the the feel of a giant, slightly dystopic space annual Stirling prize by the Royal Institute palette is getting so reductive as to be pe­ very sternest competition. station that fell to earth in Hanover. Its func· of British Architects - the brilliant but culiarly self-effacing. His buildings are be­ The aerial adventure of Will Alsop's On­ tional form -like Lego jammed together in bouncy Thames bridge, an elegant but coming objects whose drag coefficients tario College of Art & Design building in a hurry - seems momentarily to recall eerily vacuous Great Court of the. British would interest Formula One streamliners. Toronto, featured in these pages last week. Sixties brutalist architecture. Like Swiss Re. Museum - surely there can be no compe­ But could there be a fiy in the ointment would front up to Swiss Re with confidence. this is bold stuff; unlike Swiss Re, the Lan­ tition for Foster and Partners' triumph of of Foster's apparently assured Stirling So would Zaha Hadid's "folded" Rosenthal desbank offers up its structure nakedly and structural triangulation, the Swiss Re prize victory later this year? Not a fly, exactly Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati; ruggedly - nothing svelte here. building in the City of London, popularly - more of a giant blue grub. And in Graz, ditto Foreign Office Architects, whose Such buildings are statements, brand known as the Gherkin. Austria, at that It is indeed possible that Yokohama Ferry Termitlal has edged them marks. The bulk of the Ribaawards, though, The prospect is hard to argue against, the Swiss Re building will be upstaged by into the inner sanctum of the fluid, post­ go to architecture that's rather less than only days after Riba's announcement of architecture by Peter Cook and Colin millennial architectural discourse domi­ thal Less, and therefore often more sig­ more than 60 award-winning buildings in Fournier that has its roots in Sixties pop art. nated by practice~ such as Herzog & de nificant The "ordinary" newer buildings we the Stirling prize ionglist. Fosler has taken Cook and his anarchic Archigram col­ Meuron and Rem Koolhaas's OMA studio. see around us are a better litmus test for structural precepts set out by one of his lective launched a hundred "fab" archi­ Another project - in Japan, by the architectural standards in Britain. It's in our heroes half a century ago and delivered tectural riffs as teachers at London's Richard Rogers Partnership, deserves to byways and urban infills that architectural something unequalled in terms of form. Architectural Association, but they never be highlighted. Though not as obviously riv­ creativity, fueUed by less than lavish bud­ When Buckminster FUller invented the actually completed a building: no need to, etmg as the other buildings in Riba's in­ gets, either delivers or stumbles. structural system that produced the for they became famous as architectural ternational award category, it has clearly Toothache or a cracked. filling is certainly geodesic dome, he could not have imagined guenillas. The Kunsthaus in Graz is Cook's been designed to elevate the spirits of the one route to fine architecture in Chelms· it would be used with such perfect upward first building and, like Swiss Re, it is stun­ Minami-Yamashiro Elementary School, ford. There, Richard Mitzman Architects mobility. Swiss Re is less architecture ning, though in an utterly different way. many of whom won't forget its airy grace. have turned. the Advance Dental Clinic into ·>1' ! .' " ,.1/ , a tour de force on a pretty horrid site. Mitz­ architectural googly for the Stirling prize Eyes on the which genuine architectural avant·gardism exclusive is the organisation's Architecture man, of course, had a signal advantage: he shortlist, the Butterfly House by Laurie prize: Riba's has produced a glitzy souk that looks like Week, which has just started and runs until practised as a dentist for a decade before Chetwood would be the frontrunner. winners include a shinunering blue girdle fighting to keep Sunday. There is a wide variety of events, deciding it would be more interesting to ex­ Chetwood has taken an ex·[deal Home (clockwise from an over·generous midriff under control. some of them linked to the Clerkenwell tract architectural fees than crumbling mo­ demonstration house which was reassem­ above) Butterfly The Imperial War Museum North and the Architecture Biennale, but the meat of lars. And, in this case, good design clearly bled in a quiet Surrey lane in 1948, and House in Surrey; Graduate Centre of London Metropolitan it is in the "open building" list, which allows pays: since the completion of the dental clin­ wrapped what amounts to an art installa­ Norddeutsche University in Holloway Road. north London, the public access to quite a range of ic, with its skylight views of the sky above tion around its core. Landesbank's both by Daniel Libeskind, are also inter· interesting architecture. the treatment chairs, the practice has in­ The result is almost indescribable. yet offices