I had no idea who Jean Nouvel was before this blog, but after looking him up I saw what amazing work he had done. The first building of his I came across was the Torre Agbar, which is located in Barcelona, Spain. This building looks insane, in a good way. It is tall and narrow, with extraordinary colored lights all the way up. Spain’s municipal water company is the lucky dweller of this masterpiece. Nouvel wanted the building to look like a geyser rising into the air.
The Walsh house seems to go along very well with Murcutts theme of having wide outside facing areas and sharp edges all over the building. The large overhanging roof works well to block out the sun, allowing the windows to remain open and allow in plentiful natural light. The thing I don’t like about the house is that it doesn’t have a very good flow throughout. The rooms are small and cutoff from each other.
The BelView apartments, located in Vienna, Austria, is scheduled to be completed this year. This massive structure accommodates 249 units and is uniquely shaped. This might be for design purposes but with a 87% efficiency rate, probably also has to do with aerodynamics and energy usage.
It reminds me of the Flatiron Building (posted below) by how it splits the street and the onlooker’s view of the remaining landscape. Although the BelView is a boomerang shape, the structures favor each other.
http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/architecture/projects/belview-apartments/
The Islamic centre in Newport, Australia that Glenn Murcutt designed is quite different from a normal mosque. It has many skylights in the form of triangles on the roof that act as a beacon for people to pray to during the call to prayer. The building itself was completed in 2016 and will also serve as an Islamic community center. Murcutt was currently 80 years old when this building broke ground.
The Torre de Cristal is a skyscraper in Madrid, Spain. Cesar Pelli Designed the skyscraper and it was built by Dragados, a Spanish construction company, completed in 2009. This stands at 817 ft tall and the 18th tallest building in Europe with 50 floors above ground and 5 below ground. The design is very simple but very sophisticated looking. Like a lot of skyscrapers, the it is made of concrete, steel and glass. The coolest part about this building is the angles of the building and the winter garden at the top of the tower. Overall, cool skyscraper.
This is the Transbay Tower in downtown San Francisco. This building is 1,070 feet tall, with 61 floors. This is the centerpiece of the Transbay and the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco. This I was the last building design and completed by Cesar Pelli. It is made of steel and glass with a reinforced concrete core. I think one of the coolest things that you do not see of this building is that it is on a thick foundation mat that protects against liquefaction of soil and seismic activity. Overall, a pretty skyscraper with glass that reflects off the rest of the city.
The Petronas Towers also known as the Petronas twin towers are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These were the largest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 and remain to be the tallest twin towers in the world. They are a postmodern Islamic architecture, with elements of religious styles influenced my Roam and Persian architecture but also very modern. You can see the religious style at the top of the towers. There are 93 floors total, 5 are underground. This building is made of reinforced concrete with steel and glass façade to resemble Islamic art. Another cool part of this is the cross sections of the towers it is influnced by the Rub el Hizb, a Islamic symbol. Overall, cool building and very pretty to look at, this kind of reminds me of the Burj Khalifa.
The Science and Technology Museum Xingtai (STMX) will be located in Xingtai, China and stand 40 meters high at its completion. As one of the many buildings designed by the Coop Himmelblau firm. it is similar to other designs with a hulking metal frame and glass accents.
“The flowing building represents the dynamic approach of the scientific development in China. The aim of the project is to emphasize Xingtai’s role as a scientific and technological hotspot in the province of Hebei. Building up on Xingtai’s history of astronomers, engineers and other scientists, the project reflects past, current and future approaches of cutting edge economic, ecologic and building technologies. The building will be designed with new structural concepts, hosting plus energy systems and will display the rich Chinese traditional culture, showcasing scientific and technological achievements the city, the province and China has offer.” (Archello, 2020)
This project began in 2019 , but I am not sure of the completion date or which stage of development it’s currently in.
http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/architecture/projects/science-and-technology-museum-xingtai/
https://archello.com/project/science-and-technology-museum-xingtai
The Pacific Design Center is in West Coast Hollywood California. This building is the largest building in the surrounding area ans is often called the ‘Blue whale’ due to its size and blue glass. Pelli’s design opened in 1975 and is 750,000 square feet. I like the blue glass look on the outside to me it look like water, but it also allows the people to see from the inside out. I like this building and there is no doubt that the blue grass makes you stare at this building.
This is one of my favorite boutiques in OKC. When I first saw it, I was across the street eating at Iguana Grill. I remember thinking that it was a cool concept, since I had never seen a container used as a business. The second time I went back to Iguana I convinced my friends to go across and go inside. As you can imagine it was a small space, but it was so cute inside! Because of this is I now want to open some type of business from a container. I think it is such a cool concept and so fun!
