Notable High Buildings of the World, 1896

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

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Historians had believed modern-day Istanbul was first settled around 700 BC.

However, a grave that has been recently discovered at the site of a rail project instantaneously added 6000 years to Istanbul’s history.

“We found the grave, pots and other artifacts. There were signs of houses made of tree-branches and next to the settlement was a swamp where we found small tools, wooden pieces and bones,” explains Ismail Karamut, head of the Istanbul Archaeology museum, which is leading the dig.

“It all shows there was a Neolithic settlement here in the historic peninsula of Istanbul where people lived, farmed and fished,” he adds.

The Neolithic era – when man abandoned the nomadic, hunting lifestyle and settled to farm the land and raise cattle – began east of here, gradually carrying the foundations of “civilised” life west, to Europe. The new find in Istanbul helps map that transition.

“Neolithic culture changed as it moved west. Not all of what we call the ‘Neolithic package’ was transferred,” explains Professor Mehmet Ozdogan of Istanbul University.

“Domesticated animals and some of the cereal crops came, but mud brick became wooden architecture, settlements were re-organised. The transformation is important to understand the Neolithic culture in Europe. Every new site adds data to the picture.”

The team’s first major discovery was a section of the first city walls, believed to date back to Constantine I.

As anticipated, they also uncovered a 4th Century port – once the busiest in Byzantium – and the stunningly well-preserved remains of more than 30 wooden ships, many wrecked in storms in the 10th and 11th centuries.

“We’re expecting to find more – maybe a small settlement,” Yasar Anilir explains. “We have to remove the Byzantine ships first, then we can complete our dig.”

Tagore Theater: Essence Is In Its Interior Design and Layout

Tagore Theater of Chandigarh in India, designed by Ar. Aditya Prakash, is one of the master prices of modern architecture and symbolic of Chandigarh’s architecture style.

Dr Vikramaditya Prakash of University of Washington shares the very interesting story of how the Tagore Theater of Chandigarh was designed,  built, and named. The key players here were Ar. Aditya Prakash, Le Corbusier, and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret along with famous film personalities Prithviraj Kapoor and Zul Vellani.

Tagore Theater: Story of its Design

Conversation: Ar. Aditya Prakash, Le Corbusier, and Pierre Jeanneret

Tagore Theater has been redesigned. However, should it or rather can it still be called ‘Tagore Theater’? What defines building’s identity?

Name to design or design to name- is a discussion which is ignored in most restoration and remodel projects. If the essence of the design has been changed so should the name also? Prof. Prakash argues:

Name to Design or Design to Name

If the new project was undertaken with the objective of restoring the original design, the entire essence and its manifestation along with the name should have been preserved. However, this does not appear to be the case and this is definitely not a restoration project. The site is the same, and the intended function is the same. But the building design is new.

The visual memories, the authenticity of the original design of Tagore Theater need to be preserved at least before it is lost forever. We cannot fuse new with the old under the same name just the way we do not fuse architectural styles while designing buildings. Remixing architecture is not design.

If we attempt to dilute the original design with new, we run the risk of loosing the elegance of its essence and profoundness of its design to tackiness.

Read full article here:

Ar. Aditya Prakash, Chandigarh

On August 12, 2008 city of Chandigarh (India) lost an eminent architect, designer, painter, a theater enthusiast, academician, Le Corbusier’s associate. He was Ar. Aditya Prakash.

News Release- Aditya Prakash, Indian Modernist

He was on his way to Mumbai for staging the play Life Never Retires, created by G.S. Channi, in which he played the central character. He died on the way, at Ratlam station.

Aditya Prakash is well known in the world of modern architecture as Le Corbusier’s associate in the planning, design and building of the Chandigarh Capital Project which was initiated by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Known internationally for its architecture and urban planning, Chandigarh is home to numerous architectural projects of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Edwin Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew, Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer. Nehru famously proclaimed Chandigarh to be “unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation’s faith in the future.”

Le Corbusier with Pandit Nehru

Designed in a grid pattern, Chandigarh stands out from the rest of India with its clean lines, broad avenues and imposing government buildings built on a vast scale in concrete with columns, ramps, sculpted roof lines and screens to protect against the punishing sun.

