The last time I wrote something about the future home of the Brooklyn Nets, the renderings had not been released yet. Now they have. The building is designed really well. They pulled the building back from the busy intersection of Flatbush Ave and Atlantic Ave to create a public plaza and what looks like a ticket booth. The arena was designed by SHoP Architects.
The Barclay’s Center is nestled into the taller behind the arena and they have made this state of the art arena appear to be small. Obviously, the Barclay Center is a large, multi-use building in the heart of Brooklyn, but visually the building doesn’t appear to be overly massive. Just compare the appearance of this building to Madison Square Garden (above), then you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I’m not sure what the materials and the detail of the skin is on the Barclay’s Center, but they have an almost digital aesthetic of openings in the skin that varies depending on the view and where you look on the building.
The only problem that I have with this project is the suites. I honestly think they need to hire me to design these suites, because right now, they are an embarrassment to the rest of the building. Maybe SHoP gave these to an intern or something, but the furniture, cabinets, colors etc are cheap and look like they should be in a Best Western. Hopefully, they will have some time to devote to these suites because they need it.
Now that my Lakers have won the finals, the buzz of the NBA is all about LeBron and where he is going to land. I’m not a big LeBron fan, but the arena, being supported by the biggest borough in NYC (Brooklyn) and the excitement in BK has to be really tempting to LeBron. I would much rather see Dwayne Wade suit up in BK because of his hard nose game, but we’ll see. Who is going to have the opportunity to establish a legacy in the Barclay’s Center?
S P A C E S #5, The Danish Pavilion at the Expo in Shangai, China. The Danish Pavilion was the winning pavilion of this world expo in China. The 2010 Expo in China challenges the designers from across the world to design pavilions based on themes that the organization committee determined. For just a little self-loathing fun at the end of this entry, compare the Danish Pavilion to the USA Pavilion.
Here is the description/background info for the competition.
Expo 2010 will have five theme pavilions, namely, Urbanian, City Being, Urban Planet, Footprint and Future. The first three are housed in the Theme Pavilion building in Zone B where is one of the Expo landmarks, for which the designing is inspired by the concept of the “paper folding,” As an attractive feature, the roof is designed to imitate the dormer window that is often found in Shikumen houses (a traditional Shanghai architectural style). During the period of Expo, a wide range of events and ceremonies will be held in the building’s three squares. The other two pavilions, Footprint and Future, are located in two modified industrial buildings in Zone D and Zone E respectively; they represent a fascinating mix of tradition and modernity.
Here is a really cool animation explaining the winning entry, the Danish Pavilion.
I only have a couple things to add to this. First, the Danish Pavilion is really beautiful, interesting and it almost reads as a large scale sculpture. I am somewhat torn about the competition though. I appreciate its (Danish Pavilion’s) formal complexity, execution of its construction and the simplicity of the its aesthetics. The problem that I have is that the stage that is set for an artistic interpretation of a Micro Machine world. Again, I think the designers of this pavilion did an amazing job, but there is a lot of potential to fall into a cliche. When you try to do too much with one project, the structure usually suffers. Such lofty goals for the competition almost demands that the entries are more modest and humble. Simplicity is needed for the concepts, theories and aesthetics. The perfect example of how this competition creates potential for failure is the USA Pavilion in this same expo. It is cliche, boring and superficial (as a work of architecture). I guess in many ways, it is representative of a lot of our country, but I think the US could have represented itself much better than this. Here is an image of the USA Pavilion in the 2010 Expo in Shanghai.
If you click on the image above, it will take you to the USA Pavilion website. The theme for the USA Pavilion was:
The theme of the USA Pavilion is “Rising to the Challenge.” It will be woven throughout the dynamic and emotional presentations about the American spirit of perseverance, innovation, and community-building in the US Pavilion.
In other words, the pavilion is a body for propaganda. If you ask architects from across the world, there will be a high number of them that think the US does not place enough emphasis on design, architecture and the culture that is associated with it. If you look at our cities and lifestyle, I think it is obvious that this is the case. You may ask the question, what about our “lifestyle” shows that we do not appreciate architecture or design? The answer to this is simple. No country in the world spends more time in cars. The speed of this movement is not geared toward interacting with the city. Instead, we only go somewhere when we need something. We are connected to our world via satellite whether it is pulling into a parking lot for 20 minutes while we are in a store or if it is text messaging your brother in the next room.
