The Antakya Museum Hotel, Designed by Emre Arolat Architecture is a Hotel built on top of an archeological dig site in Antakya, Turkey. The construction for this building started in 2010 and just recently opened on January 1st, 2020 after over 3000 days of construction. This hotel is wonderful in the fact that you are able to be so close to an actual archeological dig site that you feel as you are part of history itself.The Musem and Hotel blend into one seamless structure with rooms, dining areas and public spaces overlooking these ancient pieces of history. You can see in the picture below there are even luxury rooms that hang above the dig sites overlooking history itself. But as you look at the rooms themselves, with there pristine block-like structure, and compare them to the crumpled and eroded building remnants of Antakya of the past you can see the effects of time and how we have progressed.

The three founders of MAD Studio – Ma Yanson, Dang Qun, and Yosuke Hayano – have displayed architectural creativity that is emulated in structures other than commercial buildings. In addition to founding one of the world’s leading modernism-influenced firms, they are also responsible for the opening of many different art exhibits, my favorite one being the “Shanshui City” exhibit in Beijing, China. This exhibit shows off what the founders believe a futuristic “utopia” would look like – majestic white structures surrounded by shallow water and lush greenery. It’s a beautiful image of balance between architectural minimalism and its natural surroundings. I know it’s not necessarily architectural structures, but I feel like MAD Studio’s art exhibits might possibly reflect how they envision their future endeavors?

It goes without saying that MAD Studio has produced some of the greatest architectural feats in the world. However, in my opinion, their most notable and renowned projects are the Absolute World towers, built in 2012 in Mississauga Canada. They are colossal residential buildings, covering about 45,000 square meters each. Together they hold 106 floors and have become one of Canada’s most reputable architectural displays, as well as one of the world’s pinnacles of modernism. The towers are somewhat futuristic in the way that they are asymmetrical. However, at the same time, I feel as if the waves and unnatural shape of the building’s walls give it an almost ethereal look. I would love to visit these buildings some day, since I also love Canada.

MAD Studio, or the MAD architects, are an architectural firm with offices and headquarters all around the world. They were founded in 2004 and are responsible for the designs of world famous buildings such as the National Art Museum of China and Absolute World (the building pictured). The firm is headed by Dang Qun, Ma Yansong, and Yosuke Hayano. Their project ventures cover a number of different purposes – commercial and residential, to even educational structures. If you take a look at the Ordos Museum in Ordos, China, you can see that modern and futuristic structures are MAD Studio’s forte; they specialize in simple structures that contain beauty in the features that they lack. This is incredible to me; by stripping a building of all it’s truly nonessential aspects, you get something that looks truly odd and majestic at the same time.

The first building I would like to go over is the Kimbell art museum in Fort Worth, TX. According to their website, Kahn wanted to create a building with “light to its theme.”

In this first photo, it shows how open the building is with the amount of windows. He stuck to his theme by making almost all of the exterior walls mostly windows to provide a natural light into the building.

According to the website, Kahn went with a vaulted ceiling, to help provide that natural light along with providing a tribute to the Roman arches he adored.

The architect I have been assigned is Joseph Pierre Foucart. While he was born in Belgium, his primary location of architecture was in Oklahoma. The first building I will write about is the Co-operative Publishing Company Building.  This building was designed and completed by Foucart in 1902 after the original building burned down earlier the same year. It was the state capital, and the place of the first newspaper publishing in the Oklahoma Territory. It was sold to a competitor in 1911, and acted as a printing company until the 1980s. In 1983, it opened as the State Capital Publishing Museum. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the museum was forced to shut down in 2012, and hasn’t opened since.

I love the way this building has old-fashioned all brick building. While this looks like most of the buildings designed in this area and time, it still holds up in my opinion. The grand entrance is something so captivating, and one that I would want to go in based on appearance alone. I notice the columns around the top floor, which reminds me of a medieval castle, and I also notice the color, which while it is simple, it seems very powerful.