It seems like there was a sentiment raised earlier in this thread about homogeneity in modernism and it felt like a consensus was reach (if not here then in other places on this forum) that 'traditional' Beaux Arts neoclassicism and postmodernism are the solutions to providing regionality and uniqueness. For that I would like to propose an example such as this. Where is it? Rome? New York? London? Philadelphia? Berlin? Madrid? Mexico City? St Petersburg? Washington DC?
fotopedia.com
It's in Budabest, and there would be no way of knowing that minus the flag pinned above the frieze.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc
glass boxes? i cant wait until the mesh scrim era is over -- ha!
but seriously, i wonder if the next step past the glass box will be green towers, meaning not just environmentally friendly materials and design, but with even more green-friendly organic features. for example alternating floors of actual greenery.
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Those 'mesh scrims' are only the beginning. Advancements in technology are challenging the idea of buildings being solid, closed objects, and mesh scrim is only the first stage of architects playing with expanding and dissolving a wall surface.
As a pracitioner, my opinion is that new material development will be focused on destabilizing what we consider a material to be. For example, structural glass is now becoming a real possibility, and we will probably one day have entirely transparent buildings. Concrete embedded with glass fiber is now enabling buildings to have hulking, concrete appearances that also turn translucent depending on light and angle of view (ex. the Italian pavilion of the Shanghai world expo)
thedesignhome.com
Also worth considering are new biometric materials, our future buildings will likely live and grow like plants do, and facades will be flexible systems that more or less permit growth than simply exist as a glass panel. I find it very possible that the ecological crises our species faces could dictate self-replicating biomorphic cities, probably a lot dirtier and chaotic but not terribly unlike what I picture below:
archivenue.com