Wednesday, 7. November 2007, 06:33:42
Frank Gehry
Bác Frank Gehry bị bọn MIT kiện vì tội thiết kế kỹ thuật ẩu làm công trình bị dột và mốc, làm chủ nhà mất hơn triệu đô để sửa. Không biết kiện cáo ra sao nhưng có vẻ là bác Gehry thua rồi. Cái Stata Center của Gehry bị mất điểm với cái cái MIT Neuroscience Center của Charles Corean và Residence của Steven Holl rồi. Bọn thầu xây dựng thì bảo đã yêu cầu Gehry revise lại thiết kế rồi mà không chịu. Bác này lại còn biện hộ kiểu ngụy biện là Tao làm xong mà bọn sử dụng rất khoái cái nhà đấy, chúng nó lại còn viết email khen tao tấm tắc. Mỗi tội khoái thì là 1 chuyện dột với mốc lại 1 chuyện khác. Kiểu như em đẹp em xinh nhưng em lười tắm thì anh cũng khó yêu lắm.
Mà đọc cái này mới biết là cái vỏ bọc nhôm Theatre Walt Disney của Gehry cũng phải chế một lại một số phần vì phản xạ ánh sáng kinh quá. Không biết cái Guggenheim Bilbao của có bị chế lại nữa không. Tôi không thích Gehry lắm nhưng mà một KTS nổi tiếng như ông không nên để dính cái faut này. Đen nhỉ.
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M.I.T. Sues Frank Gehry, Citing Flaws in Center He Designed
By ROBIN POGREBIN and KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: November 7, 2007
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has sued the architect Frank Gehry and a construction company, claiming that “design and construction failures” in the institute’s $300 million Stata Center resulted in pervasive leaks, cracks and drainage problems that have required costly repairs.
The center, which features angular sections that appear to be falling on top of one another, opened to great acclaim in the spring of 2004. Mr. Gehry once said that it “looks like a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate.”
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston last week and first reported yesterday in The Boston Globe. It accuses Mr. Gehry’s firm, Gehry Partners, based in Los Angeles, of negligence and breach of contract in the design of the center, which houses laboratories, classrooms, offices and meeting rooms.
In an interview, Mr. Gehry, whose firm was paid $15 million for the project, said construction problems were inevitable in the design of complex buildings.
“These things are complicated,” he said, “and they involved a lot of people, and you never quite know where they went wrong. A building goes together with seven billion pieces of connective tissue. The chances of it getting done ever without something colliding or some misstep are small.”
“I think the issues are fairly minor,” he added. “M.I.T. is after our insurance.”
Mr. Gehry said he had received several expressions of support from people at the institute. “The professors and the people that we all did the building for are sending me e-mails dumbfounded that their institution is doing this,” he said.
Pamela Dumas Serfes, an M.I.T. spokeswoman, said, “As a matter of policy we don’t comment on pending litigation, and our lawsuit speaks for itself.”
Mr. Gehry has had to address problems with his buildings before. In December 2004, for example, he agreed to sandblast parts of his $274 million Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in response to a report that found that the building’s skin produced excessive glare.
In the current case, he is joined as a defendant by the Stata Center’s builder, Skanska USA Building Inc., a New Jersey-based subsidiary of a Swedish company, Skanska AB. Jan Saragoni, a spokeswoman for Skanska USA, said, “Skanska values its relationship with M.I.T. and is looking forward to a speedy resolution of the matter.”
But Paul Hewins, executive vice president and area general manager of the company, told The Globe: “This is not a construction issue. Never has been.”
Mr. Hewins said Mr. Gehry had rejected Skanska’s formal request to revise the design for the center’s 350-seat outdoor amphitheater, whose poor drainage has been a large part of the problem.
The suit says that within months of the center’s opening, it essentially started coming apart, with “considerable masonry cracking” in the amphitheater’s seating areas.
In late 2006 and in 2007, M.I.T. hired a designer and a contractor to repair the amphitheater at a cost of more than $1.5 million, the suit says. The institute also discovered additional problems, its court papers say, like “sliding ice and snow from the building’s window boxes and other projecting roof areas, blocking emergency exits and damaging other building elements.”
Mr. Gehry said “value engineering” — the process by which elements of a project are eliminated to cut costs — was largely responsible for the problems.
“There are things that were left out of the design,” he said. “The client chose not to put certain devices on the roofs, to save money.”
Yesterday, brownish green mold was visible on the exterior of the Stata Center. Inside, the lobby’s concrete floors were cracked, but no leaking, mold or signs of structural deficiency were evident.
