The Worlds Strangest Homes
07 Dec 2009, written by Riz 2 Comments
I was going to send this to my brother, an architect, to do a write up because I figured he would appreciate it as well as understand it a little better than I would. That feeling of sharing lasted about 2 seconds before I realized these are some cool buildings, and I wanted to be the one to share them. Give me a break. Hes a fucking Architect. I work for a Publishing company. Do the math. Hes doing all right. Anyway, enough about that Fountainhead wanna be, back to the buildings.
The thing that makes these buildings so great is that someone decided to take a chance on them. When I walk through neighborhoods its a bit depressing that all the homes look pretty much the same. Why shouldn’t someone be able to live in a huge rock mushroom? These designers decided that they weren’t happy with the norm, and manned up to create some awesome homes. For those that aren’t into crazy designs you can always check out these new homes from NVR Homes. All homes are newly constructed.
London’s Vertical City Becomes A Reailty: The Shard
25 Sep 2009, written by Revelation 0 Comments
Construction has begun on the 72-story building in the London Bridge Quarter. The building was designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, they have firms in Italy, France, and New York City. Renzo Piano, born in Italy, is one of my favorite architects, he has pretty much received every award imaginable and has been labeled as on of the best in the world. One of his critics was once quoted as saying,
“Serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world.”
The building’s concept was designed around the influences of massive church spires and the masts of ships that sailed the waters of Thames. The multi-purpose building will include office space, a world-class hotel, luxury residences, a spa, restaurants & cafes, retail space and a 15-storey public viewing gallery. On the ground level, public piazza, restaurants and cafes will be open to the public with places to rest and changing art installations, pretty cutting edge stuff. A key attribute of this building is that it is directly connected to all the public transportation of the city. The “city in the sky” is destined to become London’s most enigmatic buildings in the skyline. The plan is generated by the irregular nature of the site. Each facet forms a shard, a plane of glass gently inclined inwards, rising towards the top. The corners are open and the shards do not touch, allowing the building to breathe. In turn the glass surface fragments as it rises and the tower dissolves into the sky. Being involved in architecture myself it really excites me to see such artistic ability to go from concept on paper to actual habitable structure. London has really been raising the bar wih the new construction that makes up their skyline, and I applaud their extreme vision of the future. The project is scheduled to be completed in the year 2012.
