Questiontime
UESTION TIME
THIS MONTH’S QUESTION: IS DESIGN REPETITION GOOD FOR THE FUTURE OF CITIES OR DO WE NEED TO STRETCH OUR IMAGINATIONS AND WORK HARDER TO IMAGINE AND CREATE FOR A MORE VARIED DESIGN FUTURE?
A recent article in the Guardian, part of the Architecture and Design Blog by Oliver Wainwright, discusses the onslaught of shard- esque masterpieces created since the arrival of London’s sharp-tipped, lightning bolt building. Wainwright muses over the ‘frenzy’ of similar shiny, reflective statures and asks whether or not it is a trend to be welcomed. It seems that as design, as with many other things, works in cycles, that we are bound to repeat certain uses of materials, designs, shapes, typographies. Can you think of any buildings created in homage to another that work perfectly? Do you feel that it is a form of flattery or an idle behaviour born out of the increasingly challenging nature of architecture and design, to keep up with modern and fast-paced technologies and competing city landscapes?
12 Architects Choice July 2014
DARA HUANG, FOUNDER, DH LIBERTY
Any designer will tell you that nothing is “new” anymore. Even if we thought of something in our sleep, we are bound to eventually find it somewhere else in the world. It is great for the design field to draw inspiration and motivation from each other’s design ideas and debate about our discipline. This includes finding inspiration in the creative people and world around us. I often work in collaboration with other interesting artist and designers if I feel really moved by what they are doing. When designing new buildings, context plays an important role. Whether design should fit the environment or become an icon that is vastly different from it’s surroundings, it still
should relate to the existing fabric or conceptually draw inspiration from the history of site, rather than creating something completely new and unrelated. This does not mean that the physical form looks identical, but rather has an unobvious relationship: scale, circulation, and the city grid. For this reason, while the question of style and trends is omnipresent, relationship is a much more significant issue. I think for the example of the Shard, I personally love it, and I find the relationship to the skyline quite a powerful one. The way it disappears into the sky, the way it orients itself with the London grid and blends into the transient urban fabric on the base level. The contextual is obvious, but if you were to recreate the shard in another city, I am not sure it would have the same effect.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52