They were down for a while, but are back up -- the first stage entires to a pretty major international two stage design competion. But without thumbnails and like 1100 entries! there's lotsa dowloading required to sort the 'chaff from the seeds' and find the decent designs, but there are some in there...How about we do a "find and post a link to your favorite(s)" sorta thing? -- or better yet someone should upload 'em to flickr so they're actually perusable...any other thoughts?
I'm game...but I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't maintain a flickr page. perhaps the archinect image gallery could be a repository for some of the best ones...
John, in response to your query I would simply like to quote the name of that band (that used to be alot better): "and you shall know us by the trail of dead"
-- just kidding, with the the numbers as they are and jury as it is, I doubt we or any of the decent entries for that matter have an icecube's chance in hell...
regarding flickr, the problem is a regular free account probably wouldn't be enough storage space, and who that has a pro account would want to give away all that space?, or pay for a dedicated account, even tho its $2 a month? -- probably no-one...right? Although if 20 people chipped in ten cents each -- that'd be $1.20 each for a year's pro account (2gigs/month upload)...
that one's a nice urban solution, walnut. and, by extension, a straightforward and reasonable plan solution. whether the air flow/ventilation can be married to the library program would have to be sussed out, but the scheme seems to work well as a building concept.
can't say i'm as keen on the formal development. i know we used to go overboard, but when did we stop designing in elevation altogether? i've argued for simplicity and quietness before, but either this designer is depending on the asplund to provide all the communication of the significance of this landmark facility or he/she thinks that the planning moves are enough to provide the project's expression. seems strangely mute.
would love to see a bunch of these in one place. i've downloaded a few out of curiosity and ate up most of an evening. i guess i'll wait until they winnow it down to fewer entries. this posting was probably primarily for the entrants to see how theirs looks to the jury and that it's there and qualified. maybe to tease the rest of us. i expect the next posting of shortlist to be more user friendly.
this is the best one I've seen so far, but ive only seen about 30 or so.
embedding pdfs is a disaster as far as trying to view them..
it keeps the annexes in a way that is clever and innovative and there is strong concept behind the design.
i think zaha and rem should retire..maybe zaha can hang around and do photoshop...but why?
Been downlading about 400 of em over several days so far (I know crazy) -- the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a fascinating design problem though, whether you keep the annex builodings or not, you're up against a truly canonical main building plus the shifting aspirations of Asplund and his masterplan...
Walnut, there are actually quite a few that keep the old buidlings (maybe close to half that keep at least one or two of the three annexes), even if they chop 'em in half, 'facadify' them, smother them or evicerate them
Abel, there are definitely some better schemes that keep the old buildings than that one above, which is pretty witty idea-wise but a little dry-modernist for me though, and actually antithetical to the historicist/preservationist impulse behind the desire to keep the landmarked annex buildings (i.e. their facades are gone, so why preserve 'em? would be the preservationist's argument) with a rather brutal anti-ped plynth along that pretty-key sidewalk between the famous plaza and the famous Asplund (another thing is they'd never get a glass wall that big to be that visually simple).
Another scheme actually involutes this, and guts the annexe's, leaving a ghost of the windows on the inside of empty shells, kinda like an inside out Rachel Whiteread...
With this sheer number of entries though you're guaranteed to find some crazy hilarious shit (let alone the goofy 'motto's): I haven't seen as much bombastic, over-monumental craziness as you come across here since the late-mod, early-pomo heyday -- there's even a slighly scaled-down Portman's Bonaventure Hotel redo! As well as some very interesting formal/spatial diagrams behind a number of them in terms of how such a complex site and urban ensemble is dealt with.
Come on all you Archinectors, where's just some of all that energetic and elloquent commentary put into posting about people, rumors, schools, Garwondlers -- here's a batch a buildings/designs man! that need your assailing, or at least assesing (albeit, its hardly been made more difficult to access a batch of competition entries visually)...
