Inspired by the Past

The Hwangryongsa temple, a 9-story pagoda, was built in 645 AD by Silla (one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea), but was demolished in 1238 during the Mongol invasion of Korea.

That building itself would already be worth a post on this blog, but what if you'd want to pay architectural tribute to this building? What if you'd like to make a contemporary statement out of it? Of course, the sheer reconstruction of it would make no sense. It's faking the past, and not doing something that is also connected to the present.


So, the Gyeongyu Tower makes complete sense, doesn't it? The contours of the Hwangryongsa temple pagoda have been carved out of a solid shape, in order to create this building. It shows the historic form in a contemporary way. Mission achieved, I would say. The building is great in it's weirdness, it's so kitchy that I'm really loving it for it's boldness. It's all that's good and evil at the same time, architectonically speaking.

Ningbo historic museum - Amateur architecture studio

It might be a bit kitschy: to imitate the aged and appearance of a weathered stone wall (with pieces of different stones representing fill-ins, repairments and strata of change over time). Especially if it is used as a skin for a historic museum - like in Ningbo (China) in this project by Wang Shu (Amateur architecture studio).

But still, the look it brings is really nice. It could've ended up looking like a historical version of Disneyland - completely fake - but this building actually looks like it's been there forever, fitting into the surroundings. At the same time it stands out in the surrounding environment, and looks very contemporary.
And the material also really fits with the architecture of the museum: it looks solid, monolithic and heavy. This materialization of the facade gives it more tactility and texture in it's massiveness - giving the building a bit if a Chinese Zumthor-like feel. Too bad the interior seems a bit less poignant, in comparison (in as far one can judge from a couple of photos on the internet, that is)...
The images come from archdaily.com, by the way.

Maximilian's Schell - Ball-Nogues Studio

Maximilian Schell was an actor, who played the role of Dr. Hans Reinhardt in the sci-fi adventure movie "The Black Hole" (1979). The character of Dr. Reinhardt is on a quest to conquer the unknown forces of black holes, and actually wants to steer a spacecraft through a black hole. The movie is (and probably rightfully so) almost forgotten, but the name of Maximilian Schell lives on, as namegiver of an outdoor installation in Los Angeles, by the architects of Ball-Nogues studio, called "Maximilian's Schell".

The installation looked like a rendition of a vortex. It creates an outdoor space to inhabit, by means of a swirling canopy made out of tinted Mylar panels. As the designers themselves write on their website "During the day as the sun passed overhead, the canopy cast colored fractal light patterns onto the ground. When standing in the center or "singularity" of the piece and gazing upward, the visitor could see only infinite sky. In the evening when viewed from the exterior, the vortex glowed warmly while both obscuring and allowing glimpses of the building behind it."

And while this background story of black holes, vortexes and whatnot is somewhat entertaining, and while the spatial effect was indeed stunning (as far as one can judge by looking at the images), the most fascinating part about this structure is the amalgamation of "skin" and "structure". The installation is a contemporary version of the work of Frei Otto in the fifties and sixties, in the sense that it is a behaved as a so-called "minimal surface": a prestressed form which is always in tension but still is definable mathematically.
Membrane engineer Dieter Strobel did an awesome job transforming hand-sketches and computer models by the architects into a digital model that actually worked the way it should, fysically. The interaction between architect and engineer created the form as such. This gave the canopy the smooth look, whilst giving space for creating it out of the Mylar panels, which give the space the lovely spatial and lighting patterns it has on the interior.

The view from a mountain top

Yeah, I know, it's been a while since the previous post. I can come up with a whole bunch of excuses, but I won't. It will sound lame anyway. The most important thing is: here's a new post.

It might seem pretty easy to make a beautiful piece of architecture in amazing surroundings. The location might already be so fabulous that one might suppose there's nothing much to it to make something stunning. Well, the truth is: it's not like that. It's actually much harder to make something really good, simply because you are adding to a site that was good before you did your thing there. You need to measure up to the site, but still be respectable to the amazing qualities of it.

Therefore, a mountain-viewing platform in the Alps is pretty much a difficult task for any architect. It's not a complex program or anything, and structurally it might prove to have some challenges, but the real difficulty is in the fact that any not quite fitting piece of architecture might appear to be competing against the site itself.


And that is one of the reasons that I enjoy this viewing platform in the Tyrolian Alps (in Austria) so much. The designers, astearchitecture, found a way to add to the landscape. The structure holds middle ground between a piece of landscape and construction. Its platform cantilevers about 9 metres off a ridge of the Stubai Glacier, at about 3200m height.
The structure adds a subtle new dimension to the scenery, but it is not screaming too loudly about it's presence. The platform fits subtly into the surroundings, and adds an extra experience to it. I think this is a great job in synthesising landscape and construction


I found this gem on dezeen.com.

An alien intervention

At a first glance, it looks as though a giant sculpture by Richard Serra accidentally landed on this square in Schaarbeek, near Brussels. Closer inspection learns that it is in fact a building. Even more so: it is building with rental appartments.
The architect Mario Garzaniti used this oddly wedge-shaped site (with a footprint of about 50 square metres) to redefine the corner between the Koninginnelaan and the Liedtsplein.
In contrast with all the dynamic morphological limits of the surrounding buildings, this social housing block looks rather monolithic. The cladding plays an important role in this aspect: the corten steel is used as facade, wall covering and roof, as well as part of replacable shutters for the windows.

