Unit 10 Seeking a New Identity

1 Introduction 2 interface

1.1 Read the text title and hypothesize what the text is about. Write down your hypothesis.

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1.2 What do you know concerning this issue? List your ideas in the table left column “I know”.

I know that…	I have learnt that…

1.3 If you know answers to these questions write them down in the space given after each question.

	What effect do Absolute World towers produce?
	Why is the Absolute Tower nicknamed Marilyn Monroe?
	What is 0-14’ dominant feature?
	How does the concrete shell of 0-14 act?
	What framework did hole-ridden slipcover of concrete require?
	Where is the Earthscraper going to be built?
	Why does Mexico City look like a massive layered cake?

1.4 Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.

	a motto			a diagrid
	to forsake			fine meshwork
	an exoskeleton			an exterior shell
	a lace-like effect			column-free
	column-free			to superimpose
	lateral forces			a layered cake
	a chimney effect			an inverted pyramid
	a slipcover			a central void

New trends are emerging in architecture. Old styles are left behind and architects now go for the ultra-modern look, the futuristic style of buildings. A lot of people actually admire this attitude: it’s bold and it must be appreciated because they’re looking ahead in the future and setting some landmarks for the young architects that will come. For us they’re offering a great spectacle of shapes and colours, leaving us the opportunity to simply gaze at their brilliant work. There are few of them which still are in the project faze, some of them are in the building process and most of them, of course, are already built.

Absolute World is a residential condominium twin tower skyscraper complex in the five tower Absolute City Centre development in Mississauga, Ontario. The project is being built by Fernbrook Homes and Cityzen Development Group. With the first three towers completed (Absolute City Centre 1 & 2 and Absolute Vision), the last two towers (Absolute World 4 & 5) are currently under construction. Standing at 50 and 56 storeys, these two skyscrapers are the tallest of any built in a North American suburban city.

Modernism has a famous motto: A house is a machine for living in. However, as the machines and the society constructed upon it have experienced dramatic changes, how should we understand today's architecture? What message should the architecture convey if she is distancing away from the industrial age?

Like other fast developing suburbs in North America, Mississauga is seeking a new identity that best explains her own characters. Architects take this as a great opportunity to respond to the expanding need of the city in a special way. Mississauga should give more thought to its own unique characters rather than pursue the example of other suburbs striving to become metropolises. This design forsakes the simplification principle of modernism, in fact, it express a higher level of complexity and the diversity of modern society through multiple approaches, and in the meanwhile it caters to the vague social needs at multiple levels.

Not only does the tower manifest the power of design, it also serves as a statement to the surrounding area and the social context. The building is sculpture-like in its overall effect, and its design expresses the universal language of audacity, sensuality and romance. As the new landmark of the city of Mississauga, it will become the icon of the present landscape with all its twisting rhythms resembling the human body.

The Absolute World 4 is nicknamed Marilyn Monroe by the locals. The variation of the rotation of the floor plates - from two to eight degrees - and the high position of the "bulge" in the silhouette give this tower its dynamic feminine profile. The Absolute World Tower 5, on the other hand, is characterized by a uniform rotation of each floor and a lower swelling of its profile; inevitably giving it the appearance of Marilyn’s masculine companion.

In this design, the continuous balcony surrounds the whole building, eliminating the vertical lines used in traditional high rise architecture to emphasize the height. The entire building rotates by different degrees at different level, which corresponds with sceneries at different height. The aim of the architects is to evoke the city dwellers' aspiration for nature, and get them in touch with the sunlight and the wind.

0-14. The showy skyscrapers that established Dubai’s identity in this hot, humid, desert site on the Persian Gulf have been overshadowed by the towering Burj Khalifa. Yet one short office building – a mere 22 stories – makes its mark by original means: with a holey, curvaceous outer shell.

Called 0-14 after the site number of the Business Bay district, the slim structure’s dominant feature is a poured-concrete exoskeleton perforated by over 1,300 openings in five sizes that create a lace-like effect on the building’s façade. It was designed by New York architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto who intentionally sought to create an alien presence in the melange of banal towers.