“It is a joy to work in this building,” said Rodney Brooks, a professor of robotics, “and I know that many of its occupants feel the same as I do about it. We asked Frank to give us a building that fostered communication, and he delivered.”Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07mit.html?_r=1&ref=design&oref=slogin
Friday, 23. March 2007, 03:37:41
Frank Gehry
Tác giả :
NICOLAI OUROUSSOFFPublished: March 22, 2007
Người dịch: Mtvh
Bài dịch này chắc chắn sẽ có nhiều lỗi, lỗi văn phạm cũng như lỗi ngữ pháp. Tuy nhiên xin vui lòng ghi rõ nguồn tại Blog này khi sử dụng lại bài dịch.------------------------------
Kể từ khi công trình bằng bê tông đầu tiên của Frank Gehry ở NY được dựng lên bên cạnh West Side Highway ở Chelsea, các fan kiến trúc đã không ngớt tranh luận về thiết kế của nó. Phải chăng đường lượn dẫy đà bằng kính của trụ sở IAC, gợi đến những nếp gấp mềm mại của một chiếc áo sơ mi, là một biến thể từ những tòa tháp vuông vức của các công ty ở khu Manhattan ? Hoặc điều này cho thấy cho giai đọan cải cách của Gehry đã lấp ló hiện hình phía sau ông ?
Có thể là cả hai. Công trình của Gehry đang thêm một sự sửa đổi nhẹ nhàng tinh tế vào những tòa cao ốc của Manhttan, đúng vào lúc thành phố vừa thức tỉnh qua một giai đọan rầu rĩ. Tòa nhà IAC, trụ sở tòan cầu của đế chế truyền thông và internet Barry Diller, ghi tên mình vào danh sách các dự án mới, phản ánh cung cách nhà phát triển chính của thành phố đưa ra đáng kể những dự án kinh doanh sáng tạo, sau nhiều thập kỉ xây dựng những công trình nhạt nhẽo và tầm phào.
Mặc dù chưa chính thức hòan thành, công trình này cũng thể hiện sự thay đổi ngạc nhiên của Gehry. Với những ai theo dõi sự nghiệp sáng tạo của tác giả, (dễ dàng nhận thấy), những form mềm mại, uốn lựon là biến thể rõ rệt từ những cấu trúc phức tạp và phân mảng của Gehry khi ông còn trẻ. Thay vì làm giàu, khai thác những sáng tạo mới, Gehry, nay đã 78 tuổi, dường như muốn quay lại. Kết quả, gần như là tươi mới bằng những quan điểm của Gehry, thể hiện sự điềm tĩnh lạ thường của khả năng sáng tạo đặc biệt, hơn là sự sáng tạo phức tạp của một dáng vẻ khoa trương bên ngoài
NY từ đã là một địa điểm khó chịu cho Gehry. Ông đã mất hàng thập kỷ để có một hợp đồng chính ở đây, và hiện tại, tòa nhà IAC gia nhập vào một chuỗi các công trình có giá trị cao, nằm trong một nỗ lực nhằm biến đổi dải đất ồn ào náo nhiệt của West Side Highway thành một khu đường dạo bộ quyến rũ cạnh bờ sông dành cho những cộng đồng giàu có, những người từng chối bỏ Gehry. Ba chung cư cao cấp của Richard Meier, với những người thuê như Martha Stewart và Calvin Klein, cách đó chừng 10 phút đi bộ về phía nam. Một chung cư cao tầng được chờ đợi của kiến trúc sư Pháp Jean Nouvel đang mọc lên chỉ cắt ngang West 19th Street.
Công trình này, kết cấu lạ thường nhất của Gehry, đẹp nhất khi tiếp cận từ xa. Nhìn lướt qua giữa những tòa nhà bằng gạch ám màu thời tiết của Chelsea, với những hình dạng được tạo dáng kì lạ phản chiếu bầu trời xung quanh, bề mặt của công trình dường như đang tan biến. Tuy nhiên, khi bạn vòng qua phía bắc, hình dạng của nó trở nên đối xứng và gẫy gọn hơn, liên tưởng đến những cánh buồm hoặc những lưỡi dao sắc nhọn. Với góc nhìn từ phía nam, hình dạng công trình có dáng vẻ vuông vức hơn. Đặc điểm biến hình liên tục này thể hiện trên tòan bộ mặt ngòai công trình với một vẻ đẹp bí ẩn. Thay vì nhại lại phong cách kiến trúc của các tòa nhà xung quanh, tác giả đối lập lại chúng, đem vào trong một tổng thể bố cục đô thị rộng lớn hơn. Các cánh buồm căng tròn của mặt đứng hướng tây dừng như bị chặn lại bởi tiếng ồn ào của những ôtô qua lại. Những khối vuông vức ở phía sau khóa chặt tòan bộ bố cục với những tòa nhà bằng gạch trải dài đến phía đông.