I seee what you mean:
due to it being very difficult to download/view most of these I can only
gauge from about the 30 or so ive seen: but in that entry they described using the rhythm of the existing windows for light and urban context and etceteras like that..and i can dig that approach, more so that the oh so many wanna-be avant garde solutions I've seen 100 times before!:: someone could figure out that glass or something close enough to it::maybe if they get to stage ii:::i worked on 3 different entries for this competition with so many schemes for each, and it seems like every other architect i meet seems to have worked on it too: its really fun to look at all of these solutions! but they should have built an html page with just a simple alphabetical list to right-click:
one of my bosses really liked this one and is convinced it is the best. (??)..
i think it's called 'accessing the hill of knowledge'
the concept is lovely, _. and the addition-pavilions are handled very elegantly (though i wonder how great they'd look in a non-nighttime view when you could see materiality). reminds me, from a basic organization and hierarchy standpoint, of holl's nelson-adkins project.
but i'm a little too conservative, i guess, to accept the modifications proposed on the asplund rotunda.
my only issues with that past-forward scheme are: 1. doesn't address the hilltop as some of the other schemes with occupiable roofs do, and 2. how did they get 240,000+ square feet in there (even considering the amount of underground space)?
the glazed top of asplund is nice but unlike the reichstag once can never get a 360 panorama because of the asplund drum. perhaps a slightly higher glazed volume would have been nice so that one could occupy the top of the drum. i agree with steven that this kind of construction is tough to pull off without alot of dough and an incredible gc. but thats getting a little ahead of ourselevs.
but thats nitpicking really. it's elegant and bold in its 'but of course!' way.
Steve, it’s true that the project presentation relies a lot on conveying a sense of lightness and immateriality which will be hard to carry thru... but not impossible .
Andy, i agree that non addressing the hillside is the weakest spot of the project. on the other hand, the way they propose to activate the main plaza is really smart and poetic at the same time.
They probably cheated on program requirements but I really think that even if one were to add a floor to each one of the annex buildings to provide more square footage the scheme would not suffer from it.
sorry to put words into your mouth. i extrapolated your intent from:
"though i wonder how great they'd look in a non-nighttime view when you could see materiality"
to harp on that a bit more: i think if mullions look too present, or too heavy, the lids could look awkward. and that's really as much or more a cost and by extension of cost, a fit and finish concern, as it is a design concern.
at the other extreme, the central park apple store somehow looks not as light and immaterial as it should despite there being nothing but glass which supports the glass cube.
ooops, sorry Steven.
I misunderstood you too, and misspelled your name.
but why keep off the Asplund drum if one could do it well? Is it to avoid the concealment of such an iconic shape within the urban context? Is it to avoid how the additional layers of building around the drum would impact the quality of light within the Asplund building?
but why keep off the Asplund drum if one could do it well
this is a huge assumption, and i don't see any need to mess with the drum. i'd even argue that the imptce of this competition in a lot of people's eyes has a lot to do with - yes - the iconic nature of that drum.
the boldness of this scheme should not be at the expense of an already internationally known landmark. that's the height of modern folly: ruin the things that non-architects like and replace it with something more coolly abstract. the light in the drum may be a consideration as well, but i expect that could be handled skillfully to minimize the impact. finally, the cap on the drum is just totally unnecessary. the asplund library doesn't have to match these additions. let it maintain its hierarchy and they can be of a different language.
not a separate glass cap, just the same square cap thats proposed extruded higher.
anyhow i suspect steven's right about the fact that stockholmians (stockholmites?), architects and nonarchitects alike, love that building and that dome. probably reason enough to back off of altering it.
I do hope that the anonymity of the competition can be maintained, but with the images put out in public before a decision is made calls into question whether the jurors can remain impartial from outside influence.
is this the per of fancy graphics lore?
Also wanted to get some opinions on the competition culture in Europe vs. the US. It seems that many young architects in Europe get their start in competition entries. Yet in the U.S. they are not nearly as prevelant. Just wanted to see what people thought/could elaborate on this?
Steven, that upside down Asplund thing is funny indeed, there at leat two other versions i came across -- also one that takes a square donut building reconstituted from Asplund's early masterplan he place on top of the hill, and slides it out ins pace on top of the actual annex buidlings. (I'll try to post some once I sort through all my downloaded files...).
Walnut, though still super-alien inspired, that one looks kinda like a slightly tamer Hernan Diaz Alonzo (I heard he entered, so maybe it is him).