The ghostly white forty centimeter-thick concrete exoskeleton stands 3 feet away from an inner glass-walled enclosure that follows its swerving contours: The two are linked by structural concrete tongues. With a central stair and elevator core, the interiors are column-free, allowing each floor to provide 6,000 square feet of office space to its tenants. The concrete shell of O14 provides an efficient structural exoskeleton that frees the core from the burden of lateral forces and creates highly efficient, column-free open spaces in the building’s interior.

The shell is not only the structure of the building, it acts as a sunscreen open to light, air, and views. The openings on the shell modulate, depending on structural requirements, views, sun exposure, and luminosity. The overall pattern is not in response to a fixed program, rather the pattern in its modulation of solid and void will affect the arrangement of whatever program comes to occupy the floor plates.

A space nearly one meter deep between the shell and the main enclosure creates a so-called “chimney effect,” a phenomenon whereby hot air has room to rise and effectively cools the surface of the glass windows behind the perforated shell. This passive solar technique essentially contributes to a natural component to the cooling system for O14, thus reducing energy consumption and costs, just one of many innovative aspects of the building’s design.

But the hole-ridden, contoured slipcover of concrete required a dense basket weave of rebar. The team tied the rebar at intersections with stirrups in the zones of high stress, creating a diagrid with 40 percent openness. The holes are achieved by introducing computer numerically cut polystyrene void forms into the rebar matrix, and sided with modular steel slip forms prior to the concrete pour. Super-liquid concrete is then cast around this fine meshwork of reinforcement and void forms resulting in an elegant perforated exterior shell.

Inside the 398,655-square-foot tower, occupants are protected from the high heat and gusts of sandy wind, while they still have expansive views out. It comes as no surprise that the sculptural solution was expensive to build. Although the design saves in cooling costs, the up-front investment, withheld by the developer, was higher than a conventional structure. In some respects the design could provide an influential prototype for other desert buildings.

The Earthscraper. New infrastructure, office, retail and living space are required in Mexico City but no empty plots are available. Federal and local laws prohibit demolishing and altering historic buildings and even if this was so, height regulations limit new structures to eight storeys. The city's historic centre is in desperate need of a makeover but they have nowhere to put it, this means the only way to go is down.

The Historic Centre of Mexico City is composed of different layers of cities superimposed on top of each other. When the Aztecs first came into the Valley of Mexico they built their pyramids on the lake they found there. When a new and bigger pyramid was conceived and the Aztec Empire grew in size and power, they did not search for a new site, they just built on it and around the existing one. In this manner, the pyramids are composed of different layers of historical periods.

When the Spanish arrived in America and ultimately conquered the Aztecs, they erected their Christian temples atop their pyramids. Eventually their whole colonial city was built on top of the Aztec one. In the 20th century, many colonial buildings were demolished and modern structures raised on the existing historic foundations. So in a way, Mexico City is like a massive layered cake.

The Earthscraper, designed by BNKR Arquitectura, is a kind of reversal of the historical Aztec pyramid. It dives 35 stories deep into the earth in order to preserve the visual aesthetic of the historic city square and the existing hierarchy of the buildings that surround it. It retains the public space, commonly used year round for events such as concerts, political gatherings, open-air exhibitions, military parades, and cultural celebrations.

The Earthscraper is an inverted pyramid with a central void to allow all habitable spaces to enjoy natural lighting and ventilation. The top area on the ground will be 240m x 240m which will be covered by a glass floor to allow natural light to filter in to the inverse building.

The first ten stories would offer a tourist attraction, with all floors displaying Aztec and Mayan artifacts in a pre-Columbian museum. The design sees the next ten stories filled with retail shops and domestic housing, whilst the deepest levels offer 35 stories of office space. The concept is reminiscent of the famous glass pyramid featured at the centre of Le Louvre Museum in Paris, but with mammoth proportions.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-24