in esting. The musewn is conceptually ex· The Butterfly House is available for creased its patient roll by more than 500. highly gripping - a mess that is anything Hanover; the cellent and well made. But is it gripping? inspection. So too is the Ercol factory in Other projects are designed not to pay, but a mess. F\J.miture made from glass, Advance Dental The graduate centre is, in a sense, the Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. but to sUlluise. The Riba awards list in­ including a table bung on a mix of elasti­ Clinic in reverse - rather poorly made (budgets, no The latter is a complete surprise: again, fine variably throws up a micro-project so grip­ cated and rigid ties; 2km of bungee rope; Cbelmsford; doubt) and conceptually inscrutable. What architecture has transformed a typical ping that it makes the Stirling prize 50 carbon-fibre fishing rods for handrails; and the Minami· has the constellation, Orion, whose geom· workaday environment into something shortlist. Three on the ionglist will be 100 metres of fibre-optic cable. which Yamashiro school etry informs the building, got to do with humane. And the transformation of St looked at with particular care. Simon Con­ electrifies Chetwood's demesne at night. in Japan London's grungey Holloway Road? Paul and St Mark, Old Ford in St Stephen's der Associates' Vista chalet at Dungeness, A grand experiment, in other words, in Edmund Sumner; The building, it must be said, has three Road in London - quite a concentration of covered in glued-dovm black rubber sheet­ which materials were deliberately put to Roland Hasbe; wonderfully affecting spaces, where Libes­ saints! - is a must Here, an art gallery in ing. is one; Willdnson Eyre's beautifully con­ unexpected uses. The Riba judges were Nicholas Kane; kind is at his best But how did he come up the shape of a wooden hull has been sqs- ... trived twist of geometry, the Bridge of divided on this project: architectural Katsuhisa Kida with such a meanly compressed entrance pended above the pews. The drama of the Aspiration, linking the Royal Opera House fantasias are, after all, soft targets. foyer? And how could the Riba jurists structure, designed by Matthew Lloyd, is in Covent Garden with the Royal Ballet Back in the big league, FUture Systems' have suggested - even ironicaUy - that from balanced by wonderful detailing - the 19th School, is an even stronger contender. Selfridges department store in Birmingham one of its jutting-shard balconies, "pre­ century and the third. millennium fused Maggie's Cancer Caring Respite Centre in will be closely considered, not least because sumably heroic philosophical or political together with great charm. Dundee, by Frank Gehry. will be in the mix. of the extraordinary level of publicity it statements could be declaimed". But ifpure wonder and strangeness are generated. The case for it has another hook: The Riba awards, and the Stirling prize, For Architecture Week details, go to the issue when it comes to choosing an this is the only major building in Britain in are an essentially exclusive affair. Far less www.architectureweek.org.uk .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Glasgow School of Art Oration for Andy Bow Andy Bow Sir Norman
    The Glasgow School of Art Oration for Andy Bow Andy Bow Sir Norman Foster once said, “As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past and for a future which is essentially unknown.” Andy Bow is a senior partner in Foster and Partners, arguably the world’s most consistently innovative post war architectural practice. Since its inception in 1963, the practice has won an unprecedented number of international awards and competitions. Its output ranges from city masterplans to door handles; from yachts and bridges to light fittings. Few practices have embraced the uncertainties of the future so positively and with such confidence. Andy Bow has always displayed the key qualities of the very best Mac graduate; a sense of adventure and unbounded energy, a predisposition to collaboration, a passion for drawing, a generous spirit and the ability to remain close to both local roots and international horizons. These were all in evidence when, shortly after graduating and in collaboration with his long-standing friends and current Mac tutors Ian Alexander and Henry McKeown, they won the prestigious Manhattan Waterfront Competition. Chancellor, Andy Bow was born in 1961 in Edinburgh. He attended George Watson’s College, Telford College of Further Education and the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. Like myself, he chose to mix practice and education by joining the Mac’s part time course; a heady mixture of daytime office responsibilities and evening classes. When he eventually became a full time student, his studio design reviews quickly attracted attention. The potent mixture of his astonishing drawings and memorable exchanges with staff, particularly professors Andy McMillan and the late Isi Metzstein became must –see events for his fellow students.