Tuy nhiên, hơn cả việc làm mềm những góc cạnh sắc nhọn. Khi còn là một kiến trúc sư trẻ, Gehry thường nói rằng ông cố gắng nắm bắt, truyền tải được nguồn năng lượng tinh chất của địa điểm xây dựng trong công trình đã hòan tất của mình : thực tế, mục đích của ông nhắm đến một trạng thái thỏa mãn. Những hình dạng xung khắc, những vật liệu đối kháng mãnh liệt, những tòa nhà khoét thủng thể hiện những cấu trúc thép nguyên thủy bên dưới. Gia đọan sau của sự nghiệp, khi mà công trình trở nên càng ngày càng kì quái, những hình ảnh gợi tình thể hiện cùng một chức năng : những hình dáng của công trình xô đẩy, tách rời nhau ra nhằm thể hiện sự chuyển động mãnh liệt của lớp vỏ ngòai hoặc những đôi chân mềm mại.
Những lối vào của trụ sở IAC được đặt kín đáo hai trên 2 con đường bên cạnh, tạo cho mặt đứng chính công trình dáng vẻ mềm mại và đồng nhất. Những đường dải băng thủy tinh trắng phân chia thành cửa sổ theo phương ngang, xem như một yếu tô trang trí kì lạ nhằm kiểm sóat luồng sáng bên trong công trình. Các panel cửa sổ tiền chế tiếp giáp với mặt sàn một cách tùy hứng, các khung nhôm của panel kết thúc theo một mạng lưới đơn giản. Chúng vừa không có sự chính xác đến lạnh lùng trong những công trình của Meier, vừa không có vẻ hoang dã của những công trình thời kì đầu của Gehry. Thay vào đó là một vẻ trang nhã và có gu thẩm mỹ.
Phong cách nhẹ nhàng dễ tiếp cận tiếp tục vào bên trong hành lang, được thiết kế như một phòng công cộng cho không gian bên cạnh. Một bức tường video dài 118 foot (khỏang 34 m) tạo thành tường hậu, chiếu những video nghệ thuật hoặc những bố cục màu sắc trừu tượng. Một chiếc ghế dài bằng gỗ maple mềm mại uốn khúc kết thúc tại một đầu góc phòng. Một hàng đầu cột lảo đảo chạy dọc theo mặt đứng kính xiên xẹo trông xuống đường cao tốc, tạo qua cho căn phòng một dáng vẻ không ổn định. Hiệu quả gợi lên cảm giác về một bể cá sang trọng, một ẩn dụ đẹp cho giai đọan tự kỉ của chúng ta.
Khi bạn đi sâu vào bên trong của công trình, những cảm nhận mềm mại lúc đầu dường như trở nên khô cứng hơn. Các tầng nơi đặt các văn phòng chính của công ty là một không gian thông 2 tầng, nhìn xuống bến tàu Chealsea và sông Hudson, góc nhìn xuống bến cảng này là một trong những nơi mà Gehry lấy cảm hứng. Nhưng không gian văn phòng thì lạnh lùng, vô cảm. Những khoang kính mờ bao quanh không gian thông tầng khô cứng và phẳng lặng. Một cầu thang uốn lượn, phủ bằng gỗ quý với các tay vịn bằng thép không rỉ, có vẻ được nhập khẩu từ một văn phòng tại Park Avenue. Đây có lẽ được xếp hạng như không gian văn phòng vô cảm nhất mà Gehry đã từng thiết kế.
So sánh cầu thang này với cầu thang phục vụ ở phía sau công trình. Cầu thang được làm bằng bêt tông trần, chạy suôt 10 tầng nhà được đặt lùi về phía sau so với mặt đứng kính, tạo ra một khe hẹp, tạp cảm giáo chông chênh, cho phép bạn đi xuyên xuống vào một sân trong. Nhìn tổng thể, cầu thang này trông rất lãng mạn, tạo ra một góc nhìn hòan hảo về tòa nhà Empire State, tuy nhiên sự tương phản của bê tông trần, kính và nhôm vượt hơn cả sự hài hòa với những mái nhà xung quanh : Một chỉ dấu rõ ràng về nơi mà Gehry đặt điểm nhấn. Đó có lẽ là cái lồng cầu thang hấp dẫn nhất hơn bất kỳ nơi nào ở New York. (Tuy nhiên, hiện nay nó đã bị sơn màu vàng làm giảm đi hiệu quả)
Nhưng khi bước lên hiên ở tầng 6, là nơi mà bạn sẽ nhận ra sự thiếu sót của thiết kế. Nhìn ngược lại tay vịn cầu thang, bạn sẽ quan sát thấy rõ lớp kính phủ ngòai ở các tầng trên, chỗ mà tòa nhà trở thu hẹp lại. Mạng lưới cấu trúc hình học trở nên chặt chẽ, chật chội hơn, sự kết nối của các panel kính ở nên gượng gạo, lúng túng.
