|
View previous topic :: View next topic
|
| Author |
Message |
toufic
Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 21
|
 Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:10 am Post subject: Do u think vertical skyscrapers are smashing human scale? |
    |
|
Is it inevitable that our future world will definitely be of vertical skyscrapers and suspended plots?
Are we gradually losing human scale and what's the influence of increasing human demography on architecture and consequently on us?
_________________
TOUFIC HAIDAMOUS
ARCHITECT |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
lekizz
millennium club
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 1073
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
For hundreds of years the great cathedrals and places of worship have tended to dwarf human beings and give man a sense of awe and unworthiness.
So, with skyscrapers, it follows that the new religion is money and big business, argh!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
djswan
Joined: 17 Aug 2007
Posts: 767
Location: Montana, USA
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Landing on the moon cost us our human scale. So did Google earth. So did global warming?
Stack 'em on top on each other.
_________________
n/a |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
toufic
Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 21
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
Lekizz, so what you mean is that with more rise and flourishing of mega buildings and skyscrapers, people will start losing their human side(including their religion) and become slaves of business and money?
_________________
TOUFIC HAIDAMOUS
ARCHITECT |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
usarender
millennium club
Joined: 01 May 2004
Posts: 1258
Location: San Diego, Ca
|
| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject: Humanity & Human Scale |
|
|
Humanity has long lost it's notions of "human scale". We are now in the era of the exploration of space and the new human scale we define. It has become the dimension of space exploration. Thus, the sky is the limit. No longer is the human scale the limiting factor.
The Global Pyramid
The Gateway to the Sky.
Magnetic Cancellation Theory.
The new cities in space.
The transportation system of the future.
The new global ring.
The structures of the future.
The new language of architecture and design.
The new language of AI and Architecture.
The new genetic codes of architecture.
The power of global connectivity.
The power of the universal matrix. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Richard Haut
millennium club
Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Posts: 1137
Location: Nice, France
|
| Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:39 am Post subject: |
|
|
Toufic - it is a good question, but no, we are not losing our sense of human scale for a very simple reason.
the clients/building users for architects vary from approximately one foot in height to seven foot in height. Any building or urban design which fails to take account of this rather obvious fact is going to be viewed as failing, as hostile.
as technology enables more high-rise buildings to be constructed economically, always remember that the real reason is purely financial. To be able to build eighty floors up on a single site is more profitable than a mere eight or ten floors. Nothing else.
buildings and areas which sneer at the human scale risk being unlettable or unsaleable in a capitalist market and even in a totalitarian society will lead rapidly to dissatisfaction.
having said this, high-rise can be and has been used very successfully in many cities, but the architect, the planners and the clients are obliged - whether they like it or not - to take account of the effects of their building at ground-level.
the more hostile the city environment, the more difficult the property becomes to let or sell and the greater the pressure on individuals and companies to move their homes and work out to other areas. And a dying city is not a pleasant place.
_________________
Richard Haut has worked with the architectural profession for over 25 years and produces the weekly Richard Haut's Competitions, which has given architects details of many thousands of projects for which they can apply across Britain and Europe. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
P.C.
millennium club
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 2163
Location: Denmark
|
| Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Yes they will -- and it can come soon. How long do one last, and while building technikes advanced into these highrise when what is left over to metter other architecture is highrise vaste technologies , when family houses start being curtain wall , and glass wall entities, we even lost more than just that, -- these highrise structures has one attitide and that is not about human scale, it is mainly about alianiting human about architecture. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
John Henry Architect
Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 32
Location: Orlando, Florida
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:19 am Post subject: |
|
|
There has finally been a professional halt to this type of architecture: New Urbanism.
While gothic cathedrals were the tallest structures known until the advent of steel framing, their design intent was to humble man so that he would believe and revere God. Yes, the builders also wished to promote their own towns through the overzealous heights and detailing.
Skyscrapers were made possible purely through technical advance in order to make maximum use of high cost land. These buildings tend to also mimimize the 'worthiness' of the individual but were built essentially for profit. You must ask a typical city dweller about the effects on their psyche. If it was that debilitating then people of New York and Chicago, to name two skyscraper centers in the US, would have great anxiety and phobias.