    [Show full text]
  • Europe's Best Buildings Mies Van Der Rohe Award 2005 European Union
    Europe’s Best Buildings Mies van der Rohe Award 2005 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture 27th April to 9th June 2006 Curators: Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona Press tour: Wednesday 26th April 2006, 10.30 am Opening: Wednesday 26th April 2006, 6.30 pm Exhibition venue: Wiener Städtische Allgemeine Versicherung AG Ringturm Exhibition Centre A-1010 Vienna, Schottenring 30 Phone: +43 (0)50 350-21115 (Brigitta Fischer) Fax: +43 (0)50 350-99 21115 Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 9.00 am to 6.00 pm; admission free (closed on public holidays and from 15th to 18th May) Enquiries: Birgit Reitbauer Phone: 43 (0)50350-21336 Fax: 43 (0)50350-99 21336 e-mail: [email protected] Photographic material is available on our website www.wienerstaedtische.at (in the “Arts & Culture” section) and upon request. The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2005 has been awarded to the highly regarded “Netherlands Embassy in Berlin” by architects Rem Kolhaas and Ellen van Loon (Office for Metropolitan Architecture). Between 27th April and 9th June 2006, the ARCHITEKTUR IM RINGTURM series of exhibitions presents the winning project, the project awarded the Emerging Architect Special Mention and a selection of 31 further projects from the 242 submissions for this renowned award. The exhibition covers all areas of architectural endeavour from creative interventions in the landscape and public works via university facilities, sports centres and administrative buildings all the way to forward-looking work in the field of detached family homes, residential blocks and ecclesiastical architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Future of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts Is Transformed by Major Gift from the Dorfman Foundation
    THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS IS TRANSFORMED BY MAJOR GIFT FROM THE DORFMAN FOUNDATION The Royal Academy of Arts today announced a generous gift from the Dorfman Foundation which will significantly transform the future of architecture at the Royal Academy. As the RA prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2018, the support from the Dorfman Foundation will enable the RA to launch two new international architecture awards, together with the restoration of the majestic Senate Rooms in Burlington Gardens to house a new architecture space and cafe. Coupled with the Royal Academy’s new commitment to host a yearly architecture exhibition, the gift will realise the RA’s mission to garner a wider appreciation and understanding of architecture, bringing to the fore its vital relationship to culture and society. The annual international awards will encompass the Royal Academy Architecture Prize, honouring an inspiring and enduring contribution to the culture of architecture and the Royal Academy Dorfman Award that champions new talent in architecture. The awards will be nominated and awarded by distinguished architects and artists, alongside international curators and critics. The inaugural jury will be chaired by the architect and Royal Academician Louisa Hutton. The Royal Academy Architecture Prize winner and the shortlist for the Royal Academy Dorfman Award will be announced in January 2018. In May 2018 a week-long public celebration will include the announcement of the winner of the Royal Academy Dorfman Award and also include an address by the recipient of the Royal Academy Architecture Prize. Collectively the awards will demonstrate and heighten the RA’s role as a global advocate of architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Stobhill Hospital Glasgow Scotland
    The New Stobhill Hospital Glasgow Scotland Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre RIBA Award Winner 2010 EuHPN Health Facility Fact File Series No. 1 November 2011 Health Facility Project Name The New Stobhill Hospital Country Scotland Location The New Stobhill Hospital 133 Balornock Road Glasgow G21 3UW Population served 1,196,335 people living in the catchment area which includes, City of Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, East Renfrewshire, Greenock, Renfrewshire and Dumbarton Type of healthcare facility Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre (ACAD) Type of construction New Build Construction start date November 2006 Construction completion date February 2009 Gross floor area 30,000m2 Project, design and This project was a joint Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project construction cost providing new facilities for Stobhill and Victoria Hospitals. The process which was taken forward was one of a combined nature, therefore given the nature of this project financing it is difficult to provide costs. Cost per m2 This project was a joint PFI project providing new facilities for Stobhill and Victoria Hospitals. The process which was taken forward was one of a combined nature, therefore given the nature of this project financing it is difficult to provide costs per m2 Total bed numbers The new ward constitutes 60 beds, 48 for rehabilitation and a 12 bedded unit within Day Surgery. The beds within day surgery are available to medics to extend the range of short stay surgical procedures offered to patients. The beds, known as “23-hour” beds are for patients who need a short spell of recovery time following day treatment such as day surgery.
