[Houdini]

A thread for those interested in architecture.


I'm fascinated w/ wartime bunkers.  Lucky me, I'm in the right place for it as they're plastered all over my city.  Why there is one not 100m from where I sit now:



As you can see clearly, this bunker is in the process of conversion into two flats:  each will have two floors, and they're already on the market @ €190,000+ which is a fine price in the current climate (imagine buying a haus guaranteed not to have any structural problems - at least for many a generation).

And here is the city's big one, the Daddy, the wartime command centre: an amazing brutalist structure.  After WW2, the authorities wanted to raize it to the ground on the grounds it was a strong Nazi symbol - alas - she was built to last and it was calculated the amount of TNT required would send it into orbit, not the ground.  I'm glad they let it stand for many reasons, one of which is that a techno club called Übel und Gefährlich (Ugly & Dangerous) is based here.  As you can imagine, there are zero noise issues w/ local residents.



And LR shot showing zee Überbunker and the 200m HH fernsehentürm (tv tower).  A cracking structure it is too (a while back the München-based firm I worked for were due to have the concrete inspection contract for the underside of the large dish of the München TV tower, which would have meant muggins 'ere would have needed to aid from the stem to the lip drilling & bolting my way across the underside.  Guts me they lost the contract, what a wild job that would have been!)



And this is the HH Chilehaus - included as it's a stunner - check out that arete! 



Does anyone have any favourites in their own manor?

[lagerstarfish]

Speaking of concrete, Wormesley's big mess in Sheff holds a strange facination for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how the renovation goes. Ugly, but appealing (definition of "cute"?)

[lagerstarfish]

Always makes me smile

[Houdini]

Redolent of a smooth Selfridges in Brum.  I like.



I'm a doity bandwidth buster 

Here's the Chilehaus once more *fingers crossed*



And @ night

[Yossarian]

not my manor, but i wish it was...

[lagerstarfish]

The Sinclair Building on West Street in Wad-Town is rather lovely.
I like the black bricks and curves.

[SA Chris]

Nothing architecturally interesting or innovative up here, unless you like granite. Nice and sparkly on a sunny day (I remember them), but in bad weather I swear it absorbs light.

[lagerstarfish]

This was interesting when it looked like this


Now its been cleaned up, it looks great, but I can't find a picture  

[Monolith]

Where to start...

One a day perhaps. Today, Studio Sanaa: Christian Dior-Tokyo.

Sanaa produce the most incredible weightless-looking structures I can care to name.

[Jaspersharpe]

My manor for 17 years was Lewes and I grew up just up the road from this.........










Went to Seattle as a kid and was really impressed by this..........




But the ultimate for me is still this.........





.......after seeing so many pictures of it, when I finally stepped out of the tube station and saw it I was properly gobsmacked. I also like the fact that it is still a building site and will remain so for a very long time to come.

In Sheffield (apparently)this has been approved.........



.......101m tall. 31 floors. Looks pretty fucking bland to me.

But I do like this bad boy in Manchester.............




.....very Blade Runner.

[slackline]

Now its been cleaned up, it looks great, but I can't find a picture 

Not one of mine but here it is with the new bling...

[rich d]

they've turned the Palais into a Sainsubury's?  me

[lagerstarfish]

That's the one, Slackline.
W-w-w-w-wad for that, thanks.

[Jaspersharpe]

they've turned the Palais into a Sainsubury's?  me

Yup. And student accomodation.  

[rich d]

they've turned the Palais into a Sainsubury's?  me

Yup. And student accomodation.  

what a nighmare. Used to go there in early nineties, easy d, asterix and space etc, then onto CJ's.

[cowboyhat]

That Christian Dior Tokyo reminded me of...



Prada Tokyo. Impressive, though quite small. Its only a bag shop...

[Paul B]

The Sinclair Building on West Street in Wad-Town is rather lovely.

Disagree with you on that one.


^ better inside than out




I also love that airport (Barcelona?) that won an award a few years ago, colored  columns and very fancy air conditioning system that they designed to look really smart. Can't find it though

[slackline]

they've turned the Palais into a Sainsubury's?  me

Yep, and with a big fuck-off Waitrose across the road 

Although I guess given the motivation many of the students on the blocks behind are likely to lack they'll probably do quite well.

[Fiend]

Nice thread. Fuck me it's cultural on here. Black metal and contemporary architecture side by side.

Comments:

And here is the city's big one, the Daddy, the wartime command centre: an amazing brutalist structure. 

Woah yeah. A particularly harshly bland and bulky look. Like it.

...

Sagrada Familia (would you believe I guessed the spelling right first time!!), amazing. My brother who lived there for a year or so carefully guided me down various obscure streets to get the full effect of seeing it at night. Particularly impressed by how monsterous it is....it gives the impression of having very little concern for human niceties and subtleties....a definitely massive and obnoxious celebration of OTT grandeur.

The building in Manchester....impressive when driving in on the A57. The cut-away lower section, distinctive and intriguing.

...

In return may I offer you a solitary (more coming when I twiddle with them) photo of the beautiful star-trek-esque buildings in the central park running through Valencia:

[BenF]

In return may I offer you a solitary (more coming when I twiddle with them) photo of the beautiful star-trek-esque buildings in the central park running through Valencia:

Wow, that's beautiful Fiend.  I am bowled over by that photo/building.  Thanks for posting that.

[lagerstarfish]

The Sinclair Building on West Street in Wad-Town is rather lovely.

Disagree with you on that one.

Brave words. Does "Paul B" build as boldly as he writes? Does he have a real name... like... er Paul? 
sorry wrong thread 

[Paul B]

ha! So you want to fight this out the celebrity death match way do you?

I just don't see it looking good in 10 years time, the glass facade doesn't really tie in with the building either, now if they'd continued it all around the bottom to make its support look minimal that would be a different story. But they didn't.
Every project they got me to build anything it looked like errr a big truss  ...

[Monolith]

Ah one more for the day, I can't resist. The Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria. Designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier. An exhibition/performance/anything almost goes affair.

The facade is known as the BIX (Big Pixel) media facade and is capable of displaying animated imagery as seen here

The Friendly Alien as its endearingly known by its admirers.

[soapy]

[SA Chris]

I will be touching down here on friday



Denver International. I quite like the look of it (for an airport) but I think it has too much of a temporary feel to it to be really good architecture.

Also like the Guggenheim in Bilbao (from a distance anyway).