Những mối nối không xếp hàng một cách hòan chỉnh, các góc dường như được vá víu một cách vội vã. Tại một vài chỗ, những cửa sổ có hình dáng vặn vẹo không bình thường, bị chi phối của hình khối hình học kì lạ của tòa nhà, khiến nó không thể tạo ra những lỗ mở chỉ với một tấm kính và những song cửa phụ tạo ra một cảm giác kì quặc, một hình mẫu chắp vá.
Hiệu quả tạo ra là đầy rẫy sức mạnh, như thể tòa nhà chuẩn bị rạn vỡ ở các cạnh giao tuyến. Nó làm cho người ta nhớ lại các đồ án của Gehry vào năm 1972 là Ron Davis Studio ở Malibu và bảo tàng Vitra Design ở Weil am Reim, Đức, năm 1989. Cả hai đồ án đều không hoàn hảo, những chính sự không hoàn hảo đó lại là quan trọng. Cái mà bạn cảm thấy là ai đó đang nỗ lực chiến đấu nhằm mang lại ý nghĩa cho cái mà anh ta chưa hoàn toàn nắm bắt - sự không hoàn hảo của nỗ lực sáng tạo.
Cần lưu ý rằng nỗ lực của Gehry như một kiến trúc sư bắt nguồn một phần từ sự chán ghét sự hoàn chỉnh, sự tinh khiết trong kiến trúc, điều mà ông tâm niệm như một mối nguy hiểm gần với sự gò bó. Mục đích của ông là giải phóng những góc tường mà chúng ta thường xuyên bỏ qua như thể vì thô kệ rẻ tiền, ngớ ngẩn. Bằng trực giác của mình, ông hiểu rằng những gì tưởng chừng ngớ ngẩn chỉ là vì chúng không quen thuộc. Nếu những ý tưởng ẩn chứa trong một thiết kể có đủ sức mạnh cần thiết, chúng sẽ tự bộc lộ vẻ đẹp của bản thân.
Tòa nhà IAC là một công trình kiến trúc thanh nhã. Nhưng nó không làm chúng ta nghĩ lại về bản thân mìnhNguồn : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/arts/design/22dill.html
Saturday, 3. February 2007, 02:54:01
Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry
In Their Own Words: Abu Dhabi Cultural District
How Gehry, Hadid, Nouvel, and Ando envision their cultural venues on Saadiyat Island
By ArchNewsNow
February 2, 2007
Architecture and art pundits are already chiming in (see below) with optimistic/pessimistic takes on the recently introduced plans for a multi-billion-dollar, 670-acre (271-hectare) cultural district in Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In 2004, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) tapped Gensler to create a master plan for Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness), a 10.5-square mile (27-square-kilometer) natural island, into a world-class, environmentally sensitive tourist destination. The centerpiece is the cultural district, master planned by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), scheduled to open under a phased program starting in 2012. Other elements, scheduled for completion by 2018, include 29 hotels, marinas, civic and leisure facilities, golf courses, and housing for about 150,000 residents.
On January 31, Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) introduced plans for the cultural district. The design of four major venues is being undertaken by four very familiar names: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by Frank Gehry; Performing Arts Center by Zaha Hadid; Museum of Classical Art by Jean Nouvel; and Maritime Museum by Tadao Ando.
Other international names slated to add their signature designs to the district include: Khalid Al Najjar/[dxb] LAB (UAE); Yuri Avvakumov (Russia); Greg Lynn and Hani Rashid (USA); David Adjaye (UK); Pei-Zhu (China); and Seung H-Sang (Korea).
Rather than add to the punditry (links to reviews below), we offer the four starchitects own design statements � and numerous images.
Frank Gehry: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Approaching the design of the museum for Abu Dhabi made it possible to consider options for the design of a building that would not be possible in the United States or in Europe. It was clear from the beginning that this had to be a new invention, and in my discussions with Tom Krens, the director of the Guggenheim, we explored what those inventions might be. We did not have a pre-conceived plan or an idea for a building, a museum of contemporary art, in place like Abu Dhabi. The landscape, the opportunity, the requirement to build something that people all over the world would come to, and the possible resources to accomplish it, opened tracks that were not likely to be considered anywhere else. The site itself, virtually on the water or close to the water on all sides, in a desert landscape with the beautiful sea, and the light quality of the place suggested some of the direction.