Cvankle, competitions are around in the US, the difference is that even if you win an open competition (vs. an invited competition or rfp/q)in the US, you'd be lucky indeed to see it built -- in Europe, Asia or Australia, its not so uncommon at all to get it built, even if its your first building.
i like the one walnut posted in some ways, though i'd never try to defend it. it's clever and slick, despite looking in the site plan view like the asplund sneezed.
didn't spend a lot of time with it, but did the designers show anywhere that they had satisfied the program?
looking at so many of these which are purely driven by what can be done with a computer (and for which the authors would argue 'this couldn't have been done before computer tools!'), i'm once again amazed by what scharoun was able to do at the berlin library in the late-60s.
Up to 700 something downloaded so far, and its amazing to see the repetition of a basic schema -- so far there've been numerous versions of:
- the thin blanket over the the exstg annex bldgs(fluid or folded big roof)
- the thick, porous mat over exstg annex bldgs (foating or hill outgrowth)
- the extrusion/transformation of the annex buildings into a larger array
- the extended plynth (both with exsiting buildings and without, i.e big plaza)
- the addition of a field of objects in dialogue w/ Asplund bldg
- the addition of a singular iconic object replacing annex bldgs(in dialogue or contrast w/Asplund)
- the geomorphic landform-like building (as object or inhabitated retaining wall)
- the extension of hill slope around exstng annex bldgs (i.e. avalanche /mudslide)
- the cave, fully excavated from the hill
There's definitely some much better (and much worse) work than has been discussed so far...
i'm surprised at how relatively few purely diagrammatic, strongly conceptual solutions there are. too many seem to be driven by a singular image (usually a heavily decorated street perspective), with the difficult site and massiveness of the progam handled lightly as afterthoughts, if handled well at all.
what i like about the PAST_FORWARD scheme is that it presents an assertive and clear strategy whose specifics can be pushed and pulled and distorted in a miriad of ways without losing the diagram.
I don't get how the 'cage over Asplund's drum' in PAST_FORWARD can be pushed or pulled in any way -- it seems a like a one-liner to me -- there are far better schemes in my opinion (of which I hope to link/reference once done downloading)...
the push and pull would be all the program below ground. probably more square footage needed, all underground. its a strong concept: all that is new and added is below ground except for the glazed crowns on the existing bldgs.
I see, but I still don't buy the crown/cage on the main building -- its like preseving it in a vessel. The annex bldg.s on the other hand benefit by something added on top -- both becasue they don't look that good anyway, and it kind of further systematizes them...
THAT SCHEME IS INDEED AN INTERESTING ONE. HOWEVER AFTER SUBMITTING FOR THIS COMPETITION , I AM NOTICING HOW MANY ENTRIES DID NOT SUPPLY THE REQUIRED VIEWS AND DRAWINGS. IM NOT SAYING THAT THEY SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED, BUT THAT PARTICULAR SCHEME PEDRO IS NOT SHOWING A VIEW FROM THE SUBWAY STATION WHICH IS REQ. AND FROM THAT VANTAGE THE MASSING OF THIS PARTICULAR PROJECT WOULD MASK THE VIEW OF THE ORIGINAL ASPLUND ROTUNDA. WHICH MOST WOULD BE MOST DISAPPOINTING.
always an interesting question, kurtneis, when preparing a competition entry: if your project will suffer from a particular "required" view and you don't think you'll be disqualified, would you include the view or not? is this designer likely to lose more points for missing a view or having the view illustrate the designs' weakness?
you mean at the scharoun library? i think there are some of both. what's in the pictures looks like light fixtures/wells (sim. to those that aalto used to do where they had both natural and artificial lighting), but there were also some pretty impressive diffusers there.
this is not to try and defend again the past-forward scheme but i think that what was interesting to me in that scheme was the fact that it communicated a certain idea about the library as a "place of silence", a place where the world and our daily lives become less noisy and frantic, more somber.
i have not seen the search for that kind of quality in many projects so far and, even the scheme that Pedro posted, which is very good and makes a lot of sense, does not really have that.
I guess i interested in knowing if this desire for a library as place that is slightly secluded and removed from all the activities of our daily routine is a completely anachronistic expectation, or if that is a quality that one should still hope to find in a "new" library.
So I am questioning whether we should not be too quick to accept the OMA Seattle library as the new paradigm...
