(Chaubin.F.,2011, CCCP Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed, Taschen, Germany, Pgs 124 – 125)

1984, USSR
The rhythm and repetition of the façade of this building is wonderful.  The modular appearance of the balconies provide a texture to the building which is almost like the rough skin of a lizard.  Viewed from a different angle the repetition is clearer than the rhythm.  Like many of the buildings in the book I’d love to see the inside!  The daring, cutting Brutalist style of the building displays its structure, strength and weight to the world.  The occupants are cleverly spaced apart so that their actual close proximity is hidden from them.  The stepped pattern of the units will provide privacy and the balconies are positioned so that each feels like it has its own personal view of the surrounding vista.

What is striking about this building for me is the fact that the branches recorded in the façade of the building are concrete.  Seeing concrete used at an angle like this is probably nothing new technically, but it is definitely new visually if you live in the UK where concrete is strictly a horizontal and vertical affair.   Ito’s concept for this building is that is captures the fluid movement of the tree’s on the street in an ephemeral moment.

This makes me realise that almost everything is possible and as long as the buildings programme is tended to and the exterior can be justified – anything goes.  (Not sure how happy the builders were at the idea of making a cast to mould the poured concrete. I suppose alternatively the shapes may well have been made off site and shipped in and lifted into place with a crane like a numbered jigsaw?

This interesting building reminds us of how warm wood can be.  Initially the exterior appears to be patterned with wooden shapes.  On closer inspection the Bamboo strips are hinged and are actually shutters to restrict strong sunlight and provide further privacy.  The windows of the building are inset into the structure which means that there is space for balconies which benefit from the Bamboo shutters.

Its social housing, so many people will live in this building.  According to the site there are 100 units in total.  Each unit is a double aspect which means that they are long and narrow stretching from one side of the building to the other.

Images of this building (in case the link fails in the future):

Below you will see the template I created and the resultant rough building making use of Photoshopped shadows and highlights around the window Sill and each side of the shape has a different texture.  Unwrapping allows the you to texture the polys as a whole in PS rather than making a range of textures separately in PS and then applying them one by one is 3DsMax.

I’m happy that I have a new technique open to me for development.  The initial results aren’t fantastic mainly due to the incorrect scaling of the base texture of the walls.  This is why the cardboard piece seems clearer than the wall in quality.

I need to be careful with the lines of the UVW template.  I need to hide them after completing the material. They have shown up in the result!

http://daniel-libeskind.com/projects/ground-zero-master-plan/images

Libeskind appears in “50 Architects that you should know” published by Prestel in London, New York and Munich.  But his entry isn’t for the replacement for the twin towers.  His first work was the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

An interesting building that seems to be scarred with cuts for windows.  From the inside the windows seems to be oblivious to the floor levels, in fact several pictures from the outside show the floor levels in part through the windows.  On first look, the building looks like a school boys dream, I don’t say this to belittle the work – not at all – I’m in awe of the daring that it (in my mind) must have taken to present this model as a solution for a Museum. Maybe I need to update my sense of Museums and what they represent?  Personally I find it difficult to find congruence in a sharp, new, daring and futuristically stylised building to hold artefacts of old for the Jewish community.

I think that its shape uses the available ground space cleverly; recoiling upon itself casting shadows and causing dark areas to be formed.  I wonder if the buildings programme makes good use of the natural light available and unavailable during different times of the day or seasons?

Inside on the lower levels I really like the stark concrete and the scale of the space.  The building seems to envelop and dominates the senses.  The faces on the floor are interesting.  They are an installation of 10,000 cast iron faces by Menashe Kadishman.  You really should spend a minute to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha0aVRnntgY (or watch below) as it really shows you the interaction between the iron and the concrete through sound.  Truly wonderful.

The museums zig-zag shape is sliced down the middle creating a void, as you traverse through the building you have to navigate the faces that have been placed in this void.  Another interesting thing about the building is that the only way in is through an underground passage from the museums original Baroque style building.

What an experience!  What a building!

There were several interesting things about this building.  The windows are right at the top which appears to leave a huge section of the building without light.  I like the large exposed supporting pillars they are so much more interesting than the flat sheets of aluminium framed glass that seem to be the current trend.  Some of these don’t let light in and are coloured to improve their appearance.  While I understand that people don’t like concrete, I am slightly surprised that people are willing to accept curtain walling in their surroundings.  It has a futuristic feel to it and a air of importance which seems to fit the corporate clients who solely use this style of building most of the world over.  In its day, Brutalist buildings did this too.  Maybe curtain-walling will go the way of brutalism?  I appreciate both, but I think that the Brutalist style has developed a bad reputation for ugliness and crime in housing complexes.  Frankly ugliness is subjective and I think there were lessons to be learn’t about social housing complexes regardless of the building style used.  It could be argued that the style contributed to the mistakes and I think that this would be true – dark staircases in blocks of flats for example – but I think that design flaws have unfortunately cost Brutalism its future.  What a shame.

Images of the Brutalist example at Bangor University, North Wales.

On my browser the images load in Progressive layers, so each image may take a moment to appear in full clarity.

(The rusty red building isn’t part of the Roger Stevens Building)

Both zones are pedestrian free which is interesting as the tunnel has breakdown telephone boxes and both zones have pedestrian footpaths.  There purpose is obviously for emergencies but in both cases there are footpaths that eventually link to a standard open footpath.  I wonder about the illegality of using these footpaths albeit for taking photographs?

Im going to use these images as reference points when modelling the underpass structure in my 3d Model.