Romanticism Store, Hangzhou, China

Romanticism flagship store in Hangzhou, China, by SAKO Architects. The architects "dressed" the building in a white organic net that flows to the interior creating all inside spaces by narrowing and widening.

Ocean Invasion

OK... Have we run out of land to develop in our countries, or have we become so self absorbed that we need the "prestige" of having an artificial island just off our shores.

Land reclamation is certainly not a new thing, the Dutch have been doing it since the late 19th century out of need to control and elevate their shores, creating who knows how many square kilometers of new land. Mexico city was built on a former lake, Texcoco, in the 14th century by the Aztecs. The list goes on and on, Helsinki, Washington DC, the Chicago coastline, Battery park city in Manhattan, and the famous Kansai Airport, all have been, totally or partially, created by putting more earth into the water to extend the coastline.

When in 1994 construction started In Dubai to create the Burj-Al-Arab Hotel on an artificial island as one of the most luxurious hotels in the world. It's definitely a beautiful piece of architecture, and a powerful symbol for the evolution of the Arab Emirates, just like the Eiffel tower is to Paris or the Opera House is to Sydney. It's true that the reasons for it being 280 meters offshore are somewhat justifiable, they nonetheless started a trend, an economic and Real Estate trend, to create new land with the lengthiest coastline possible so everybody has their own beach kind of trend. I won't go into details, but the frenzy started with Palm Jumeirah, then two other palms, each one larger than the previous one, then the World, and now The Universe. All of them in Dubai, and all of them within the length of about 45 kilometers, along the original coastline of course.

After Dubai proved that this kind of enterprise was economically viable, soon all the powerful developers of the rest of the world jumped in the wagon. Here's a list of the Islands of the World:


Dutch Tulip Island: After helping Dubai create the palms, the Dutch are using the newly learned knowledge at home, creating a new polder in the north sea to protect the coastline against rising sea levels.


Federation Island: in the Russian Black Sea is just an excuse to sell new land and new beaches as a luxury leisure development.

image from eikongraphia

Toronto Maple Leaf: West 8 won an international competition with an entry that includes this floating island off the coast of Toronto.


La Luna de Valencia: With the sole purpose of attracting tourism and investors to Valencia, the round shape is inspired by the moon.


The Pearl: this multi million dollar international development that creates more than 32 kilometers of new beaches is located in Qatar.

And of course, us, supposedly the healthiest economy in the Caribbean, and one of the top 5 economies in Latin America. The Dominican Republic couldn't be left behind. Back in 1995 an artificial island was proposed, with Ricardo Boffil as architect, for the coast of the capital city of Santo Domingo. It also was designed with the sole purpose of creating new, maybe more expensive, land for developers. The project was trashed because of the public's disapproval.

Back Again...

I think it's about time to make my lethargic brain do some exercise again. It's been a life changing 4 months...

Stimuli 0703

Image: Joseph Harrington, The Beck Group

Joseph Harrington from the Beck Group won a mention in the 33rd annual KRob Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition. For some reason the actual winners don't appeal to me as much as this image here. The winners' images are colder, more digital in nature, this one is much warmer, more human. You can see that a person was involved in making this, against a more machined image. The image won an honorable mention in the Professional Digital / Hybrid category. Please be sure to check out the website, where you can find this year's winners along with the honorable mentions.

Kogod Courtyard by Foster

The Smithsonian Institution has opened to the public the new Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard by Sir Norman Foster inside the Smithsonian's American Art Museum, the building is better known as the Patent Office. This is another of the world's repeated solutions, and Foster, in this specific case, has been typecast and become somewhat pedestrian because of his previous Great Court at the British Museum.

This time around the courtyard is sandwiched between sheets of water, the glass canopy ripples and undulates as a liquid surface, and the floor has a curious water feature. The granite floor is darkened by a very thin sheet of water with an imperceptible slope that you can walk on and across. The result is definitely beautiful.

The courtyard's main purpose is to give the Museum a space that it can rent and use for its own activities.


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Jean Nouvel in New York

Yesterday Archinect had a photograph featured on their website that really caught my eye, but couldn't find any more information on it, it was a 3D rendering of a (another) new development by Jean Nouvel in New York. Today the web has exploded with info on this project. Dezeen has an incredibly informative feature about it, and fellow Blogger John Hill of Archidose has a post on it as well.

Jean Nouvel's very successful 40 Mercer Residences in SoHo, catapulted him to his 100 11th Ave. project in Chelsea, next to Gehry's building, making him the most bankable of contemporary architects currently designing in New York City. This new project not only is on a site next to the MoMA (Hines development actually bought the site from MoMA), but is of 75 stories, making it the same height of the Chrysler Building, and in its program is included about 50,000 square feet (5,000 sq mt) of exhibition space on three floors for the Museum next door.

The project is called 53 West 53rd and aside from the MoMA's exhibition space it will include a 100 room Hotel and 120 high end residential condos with commercial spaces at ground level.

Sources:
Dezeen
Atelier Jean Nouvel
A Daily Dose of Architecture
Archinect

Kate Protage

Continuing with my obsession with perception and phenomenology, this post is about the art of Kate Protage, who seems to have studied architecture or urbanism, she seems to perceive the world as an architect does, feeling moments in space-time. This is very apparent partly because she works from blown up photographs that she takes on her travels, she blows them up to ten times its original size and extracts a detail from it. She remembers how a city feels and works, and tries to translate these feeling and perceptual moments into oils on canvas.

This is the kind of work that, if I had an office, I would hang it in the lobby.

Artist's Statement
"I have a love/hate relationship with the cities in which I’ve lived. Everywhere I look, evidence of planning and structure exists simultaneously with chaos and unpredictability. Depending on the time of day, there are two worlds that exist in the same physical space: streets that appear gritty, dirty and depressing by day turn into an environment infused with a strange kind of lush, dark beauty and romance at night. Taking it all in can be both stressful and exciting, and I feel compelled to capture these moments and remember them.

What interests me most is the junction between sensation and fact—the way different objects come together, a combination of colors, lines and geometric shapes working together in a lyrical fashion to form intensely vivid, sometimes quite abstracted compositions. The origin of individual shapes becomes unimportant as color and texture take over, and different emotions emerge.

My paintings are the beginning of a story—a space that is somewhat recognizable and familiar, but leaves room for the story of the viewer’s choosing. Whether it feels magical and beautiful, or oppressive and ominous, that’s up to the viewer; but the plan is to take people to another place, one that’s part memory and part imagination, and provide them with a momentary escape.

I seek visual harmony, order and polish—in a tumultuous world, these are the things that keep me balanced, and they are the tools for my escape. I choose to pursue beauty."

Source:
Kate Protage Studio