I thought to share my nordic point of view. In my opinion the most important principle is how the extension fits in the existing cityscape next to the architectural icon. "Past forward" has it´s merits but in daylight with any kind of glass and some structure inside one would see only a dark shiny surface.
Compared to "malmasch6" (mentioned by pedromartinez) I find for example flying carpet more elegant and suitable in scale. However the concepts are very different.
infinity loop is another of my favourites excluding the fact that it doesn´t preserve any of the existing extensions. This one really gives the stage for asplund original building without being too quiet itself.
Nangijala1 is an extraordinary proposal. It doesn´t follow the limitations of the building area though. Awesome anyway.
SSBinsideandout has a proper scale, preserves the old and has an elegant shape.
Space-TimeVortex has one of the stongest concepts. Very interesting, except the boring streetfacade.
These were some of my favourites. And btw bothands, I assume xefR347_cys5 might be "that one". I like the mind-tickling aspect of xefr... but it´s not the answer for the task.
Or should I say xefr may not be the answer for the organizers of the competition this time. Don´t get me wrong. I love this kind of wild avant-garde architecture. I´m just afraid it´s so ahead of it´s time that the world is not ready for that even if it should be.
Stockholm Library Comp. Favorites?
They were down for a while, but are back up -- the first stage entires to a pretty major international two stage design competion. But without thumbnails and like 1100 entries! there's lotsa dowloading required to sort the 'chaff from the seeds' and find the decent designs, but there are some in there...How about we do a "find and post a link to your favorite(s)" sorta thing? -- or better yet someone should upload 'em to flickr so they're actually perusable...any other thoughts?
link
I'm game...but I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't maintain a flickr page. perhaps the archinect image gallery could be a repository for some of the best ones...
bothands did you entry the competition?
Wow, it looks like pretty much no one was interested in keeping the existing annexes. Spent a little time browsing, found
this one.
John, in response to your query I would simply like to quote the name of that band (that used to be alot better): "and you shall know us by the trail of dead"
-- just kidding, with the the numbers as they are and jury as it is, I doubt we or any of the decent entries for that matter have an icecube's chance in hell...
regarding flickr, the problem is a regular free account probably wouldn't be enough storage space, and who that has a pro account would want to give away all that space?, or pay for a dedicated account, even tho its $2 a month? -- probably no-one...right? Although if 20 people chipped in ten cents each -- that'd be $1.20 each for a year's pro account (2gigs/month upload)...
that one's a nice urban solution, walnut. and, by extension, a straightforward and reasonable plan solution. whether the air flow/ventilation can be married to the library program would have to be sussed out, but the scheme seems to work well as a building concept.
can't say i'm as keen on the formal development. i know we used to go overboard, but when did we stop designing in elevation altogether? i've argued for simplicity and quietness before, but either this designer is depending on the asplund to provide all the communication of the significance of this landmark facility or he/she thinks that the planning moves are enough to provide the project's expression. seems strangely mute.
would love to see a bunch of these in one place. i've downloaded a few out of curiosity and ate up most of an evening. i guess i'll wait until they winnow it down to fewer entries. this posting was probably primarily for the entrants to see how theirs looks to the jury and that it's there and qualified. maybe to tease the rest of us. i expect the next posting of shortlist to be more user friendly.
will zaha or rem win? i cant wait to find out...
this is the best one I've seen so far, but ive only seen about 30 or so.
embedding pdfs is a disaster as far as trying to view them..
it keeps the annexes in a way that is clever and innovative and there is strong concept behind the design.
i think zaha and rem should retire..maybe zaha can hang around and do photoshop...but why?
oh, its called urban bookshelf or something like that
oh, its called urban bookshelf or something like that
oh, its called urban bookshelf or something like that
does anyone know approx what percentage of submissions are from students in a large open european competition like this?
Been downlading about 400 of em over several days so far (I know crazy) -- the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a fascinating design problem though, whether you keep the annex builodings or not, you're up against a truly canonical main building plus the shifting aspirations of Asplund and his masterplan...