Prakash joined the Chandigarh Capital Project in November of 1952 as one of the nine architects on the team. He had just finished studying architecture at the London Polytechnic, and became an A.R.I.B.A. in 1951.

Interestingly Corbusier had not visited India before he was awarded the Chandigarh project and Prakash’s being an Indian,  his European training, and unique understanding of architectural styles and design was a great aid to Corbusier. “He showed us drawings of villages and bullock carts, of the beautiful women laborers,” remembered Prakash. He also worked on the Type VI houses and General Hospital, Sector 16, with Jane Drew.

”When we started designing houses here we thought of Western houses,” said Aditya Prakash, “we began using those sunbreakers in a very big way,” he continued, speaking of the sunscreens that are part of the design of many houses in the city, ”it was very a la mode. But I did a study of the sun in Chandigarh subsequently and found that sunbreakers,” a screen or lattice of bricks, ”cut out sun but retained heat and dust. We found it was better to create deep verandas. These keep out rain and sun, but allow life to move in and out as it always has done in an Indian home.”

He worked closely with Le Corbusier on the design of the School of Art, Chandigarh in the mid-1950s. In 1961-62 he adapted the same design for the Chandigarh College of Architecture and later on became the Principal of Chandigarh College of Architecture (1968-1982) or CCA as it is popularly known!

He published several papers and three books advocating extensive recycling, mixed use developments, development of the informal sector, integration of agriculture and animal husbandry into the urban system, and rigorous separation of motorized and all forms of non-motorized traffic.

The Indian Institute of Architects awarded Aditya Prakash its Gold Medal in 1996.

Chandigarh Markets: Design and Frame Control by Ar. Aditya Prakash

Long after Corbusier was gone, Aditya Prakash continued to work on defining the characteristic visual identity of Chandigarh as a modern city by creating the frame controls of the several of the markets and housing types. He also designed the petrol pumps and the some of the major cinema theaters of the city (Jagat, Neelam and KC.)

Some of his other projects in Chandigarh are the District Courts, Central Scientific Instruments Organization Hostels, the Treasury Building, the Central Bus Stand, Military Rest House, Central Crafts Institute, the Jang Garh, Indo-Swiss Training Center and the Cable Factory, and residences.

Agriculture University Hostel, Ludhiana

From 1963-1968, Aditya Prakash was the Architect of the Panjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. At this time he also designed the campuses of the Agricultural Universities in Hissar and Palampur.

His most significant project in Chandigarh was the Tagore Theater which was constructed to celebrate Rabindranath Tagore birth Centenary in 1961.

Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh.

As an academic, Aditya Prakash was an early advocate of urban ecological design, or “self-sustaining settlements.”

Painting by Aditya Prakash

Prakash was a painter too. He studied art at the Glasgow School of Art and was deeply influenced by Le Corbusier in the 1950s. An early interest in intersecting the Modulor with free-flowing curves, evolved into a style exploring Indian birds, animals and figures within a modernist idiom.

Aditya Prakash served two terms as President of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy. He exhibited in several major cities in India. His paintings are in private collections throughout the world.

The architecture community of Chandigarh and worldwide is going to feel this loss. Aditya Prakash lived his life in the cause of modern architecture. It is our responsibility now to preserve his architectural legacy, his beliefs, his thoughts, and his works.

The way he led his life reminds me of what Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Architect, Painter Aditya Prakash has sure left an extraordinary trail. His works, his designs, his creativity and energy is going to inspire many.

He lived what he believed.

Sir, You will be remembered for long.

All Images: Courtesy Dr. Vikramaditya Prakash, Professor of Architecture, University of Washington, email vprakash@u.washington.edu http://faculty.washington.edu/vprakash/

News Release- Aditya Prakash, Indian Modernist

Mumbai's Cybertecture Egg

India has been on world architecture news for a while now. Antilla has hardly left the headlines,  Cybertecture Egg has already taken a place on top.

Talk of intelligent design- this building will surpass all that fall in this category. You will see it built by 2010.

The concept. The concept was inspired by considering the world as an ecosystem allowing life to evolve. Elements of the design and intelligence systems will work together to give the building’s inhabitants the ‘best space to work in’.