But the idea of human scale is present even in large classical buildings because the modules and details tend to relate to organic processes better than machine made buildings. When 'traditional' work is further downscaled to two to four stories as in Bath England the result is extremely serene.
New Urbanists in the US continue to mimic early American models instead of good European or Middle East, Occidental models. The NU towns here are sterile and have no real cultural or historic base.
See my essay here on Disney's Celebration:
http://www.eurodesignvip.com/Celebration%20Critique.htm
_________________
John Henry AIA, NCARB
www.FloridArchitect.com
www.DreamHomeDesignUSA.com
www.EuroDesignVIP.com
Last edited by John Henry Architect on Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
csintexas
millennium club
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 1860
Location: USA
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:06 am Post subject: |
|
|
John,
Looks like an interesting article but for some reason my browser (firefox) displays the text overlapping in several places and much of the font sizes are to small for me to read comfortably.
Ok, just tried explorer and I don't have the overlapping text problem but still some very small fonts. The intro is large enough but everything after that is a bit small (especially with the stripped background) -my eyes aren't what they used to be. The intro was good though.
_________________
Chris Stewart
Modern Texas Home Project |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
P.C.
millennium club
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 2163
Location: Denmark
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I has no problem like that with my Firefox. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
csintexas
millennium club
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 1860
Location: USA
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
I was able to read the article and a few others here:
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_C_Henry
I think the one on Celebration Fl. was the best of the three. I have to agree, i have despised pretty much every instance of "New Urbanism" that I have seen. I have read the ideals of new urbanism and agree with a lot of it but the actual translation into a built community falls far short of the mark. It isn't very green or social or free.
http://www.prospectnewtown.com/ProspectStory/Main.asp
This is the best I have seen so far. I think some of the diversity was caused by changing from a traditional theme at the begining to a modern theme currently. I don't know if they still allow a mix but the architectural standards seem fairly flexible.
_________________
Chris Stewart
Modern Texas Home Project
Last edited by csintexas on Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
P.C.
millennium club
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 2163
Location: Denmark
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I think it is sad that no one see the mountain of money. That everything has to stay so bored becaurse "we seen the future, and don't like it ,particular not, if you think you are someone" ,sort of response.
As non american one van become so disapointed when you get the reply , that "we know how to build a house, and no hippi is going to tell us othervise" kind of response just any, just any visionary arcitect or designer will forever be replied in these boards, ----- as if architecture is made into celebration and Hollywood , the severe problems you see every day in your own heads, must be blamed the rare few, the few who has the fantasy, the fantasy you also will bann as with humor and free speach. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JonBailey
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 111
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Richard Haut wrote: | Toufic - it is a good question, but no, we are not losing our sense of human scale for a very simple reason.
as technology enables more high-rise buildings to be constructed economically, always remember that the real reason is purely financial. To be able to build eighty floors up on a single site is more profitable than a mere eight or ten floors. Nothing else.
|
while financial reasons govern motivations to build towards the sky, it should not be the only reason we do this. in todays world and the world of tomorrow, population density and urban sprawl should be the main reasons we build up, not merely an edifice complex of the business tycoons.
_________________
Jon Bailey
a r c h i m o r p h |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
toufic
Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 21
|
| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
"while financial reasons govern motivations to build towards the sky, it should not be the only reason we do this. in todays world and the world of tomorrow, population density and urban sprawl should be the main reasons we build up, not merely an edifice complex of the business tycoons."
I think business tycoons should start thinking in sustainable development.
For example, many of Dubai skyscrapers are just a vertical curtain -walled box...houses inside don't offer a single natural element except the burning sun of the summer..
skyscrapers are useful to deal with population density and urban sprawl, but they should be well designed to accomodate humans and not "machines" ......
human scale could always be maintained no matter how tall the edifice is..
_________________
TOUFIC HAIDAMOUS
ARCHITECT |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
blogger
del.icio.us
digg
slashdot