Walnut, there are actually quite a few that keep the old buidlings (maybe close to half that keep at least one or two of the three annexes), even if they chop 'em in half, 'facadify' them, smother them or evicerate them
Abel, there are definitely some better schemes that keep the old buildings than that one above, which is pretty witty idea-wise but a little dry-modernist for me though, and actually antithetical to the historicist/preservationist impulse behind the desire to keep the landmarked annex buildings (i.e. their facades are gone, so why preserve 'em? would be the preservationist's argument) with a rather brutal anti-ped plynth along that pretty-key sidewalk between the famous plaza and the famous Asplund (another thing is they'd never get a glass wall that big to be that visually simple).
Another scheme actually involutes this, and guts the annexe's, leaving a ghost of the windows on the inside of empty shells, kinda like an inside out Rachel Whiteread...
With this sheer number of entries though you're guaranteed to find some crazy hilarious shit (let alone the goofy 'motto's): I haven't seen as much bombastic, over-monumental craziness as you come across here since the late-mod, early-pomo heyday -- there's even a slighly scaled-down Portman's Bonaventure Hotel redo! As well as some very interesting formal/spatial diagrams behind a number of them in terms of how such a complex site and urban ensemble is dealt with.
Come on all you Archinectors, where's just some of all that energetic and elloquent commentary put into posting about people, rumors, schools, Garwondlers -- here's a batch a buildings/designs man! that need your assailing, or at least assesing (albeit, its hardly been made more difficult to access a batch of competition entries visually)...
I seee what you mean:
due to it being very difficult to download/view most of these I can only
gauge from about the 30 or so ive seen: but in that entry they described using the rhythm of the existing windows for light and urban context and etceteras like that..and i can dig that approach, more so that the oh so many wanna-be avant garde solutions I've seen 100 times before!:: someone could figure out that glass or something close enough to it::maybe if they get to stage ii:::i worked on 3 different entries for this competition with so many schemes for each, and it seems like every other architect i meet seems to have worked on it too: its really fun to look at all of these solutions! but they should have built an html page with just a simple alphabetical list to right-click:
one of my bosses really liked this one and is convinced it is the best. (??)..
i think it's called 'accessing the hill of knowledge'
this is my favorite project among the ones i have seen so far:
called PAST FORWARD
http://www.arkitekt.se/s25808/f3253?skip25556=700
the concept is lovely, _. and the addition-pavilions are handled very elegantly (though i wonder how great they'd look in a non-nighttime view when you could see materiality). reminds me, from a basic organization and hierarchy standpoint, of holl's nelson-adkins project.
but i'm a little too conservative, i guess, to accept the modifications proposed on the asplund rotunda.
elisa. should have filled in the blank. sorry.
i really like the boldness of that scheme.
my only issues with that past-forward scheme are: 1. doesn't address the hilltop as some of the other schemes with occupiable roofs do, and 2. how did they get 240,000+ square feet in there (even considering the amount of underground space)?
the glazed top of asplund is nice but unlike the reichstag once can never get a 360 panorama because of the asplund drum. perhaps a slightly higher glazed volume would have been nice so that one could occupy the top of the drum. i agree with steven that this kind of construction is tough to pull off without alot of dough and an incredible gc. but thats getting a little ahead of ourselevs.
but thats nitpicking really. it's elegant and bold in its 'but of course!' way.
i'm not sure i said that, but i agree.
what i actually said (or meant) is keep off asplunds' drum.
Steve, it’s true that the project presentation relies a lot on conveying a sense of lightness and immateriality which will be hard to carry thru... but not impossible .
Andy, i agree that non addressing the hillside is the weakest spot of the project. on the other hand, the way they propose to activate the main plaza is really smart and poetic at the same time.
They probably cheated on program requirements but I really think that even if one were to add a floor to each one of the annex buildings to provide more square footage the scheme would not suffer from it.
I like that urban forest one! pretty interesting!
sorry to put words into your mouth. i extrapolated your intent from:
"though i wonder how great they'd look in a non-nighttime view when you could see materiality"
to harp on that a bit more: i think if mullions look too present, or too heavy, the lids could look awkward. and that's really as much or more a cost and by extension of cost, a fit and finish concern, as it is a design concern.
at the other extreme, the central park apple store somehow looks not as light and immaterial as it should despite there being nothing but glass which supports the glass cube.
glass lids are tough.
but again i'm nitpicking despite myself.
ooops, sorry Steven.
