Steampunk / Dieselpunk Architecture

[Xelebes]

I know, I know! These are literary styles and not architectural styles themselves but they are not as separated as one might think. For example, the futurist writing of the late 19th and early 20th century helped spawn modernist architecture and buildings like the John Hancock Tower in Chicago helped spawn the cyberpunk genre. So they are not too dissimilar.

For those of you scratching their heads as to what Steampunk and Dieselpunk are, I'll give you a refresher.

Steampunk: A literary genre spawned off by Cyberpunk (which is itself a genre based on the threatening world of the cyberspaces and cyborgs) where the scientists and engineers of the 19th century - most often Victorian Britain but also includes Post-Civil War America/Wild West and Post-Napoleonic Europe - try to make changes in society through means of technology and rebellion. Most common themes include sexual repression, colonialism, heirarchies. Stories range from 1770's (start of the Industrial Revolution) through to the end of WWI. Technology: Steam, Babbage Machines, Primitive Dirigibles, Balloons, Brass. Iconic works: Gibson';s Difference Engine and Vandermeer's Steampunk anthology.

Dieselpunk: This genre is like cyberpunk and steampunk but focused on looking back on the 20th century - generally from 1914 through to 1960 but can span from 1880 to present. Most stories take place in US, Germany and Soviet Union. Instead of steam or electronics, the main exploitative technology is diesel, electricity and includes airplanes, zepellins, cars, concrete, steel, computers that take up whole rooms. Themes include modern capitalism, mass consumerism, genocide, political repression, sexual openness, gender role conflict. Notable works: Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Crimson Skies.

Now the object of this thread is to identify architecture that embodies the notion of being in a place that needs punks to overturn the body. That is, buildings that share qualities of oppression, repression and depression that mark the two eras of the two genres.

I'll begin with what we have in Edmonton.

Inland Cement Plant - I think embodies some of the ideas of what dieselpunk describes.



Winterforcemedia via Wikimedia Commons

[plinko]

^This is what happens when people read WAAAAYYYY too much into where a building design/form might have come from in terms of architecture.

I'm not saying that there might not be some architects out there who were totally into this type of thing, but if there was, it's probably about the same number who based building designs on Juan Gris cubism or some other random thing.

[LSyd]

Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, AL



London:

Tower Bridge





Lloyd's Building



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[Nowhereman1280]

St Charles Air Line Bascule Bridge Chicago:


Wikipedia


flickr

Bascule Bridges Chicago:


my.goop.com

Quincy El Stop Chicago (and the entire el system since almost all of the elevated parts are 1890's vintage steel work):


fineartamerica.com


chicago-l.org



Chicago is just chock full of structures that would be considered "steam punk" since part of the reason Modernism and Structural Expressionism originated here is that industry from around the turn of the century heavily influenced design here.

I've always felt like the atrium on the Rookery is an excellent example of how the heavy use of steel in Chicago's industry directly translated into its architecture. This room would be excellent scenery for a Steam Punk storyline:


uic.edu

[LSyd]

DEVASTATOR...TRANSFORM!!!

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[SpongeG]

gizmodo.com

[arlekin_m]

Parque Fundidora, Monterrey.



skyscrapercity/mirage101's flickr

[RLS_rls]

I always associate steampunk with more fantastical designs, like the Rocket Building in Tokyo:


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2296/...69bc1922_o.jpg

And of course Portcullis House in London:


http://www.archimage.co.uk/Images/Ar...chitecture.jpg

[hauntedheadnc]

I suppose this makes me a bit of a homer, but I don't care. I've got to nominate Biltmore House. Why? Because when it was completed in 1895, it was then one of the most luxurious and one of the most, if not the most, technologically-advanced structures on earth. It featured an elevator, an intercom system, telephones, synchronized clocks, washing machines and dryers, refrigerators and freezers, electric lights, central heating, and an indoor heated and lit swimming pool.

