Royal National Theatre; London, U.K.

Sharp Centre for Design; Toronto, Canada

The “Sharp Centre for Design”, designed by architect Will Alsop, of Alsop Architects, in a joint venture with Toronto-based Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc. It consists of a box four storeys off the ground supported by a series of multi-coloured pillars at different angles and is often described as a tabletop.

The $42.5 million expansion and redevelopment has received numerous awards, including the first-ever Royal Institute of British Architects Worldwide Award, the award of excellence in the “Building in Context” category at the Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Awards, and was deemed the most outstanding technical project overall in the 2005 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.

Although some call it innovative, there are others who call it intolerable. While the building’s black and white squares combined with pencil-like stilt supports make it look like a clubhouse for crossword puzzle enthusiasts, this building is actually part of the Ontario College of Art & Design.

Chang Building (“The Elephant Tower”); Bangkok, Thailand

The Elephant Building or Chang Building is a high-rise building located on Paholyothin Road & Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok, Thailand. It lies in the North Bangkok Business District and Chatuchak district. The building is one of the most famous buildings in Bangkok because it has the characteristics of an elephant.

The building has 32 floors and is 102 metres (335ft.) high, it was completed in 1997.
It’s not that we think the design is that bad and we even like the intended humor. It’s the half-hearted execution that turns this potentially fun idea from attraction to eyesore.

Royal National Theatre; London, U.K.

The Royal National Theatre (generally known as the National Theatre) in London is one of the United Kingdom’s two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company. Internationally, it is styled the National Theatre of Great Britain.

The National Theatre’s foyers are open to the public, with a large theatrical bookshop, restaurants, bars and exhibition spaces. Backstage tours run throughout the day, and there is live music every day in the foyer before performances.

The style of the National Theatre building was described by Mark Girouard as “an aesthetic of broken forms” at the time of opening. Architectural opinion was split at the time of construction. Even enthusiastic advocates of the Modern Movement such as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner have found the Béton brut concrete both inside and out overbearing.

Most notoriously, Prince Charles described the building in 1988 as “a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting”. Sir John Betjeman, however, a man not noted for his enthusiasm for brutalist architecture, was effusive in his praise and wrote to Lasdun stating that he “gasped with delight at the cube of your theatre in the pale blue sky and a glimpse of St. Paul’s to the south of it.

It is a lovely work and so good from so many angles…it has that inevitable and finished look that great work does.” Yes, Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage…” but he might not have had he lived to see 1970s. While we love the idea of the theatre and the world-class productions mounted here, our feelings don’t quite extend to the actual building.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-26