The design. The 32,000 sq m egg-shaped building will accommodate 13 floors of offices bringing together “iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent systems, and new engineering to create an awe-inspiring landmark in the city.”

Within the building, there will be a series of innovative systems such as ‘cybertecture health’ which is designed to keep track of the inhabitant’s health including blood pressure and weight. The data collected may be retrieved and sent to a doctor if deemed necessary.

Cybertecture Egg: Closer Look

You do not like the view from your window? Well, in this building you can customize your favorite view and have real time scenery from all around the world instead of the view you currently have. Technology and the working environment are united in the use of ‘cybertecture reality’ which allows you to do this.

It is green. The egg itself is orientated and skewed at an angle to create both a strong visual language and to alleviate the solar gain of the building, also there is a sky garden on the top of building which performs thermolysis (the dissipation of heat from the surface). PV panels will be installed on top of the building and a wind turbine on the sky gardens will generate electricity. A water filtration system will also be incorporated into the building to recycle grey water for flushing and irrigation purpose.

James Law Cybertecture International, commissioned by Vijay Associate (Wadhwa Developers) to create an office unlike any other in India, comments, “In the 21st Century, buildings will be different from 20th Century. They are no longer about concrete, steel and glass, but also the new intangible materials of technology, multimedia, intelligence and interactivity. Only recognizing this will bring a new form of architecture to light, namely a Cybertecture.”

Cybertecture Egg: Interior View

Why an egg? By using this “Egg” shape, compared to a conventional building, the structure has approximately 10-20% less surface area. Within the building, an innovative structure derived from the skin of the egg creates up to 30m spans of column less floors. The architecture is sleek and computer designed, with engineering that creates a building of high quality and geometric sophistication.

The next big thing. Cybertecture egg is indeed a futuristic building where technology and life embrace each other to help live a quality life. Man has come a long way after leaving the caves. Today, with technology encomapssing our lives, design knows no bounds. Cybertecture egg IS the next big thing.

Photo Credit: James Law Cybertecture Internationala

Construction plans for the site of Le Corbusier’s chapel of Notre Dame du Haut (1954) in Ronchamp (France) commissioned by the Association Oeuvre Notre Dame du Haut (the same organization that commissioned the chapel by Le Corbusier), has ignited a serious debate and disagreement between organizations seeking to preserve Le Corbusier’s legacy.

The New Plan. The new plan calls for the replacement of an existing visitor’s center and asphalt parking lot with a new visitor center dug into the hillside and a landscaped parking lot. It also features a new facility to host 12 Poor Clare nuns and their visitors. The convent—to be located primarily underground, about 300 feet west of the chapel—would contain small, independent residential units and an oratory open to pilgrims. According to the association, the overall goal of the project is to rehabilitate the site and ensure it remains a place of worship.

The plan has come under harsh criticism by the Fondation Le Corbusier. “The problem is not Renzo Piano’s design; it’s the location of the building for the convent, which is too close to the chapel,” says Michel Richard, the foundation’s director.

What does Piano have to say?

“I quite agree that the architecture must be defended, especially when you talk about the architecture of Le Corbusier and such beautiful and great places. The problem is that, in this case, the petition didn’t tell the truth,” he says, noting that it didn’t mention who was responsible for the project, nor provide details of the design. “I don’t understand the reason of all this resistance—except maybe some religious intolerance.”

The debate. The online war has brought some of the big names from the world of architecture to intervene. Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier and Rafael Moneo are among the signatories of a petition launched by the Le Corbusier Foundation to block Renzo Piano’s £6.4 million “barbaric” scheme for the Notre Dame du Haut chapel. Massimiliano Fuksas, Eva Jiricna and Peter Cook as well as Tony Fretton, David Adjaye, Julia Barfield and former RIBA president Frank Duffy have signed the counter petition launched by Renzo Piano Building Workshop together with the client, the Association Oeuvre Notre Dame du haut.

The sentiment. This is not the first time Corbu’s project has been subjected to a debate and counter sentiments like the ones seen here. I strongly believe and support the preservation of old buildings especially which are an important link in our social and cultural lives, and Le Corbusier’s chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp is one of such buildings.