Architecture is of course a privilege of the wealthy, as it always has been, but there is such a disconnection that the visual representation of our country has been completely outdated; cities and homes alike. Outside of urban life, the suburban lifestyle has been stuck in the post 50′s era of construction. So I guess it makes sense that we would not take this as an opportunity to show what the US could be (visually). Rather than tying to represent our country for what it could be in a built form, they represent it with media. Even if technology/media was a design feature that we wanted to highlight with this pavilion, it could have been executed in a way that didn’t look like a watered down version of the Staples Center in LA.
Very few people outside the design world are familiar with architecture and even fewer people are interested. It is unfortunate that the only way we can represent our country is with media and it is one reason why there will not be many photos of the US in this creative Micro Machine competition.
S P A C E S #4, SUPERFRONT. I think it is funny how there can be so much outside your door and you will never realize it until you start to explore. SUPERFRONT is a gallery space dedicated to architectural experimentation. Did I mention that it is less than two blocks from my apartment?!!! It’s crazy how things like this can go completely unnoticed. It has a really interesting mission statement and I will definitely be looking into this organization more.
As you can see by my interests, I like to mix it up (graffiti, architecture, urban design, urban planning, sustainability, painting, photography, graphic design, etc). This doesn’t always produce the most comfortable or recognizable architecture for most people to relate to. I have been developing ideas for a conceptual architectural project for a while and it has repeatedly been made the next priority. Having a wide variety of interests can be distracting, but I will definitely have to frequent this gallery. How can I afford not to? It is just down the block!
This is the second time that I have come across some really interesting work by Serie Architects. The first time, I saw something that I really liked from Serie Architects was on a DesignBoom blog post about their “tree” structure in their Tote project. I was really impressed in the intricacy of the structure. Structural design is usually brutal and the tree canopy really created a beautiful and interesting space. Check out the link to that project on their site, but here are a couple pictures.
So the second project that I saw from this architectural firm based in London and Mumbai was a project they call the RC Office. The first image that I saw didn’t catch my attention at first. The outside of the building is simple (as a wall system and aesthetically) and beautiful and almost minimal. The exterior envelope of the building has a series of screens that vary metal mesh density to control daylight. These screens are outside the glass floor to ceiling walls.
The interior space of this project is what really caught my eye. It is really graphic, beautiful and spatially interesting. There are angled walls that create a series of internal spaces over a central courtyard-like space in the center of the block. While the exterior of the project is glass and metal mesh screens, the interior courtyard is angular, more dynamic, planar and much more graphic than the exterior facade. They are obviously sensitive to the environment because the exterior of the building will not strongly draw too much attention away from it’s neighbors, but the interior courtyard/atrium has the star architect touch.
Here is their description of the project on their website.
RC Office Complex, Mumbai.
The ongoing transformation of Kurla in north Mumbai is characterized by the relentless proliferation of new office blocks, where the typical 5-6 storey blocks adopts the exclusive corporate lobbies as a strategy to import the image of the CBD into this former small industrial area.
Our project seeks to resist this tendency to create clear separation between the public and the existing city and the projected and exclusive corporate entity. To articulate this strategy our proposal begins with the rethinking of the Lobby and Atrium of typical office blocks.
The RC Office can be seen as a single office block, sliced open into 2 smaller blocks but brought back together by a public void. The main atrium and lobby space as the new public void is conceived as a series of rotating volumes articulated by ruled surfaces. At each different rotation, the atrium and lobbies takes on a different programmatic role.
Starting from the ground, the typically exclusive corporate lobby is transformed into a public promenade, connecting LBS Road on the west side of the site to the existing lake on the north.
As the atrium rotates upwards, it dispenses other public program along its ruled surface – cafes, gym, roof decks and lounges.
The rotational atrium also acts as a light catcher, drawing light along its rotation, illuminating the ruled surface and reflecting light into the heart of the building.
Total Area: 10,000 sqm Client: RC Group India Date: Commission. Ongoing
Design: Chris Lee / Kapil Gupta
One thing that interests me about this firm is the organization of their project on their website. They break their projects down into “types”. I’m curious to know what it is that makes each one of their buildings fit into their graphic “types”. Here is their description of their process, approach and their practice.
Another thing I like about this firm is the way that they describe their projects. Their writings are simple, to the point, clear and unpretentious. It also helps that their work, from what I have seen, is varied, versatile, customized and un-stylized. By this, I mean that it doesn’t look like they are pushing for an aesthetic that will work everywhere. They adapt to the site that they are working with and it is an important skill as architects. I know that after time passes, some of their work will start to resemble each other, but that is the story with any architectural firm that gains notoriety. I will keep an eye out for more of their projects.
