ART- Architectural

Modern architectural masterpieces in Germany

Never studied architecture and don’t know your blueprints from your average building plan? Still everyone has an instinctual feeling for harmony and form. The following buildings are the kind that will excite every eye, expert or not.

 

 

Modern architectural masterpieces in Germany

Since 2005 the good people of Herford have been happy about having a genuine Gehry-designed building in their town: the Museum for Contemporary Furniture and Design.

Frank O. Gehry’s museum developments are legendary. He’s been responsible for the California Aerospace Museum, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhine and obviously the best known Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
Here Gehry had 8000 square meters to play with, right near Herford’s train station.
The resulting Museum has the typical sculptural form that Gehry is so well known for over four main sections: the exhibition spaces and museum, a shopping area, a central area and the MARTa café, bar and restaurant.
The museum area and exhibition spaces, at around 2500 cubic meters, consist of a 22 meter high dome and four smaller galleries with skylights. This means visitors to the museum marvel at, not only the exhibits, but also the sky above.
Then other areas of the building are used for such purposes as presentations and functions to do with such lofty themes as architecture, design, art and furniture design.

 

 

Modern architectural masterpieces in Germany

When the avant gard architecture firm, Himmelb(l)au, from Vienna takes on a new project, then the architectural world sits up and listens.

This office building is considered one of the most innovative in the world and has netted its architects many international prizes already.
It all started back in December of 2001 when BMW named Himmelb(l)au the winner of an architectural competition to design their BMW World building in Munich.
With the opening of this grand flagship, a delivery and retail experience centre, in October 2007, it became clear that Himmelb(l)au had come up with a trend setting building which also managed to blend harmoniously into the surrounds – the surroundings including the four cylinder BMW skyscraper and the nearby Olympic tower.
The building gets its character from the series of flexible and transparent rooms and it’s most distinctive characteristic is the huge waisted column that stands in front..

 

 

Modern architectural masterpieces in Germany -phaeno, Wolfsburg

 Am I actually still inside? Usually it’s easy to answer that question. In most buildings the answer to that question is obvious. Not so, for those entering Wolfsburg’s incredible Science Museum.

Yes, this building will get you dizzy without the aid of alcohol or any other substance – and that was exactly the effect that Pritzker Prize winning architect, Zaha Hadid, had in mind when she designed the place. The dynamic of the building is supposed to open one’s mind and make you think – which is as it should be when you’re visiting a science museum.
Despite the fact that it consists of around 27,000 cubic meters of concrete the building gives the impression of floating or hovering. This is because it’s filled with hallways while the main entrance remains comparatively small, all of which leads to an interesting blurring of the boundaries between in - and outside.
The main hall is not on the ground floor – it has been raised seven meters. And when you’re inside the building your perspective changes with every step, through skewed walls, kinky or hidden steel beams, warped views through slits in massive concrete walls and beveled niches.
A construction, that is so fantastic and fanciful, that many visitors have had difficulty finding the exit!

 

 

Ten Tallest Buildings in the World

The world is a beautiful place in more ways than one. Amongst the urban landscape and thousands of ordinary brick-and-mortar buildings, skyscrapers are architectural and engineering marvels that rise hundreds of meters and even a thousand feet into the air. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), is the official body that determines which buildings fall under the ‘The World’s Tallest Building’ category. It ranks the height of buildings, based on the height to the architectural top of the building, highest occupied floor, top of the roof or the tip of the building.

Let us look at what according to CTBUH are the world’s tallest buildings as of now.

 

 

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan – 1671 ft (509 m) 101 Floors

Taipei 101 became the world’s tallest building to be constructed in the new millennium and the first to cross the half-kilometer mark. The construction costed $1.76 billion and was completed in 2004. This multiuse steel-and-glass skyscraper was designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and has 61 elevators. It reflects the traditional Chinese pagoda, with a soaring podium base, eight tiers of eight storeys (eight is considered to be a number for prosperous growth in China), narrow pinnacle tower and a spire. The building has an 18 ft, 882-ton ball-shaped damper at the top that counteracts swaying during typhoons and earthquakes. Although, CTBUH only takes into consideration the floors above the ground level, there are 5 floors underground too. The number “101” also represents the mailing code of Taipei’s international business district. It has been hailed as the Seven New Wonders of the World by Newsweek magazine in 2006 and as the Seven Wonders of Engineering by Discovery Channel in 2005.

 

 

Shanghai World Financial Center – 1614 ft (492 m) 101 Floors

This super tall skyscraper in Shanghai that dominates the skyline over East China is destined to become a symbolic icon, giving the city a new status and depicts the arrival of a new era in Asia. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and officially opened its doors to the public on August 28, 2008. It is a mixed use building with excellent urban shopping malls at the base, a 174-room luxurious five-star hotel at the top and sixty-two floors filled with offices. There are three observation decks between the 94th to the 100th level. It has a total of 31 elevators and the construction cost was US $1.20 billion. The most remarkable feature of this majestic building is the aperture at the top of the building. It is the 2nd tallest building in the world.

 

 

Petronas Twin Towers – 1483 ft (452 m) 88 Floors

The beautiful world-famous Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were constructed in 1998. The name sounds as romantic as they look together. These elegantly slender towers were once the world’s tallest before being ousted from that position by Taipei 101.

Petronas Tower 1 is the 3rd tallest building in the world.

Petronas Tower 2 is the 4th tallest building in the world.

However, they still remain the tallest twin buildings in the world. They were designed by Argentine-American architect Cesar Pelli and were built on Kuala Lumpur’s race track. The structure is made of high-strength concrete and has a curtain wall of glass and stainless steel sun shades that help diffuse the intensity of light.

The major feature of the towers is the skybridge between the towers on the 41st and 42nd floors, which is the highest 2-storey bridge in the world. Visitors are allowed on the Skyway. The skybridge is also meant to be used in case of a fire or for other emergencies.