Even as the design itself, for all its airiness and crisp confidence, is hardly radical from a formal point of view -- it consists of a cube sheathed in a shimmering polymer scrim and resting on a ground-floor colonnade of concrete pillars -- it represents a major shift in how we think about the role of U.S. government architecture, both at home and abroad. It suggests putting an emphasis on action instead of values, measurable behavior rather than symbolic gestures. — latimes.com
The LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne reviews the new U.S. Embassy in London, designed by KieranTimberlake.
5 Comments
it looks like modeled after rex/oma wyly theather in dallas.
I guess maybe it was the difference between being in a "war-zone" and London. Why is this one more aesthetically "designed" than one in Germany and Iraq?
reading the description of the scrim and how it will work, sounds like the actual appearance of the building will be pretty different from the theater. the glazed base/brise-soleil-sheathed body has pretty established precedents. the offset opening is, i guess, the compositional piece that triggers that recognition.
nam, i think hawthorne describes pretty well that the difference isn't just aesthetic but that the whole attitude in approaching this project was to accommodate but mitigate the security-heavy needs, completely different from the baghdad and berlin projects. there was certainly an aesthetic approach in berlin, for instance, but it seemed more apologetic and applied than in this case, where the appearance arises directly out of performance strategies.
aburrido
does look like wyly..
so is this the building that will replace saarinen's embassy?
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