However, I also believe that buildings should be organically allowed to grow and adapt to the present day requirements. An attempt to preserve the Ronchamp Chapel as a museum piece will lead to its quick deterioration and eventually dilapidation. Let it grow and adapt to the present still preserving its historic and cultural character and what it stands for. In design and implementation, it should not be difficult to demarcate old from new, or rather what is Corbusier’s from what will be Piano’s.

It is a unique opportunity to dedicate the site to works of two great architects of their times- Corbusier and Piano. It is indeed a unique opportunity to compliment the old with the new.

Paskov House one of architectural jewels of Russia was under restoration for 19 years, was closed down due to its dilapidated state. Pashkov House is named after its first owner Petr Yegorovich Pashkov, the lieutenant commander of the Life Guards of Semenovsky Regiment and the son of Peter the Great’s batman.

Pashkov House

Designed by Vasily Bazhenov (1737-1799), one of Russia’s greatest architects, this mansion was erected between 1784 and 1786 for the wealthy Pashkov family. The central building is topped by a round belvedere and flanked by two service wings. The current building is a reconstruction of a private mansion that was badly damaged in the disastrous fire of 1812, which swept through the city as the first of Napoleon’s troops were arriving.

In the 19th century it housed the Rumyantsev collection of art and rare manuscripts and a library, and from 1925it has been a part of the Lenin Library, the second largest in the world, after the Library of Congress, and a magnet for international scholars, even during the Soviet era. Following the 1917 revolution, the museum was closed and the art collection was transferred to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art. The manuscripts were donated to the Russian State Library which now owns this building. Pashkov House is off-limits to the general public, but after years of neglect, the government finally pledged funds for restoration work, which began in 2003. Money for the state-financed restoration finally started to flow after the visit from Vladimir V. Putin, the former president.

In a city where architectural monuments are readily torn down or gaudily renovated beyond recognition, Pashkov House, which reopened in October after an $80 million renovation, is one of the few restoration projects lauded by preservationists.

The building is Classical in style, with columns, urns, and terraces reminiscent of Rome. It stands on the high Vagankovsky hill, as if continuing the line of its ascent, on an open corner of two descending streets. There is a story that Bazhenov was offended with Catherine the Great, and planned the house to make it standing with its back to the Kremlin, as the entrance from Starovaganovsky Lane was intended to be the main entrance. And the façade looks on to Mokhovaya Street – i.e. on to the Kremlin.

The grand hall features elaborate plasterwork depicting mythical figures, candelabra that had been salvaged from the ruins and a retractable chandelier.

The magnificient house can be rented for special events for $100,000 or more. Christie’s held a pre-auction showing for rich Russian art collectors at Pashkov House last fall, and Boucheron, the French jewelry house, held an exhibition and soirée there in March.

There are no more secret collections here that were once off-limits in soviet times. However, two rare busts of Socrates and Homer, from Pashkov House’s final 19th-century iteration as the Rumyantsev Museum are still there and preserved.

The gleaming white Pashkov edifice rose three stories and was crowned with a belvedere. The combination of rocco and Palladian splendor of Pashkov House was expressed strikingly in its Kremlin facade dominated by majestic four Corinthian column portico where the architect placed a statue next to the first and the fourth columns.

Read more: The Architecture and Planning of Classical Moscow: A Cultural History

To everyone’s surprise, price tagged at $ 2 Billion, Antilla (named after the mythical island) is in India and is world’s first billion dollar home. Indeed, like its name, it houses stuff that surrounds myth!

Owner is India’s richest, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance fame whose net worth was 43 Billion in March of this year and was the 5th richest in the world.

The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the market is the 70 million dollar triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in the air.

When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing four years of design and construction, it will be 27 story and 550 feet high (height which normally houses 60 floors) with 400,000 square feet of interior space. (Click on the picture to see a video).

However, all of this has not been without its share of controversies. Antilla is being built on land sold to Ambanis’ to be used as orphanage by Waqf Board.The land measuring 11793 sq yards was sold in 2004 by the trust for a charitable purpose of looking after the destitutes and orphan children belonging to the Khoja Mohammedan community. The land was given to the Maharashtra State Board of Waqf by Jivagi Raje Scindia in 1957. The MoU was signed with four companies namely Antillia Commercials, Saphire Realtors, Rockline Constructions and Baun Foundation trust.