We started with very basic plan organization. The center core galleries are laid out forming a courtyard. Those galleries, of various height and sizes, are placed one on top of another to create four floors. These will be the more classical contemporary galleries, completely air conditioned with skylights where possible and a sophisticated lighting system. The next ring of galleries surrounding the core then radiating out of the center will be larger galleries in a variety of shapes and less formally constructed. The third ring of larger galleries would be less finished and more like raw industrial space with exposed lighting and systems. These galleries would be spawning homes for a new scale of contemporary art � art that would be, perhaps, made on site and of a scale that could not be achieved in other museums around the world.
This idea is based on the experience that Tom has had visiting artists� studios in large industrial spaces. They have been able to create works that are way beyond the experience any of us have within the normal museum spaces. So in the end you create a cluster of galleries that allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility in organizing a great variety of shows. The different heights, shapes, and character of the galleries are something that will be studied and refined as the progress of the design continues.
We have been exploring with our consultants, TransSolar, a method of cooling outdoor spaces based on the very old idea of the open-top tepee that draws hot air out of the space. This led to a series of conical shaped tubes that becomes an element of focus for the surrounding galleries, creating an outdoor space. In some cases, the conical shapes are used as entry pavilions: a main entrance to the museum, a boat entry to the museum, and then as walkways out into the desert landscape. The use natural ventilation is inspired by its historical use in the region for many, many generations. Water walls in the main courtyard and other sustainable features now being explored have the intention of making an exemplary energy efficient building.
The exterior walls of the building are now being considered in stone with some variety in color and texture to highlight a particular museum pavilion. The museum will house contemporary art from all over the world, not just Western culture. And as the design progresses, it will be necessary to identify with the architecture and character of the art being shown. Two large Biennale art galleries have been added and brought closer to the main building as an introduction of the future Biennale buildings along the canal. These buildings would form a courtyard entrance from the central transportation routes on Saadiyat Island.
Zaha Hadid: Performing Arts Centre
Analytical studies of organizational systems and growth in the natural world led to the set of topologies that are the framework of the Performing Art Centre�s distinct formal language. These natural scenarios are formed by energy being supplied to enclosed systems, and the subsequent decrease in energy caused by development of organized structures.
The "energy" of the Performing Art Centre is symbolized by the predominant movements in the urban fabric along the pedestrian corridor and the cultural district's seafront promenade � the site's two intersecting primary elements.
Branching algorithms and growth-simulation processes have been used to develop spatial representations into a set of basic geometries, and then superimposed with programmatic diagrams and architectonic interpretations in a series of iteration cycles. The primary components of this biological analogy (branches, stems, fruits, and leaves) are transformed from abstract diagrams into architectonic design.
The central axis of Abu Dhabi's cultural district is a pedestrian corridor that stretches from the Sheikh Zayed National Museum toward the sea. This central axis interacts with the seafront promenade to generate a branching geometry where islands are formed, isolated, and translated into distinct bodies within the structure to house the main spaces of the center.
This diagram of the interacting paths becomes the primary organization system for the building, making the movement of the public through the structure an integral design feature.
The sculptural form of the Performing Arts Centre emerges from this linear movement, gradually developing into a growing organism that sprouts a network of successive branches. As it winds through the site, the architecture increases in complexity, building up height and depth and achieving multiple summits in the bodies housing the performance spaces, which spring from the structure like fruits on a vine and face westward, toward the water.
The building, which reaches a height of 62 meters, becomes part of an inclining ensemble of structures that stretch from the Maritime Museum at its southern end to the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi at the northern tip.
With its center of mass at the water's edge, the Performing Arts Centre focuses its volume along the central axis of the site. This arrangement interrupts the block matrix at the Arterial Road, opening views to the sea and the skyline of Abu Dhabi.
The concert hall is above the lower four theatres, allowing daylight into its interior and dramatic views of the sea and city skyline from the huge window behind the stage. Local lobbies for each theater are orientated towards the sea to give each visitor a constant visual contact with their surroundings.
On the north side of the building, the restaurant offers a wide, shaded roof terrace, accessible through the adjacent conference center above the theater.
The Academy for Performing Arts is housed above the experimental theater to the south, while in the eastern tail of the sculpture; the retail areas take advantage of pedestrian traffic using the bridge connecting the Performing Arts Centre with the central zone.