    [Show full text]
  • You Make It Amazing: the Rhetoric of Art and Urban Regeneration in the Case of the Public
    Journal of Visual Literacy, 2012 Volume 32, Number 1, 51-72 You Make it Amazing: The Rhetoric of Art and Urban Regeneration in the Case of The Public Kelly Norris Martin Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY Victoria J. Gallagher North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC Abstract Arts councils and departments of culture tell policy makers that the arts are not only valuable in themselves, but for their contribution to the economy, urban regeneration and social inclusion. However, there is significant debate as to whether public art produced under social arts policy can deliver on expectations. This essay examines a recent, controversial urban regeneration project, West Bromwich’s The Public designed by Will Alsop, in order to assess its visual, symbolic, and material resources. The analysis reveals that, while the gallery functions, at least partially, to construct a shared public experience of West Midland and its culture, it is an experience encapsulated within and aesthetically made over by The Public such that The Public becomes a replacement scene, thereby undermining the community and at least some of its goals. Keywords: urban regeneration, material iconicity, public art, visual rhetoric, The Public 52 You Make it Amazing: The Rhetoric of Art and Urban Regeneration in the Case of The Public Arts councils and departments of culture, in both the U.S. and Europe tell policy makers that the arts are not only valuable in themselves, but also make significant contributions to the economy, urban regeneration and social inclusion. As a report by the secretariat of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) puts it, “Sprinkle a little cultural fairy dust on a rundown area and its chances of revival will multiply—or so the argument goes.” However, both artists and policy makers debate whether public art produced under social arts policy can deliver on expectations.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Association (AA) School Where She Was Awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977
    Studio London Zaha Hadid, founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker 10 Bowling Green Lane Architecture Prize (considered to be the Nobel Prize of architecture) in 2004 and London EC1R 0BQ is internationally known for her built, theoretical and academic work. Each of T +44 20 7253 5147 her dynamic and pioneering projects builds on over thirty years of exploration F +44 20 7251 8322 and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design. [email protected] www.zaha-hadid.com Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before moving to London in 1972 to attend the Architectural Introduction Association (AA) School where she was awarded the Diploma Prize in 1977. She founded Zaha Hadid Architects in 1979 and completed her first building, the Vitra Fire Station, Germany in 1993. Hadid taught at the AA School until 1987 and has since held numerous chairs and guest professorships at universities around the world. She is currently a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and visiting professor of Architectural Design at Yale University. Working with senior office partner, Patrik Schumacher, Hadid’s interest lies in the rigorous interface between architecture, landscape, and geology as her practice integrates natural topography and human-made systems, leading to innovation with new technologies. The MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games are excellent manifestos of Hadid’s quest for complex, fluid space. Previous seminal buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati and the Guangzhou Opera House in China have also been hailed as architecture that transforms our ideas of the future with new spatial concepts and dynamic, visionary forms.
    [Show full text]
  • A: Chris Loyn
    Architect Q&A: Chris Loyn Having worked from a provincial town near Cardiff for nearly three decades, Welsh architect Chris Loynhas recently achieved extraordinary things. His firm Loyn & Co Architects has garnered international recognition for its published projects and gives a rare and valuable insight into the latest thoughts, philosophies, and practices in design. Chris Loyn spoke to Luxury Defined about his life’s work and the influences that underpin both his and his firm’s success. What was your earliest encounter with architecture? One of my earliest memories is that of a bedroom extension at my parents’ home in Cardiff during the early 1960s. A Victorian porch was replaced with a two-story, flat-roofed “cube.” I was fascinated with the scale of the change. Not only did it create a new bedroom and other accommodation, but also (unofficially) a space on the flat roof above it that you could access by climbing through a loft window. Sitting there, you could watch the world go by. Today, my office is in a large Victorian property that we extended and where you can sit (officially) on the roof, just like I did all those years ago. When and why did you set up Loyn & Co? I set up in practice in 1987 two years after my first son, Seb, was born. In 1989, my second son Jack had a brain haemorrhage at two weeks old. As a result he is severely disabled and has cerebral palsy. I wanted to be around both my children and my wife, so continuing to work at home was the perfect solution.