The Waqf Board has told the Supreme Court that it sold the property thinking it was to be used for an orphanage and that commercial buildings are not allowed on Waqf land. Property having a market value of Rs 400 crore was sold only for Rs 21.05 cr to M/s Antillia Commercial, a company of Reliance group of Industries. Rs 16 crores were also paid to Waqf Board for No Objection Certificate.

The Supreme Court on Friday decided not to intervene in the construction of the building on Waqf board land in Mumbai and has directed the matter back to the Bombay high court.

Critics have also said that showing off such extravagant wealth in a country rife with poverty is insensitive and ethically questionable. This is excessive and ostentatious given that more than 65 percent of Mumbai’s 18 million residents live in tenements.

Features which have made it the world’s best:

• The first six floors will be reserved for parking alone, and that too for cars belonging only to Mukesh’s family. Space for a total of 168 imported cars has been earmarked here.
• Where possible, the designers say, whether it’s for the silver railings, magnificient crystal chandeliers, woven area rugs or steel support beams, the Ambanis are using Indian companies, contractors, craftsmen and materials firms.

  

• Elements of Indian culture juxtapose newer designs. For example, the sinks in a lounge extending off the entertainment level, which features a 65 seat movie theater and wine room, are shaped like ginkgo leaves (native to India) with the stem extending to the faucet to guide the water into the basin.
• The top floors of entertaining space, where Ambani plans to host business guests (or just relax) offer panoramic views of the Arabian Sea.
• No two floors are alike in either plans or materials used. If a metal, wood or crystal is part of the ninth-floor design, it shouldn’t be used on the eleventh floor, for example. The idea is to blend styles and architectural elements so spaces give the feel of consistency, but without repetition.
• Atop six stories of parking lots, Antilla’s living quarters begin at a lobby with nine elevators, as well as several storage rooms and lounges.
• Down dual stairways with silver-covered railings is a large ballroom with 80% of its ceiling covered in crystal chandeliers. It features a retractable showcase for pieces of art, a mount of LCD monitors and embedded speakers, as well as stages for entertainment. The hall opens to an indoor/outdoor bar, green rooms, powder rooms and allows access to a nearby “entourage room” for security guards and assistants to relax.

• On the health level, local plants decorate the outdoor patio near the swimming pool and yoga studio. The floor also features an ice room where residents and guests can escape the Mumbai heat to a small, cooled chamber dusted by man-made snow flurries. Each family member has a separate gymn here.

• For more temperate days, the family will enjoy a four-story open garden. In profile, the rebar-enforced beams form a “W” shape that supports the upper two-thirds of the building while creating an open-air atrium of gardens, flowers and lawns.
  
• Gardens, whether hanging hydroponic plants, or fixed trees, are a critical part of the building’s exterior adornment but also serve a purpose: The plants act as an energy-saving device by absorbing sunlight, thus deflecting it from the living spaces and making it easier to keep the interior cool in summer and warm in winter. An internal core space on the garden level contains entertaining rooms and balconies that clear the tree line and offer views of downtown Mumbai.
• Antilla’s shape is based on Vaastu, an Indian tradition much like Feng Shui that is said to move energy beneficially through the building by strategically placing materials, rooms and objects. At Antilia, the overall plan is based on the square, which is Vaastu’s basic geometric unit, and a garden level occupies the tower’s midsection, the point where all energies converge according to the Vaastu Purusha Mandala.
• The 27-story building is eco-friendly, with hydroponically grown plants cooling the building and filtering its air, limiting the need for air-conditioning. With vertical gardens, you can use the whole wall almost like a tree and increase the green area of the site by five or 10 times over what it would be if you just did a green roof.

The four floors at the top, just below the hellipad that provides a view of the Arabian Sea and a superb view of the city’s skyline, is where Mukesh with his wife Neeta, their three kids and Mukesh’s mother Kokilaben, will reside. Nearly 600 people would attend to the six in the family.

The residence tower stands on Mumbai’s Altamount Road on an acre site where real estate costs as much as $1800/square foot. Mumbai is the densest city of India with almost 30,000 people per square kilometer.

