Happy Holidays!

for all of you who bother to read, here for only for a short visit or comment, i wish Happy Holidays and amazing New Year! Buon Natale e Buon Anno! Schöne Feiertage und guten Rutsch! Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo! שנת 2011 מצוינת במיוחד

Olafur Eliasson

Although i have some problems pronouncing the name, Olafur Eliasson is one of the well known contemporary artists at this time. born in 1967 in Denmark, Eliasson studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Art and graduated at 1995. few years later he moved to Berlin where he established his own studio. Eliasson is mostly famous for his big scale installations in which he uses light, water, fog, reflections and projections to redefine space. His work range includes also Design (Light fixtures, Sammlung Boros, Berlin) and Architecture (Harpa Concert Hall facade, Reykjavik, Iceland). For an interesting interview about Art and Architecture click here.

Luoyang

Luoyang is a small city in a Chinese definition, only 6,5 million inhabitants, situated in the central plains, somewhere between Beijing and Wuhan. What i found really remarkable about it, is that among the other cities i visited in China in the last couple of months, Luoyang is quite a 'normal' city. without getting into the discussion of what is 'normal' etc. i would say that that from my personal point of view as westerner, architect and a big fan of urbanism, Luoyang gave me the impression of a pleasant, relaxed and a well maintained city. something that is not really granted in today's China... it has a defined urban structure with tree lined boulevards, which can still be defined boulevards and not a highway streets (like in Beijing). it has many green areas, busy parks and gardens. the historic center is still there and it's quite authentic (not exaggeratedly refurbished) and the people seem to be relaxed and enjoying their city. hanging out in the park on a summer evening, listening to inspiring pop singers on the sidewalks, or just strolling around after dinner. so normal ant yet so unusual in China...

The Roof is on Fire

this time, inspired by the Olympic flame (and not a TV cartoon series...), the architects at C.Y. Lee & partners in Taiwan designed the Pangu Plaza in Beijing (2008). just across the street from the amazing 'bird nest' stadium and the impressive aquatics center. an impossible hybrid of forms that makes you really wonder...

Aerotropolis

Aerotropolis is a name of a book written by John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay, about the future of the urban development in the age of globalization. according to its authors, the airports will become the center of the future urban development. surrounded by ring of malls and hotels, followed by a ring of residential neighborhoods, the airport will no longer be a disturbing, polluting and a noisy element, but the city's heart - the reason for its existence. the importance of the airports, as an economy driver, in the 21st century can be compared with the highways in the 20th century, the railroads in the 19th century and with the seaports in the 18th century. the authors base their theory on the fact that the new mega-airports attract numerous industries as logistics, retail, telecommunications, hotels, entertainment, business and exhibition.

i still haven't read the book, but as a big airports fan, i find this theory quite interesting. the increasing number of passengers makes more and more travelers who spend time at the airports. the airport developers on the other side, which are aware of this huge economic potential, provide more and more services to 'ease' our waiting for the next flight. some airports, especially on long distance routs (Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt), became 'Airlines hub's for connection flights and provide so many services, that it could even be fun to be stuck there for few days.

few factors however, might effect this theory: the increasing price of air fuel causes each year heavy loses for the airline companies. with no alternative fuel sources, the flying fares might raise significantly in the next future and the number of the passengers will decline.

and one more point, if you want to enjoy and walk around the city center of Aerotropolis you actually need a ticket...

Transformers...

sometime the TV shows that we watch as kids influence too much our imagination. i also grew up watching the Transformers, but i guess i wasn't that impressed as the architects of this masterpiece. Tuntex Sky Tower is an 85 floors skyscraper in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. completed in 1997 and designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum.

Skyscraper and the city

the question is, why in a city that:

1. is a major capital city;

2. has more then 3 millions inhabitants;

3. has no historic high landmarks (e.g. the Eiffel tower) or a solid/dense historic center;

4. has no topographic problems or earthquake risks;

5. has a quite good public transportation system and infrastructure;

there are almost no skyscrapers?

Berlin has all (well, almost...we'll talk about it later) the parameters to allow high-rise buildings within the city, but it still has one of the most boring skylines.

by the end of the II world war, about 60% of the city was destroyed and it lost most of the historic urban tissue. during the division of Berlin between east and west, there was a different urban development in each part of the city. in east Berlin the planners were implementing the soviet urban development scheme, which included modular social housing (nice words to describe plattenbau ) and monumental roads that were way too wide for the traffic at that time. in west Berlin on the other hand, the urban development was less radical. most on the old urban structure was kept, but it was filled with concrete constructions which are typical to the west german post war development. and let's not forget the big spaces along the division wall that were just left empty.

and all this short introduction why? to explain why Berlin is actually the right city for high-rise buildings. one of the strong arguments against skyscrapers in the city centers (or within an existing urban tissue), is the traffic problems that they create due to the high number of users. the urban design heritage, especially in east Berlin, left numerous wide boulevards and Allees that could cope easily with that task, not mentioning the well organized public transportation system and the wide use of bicycles nowadays.

another advantage of Berlin, is the relatively big terrain availability within the city. either free lots (which are running out rapidly) or potentially reuse of land, as part of urban renewal program by replacing the low quality constructions that were built during the post war period.

the high-rise buildings are a challenge (good ones, not the cheap photoshop collage i did...), they are a 'must' considering the reduction of the open spaces, people love them (why? that's for another post...) so why not? the answer is demand! the population growth of the city doesn't create a housing crisis, the real-estate values are still not high enough to attract that kind of investment, there is no big demand for offices or for corporate headquarters (Berlin is not a business capital) and there will be always someone who will complain saying that Berlin is not like this or like that and that the global run-out of open spaces doesn't really bother him (even if he recycles the trash and eats bio...)

one of the renderings for the new development in Alexanderplatz, proposed by the architect Till Sattler. for other images visit this link.

