A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse.
MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11, it was not our intention.
— MVRDV, facebook.com
The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, the design was not meant to provoke this.
The design inspiration of The Cloud is visualised in the image here attached. (see above)
20 Comments
the architects are not based in the US, are not doing a project in the US, so naturally were not thinking about the US when they designed this. Rather, they are based in a country with low dependence on oil, and little interest in oil rich territories. Innocent.
One commenter on Facebook says, "I had never heard of MVRD before but I shall never forget the name now." So stupid on so many levels.
@David, this work isn't beautiful?
yea cycle, I'm with you on this one although there is a visual connection its in a completely unrelated territory....would it have been better to just have to two towers? although it would undermine the concept of the building...maybe every architect doing twin towers should watch out
We shouldn't even use the number "11," since it reminds some people the Twin Towers. Better yet, we should force Porsche to change the name 911 to something else, like "PEACE" or "USA! USA!"
We should ban all wave pool facilities, since it reminds some people tsunami.
crazy.
fulcrum
hahaha, I love you comment!!!
This is interesting. We architects live in a world-wide society of thinkers; a field that is maybe the most heterogenous in the world. And the fact is: we live in a post-9-11 culture. All of us.
Who is to say that interpreting an allusion to the Twin Towers as wrong? Especially because buildings are designed by someone and exist in our culture.
i see it more like twin buildings fucking.;.)
Regardless of the 911 problem, this is not MVRDV's best work. Pretty bad actually. A heavyhanded one liner.
*hysterical cries* 9/11 strikes again! It's important no one forget 9/11. So I say we go with it. Let me be the first to propose a terrible idea, 'The 9/11 Style'. Here's how it works:
1. You can not be an American designer. That would just be offensive.
2. Choose a building site as far away from ground zero as possible. Fortunately, this will be somewhere in China or Korea where they are still building things.
3. Design a building at least 4 times taller than is it wide.
4. Add an architectural event somewhere along the height of building. Due to a complete lack of spatial understanding by the general public this can be a solid or a void. It's going to get misinterpreted either way, so be creative with it!
5. Lastly, enjoy endless free publicity being served up by people with so little imagination when they finally do make a connection that isn't literal, it's tragic.
Peace77 is right, lets not get distracted from the fact that this is a weak proposal.
9/11 was an inside job, instead of being offended by the imagery of Dutch architects, Americans should demand answers from their own governent
weird. i saw it and thought, "whoa, how'd they elevate safdie's habitat '67 like that?!?"
Publicity Stunt. The only good thing about this gimmick is that it will never be built.
I like the concept of two buildings conecting each other like if they had been under a mutation. Somehow this part is what I really like in the building.
Before all the controversy came up I was with a group of about 8 other people looking at this. No one saw 9-11. I think the most common joke was MVRDV should get that looked at. Its funny how poisonous an association like that can be.
All that said I kinda like it.
You have to have you head buried in the sand if you think "al ClA-da" took down these towers, which were obviously demolished, people.
Let's not keep swallowing the lies of political corruption from the war-empire.
The more we talk about America's "Reichstag Fire" event, 9/ll the more we see reality as it actually is & dissolve our mental blocks.
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