The architects, Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental, based in Dallas and Los Angeles, were picked up by Nita Ambani, who was recently in news for being gifted a $59 million air jet by her husband on her 44th birthday! The jet, like their new home, was fitted with a plush bar with mood lighting, a master bedroom, showers and a state-of-the-art entertainment cabin.

The architects and designers say,”You are looking at the model for the buildings of the future.”

Read on:

Seventy-five years ago, in Los Angeles, with a no-interest loan from Dutch philanthropist Dr CH Van Der Leeuw, Viennese-American architect Richard Neutra, rightly called ’second only to Frank Lloyd Wright’, built a radical “glass house” with rooftop and balcony gardens on Silverlake Boulevard.

This is the place where Neutra had designed hundreds of projects over the four continents among which are some of the finest schools, public buildings and distinguished residences. So many architects were trained here and whose careers started in this office/studio.

Neutra’s residence played host to cultural figures like Frank Lloyd Wright, Lazlo Moholy Nagy, Jorn Utson, Charles and Ray Eames; religious figures like Robert Schuler and J Krishnamurti; scientists like Rene Dubos and Linus Pauling; and to political figures and activists like John Anson Ford, Frank Wilkinson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

VDL, as Neutra had named his residence, was very dear to him. His ashes were later scattered in the backyard.

Neutra’s wife Dione gave this house to the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1990. The charge when the family donated the house was that principally it would be an educational tool. And in a city where Neutra houses are coveted, it is the only one open to the public. However, the University, Pomona, announced yesterday that it may have to sell Richard Neutra’s residence since it is hard pressed for funds.

To help raise money for repairs and an endowment, the architect’s youngest son, Raymond, is working with the actress Kelly Lynch, who owns a 1959 Neutra house in Lone Pine, Calif. Ms. Lynch, who has contributed $1,000 to the campaign herself, said their goal is to raise $30,000 by October and $1 million by December 2009.

Lynch shares, “We’ll take $5, $10, whatever people feel they can give. We realize this is going to take a whole community to get behind us.”

This residence was designed to accommodate Neutra’s office and two families on a small 60 x 70 foot lot. Seven years later, as his family expanded, he built a garden house on the back of the lot. This compact wing had walls that slid open onto a pocket garden to be shared by the addition and main house.

However, in 1963 after a disastrous fire, that left unscathed only the 1940 Garden house and basement of the original wing, Richard and his son and partner Dion Neutra had a chance to redesign the main house. Two floors and a penthouse solarium were built on the original prefabricated basement structure. They applied what the practice had learned in the interim about sun louvers, water roofs, “nature-near”, and physiologically motivated design.

Read on: Urgent Campaign for Neutra VDL (Cultural Heritage Historic Monument #640): An appeal for preservation maintenance and stewardship.

The idea of designers and architects working together is nothing new, from the Tokyo store collaboration between Prada and Rem Koolhaas to Hussein Chalayan’s techno virtuosity in morphing dresses into chairs.

We all live in buildings and wear clothes. Traditionally, fashion and architecture have remained quite distinct. However, since 1980s the two disciplines have become closer than ever before.

However, Skin + Bones, Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture (at the new Embankment Galleries in London’s Somerset House until Aug. 10) is a fascinating study of how the two crafts have run separately but on similar lines over the last 25 years.It is an attempt to demystify how these two creative disciplines no longer operate in a cultural vacuum. Sharing materials, design methods and fabrication has inspired radical developments.

Over 50 internationally-renowned architects and designers including Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Future Systems, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid have come together to ‘fashion’ buildings and ‘construct’ garments. Rather than forcing similarities with grand, academic texts, the visuals are left to speak for themselves.

The exhibition itself has been designed by architect Eva Jiricna and features over 200 works including iconic garments, 3D architectural models and film footage.

Both architects and designers are preoccupied with space, volume and providing a cover for the body, a protection from the environment and a vehicle for social and cultural comment. And these are the kernels at the heart of the exhibition, presented thematically with garments or catwalk videos on one side and architectural parallels opposite.

