hola amigos
it has been such a tiring day but so fulfilling.
checklist for sat: rogers' lloyd's building (still sparkling in the gray, but unusually brilliant when not, skies of london); fosters' and shuttleworth's 30 st mary axe (aka swiss re or better known as the gherkin in these lands, and other more phallic nicknames in others); and then to erno goldfinger's trellick tower (rising to 33 floors in a city that has the nos. of commercial buildings rising above 20 storeys countable with one hand!).
all really fascinating in their own right. i thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially with the way the day started and how it unfolded.
i was given the exclusive grand tour of rogers' lloyd's before the tours started for the public to acquaint us to our duties throughout the building on londonopenhouse (annual event organised by charity. for more info, go to www.londonopenhouse.org) weekend. because i was the earliest volunteer there, they mistook me as one of the GUIDES who were to conduct tours - hence, exclusive special treatment! alas, caught in a quagmire of nerves combined by being the only non-white in the group (they were not only white, they were all dressed in all-white! i thought i has missed a couple of emails which would've spelt out this requirement!); seemingly the only person who didn't already know another person in the group; perspiring from rushing thinking i was late etc, i was just trying to blend in. wat a twig. it was, on hindsight, a brilliant opportunity to capture a few moments of quiet in a building that is normally in constant noise, from all the money and largenumberedlegallybindinginsurancecontracts exchanging nervous hands and weaving fantastic subplots. if the exterior of rogers' lloyd's building is the epitome of 80s excess, the interior told the same story in a rather more conservatively english manner. the first six storeys surround an atrium capped in a glass and steel (painted white tubes!) barrel vault roof (egad right?!) but the building rises a further 5 floors. the ride up the glass lift was worth the trip and in the brilliant morning sky, the view took my breath away. in the lift, the lived environment was sharp, gleaming from the oversized steel clad exterior of the building and the rest of london as far as the eye can see. once out of the lift, the interior offered up large circular concrete columns, large open plan offices absolutely crammed with almost oppressive nos of workstations and the sheer no. of light fixtures repeated ad infinitum over the entire ceiling conspiringly contributing little towards rogers' naive optimism for large and welcoming open work spaces provided by exposing all the ugly innards onto the facades(see n/b-1 for asides on high-tech architecture). one volunteer who works in the building actually complains of migraines from the wallpaper of ceiling lights. on the 11th floor? a banquet room bought over from bowood house (lloyd's earlier home in 1763) and re-installed in this high-tech building - complete with cornice, chandelier and mahogany furnishings - tells the story of this very 80s english building. a will to wow but an unwillingness to actually have to put up with all that that entails!
then comes the 21st century. the swanky aura of 30stmaryaxe that exudes a certain cool without too much swagger. i actually like a foster building! i have to admit - i already liked what i saw in the magazines. it certainly wasn't the form it took as i had seen it much earlier in frei otto's very early form-finding investigations, not to mention the numerous copies that were making their rounds (kaplicky's, nouvel's ...) before this one by foster/shuttleworth was pandered to the press, and now built. i was actually fascinated by the flower shaped plans which when rotated, created revolving floor plates with 5-floor wedge-shaped light wells. even with the enormous structures, the spaces felt light and glowed with a healthy welcome. like the lloyd's building in the 80s when it was completed, it comes across as a building that was never meant to grow old. however, with the 80s approach of the old money giving the final ok's to classical pieces forming their actual lived environment, high-tech's aging and datedness seems destined and already cast at inception. early indications for the swiss re (or gherkin etc) can possibly be found in the white granite floors of the lifts that finished without disruption under the lift doors (aesthetique minimalismo at all costs, at all scales, for one and all!); but all that having the carpet slightly pulled under it by the creamblue table cloths covering round tables and very nondescript leather and skinny chrome tube chairs. will all that whiteness (surprisingly white memories i have of that building seeing how its entire facade is blacked out) hold up once its been lived in?
still, i left that building wondering if i should've chosen a profession that gave me the chance to work in such a space rather than one that would offer the privileged few the opportunity to work on and create such spaces.
if you're tired at this stage of today's entry, you can perhaps imagine how knackered i was after scooting around boxes of openhouse brochures, asking for donations from mean londoners and all these little thoughts running through my head today!
westwards and upwards to the very unique social housing tower by the famous marxist architect erno goldfinger (close friend of le corb). sometimes described as london's unite d'habitation, this much maligned single-flat deep, common corridor on every 3rd floor, block of flats is a rugged testament to a few good ideas. laundry room, hobby room and communal room within the tower, separate services core as a tower connected to the main block via sky corridors that was identical in dimensions as train carriages ("so as to not alienate the inhabitants" - !!!!) every 3 floors that lead to the said common corridors ... [cut] (too tired to recall them suddenly).
first, the anecdotes which are much more colorful and fun to recollect. 430 last entry to tour trellick tower on a saturday visit only pre-booking req'd participant. 425 out of tube station. rushing in ldn drizzle and interrupted just at the foot of the tower on one of its many footbridges at ground/lower ground levels by 2 white kids (8? 9?) and one black/white kid (8?9?).
"foh-toe-graffff??!?"
ignore ignorant social benefit dependent kids' taunts. smile. say hello.
surprised kids. chink speaks like one of us!
"are you coming to have a look?"
yes! do you live here? (*if we're too late for the tour, maybe these kids can give us an even more authentic peep at the real lives that are supported, and support, this monument to socialist ideals*)
"yes we do! we're brothers and sisters! we just moved in awhile ago! we live on the 27th floor! its crap living here! when the winds are really blowing, you can feel the walls and everything move!!" ... "but the views are fantastic though!"
that must make up for all that you have to put up with, wind and all ...
"do you know where you're going? we'll show you!"
great. lets go. to reception. past security who lets us past since we were ushered in by the locals. kids stopped short. mixed kid wasn't all too keen and that was that. there was a group in the lift about to embark on the last (as it turns out, second to last) tour starting at the roof (where the police used to almost live atop as that was the perfect spot for them to survey and plan all their operations) and finishing in a just refurbished 3-bedroom duplex flat. ab fab.
hunger pangs. four seasons. super duck with super pipa tofu.
end. gotta hit the sack.
thanks for all those still reading ... i might add more info on a later edit. protests to be registered beforethen or forever hold your peace. good night.
n/b -1
high-tech is all shouts. it is attention seeking. it is high on lookielikie, low on actual technological innovation. it is a movement that tried to put the capital A onto architecture by evading questions of place-making, problem-solving and perhaps even event-scripting by trying to spring from background to foreground. it was an attempt at mounmentality but speaking less of the invocation of God, more of the evocation of all that the Industrial Age is to auger. Still, it was a shouting match full of statement(s), short on substance. The ugly portions on full display? Gleaming surfaces covering the exterior in its entirety ... but perhaps without this built structure, chockfull of ideas and intents, exposing ideals and optimism; and failings and shortcomings in equal measure, the progress of more substantial improvements and innovations in architectural technology would not have come about (dostoyevsky's the idiot; archigram's ideas and their eventual logicalisation in contemporary urban research; toffler's writings, star trek, star wars (trilogy and american defence program), the usual suspects of future realities a la blade runner, fifth element, metropolis, etc)
it has been such a tiring day but so fulfilling.
checklist for sat: rogers' lloyd's building (still sparkling in the gray, but unusually brilliant when not, skies of london); fosters' and shuttleworth's 30 st mary axe (aka swiss re or better known as the gherkin in these lands, and other more phallic nicknames in others); and then to erno goldfinger's trellick tower (rising to 33 floors in a city that has the nos. of commercial buildings rising above 20 storeys countable with one hand!).
all really fascinating in their own right. i thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially with the way the day started and how it unfolded.
i was given the exclusive grand tour of rogers' lloyd's before the tours started for the public to acquaint us to our duties throughout the building on londonopenhouse (annual event organised by charity. for more info, go to www.londonopenhouse.org) weekend. because i was the earliest volunteer there, they mistook me as one of the GUIDES who were to conduct tours - hence, exclusive special treatment! alas, caught in a quagmire of nerves combined by being the only non-white in the group (they were not only white, they were all dressed in all-white! i thought i has missed a couple of emails which would've spelt out this requirement!); seemingly the only person who didn't already know another person in the group; perspiring from rushing thinking i was late etc, i was just trying to blend in. wat a twig. it was, on hindsight, a brilliant opportunity to capture a few moments of quiet in a building that is normally in constant noise, from all the money and largenumberedlegallybindinginsurancecontracts exchanging nervous hands and weaving fantastic subplots. if the exterior of rogers' lloyd's building is the epitome of 80s excess, the interior told the same story in a rather more conservatively english manner. the first six storeys surround an atrium capped in a glass and steel (painted white tubes!) barrel vault roof (egad right?!) but the building rises a further 5 floors. the ride up the glass lift was worth the trip and in the brilliant morning sky, the view took my breath away. in the lift, the lived environment was sharp, gleaming from the oversized steel clad exterior of the building and the rest of london as far as the eye can see. once out of the lift, the interior offered up large circular concrete columns, large open plan offices absolutely crammed with almost oppressive nos of workstations and the sheer no. of light fixtures repeated ad infinitum over the entire ceiling conspiringly contributing little towards rogers' naive optimism for large and welcoming open work spaces provided by exposing all the ugly innards onto the facades(see n/b-1 for asides on high-tech architecture). one volunteer who works in the building actually complains of migraines from the wallpaper of ceiling lights. on the 11th floor? a banquet room bought over from bowood house (lloyd's earlier home in 1763) and re-installed in this high-tech building - complete with cornice, chandelier and mahogany furnishings - tells the story of this very 80s english building. a will to wow but an unwillingness to actually have to put up with all that that entails!
then comes the 21st century. the swanky aura of 30stmaryaxe that exudes a certain cool without too much swagger. i actually like a foster building! i have to admit - i already liked what i saw in the magazines. it certainly wasn't the form it took as i had seen it much earlier in frei otto's very early form-finding investigations, not to mention the numerous copies that were making their rounds (kaplicky's, nouvel's ...) before this one by foster/shuttleworth was pandered to the press, and now built. i was actually fascinated by the flower shaped plans which when rotated, created revolving floor plates with 5-floor wedge-shaped light wells. even with the enormous structures, the spaces felt light and glowed with a healthy welcome. like the lloyd's building in the 80s when it was completed, it comes across as a building that was never meant to grow old. however, with the 80s approach of the old money giving the final ok's to classical pieces forming their actual lived environment, high-tech's aging and datedness seems destined and already cast at inception. early indications for the swiss re (or gherkin etc) can possibly be found in the white granite floors of the lifts that finished without disruption under the lift doors (aesthetique minimalismo at all costs, at all scales, for one and all!); but all that having the carpet slightly pulled under it by the creamblue table cloths covering round tables and very nondescript leather and skinny chrome tube chairs. will all that whiteness (surprisingly white memories i have of that building seeing how its entire facade is blacked out) hold up once its been lived in?
still, i left that building wondering if i should've chosen a profession that gave me the chance to work in such a space rather than one that would offer the privileged few the opportunity to work on and create such spaces.
if you're tired at this stage of today's entry, you can perhaps imagine how knackered i was after scooting around boxes of openhouse brochures, asking for donations from mean londoners and all these little thoughts running through my head today!
westwards and upwards to the very unique social housing tower by the famous marxist architect erno goldfinger (close friend of le corb). sometimes described as london's unite d'habitation, this much maligned single-flat deep, common corridor on every 3rd floor, block of flats is a rugged testament to a few good ideas. laundry room, hobby room and communal room within the tower, separate services core as a tower connected to the main block via sky corridors that was identical in dimensions as train carriages ("so as to not alienate the inhabitants" - !!!!) every 3 floors that lead to the said common corridors ... [cut] (too tired to recall them suddenly).
first, the anecdotes which are much more colorful and fun to recollect. 430 last entry to tour trellick tower on a saturday visit only pre-booking req'd participant. 425 out of tube station. rushing in ldn drizzle and interrupted just at the foot of the tower on one of its many footbridges at ground/lower ground levels by 2 white kids (8? 9?) and one black/white kid (8?9?).
"foh-toe-graffff??!?"
ignore ignorant social benefit dependent kids' taunts. smile. say hello.
surprised kids. chink speaks like one of us!
"are you coming to have a look?"
yes! do you live here? (*if we're too late for the tour, maybe these kids can give us an even more authentic peep at the real lives that are supported, and support, this monument to socialist ideals*)
"yes we do! we're brothers and sisters! we just moved in awhile ago! we live on the 27th floor! its crap living here! when the winds are really blowing, you can feel the walls and everything move!!" ... "but the views are fantastic though!"
that must make up for all that you have to put up with, wind and all ...
"do you know where you're going? we'll show you!"
great. lets go. to reception. past security who lets us past since we were ushered in by the locals. kids stopped short. mixed kid wasn't all too keen and that was that. there was a group in the lift about to embark on the last (as it turns out, second to last) tour starting at the roof (where the police used to almost live atop as that was the perfect spot for them to survey and plan all their operations) and finishing in a just refurbished 3-bedroom duplex flat. ab fab.
hunger pangs. four seasons. super duck with super pipa tofu.
end. gotta hit the sack.
thanks for all those still reading ... i might add more info on a later edit. protests to be registered beforethen or forever hold your peace. good night.
n/b -1
high-tech is all shouts. it is attention seeking. it is high on lookielikie, low on actual technological innovation. it is a movement that tried to put the capital A onto architecture by evading questions of place-making, problem-solving and perhaps even event-scripting by trying to spring from background to foreground. it was an attempt at mounmentality but speaking less of the invocation of God, more of the evocation of all that the Industrial Age is to auger. Still, it was a shouting match full of statement(s), short on substance. The ugly portions on full display? Gleaming surfaces covering the exterior in its entirety ... but perhaps without this built structure, chockfull of ideas and intents, exposing ideals and optimism; and failings and shortcomings in equal measure, the progress of more substantial improvements and innovations in architectural technology would not have come about (dostoyevsky's the idiot; archigram's ideas and their eventual logicalisation in contemporary urban research; toffler's writings, star trek, star wars (trilogy and american defence program), the usual suspects of future realities a la blade runner, fifth element, metropolis, etc)
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