In 1895, mind you. Part of the reason to go there is to see all that Victorian technology preserved and on display.

[Matthew]

I love all things Victorian and Industrial. A great idea for a thread.

I will contribute Winston-Salem's downtown power & steam plant. It consumes three super-sized city blocks and is fun from any angle. It was closed several years ago. I've never seen it operating, but imagine it was amazing to see. Yes, those are skyscrapers in the background. It's only a block or two from the city's second tallest building.

Enjoy it while you can, a large developer known for entertainment themed power plant conversions owns it and several million square feet of old factories around it. They are proposing a lake in the low area with waterfalls and several floors of themed restaurants, trendy bars and stores.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/refunktion/3829318740/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/drauh/3714177257/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/refunktion/3829107978/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/refunkt...n/photostream/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/refunkt...n/photostream/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/drauh/3105335709/sizes/l/

[Bedhead]

A great selection of badass structures.

Does this 1990s building count? It's in London, near the site of the old Newgate prison, where public executions were carried out. I've always thought it should house an organisation with a name like 'The International League of Bastards'


my pic


my pic

[RLS_rls]

^ that is badass

[texcolo]

source

The Bradbury Building in Los Angeles... seen in 'Blade Runner'

[Hed Kandi]

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by plinko

^This is what happens when people read WAAAAYYYY too much into where a building design/form might have come from in terms of architecture.

I'm not saying that there might not be some architects out there who were totally into this type of thing, but if there was, it's probably about the same number who based building designs on Juan Gris cubism or some other random thing.

I dunno. Architects may not necessarily be fans of steampunk literature, but I have no doubt that Richard Rogers has the same fascination with industry and technology that William Gibson does. 'High-tech' architecture and some strains of postmodernism could therefore be considered parallel to the steampunk movement, even if the architecture is not necessarily descended from the literature.

It's worth noting, I believe, that "steampunk" is only a recently-invented name that attempts to group together a variety of literature from the last 30 years, and even older (e.g. Jules Verne, Georges Méliès). Before the term was invented, there was something in the zeitgeist that crossed barriers into all sorts of art forms, including architecture.

[JManc]

to me, only the rocket building in japan and the bradbury building in LA strike me as steampunk. the others are simply industrial.

[Tyler Xyroadia]

BAH, more of this.

"Steampunk" is impossible to hit as a style. The concept of it is a Mishmash of a whole range of styles and genras. It can be at the same time, Industrial, Art Deco, Neo Gothic, Classical etc...

The buildings listed so far are basically people saying:
"This is what Steampunk looks like to me"

[harryc]

[johnnypd]

couple of koolhaas buildings have an innovative mix of futuristic architecture and classic decor that creates striking contrasts, not quite steampunk but a similar mixing of eras:

casa de musica, porto by rem koolhaas


http://www.cumbu.com


http://www.e-architect.co.uk


http://www.flickr.com/photos/50357226@N00/2528714555/

rothschild hq, london by rem koolhaas


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...aas-oma-review


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...aas-oma-review

another pic of the lloyds building, london by richard rogers

notice the old clock

http://www.travel-images.com

[johnnypd]

Oriel Chambers, Liverpool by Peter Ellis.

An architect way ahead of his time, this building was complete in 1864, yet it looks like it's from 60 years later. first metal framed glass curtain walled building in the world, it was so hated when it opened that someone called it the "great abortion". eventually Ellis gave up architecture altogether due to the criticism and became an engineer instead. his two existing buildings certainly fit the idea of a futuristic victorian era, of certain technologies happening a few decades or so earlier than they actually did. as a point of comparison, that building to the immediate left was built 30 years AFTER Oriel Chambers:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/olovecharlieo/5694385804/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/parkartworks/5817432537/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/diorama_sky/4735491721/

16 cook street, 1866 by the same guy


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8592508@N04/5086174649/

the glazed staircase round the back!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liverpo...al/3324789667/