Clare Catterall, the Somerset House curator of the exhibition explains, “this trend is part of a growing energy and increased synergy between the shared language of architects and fashion designers. Visual culture is very energetic at the moment but I think this exhibition is so timely because it’s only recently that architects have started to embrace fashion and vice versa. Designers are speaking a conceptual language that is very close if not identical to that of architects and hence the two work hand in hand – look at Prada and OMA.”

Skin + Bones has come to London after traveling through Los Angeles and Tokyo where also it saw a huge success.

Beijing’s $500-million Olympic stadium opens its doors to the media. Finishing touches are still being added to the 91000 seat venue.

Bird’s Nest, as it has been nicknamed, cost more than 500 million US Dollars and took fours years to build. It is called ‘Bird’s Nest’ due to the structural form of its roof. The interwoven structural elements of the facade produce a single surface, upon which further elements are arranged in a chaotic manner to blur the distinction between the primary structure and the secondary structure. The roof is saddle-shaped, and the geometry is developed from a base ellipse of which the major and minor axes are 313 meters and 266 meters respectively. The outer surface of the facade is inclined at approximately 13° to the vertical.

The opening ceremony for the Olympics will be held in this seven- level stadium on August 9, 2008. The stadium will host the main track and field competitions for the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. It is located right next to the Beijing National Aquatics Centre.

The construction of this stadium started in March of 2004 after a ground breaking ceremony on Christmas Eve of December 2003. In 2002 Government Officials in China invited architects worldwide for a design competition which was won by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron.

Contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, is the Artistic Consultant for design.

Work did stop in between due to very high construction costs. It has not been easy. Almost 10 people were reported to have died during construction which lead to lot of political controversy.

Click on the picture to watch a Video

Some Interesting FACTS:

• The stadium can seat as many as 91,000 spectators during the Olympics. The capacity will then be reduced to 80,000 after the Games as temporary seating will be removed then.
• It has replaced the original intended venue of the Guangdong Olympic Stadium.
• The stadium is 330 metres long by 220 meters wide, and is 69.2 meters tall.
• The stadium uses 258,000 square meters of space and has a usable area of 204,000 square meters.
• It was built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes.
• The stadium has some 11,000 square meters of underground rooms with waterproof walls.
• The stadium will cost up to 3.5 billion yuan (≈423 million USD).
• Upon completion, this stadium will boast a state of the art Solar PV system produced by Suntech Power.

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Architects Arakawa and Madeline Gins believe that you have a right not to die. Reversible destiny comes as part of their services to you as an architect and designers.

“We believe we can help extend your lives,” architects’ claim.

They recently completed a house (not for mortals) in East Hamoton, New York. The house is called Bioscleave House which literally implies Life Extending Villa. Children are forbidden to enter this house, and even adults have to sign a waiver before they enter the house. The house comes with its own ‘User’s Manual’. The house is meant to lead its users into a perpetually “tentative” relationship with their surroundings, and thereby keep them young.

What is so special about this house, you ask? Well, apart from immortality, the house has following list of features:

• The walk on the house’s concrete floor which rises and falls is comparable to moon walk. The floor is made in a traditional Japanese style, using hardened soil, here mixed with a little cement.
• The undulating floors provide you with a luxury of mountain climbing within the comfort and security of your home. For the not so sure-footed there are a dozen brightly colored metal poles to grab on to.
• Its architecture makes people use their bodies in unexpected ways to maintain equilibrium, and that will stimulate their immune systems.
• The walls are made of various materials including metal and translucent polycarbonate, which admits a gentle light.
• Walls painted, somewhat disconcertingly, in about 40 colors if not more.
• Multiple levels meant to induce the sensation of being in two spaces at once.
• Oddly angled light switches and outlets.
• Windows at varying heights.
• No doors or privacy obstructions in the house. However, they do provide you with hooks in the ceiling, and someday the house could be festooned with curtains or other dividers.
• A sunken kitchen in the middle of the house.
• The finished house consists of four rectangular rooms surrounding a free-form living space.

The only missing feature is ceilings meeting the floors. The original owner could not bear with the high construction costs and sold the project for $2.25 million which includes $1 million from the new owner to complete construction of the project.

