We need a new architecture thread.

[Adrian Hon]

I've been inside the Turning Torso in Malmo for a games conference reception on the top floor - incredible place. I had no idea I was actually going to be visiting it, a guy just drove me there.

To be honest, it made me feel a little queasy, looking at it from a distance; it just twisted the senses. Up close though, it's very cool.



I heard that they had some real issues with all the weirdly-shaped windows.

[Cort Haus]

The wonderful St Pancras building above is technically the Midland Grand Hotel rather than the railway station - which is now two historic developments, one victorian and a modern upgrade, just completed, for the Eurotunnel link.

The original station was quite special in its day.

"Its 243-foot span was not an exceptional dimension for bridges, as we know, but for an interior it was extraordinary, especially extended in depth to form the widest and largest undivided space ever enclosed. The skeletal transparency of the ferro-vitreous vault added a futuristic, magic dimension to the stunning space, especially as the vault was made to spring from the platform level where the passenger stood."
Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism, Marvin and Hyman

Anyway, the Midland Grand is my favourite building in London - an amazing example of gratuitous neo-gothic fantasy, from an era where (perhaps because labour was so cheap) they could afford to fiddle around with insane amounts of intricate detail. It was still, by the standards of its day, an incredibly expensive project.

ISTR it was based on a design by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott for a government building - hence the grandiosity perhaps.

[Cort Haus]

OTOH The National Olympic Stadium, Beijing is possibly the most vomit-inspiring building I have ever seen.

[Patroklos]

Yes, especually since China is in "an era where (perhaps because labour was so cheap) they [can] afford to fiddle around with insane amounts of intricate detail" and simply chose not to.

[Dry]

Originally posted by Adrian Hon
I've been inside the Turning Torso in Malmo for a games conference reception on the top floor - incredible place. I had no idea I was actually going to be visiting it, a guy just drove me there.

To be honest, it made me feel a little queasy, looking at it from a distance; it just twisted the senses. Up close though, it's very cool.



I heard that they had some real issues with all the weirdly-shaped windows.

Hmm, top floor you said... how was it with the elevators?
Hadn't they... issues with them?

[Sirotnikov]

re: Gazprom



*shudders*

Classic "evil organization from the future HQ" feeling

[MOBIUS]

How about good and bad architecture from your own city…?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Bad: The Seagram Building, NYC

You silly Oerdin.

Can we blame Palladio et al for the hideous neo French Baroque mini-mansions popping up on my block?

I rather suspect if there had been no high modernism, instead of complaining about dozens of crappy knock-offs, we'd be complaining about dozens of cheap, tacky art deco knockoffs. Post war boom was gonna deliver tacky, one way or another.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
cheap, tacky art deco knockoffs.

Any chance of an example of what you mean by this?

[Adrian Hon]

Originally posted by Dry

Hmm, top floor you said... how was it with the elevators?
Hadn't they... issues with them?

Not that I recall... seemed fine to me.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Any chance of an example of what you mean by this?

Given that its a what if, in which pop Modernism doesnt exist, Id have a hard time finding any Im sure Ive seen SOME tacky Art Deco in my strolls around US cities, but I cant think of where to look on the interweb for them off the top of my head though.

[b etor]

ooh some of these things are very cool.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

Post war boom was gonna deliver tacky, one way or another.

Sadly true. :frownyes:

On the other hand the Turning Torso building in Malmo is wonderful.

[onodera]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Classic "evil organization from the future HQ" feeling

It's not a feeling, Gazprom *is* an evil organization from the future. I'll probably work for Gazprombank when my current project is finished. I, for one, welcome our new gaseous overlords.

[Patroklos]

Good

Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, China

Bad


Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan