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Comfort Architecture or Innovation?
For me architecture is not a business, it is an engagement with the world. David Adjaye, RIBA (architect of the new African American History Museum in DC)
The Atlantic Cities observed on the occasion of the new Norman Foster designed Apple headquarters that America "hasn't seen much large-scale, ambitious, futuristic architecture in recent years, even Zaha Hadid's upcoming condo project on the Highline in New York looks pretty tame." Here in the US we see none of those mold breaking shapes we have seen in Dubai or Asia. What may be the reason? Jennie Xie, the Atlantic City author answers it this way: : The reality is, U.S. urban areas already have well-developed contexts, and the numerous approvals developers and architects need to secure tend to demand that any new large project fit well into its surroundings.
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Libeskind museum in Denver (during construction)
photo: ArchPlan Inc. |
Fair enough. But let's knock the question itself a bit. Isn't it revealing that the author thinks immediately of Zaha Hadid in his lament about the lack of "futuristic" and ambitious architecture? Clearly the author is looking for iconic stuff like one gets not only from Hadid but also from Libeskind, Gehry and Calatrava or Herzog de Meuron, architects on the pedestal of global stardom who first successfully branded themselves and then the cities in which they dropped their icons.
There even is a term for this, "the Bilbao Effect." Should we really mourn the rarity of this type architecture.....
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Klaus Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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