The thing is: the building looks really great. But that's probably the architect in me talking. I appreciate the fact that Mario Garzaniti didn't make any compromises, I appreciate the detailling, I appreciate the look of the weathered corten-steel...
But I just cannot imagine that the building is really appreciated by the target audience for this social housing. Or am I condensending about this? I cannot make up my mind about this building - I'm in doubt between the beautiful architecture and the contextual response to its surroundings...

If you want to read or see more about this project, you might check out this article on A+ (in Dutch), or this thread at pushpullbar (in English).

[C]space

For the 10th anniversary of the AA's Design Research Laboratory, a competition was held for a small pavillion to be erected on Bedford Square in London. The competition was open to all students and graduates of the DRL - and more or less the only given was that the competitors should make innovative use of Fibre C (glass fibre reinforced concrete).

And the design that won the competition (designed by the architects Alan Dempsey and Alvin Huang) does just what one would expect from a competition entry by someone from the AA: it's all computer graphics, double curved, and smooth rendered elegant shape. Sure, there's a bit more to it, but I could never really been bothered with this kind of spectacular architecture for the sake of it. It means nothing, it just looks good...

I couldn't be bothered until I saw that the project is actually under construction. The two designers set up a blog about the project, on which they document the entire production. And I must say: in reality it looks amazing. It's still just showing off, but it's really beautifully done - one can just see that the architects pushed themselves as far as they could to realize the qualities of the virtual image. Just lovely.

Booster Station - Group A

The process involved in this building, the so-called booster station in the southern part of Amsterdam (the Netherland) is really down to earth. Basically, it's an utter technical utility building for draining sewage - consisting of a set of pipes and pumps. Most of the times, such buildings are not considered as a source for creative design. It seems illogical to make a brave statement of aesthetic principles out of such a structure. But why? such an object is highly visible in the city-landscape - that should be reason enough to invest a bit more into such a project... On the other hand: who wants to invest a bunch of euros to make the sewer system look sexy?

Luckily, in the city of Amsterdam, Waternet decided to spice up the look of this one specific booster station at the Spaklerweg. And they hired the architects of Group A to design this building. Or better yet: this object in public space. It looks very high-tech, like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, making a attractive and intriguing object.

the photo is from flickr, by the way.

Caixa Forum - Herzog & De Meuron

It's more than likely that the Caixa Forum building in Madrid will get extensive coverage just about average. It's probably even better to say that the project already has had more than it's fair share of publication - even before it was actually finished. Really, there has been an almost constant stream of images and such. Mostly about the exterior of the complex. And honestly, it looks great. Whether it's the vertical garden (courtesy of the almighty Patric Blanc), or the perforated weathering copper (or is it steel after all, I'm not sure?). Or the way these new materializations relate to the old, existing structure. The interior, thus far, has been a bit less exposed - which is logical considering the fact that the building wasn't open yet. But since the cultural complex (consisting gallery spaces, auditorium and the lot) has been opened recently, a steady stream of photos has been seeing the light of day. For instance, these images that I found on flickr. They show the fantastic entrance zone, one of the spectacular staircases and the subtle way the light penetrates the perforated skin. This is defenitely a building that gets a high position on the "must see" list...

2 + 1 = 1

Mathematics and architecture don't always quite add up. In the Larrain House, that Cecilia Puga designed in the Chilean town of Los Vilos, this is exactly the case.
The basic scheme of this private house consists of three rough concrete volumes, stacked on top of eachother. All three of them are basic house-shapes. What makes the concept so playful is the fact that one of the three volumes is turned upside-down, exactly fitting on top of the other two.

Because of this layout, the house has spectacular spatial qualities, and at the same time loads of flexibility in use for it's owner, her children and her grandchildren. Other than that, it fits beautifully into the rugged landscape - with its long longitudinal lines toward the sea.



More images and a Spanish description can be found on the Chilearq website.

Stadtlounge St. Gallen

In early 2005, construction workers finished work on the building on the Schreinerstrasse 6 in the Swiss town of St. Gallen. With this, the end of the building for the Raiffeisen-group was finished. What was left was an attractive re-design of the public space of the area. To get the best solution for the area, a competition was held. The goal was simple: to create a urban coherent area. To cut a long story short: the competition was won by the artists Pipilotti Rist and Carlos Martinez with a radical proposal, called Stadtlounge (city lounge).

To unify all the different segments of the rather clustered public space, they came up with a carpet that covers the area. With this, the area is formed like a living room, with various different themes, all dealing with interaction and meeting people in different ways - there are cafes, business-lounges, relax-lounges etcetera. And the designers took the concept to its extreme: the lights are designed just as lamps in a living room (instead of being street furniture), and all normal street-elements are "swept under the carpet"...

Stephane Halleux

Every single one of the sculptures that Stephane Halleux does, looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie. And I mean that in the most positive way possible: all his vehicles, robots and other curious creatures have that gritty-goes-humorous punky cartoon attitude to them.