    [Show full text]
  • Foster Plans New Beijing HQ As Base for China Expansion
    FRIDAY August 12 2011 Issue 1977 £2.90 Making a splash bdonline.co.uk Zaha Hadid’s Aquatics Centre may be late to the party “One would think that one was in a but arrives with a flourish P.12 subterranean city, that’s how heavy is the atmosphere, how profound is A special bond the darkness!” Eric Parry is drawn to Fritz Höger’s Hamburg brick masterpiece P.16 BUILDING DESIGN ARCHITECTS’ FAVOURITE WEEKLY INSIDE NEWS ANALYSIS Architecture Foster plans new Beijing HQ and the riots Urban planning expert Wouter Vanstiphout looks at what this week’s violence could mean as base for China expansion for UK city development. P.3 NEWS Firm’s office will neighbour Ai Weiwei gallery and promote Chinese art and architecture Alsop’s latest incarnation Ellis Woodman galleries, it will have a café. It will “There is an Bank Headquarters in Hangzhou should take the plunge. “If you are host exhibitions by young artists awareness of and a scheme designed in collab- immersed in those places instead The name of Will Alsop’s latest Foster & Partners is designing its and architects in China. It will the fragility oration with Thomas Heather- of reading about them in the press venture, with ex RMJM principal own headquarters building in have an apartment for an artist in of being overly wick for the upmarket Bund dis- you do get a very different experi- Scott Lawrie, will be registered China as the firm looks to expand residence. dependent trict of Shanghai. ence.” in the next few weeks. P.5 the amount of business it carries “It will also be a centre for our- on one place” Foster said the firm was eyeing The company’s 2011 results will out in the country.
    [Show full text]
  • Local Plans and Urban Design
    The Public Realm and Urban Design: Practice and Implementation REDEVELOPMENT IN BIRMINGHAM seeking to establish itself as a major The establishment of the new Department European centre. of Planning and Architecture at There they forged a new approach to the LOCAL PLANS Birmingham City Council in 1990 was one development of central Birmingham, an manifestation of the Council's commitment approach that should turn the city around to Urban Design. It followed closely on from being a place for cars to becoming a AND URBAN the Birmingham Urban Design Study place for people. The central issue was the (BUDS) completed by Francis Tibbalds in Inner Ring Road. This dual carriageway DESIGN April 1990 which, itself, was a follow-up to circuit with its grade-separated junctions LDR's Open Space and Pedestrian and pedestrian subways had proved to be a Framework report of 1989. The creation of "concrete collar" around the central core of Centenary Square is the first product of this the city. Land and property values inside Les Sparks new approach to development in the collar soared, whilst outside it there was Birmingham. severe dereliction and lack of investment. For many years Birmingham had been Movement across the Inner Ring Road, associated with the now discredited either on foot or by car was severely methods of redevelopment practised in the impeded, and the long dark and dangerous 1960's and 70's. Renowned for pursuing pedestrian subways are simply intolerable. its objectives with a singular vigour, The American consultant. Don Birmingham built more residential tower Hilderbrandt of LDR, was at Highbury and blocks than any other city outside London, was subsequently commissioned by the completed its motorway style Inner Ring City Council to develop his ideas for the Road and ruthlessly swept away large areas Inner Ring Road.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating the Wow!
