Architecture hunt
Hello guys, first of all, my apologies for abandoning this website for almost a month. I have been busy with classes and some projects but main reason is my vpn didn't work well these past couple of weeks. As some of you may have known that I live in China and we can not open so many sites including google without vpn or freegate.
Besides talking about new projects, I wanted to share to you guys of some cool buildings that I visited these couple of weeks.
1. It is the new NANJING YOUTH OLYMPIC CENTER by ZAHA HADID
It stands on a vast area called olympic village, we can find another interesting architectures nearby and also huge parks and the famous new bridge called 'the eye of Nanjing'. The building itself occupied theaters, convention centers, office towers, hotel and apatment, they actually haven't finished the construction in some parts but luckily we can go inside the main theater.
Yeah, I know it is so ZAHA! photo credit : Brenda Wang
2. Canton Tower by IBA: Mark Hemel & Barbara Kuit
Yup, I went to Guangzhou! we had a week holiday during the China National holiday.
This is one of the coolest TV tower I have ever seen, the max height is around 600m. What makes this tower special is the steel column that support the main structure, also act as a skin, and it is twisted from the bottom to the top! and squeezed in the middle to create this sexy lady!
Of course all of this difficulties get done by ARUP which is the structure engineer! For you who doesn't know ARUP, check their website, that is the company who makes the impossible become possible!
3. Guangdong Museum
To be honest I don't know who is the architect in charge of this building, but it is developed by again, ARUP associates. I believe it's a local architect though, the space, material and the feeling is pretty much chinese modern style of architecture, it is the typical of what our teachers will want us to do in our project. No offense, it is still a pretty cool building!
I believe you guys wondering what is that floating box in the middle, basically it is a curtain of metal mesh, outside the mesh is the traffic area which is surrounded by another mesh curtain, and outside the second mesh is the exhibition area.
The floor plan is very simple and clean, I'm sorry that I don't have the picture of it, but I am sure you guys can find it in archdaily or other similar websites.
4. Guangzhou Opera by ZAHA HADID
Save the best for the the last, yeah, it is probably my most favorite opera house I have ever visited! Just so you know people hate this building though. I can not blame them, there are several reasons that I can agree with, the construction detail of this building is really poor, and it is not the mistake of the workers, it is the lackness of Zaha construction detail ability I must say.
It is not fair to only say the ugliness of this building, because the space inside and the interior of the theater is..... I have no words to describe it, it is just completely stunning!
The interior of the theater is an amazing work from an artist named Harold Marshall, not Zaha, which is pretty amazed me.
There are still so much more that I want to share with you guys but it will be too long, so I suggest you, if you are interested, pay a visit to Guangzhou, there are plenty of interesting buildings here! Hope you guys started the semester well and if you have any questions or opinions about these 4 buildings or the websites, feel free to contact me or simply write your comment on the comment box below! happy weekend :)
