Towards a New Tower
 Plan Voisin, Towards an Architecture by Le Corbusier vs HSBC by N. Foster, Eye Beam by D.Scofidio Le Corbusier was celebrating technological progress and defined the forms of architecture for the era he lived in. How can we make use of the 21 century trends in technology, sustainability and even economics in order to create more exciting place of living in congested cities other than repetitive extrusions of similar looking towers..? The idea of the thesis is to break repetitiveness, design internal spatial experiences and make use of technological progress to justify design moves. WHAT?  The specificity of the site, Hong Kong The aim is to design a high rise mixed use high rise building in the context of high density city. The site could be situated in such a place like Central area of Hong Kong. In this kind of context, aspects such as natural light, shading, wind and relationship with surrounding programmes can be taken into account as the key factors to influence the internal spatial arrangement of the building. The site should be situated in a subtropical – tropical climate in order to test the ideas regarding the humidity, natural ventilation and alternative ways of cooling the tall building. The design in such a complex environment is justified as a response to subtropical climate and a benefit to urban economic development. WHY?  Commerzbank and HSBC by N. Foster Due to Hong Kong’s political, geographical and economical situation, the real estate developers have adapted a set of the most “suitable” design models and ruthlessly keep extruding the towers filled with repeated floor plates all the way up. The aim of the thesis is to break the current pattern and to develop critical and analytical ways to justify design decisions. Le Corbusier was the first one to bring the concept of efficiency and mass production, and in fact his ideas were more or less realized in Hong Kong’s urban context. However R. Koolhaas was fascinated by the idea that the building itself can inhabit the city within the city, where “less and less surface represent more and more internal activity”. I think that one can still learn from the ideas brought by these two theorists, combine them and translate into a new type of architecture. Technological progress that was celebrated by Le Corbusier could be further brought into modern towers and also that can be combined with specifics of the mixed-use programmatic arrangement. N. Foster is one of the modern architects who pushed the technological-structural ideas further and managed to combine them with the ideas of sustainability and other aspects of modern architecture. I believe that one can learn from it and also add a range of diverse programmes within the tower, since the mixed-use tower is becoming a model of tower that is highly suitable for a modern city. HOW?  March1 Studio by O. Cech and M. Ng, , Kanchanjunga Apartments by C. Correa Defining the problems and framing on desired results. In depth research on the factors defining the design of the tower: structural aspects, sustainability (ventilation, cooling, heating), economic and programmatic distributions; case study analysis; building a database of tower prototypes, hence to build a strong base of arguments. Translating qualitative data into parametres that could be analysed and operated with computational tools in order to come up with spatial iteration solutions. Defining the massing in regards to urban context such as height, proportions, sun shading, circulation, programmes, etc. Testing physical models in different scales in order to study structural specifics. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Li, Shiqiao. Understanding the Chinese City. Print. |