I misunderstood you too, and misspelled your name.
but why keep off the Asplund drum if one could do it well? Is it to avoid the concealment of such an iconic shape within the urban context? Is it to avoid how the additional layers of building around the drum would impact the quality of light within the Asplund building?
but why keep off the Asplund drum if one could do it well
this is a huge assumption, and i don't see any need to mess with the drum. i'd even argue that the imptce of this competition in a lot of people's eyes has a lot to do with - yes - the iconic nature of that drum.
the boldness of this scheme should not be at the expense of an already internationally known landmark. that's the height of modern folly: ruin the things that non-architects like and replace it with something more coolly abstract. the light in the drum may be a consideration as well, but i expect that could be handled skillfully to minimize the impact. finally, the cap on the drum is just totally unnecessary. the asplund library doesn't have to match these additions. let it maintain its hierarchy and they can be of a different language.
not a separate glass cap, just the same square cap thats proposed extruded higher.
anyhow i suspect steven's right about the fact that stockholmians (stockholmites?), architects and nonarchitects alike, love that building and that dome. probably reason enough to back off of altering it.
I do hope that the anonymity of the competition can be maintained, but with the images put out in public before a decision is made calls into question whether the jurors can remain impartial from outside influence.
wow. there are a lot of these things that are just painful to look at. sorry to say it, but...wow.
this one's kinda funny: ...
Steven, wow is the right word.
and perhaps whoa!
is this the per of fancy graphics lore?
Also wanted to get some opinions on the competition culture in Europe vs. the US. It seems that many young architects in Europe get their start in competition entries. Yet in the U.S. they are not nearly as prevelant. Just wanted to see what people thought/could elaborate on this?
I
Steven, that upside down Asplund thing is funny indeed, there at leat two other versions i came across -- also one that takes a square donut building reconstituted from Asplund's early masterplan he place on top of the hill, and slides it out ins pace on top of the actual annex buidlings. (I'll try to post some once I sort through all my downloaded files...).
Walnut, though still super-alien inspired, that one looks kinda like a slightly tamer Hernan Diaz Alonzo (I heard he entered, so maybe it is him).
Cvankle, competitions are around in the US, the difference is that even if you win an open competition (vs. an invited competition or rfp/q)in the US, you'd be lucky indeed to see it built -- in Europe, Asia or Australia, its not so uncommon at all to get it built, even if its your first building.
i like the one walnut posted in some ways, though i'd never try to defend it. it's clever and slick, despite looking in the site plan view like the asplund sneezed.
didn't spend a lot of time with it, but did the designers show anywhere that they had satisfied the program?
looking at so many of these which are purely driven by what can be done with a computer (and for which the authors would argue 'this couldn't have been done before computer tools!'), i'm once again amazed by what scharoun was able to do at the berlin library in the late-60s.
see here.
scharoun's philharmonic next door is even better.
you bet. but i was in a library frame of mind.
Up to 700 something downloaded so far, and its amazing to see the repetition of a basic schema -- so far there've been numerous versions of:
- the thin blanket over the the exstg annex bldgs(fluid or folded big roof)
- the thick, porous mat over exstg annex bldgs (foating or hill outgrowth)
- the extrusion/transformation of the annex buildings into a larger array
- the extended plynth (both with exsiting buildings and without, i.e big plaza)
- the addition of a field of objects in dialogue w/ Asplund bldg
- the addition of a singular iconic object replacing annex bldgs(in dialogue or contrast w/Asplund)
- the geomorphic landform-like building (as object or inhabitated retaining wall)
- the extension of hill slope around exstng annex bldgs (i.e. avalanche /mudslide)
- the cave, fully excavated from the hill
There's definitely some much better (and much worse) work than has been discussed so far...
i'm surprised at how relatively few purely diagrammatic, strongly conceptual solutions there are. too many seem to be driven by a singular image (usually a heavily decorated street perspective), with the difficult site and massiveness of the progam handled lightly as afterthoughts, if handled well at all.
what i like about the PAST_FORWARD scheme is that it presents an assertive and clear strategy whose specifics can be pushed and pulled and distorted in a miriad of ways without losing the diagram.
