Please tell me Dutch architecture firm MVRDV is taking the piss:
According to designboom, that’s going up in Yongsan by 2015. I’m sure all the boys at Yongsan Garrison will appreciate the addition to their skyline.
Truth be told, the unpleasant memory it so jarringly evokes aside, I actually like the design. As with so many of these monster projects, through, I wouldn’t put money on it actually getting built.
(HT to Gizmodo and my brother)
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
What ARE those things – the concrete equivalent of genital warts?
Wow. Where are the pixelated airplanes crashing into the buildings and the pixelated people jumping to their deaths? I do understand, however, that screams of terror are difficult to pixelate.
Nah.. they are being architects and not worrying about nambypambyism…
Ooooh… look… architecture making fun of mushroom clouds: http://www.constructionphotography.com/Details.aspx?ID=23528&TypeID=1
Or making fun of the Chicago Fire: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidgutierrez/2288110287/
Worst, for a Cali-boy… a clear reference to both earthquakes themselves AND the Richter Scale: http://www.welovebeautifulthings.com/?p=870
I refuse to be offended that everyone in the world isn’t worried about what I see in their architecture…..
even if it is just clouds…
Yeah, it does look rather 8-bit to me…
I agree with Robert…I would bet dollars to donuts that these monstrosities will never actually be built.
And, yes, tasteless and unfortunate symbolism aside, the design really does reflect stunningly bad aesthetics and monumentally mediocre architecture.
In other words, it’s PERFECT for Seoul.
DLB
LoL @ #5
i heard a good joke that i wanted to relay to you, DLB. i’ll try not to botch it but it goes something like this:
a symbolic global ship is sinking at mid sea due to over-population. “i’ll get off the ship to lessen the burden,” says an american and jumps overboard. moved by this unselfish act, a chinese man says, “i’ll get off, too, so everyone can go on,” and follows suit. a man from korea gets up and yells, “대한민국 만세!” and then pushes a japanese man overboard.
i thought genital warts too. however, it seems the the building is starting to cause outrage and hysteria.
genital warts? you would know what they look like, wouldn’t you? haha! i kid! i kid!
Meh, sure as an American it’s a shock that it looks so much like the twin towers. Then again, this isn’t an intentional and mean spirited snub in any way. I think it looks cool.
Olbermann just named this one of his worst persons in the world today, video link coming
The fact that it does indeed look like the twin towers being attacked doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is that it really doesn’t look that good.
Yeah, I think it looks cool too – especially from this angle. I can see where the “OMG” crowd are coming from, but they are really, really overreacting.
As for the “pixelated clouds”, friends studying architecture pointed me to an old design called “Habitat 67″. They’ve also told me that the building was really cool, at least design wise.
I’m guessing this is more of architects being architecture-nerds than “Hey, how can we hurt the American sensibilities by building tasteless buildings thousands of miles away in a country that most of them don’t even know exists?”
That design is under attack by the disgusted world media, according to the London’s Daily Mirror. As reported in the Korean language media.
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/10/2011121001050.html?news_Head1
Korea is being criticized for mocking the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers at the time of the 9/11 terror. But the design was engineered by a Dutch firm.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072308/MVRDV-architects-reveal-plans-South-Korean-buildings-look-eerily-like-Twin-Towers-exploding.html
Click on my second link above, then scroll down a little, and you’ll see what those “warts” are for.
My Korean wife calls the design/designer: “that’s evil, devil”.
I just think he’s a craven dhimmi.
I was in NYC on 9/11 and had a direct view of the towers on fire from our 51st office window in Times Square. The subways and most buses were not running when we were sent home that morning. I was actually supposed to leave for vacation to Rome late that evening. I did not know how serious it was, my thought was – oh I’ll have more time to to finish packing. I was lucky enough to be able to catch a bus going downtown, so I did not have to walk home like so many others, even though Times Square to the East Village is quite walkable. It was an incredible time when all New Yorkers were united and Giuliani was our hero.
However, when I saw the photo of this design elsewhere, my first thought was not of the twin towers but that it looked cool. After it was pointed out, of course the resemblance is there, but I still like it and hope it gets built.
I think it looks pretty cool.
Yongsan Garrison…skyline? What skyline?
Robert wrote: “I’m sure all the boys at Yongsan Garrison will appreciate the addition to their skyline.”
According to the current agreement, Yongsan Garrison will belong to the ROK government by April, 2015. And the vast majority of US military ground forces will be at Camp Humphreys.
However, I will bet you a dollar/1000 won that neither of the following will occur:
1. Yongsan Garrison will be transferred to the ROKs in 2015 (Remember, it was planned for transfer in 2012, but was delayed).
2. These buildings will be built as designed – let alone by 2015.
wiessej wrote:
The original plan was for it to be transferred long before 2012.
–All sketches for designs of new buildings should include not just a view during a sunny day, but during a cloudy day as well–especially a project like this that has so much cantilivering/bridging.
–the design is OK and nothing too shocking, but it is symptomatic of the large scale projects taking place in much of Asia–taking away from a fine-grained urban fabric. Not bad to drive by the structure, but boring to walk by.
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