    CREATING THE WOW! CULTURAL Sector PortFOLIO CAN OUR ENGINEERING ENHANCE THE Potential OF A CULTURAL VENUE? CAN OUR ENGINEERING ENHANCE THE Potential OF A CULTURAL VENUE? HERE ARE SIX EXAMPLES OF HOW IT CAN (and 76 more for you to explore) 5 11 19 26 33 41 CONTENTS 5 St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York, NY, USA 11 Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE 19 Xiqu Centre, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong 26 Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, British Museum, London, UK 33 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice, Poland 41 Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK 51 Our Cultural projects – where in the world? 5 Sector Portfolio BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING Cultural INGENIOUS design realises A successFUL theatre WITHIN AN INDUSTRIAL landmark ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE | brooklyn, NEW york, USA 6 Sector Portfolio BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING Cultural ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE LO C AT I O N : Brooklyn, New York, NY, USA C L I E N T: St. Ann’s Warehouse A R C H I T E C T: Marvel Architects Images: Dustin Nelson ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE | brooklyn, NEW york, USA BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING Cultural 8 Sector Portfolio BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING Cultural ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE | brooklyn, NEW york, USA 9 Sector Portfolio BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING Cultural ENGINUITYTM Process Our Enginuity solution for St. Ann’s Warehouse focussed on the Intelligent Reuse of Buildings. Click to see the range of BuroHappold specialisms that collaborated to make the vision viable. ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE | brooklyn, NEW york, USA 10 Sector Portfolio BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING Cultural ENGINUITYTM Process Building services engineering (MEP) Sustainability Energy consultancy INTELLIGENT REUSE OF BUILDINGS Bridge engineering and civil structures ST.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Sustainable Architecture in Hanging
    Review articles • Oorsigartikels Christo Vosloo Prof. Christo Vosloo, Graduate School of Architecture, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Published by the UFS University of Johannesburg, http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/as P.O. Box 524, Auckland © Creative Commons With Attribution (CC-BY) Park, 2006, Johannesburg, How to cite: Vosloo, C. 2020. Early sustainable architecture South Africa. in hanging skyscrapers – A comparison of two financial office buildings. Acta Structilia, 27(1), pp. 144-177. Phone: +27 (0) 11 559 1105, E-mail: <[email protected]> ORCID: https://orcid. EARLY SUSTAINABLE org/0000-0002-2212-1968 ARCHITECTURE IN HANGING SKYSCRAPERS DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.18820/24150487/as27i1.6 – A COMPARISON OF TWO ISSN: 1023-0564 FINANCIAL OFFICE BUILDINGS e-ISSN: 2415-0487 Acta Structilia 2020 27(1): 144-177 Peer reviewed and revised March 2020 Published June 2020 *The authors declared no conflict of interest for the article or title ABSTRACT Reuse, or the ability to continue using an item or building beyond the initial function, is a key concept in the literature on sustainability. This implies that a building should be designed in a way that will allow it to be repurposed when changing circumstances require changes in its layout or function; being energy efficient and environmentally sensitive is not enough. The building also needs to be financially viable and the people whose lives are impacted by it should wish to have it retained. As far as flexibility of high-rise or skyscraper buildings is concerned, the structural system and layout are some, but not the only aspects that are of particular importance in this regard.
    [Show full text]
  • The Work of Foster and Partners Specialist Modelling Group
    The Work of Foster and Partners Specialist Modelling Group Brady Peters and Xavier DeKestellier Foster and Partners Architects and Designers Riverside Three 22 Hester Road London, UK SW11 4AN Abstract The following paper is a brief introduction to Foster and Partners and the work of its Specialist Modelling Group (SMG). The SMG was formed in 1997 and has been involved in over 100 projects. The SMG expertise encompasses architecture, art, math and geometry, environmental analysis, geography, programming and computation, urban planning, and rapid prototyping. The SMG brief is to carry out project-driven research and development. The group consults in the area of project workflow, advanced three-dimensional modelling techniques, and the creation of custom digital tools. The specialists in the team are a new breed of architectural designer, requiring an education based in design, math, geometry, computing, and analysis. 1. Foster and Partners Foster and Partners is an international studio for architecture, planning and design led by Norman Foster and a group of Senior Partners. Norman Foster's philosophy of integration can be seen in the way the practice's London design studio works; it is essentially one large open space, shared equally by everyone, and free of subdivisions to encourage good communication between the many people who come together there. The practice's work ranges in scale from the largest construction project on the planet, Beijing International airport to its smallest commission, a range of door furniture. The scope of its work includes masterplans for cities, the design of buildings, interior and product design, graphics and exhibitions. These can be found throughout the world, from Britain, Europe and Scandinavia to the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
    [Show full text]