I don't get how the 'cage over Asplund's drum' in PAST_FORWARD can be pushed or pulled in any way -- it seems a like a one-liner to me -- there are far better schemes in my opinion (of which I hope to link/reference once done downloading)...
the push and pull would be all the program below ground. probably more square footage needed, all underground. its a strong concept: all that is new and added is below ground except for the glazed crowns on the existing bldgs.
I see, but I still don't buy the crown/cage on the main building -- its like preseving it in a vessel. The annex bldg.s on the other hand benefit by something added on top -- both becasue they don't look that good anyway, and it kind of further systematizes them...
this is an exceptional scheme:
http://www.arkitekt.se/s26290/f3730?skip25556=600
THAT SCHEME IS INDEED AN INTERESTING ONE. HOWEVER AFTER SUBMITTING FOR THIS COMPETITION , I AM NOTICING HOW MANY ENTRIES DID NOT SUPPLY THE REQUIRED VIEWS AND DRAWINGS. IM NOT SAYING THAT THEY SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED, BUT THAT PARTICULAR SCHEME PEDRO IS NOT SHOWING A VIEW FROM THE SUBWAY STATION WHICH IS REQ. AND FROM THAT VANTAGE THE MASSING OF THIS PARTICULAR PROJECT WOULD MASK THE VIEW OF THE ORIGINAL ASPLUND ROTUNDA. WHICH MOST WOULD BE MOST DISAPPOINTING.
always an interesting question, kurtneis, when preparing a competition entry: if your project will suffer from a particular "required" view and you don't think you'll be disqualified, would you include the view or not? is this designer likely to lose more points for missing a view or having the view illustrate the designs' weakness?
Steven>
Are those things in the ceiling diffusers or are they light wells?
you mean at the scharoun library? i think there are some of both. what's in the pictures looks like light fixtures/wells (sim. to those that aalto used to do where they had both natural and artificial lighting), but there were also some pretty impressive diffusers there.
this is not to try and defend again the past-forward scheme but i think that what was interesting to me in that scheme was the fact that it communicated a certain idea about the library as a "place of silence", a place where the world and our daily lives become less noisy and frantic, more somber.
i have not seen the search for that kind of quality in many projects so far and, even the scheme that Pedro posted, which is very good and makes a lot of sense, does not really have that.
I guess i interested in knowing if this desire for a library as place that is slightly secluded and removed from all the activities of our daily routine is a completely anachronistic expectation, or if that is a quality that one should still hope to find in a "new" library.
So I am questioning whether we should not be too quick to accept the OMA Seattle library as the new paradigm...
I thought to share my nordic point of view. In my opinion the most important principle is how the extension fits in the existing cityscape next to the architectural icon. "Past forward" has it´s merits but in daylight with any kind of glass and some structure inside one would see only a dark shiny surface.
Compared to "malmasch6" (mentioned by pedromartinez) I find for example flying carpet more elegant and suitable in scale. However the concepts are very different.
infinity loop is another of my favourites excluding the fact that it doesn´t preserve any of the existing extensions. This one really gives the stage for asplund original building without being too quiet itself.
Nangijala1 is an extraordinary proposal. It doesn´t follow the limitations of the building area though. Awesome anyway.
SSBinsideandout has a proper scale, preserves the old and has an elegant shape.
Space-TimeVortex has one of the stongest concepts. Very interesting, except the boring streetfacade.
These were some of my favourites. And btw bothands, I assume xefR347_cys5 might be "that one". I like the mind-tickling aspect of xefr... but it´s not the answer for the task.
Or should I say xefr may not be the answer for the organizers of the competition this time. Don´t get me wrong. I love this kind of wild avant-garde architecture. I´m just afraid it´s so ahead of it´s time that the world is not ready for that even if it should be.
IF IT IS TRULY xefirotarch, should they be allowed to identify the project w/ the name xefr? seems not quite right.
and no we're not ready. and i don't think we should be. i'm no traditionalist, but that looks like a pile of spaghetti.
My personal favorite is Stockholm Syndrome
anyone with enough balls to name their project after a neurosis caused by trauma experienced in a hostage situation has got my vote!
all good picks, armas. i especially dig space-time vortex (still punning on the asplund forms, but much more skillfully) and the infinity loop.
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