Jean Nouvel: Classical Museum
Devoted to exhibiting works and artifacts from the past, the Museum of Classical Art is bound to features both remote and familiar, deriving naturally from the spirit of the place. The island offers a harsh landscape, tempered by its meeting with the inlet, a striking image of the aridity of the earth versus the fluidity of the waters. These fired the imagination towards unknown cities buried deep in the sands or sunk under water. These dreamy thoughts have merged into a simple plan of an archaeological field revived as a small city, a cluster of low-rise buildings placed along a leisurely promenade.
This micro-city requires a microclimate that would give the visitor a feeling of entering a different world. The building is covered with a large dome, a form common to all civilizations. The dome is made of a web of different patterns interlaced into a translucent ceiling, which lets a diffuse, magical light come through in the best tradition of great Arabian architecture. Water is given a crucial role, both in reflecting every part of the building and acting as a psyche, and in creating, with a little help from the wind, a comfortable microclimate.
The landscaping is a microcosm of different conditions found in the region, from the oasis to the dune, from the pond to the archipelago, each layer exposing its own specific plants and enhancing the character of an �island on the island.
The whole territory is envisioned not so much as a nostalgic longing for some remote world, some lost paradise, but as a trigger to question a sense of time.
Tadao Ando: Maritime Museum
Abu Dhabi�s nature, landscape, and maritime traditions served as the inspiration for the architectural concept of the Maritime Museum.
The elegant architecture begins with a unique space carved out of a simple volume that is shaped by the force and fluidity of Abu Dhabi�s wind. The solitary form stands like a gate over a vast water court, defining a space of encounter between two important landscape elements of the city�s culture: the land and the sea. With its reflective surface, the water court visually merges site and sea, reinforcing the maritime theme of the museum.
Within the ship-like interior, ramps and floating decks guide visitors fluidly through the exhibition, echoing the theme of the museum and creating dynamic gallery experience. Dhows float over the voids of the interior space and help create an intense visual experience by relating objects to one another and to the museum architecture as a whole. Below ground, there is a second space � a reception hall with an enormous aquarium. A traditional dhow floats over the aquarium and is seen from different perspectives.
To emphasis the simple but powerful shape of the building, the surrounding landscape is organized in the form of a grid. Rows of trees line the forecourt of the site, creating an oasis-like border that allows visitors to transition gradually between the dynamic city and the more serene and contemplative space of the museum.
The concept of a simple volume with a unique carved-out space is intended to create, in a single gesture, a museum that is itself an architectural adventure.
Source : http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature218.htm
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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 31 — In this land of big ambition and deep pockets, planners on Wednesday unveiled designs for an audacious multibillion-dollar cultural district whose like has never been seen in the Arab world.
The designs presented here in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and one of the world’s top oil producers, are to be built on an island just off the coast and include three museums designed by the celebrity architects Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando, as well as a sprawling, spaceshiplike performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid.
Mr. Gehry’s building is intended for an Adu Dhabi branch of the Guggenheim Museum featuring contemporary art and Mr. Nouvel’s for a classical museum, possibly an outpost of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Mr. Ando’s is to house a maritime museum reflecting the history of the Arabian gulf.
The project also calls for a national museum and a biennial exhibition space composed of 19 pavilions designed by smaller names and snaking along a canal that cuts through the island. Art schools and an art college are also planned.
In all, the project, known as the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island, would create an exhibition space intended to turn this once-sleepy desert city along the Persian Gulf into an international arts capital and tourist destination. If completed according to plan sometime in the next decade, consultants predict, it could be the world’s largest single arts-and-culture development project in recent memory.
At times astonishing, at times controversial, the district is part of a far broader $27 billion development project on the island that includes hotels, resorts, golf courses and housing that could accommodate 125,000 residents or more.
The museum designs, displayed at an exhibition attended by dignitaries and the United Arab Emirates leadership, are a striking departure from Abu Dhabi’s crumbling 1970s-style concrete buildings and more modern glass-and-steel high-rises. Still, because Saadiyat Island is undeveloped, architects faced the unusual challenge of an aesthetic and contextual tabula rasa.
The daring designs, some teeming with life and color, others more starkly formal, have one aspect in common: it probably would be hard to build them all in one district anywhere else.
“It’s like a clean slate in a country full of resources,” said Mr. Gehry, who appeared at the exhibition to show off his model for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. “It’s an opportunity for the world of art and culture that is not available anywhere else because you’re building a desert enclave without the contextual constraints of a city.”
No cost estimates were given for the buildings unveiled on Wednesday, but each is certain to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
For the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Mr. Gehry envisions a 320,000-square-foot structure with 130,000 square feet of exhibition space built around a cluster of galleries, a space far larger than his Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, which cost about $100 million. A jumble of blocks, glass awnings and open spaces, the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim would be centered on a core of galleries of varying height atop one another and forming a courtyard. A second ring of larger galleries is followed by a third ring of galleries housing raw industrial-looking spaces with exposed lighting and mechanical systems.
