Architectural Learning

1(a)




1(b)

Wohh! First of all, thank you Ian for approving my request, and thank you Ian too for your effort & dedication made to start this blog as a platform for us to allow sparkles of real great ideas.

In response to Ian’s article: ‘BUILDING IN CONTEXT PT.1 - FALKESTRASSE’ on 10 March, I hereby would like to share my humble ideas about these buildings I (and you might) came across, hoping to get some responses, about their appropriateness of their architecture in response to their neighborhood context. I’ll make it as brief as bikini:-

1a.The Audi’s showroom a.k.a. “The Iceberg” in Tokyo by British Architect Benjamin Warner.

- The nickname of this building tells it all: it’s an iceberg which you will probably knock on it accidentally like the Titanic if you are slightly unaware. Personally, I think this building with its many edges is too loud compare to the tranquility of the street made up of buildings with 2-dimensional facades. I think it should be better if it is located at a road junction instead, like the Dancing Building shown(1b), where this 3-dimensional building can be admired thoroughly.

2. Proposal of the Spiral Extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London by Daniel Libeskind. (Marcus, in any case, still I love your beloved Jewish Museum! :) )

- Again, I think it’s an abrupt clash to the pedestrians-oriented city, because of the sharp & edgy corners being so near to the pedestrians and drivers. Imagine the insecurity you will feel while you are driving a small Kancil, and there’s this big truck at your north-east side at the next lane, creating eclipse and as if the edges of the truck is going to crush on your window.

- It looks like as if it has been chopped off fragmentally from a major building in a much bigger scale, e.g. scale of the Bilbao Museum for example. Guess it might look much greater and convincing, if it is in a larger scale, and is set back from the streets with a certain distance to the entrance, and is admired at a further distance.

-Maybe it will look nicer and not so crude to the pedestrians if the sizes of the segments which are bulking out are reduced in a much smaller scale to respond with the windows of the surrounding buildings? What do you think?

3. Aoyama Technical College in Tokyo by Makoto Sei Watanabe.

-Although some might think that the toy-like form and the silver, red and black reflective panels are a bit inappropriate, but I really love the great sense of humor conveyed from this building, especially from the little rascal on top of it . It’s as if telling a story: a puppy owner trying to pull his mischievous puppy away from trying to squat and poo on a public property in a park.

-In the city of Tokyo where people worship dogs, dogs are treated most equal to humans, and even Nintendo had joined the trend to organize a “Nintendo Fashion Show for Nintendogs”(note the rhyme), I think this form which looks like a puppy (but well it actually exemplifies a DUCK but I really do hope to assume it as a cute puppy )is definitely an eye candy for the Tokyo citizens, as it will arouse discussions and mutual affections towards this puppy, especially among the fellow female Tokyo citizens, as females (who are not in this field) usually would choose to pay more attention on other city details rather than architecture and cityscapes. It’s something to be applauded.

-A catchy quote from http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jmurphy/Lombardifile/ARCHfile.04/urbanTOKYO/Aoyama.htm, “Furthermore, the irregular form of the animal makes it appears that it is still growing.”

-This building(“form” to be more accurate) being built on top of a building had somehow triggered some of my thoughts. Will there be a revolution of construction scene whereby construction sites are being lifted up, from plots of lands, to the roof of existing buildings as platforms for constructions? Especially in metropolitan cities where lands price are soaring higher and higher and demolition of existing buildings are impractical, unaffordable, and not moral?

New museums on top of existing condos? New clubs on top of existing schools? New shopping malls on top of residential houses? New churches on top of existing mosques? New DAP headquarter on top of existing BN headquarter? Hehe, no offense. Is it a sad scene or a challenging, exciting one?

I would like to end this with a quote from the book “Architecture Now!”:-

“According to the architects, Bruner/Cott’s design philosophy embodies contextually in its most comprehensive sense; design that is energized by the surrounding urban fabric and the historic, economic and social factors that CHARACTERIZED EACH PROJECT”. Do we, as students, have to have distinctive styles of design just like the way Zaha Hadid or Daniel Libeskind do? Or each of our designs are to be characterized by it’s own self project’s site context and neighbourhood language? Which is more important?

Thank you for lending your eyes. Above are merely my humble opinions, hopefully will get your honorable comments and judgments. Thank you.

Sook Tin