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特集:201101 2010-2011年の都市・建築・言葉 アンケート<

トーマス・ダニエル

2010 provided two major international showcases for speculative architectural proposals: the Shanghai Expo and the Venice Biennale. Thematically, the former took a global, future-oriented viewpoint ("Better City, Better Life"), whereas the latter focused on the subtleties of human interactions and perceptions ("People meet in architecture"). The huge crowds in Shanghai made the most interesting national pavilions inaccessible, unless you were willing to endure three-hour queues in the sun, but the many "theme pavilions" devoted to our collective urban future were relatively easy to enter. Rich in content and engagingly presented, even the grimmest predictions about rampant urbanization and the concomitant environmental impact were balanced by visions of alternative city prototypes of astonishing intelligence and optimism. The crowds at Venice were more genteel, if pretentious, and the exquisitely conceived and constructed installations were a reminder that today's undeniably serious demographic and environmental challenges don't preclude the creation of delicate, evocative spaces.

Two spectacular examples of vertical architecture in 2010 pushed and extended the limits of architectural form and structure. Located in downtown Dubai, the Burj Khalifah was, at the very least, unfortunately timed. Intended to symbolize the incredible strength of Dubai's economy, it became an icon of its failure. But sneering is easy, and gloating is childish -- on its own terms, the tower is an incredible technical and aesthetic achievement. Outrageously unsustainable it may well be, but as with each successive holder of the title of world's tallest building (whether in New York, Chicago, or Shanghai), environmental sensitivity and economic logic are not the real concerns here. The Burj Khalifa's counterpart is the Tower of Droplets designed by Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham (CRAB), which won second prize in the Taiwan Tower Conceptual International Competition. Covered in steel cages -- "droplets" -- for growing algae as a source of biofuel, the tower is intended to be a net producer of energy, not to mention a fantastic demonstration of sculptural freedom and invention in tower design.

The two great horizontal projects of 2010 proposed new types of spatial experience through their effects on the physical behavior of their users. SANAA's Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, is defined by a vast undulating floor plate and matching roof plate, which contain a more-or-less continuous space penetrated by large irregular holes. It is arguably a highly contextual design -- from above, it looks like a giant slice of Swiss cheese. The "Pole Dance" installation designed by Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (SO-IL) for the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York was a responsive structure comprising barely constrained vertical poles, bungee cords, and a net roof. The weight and pressure of people moving through the space would shift the structure in a ballet of constant rippling motion, tracked by the swaying tips of the poles and the colored balls rolling freely across the net.

In the volatile world of architectural publication, the journals Mark (based in Amsterdam) and Volume (a coproduction of the Archis Foundation, Rem Koolhaas's AMO office, and Columbia University's C-LAB) define the two poles of current architectural discourse. The former is unashamedly dedicated to the most spectacular, innovative, and indulgent achievements in visual and material culture, whereas the latter provides a platform for the most extreme speculations on and around architecture. Within Japan, the expanding range of books in the INAX Contemporary Architect's Concept Series showcases the work of Japan's most interesting young architects. Each book is a beautiful demonstration of the potential of design as a form of research in itself, addressing questions of space, perception, and dwelling. Much of the work remains unbuilt for now, but the intelligence on display suggests a bright future for the Japanese architecture world in 2011 and beyond.

Mark / Volume / INAX Contemporary Architect's Concept Series


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