The Big Wave

before the Tsunami became a 'trend' in the last couple of years, in 2004 on the shores of the indian ocean and most recently - few weeks ago in Japan, i believe that only few in the western hemisphere knew what this exotic japanese word means. since the information and the interest maybe, were a little bit limited, i was always wondering if the huge waves in Hawaii were some kind of Tsunami, that could also be fun and challenging for surfers...

however, i first knew about the 'big wave' (alias - Tsunami) many years ago, reading the book with the undisclosed title - The Big Wave. the book was written by Pearl S. Buck (winner of Nobel Prize for literature in 1938) and it tells the story of a japanese fisherman kid who had to face life after escaping a Tsunami that swept away his entire family and village.

the book, which is defined for young crowd, was fascinating (i was then in my japan-period) and it described the rural life and customs in the raising sun country.

Kong Fu Fighting

back to Hong Kong, the city was for decades the third largest motion picture industry in the world, after Bollywood and Hollywood. it developed into one of the three most important Chinese-speaking filmmaking centers of world (together with China and Taiwan), exporting movies and movie stars (Bruce Lee, Jacky Chan and Chow Yun Fat) worldwide. actually it would be better to define it as a Cantonese-speaking filmmaking center, which is quite different from the official language spoken in China - Mandarin. luckily, most of the Chinese diaspora, including the big Chinese communities in America, are decedents of Cantonese immigrants, which became a huge market for the Hong Kong cinema overseas.

Hong Kong movies are known primarily for its commercial action films, martial art fight scenes, motorcycle chases and sexy Asian women. The golden era of the industry was between the mid 80's (what else!) and the beginning of the 90's. In 1993, Hong Kong made a record 200 films.

my first experiences with the Hong Kong movies were somewhere in the late 70's (i was very young then, yes). one movie that i remember was a bizarre combination between King Kong and Tarzan - The Mighty Peking Man (1977) with a very 'convincing' Hong Kong downtown model as a set...

and of course there were the unforgettable Bruce Lee movies...

one recent movie is In The mood For Love (2000) that was nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes.

...and just to finish with the title theme...

Hong Kong Public Housing

few decades ago, before the "one country, two systems" era; before harbor city, times square, ifc and pacific place shopping malls, Hong Kong was experiencing some interesting events that shaped the urban development of the city. as a British colony since 1842, it couldn't avoid the 'must' monuments build for the local administration (governor house, courts, police station, etc.), some were destroyed during the economic boom of the 50's and replaced by new construction. actually Hong Kong as we know today was mostly shaped in those years, following two major events: the reconstruction of the colony after the Japanese occupation (until 1945) and the Chinese civil war who brought to the colony waves of refugees. private firms and corporation from Shanghai and Guangzhou, who wanted to avoid the communist rule in China, shifted their activity and Hong Kong started its rapid industrialization.

a massive slum fire on Christmas eve in 1953, who left an estimated 53.000 people homeless, marked the beginning of the public housing program with the construction of Shek Kip Mei Estate (1953) in order to cope with the growing influx of immigrants and the low conditions of housing. the first blocks in the Shek Kip Mei estate were of "H" shape consisting of two residential wings linked in the center with communal sanitary facilities. each block was 7 stories high and the apartments size was based on a calculation of 2.2 sqm for an adult and half that for every child under 12 (roughly 5.5 sqm for two parents and a kid...). 29 blocks were built origianly by the colonial government, some with the financial help of the UN, all of them except for one - block 41, were demolished during the past years and replaced by new constructions. today the estate contains 26 blocks with the official capacity of 13,900 inhabitants.

the Hong Kong Housing Authority (founded in 1973) and the Hong Kong Housing Society are the organs that develop public housing solutions for low-income residents in the city and it is estimated that nearly half of the population now live in some form of public housing.

Hong Kong

what a great post to open the year with - Hong Kong! although i visited Hong kong for only short time (2 days each time...), it is one of the few places that i could say to myself: i could definitely live here...Hong kong has it almost all. starting with the geographic conditions, it has sea, islands and mountains. it has a rich mixture of cultures with a touch of british heritage and energies which can be compared to New York. the quantity of the people in the streets, the shopping rush, the strong contrast between luxury and decadence, make you feel that life in Hong Kong is far from being relaxed. it is always on the move, work, shopping, out for dinner and later for a drink...like in New York, staying at home is absolutely not an alternative (i guess that the small apartments has also something to do with it).

the topographic conditions of the city challenged planners and engineers to find creative solutions to the mobility and the housing problems of the city, and they did it in a quite remarkable way. the huge investment in infrastructure, combined with the efficiency the people who run it, make everything work perfectly.

many famous international architects contributed to the dynamic skyline of the city. however, i think it should be seen as a whole and not for the detail. except for few big and interesting projects (such as HSBC of Foster or Bank of China by M. I. Pei) it is hard to notice the quality of architecture in this maze of construction. some of the new constructions are simply boring, but the diversity of the buildings, from shimmering glass and steel towers to gray tenement houses decorated with aircons is what makes it charming. the density of the construction on the existing narrow streets layout, creates many cozy corner and spaces, that could somehow remind of the mediterranean city. in some point you don't even notice how many floors are above you...