Since 1963, artists-architects-poets Arakawa and Madeline Gins have worked in collaboration to produce visionary, boundary-defying art and architecture. Their seminal work, The Mechanism of Meaning, has been exhibited widely throughout the world.

One of their first built architectural projects, a Yoro park in central Japan called “Site of Reversible Destiny,” was completed in 1995. Made up of acres of warped surfaces, it offers visitors advice, in a handout leaflet, like “Instead of being fearful of losing your balance, look forward to it.”

Perhaps Roberta Smith has to be believed when he writes, “Theoretical follies, one of the plagues of contemporary architecture, have their place, and it’s on paper.”

I have never heard of a profession being related to a particular community or country. Never heard, “Oh, this country produces maximum architects,” or “Architects of this country are the best,” or “This is a country of Architects”, or even “This country loves her Architects.”

Though I have heard about particular communities or countries becoming famous travel destinations because of their architecture. Italy, Greece, India are a few examples falling in the latter category.

Says Christian Lander, “If you ask white people what they love about cities they don’t live in, they will say “restaurants,” “culture,” and “architecture.” They just can’t get enough of old buildings or ultramodern buildings next to old buildings.

If you want to fit in with white people you need to learn about IM Pei, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, and a whole swath of others. Also, be prepared to say “Bauhaus” a lot…

…The reason white people love architecture so much is that deep down they believe that they could have been a great architect. They feel the same way about other professions including: professor, writer, and politician.

A sports business model that originated in America and is now spreading across the globe. Hungering for the kind of revenue needed to field top teams, a wave of stadium construction is sweeping through sports. But not just any stadiums. Super-stadiums.

The formula: Build new facilities with fewer seats and more luxury boxes, charge higher prices, earn more revenue, hire better players and reap more wins. Then turn around and raise ticket prices. Teams are finding it’s a circle you have to be a part of.

Click on the picture to take a peek into 10 New Super- stadiums.

$3 billion-one, $3 billion-two, and $3 billion- its is. A building to sell for $3 billion does sound insane but this insanity is nearing to become a reality. Larry Silverstein, developer of ground zero, has bid $3 billion for General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, in the Manhattan District in New York.

Indeed, with its commanding view of Central Park and its Fifth Avenue address, the building is a trophy property and a symbol of New York corporate power since General Motors moved its boardroom and some 3,300 employees there 40 years ago. Since then, though, G.M.’s presence has shrunk to three floors from 26, and its contractual naming rights for the property expire in 2010.

Harry Macklowe, owner of the building needs to raise $1.2 billion to pay off a short-term, high-interest loan that came due last week. He was flying high in February when he decided to buy a portfolio of prime Midtown Manhattan office towers for nearly $7 billion, using only $50 million of his own money. New York Times had reported in August of 2007, ‘February acquisition of the seven Manhattan buildings — a deal consummated in just 10 business days —will be remembered not just as a feat of financial derring-do but also as a watershed that ended two years of frenzy in the commercial real estate market.’

Macklowe, known in the industry as an investor willing to take a gamble to gain big properties, bought the building from Donald Trump and the insurance firm Conseco in 2003 for $1.4 billion, which observers said at the time was too high. As the market soared in the last several years and Macklowe redeveloped the plaza in front of the building to include an Apple store, the value of the building rose along with it. Built in 1968, the white marble and dark glass skyscraper occupies a full city block and is best known as the home of two retail tourist attractions, the FAO Schwarz toy emporium and Apple’s glass cube store.

Not for the first time, Mr. Macklowe, an acknowledged master of winner-take-all real estate poker, proved his skeptics wrong. He expanded and enhanced the valuable retail space of the G.M. Building — on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street — by creating a glass cube for an Apple store that has become a popular tourist destination. As the market soared, Macklowe Properties refinanced the tower twice, most recently in a deal that values it at about $2.7 billion.

Macklowe has been able to hold the creditors temporarily from foreclosing. New York Times reports, ‘Mr. Macklowe is trying to accomplish what few other developers have been able to do: convert the naming rights for a Manhattan skyscraper into a significant source of cash. He is offering the opportunity for a company to join a pantheon of skyline signatures that includes the Chrysler Building, the Woolworth Building, Lever House, Citigroup Center and the Pan Am, er, MetLife Building.’