The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#2> We all know how Facebook has disrupted what now seem like quaint forms of friendship, [...], information, [...]
No, it really, really, has not.
> But more than that, Facebook, along with all the start-up successes of Silicon Valley, has also disrupted paradigms of success and power.
Huh, seriously? Who makes this stuff up?! Maybe the author should get out of SV every once in a while to see that in the rest of the world, the concepts of "success" and "power" have not changed in the last 10 years.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#3You could fit every job in Silicon Valley, in those countless sprawling suburban square miles, into midtown Manhattan.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#4> We all know how Facebook has disrupted what now seem like quaint forms of friendship, [...], information, [...] No, it really, really , has not. > But more than that, Facebook, along with all the start-up successes of Silicon Valley, has also disrupted paradigms of success and power. Huh, seriously? Who makes this stuff up?! Maybe the author should get out of SV every once in a while to see that in the rest of the…
Indeed. If there is one thing Facebook has taught us more than anything else, it is probably that technology and trivial banter are no substitute for meaningful personal relationships.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#5This reads like an architect's whining that she is not allowed to build skyscrapers. But surprise, people are also part of nature and sometimes they want to feel as such. I don't want to check my phone for the weather, I'd like to look up and see the sky. If it rains, I want to get wet. If sun is shining, I'd like to feel it on my skin. I would like to hear birds singing, preferably real ones and not some recorded "ambient sound, birds #42". If asking for an outdoor playground for my kids is "fetishization of the past", then, hell yes, sign me up for that.
Once upon a time one could actually impress people by building skyscrapers, but that time is over. Now we all know that it is possible, the novelty wore off.
And the argument about saving resources: There are only very few places in the world where space is at a premium.
I wonder what Christopher Alexander would say about that article - while his "Timeless Way of Building" did resonate with me because it was all about "humans first", this article is just the other way around.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#6This does not hold up as an essay, more so from an architect, if she does not discuss the reason why Facebook settled in that Sun campus and why the new building is not a skyscraper... It is not hard to find out: Facebook (and Google) love large floors, large open spaces. They are much easier to operate in. This is why the Google office in New York is not in a skyscraper but in largest-floor-plan building, spanning a hole wide city block, in NYC.
If the function is not the first consideration of the architect, well, then they are not really doing their job. So we want to start building more skyscrapers again, we need to show their physical utility. Perhaps change the way people move in such space. That is a grand challenge for, wait for it, some architect.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#7This reads like an architect's whining that she is not allowed to build skyscrapers. But surprise, people are also part of nature and sometimes they want to feel as such. I don't want to check my phone for the weather, I'd like to look up and see the sky. If it rains, I want to get wet. If sun is shining, I'd like to feel it on my skin. I would like to hear birds singing, preferably real ones and not some recorded "a…
> people are also part of nature and sometimes they want to feel as such
Sure, but while you're at the office/at work/in your apartment? Does it matter so much whether your building is 2 or 40 stories? You get back on the street for your lunch break either way. The author is not against building parks and recreational spaces where you can have this; I don't really understand your complaint.
> Once upon a time one could actually impress people by building skyscrapers, but that time is over. Now we all know that it is possible, the novelty wore off.
I obviously can't change your opinion here, but there's something very satisfying about looking out from a high floor on a tall building. There's always something satisfying to me about driving towards NYC and seeing the skyline in the distance. Maybe I'm just holding on a little too much to modernist aesthetics, but I agree with the author that skyscrapers can still impress.
For a more recent example, I took a trip to London a few weeks ago. The piece of art I saw there that most affected me wasn't a painting, but a skyscraper: I saw The Shard* (completed 2012), rising up into the clouds and mist. I found it incredibly powerful to gaze up at a building like that. It's an experience I have difficulty describing -- it felt like a quasi-religious monument to some aspect of our contemporary culture, and it affected me as such.
> There are only very few places in the world where space is at a premium
And those are also the areas where people want to live. People like other people. People, in general, like density. Why keep them playgrounds for the international wealthy? Cities used to be places for everyone: immigrants, travelers, artists, businesspeople, parents & children... There are more people now than ever: let's build to the sky.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#8This reads like an architect's whining that she is not allowed to build skyscrapers. But surprise, people are also part of nature and sometimes they want to feel as such. I don't want to check my phone for the weather, I'd like to look up and see the sky. If it rains, I want to get wet. If sun is shining, I'd like to feel it on my skin. I would like to hear birds singing, preferably real ones and not some recorded "a…
> people are also part of nature and sometimes they want to feel as such Sure, but while you're at the office/at work/in your apartment? Does it matter so much whether your building is 2 or 40 stories? You get back on the street for your lunch break either way. The author is not against building parks and recreational spaces where you can have this; I don't really understand your complaint. > Once upon a time one cou…
> Sure, but while you're at the office/at work/in your apartment?
Yes, I actually like being woken up by birds or seeing an actual tree when I look out of my office window. I don't want to commute to a "recreational space" and I enjoy having meetings in cafes just outside, sitting in the sun, having a coffee. If you walk in between skyscrapers, you have about one hour per day of direct sunlight.
> there's something very satisfying about looking out from a high floor on a tall building
Only when your view is not blocked by another just as tall building across the street.
> [The Shard]
I can appreciate nice architecture. But I lived in London for some time and I also enjoyed the low-rise architecture that still makes up most of the inner city. The only thing that, after some time, annoyed me: Always seeing the Gherkin (which, as far as I know, is not even profitable). The picture on WP illustrates that pretty well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe
> [The places where space is at a premium] are also the areas where people want to live.
And here one should ask what made those places so desirable in the first place. Would San Francisco still be hip without the parks and cafes but with skyscraper next to skyscraper? I would doubt that.
Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#9This reads like an architect's whining that she is not allowed to build skyscrapers. But surprise, people are also part of nature and sometimes they want to feel as such. I don't want to check my phone for the weather, I'd like to look up and see the sky. If it rains, I want to get wet. If sun is shining, I'd like to feel it on my skin. I would like to hear birds singing, preferably real ones and not some recorded "a…
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Re: The Form Could Be Reborn: The Future of the Skyscraper
#10This does not hold up as an essay, more so from an architect, if she does not discuss the reason why Facebook settled in that Sun campus and why the new building is not a skyscraper... It is not hard to find out: Facebook (and Google) love large floors, large open spaces. They are much easier to operate in. This is why the Google office in New York is not in a skyscraper but in largest-floor-plan building, spanning a…
if she does not discuss the reason why Facebook settled in that Sun campus and why the new building is not a skyscraper... It is not hard to find out
It's actually illegal to build skyscrapers in SV (see, e.g., here: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/05/face... although one could cite many further articles on the subject). FB can't build skyscrapers (or even in many cases mid-rises) because local municipalities won't let it.