The design for the classical museum enters into a dialogue with its surroundings, suggesting a submerged archaeological field with a cluster of one-room buildings placed along a promenade. The complex is covered by a massive translucent dome etched in patterns that allow diffused light into the spaces below.
Mr. Ando’s maritime museum design borrows from the maritime history of the emirates, with a reflective surface merging sea and land and a shiplike interior with floating decks.
Ms. Hadid’s performing arts center concept, which seems part spaceship, part organism, is to house a music hall, concert hall, opera house and two theaters, one seating up to 6,300. Transparent and airy, the center hovers over the azure waters of the Persian Gulf.
“It’s an inspiration from nature and an organic design, with a fluid design, as well as a space with good sound,” Ms. Hadid said.
Abu Dhabi’s sheiks dreamed up this sweeping cultural project in late 2004, after brainstorming ways to attract more tourism to the emirate, which is the richest of the seven in the United Arab Emirates confederation, but has largely missed out on the flood of visitors attracted by its neighbor Dubai.
Flush with cash from the oil boom, the emirate has embarked on a development spree intended to update its infrastructure after years of limited development. Abu Dhabi’s tourist board insists it is not trying to one-up Dubai, but instead wants to complement Dubai’s emphasis on other forms of entertainment.
“The real strategic decision here is that Dubai has established itself as a tourist destination, and Abu Dhabi is complementing what Dubai is doing,” said Barry Lord, president of Lord Cultural Resources, which has helped manage the development of the cultural project. “Cultural tourists are wealthier, older, more educated, and they spend more. From an economic view, this makes sense.”
Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company announced a deal to build the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi last year. Recently it reached a $1 billion accord to rent the name, art and expertise of the Louvre for a museum to be built on the island. Protests quickly arose in France that that country was selling its patrimony to the highest bidder. The emirate’s tourism officials played down the Louvre plan on Wednesday, insisting the deal was not final.
Mr. Lord noted that the arts project was taking shape against the backdrop of continued turbulence in the Middle East.
“They are very conscious here that this can change the cultural climate in the region,” Mr. Lord said. “To be able to add high culture at the high end of international culture, this is a tremendous change.”
After oil booms in the 1970s and 80s in which their proceeds were not always used wisely, Persian Gulf governments are now focusing on spending their surpluses on infrastructure projects and real-estate development. A new generation of leaders in the gulf, especially in the emirates, where a new ruler was installed only in late 2004 and where several ministers are still in their 30s, has looked beyond traditional real-estate projects to efforts that would help their cities stand out on the world stage.
Other Persian Gulf countries have turned to the arts too. In Qatar the final touches are being added to I. M. Pei’s latest structure, the Qatar Museum, built just off the coast of the capital, Doha, to house a new Islamic arts collection. In Sharjah, another emirate, which has fashioned itself as the cultural capital of the Persian Gulf, the Sharjah Art Museum continues to expand its collection and is planning its eighth biennial. And even Dubai is building a Culture Village, centered on an opera house also designed by Ms. Hadid and other arts and culture institutions.
“This is not just about tourism; it also has global cultural dimensions,” Mubarak Muhairi, the director general of the Abu Dhabi tourism authority, said. “We believe the best vehicle for crossing borders is art. And this region is in need of such artistic initiatives.”
Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/arts/design/01isla.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 19:44:05
Frank Gehry
Billowing glass. Rippling titanium. Swooping steel. The engineers and designers at Permasteelisa turn the world's most daring buildings into reality.
By Karrie Jacobs
THE NEW HEADQUARTERS FOR Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp stick up from the low-rise terrain of Manhattan's West Chelsea neighborhood like Space Mountain at Disneyland. The 10-story asymmetrical protuberance has outer walls that veer every which way, a typical design for architect Frank Gehry. But the building's showstopper is a facade that looks like sails billowed by the wind. Gehry, famous for his complex compositions in titanium and stainless steel, had never before designed a major building in glass, and he was shocked to learn how difficult it would be to soften and mold the material around the contours of the building. Each of the 2,541 pieces of glass would have to be heated to 1,148 degrees Fahrenheit, then cooled and shaped. It was physically possible, but the sheer size of the project made it seem inconceivable. "We didn't think we could do it," Gehry says. "We were going to abandon it."
