The sentiment is warm and fuzzy. The design, however, is radical: BIG has imagined a complex that would be unlike any other building in the city – or, indeed, North America. The scheme blends an unusual stack-of-blocks form, and adds a complex weave of public and private spaces underneath and within the heart of the building itself...the effect [Bjarke Ingels] is going for is akin to 'a Mediterranean mountain town.' — The Globe and Mail
More recent BIG projects:
BIG in Paris: Bjarke Ingels to design for Galeries Lafayette on Champs-Élysées
BIG's concept for a spiraling-landscape tower in NYC's Hudson Yards
66 Comments
There is always context. Just because you can't say "gee, it kind of resembles that other building", doesn't mean that it is without context. Sometimes the context is the client in town who reached out to BIG and is willing to build the design or the people in town who want to buy/lease space in a building of this type. This is how buildings emerge out of a context. There is an underlying cultural and economic context that is often off the radar because it remains, more or less, invisible to the public until plans are made public.
Think the weakness is in the process. BIGs marketing is claiming a direct influence, calling it "Habitat 2.0" but that has a more horizontal and well crafted aesthetic. Each project just feels like a rushed retread of some 1970s concept from this history books. Think the reality is that these projects are being put together by project managers right out of the GSD that haven't really developed a process yet while Bjarke runs around the world buttering up the media and conference circuit and getting more projects. Serious quality control issues.
Isn't there any new territory for architecture to uncover? Mecanno is doing some interesting work looking into a synthesis of craft and modernism as is David Adjaye.
LiMX, BIG isn't going to be like Adjaye. They probably don't want to be. You're criticizing a square peg for not fitting a round hole instead of appreciating why they're successful in their own right. We circle the same issues every time BIG announces a new project and a new client because a portion of the arch. community wants BIG to magically morph into Zumthor.
Yes, there is always context. And that's part of my point.
The reference to Habitat is thin at best, and seems to be crap tossed out there to justify a formal process. The social, economic, and historical contexts don't match and neither do the the cultural cultural/political contexts.
So either it's "hey let's assemble some blocks and reference Habitat." Or to use the client context "this is a project with a skinny fee/cheap client, assemble a team with a low impact on office expenses," followed by "let's just reference Habitat."
Mind you, this is a critique of this project with respect to their process and work. It's just not as well thought out as some of the other projects that been recently announced.
is that nice lady reading Yes is More?
You are assuming a moral relativism or equivalence in square and round peg? I've no illusion that BIG wants to appeal to die hard architecture enthusiasts. Their goal is to "have an impact." But there are serious red flags apparent in constructing such big square pegs and how narrative can be a distraction. these are self contained cities, gated suburbanite communities (Utopianism that usually decays from its disconnectedness). Add a lack of craft to the mix and a corrupt PR based media and a copycat profession and it's a red alert.
What is "success" is a matter of perspective between design and use. BIG presents dazzle dazzle but doesn't make a case as to why we would want to live in his dream world.
He's building a brand and marketing the shit out of it. Like most brands, what's important is sale based on appearance that few are trained to see beyond. By the time you get to substance it's already too late.
Blame it on economics, media, superficial culture, ego, whatever. The fact is they are all components of this kind of failure. BIG is not competing against other starchitects in design - he's gone straight to marketing, and design only exists to serve up that purpose. In your face, Mayne, Hadid, Koolhaas, etc. You market your designs, BIG designs his marketing.
Aside from that I'd hardly call the Seattle Public Library masterful.
LiMX, I really don't see the "red alert" that you describe. We don't even know enough about this project to start calling it a self-contained gated community. You're trying to weave a narrative that is overly bleak and overly certain about what this project is.
Perhaps I have associations of this type of housing, living in the US where large housing is designed for everyone but ends up as segregated ghetto. Maybe in Europe/Canada these projects have worked a bit better. But looking at it, BIG projects all look really drab in execution, colorless, textureless and depressing, which is why the narrative of exciting! new! Amazing! Seems even chillier.
What if it were painted red? Joking.
Pixels are all drab grey. Duh
A little color.. Would be nice. But looking at BIGs promo videos, rarely any color in the work or in the office either...would love to see Kanyes critique on BIGs work. Guessing he'd repeat his recent Twitter rant, "real artists want to have fun too"
Developers rejoice! Crap is fashionable again!
New renderings show how the new building relates to existing historic buildings and the street.
New renderings show how the new building doesn't relate to existing historic buildings and the street.
There, fixed it for you. But you have to love the digital snowman.
These renderings are more convincing. But just because you squat your building on top of another doesn't mean the relationship is good, and there are still soil volume issues. It's just not the best BIG building.
I think that the play of old vernacular and new has a lot of potential. Also, the render appears to show a courtyard that is accessible by the public.
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