The Sancaklar Mosque is located in Buyukcekmece, a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey and was created to be a place of worship.   This Mosque is very different from the topical design of mosques.   Usually, all a mosque needs is a clean room for prayer; this gave architect Emre Arolat a lot of freedom to create the space he wanted.  The mosque is built into the ground and continues with the normal shape of the hillside.   Besides having the walls, this would look very similar to how the hill was before the mosque was built into it.  This structure is also a very green as Turkey can be a very hot country and the green roof provides temperature control and reduces the amount of energy used. The green roof has a natural slope with a walkway like many of his other works. The prayer room is a large open room with one of the most interesting ceilings I have ever seen.  The ceiling is oval-shaped and has many different layers that create an extremely  interesting design.  ArchDaily gave it the Religious Building of the Year Award in 2015.

The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library was another one of my favorite buildings by Helmut Jahn. It serves as the library of the University of Chicago and was named after the alumni Joe and Rika Mansueto. The design of the library allows it to have a capacity of 3.5 million volumes. The building consists of a glass-domed reading room, above high density, closed book stacks that use an Automated Storage and Retrieval System with an average retrieval time of three minutes. This building incorporates solar-control glass overhead, a circular base that supports the foundation walls, and plenty of interior space for studying. The height of the dome at its highest point is 35 feet with a length and width of 240 and  120 feet, respectively. The structural grid-shell of 120 x 240 feet and the insulated glazing satisfies the interior comfort while meditating the exterior conditions. The interior has very clean and modern aesthetics. This building has received numerous awards for its design and unique dome structure.  It is definitely a library I would study in any day!

The ThyssenKrupp Test Tower was probably one of my favorite works by Helmut Jahn. This building was co-designed by Werner Sobek and Helmut Jahn and is located in Rottweil, Germany. This building is 246 meters tall and was completed in 2017. The ThyssenKrupp is the tallest elevator test tower in the world and second-largest elevator chamber.  The magnitude of the building gives anyone at the top magnificent views of both the country and urban sites of Rottweil. This building’s purpose is to test and certify high-speed elevators. Not only does is this building known as the tallest elevator test tower but its unique shape and facade captivates the attention of anyone who sees it. The exterior of the building has a spiral-like from the base to the top of the building.  The facade of the building is the tallest textile- clad building in the world and consist of PTFE-coated glass fiber fabric attached to six-round steel tubes that run around the tower in a helical manner.

Liberty Place is a set of skyscrapers located in Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania, United States. The two structures are constructed with a steel structure held up with eight large pillars and a central core where the elevator is located. The exterior of the building is made of aluminum, granite, and glass panels. One of the buildings is called One Liberty place and it is 61 stories and 848-foot skyscraper.  One liberty Place contains 1,200,000 square feet, with an average floor size of 24,000 square feet. The second building is called Two Liberty Place and is 58 stories and 848 feet.  Helmut Jahn is a known fan of American eclecticism and Art Deco and he incorporated these elements in his design. When designing Liberty Place, Helmut Jahn also used New York city’s Chrysler Building as a reference. They are so similar in design that he calls it ” Son of Chrysler” according to Rouse. The most prominent similarity is the spire at the top of the Skyscraper that is 146 feet tall in One Liberty Place and a smaller spire sits on Two Liberty Place.  Like the Chrysler building, the facade of Liberty place buildings mix glass and metal. The height of the tower is accentuated by the horizontal bands of granite and glass and the colors of the facade with its mixture of gray, silver, and metallic blues.

Lastly, here is the Church of the Cross finished in 1979 in Lahti, Finland. Unfortunately, he never got to see its completion as it was completed after his passing in 1976. To me, this is his most unique looking church, but not be much. He made some incredible churches that are remarkably beautiful. However, I love three things about this church. First, the church is built on a hill overlooking the city center. Second, the windows on the side of the brick shape a giant cross. Lastly, I absolutely love the bell tower. The way the sun reflects off of the tower makes it shine bright on top. Another wonderful part about it is the interior. Windows are along the top of the wall, the back of the ceiling, and along the ground floor. The windows create so much natural light in the room. Church of the Cross is the city’s second architectural landmark.

Church of the Cross

The Neue Vahr Highrise residential building was finished in 1962 in Bremen, Germany. While this may not be one of his prettiest designs compared to the churches and The Nordic House, I still find this building attractive. I personally like the wavy design of the building. Also, it is built next to a central square and a parking lot for the building. My favorite part of this building is that he built all the apartments to have a balcony facing west in order to “enjoy maximum daylight while at home.” I also love that he designed each floor with a common room. The roof also has a club locale and a covered terrace. The residents are meant to interact with each other and give the building a homey and friendly feel. I very much appreciate the community aspect.

Neue Vahr highrise residential building

For my final Carme blog, I am using the Caixa Forum, located in Zaragoza, Spain. Another truly remarkable building from Carme, this one continues her use of sharp edges and block structures to draw the eye, but what makes the Caixa Forum special to me is the way it is supported by a smaller building with two wings coming off of it. The building almost looks like its floating. The windows also fall in line with Carme’s signature style, as they are not a normal shape, but utilize sharp lines and interesting placements similar to the rest of her work. Before today I did not know who Carme Pinós was, but she is now one of my favorite architects. Her work blows my mind and is truly special to me.

The Nordic House opened in 1968 Reykjavik, Iceland. According to their website, “The goal of the Nordic House is to foster and strengthen cultural relations between Iceland and the other Nordic countries,” That is just an incredibly cool mission. The building hosts many cultural events, exhibitions, and is also a library. Aalto’s signature white modernism is shown both in the interior and exterior. I love the location he picked. As you can see, it is beautifully situated next to this pond and is very close to the ocean, the University of Iceland, and the national museum. The top of the building also seems to nearly match the color of the pond. All of the shrubs and other landscape complement the building. Another interesting note is that almost all of the furniture, lamps, and other objects in the house were designed by him. Very cool fact. Personally, the main room of the library looks similar to my town library as a kid. Of course, this one being much nicer and prettier.

Um húsið

I could not find an official name for this building, but everywhere I could find an image of it referred to it as a government building. Carme makes some pretty insane decisions with this building, but boy did they pay off. The extreme contrast of a simple black and white building in an urban setting is very satisfying to me. Carme continues her use of straight lines and interesting window placement with this building. The way Carme incorporated such sharp lines together to create buildings like this just blows my mind. Working in a Carme building would be a  joy every single day.

“Les Terres de l’Ebre” is an office building located in Tortosa, Spain. In this building, Carme utilizes futuristic smooth gray concrete slabs in a very creative way, using multiple slabs to hold one huge slab up which forms the roof. This building incorporates both sharp edges and smooth lines very well in a way not seen often. The building also has more than enough windows to meet my personal requirement, and I think this would be a very happy building to live or work in. I really appreciate the smooth look and the use of very few colors. This building is smooth and sleek, but enough to catch the eye and blow the mind away at the same time.