Take a look at a major city skyline. Buildings have become more complicated, like engineering riddles that seem to defy both physics and common sense. For leading architects, every commission is an invention, an intricate one-of-a-kind experiment. Gehry, of course, is the leader of the starchitects, conjuring from his computers shapes so modern and complex they're practically baroque. But Gehry and his fellow designers don't actually build what they dream up – that's not their job. They rely on a new breed of contractor, the kind that can translate an architect's lofty vision into a physical structure. For the InterActive HQ, Gehry turned to a longtime collaborator, the Connecticut-based branch of Permasteelisa, the Italian curtain-wall couturier. The firm has spent nearly a decade figuring out how to fabricate the sort of brainteaser building "envelopes" that have made Gehry a household name. Permasteelisa has quietly erected the facades of some of the most significant buildings in the US, from Thom Mayne's Federal Building in San Francisco to Yoshio Taniguchi's MoMA in Manhattan. Permasteelisa also engineered towers for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Norman Foster, and the new partnership of Cook+Fox. "They've become the go-to people when you have a difficult job," says architect Richard Cook, for whom the company is fabricating the shell of One Bryant Park, a conspicuously asymmetrical 55-story tower in Manhattan. "We can be thinking whatever we want, but if you can't build it, what's the point?"
Much has been written about how Gehry conjures complex shapes from his computer, or how Mayne relies on data processors to create exteriors that ripple and shimmer in response to fresh air and daylight. But little has been said about how these digital models become buildings or about the surprising ingenuity of the teams of engineers and craftsmen more technically adept than the architects whose designs they execute. Companies like Permasteelisa must figure out how to mass-produce custom high-end architectural components – the only way to turn fantastical renderings into structures that developers can afford to finance. And because no part of a project is more crucial to an architect's reputation than the curtain wall – the glass, metal, or masonry skin that is the public face of a building – the specialized contractors who fabricate and hang the material can make or break an architect's career. Where other contractors are quick to push back on the feasibility of an architect's design, the engineers at Permasteelisa rarely say it can't be done.
For the InterActiveCorp building, Alberto De Gobbi, a 44-year-old civil engineer and the president of Permasteelisa's US operation, started with a simple principle: Glass bends – a lot – before it breaks. "We said, 'Why don't we take the natural, physical capability of the glass and see how much we can push it?'" He demonstrates by holding up a sheet of paper with his left hand and gently pushing one of its corners with his right. In the end, Permasteelisa gave each 14-foot panel of glass a 4-inch curve. That may not sound significant, but it was enough to achieve the startling effect Gehry had in mind. "This is the first time in the world that this has been done to such an extreme," De Gobbi says.
Permasteelisa learned an early lesson about dealing with complexity from Gehry himself. In 1992, the not-yet-famous architect designed a 260-ton steel-mesh fish for the Barcelona Olympics. Gehry recalls Permasteelisa's founder, Massimo Colomban, saying, "I can't do it. I can't get it. I can't build it." The architect advised him to invest in a 3-D modeling technology developed for aircraft design. Columban bought the $100,000 software and the outsize workstation needed to run it. "Two weeks later," Gehry says, "Massimo called me and said, 'Perfetto!'" With the software, the company's engineers could finally draw up Gehry's ideas, something they couldn't do with traditional 2-D CAD drawings. Later, they carried out the architect's designs by hiring about a dozen mountain climbers to weave 90,000 feet of gold-hued metal onto the 135-foot-high fish-shaped frame.
Since then, Permasteelisa has collaborated with Gehry on a dozen projects. Currently, the firm is working with him on both the InterActiveCorp headquarters and a 75-story hospital-school-condo tower, known as the Beekman, planned for lower Manhattan. A few years ago, the firm hung the gleaming stainless steel skin that covers the Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Before that, it helped Gehry build the cafeteria at the New York headquarters of Wired's parent company, Condé Nast.
Permasteelisa succeeds by breaking hugely complicated projects into more parts, not fewer. Then, even a topological nightmare like the Disney Concert Hall becomes manageable. "We broke it down into elements," De Gobbi says. "We're talking about 700,000 parts. The stainless steel sheets were pretty easy to fabricate once you had the design of each individual piece."
A stroll through the firm's 300,000-square-foot factory in Windsor, Connecticut – strategically located midway between New York and Boston – is an education in the prefab nature of skyscraper construction. It's a full-on assembly line for making one-off buildings. Thousands of "units" – the sophisticated assemblages of glass, coatings, and sealants surrounded by a crust of precisely extruded and trimmed metal – are shipped to building sites, where they're pieced together into huge exteriors. But something more interesting is out back. Test sections of recognizable facades line the property: There's the Hearst Tower, 7 World Trade Center, and a chunk of the new Louis Vuitton store. ("We dress the building; we do haute couture," De Gobbi says.) It's like visiting the New York set on a Hollywood back lot – except instead of creating illusion, Permasteelisa builds reality.
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