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  #1  
Old Posted Apr 30, 2011, 9:14 PM
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An Idiot's Nomenclature for Skyscraper Design

I could read a book about skyscraper design principles and learn the accustomed names of the various styles, but instead I'm going to just make up my own names for the types of skyscrapers that I've seen here and elsewhere. In no particular order...

1. Boxes
Subtypes: Commie, Corporate.
Examples: (a) Commie boxes - any Brutalist and/or minimalist, bulky, rectangular prism building that is usually broader than it is tall, and lacks either shiny windows, brick walls, or sculptural artistic elements. Typically sullen, but can in rare cases achieve coolness (we've all seen cool Brutalism somewhere). (b)Corporate boxes - rectangular prism building that may be slick and shiny but vacuous, light-heartedly solid but unwelcoming, and tall but uninspiring. Typically soul-sucking and vacuous, but can accidentally channel formal perfection (e.g., the old WTC).

2. Spikes
Examples: Burj Khalifa, Kingdom Tower. A relatively new type to appear in practice, but old enough in concept - all or nearly all other considerations are sacrificed to achieving height. It achieves its objective, but the result is impossible to appreciate from beneath, and tenuous-looking from a distance - a mere sidewalk into the sky rather than a broad boulevard.

3. Rolls
Examples: The Pinnacle (London), Al Hamra Tower (Kuwait City). A building whose most important design feature is that the entire structure curves or appears to curve as a single plane, like a sheet. The Bow in Calgary belongs to this category because planar curvature is its primary feature, even though it only curves through a small arc.

4. Foliage
Examples: Taipei 101, Jin Mao, Petronas Towers. These exhibit plant-like designs. In the case of Taipei 101, it's bamboo. Jin Mao and Petronas Towers have flower-like cross-sections that evolve as they gain in height, and are very elaborate like nature. Unsurprisingly, this type of design appears to be most popular in tropical climates. I see aspects of it in Tower Verre, although with a more Northern interpretation of the subject.

5. Twisties
Examples: Chicago Spire (a tragic loss), Infinity Tower (Dubai). A twisty tower spins around its own internal axis. It may only twist a little, or it might curl an arbitrary number of times like a narwhal tusk (I had thought the Chicago Spire should have been called the Tusk, but that's a moot point now).

6. Shards
Examples: Bank of America (NY), the original Libeskind design for WTC reconstruction. Typically shiny and bright, with arbitrary angles evocative of something unnaturally sheared off or broken - such as shattered glass, quartz crystals, etc. Done well, the result can be awesome; done poorly or with the wrong attitude, it's depressing and maudlin. Does not include the London Shard, as that's more of a wedge (see below).

7. Wedges
Examples: Transamerica Pyramid, London Shard, the "Cheesegrater" (London). Pyramids, cones, triangular prisms, and other triangle-related buildings. These usually suck, but there are critical ratios at which beauty is attainable - the London Shard is definitely beautiful.

8. Oblongs
Examples: The Gherkin (London). A curved building that isn't sheet-like, and exhibits this curvature as its major design feature - may be circular, elliptical, or ovoid. These tend to be either boring or comical.

9. Architrocities
Examples: (You know what I'm talking about). Chaotic, cluttered, or self-indulgently abstract nonsense designed by people who think creativity means putting their heads up their asses.

10. Technogasms
Examples: Shanghai World Financial Center, Nanjing Greenland Financial Center, Shun Hing Square (Shenzhen). Buildings whose overall effect, without being strongly on the side of any other category, is to look "futuristic" (in the science fiction sense, rather than in the sense of being avant-garde) and/or put both its technology and structural design on prominent display. The Sears Tower, Hancock Center (Chicago), and Empire State Building all qualify, even though today they are considered old-school. Bank of America in NY would also qualify if it were not so strongly based on the Shard principle. The technogasm is my favorite type of skyscraper.

11. Fluid
Examples: New York by Gehry, Aqua (Chicago), Absoluteworld (Mississauga). A Fluid building is distinct from an Oblong or a Roll in that if it has curvature, it isn't about the curvature itself, but about how the curvature changes to evoke a state of motion. In the case of the Gehry, the fluidity is demonstrated by wavy, columnar shifting in one of the facades. Although not every side of the Gehry exhibits this fluidity, it is the defining feature of the building. However, in the case of Absoluteworld, the fluidity seems disgusting - like a spasming colon or a moving worm. Fluidity is definitely done best within a more solid framework, as Gehry demonstrates.
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Old Posted May 1, 2011, 2:36 AM
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Wow...way to be objective there...
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Old Posted May 1, 2011, 3:53 AM
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A lot of these are neologisms. Not exactly the best things to include in an idiot's guide. It's a good list though.
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Old Posted May 2, 2011, 12:10 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vid View Post
A lot of these are neologisms. Not exactly the best things to include in an idiot's guide. It's a good list though.
The idiot in question is me. Everyone else will have to be reasonably intelligent to appreciate it.
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Old Posted May 4, 2011, 4:15 AM
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Great list.
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Old Posted May 4, 2011, 6:03 AM
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srsly. wtf is a technogasm? i want one of those.
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Old Posted May 13, 2011, 5:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ArabianNights1 View Post
srsly. wtf is a technogasm? i want one of those.
As I explained, it's a building designed to look "futuristic" in a science fiction sense, and succeeds in doing so. Failed attempts at a technogasm may result in an Architrocity, or may default to one of the other categories. I gave as examples the Shanghai WFC, Nanjing Greenland, and Shun Hing Square.
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